Category Archives: Recipes

Clafouti

This is an adaptable recipe. Any tangy fruit or combinations will work in it but the dark coloured summer fruits or berries make a great flavour and colour contrast. My clafouti pictured here is made with late summer plums and it fits a med sized 25 cm flan dish or wider pizza dish.

Ingredients

enough fruit pieces or 1/2’s to cover the bottom of your flan dish with some spaces in between

3 eggs lightly beaten

1 & 1/2 cups of whole milk, or a mixture of milk and double cream

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla extract

110 g (1/2 cup) sugar preferable castor

50 g (1/3 cup) plain flour

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

icing sugar to dust (optional)

Heat oven to 180C. lightly whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the cream, milk, lemonzest and vanilla until combined.

Combine the sugar, flour and salt in a separate container and make a well in the centre. Pour the egg mixture into the well and whisking until combined . Pour the batter straight into your flan dish- no need to oil it or dust with flour.  Push the fruit down into the batter, or scatter it on the top, or both, depending on what fruit you are using.

Bake for 20-25 mins or until cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

 

 

Banana Yoghurt Loaf baked in Terracotta

I like the textures the rolled oats and dates give this loaf,  and I like using yogurt in cooking. (I make my own and usually have plenty to use up.) The terracotta dishes are chunky and satisfying to handle. It is  fine to leave your loaf sitting in them for a while to cool down. If they sweat, there is no reaction in the sides or corners as there can be with a metal loaf tin.

Pictured here is a single quantity of the recipe, that is 1 c banana and 1/2 cup of yogurt etc. It fits the small baking dish to the top. My well used larger bread dish (pictured) would hold  double this recipe.

Wet ingredients

120 g butter

1/2 c brown sugar

1 large egg

2 t lemon juice

1 c mashed banana

1/2 c yoghurt Continue reading Banana Yoghurt Loaf baked in Terracotta

Beef and Mushroom Casserole

 

beef and mushroom gravy and brussies

I’ve called this dish a casserole even though I made it with a 1 kg piece of beef topside ( as a pocket roast). It would work very well with pieces of stewing or chuck steak. You don’t need much liquid in the clay baking dish, so you can be flexible about how much stock or wine you include – depending on the source of your tomato flavouring and how much juice it includes. Mushrooms hold quite a lot of liquid too. Alternatively you could leave the stock/wine option out and soak the dish in water prior to adding the ingredients; that will provide plenty of moisture for a tender bake.

This pictured dish is a smaller (Mach 1) version of the baking dishes that I now have available.

Continue reading Beef and Mushroom Casserole

Chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine

Here’s a favourite special meal that I make in my earthenware baking dish. It’s adapted from ‘Australian Woman’s Weekly, Moroccan and the Foods of North Africa’ recipe book. Tagine recipes are generally interchangeable with enclosed terracotta ovenware. It takes 30 mins or so plus standing time to prepare, and up to 90 minutes cooking time. There’s no need to soak the dish if and when you are adding stock. Continue reading Chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine