Not deterred by the lack of oven I was still keen to participate in this months Sweet Adventures Blog Hop.  Hosted by JJ from 84th&3rd, the theme for this hop is Cocktail Party.  I love the idea of cocktail party food AKA cute, bite sized morsels. This inspired me to create cute, bite sized dessert, with a dash of alcohol thrown in to further enhance the cocktail theme.

Limoncello is one of my favourite tipples, added to lemon curd it makes for a great lemon meringue tart. Now I would normally make my own pastry but without a reliable oven I had to opt for a bought pastry.  I always find bought pastry a little too thick, but with the amount of curd and meringue in the tarts it was actually a good ratio.

This is a great assembly line dessert.  I made the lemon curd so I could use the Limoncello, but you could use ready made curd, then the only part you need to make is the Italian meringue.

Start by making the Italian meringue, then pipe some lemon curd into the tart cases and pipe the meringue on top.  I finished the meringue with a mini blow torch.  The browning of the meringue isn’t critical as the sugar syrup cooks the egg white when you make the meringue, so it’s perfectly safe to eat as is, but it does make it look nicer and give a slightly caramelised flavour.

Using Limoncello in the curd gives it a grown up kick and certainly makes this a great desert to serve up at a cocktail party. The following recipe makes enough to fill 24 tarts with some left over.

Limoncello Curd

50ml Limoncello
30ml lemon juice
125g caster sugar
80g unsalted butter
2-3 beaten eggs (around 125g)

Put the Limoncello, lemon juice, caster sugar and butter in a heat proof bowl and put over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the water to touch the bottom of the bowl). Stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

Gradually add the beaten egg to the mixture and continue to stir over the heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow the water to get too hot otherwise the egg will scramble.   The curd should take about ten to twenty minutes to thicken.

Set aside to cool before filling your tart shells. I halved this recipe for Italian meringue and I still had plenty left over to make into meringue kisses.

This month the Cheesepalooza challenge was to make a washed rind cheese.  The options were Gouda, Fontina or Edam.  Having made Gouda, Fontina and Edam successfully in past I decided to make something new. The other suggestion was Havarti, not washed rind cheese but a washed curd cheese.

Havarti is a fairly straightforward cheese to make.  You add the starter culture, cut the curd and wash it with some warm water. It is then pressed.

I’ve had some difficulties applying enough, even weight to my cheese so I wasn’t very pleased when I cut into the final product to find some holes.  Holes suggest the cheese hasn’t been pressed with enough weight.  It also runs the risk of providing air pockets for unwanted mould to grow.  As much as I want to make blue cheese, the blue mould has to be intentional.

I’m not sure quite how to describe Havarti.  It is not that dissimilar to the texture of a mild cheddar. The recipe book said you can eat it young or age to taste.  This Havarti has confirmed that I like a mature cheese.  One week in and the cheese lacked flavour.  This is a cheese for those people that buy cheese slices and mild cheddar.  Despite the addition of the dill, it still lacked flavour.

I tasted the cheese because the recipe said you could eat it young but I have my doubts, so I have packaged it up to continue aging for a few more months. I am hoping to get a little more depth of flavour from the Havarti in the future.

• Appearance: Processed, with a thin rind
• Nose (aroma): Mellow
• Overall Taste: Bland
• Sweet to Salty: Mildly savoury
• Mild (mellow) to Robust to Pungent (stinky): Mild
• Mouth Feel: (gritty, sandy, chewy, greasy, gummy, etc.): Plastic

*Edit thanks to information from Curds and Wine

I have been longingly admiring this section of the cheese book for a while.  This type of cheese involves a different type of starter and a slightly different process.  I was super keen to jump right in, which meant I didn’t have time to read any other posts before taking the plunge.

Had I waited another 24 hours (the perils of being ahead of time from my fellow participants) I would have learnt a few invaluable lessons from Ian that would have made this process less painful.  Although I often write about the trials and tribulations of home cheese making, I have been pretty successful in the last year.

This was the first cheese I thought I was going to have to bin.  I tried to take Mary’s advice and use some goat’s milk in the mix.  Although I tried to adjust the amount of rennet to ensure I got some curd, I underestimated and had to add the same amount again.  It finally set, but the curds were very weak.  I just about managed to press it, but I haven’t dared to try this crumbly looking cheese as yet due to the fear of a bitter result from the excessive amount of rennet.

Not happy with my first effort, I started again following the recipe to the letter.  This time I achieved that clean break, and thought it was going to plan, until I started to press.  By this time I had read that all important post from Ian recommending that we soak the cheesecloth but promptly forgotten this is what I should have done.

Mid way through the pressing, the sort after information  was remembered.  As I carefully unwrapped the cheese, it did exactly what Ian said it would and stuck to the cheesecloth.  I just managed to rescue enough, and re-press in my whey soaked cheesecloth.

And then there was the cracking. I thought I had pressed sufficiently, but after brining the cheese developed some Grand Canyon like cracks. Further research revealed I should have added a little whey to the brine to make it more acidic, thus not shocking the cheese into cracking.

What a frustrating process.  I had vowed it was one not to be repeated… until yesterday.

Asiago can be eaten young, like a Pecorino or aged to become more like a Parmesan.  I was not looking forward to the taste test. I thought I would have to cook with this cheese to get rid of it. How wrong I was.  I cracked into a small piece the other day to use in a Carbonara.  To my surprise it was exactly as the book described. A beautifully, crumbly, young Italian style cheese. Despite the stress, I did it. I said never again but with the lessons learnt from my Cheesepalooza community I think I can succeed with this cheese.

Tropical and exotic are kind of interchangeable in my world.  If we’re talking fruits, we’re talking all of those fruit that were not readily available growing up in the UK. The first dish I ever cooked in my high school home economics class was pineapple upside down cake.  Despite the pineapples coming from a tin I still classed it as an exotic, tropical fruit cake.  I toyed with the idea of recreating this dish, but I do not look back fondly on my high school cooking days.

With pineapple upside down cake disregarded, it started me thinking about mango and passion fruit.  Two fruits I hadn’t eaten fresh before moving Down Under.  The other consideration was the health benefits.  I love cheesecake, but it’s not the healthiest dessert in the world.  So with a bit of tweaking, I was able to reduce the calorie content, and make a cheesecake that contains about 40% less calories than a typical serve of cheesecake.  With your average slice of cheesecake containing 383 Calories per slice, mine weighs in at a slightly healthier 226 Calories per slice. Although I cannot claim it to be healthy, I can claim it is healthier than a typical slice of cheesecake. Despite it’s sightly healthier claims, it also tastes pretty good too.

Mango and Passion Fruit Cheesecake (serves 12)
60g Nice biscuits
60g rolled oats
60g almond meal
60g butter, melted

250g tinned mango
250g light cream cheese
250g light Ricotta cheese
180g Low fat Greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
75g caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
4 passion fruit

Pre-heat oven to 160 Degrees Celsius.  Grease a 22cm loose bottom, round, springform tin.

Start by making the base. Break up the biscuits and put them in a food processor.  Pulse until they look like bread crumbs.  Remove from the food processor and do the same with the rolled oats to break them up a bit. Return the biscuit crumbs to the processor with the oats and add the almond meal. Add the melted butter to the crumb mixture and pulse briefly until they are all combined, and there are no dry bits left in the mixture.

Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then allow to cool.

Put the mango pieces into a food processor and blitz until it forms a smooth puree.  Put the cream cheese and ricotta into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix briefly to combine. Add the yoghurt, vanilla bean paste, caster sugar and continue to mix until smooth. Be careful not to over mix as it can become quite loose.  Ensure the eggs are well beaten, then add to the cheese mixture and mix until combined.  This should thicken the mixture slightly.

