Carrot Cookies

Still on a low sugar diet for the kiddies. The date cakes were such a success yesterday (all gone in 24 hours), I thought I might do a twist on the carrot cake. So here we go - carrot cookies, or "Carrotees" as they are called now.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup gluten free flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
• 100g butter (melted)
• 1 carrot, finely grated (medium to large)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tbsp honey
• pinch salt

Date Cakes - healthier than ordinary cupcakes

You're going to see some changes in my recipes. I'm trying to cut sugar out of my youngest boy's diet. But for this sucrose monster, we'll start with baby steps. Considering he had absolutely no sugar all day, I think he did pretty well until he broke down at 4pm asking for cake. Don't let anyone tell you sugar is not a drug. Here's one for weaning him off. Technically it has no "sugar", but has natural sweetening from the dates, and just a smidgen of honey. As I said, baby steps - but it's still better than chocolate cupcakes...

Real Chocolate Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake without melted chocolate? That's criminal. Here's my recipe for real chocolate chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate, chopped
• 200g butter, softened
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup cream

For the fudge frosting:

• 150g chocolate
• 150g butter, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted

Shakshouka

Shakshouka (or shakshuka) is a dish I first tried at Baker and Spice, Dubai. It hails from Northern Africa, but other areas over the middle east, and the Ottoman empire also lay a claim to it's invention. Simply, it is baked eggs in a rich sauce. This is fairly close to the version found in Baker and Spice, and now at least once a month at my own table - either for breakfast, or an easy dinner.

Ingredients:

• 500g Tomatoes (chopped) either tinned or fresh (a mixture works best)
• 1 red capsicum (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 3 cloves of garlic (crushed) or to taste
• 2 tsp ground coriander (I like to toast mine from seed and crush)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp crushed chilli
• 1 tbsp sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• a handful of fresh coriander (chopped)
• 4 eggs

Retro love - Prawn Cocktail

Some matches never get old. Tomatoes and basil, apples and cinnamon, fish and chips with lemon, red wine and cheese. Cold prawns with 1970s cocktail sauce. Mmmmm awesome.... Forthcoming - a particularly old-school, but not tired recipe. You might have a similar one in a frayed, 30 year old cookbook somewhere. Not new, old, done a thousand times and more. But here it is again.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Prawns - cleaned, cooked, peeled and cooled. (you can buy them this way)
• 1 avocado
• 1 baby cos lettuce
• 1 lemon

     for the sauce:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp mustard (I use Dijon)
• 1 tbsp vinegar (I use white wine)
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp cream, whisked to soft peaks
• dash tomato sauce
• dribble Worcestershire sauce
• Tabasco to taste
• salt and pepper to taste