Sugared strawberry jubes

Before I started the blog I used to spend hours at imdb.com reading the movie trivia – I’d go from one to another, then another...

I still do that sometimes, but nowadays I usually share my browsing time between movies and recipes – one thing I love is to go to Gourmet Traveller’s website, click on a recipe and then check the end of the page, where there are four related recipes. I go from one to another, then another... This is how I found these strawberry jubes.

Sugared strawberry jubes
from Australian Gourmet Traveller

500g hulled strawberries (about 2 punnets)
280ml sparkling wine
530g caster sugar, plus extra for coating
2 teaspoons lemon juice
9 gelatin leaves (titanium strength), softened in cold water*

Combine strawberries and 1/3 cup (80ml) wine in a saucepan, cover and simmer over medium heat until strawberries are tender and juice is extracted (5-7 minutes). Strain through a fine sieve (you should have about 200ml). Add half the remaining wine and enough water to make 450ml and combine in a saucepan with sugar and lemon juice. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook until mixture reaches 120°C/248°F on a sugar thermometer (15-20 minutes) – if the mixture bubbles too much and looks like it is going to spill over, swirl the pan around. Remove from heat and stand for 10 minutes.
Squeeze excess water from gelatin, add to strawberry syrup with remaining wine. Stir to combine, then pour into a lightly oiled 16cm-square cake pan. Stand in a cool place overnight – I refrigerated mine for a couple of hours, too.

Scatter sugar over cutting board. Dip base of pan quickly in hot water (that was not necessary, I just ran the knife on the sides of the pan) and invert pan onto board to remove jelly. Cut jelly into cubes with a hot knife and toss in sugar to coat. Sugared jellies will keep in an airtight container for 1 week.

* make sure your gelatin is really strong – mine wasn’t that powerful and the jubes were on the soft side (thought still delicious)

Serves 8 - I made 2/3 of the recipe above, used a 15cm (6in) square pan and got 64 small jubes

Watermelon sorbet

I used to think that brownies were the easiest dessert in the world but I was wrong – sorbets are easier! What a wonderful discovery. :)

The only “but” is that there is no bowl-covered-in-chocolate-goo to lick at the end. ;)

Watermelon sorbet
from Donna Hay magazine


1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (218g) caster sugar
½ cup (120ml) water
900g peeled watermelon
1/3 cup (80ml) lemon juice

Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.
Process the watermelon in a food processor or blender to get 2 ½ cups (600ml) juice. Place in a large bowl, add the sugar syrup and the lemon juice and stir to combine.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker* and follow the manufacturer’s instructions until the sorbet is firm. Transfer sorbet to an airtight container and put in the freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

*My ice cream maker would not hold all the mixture so I removed 2/3 cup of it prior to pouring into the machine

Makes 3 ½ cups

Creamy tuna and chickpea salad

During the holidays we tend to go a little over with all the eating and drinking: I know I get carried away with making the food and end up eating more than I should. And kudos to those who can control themselves – God knows I’ve tried to be one of them, but got to the conclusion that it’s never gonna happen. :)

Lucky me I also love salads and they are perfect for our tropical Xmas – this is a very quick and simple idea, from DH's website.

Creamy tuna and chickpea salad
from Donna Hay magazine

¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and cracked black pepper
1 x 400g can chickpeas (garbanzos), drained and rinsed*
2 x 185 g cans tuna in olive oil, drained
1 spring onion, finely sliced
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped if too large
80g arugula leaves
olive oil
flatbread, to serve

Place the mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir to combine. Add the chickpeas, tuna, spring onion and parsley and toss to combine. Drizzle the arugula with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place it by the creamy salad.
Serve with crispy flat bread or toasted sourdough croutons. Alternatively, wrap in flatbread or lavash for a portable meal.

* I soaked 1 cup dried chickpeas overnight and cooked them for 40 minutes

Serves 2

Cherry, cashew and white chocolate chunk cookies

“I’m not sure this is gonna work, but I’ll try it anyway” – my thoughts exactly when I came across this recipe. The ingredients were very appealing to me, but would they go well mixed up in a cookie? There was only one way to find out. :D

Even though I wasn’t completely happy about the texture – the cookies turned out really thin and delicate, difficult to carry around without breaking – the flavor was spot on. Another mixture I had doubts about at first but proved me wrong later on.

Cherry, cashew and white chocolate chunk cookies
from Big Fat Cookies

1 ¼ cups (175g) unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks/170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
½ cup (88g) packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup (4oz/112g) dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1 cup (5oz/140g) salted roasted cashew halves, coarsely chopped
4oz (112g) white chocolate, chopped into 0.6cm/1.25cm (¼-½-in) pieces

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in the egg, lemon juice and vanilla until blended, about 1 minute. The mixture may look curdled. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until it is incorporated and the dough looks smooth. Mix in the cherries, cashews and white chocolate.

Using an ice cream scoop of measuring cup with a ¼-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared sheets, spacing the cookies 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the edges are light brown, but the centers are light golden, about 14 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets then use a wide metal spatula do transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Makes 16 – I halved the recipe and started baking it using 1 round tablespoon of dough per cookie; I got 8 cookies but they turned out too large and too thin. I then went on using 1 rounded teaspoon of dough per cookie and got 23 (dough mounds 5cm apart, 11 minutes in the oven)