Pour the cheese mixture onto the cooled biscuit base and bake in the oven for 1 hour.  After 1 hour it should be set, with a slight wobble in the middle.  Turn off the oven and allow it to cool in the oven with the door open slightly, for 1 hour.  This was the general consensus from an number of recipes I read, apparently it stops the cheesecake from cracking.  Mine still cracked a tiny bit, I can only imagine what would happen without this stage, and I wasn’t prepared to risk it.

To serve, scrape the flesh and seeds from the four passion fruit. Pass 3 of the fruits through the sieve, reserving the juice and discarding the seeds. Keep the seeds from 1 fruit, mixing with the juice of the rest of the fruits.

Drizzle the juice and seed mixture of the top of the cheesecake and chill until ready to serve.

Well I still have a lot to learn and I have had a couple of minor disasters along the way, but overall I am very satisfied with my cheese making efforts for the year.  The biggest achievement is to be able to serve a platter of home made cheeses to friends without the fear that I’m going to poison them.

I am five months into the Cheesepalooza challenge and this month we step up a gear to make what I would consider a ‘real’ cheese.  A simple cheddar style cheese with the optional addition of dried herbs.  Now we are getting onto the serious stuff, where patience is required.  There is not enough time in a month to make and age this cheese sufficiently (especially if you do it on 27th December) so I now have to sit and wait for a couple of months while it does it’s thing in the cheese cave.  I have enjoyed the other cheddar I have made so I have high hopes for this one.

The process is slightly more precise and lengthy now the cheeses are getting more cheesey.  The curd for this cheese has to be stirred gently at a specific temperature for quite some time.  Good music should be part of the recipe for this one as you cannot leave the pan for a good 20 minutes as you stir.

Although this cheese is called a cheddar, it does not actually involve the cheddaring process, which involves pressing, stacking and re-cutting of the curds so it will be interesting to see what effect this has on the flavour.

The stirring and heating of the curds helps them to firm up, giving that harder texture that cheddar has.  The curds are then drained when they have shrunk sufficiently.  At this stage you can add your optional herbs.  I added chives so I could compare the flavour to non-herbed cheddar I have made.

Pressing is also the key to the texture of this cheese.  If it is not pressed sufficiently you will end up with unwanted holes in your cheese.  They are unwanted as this is where the bacteria can grow and sour the cheese.

Once pressed the cheese is brined in order to help flavour develop and rind formation.  It is then air dried, again to help rind formation but also to provide a dry surface for the wax to stick to.  At this stage waxing is optional but I have tried aging in vacuum sealed bags, but I much prefer the result with wax.

With previous cheese I have portioned the cheese before waxing but this time I have waxed all 950g of the cheese to see what effect this has on the aging process.  I will then cut and wax again when it comes to eating. Even I can’t manage to eat that much cheese in the short time frame it takes to go mouldy.  Don’t forget my cheese does not have any preservatives.

Waxing such a large cheese can be a little problematic so I had to build up the layers gradually.  I don’t have a big enough pan to dedicate to cheese waxing to get a good dunk.

With a successful year of cheese making I look forward to all of the the different challenges that 2013 has in store, including cold smoking my cheese with this year’s Christmas present! Thank you for reading and Happy New Year to all you lovely readers of Nic Cooks.

P.S. check my Facebook Page and Twitter account in about 2 months to find out how this cheese tastes.

I also feel I’ve gained enough skills to start experimenting and developing my own cheeses. I can’t exactly claim this one as mine, as it is that classic cheese of Wallace and Grommet fame. But I did read a few recipes and tailor it to suit.  For Christmas I’ve added some cranberries to make it into a great cheese for dessert.  This cheese is tart and crumbly, but with a little bit of sour/sweet from the cranberries.  It also looks pretty on the cheeseboard for Christmas.

