How to Make your own Dried Apples

Apples are currently in season here in Korea, which means we are able to buy them without the usual $10 a pop price tag that that comes with them at any other time of the year. The apples used in this blog post were bought from a little farm stall near Naejangsan National Park.  

These dried apples were made with a dehydrator we were given by Farmboy's school, (here is a link to buying them on Gmarket) but you can easily do the same thing using your oven. 

It takes a while for the apples to get really soft and chewy (anything from 12 - 24 hours) but it's definitely worth the wait, and using a dehydrator instead of an oven will make your life easier. If you want them to be crunchy instead of chewy, then leave them in for even longer.

So far we have dried apples, pears (these have been the best so far!) and persimmons (another fruit that is also currently in season) and I plan on trying to make doggy snacks out of chicken breasts for our pup #ShadowTheJindo. I am also going to try my hand at making Biltong (the South African equivalent of Beef Jerkey) so let me know in the comments below if you can recommend any great recipes for Biltong!

If you have a dehydrator, the process is very simple.

1. Peel your fruit.

2. Chop/Cut/Core your fruit into small pieces. If you want to make apple rings then you will need to get hold of an apple corer. I was only able to find an apple corer than also slices (the green thing pictured below).

3. Place your fruit pieces as close together as possible, without actually having any of the pieces touch each other.

4. Turn on and adjust the temperature if your dehydrator has a temperature control switch. Turn up your dehydrator the the highest temperature (the higher the temperature the faster the fruit will dry out).

5. Leave for 24 - 48 hours. The first batch of fruit (pictured in this post) was only dehydrated over nights (about 15 hours) and so the apples were still quite soft and squidgy. We made another batch using persimmons and left those over night and the following day and they came out crunchy and delicious. I definitely recommend leaving them as long as possible.

6. Place the dried fruit in airtight container. You can use an ordinary ziplock bag and a straw to suck out all the air. Store in a cool, dark place. Your fruit will keep for a good couple of months (although ours doesn't last longer than a few days as we eat it all!).

Thanks to a friends suggestion, we just finished a batch of dried apples covered in cinnamon. Out whole house smells like Christmas and those apple pieces were absolutely amazing! Experiment with different spices, you can't really go too wrong.

If you don't have a dehydrator you can theoretically use your oven, but I'm not sure whether you'd actually want to leave your oven on overnight while you're sleeping? It is possible with the oven, but using a dehydrator is much easier. You can buy a dehydrator like ours on Gmarket (click here) for about W30 000.

Low Carb Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Banana Cranberry Cookies {Recipe}

Another thing I have really missed while following the Banting eating plan (Banting is a form of Low Carb, High Fat lifestyle which you can find out more about by clicking here) is cookies. So many of the low card cookie variations are bland, leaving me feeling unsatisfied and still craving a soft cookie! These on the other hand have been a wonderful new addition to the sweet dessert section of my recipe collection. I have had success with two batches of these cookies, and I have enjoyed not just the softer, more crumbly version but also the more crunchy/a little burnt version which resulted when I forgot about them in my oven over night. 

If you've never baked anything Banting/Low Carb before, you need to keep in mind that you aren't baking traditional sweet treats. As you're not using regular wheat flour and processed sugar, what you make isn't going to taste like what you are used to. I've gotten used to the taste of Banting baked goods and have been just happy to be able to eat treats while still maintaining my figure. I just wanted to mention that as some people get all antsy about Banting baked good because they don't taste like the real thing. Of course they don't silly, but they also have none of the carbs that regular baked goods have and they still taste great and will satisfy your cravings! What's not to like?!

Chocolate isn't exactly Banting approved unless you are using dark chocolate (the darker the better so anything over 70% cocoa is best). I only had the Kirkland brand of chocolate chips which I bought from Costco and these are only 51% cocoa. But it's what I had on hand, so depending on how strict you want to be try and find very dark chocolate or omit completely. Again, with cranberries, these aren't actually on the 'allowed' eating list (which you can find here) but blueberries, cherries & strawberries are in small amounts. As I only had cranberries on hand, that's what went into these cookies. So please do feel free to adjust these cookies, adding/taking away any extra yummy things you like. I can imagine these would be really good with chopped up almonds & cherries!

Coconut flour is an incredible dense flour to work with and is very absorbent! Much more than you would think just by looking at it. Because of this, start slowly when adding the coconut flour and judge by your mixture how much you need to add in. I substituted a few things as I didn't have cream of tarter on hand and I think they still came out just fine. I substituted baking powder for both the tarter & baking soda (see measurements below).

Ingredients (makes about 20 cookies)

• 2 fresh ripe large banana, (400 grams)
• 2 large egg
• 4 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil, (slightly warmed for easier mixing. Room temperature)
• 5-6 tbsp coconut flour
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cream of tartar (this is what the original recipe called for but as I didn't have these on hand I substituted 1 tsp Baking Powder for the tarter & baking soda) 
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup cranberries

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking pan with greaseproof paper or make sure to grease your pan well.
• Using a mixer, combine the banana and the egg. Slowly add the coconut oil (coconut oil must not be hot or it will cook the egg. You just need to the warm the coconut oil slightly warmed enough to mix in smoothly). Add the coconut flour, vanilla, cream of tartar, baking soda (or baking powder) and sea salt. Mix until smooth. Lastly add the chocolate chips & any other things you want to add.
• Using a spoon, drop 1 your desired size balls of batter onto the baking tray leaving space between each cookie. Use the back of the spoon or your fingers to smooth the cookies to a flat cookie shape. The cookies will not naturally flatten, you must do this yourself unless you want to eat balls of cookies
• Bake for 20 - 40 minutes depending on the heat of your oven. I have a very small convection oven which heats up incredible fast and is very hard to gauge the temperature with the temperature controller. I set the timer for 20 minutes and then keep checking on them to make sure they don't burn. Leave in longer for more of a crispier cookie, or take out before they go brown for a softer, more crumbly cookie.

Do you have any low carb cookie recipes that you love to make? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below as I'm always on the look out for new cookie recipes!

Zucchini Noodles: Low Carb Banting Pasta Recipe

One thing I really miss since I started Banting is PASTA! I used to eat a lot of pasta, mostly because it was an easy meal to put together no matter how domestically challenged I may be in the kitchen. My friend and fellow blogger, Komodoness, made these noodles for me one night and I was shocked at just how 'pasta' like they tasted. I mean, they don't taste exactly like pasta, but with zero calories they are as good to your hips as your taste buds and will most certainly satisfy those carb cravings.

You could use these noodles with any pasta sauce (they would taste just as good with the lasagna and cream cheese mince from my Banting Lasagna recipe). 

This recipe is super easy and can be modified in so many ways. Once you have your zucchini noodles (or zoodles!) you can chop and change with whatever toppings you have available in your fridge or pantry. For this particular recipe I made a white sauce (adapted from The Keto Diet Blog), added bacon and some chopped up dried garlic and onion flakes.

How to make Zucchini Noodles

You need:

2-3 large zucchini's

Peeler/Grater (you can either use a regular cheese grate and hold the zucchini on it's side to create longer noodles, or you can use a Julienne peeler. I use the Verimark Shogun Peeler which I brought over with my from South Africa)

Directions

Simply peel your zucchinis, placing the 'noodles' in a large bowl. Depending on how crunchy you like your noodles you can either add them as they are now to your sauce, or if you want them softer you can steam/microwave them for a few minutes. Keep in mind that Zucchinis hold a lot of water which will be released when cooking/steaming. 

Banting White Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream 
• 2 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup cream cheese or soft goat cheese 
• ½ cup grated cheddar or hard goat cheese
• 1-2 tbsp water or more cream if you need to thin it down

Directions

1. Place the cream and butter into a small sauce pan and gently heat up. Grate the cheddar cheese and keep aside
2. Once heated, add the cream cheese into the sauce pan
3. Stir until melted and bring to a simmer. Once you see bubbles, take off the heat
4. Add grated cheddar cheese and mix until smooth and creamy. If you prefer a thicker sauce, cook for 3-5 more minutes while stirring. If too thick, add a splash of water or cream.
5. The sauce should be eaten immediately or kept at room temperature before serving. Once refrigerated and reheated, the butter separates and the cheese clumps which you want to avoid.

