Apple and cinnamon cupcakes

2 tsp cinnamon

4 tsp vegetable oil

4 tsp baking powder

250g caster sugar

320g plain flour

50g unsalted butter, melted

2 lightly beaten eggs

175ml buttermilk

2 peeled finely diced apples

Turn the oven to 175 degrees (350F). Line a cupcake tin with paper liners (this recipe makes 12 decent sized cupcakes)

In a bowl combine the sifted dry ingredients.

In a large bowl beat the liquid ingredients until well combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat until nearly combined. Stir in the apples - careful not to overmix!

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, and then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack. Top with brown sugar frosting. These keep for up to 2 days or freeze (without icing for up to 3 months).

Pear and butterscotch clafouti

Clafouti was originally made with cherries, but has developed far further and now includes all sorts of fruit. I love it, as a simple, quick to make and incredibly elegant dessert.

Traditional cherry clafouti includes a splash of kirsch. I decided to make a pear clafouti this time around - decided by having a surfeit of eggs in the house, and a large tin of pears at hand. To add a little extra twist, I had a think about flavours and concluded that butterscotch schnapps might just work. And indeed it does - the butterscotch schnapps being quite a warm creamy flavour it worked well with the custard and contrasted with the slightly crisper sharper edge of the pear.

Now I am sure a purist would use freshly sliced pears for this recipe, but then again, a purist wouldn't be allowing butterscotch schnapps anywhere either, so they can go be purist and we can enjoy the fruits of our experimental labours. Tinned pears mean that you can create this delicious dessert at any time of the year or day of the week. If you do use fresh pears, peel and core them, and slice them thinly.

Ingredients

Butter
5 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1/2 cup vanilla sugar (I make my own by keeping my vanilla bean pods in the sugar jar)
1/2 cup sifted flour
1 and a half tablespoons butterscotch schnapps
1 cup (250ml) cream (normal 35% fat cream is fine; occasionally I even use sour cream)
3 extra tablespoons of caster sugar
1 large tin of pears, drained

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Take a large ceramic or glass pie dish (a gratin dish will do at a pinch). Grease the bottom with the butter and sprinkle it with the caster sugar; shake the dish to get an even spread of sugar.

Place the eggs and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy Sprinkle on the flour, add the cream and the butterscotch schnapps and mix with the whisk to combine well.

Arrange the pears around the dish in an attractive pattern. Pour the batter over the top.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until set. Allow to cool, and serve sprinkled lightly with sugar, with or without icecream.

Coconut Mango Cake

This cake is both delicious and pretty. The mango gives it the most glorious gold colour and the taste combination of coconut and mango is sensational. You can use either fresh mango puree, or tinned at a pinch. Ingredients 

330g caster sugar 

250g butter 

4 eggs 

160ml mango puree 

2 cups desiccated coconut 

375g self raising flour 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. 

Grease and line a cake tin (baker's grease will work really well too... hmmm must post the recipe for that!). 

Beat the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl until combined (not light and fluffy, just combined) then add the eggs one at a time - don't beat strongly, just to combine. 

Grab a wooden spoon and stir in the coconut and mango puree and then the flour. Spread into your prepared cake tin - the mixture is quite thick. 

Bake for about 1 and a half hours. Stand for a few minutes in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack; flip so it is top side up to cool. 

Icing: 1 and a half cups of icing sugar 1 egg white 2 tablespoons mango puree 3/4 cup desiccated coconut Beat the egg white till foamy... gradually beat in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. Stir in the puree and coconut, and then spread onto the cake.

Strawberry and Galingale cordial

So, what do you do when you have a spare punnet of strawberries? Make cordial of course! This cordial is super simple, smells exquisite while cooking and makes a delightful summer drink. 

The galingale adds just a little edge of spiciness without the bite of ginger: 

2 cups water 

2 cups caster sugar 

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

500g strawberries (washed hulled and halved) 

2 pieces of dried galingale 

Put the sugar, water, galingale and lemon juice in a saucepan . Cook, while stirring over a low heat, for 2 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat and until the mixture thickens just a little (about 5 minutes). Reduce to medium-low. Add the strawberries. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain through a fine sieve (I used a muslin cloth as well to remove the seeds) and pour into a bottle. Keep in the fridge.

To serve.... just add water!

Cinnamon & apple cookies

With the delicious combination of oats, brown sugar, apples and cinnamon, these biscuits are like an apple crumble in biscuit form. This recipe isn't mine, but is adjusted from the ever reliable Australian Women's Weekly. Remember if you are cooking from this blog, my recipes are metric! 

2 eggs 

1 1/2 cups brown sugar (275g) 

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

1/2 cup mild vegetable oil 

2 tblspn golden syrup 

2 cups rolled oats 

1 1/2 cups chopped dried apples (135g) 

1 3/4 cup plain flour (150g) 

3/4 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp bi-carb soda 

1 tspn ground cinnamon 

Set your oven to preheat at 210 degrees. Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until the mix becomes light in colour. Stir in the vanilla essence, oil and golden syrup. Then stir in the oats, apple and sifted dry ingredients. 

Cover and refrigerate for an hour. 

Roll tablespoons of the mix into balls, and press down onto a silicone-paper lined baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on the tray.

Clementine Cookies

I had a fit of baking last night: we are doing some fundraising at work for the Australian bushfire appeals. I did a giant batch of anzac bikkies. I finished the anzacs at about 2am but by then the baking bug had bit me and I found myself searching through my cupboards for ingredients to make something, anything more! My eyes fell upon the net of clementines in the big fridge (ie, on the balcony, which during winter becomes my second fridge). Grand. I would make something from them. Grand. umm... what?? From this 2am dilemma sprang this invention: 

Clementine Cookies 

 2 dessert spoons of finely grated clementine rind 

2 egg yolks

125 g butter 

1 cup caster sugar 

2 tablespoons clementine juice 

2 and a half cups self raising flour 

Turn your oven onto moderate (approx 170 degrees C) to warm up. Beat the egg yolk, butter, rind and sugar until fluffy. Add the flour and then drizzle in the juice until it comes together into a dough. 

Knead gently on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth. Take dessertspoons of the mixture and roll into balls. Press onto baking trays that are either lightly greased or have silicon paper. 

Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned and allow to cool on the tray. Once cool ice and decorate - make up an icing with clementine juice and icing sugar. 

This recipe makes about 60 biscuits.

Impromptu fig conserve

With figs in season as they are, I just had to buy some more didn't I? I had this idea in mind for tomorrow night's dinner, but tonight, the figs were looking a bit peaky... not to be left for tomorrow night. Hmmm... what do I do with them then? I know, I will make jam!

The challenge is that I only had 6 figs, not the kilo or so that most recipes seem to demand. So I just had to invent something, and here it is.

6 figs
1 cup jam sugar*
1/2 cup grand marnier
1 star anise
1 tsp lemon juice

In a small saucepan, combine the chopped figs, jelly sugar, lemon juice and grand marnier. Sit for an hour to soak.

Start the stove and bring the mixture to a gentle bubble. Add the star anise. Cook for 15 minutes stirring regularly. Remove the star anise and then continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly, and crushing with a potato masher, to break up the bigger pieces. Once thickened to "soft ball" stage, pour into sterilised glass jar. Makes 1 x 500g jar of jam.

*jam sugar is a sugar which includes pectin

The figs starting to break down into delicious jam..

Marmalade Cupcakes

There is a bit of a tale to this recipe. A friend of mine broke her leg. Her mum, being the caring sharing type, decided she couldn't stay in Australia with her daughter suffering a broken leg in Switzerland, so she flew across.

And what does a worrying mum do with herself during the day when her daughter is stuck on the couch? She makes marmalade of course! So how does this connect to me and marmalade cupcakes? Well my friend moved back to Australia and kindly donated to me the unused contents of her cupboards - including a lovely jar of marmalade.

Inspired to bake one day, I created these delicious cupcakes; only wish my friend was here to try one.

• 125 butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup orange marmalade

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. If, unlike me, you have a muffin tin, put the paper cases into it, otherwise, just lay them out on a tray.

In your mixer, beat the butter and caster sugar until light fluffy. One by one, add the eggs, beating well between additions. While the mixer is still going, add the marmalade.

In another bowl, combine the flour, bicarb, salt and baking powder.

Now, alternating between the milk and the flour mixture, add to the mixer, until combined (but don't overbeat).

Fill the paper cups with the mixture and then bake for around 20 minutes until risen and golden.

The special joy of these cupcakes is that the marmalade makes little pockets of marmalade toffee, which are just delicious. I topped them with a simple icing made of marmalade, icing sugar and cream cheese but actually I loved them just as they were. I took them to work and they were inhaled with gusto.

This recipe made about 2 dozen cupcakes

Dinner for one... figs three ways

Tonight is the least glamorous night of the month for me: my fortnightly access to the laundry in the basement. A night of tedium waiting for one load to finish before loading up the next. The plus is that it is a night that I get to spend at home alone, in my own space, which always inspires me to cook! As my dear friend Cate calls it, it's "darling self" time.

A quick meander around the shop brought me my inspiration for the night. It's the season of figs... those gorgeous plump purple fruits with their sensuous gem-toned flesh. There is something incredibly sexy about the look, the texture and the taste of this glorious fruit. I decided to spoil myself for dinner alone tonight... figs three ways.

Firstly, a whole fig split and roasted slowly until tender and juicy, then gorgonzola tucked into it, going soft and melding with the sweet juices of the fruit. Drizzled with honey or just as it is... fabulous.

Melted and soft to be picked up and eaten with the fingers, just to give an excuse to lick the lush nectar up.. or spread over bread still warm from the oven.

Second, cut up into chunky jewells and wrapped in jambon cru and slow roasted until the jambon starts to crisp up and a glorious mingling of ham and fig juice dribbles out from underneath. Served with a balsamic vinegar reduction, this is simply irresistable.

I baked these on a silicone sheet, and between you and I, when the liqueur cooled, I licked it all up!

Then finally time for dessert... Simple and sweet... a fig sliced in quarters, cooked with port and honey and served with a dollop of creamy rich greek yoghurt.

Utterly content with dinner alone.

Coconut Apricot Slice

Slices seem to be a real Australian phenomenon. I haven't really been able to find them anywhere else, apart from the ubiquitous brownie. But a slice is a beautiful, simple, delicious thing, and I encourage you to take the time to explore and experiment with it. To explain, a slice is a sort of cake made in a shallow rectangular baking tray. Sometimes they are baked, but often the recipes are no-bake, so are wonderful cooking activities to do with children. Being rectangular too, they are also very easily to slice up and share around.

Here is a great no-bake recipe, which is quick to make and always a hit.

Coconut Apricot Slice

250gm unsalted butter
400g white chocolate, broken up
3 cups dried apricots, chopped
100ml cream
500g shortbread biscuits
1 cup dessicated coconut

Line the base of a rectangular baking tray (I used one that is 28cmx44 but you could use 2 18x25cm trays instead) with baking paper.

Put the shortbread biscuits in a strong plastic bag and use a rolling pint to crush the biscuits up to crumbs.

Melt the butter and cream in a saucepan, bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Break in the white chocolate and stir till melted and combined. Cool a little then add the biscuits, apricots and dessicated coconut. Press the mixture into your prepared tray and chill in the fridge for an hour or so.

Ice with lemon butter icing: 50g melted butter, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 4 cups icing sugar. Chill again and slice in the tray to serve.

Get that shrinking feeling...

So it's spring, and there is all sorts of wonderful fruit in the shops. Strawberries, succulent and sweet are at their best and stone fruit is starting to appear.

The season just flies past and its vital to take advantage of all this wonderful fruit while it is there. So its time to whip out the dehydrator and get drying!

2 kilos of strawberries becomes a single soup bowl of delicious crunchy slivers, ready to be munched as is, or cooked up in a recipe. They keep for months too, allowing you to enjoy the taste of spring all the way through the year.

Strawberry shortbread

Simple and sweet, this invention was inspired by the wonderful strawberries in season at the moment. It will be a way to use the delicious dehydrated strawberries I dried this very week.

Strawberry shortbread (original recipe by Kiriel)

175g flour
75g semolina flour
20g dried strawberries (the crisp kind)
250g chilled butter
75g caster sugar

Chop butter roughly. Put all ingredients in a foodprocessor and process until a ball of dough forms. Be careful not to over process, or the shortbread will toughen.

Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

Roll out on a lightly floured board to 5mm and cut out shapes. Bake at 190 degrees for 15-20 minutes until very lightly golden.