As with my other homemade cheeses I cannot really call this a Wensleydale as it was not made in Yorkshire and I’m not sure it would pass the test with Wallace and Grommet but I hope the resulting cheese is somewhere close.  I enjoyed it and it is another cheese to add to my collections of favourites… It’s getting harder and harder to narrow it down to just one.

The Wensleydale should be matured for 1-2 months prior to eating.  The Wensleydale with cranberries is best eaten sooner rather than later as the cranberries can start to ferment if left too long.  One month in and the cheese with cranberries was perfect.

This recipe is adapted from recipes from Paul Peacock and Ricki Carol.

Wensleydale with Cranberries
8 litres unhomogenised milk
1/2 teaspoon MM100 starter culture prepared in 200ml UHT milk
2ml Calcium Chloride diluted in 60ml cooled, boiled water
2ml Rennet diluted in 60ml cooled, boiled water
2 tsp salt
50-100g dried cranberries

Prepare your starter culture the day before or use as per the instructions on the packet.

Gather all your equipment together and make sure they are all clean and sterilised.

Gently heat the milk in a large non-reactive pan until it reaches 32 degrees Celsius. Add the prepared starter culture stirring until well combined. Maintain the temperature at 32C and allow the milk to ripen for 60-90 minutes.

Add the calcium chloride if you are are using and stir until well combined.  Add the rennet, and stir with an up and down motion until well combined, this should take about 1 minute.

Maintain the temperature at 32C and allow the curds to set for 1 hour. After 1 hour test the curds for a clean break.  If you have a clean break cut the curds into 2cm cubes and allow to rest for 15 minutes.  If there is not a clean break, allow to stand for another 15 minutes and test again.

Gently stir the curds for 15 minutes while raising the temperature to 35C

Allow the curds to rest for 15 minutes, maintaining the temperature at 35C

Remove enough whey to expose the curds then drain the curds in a colander lined with damp butter muslin. Allow to drain for 15-20 minutes, or until the whey stops dripping.  Cut the curds again into 2cm cubes, then sprinkle with the salt.  At this point you can either transfer to the mould and press or add some dried fruit, such as cranberries.  I thought I’d do half and half so I put half of the curds in a mould lined with damp butter muslin.

I mixed the other half of the curds with 50g dried cranberries.  I then transferred the curds to the mould lined with butter muslin.  Press the curds over night with 5kg of weight, turning after an hour or so.

Sprinkle with 1tsp salt and air dry for 12-24 hours turning once before waxing.  The cheese needs to be dry before you can apply the wax. Heat the wax and dip the cheese into it, ensuring all edges are covered with at least two layers.

Age in a cheese fridge set at 12-15C for 4-6 weeks.

I do feel a bit of a fraud baking these cookies as I’m neither Czech, nor is this my family recipe but I’ve been so impressed by my sister-in-law’s baking for so many years that now that I have started to bake I really wanted to give them a go.

These cookies are a lot trickier than they look and I can see how it would take many years of baking them with your mum to perfect the techniques.  I can also see why many of these traditions were started in the Northern Hemisphere as the high percentage of butter makes these very delicate and difficult to work with on a hot summer’s day.  This lengthened the process as I kept having to put the dough back in the fridge before it melted.

My first pick were the Vanilkove Rohlicky or Vanilla Rolls.  They looked easy enough; they are essentially biscuit crescents but they are more difficult to shape than you would think.  I tried my sister-in-law’s method of rolling into a long thin rope, chopping and shaping.  This involved too much handling for the hot weather.  I then tried piping as this relies on the mixture to be soft.  There was a bit of trial and error with the piping nozzle size, but I got there, and they look OK.

My Vanilkove Rohlicky are not as uniform as I would like but they have the light, buttery taste I remember so I’m happy to work on the look.  I have halved this recipe as I don’t have the patience to make hundreds.  When made with the other biscuits this recipe makes a good quantity and enough to share around.