Bacon & Cream Sauce Zucchini Noodles

1. Prepare your Zucchini noodles following the recipe above
2. Fry your bacon in a large pan big enough to hold all your noodles
3. With the bacon fat, prepare your sauce with the cooked bacon, stirring to ensure the bacon doesn't burn
4. Add noodles and stir on high hight for a few minutes until your noodles are coated in sauce. For crunchier noodles serve right away with a sprinkle of parmesan, salt & pepper. If you want softer noodles, leave noodles on the heat and keep stirring for a few more minutes before serving.

Happy cooking!

Low Carb Lemon & Cranberry Muffins #BantingInKorea

Sometimes you just need a little something to fill that cupcake sized gap in your tummy and if you are Banting (click here to find out more about this Low Carb High Fat eating lifestyle), then these little muffins will help you loose weight while still filling that gap! They were very quick to make and the lemon & cranberry flavours really balance each other out resulting in mouthfuls of soft & fluffy deliciousness. 

I had planned to have at least half of the batch on hand for the next day, but they didn't even last one sitting. Even Farmboy, who usually scoffs at my Banting baked goods, was impressed with them. 

Dried fruit is not exactly Banting friendly, so if you can find fresh cranberries/blueberries/strawberries then these would indeed be much better for your Low Carb High fat diet. Being in Korea means I often have to make do with what I have on hand, and so dried cranberries went into these muffins. I buy all my nuts (almonds, almond flour & walnuts) and dried cranberries/blueberries online through Gmarket through this seller. 

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/4 cup yogurt (or the cream off the top of a can of coconut milk)

2 TBS melted butter or coconut oil

1 TBS lemon juice

1/4 tsp vanilla extract (bought online through Iherb)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp apple cider vinegar (you can find this in all marts here in Korea)

2 TBS xylitol (you can buy it online here in Korea through Gmarket)

1/2 cup cranberries chopped (I used dried cranberries)

1/4 cup coconut flour (you can buy coconut flour here in Korea on Iherb). 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix together all ingredients except cranberries and coconut flour.
3. Thoroughly mix in coconut flour.
4. Chop the cranberries if using fresh berries and then fold them into the mixture.
5. Grease a mini-muffin pan well (I used coconut oil).
6. Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.
7. Let the muffins cool off. It's very tempting to eat them straight out of the oven too but resist the urge! These muffins need to cool off to develop their full flavour! 

And that's it...Try not to eat them all in one go...although I totally understand if you can't resist!

Recipe adapted from Intoxicated Life 

Orange Chocolate Cheesecake Fat Bombs #BantingInKorea

Welcome to my latest sweet treat recipe for those following the Banting eating lifestyle (click here to read more about this Low Carb High Fat lifestyle).

With Banting, your main source of energy should come from fat. I'm not talking about the bad kind, I'm talking about the good kind (What? You didn't know that certain fats are actually good for your body and will help you to loose weight while combating your cravings for all those sugary carbs?? Click the link above to read more about good fat). Good fats are things like butter, bacon & animal fat, olive oil, almonds, coconut oil, cream cheese, full cream milk & yogurt....the list goes on! But while your energy should come from fat, you need to remember that eating lots of vegetables is just as important to keep that body of yours lean and clean.

A lot of people, myself included, go through dips as soon as the afternoon arrives, when the craving for something sweet and sugary is often the hardest to resist. This is your body's way of saying it needs more energy, and for Banters, this means fat. A great way to quickly satisfy those cravings is with fat bombs. Fat bombs are just that, bombs of fat that fill you up fast, while delivering your body exactly what it wants when it wants it. There are loads of different fat bomb recipes, but this one is my absolute favourite so far. Chocolate and cheesecake, what's not to like? And another great thing about this recipe is that there is no oven required. As long as you have a fridge/freezer you are on your way to one happy tummy.

