Tuna Dip With Dukkah

Here's a fishy dip for Christmas entertaining.  It includes tuna and anchovies but don't worry, it's not all that "fishy" in taste.  I found it fairly mild, but I guess if you're not a fish fan ...  But I definitely am, and I also like a fishy phrase.  One of my faves is about slapping an annoying person in the face with a wet herring.  Which reminds me of that Monty Python sketch.  But I digress ...  

This recipe calls for Philly (cream) cheese, which I have not used in a very long time.  I found that it is no longer the cheese I remember, sadly.  Okay for dips and cheesecakes, but the texture has clearly been dumbed-down.  After discussing it on a FaceBook group, we decided it is now full of water and 'fillers', rather than delicious milk from the cow.  Sigh! ...  And the texture is just so gummy and squishy and bluuuurrgghhh.  Anyways, it's fine in a dip where it gets blitzed up.

Merry Christmas and happy festive season to all.  See you in the New Year, my friends.  Thank you for all your support this year!

c. Sherry M.

(Recipe from Donna Hay's Christmas Feasts and Treats)

Makes one good-sized bowlful:  see Notes

ingredients:

185g./6.5 oz tuna in chilli oil - drain it but keep the oil 

3 white anchovy fillets  -  see Notes

250g./8 oz Philly cream cheese (use any brand), cut into chunks

2 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tbs EV olive oil

sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste

dukkah, for sprinkling on top

baguette or ciabatta stick, to serve with

lemon wedges, if you fancy (I didn't)

Method:

Basically, you will chuck everything into your food processor, scraping down the sides as you go - for 3-4 minutes! says Donna.  Now this seems like a very long time to me; I guess it's to emulsify the mixture but I only did it for 2-3 minutes max.

Whack it in the fridge for at least 1 hour (longer in humid QLD), then sprinkle with the reserved chilli oil, and throw on the dukkah

Serve with the sliced up bread, and lemon wedges if using

Notes:

Donna says this makes 2.5 cups of dip; I guess it did :=)

I hunted around for white anchovies but they were nowhere to be found, so I bought some good quality, organic regular variety

Add a bit of lemon zest, and maybe a few chilli flakes, if you fancy - 'cos I did!

ingredients gathered

drain the oil, and set aside till later

chuck everything into the food processor

and give it a good blitz - for 2 or 3 (or 4) minutes :=); shove into the fridge

chill it well, splash with chilli oil, sprinkle with dukkah, and serve with bread

c. Sherry M.

Coconut curd

Delicious and moreish curd that you won't be able to resist!

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

125g butter- cubed

315mls coconut cream

Method:

place yolks and sugar in a medium saucepan on a low heat

stir it all together (it will come together quickly)

then add in the cubed butter and whisk it together

stir in the coconut cream and whisk for about 6-8 minutes  

bottle it in clean, sterilised jars 

only 4 ingredients- brilliant!

on the stove ready to become curd

mixing in the butter

all stirred up and curdy!

luscious jars for the eating

yum!

Coconuts bring back vivid childhood memories for me, unlike the average Victorian child perhaps!  My parents were very young and very poor, and they had 4 children under 6 at one stage.  For some strange reason, our grandmum thought it was a great idea to give her daughter a whole coconut every time she saw us.  Frankly, a lump of steak or a big bag of potatoes makes more sense, but who knows how an old lady thinks?  My dad would get out his hammer and chisel and hack away at the eyes of the coconut till he had pierced them, and the coconut water would flow out.  He would then break open the brown and hairy beast, break it up into small pieces and thus we would have something to chew on for the next few days.

These days I do not indulge in such antics, but I do drink coconut water and use the cream in curries.

Mysteriously, several cans of coconut cream have popped up in my pantry lately.  (I think I have a pantry elf who plays odd tricks on me)  I have been dying to try out the recipe from Not Quite Nigella's wonderful blog anyway so I had no excuse not to give it a go.  It is very easy to make and so delicious to eat.  I have been going back and forth to the fridge all day to have a wee spoonful- or 2!

coconuts galore!

raspberry muffins

Muffins are good whether it be the English or American variety as far as I am concerned!  I got up yesterday and felt that there was a need for muffins in my kitchen.   As famous blogger faux fuchsia often says- the universe directed me to do it.  I concur so muffins it was.
I had frozen berries in the freezer that needed using up, being of the raspberry persuasion rather than the blueberries called for in the recipe but hey let your pantry be your guide.  I have an old clipping from a women's magazine with a really easy recipe which always works, even when you have to add more milk like I did and stir a few too many times.  They were slightly flatter than I would like but still tasty.

ingredients

dry ingredients all ready for the big mix

adding the fruit and wet ingredients

just out of the oven

this is the old recipe I used!

ready to eat!!  so yum

Not quite Nigella's bacon maple syrup ice cream

I have a big fondness for anything bacon so I couldn't resist trying out Lorraine Elliott's amazing recipe. When Mr Pickings and I lived in the USA for a few months we got used to the weird and wonderful mix up of sweet and savoury that Americans like to eat.   A classic was their vegetable jello;  a friend of a friend brought this bowl of green jelly-sweet mind you!-to a dinner party.  Amongst this sweet green horror (you have to remember I hate anything gelatinous) were vegetables of various sorts including carrots.  Oh the horror!  We also ate sweet pies and cakes with Thanksgiving turkey, and sweet cheese blintzes for dinner with vegetables.   One meal we both loved however was breakfast which would include lots of crispy bacon with maple syrup-a winning combo every time. So how could I resist this recipe!

And any leftover egg whites go straight into the freezer in a plastic bag.  They will last for a few months.