Vanilkove Rohlicky/Vanilla Rolls (Makes 30+)
125g unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
50g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
125g plain flour
50g ground hazel nuts

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius without the fan if possible.

In a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.   Add the vanilla paste and stir to combine.  Add the flour and ground hazel nuts and mix briefly until it forms a dough.

Because of the high proportion of butter the dough is very soft.  You will need to put it in the fridge to firm up before shaping and depending on how hot the day is you may need to keep returning it to the fridge.  I couldn’t get the dough firm enough to roll so I allowed the dough to come to room temperature and piped it into small crescents.

Ensure you leave plenty of space between the biscuits on the baking tray as they will spread when baked.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Linecke Cukrovi /Jam Flowers (makes 30+)
140g unsalted butter
70g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 egg yolks
210g plain flour
rind of half lemon
jam for filling

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius without the fan if possible.

In a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.   Add the vanilla paste and stir to combine, then add the egg yolks and continue to mix.  Add the flour and mix briefly until it forms a dough.

Allow the dough to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until it is about 3mm thick.  Cut out your desired shapes.  It seems flowers are traditional, but I didn’t have a flower shaped cutter so I went for Christmassy stars.  Set aside half of the cut out shapes for the top of the cookies.  Carefully cut a circle from the centre of the reserved shapes.  I used a plain piping bag nozzle.

Ensure you leave plenty of space between the biscuits on the baking tray as they will spread when baked.  Bake in the pre-heated oven for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned.

Once cool, put a small amount of jam on half of the cookies and top with the cookies with the cut out hole.  My sister-in-law recommends using blackcurrant jam but I decided to use raspberry.  I think you should use whatever flavour is your favourite.

The cookies will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge.  The Czech’s make a large batch and give for gifts at Christmas.  I will be practicing my technique this year and hope to be skilled enough to make them as gifts next year.  I will also post the other recipes when  I have mastered them.

I have entered this post in the Shine Supper Club.

Around 1 1/2 – 2 hours from Sydney it’s the perfect distance for a short trip and the area is a food and wine lovers paradise. There are wineries, fresh produce, cheese… Not on the grand scale of other regions of Australia but certainly enough to keep you happy for a few days.

Biota Dining has been on my wish list because of its fresh food philosophy. If they can’t grow it in their kitchen garden they source it from local producers.

We admired their crop of broad beans growing in the garden and sure enough they appeared on our plate for course four, with some Mulloway, Morcilla, spring peas and gelatinous bone stock. The perfect showcase for seasonal delights.

The amuse bouche certainly lived up to its name. The trout “biltong” was like nothing I have tasted before. It shouldn’t work – a dry piece of fish, a touch on the rubbery side – but it does. It left me wondering a) how I could recreate this smoky goodness at home b) if they can do this with smoked trout what on earth are they going to present me with for the following seven courses.

I like to try the tasting menu at restaurants because I like to be challenged with my eating. If the decision is left to me I always go for the same old things. I avoid pasta as I can do that at home, I love duck and venison and fish is good but I’m afraid to say meat will always trump it. Having said that, I am rarely disappointed with the offerings presented to me by the chef and I am often pleasantly surprised. My surprising course for this meal was the cuttlefish. I don’t dislike squid and cuttlefish but I would always choose something else, as I live in fear of ocean tinged rubber bands.

Of course there was not a hint of elastic, and I chastised myself for allowing the thought to even enter my mind. Paired with the salty Jamon, sticky ink and cucumber, (I was challenged by another food no, no; I’m generally not a fan of cucumber) but it worked, and I’ve been persuaded to cook more Cephalopods.

To pick a favourite course of the seven is nigh on impossible. I was torn between the sheep’s curd and pork neck. The sheep’s curd clearly interests me with my current cheese making project. Unfortunately I can’t get hold of sheep’s milk to recreate this at home, but I was impressed by the balance of texture and flavour. There was sharp, soft curd, paired with a sheet of pasta and a crispy, golden crumb. To top it off, there was a slow cooked egg yolk with a sprinkling of egg white pearls.