Challenge: Pineapple & Blue Cheese

I am getting addicted to these food challenges. This one really quirked my interest... "TRGWT: They Really Go Well Together". These challenges are based on molecular gastronomy food pairings, and this month the challenge was to pair pineapple and blue cheese (being hosted by David at "Eat Foo(d)")

Now I had already eaten blue cheese and pineapple on one of my home made pizzas, and so knew that the potential for all sorts of deliciousness was there... the problem lay in the timing. I found out about the challenge on Monday morning (31 March) at about 1am when trawling the internet in a bout of insomnia. On Monday nights I have my singing lesson followed by choir and don't get home till after 11pm. The challenge closes on the 1st of April. That gave me one day to think of something and 1 evening in which to perfect it. Phew!

So... my contribution? Something very simple indeed:

Pineapple and blue cheese soup (original recipe by Kiriel)

2 small onions
30g butter
60 blue cheese
480g pineapple (I was in a pinch so used drained pineapple in natural syrup)
2 cups chicken stock

Dice the onions finely and sweat in the butter until they go clear. Chop the pineapple into pieces (if using fresh pineapple make sure you remove the hard core) and add to the butter. Sweat until the pineapple has absorbed the butter and softened.

Blend the pineapple in a food processor or blender. Add the chicken stock and return to the pan. Simmer for about half an hour to give the pineapple more time to soften. Crumble in the blue cheese and remove from the heat. Stir to blend the cheese in but don't over stir - you want to discover lovely little nuggets of cheese as you eat.

I tried two different versions of this recipe. The first used St Agur which is a mild creamy blue cheese, quite solid in texture and with a nutty taste. The second used a cave-ripened roquefort, strong, sharp and acid.

Both had their merits and in the end I simply couldn't decide which was better, although I think I lean just a teeny bit towards the milder St Agur. I also couldn't define for you why the soup ended up tasting so good... it just does! Go on... be brave and give it a try.

Red Fruit Crumble

On the way home from work I popped into the shops to buy some mince for dinner. And there in the supermarket were glorious red stalks of rhubarb. mmmmm... yummm. Time for apple and rhubarb crumble methinks! But whats there? Strawberries... fresh ripe and rosy red. So red apples instead of green and all the makings are there for a gloriously fresh and delicious fruit crumble. And in perfect timing, this month's Monthly Mingle is on the theme of Spring Fruit Sensation, and Mike's Table is focusing on Strawberry Seduction... mmmm...

Red Fruit Crumble (original recipe by Kiriel)

500g Strawberries, hulled
330g rhubarb (2 long stalks or 3 medium)
3 gala apples
2 dessert spoons caster sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Crumble
100g butter
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oates
3/4 cup brown sugar

Clean the rhubarb and cut into pieces about 2cm in size. Core and chop the apple into chunks a similar size to the strawberries and sprinkle with the lemon juice to keep the apple white. Put rhubarb, strawberries and apples into a wide casserole dish. Just before topping with crumble, sprinkle with the caster sugar.

To make the crumble: Rub butter into flour to create something the consistency of breadcrumbs. Mix in brown sugar and oats.

Spread generously over the fruit and bake at 190 degrees for 20 minutes. Allow to cool just a little so the sauce will thicken up before serving.

Easter time... hot cross buns

Every Easter, my dad bakes hot cross buns. The whole family gathers at my parent's place as the smell of yeast and spices fills the air. Soon rows and rows of scrumptious buns come out of the oven to be devoured with glee. If there manage to be left-overs they are toasted and inhaled the next day.

Now I live in Switzerland. These treats simply don't exist here and I can't help feeling sorry for a nation that has never enjoyed the amazingly fragrant and delicious pleasure of a hot cross bun. I asked my dad to send me the recipe and here it is, so anyone can make these at home. I recommend making a double batch so you can freeze some for another day.

Hot Cross Buns

500g plain flour
30g Fresh yeast (1 sachet of dried yeast)
300ml warm milk
60g sultanas
60g currants
60g butter
125g sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Paste for Crosses

1/4 cup plain flour
a little cold water

Crumble yeast into basin, mix with 1 teaspoon each previously measured flour and sugar; mix in warm milk. Stand in warm place 15 minutes or until mixture is spongy. Sift flour, salt and spices into large basin. Rub in butter, add sugar and fruit. Beat egg well, add it to yeast and milk sponge. Add this to flour mixture, make into a soft dough. Cover with clean cloth,stand in warm place 40 minutes: at the end of this time dough should have doubled in bulk.

Turn onto a lightly floured board. Knead well, turning outside edges of dough into centre.
Knead until dough is smooth and elastic. [It should come off your hands easily] Cut into 15 or 16 even sized pieces,knead each piece into a round. Place in greased lamington tin/tray -2 cms apart. Set aside again in warm place for 10 to 15 minutes.

Make paste for crosses by mixing sifted flour to ery soft smooth paste with cold water. Using plain nozzle, pipe crosses on buns or just drizzle onto buns to make crosses.

Bake in hot oven 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove from oven brush with glaze made by dissolving sugar and gelatine in hot water. [Alternately boil equal amounts of sugar and water until syrupy. Less sticky]

Serve hot from the oven with butter.

Have fun and don't be scared to bash the dough around.

Lemon mousse tartlets

Another invention, these wee tartlets were something I whipped up (quite literally) to take as nibblies at the concert I sang in last weekend. They were a great success, and I caught one of my fellow singers polishing off 6 in a row!

So this one is definitely worth sharing as a super simple dessert dish. Its so much fun playing with food! Best of all, this recipe is pretty much a "from the cupboard" recipe, where the only fresh ingredient that is needed is cream so it can be made up at very little notice.

Lemon Mousse Tartlets (Original recipe by Kiriel)

400ml cream

200g lemon curd (also known as lemon butter)

3 tablespoons icing sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

yellow food colouring

Sweet tartlet shells (this quantity made 50 tiny tartlets)

Whip cream until it has firm peaks. In a bowl combine the lemon curd, lemon juice and icing sugar, then fold gently into the cream. Add yellow food colouring if you want, to give a stronger colour. Pipe into tartlet shells and serve - this can be done up to about an hour and a half before serving - much longer and the shells start to soften. This simple lemon mousse would also work well served in glasses as a dessert at a dinner party - the quantity above will do dessert for 8. I had some left over which I folded fresh strawberries into, which was divine!

Duck with fig and port sauce

Duck with fig and port sauce (original recipe by Kiriel)

1 large duck breast
Olive oil
1/4 tsp thyme
Freshly ground pepper

1/2 tblspn good olive oil
1 cup home made stock
1 tblspn butter
1/2 cup Port
6 dried figs quartered
1 tablespoon fig syrup

Rub the duck breast with thyme and pepper.

Heat butter and oil in large fry pan over a medium heat. Season duck breasts with salt; add to pan skin side down and cook 4 minutes.

Turn and cook about 3 minutes longer - this will be medium-rare. Move the meat on to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Pour off the excess fat from the pan, leaving just a little behind. Add the stock, Port, figs and fig syrup. Increase heat and boil until liquid is reduced to a thick luscious sauce, scraping up any brown bits off the pan as you go.

Thinly slice the duck breast. Arrange and then spoon the sauce over before serving. Serves 2.

This photo of my cooking wsa taken by the lovely and talented Rosa.

Random fruit loaf

One of my ways to deal with stress is to bake. I get these urges and I just can't resist the temptation to make biscuits, or bread or whatever I can create from the contents of my pantry. Well, I have been having a rather full-on week this week, so when I got home from work last night it was time to raid the shelves and invent!

I had a big box of mixed dried fruit and chocolate bits that I had put together for a road trip but which had not been finished, so that was to be ingredient number one. I still have too many eggs, so that's ingredient number two. The final dish... obviously, fruit loaf!

There are of course, different types of fruit loaf - you can make a form of bread with yeast, or a light cake batter, or a heavy dense loaf (eg date and walnut loaf). While there was definite appeal to the idea of taking out some of my frustrations on a yeast dough, I decided to go the faster lighter option. The result of my experiment was a light moist cake with continuous taste surprises as you encounter cranberries, apricots, sultanas (aka raisins), currants, slivers of coconut and morsels of chocolate.

Don't you love the jewel-colours in this freshly sliced cake?

