Rice-cooker Yoghurt

Tools of the trade for Rice Cooker Yoghurt - the Rice Cooker, woolen sock and plastic container.

Inspired by Bariah's Mums home made yoghurt recipe- I thought I would try it myself. Bariah's Mum boils a litre of full cream milk, then stirs in a large tablespoon of natural yohgurt, leaves on the stove top to cool to temperature that she can stand to dip her pinky finger into, wraps in a tea towel, then wraps in a blanket and takes to leave in a warm part of the house for 12 hours...

My version of this (1 litre UHT milk $1.10), a plastic container and a large woolen sock was not quite so successfull, after 12 hours my yoghurt mix was still pretty liquid- and I don't think the sock kept things warm enough, as at the half way point (6 hours) the container was pretty cold -

so to the rescue - the trusty Rice Cooker! Good friend of the student, the busy and the granny flat dweller- I've found yet another use

Placing the sock wrapped yoghurt containers in the top steamer tray, I filled the bottom with about 1/3 water and placed onto the "keep warm" (as opposed to "rice cooking") setting- this meant a very low heat. I couldn't fit the lid on as my containers were too tall - so I covered with a thick tea towel and balanced an upside down saucepan over this...the plan was to leave for a few hours but a little miscommunication about what "please turn off the rice cooker" meant before we went to bed resulted in the yoghurt 'keeping warm' in the rice cooker overnight

I can't complain as it is perfect set yoghurt - a slight hint of the original shop bought yoghurt flavour I used as the base (vanilla), though a little more bitter natural taste but I am so pleased.

1 litre of milk made a large container of yoghurt, next time I would use a flatter container that would actually fit safely inside the steamer tray - I saved myself about $5/week making the yoghurt at home, plus reduced the amount of waste from all the yoghurt containers.

Next I will experiment with flavours to reduce the bitterness.

Photos Avocado Leaf Tea

take a big ripe leaf...



boil it till the water turns deep pink or red





Enjoy Avocado leaf tea!

Thanks to Grupo Hakfen, Manufahi. This is a women's weaving group - traditional woven cloth and baskets- all handmade. The group is supported by Fundasaun Alola - www.alolafoundation.org

Choko Chocolate Cake

This is a slight variation from the original recipe

1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
100g butter, melted
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup grated choko
1 cup grated apple
4 tbsp cocoa


1. Combine dry ingredients in bowl
2. Add butter and eggs
3. Mix well
4. Stir in nuts and choko

Moderate Oven bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes

Guava Jam and Jelly

the neighbour gave us some big ripe juicy guavas- thinking of the delicious goiabada (Pronunciation: goya-BAH-da) that I ate in Brazil, I cooked them in a similar style.

I think I probably needed to boil down a bit more to get the thick guava paste - mine are more of a jam consistency, whereas it should be thick enough to slice.

5 ripe guavas - peeled, put into blender with a cup of water then strained to remove seeds
equal amount of sugar to guava liquid (one cup to one cup)
a bit of extra water if needed to stop burning
keep on a low heat for an hour stirring constantly to form the thick paste.

I made the jelly by following the instructions on the pack of plain gelatine, and then adding the guava jam whilst it was still hot. I let it cool on the bench, then popped in the fridge to set.

This guava jam/jelly is eaten with a white cheese in Brazil -I'm thinking philadelphia or a boccicini in Australia would be good- something slightly salty to compliment the sweetness of the guava. Sometimes the cheese and guava paste is deep fried together in a pastry and called 'Romeo and Juliet' because the tastes go together so perfectly- hmmmm

next lot I am going to experiment with guava cheesecake

Eggplant and Okra Recipes

March saw fruit galore -feijoas, strawberry guavas, pomegranates ---as well as okra and eggplant. The strawberry guavas I made into a jam, the pomegranates went into fruit drinks and fruit salad, and the feijoas were like a fruity custard, spooned out of their shell.

Some recipes:

Eggplant Dip: (Thanks to SMH 4-4-09)

3 eggplants

100ml olive oil + 40 ml (2 tbsp)extra

3 garlic cloves

20 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180deg C.

Put the eggplants in half and score the flesh. Place flesh-down on a tray covered with 100ml olive oil until the oil is absorbed (about 5 mins).

Press 1/2 garlic clove into the flesh of each one.

Roast for 1 hour.

Once cooked scoop out the fleshand garlic and blend with the extra olive oil and lemon juice.

Serve with crusty bread.

Okra and Capsicum Stew: (SMH 21-3-09)

Cook 1 onion, 1 red and 1 green capsicum (cut into strips) and 400g okra gently in 3 tbsp olove oil until soft.

Add 400g canned or fresh chopped tomatoes, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tbsp tomato paste,1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground corinder, 1 tsp sugar, salt-pepper-chilli to taste, and 350ml light stock or water. Simmer uncovered for 15 mins till thickened.

Add 8 halved cherry tomatoes and cook for further 5 mins.

Add 1 tbsp lemon juice and fresh coriander before serving.

Zucchini and Apple Cake

I'm being swamped by zucchini! I've given at least 2 dozen away to various neighbours and I'm picking them earlier and smaller- I still have loads of zucchini. Here is a recipe I experimented with yesterday -

1 cup wholemeal Self-raising flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tpsn baking powder
1 tpsn bicarb
1 cup oil (I used olive)
2 tpsn vanilla essence
3 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
3 cups of grated zucchini (approx.)
1 grated apple
sultanas (optional)

I sifted all the dry ingredients together, beat the wet ingredients and then mix all together, adding the zucchini and apple last. I baked in a loaf tin at 180 degrees celcuis for about 50 minutes.

This is not a sweet cake due to the low sugar content. I only used a little sugar simply because I ran out! However, I made an icing with icing sugar, cream cheese and lemon juice which I laid on thick after the cake had cooled and then popped it all the fridge for the icing to set. Perfect! A rich sweet icing over a moist cake- lovely with a cup of coffee.

These could also be made into savoury muffins.