Biota Dining isn’t just about the food, the restaurant manages to deliver the complete experience with pleasant, modern surroundings and friendly, knowledgeable staff. I often think the staff groan when I enter a restaurant with my camera and my questions. I like to know exactly how my meal was prepared in case I want to give it a go at home. All of the Biota waiters humoured me and my questions and were even happy to engage in conversation about the local wineries and must visit cellar doors.

The waiter was also keen to explain the intricacies of the slow cooked pork neck with slow cooked and charred leek. He even confessed that in isolation the leek shards would be considered “burnt” but when eaten with everything else on the plate it enhanced the experience providing a crispy edge to the otherwise soft, slow cooked ingredients.

To finish the meal we were served a cheese course of bloomy white with carrot marmalade. No longer is a cheese course just a plate of cheese with some biscuits. You know you are in a good restaurant when they turn the cheese course into a dish in it’s own right.

And finally, if six courses are not enough you can complete the afternoon with a light delight of mandarin, meringue and champagne sorbet. It’s the mandarin scented meringue shards that sets this dish apart form your average Eton Mess type dish.

At $124 for seven exquisite courses it actually feels like good value for money and I would definitely be keen to return to sample the menu at different times of the year to examine how the menu changes with the seasons.

I’ve never really been a huge fan of halloumi because I don’t like the squeak. Yes, I know, it’s another one of my funny food rules, but it feels like fingernails down a chalkboard on my teeth. However, halloumi is a cheese that so many people rave about that I though I owed it another chance. It is also a relatively quick and easy cheese to make, so I whipped up a batch on a busy cheese making day as I was making some Camembert and Cabecou for the arrival of the in-laws. There is no better way to impress your mother-in-law than presenting her with an entirely home made cheese platter.

Anyway, back to the halloumi. I followed the recipe in Artisan Cheesemaker to the letter so I’m not going to write it out here. As a general guide for halloumi you heat the milk, curdle with rennet. No starter culture is necessary for this one, which makes the process at least an hour shorter than other cheeses as you don’t need to let the starter ripen.

Once the curd has formed it is cut, stirred and gently heated. The curds are then pressed for a short period of time. My only variation to the recipe was the shape of the mould. The recipe suggests round, but then recommends cutting off the corners. I don’t like waste so I went straight for the square mould.

Once pressed the unique process for halloumi begins. The whey is reserved and the cheese is heated gently in the whey which I think gives it its unique texture and frying properties. Finally, to give the halloumi it’s distinct flavour the cheese is soaked in brine. Ok, so I lied about following the recipe to the letter, I also tweaked this bit to use a milder brine as I found the last one really salty.

Now once I had my completed block of halloumi I had to work out what to do with it. I wanted a dish that would showcase it, so I turned to Twitter asking for suggestions. And the overwhelming response? Do nothing. Simply fry and serve with a squeeze of lemon. That was me well and truly told!  Whatever you do with it, halloumi, lemon and chilli are a match made in heaven.

I had a good yield of cheese from my high quality milk so there was enough to do a second dish.  I couldn’t resist ‘messing’ with the halloumi just a little.  After lunch at MoVida in Melbourne last year I was charmed by the Bocadillo they serve (AKA Spanish sandwiches).  With a dash of lemon and some roasted capsicum they make a great light lunch or maybe a fancy canape.

So how did my halloumi taste?  Just as halloumi should, I think.  It was salty and squeaky.  There were four of us who tucked into the two servings of halloumi.  Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it and were left wanting more, but I’m afraid to say I am still distressed by the squeak.  I will be happy to make halloumi for others as it is a relatively quick cheese to make and very satisfying, but when it comes to eating I just cannot get past that squeak.  I know I am the exception to the rule, so I will leave you with my recipe for MoVida inspired halloumi Bocadillo.