Random fruit and nut loaf - original recipe by Kiriel

• 175g butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla paste
• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 and 1/2 cups dried fruit & nuts* (You can use any proportion of dried fruits or nuts that you like)
  

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Stir in the milk and vanilla.

In large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in all the fruit and nuts. Make a large well in the flour, and pour in the liquid. Fold together gently (rather like muffins, this mix is not to be perfectly combines) and pour into a greased medium sized inch loaf tin (8 cups in volume).

Bake for an hour and a half (check with a skewer at an hour 15). Allow to stand in the tin until the tin is cool enough to be handled, then tip out of the pan. Allow to cool and wrap in a tea-towel to keep fresh. Because the amount of fruit in the recipe, I advise leaving the pieces in place as you slice, so that the previous slice of cake supports the next.

Fresh out of the oven - I wish I could do scratch and sniff photos, as this smells fantastic!

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey clementines

My original idea was to do pavlovas with figs on top because I had seen lots of figs in the shops and markets, but when it came to time to cook I went to shop after shop and found not a fig!

But clementines were everywhere, so pavlovas with clementines it became and oooh they were goooooood.

Spiced pavlovas with leatherwood honey and clementines (original recipe by Kiriel)

6 clementines
1tbsp leatherwood honey
2 tbsp sugar

400mls of cream

4 eggwhites
250 g fine sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp cinnamon

Beat eggwhites until it is at soft peak. Little by little, add the sugar, beating well, until mixture is firm and shiny. Gently fold in the rest of the ingredients. Spoon onto silicone paper covered trays in rounds and then pipe a wall of meringue to make sort of nests. Bake for 50 minutes at 120 degrees C and then turn off the oven and allow to cool for 1 hour with the door slightly ajar.

Meringues just about to go in the oven.

To top the pavlova: peel 4 clementines and clean up the pieces so there is no pith. In a small saucepan, heat up 1 tablespoon of leatherwood honey, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup of mandarin juice (squeezing the 2 clementines left) and simmer until thick and syrupy. Put in the pieces of clemetine and simmer for 20 minutes until the fruit has absorbed plenty of the flavour of the sauce and softened.

Whip 400mls of cream with a little vanilla until it has soft peaks.

Give each guest their own pavlova, topped with the whipped cream, mandarin pieces and drizzled with syrup. Scatter with crushed honey-roasted macadamias and serve.

Student life re-lived

So what does an impoverished Australian in the French Riviera live on, on a day to day basis? Surely it isn't possible to afford to buy lunch or dinner every day?

Indeed it isn't possible. While I have found a few asian 'restaurants' that have dishes for around 5 euro, I can't quite manage to stretch my finances that far on a daily basis. So my plat du jour is home made ham and pineapple pizzas!

So here is the breakdown

• 2 packets of mini pita breads (that will make 12 meals): 2 euro 80
• 1 tin of pineapple chunks 1 euro 10
• 1 brie 98centimes
• 1 small packet of grated cheese 1 euro 30
• 1 packet lardons fume (bacon bits by any other name) 2 euro 30
• 1 tiny tin of tomato paste 30 centimes

et voila, two weeks worth of simple hot lunches for 73 centimes a day.

In case you are a complete cooking newbie and really need to know how to make them, here are instructions for construction:

• Open the tin of tomato paste, and put into a small dish with about twice as much warm water (eg. for 20g paste, add 40 ml water) to make a thinnish paste. If you have some dried herbs, perhaps oregano, soak them in the warm water before mixing the tomato paste in.
  
• Spread on to pita bread
• Open the tin of pineapple chunks, drain off the liquid (mix it into whatever fruit juice you have in the fridge to add a bit of sparkle to it) and scatter on over the pita (slice them in half if you are feeling poor, or use whole chunks if you are feeling a bit more lavish).
  
• Thinly slice some brie and place on top
  
• Scatter a little of the grated cheese to fill in any corners not covered by the brie. You can just use brie, or just use the grated cheese if you like, but I rather like the different flavours from the different cheeses
• Scatter lardons on top
• Cook in an oven prewarmed to 200 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the cheese goes a lovely golden colour.
  
• Rest for 4 minutes to allow the cheese to set a little before slicing in half
• EAT! Of course you can add whatever other ingredients you prefer; sliced mushrooms for example.
  

Before cooking

Hot and golden fresh from the oven