Easy Strawberry Jam

Makes 250g
Ingredients:

550g Strawberries
1/50ml Lemon, Juiced
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Agar-agar Powder

Directions:

1. Boil the container for 10 mins. Air to dry.
   
2. Remove stalk from strawberries and cut the larger ones into smaller pieces.
   
3. Add Agar-agar powder, lemon juice and strawberries in a pot and heat over low heat for 5 mins. Add sugar when strawberries start to sweat. Cook for another 20 mins.
   
4. Allow the jam to stand for 10 mins before bottling. Homemade Jam can only be stored for 1 month.

Other Vartions:

Pineapple 550g,1 Green lemon Juice and peel.

Apples 550g, Strong black tea 50~100 ml

Cherry tomatoes 550g, 1 lemon juice and peel.

Low Fat Chocolate Truffles

Makes 24

Ingredients:

200g good quality dark chocolate
6 tbs strong black coffee
2 tbs clear honey
cocoa powder to dust

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate and gently pour in coffee until the consistency thickens
   
   
2. Add honey, a tablespoon at a time until you get a highly glossy lick of chocolate.
   
   
3. Chill the bowl in fridge for 30 mins or until a nearly solid form.
   
   
4. Scrape a table spoon of the mixture into plam and shape into a marble-size ball., roll this into cocoa powder until fully coated. Repeat until all the mixture are used up.

Tips: Replace 6 tbs of coffee with 150ml of strong herb tea or liquor of your choice. Make sure they are of room temperature before adding to chocolate.

Mandarins Bellinis

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 part mandarin juice
3 part champagne

Directions:

1. Mix together and serve.

Elderflower Iced Sparkle

Serves 1
Ingredients:

Ice
a sprig of red currants
1 tablespoon of elderflower cordial
120ml of sparkling water

Directions:

1. Place ice and red currants in a tall glass. Pour elderflower cordial over, then fill the glass to the top with sparking water. Stir and serve.

Strawberry and Honey Cream Tart

Serves 10

Ingredients:

250g digestive biscuits
100g butter
500g cream cheese
3 tablespoons honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g of strawberries
150 g of blue berries
icing sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Blitz biscuits in the blender until fine. Melt butter and mix into biscuits, then press into a loose tart tin 25 x 26 cm. Pop in fridge to set.
   
   
2. Whip cream cheese with honey and vanilla. Spread into tart case with the back of a spoon.
   
   
3. Halve strawberries and arrange on top of the tart. Sprinkle the blue berries and dust with icing sugar. Chill for another 1 hour before serving.

Roasted pepper and tomato soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 red peppers cored and deseeded
500g of tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
600ml Stock
2 tablespoon light cream
handful of basil, torn
Salt & Pepper

Directions:

1. Place peppers skin up and tomatoes skin down on a baking sheet and cook for 8~ 10 mins until skins of peppers are blacken.
   
   
2. Remove skins from peppers and slice the flesh. Leave tomatoes to cool and remove skins.
   
   
3. Heat oil in large saucepan, add the onion and carrot and fry for 5 mins. Add stock and tomatoes, peppers and bring to boil. Simmer for 25 mins until carrot is tender.
   
   
4. Blitz soup in blender until smooth. Return to pan and heat through. Stir in light cream and basil, season well with pepper and serve.

Cookies with 3 flavours

Makes 30

Ingredients:

50g butter
40g caster sugar
25g brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
few drops of vanilla essence
150g self rasing flour, sifted
50g rolled oats

Flavours

50g dried cranberries
40g hazelnut, toasted and chopped


40g pistachios nuts, chopped
40g dried banana chips, chopped


2 pieces of stem ginger, chopped
½ teaspoon grated fresh root ginger
40g plain dark chocolate drops

Directions:

1. Beat together butter, sugars, egg and vanilla essence in a large bowl until smooth.
   
   
2. Stir in flour and oats and add flavours of your choice.
   
   
3. Place teaspoon of mixture onto baking sheets and flatten them slightly with a back of a fork.
   
   
4. Bake in a preheated oven, 180C for about 5~6 mins until browned.

Sorta Yogurts

Ingredients:

1 cup (235 ml) coconut or rice or hemp milk
1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml) fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons (24 g) raw sugar (increase or decrease amounts depending on preference and use.)
2 tablespoons (16 g) cornstarch
Pinch fine sea salt, optional

As for the flavorings: I almost always add 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or honey for the sugars part.

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Directions:

1. Combine milk and lemon juice in a medium bowl, let curdle for a few seconds.
   
2. Add sweetener, cornstarch, optional salt, and flavoring.
   
3. With an immersion blender, combine ingredients by blending for about one minute.
   
4. Heat in microwave for 2 minutes: throughout cooking, keep a close eye on it to make sure the mixture doesn’t bubble up to make a mess in your microwave. Blend again, stir with a fork, or swirl to stir, if using rice milk.
   
5. Heat in microwave for 2 minutes again, blend, stir with fork, or swirl.
   
6. Heat up to another whole last minute: the top of the mixture will have the appearance of a thin pudding, which will tell you that you can stop.
   
7. Store in fridge to thicken. You will have to stir again before using. Enjoy chilled.