Happy eating!

x

Ingredients

For the Chocolate

• 6 TBSP Coconut Oil 
• 6 TBSP Butter
• 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp orange extract or use the juice of fresh orange
• 1/2 -1 tsp sweetener of choice (I used Xylitol which you can buy in Korea here)

For the Cheesecake Centre

• 1/4 Cup Butter, room temperature
• 1/4 Cup Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp orange zest 
• 1-2 TBSP juice from zested orange
• dash sea salt
• optional sweetener to taste (I used a small amount of sweetener as the slight sweetness of the orange juice was enough for me)

Directions

• Set up an ice tray or silicone candy mold/mini paper cups. 
• Use a double boiler or a heavy bottomed saucepan to melt your coconut oil and butter for your chocolate.
• Once melted remove from the heat and whisk in cocoa powder and sea salt. Add orange juice and sweetener to taste (you need to taste here to make sure you aren't going overboard with the sweetness).
• In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to whip together your cheesecake filling; butter, cream cheese, zest, orange juice and salt. Make it as fluffy as possible.
• Pour a thin layer of your chocolate mix into the bottom of your ice tray/ silicone mould/paper cups. You can put the chocolate bottoms into the freezer to firm up so there is no chance of cheesecake peeking through or you could just start adding your dollops of cheesecake.
• Add the cheesecake filling to shape and place on top of the chocolate.
• Once done, pour the rest of the chocolate on top of your moulds.
• Place your chocolates in the freezer and in 30-60 minutes they will be ready to munch! Place in a a reusable container for to store (if you have any left!).

This recipe filled a regular 12 cube ice tray.

Adapted from Gratefully Nourished

How To Make Garam Masala Spice for curries

Garam Masala is a blend of ground spices used to add flavor to Indian curries. I made a delicious butter curry recently, and the main ingredient was Garam Masala. Living here in South Korea means limited access to foreign food stores, so I had to make my own version of the spice using what I had on hand in my grocery cupboard. All I can say is the aromas given off from this mixture is heavenly and will make your home smell incredible. 

There are many varaiations of this spice, but this is my version using what I had on hand in my grocery cupboard.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole coriander seeds

1/4 cup whole cumin seeds

5 cloves

2 star anissed

4 bay leaves

8 green cardamom pods

2 sticks of cinnamon

2 dried red chiles (use more if you prefer more of a kick)

Method

1. Dry roast the larger seeds separately to the smaller ingredients to avoid burning.

2. Once cooled combine in grinder until a fine powder is formed.

3. Store in an airtight container (click here to see how to make this gold animal glass jars)

And now you have your very own Garam Masala to add to curries. I will be posting a delicious recipe for Butter Chicken Curry soon.

Happy cooking!

Low Carb Chocolate Coconut Brownies {#BantingInKorea}

I'm mad about chocolate brownies, as I'm sure you are too if you're reading this post, and so I have been on a mission to make brownies in a way that lines up with the Banting diet I am currently on. I'm sure you're wondering what bulks up these brownies if they are Banting (click here to read more about this low carb/high fat lifestyle). These brownies contain no wheat or gluten as the secret bulking ingredient is SWEET POTATOES!.

I was pretty shocked when I found out that sweet potatoes (much better than regular potatoes as they have more fibre and less carbohydrates) can be used to bake sweet tasting treats. Sweet potatoes are a fantastic bulking agent to use in cakes and brownies BUT they do still contain quite a few carbohydrates and so they are 'allowed' on the Banting Diet, but in moderation. The recommended allowance of sweet potatoes per day is 1/2 cup, so that would be about 3 of these brownies. So you can still have your cake (or brownie!) and eat it.

I adapted the recipe slightly from one of my favourite South African food bloggers, Lexi from Whisking It and changed up a few small things to suit my grocery cupboard here in Korea.

I also really like what Lexi says about the fact that we should forget about following a diet like it's a religion. There are so many branches of Banting/Paleo/LowCarb HighFat diets (some allow this and not that etc) and so you need to rather listen to your body when it comes to following an eating plan. Following the Banting Diet strictly has REALLY worked for me, but I know people that have struggled with it and found they aren't losing any weight. You just need to find something that works for you (including drinking plenty of water and of course exercising).

Ingredients

2 cups of grated sweet potato (Thanks to Lexi for the tip to use the SMALL holes of the grater - not the normal ones - to get a finer batter)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup of raw honey (I can only find very syrupy honey here in Korea so mine was already a very thin consistency, you can just heat in microwave to thin it a bit if yours is very thick)

1 tsp stevia ( I used Xylitol)

1/2 cup olive oil (I used coconut oil)

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tbsp of bicarbonate of soda

1 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp coconut flour

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

*not entirely Banting but I added a few crumbs of dark baking chocolate to the mix 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180 °C

Mix the grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla, honey and olive oil/coconut oil in a large mixing bow. It will be a sticky mess, keep going. 

Add baking powder and baking soda.

Add cocoa powder, and finally add the coconut flour, coconut and stevia/xylitol and any chocolate chips you may want to add.

Finally pour the mixture into a baking tray. Make sure to grease your pan tray well (I used coconut oil, and didn't quite use enough and so lost quite a bit of brownie to the bottom of the pan!).

Bake for 25-30 minutes. If you're here in Korea and have a small, fiery hot oven like we do, watch your brownies like a hawk! I burned to bottom of mine when I got distracted by something or other in Instagram (note to self...when baking, stop trying to do a million other things at once!)

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing the brownie cake from the tin. 

These brownies freeze very well! I found mine were very crumbly, but they firmed up well after freezing. Freezing also ensure you don't eat the whole lot in one go!

Blueberry Chocolate Banana Bread {recipe}

After the success of my last cranberry chocolate chip banana bread recipe (and the fact that I had 5 bananas that were so black and nasty, they were about the walk themselves outside) I adapted the recipe to include some blueberries. It's blueberry season here in Korea, and boy oh boy did those blueberries not jus make this my best banana bread yet! 

I love that this recipe is so versatile. You can change up the flour (I substituted some buck wheat flour in this mixture to reduce the carb count...hubby is still not sure about me trying to make sweet treats healthy so I am going about it slowly so hopefully he doesn't notice). You can also use any other fruit you would prefer instead of the blueberries. Cranberries have worked well, apple would be good too. And you can add in any extras that yo fancy too, like almonds, walnuts or cinnamon.

PREP: 5 MINS COOKING TIME: 30MINS - 1 HOUR 

-it again took a VERY long time for my bread to cook, but that is because I have a little oven that gets hot very quickly and tends to burn things on the top without cooking through. I would put the timer on for 20 minutes and then check your bread every 5 minutes after that. You will be able to see whats going on in your oven, and you also know if you have a decent 'will-cook-through-without-burning' oven. You want the bread to be moist, but cooked. Dry banana bread is horrid. So keep testing with a sharp knife. If it pulls away clean, your bread is ready. If it comes away with even a little gooey dough on the knife, leave it in for a few more minutes.

INGREDIENTS

-3/4 ripe bananas, smashed (my banana were black black black, had been frozen and then thawed and worked absolutely perfectly! No need to freeze yours, mine were just sitting in the freezer until I could find a use for them).

-1/3 cup coconut oil (you can use butter if you don't have coconut oil)

-1/2 cup brown sugar sugar 

-1 egg, beaten

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-pinch of salt

-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup of regular cake flour and half a cup of buckwheat flour to make it a tiny bit less full of carbs)

-handful of blueberries

-handful (and a half!) of chocolate chips/any chocolate

METHOD

No need for a mixer, a bowl and wooden spoon are more than adequate. 

Preheat your oven to 180C. 

With a wooden spoon, mix your coconut oil into the mashed banana. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, and sprinkle in the chocolate chips and cranberries (and anything else you feel like adding...flaked almonds & cinnamon are good extras). 

Pour the mixture into a buttered (I used coconut oil again) loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour, placing on a rack to cool.

Let me know if you try this at home, you can tag me on Instagram (@roxypearce) or on Facebook :)

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies {recipe}

This  yummy cookie recipe is simple to prepare and all the ingredients can be found here in South Korea. I ordered my cranberries off Gmarket (click here) and the white chocolate was given to me by a friend (she also got it here in South Korea, I think at one of the foreign food markets in Itaewon) you could use any chocolate, but it's baking chocolate that gives these cookies their creamy chocolatey taste.