I forgot to weigh my halloumi so I cannot give accurate measurements for my recipe but I used half of the final yield, which I think was about 400-500g

Halloumi and Capsicum Bocadillo (serves 4 as a small snack)

1 red capsicum
1/2 block halloumi (200-250g)
8 slices of white bread
olive oil
1 lemon, half juiced, half cut into wedges to serve

Put the capsicum in a very hot oven for 20-30 minutes until the skin starts to blister and can be peeled easily.  Once the skin has started to blacken and blister, remove from the oven and put in a bowl and cover with cling film to continue to steam while it cools.  Once cool enough to handle remove the skin, seeds and stalk. You should be left with one piece of capsicum that can be roughly cut into four rectangles.

Meanwhile, cut the crusts off the bread then cut into eight rectangles roughly the length and half the width of the average slice of bread.  There is quite a lot of waste, but with the shape of bread I was using the pieces would be too uneven if I cut the slice in half.  The leftovers can be made into breadcrumbs or fed to the the chooks as a treat!

Once you have removed the capsicum from the oven, turn the heat down to 180 degrees Celsius.  Brush one side of the bread with olive oil and place on a baking tray oiled side up.  Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown but not burnt.

Cut the halloumi into four rectangles  the same size as the bread.  Just before the bread is toasted, fry the halloumi in a hot frying pan with a little olive oil until browned on both sides. This should take 4-5 minutes on each side.  Drizzle with some lemon juice just before they are ready.

To assemble, place a piece of halloumi on four of the pieces of baked bread.  Top with a sliced of roasted capsicum and another slice of baked bread.

Serve with a wedge of lemon.

Tasting Notes:

• Appearance: Creamy, white with markings from the mould
• Nose (aroma): Salty
• Overall Taste: Salty
• Sweet to Salty: Salty
• Strength: Mild cheese flavour, but strong salty flavour
• Mouth Feel: Squeaky

The cracker that gives you the greatest number for the least calories are Cruskits. I wasn’t going to name the product but there doesn’t seem to be a generic name for them, or anything else quite like them on the shelves.  I’m also not quite sure what they are made of, but with the melt in the mouth texture I’m guessing it’s largely air.

Whatever they are made of they make a great base for low calorie toppings.  4 light crackers give you 86 calories leaving enough room for a sliced tomato.  Or you can push the boat out and chop 10g cherry tomatoes and add 15g sliced olives and 3g basil.  This gives you a 115 calorie lunch, and with a sprinkle of salt and pepper it’s pretty tasty.

I have also made a low fat hummus topping.  I love my usual hummus recipe, but with all the olive oil it doesn’t make for a low calorie option. To decrease the calories I blended the chickpeas with water, which sounds disgusting, but actually tastes ok if you ensure you add flavour with garlic and lemon.

In your mini blender combine 1 can of drained chickpeas, 1g of garlic finely chopped, 20ml lemon juice, 75ml water and salt and pepper to taste.  Blitz to a smooth paste, adding more water if needed.  At 108 calories per 100g you can have 40g with 3 Cruskits for a 104 calorie lunch. Or you can dip 100g carrot and 100g capsicum into 50g hummus.

For a gourmet topping you can reduce the number of crackers to allow a few extra calories for crushed peas, mixed with garlic, lemon and spring onions.  It certainly has the most flavour of all the options but with flavour comes the compromise of quantity.

Crushed Pea Cruskits (serves 1, 95 calories per serve)

60g frozen peas
1g garlic, finely chopped
squeeze lemon juice
20g spring onions, sliced
2g mint leaves, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 Cruskits

Soak the peas in boiling water for one minutes to defrost.  In a mini blender combine the peas, garlic and lemon juice and pulse until combined.  Stir through the chopped spring onions and mint season to taste and serve on the Cruskits.