Try these recipes

Okay, I am not the best cook in the world, I can barely cook anything tasty and edible ( I can cook plain meat and veggies) so I have put together a list of recipes that are so easy and delicious. Actually, most of these are cakes or things to bake.

Pasta Quills with Capsicum Sauce

1 capsicum (red or yellow)
1 onion
olive oil
clove of garlic
5-6 fresh mint leaves
4 basil leaves
250g tomatoes
250mL stock
350g pasta quills

Grill capsicum. Peel skin off. Cube. Grate onion. with 5 tablespoons of oil, add both capsicum and onion to saucepan. Don't quite brown. Add garlic and diced herbs. Stir, fry for 3 minutes. Purée tomatoes. Add tomatoes, stock and salt and pepper.

Partially cover, reduce temperature and simmer for 40 minutes. Sauce should be reduced and well cooked. Purée half of the sauce. Return to pan. Mix well together. Serve mixed with cooked pasta and, if desired, grated cheese.

Microwaved Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

• 60g butter

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 cup self-raising flour

• 1 tablespoon cocoa

• 1/2 cup milk

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essance

• 1/2 cup sugar, extra

• 1 tablespoon cocoa, extra

• 1 1/2 cups hot water

Cream butter with sugar and vanilla. Add egg, fold in sifted flour and cocoa, alternatively with milk. Place mixture in greased microwave proof dish (4 litres). Sift combined extra sugar and cocoa over mixture. Por hot water over very gently.

Microwave on medium for 6-8 minutes. Let stand covered with plastic wrap for further 5 minutes. In Winter, serve hot as is. In Summer, prepare in advance and put pudding in fridge overnight.

YUM!!!

Carrot Cake

• 4 eggs

• 1 1/2 cups oil

• 2 cups sugar

• 2 cups flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 2 teasoons baking powder

• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence

• 3 cups grated carrot

• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 8 ounces cream cheece, softened

• 4 cups icing sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 175ºC. Beat eggs. Add oil and then sugar. Add the flour, baking soda, slt, cinnamon, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir in carrots and pecans. Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked. To make up the icing, combine the butter, cheese and vanilla. Add icing mixture slowly while stirring. I actually recommend using half the amount given, as it is way too much icing for the cake you are baking.

Vegetable Risotto

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion, finally chopped
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 3 cups chicken or vegetale stock (I like it slightly watered down if it is store bought.)
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 150 grams mashrooms, washed and quartered
• 2 small zucchini, washed and cut into small pieces
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• salt and fresly ground black pepper

Heat oil in medium non-stick pan. Fry onion, carrot and celery for about 4 minutes. In a seperate pan, bring stock to simmer. Add rice to vegetables and mix. Add a cup of stock and bring to gentle simmer, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon.

Simmer until almost all of the stock is absorbed; add half a cup of tock. Add mushrooms, zucchini and stir occasionally. Continue adding stock bit by bit, unitl rice is cooked but slightly firm in the centre. If you run out of stock, add boiling water.

Cooking takes about 20 minutes. Add butter, parmesan and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat, cover pan and rest for 3 minutes before serving.

Serves 3.

After testing this out, in the future I would definetly used homemade stock, because the store bought is actually quite overpowering.

Chocolate Mud Cake

• 2 cups sugar

• 1 3/4 cups flour

• 3/4 cups cocoa

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 1 cup milk

Mix all together, then add 1 cup boiling water. Bake 175º (350) for approximetly 35 minutes in 2 sandwich times. This mixture is extremely runny but it doesn bake the best mud cake!

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Saturday April 13, 2002