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened to room temperature

1/2 cup coconut oil (used in place of shortening)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn starch (also called corn powder in Korea)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate (chips or a bar chopped up)

1 teaspoon salt

{These ingredients made a lot of dough. Enough for me to make about 25 cookies, fill a large dish for a cheesecake base and still have enough dough frozen for about another 15 cookies. The great thing is you can freeze any left over dough for up to 3 months.}

Method

1. Mix butter, coconut oil and sugars until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

3. Combine flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt and mix together.

4. Mix dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients and blend well.

5. Dough should not be sticky (mine was because of the coconut oil and the humidity here in Korea) so I added a little more flour. If your dough is crumbly add in 1 teaspoon of water until it just holds together.

6. Add in chocolate until evenly distributed.

7. Roll into a log ( I had to to put my into the fridge to harden slightly as my dough was very sticky, simply place it into the fridge for 30 mins to make it easier to handle). Wrap in cling wrap, place in the freezer for 2 hours (it can be kept for up to 3 months).

8. When ready to bake, heat up your oven to 180C and slice your dough log into small round disks and place onto wax paper. Bake for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool and serve.

*please excuse this blurry photo

I also used this dough as a base for the cheescake I made for Farmboys birthday. It worked like a charm! I will be posting the recipe for it soon, but here is what the dough looked like when rolled out and placed in a dish, baked in the oven for 15 minutes and waiting for it its cheesecake layer:

Happy baking!

Tuna & Broccoli Quinoa Burgers {recipe}

I don't do very much cooking at home, I much prefer baking. But on the odd occasion when I do whip out the frying pan, I'm not scared to try new recipes. Especially at 10 o'clock at night. This meal was one of them and this time I got it right. So right in fact that Farmboy ate 9 of the 12 patties.

I adapted the original recipe from here to my kitchen and ingredients here in South Korea. The two pictures I have of them don't do them any justice so you'll have to take my word for it when I say these little patties are tasty beyond measure and so easy to make.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 cup diced broccoli
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1 cup drained & flaked tuna or salmon (I used a big tin of tuna)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats, mixed in a blender to create a fine powder (the original recipe calls for almond flower or gluten free bread crumbs)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Sea salt & fresh ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1-3 tablespoons coconut oil for frying

Method

1. Cook your quinoa (I boiled it as per this great recipe) and leave to cool.

2. In a medium sized skillet, sauté the broccoli and onions in 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil over medium heat until they are begin to turn soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the quinoa, broccoli and onions, tuna, oats and garlic. Season with lots of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

4. Stir in the eggs.

5. Warm a tablespoon of coconut oil in a skillet.

6. Measure out a 1/4 cup of the mixture and press into a patty shape. Gently ease onto the skillet. 

7. Reduce temperature to medium low, and fry the patties for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown. Keep adding more coconut oil to the pan as needed. Serve warm or at room temperature with slices of lemon and sweet chile sauce.

How to make your own cottage cheese {recipe}

This is one of the easiest things I have ever made, and I was able to do it right here in South Korea with only 2 ingredients! It's super easy to do and so yummy, we won't ever be buying store bought cottage cheese again.

Ingredients

2 liters of milk (I used whatever milk I could find in the stores here as I can't understand the Korean labels, but you could try it with full cream, half fat and fat free milk)

1/3 cup vinegar (you can use either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. I've made it with both and haven't noticed a difference).

Directions

Heat up the milk to 120F or 45C in a large pot or pan. I didn't have a thermometer and so heated up the milk until it was a hot, shower temperature. You can add salt/pepper/rosemary/herbs to the milk to flavour your cheese. You should be able to touch the milk without scalding yourself. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar, stirring slowly so as not to break the curds. It will start to curdle right away.

Cover and leave to sit for about half and hour.

