Archive for » January 12th, 2009«
I made these over the weekend to take to my mum’s, I am not a big peanut butter fan but my brothers love the stuff, so I thought it would be a good place to test the recipe. I made these as cereal bars as opposed to cookies, this way there was far less sticky mess and it made it easier for me. I could not get chocolate stars or kisses were I live so I just bought a bar of regular milk chocolate and pressed the squares into the mix once I had poured it in. I greased the pan lightly before adding the cereal mix and then allowed it to set, it slipped right out whole once set and I just cut it into pieces. It went down a treat, with thumbs up all round and I have to say, I even thought it was good and I am not a big peanut butter fan. If you would like to see other reviews of this recipe please click here.
Ingredients
1 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 Cups peanut butter
2 Teaspoons vanilla
8-9 Cups Special K cereal
Milk chocolate stars
Method
1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil; add peanut butter and vanilla.
2. Put Special K cereal in a large mixing bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture quickly over cereal, stirring to mix well.
3. Drop mixture by the Tablespoonful onto waxed paper. Press a milk chocolate star immediately in the center of each cookie. Caution: mixture will be very hot!
Read my note above as to how to I made them for less mess.
All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.
This is a very simple sauce for steak that tastes wonderful and has a real bite from the peppercorns which we love. I bought a treat for us and made this to go over to very big fillet cuts that were about 300g each. It was very indulgent and very expensive, but we do not eat steak that much anymore because of the hike in food prices and when I do cook steak, I have been opting for cheaper cuts. This was totally awesome as it has been so long since I have made a fillet and I really did savour every bite. I also served ours with asparagus wrapped in pancetta with one large prawn each.
Ingredients
1 Tablespoon oil
4 Steaks (I used fillet but your favourite cut is fine)
3 Tablespoons brandy
4 Teaspoons green peppercorns
1 Cup beef stock
1 Cup cream
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 Teaspoons chopped chives
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the steaks both sides until browned and cooked as desired. Remove the cooked steaks from the pan, keep warm. (Mine were very thick so I cooked about 7 Min’s a side then put them in the oven to finish cooking while I made the sauce.)
2. Add the brandy allow a little of it to cook away, add the peppercorns to the pan and crush about half of them with the back of a fork.
3. Add the beef stock and cook over a high heat for a couple of minutes to reduce by about half.
4. Add the cream and continue to cook over a high heat for a few more minutes until this mixture has again reduced by half-or to a nice consistency.
5. Add the Worchestershire sauce and the chives, stir to combine.
Serve steaks drizzled with sauce and sprinkled with extra chives if desired.
All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.