Drain the curds and whey using a muslin cloth, or any other piece of cotton fabric. Drain completely. What will be left is your cottage cheese. Store in an air tight container. If it's a little on the dry side, you can add cream or more milk to your mixture. You will also need to add salt as the taste will be a little bland. It should keep for about 10 days, but ours has never lasted more than a day, it's just so good!

Serve with sweet chile sauce and fresh coriander for maximum yumminess. 

Coconut oil banana & chocolate chip cookies {recipe}

My friend Cassandra baked these scrumptious coconut oil banana & choc chip cookies a few weeks ago. They were soft and all kinds of melt in your mouth delicious that I had to give them a try too. I decided I would try make them a little bit 'healthier' and used whole wheat flour instead of regular white flour...what a flop. Anyway, my second batch were just about perfect, having followed exactly what the recipe called for (as most people would have done from the beginning, but I like to improvise, add and supplement recipes with what I have in my cupboard at the time. This works for me more often than not, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a husband who will willingly eat anything you bake him).

My little oven here in Korea is a real dragon and heats up to the temperature of 10 suns in only a few minutes. So I baked these for 8 minutes at 100C (and even then I managed to nuke a few while getting distracted by something on Instagram). When you try them yourself I recommend adjusting the time according to your oven, going no more than 12 - 15 minutes before checking on them.

Ingredients (makes about 24 cookies)

1/2 cup coconut oil (melt if not in liquid form)

1 egg

1 ripe banana (I used 4 as I had 4 that were about to turn rather nasty so use according to your taste...the more you add the sweeter your cookies will be and of course the more banana flavour they will have)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup regular sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 tablespoon milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

chocolate chips 

Method

1. Mash the bananas with a fork.

2. Cream the oil, egg, sugars, vanilla, milk & banana and mix until smooth.

3. Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix gently.

5. Finally add the chocolate chips and spoon your batter onto a well greased baking tray (I use hardened coconut oil to grease my pans).

Bake in a preheated oven at 150C for 10 - 15 minutes, or until a light, golden brown.

Let me know if you try these super easy, and oh-so-yummy cookies...better yet, share a picture of them with us on Facebook! 

Banana Bread with cranberries & chocolate chips {recipe}

Here in South Korea it is a little tricky to get hold of most 'normal' baking ingredients (like butter for example). What tends to happen is that when you do find the item(s) you have searched for for weeks, you have to fork out double, more often triple, the price of it back home. So baking tends to be expensive. And that's why buying a small bag of 4 homemade cookie at the local bakeries costs nearly R60 or $6...outrageous.

So I have been doing a lot of baking in our new oven. And what I have been making an awful lot of is banana bread. It's delicious, quick, and the blacker the bananas (the more rotten they are, the sweeter they are for your bread!) the cheaper they are in the shops...it's a win win really.

So I'm going to post the original recipe here, and next to it I will post what I substituted with, or rather what I could get my hands on at the time.

Also, I am a little slap dash when it comes to cooking. I am not a patient person, and often will just start baking without checking if I even have all the ingredients in the cupboard. In which case I improvise. My friends are horrified when they find out that I use my eye to measure things, but they never complain about the final product. It's always yummy. It works for me but it's not everyone's cup of sugar :)

Prep: 5 mins Cooking Time: 30mins - 1 hour 

-it took a VERY long time for my bread to cook, but that is because I have a little oven that gets hot very quickly and tends to burn things on the top without cooking through. I would put the timer on for 20 minutes and then check your bread every 5 minutes after that. You will be able to see whats going on in your oven, and you also know if you have a decent 'will-cook-through-without-burning' oven. You want the bread to be moist, but cooked. Dry banana bread is horrid. So keep testing with a sharp knife. If it pulls away clean, your bread is ready. If it comes away with even a little gooey dough on the knife, leave it in for a few more minutes.

Ingredients

-3/4 ripe bananas, smashed (I used about 7 smaller bananas that had been sitting around for a good couple of weeks to ensure maximum ripeness)

-1/3 cup butter (I used a good few solid chunks of coconut oil heated quickly until softin a small pan)

-1 cup sugar (I used 2 small tablespoons and added a few more chocolate chips for added sweetness)

-1 egg, beaten

-1 teaspoon vanilla (I could only find vanilla powder and used a good heaped teaspoon)

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-pinch of salt

-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and half a cup of almond flour I had left over from here)

-handful of cranberries

-handful (and a half!) of chocolate chips

Method

No need for a mixer, a bowl and wooden spoon are more than adequate. 

Preheat your oven to 180C. 

With a wooden spoon, mix your butter (coconut oil) into the mashed banana. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, and sprinkle in the chocolate chips and cranberries (and anything else you feel like adding...flaked almonds & cinnamon are good extras). 

Pour the mixture into a buttered (I used coconut oil again) loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour, placing on a rack to cool.

Original recipe from SimplyRecipes.

Chocolate Brownies {recipe}

I made these delicious chocolate brownies again, and every time I do I am (or rather my tummy is!) thrilled with what comes out of the oven.

125g butter

45g cocoa powder

2 large eggs

200g castor sugar

150 self raising flour

60g chopped dark chocolate

makes 12 brownies

**I doubled the recipe and ended up making about 35 delicious, melt-in-your-mouth brownies**

1. Melt the butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa. 

2. Beat the eggs until light, add the sugar and beat well. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Sift in the flour, and fold in along with the chocolate.

3. Pour into a greased and lined 20cm square tin. Bake in a pre-heated oven  for 25 mins or until cooked through but still moist. 

Don't forget to store them in an unusual looking tin for safe keeping!

{Baking Pinspiration}

Some pinspiration to get you back into your kitchen, and to the oven! 

Aren't these images just so beautiful too?! For more like these, pop on over to my Pinterest boards  and feast your eyes.

Happy Baking!

xxx

1. Call Me Cupcake 'Buttercream Ruffle Cake'

 2. Amelia 'Coconut Cupcakes'

 3. Sprinkle Bakes 'Pink Vanilla Pocky Cake'

 4. Canelle et Vanille 'Gluten free Coconut Donuts'

 5.Mowielicious 'Japanese Cotton Soft Cheescake' 

 6. Chi ha rubato le crostate 'Rose Yogurt'

Korean Samgyupsal...South African Style

A few pangs for Korean food left us with a slight longing to return to Korean soil...to combat that for the time being, Farmboy and I set about recreating one of our favourite meals, Samgyupsal. Samgyupsal is traditionally thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat, usually neither marinated nor seasoned. It's cooked on a grill by each person and eaten directly from the grill. It is often dipped into a spicy pepper paste.

Here is a photo of the real deal in South Korea (taken when my mommy came to visit!), followed by our attempt a few days ago...

WholeWheat & Oats BarOne Chocolate Cookies...recipe

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup / 255g rolled oats (not instant)

1 cup / 125g whole wheat flour

2/3 cup / 45g wheat bran (or germ)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 cup / 225g unsalted butter

1 cup / 185g natural cane sugar or light brown sugar

1 cup / 170 g firmly packed Muscovado or dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

200g Bar One (I used 2 x EXTRA sized bars) chopped.

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180 C.

Line two baking sheets with wax paper and set aside. What worked better for me after a few tries was Holsum smeared all over the pans, finished off with flour.

In a medium bowl combine the oats, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Either by hand, or using an electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar for 3+ minutes, scraping down sides a few times along the way. Incorporate the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla - scraping the sides of the bowl another time or two. Add the dry mixture, and stir until everything barely comes together. Then stir in the chocolate, mixing until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Use a small ice-cream scoop, spoon, or 1/4 cup measuring cup, to make uniform dough balls. I used a metal 1/4-cup measuring cup, filling it about 3/4 full. Arrange each cookie at least 3-inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. They'll flatten out quite a bit. I squashed a small chunk of bar one into each dough ball for some extra yumminess.

For extra crisp cookies, bake until deeply, deeply golden on the bottom, about 15+ minutes. Rotate the pans once about 2/3 the way through baking - back to front, top to bottom. Like your cookies a little chewier? Bake for less time. Cool on a rack.

Makes about 2 dozen large cookies.

Prep time: 20 min - Cook time: 15 min

{adapted from my absolute favourite recipe site: 100 cookbooks}