​My family love salads for dinner, especially in summer. They taste amazing, are light, and can be absolutely delicious. This salad is amazing, I absolutely love this, this salad is full of flavour.

I love that while the chicken is baking, you can get all the other parts of the salad ready.

I double this recipe for my family as then they have lunch ready the next day whether it's for work, school or home.

The rolls I put as optional as I like this without bread for a lighter meal. But my boys love to make banh mi rolls.

You can marinate the chicken in a large glass or ceramic bowl if you prefer.

This is a simple yet delicious salad you must try.

​Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au/

Serves 4

1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1.1kg chicken thigh cutlets, trimmed

3-pack baby gem lettuces, leaves separated
1 telegraph cucumber, halved, deseeded, sliced
Fresh coriander sprigs, to serve
Sliced long fresh red chilli, to serve
4 crusty bread rolls (optional)
200g pork, duck or chicken liver pate, if making rolls (optional)
Lime wedges, to serve

Pickled Carrot:
125ml rice wine vinegar
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
100g shredded carrot

Dressing:
60g Kewpie Mayonnaise
1-2 tablespoons Sriracha chilli sauce


Combine the lemongrass, fish sauce, soy sauce and caster sugar in a large ziplock bag. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Cover and place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to marinate. I like to flip the bag over every now and then so the marinate distributes evenly.
​
Meanwhile, for the pickle, combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and 80ml (1/3 cup) water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Place the carrot in a heatproof bowl and pour over the vinegar mixture. Set aside to cool. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes or until required.
​
For the dressing, combine the mayonnaise and Sriracha in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until required.
​
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan forced. Transfer the chicken to a large baking tray, skin-side up. Discard the marinade. Bake the chicken for 50 minutes or until the skin is crispy and the chicken is cooked. Set aside to cool slightly. Chop the chicken into large pieces.
​
​Drain the carrot and arrange on a platter with the lettuce, cucumber and chicken. Scatter over the coriander and fresh chilli. Serve with the dressing, bread rolls, pate (if needed) and lime wedges, if you like.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/crispy-chicken-banh-mi-salad.html 
Pin it: ​​au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060722227936/

​​​​​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​Since I started baking bread, I just cannot stop. I love it. But just like with my style of cooking, I can't just make the same bread every day, I need variety, so I'm continuously trying new recipes.

This recipe is quick for bread making and it's really easy to make. You just mix the ingredients together, let it rise for an hour. Tip it out onto an oiled bench, fold it and press/squish it down a few times. Pop it in a loaf tin, let it rise for 30 minutes and bake it.

You can add 1/4-1/3 cup of seeds like sunflower seeds, pepitas etc in when you add the flour if you like.

Here is a video of the original recipe, she shows how easy this is to make. Now I will not bake bread in cup measurements as I like more accuracy, so I have written an adjusted recipe with gram measurements that I use based on this video.

If you are looking for a simple yet delicious bread recipe, this one is perfect for beginners and regular bread makers.

​Recipe adapted from easyrecipegang.com.au/

Makes 1 loaf

380g warm water
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
450g bread flour
10g salt
olive oil, for drizzling
​
In a bowl, combine water, yeast and sugar. Add flour and salt. Give it a good mix.

Let the mixture rest in a warm place, covered with a tea towel, for 1 hour.

After the resting time, oil your bench lightly, about 2-3 tablespoons and let the dough fall out of the bowl onto the oil. Rub a little oil on your hands, it will stop the dough sticking to them. Now, you need to gently knead the dough. How I do this is I fold the dough, in half 3 times, then press it down, pushing it out, fold it two more times, press it down, fold it two more times and your dough should now be smooth, don't press it down on the last fold. If you need to repeat the folds one more time do so.


​Place the dough in a large loaf tin, cover it up with a tea towel, and let it rise until it doubles in size, about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 220°C/200°C fan forced. Once the dough has risen, pop it in the oven and bake for around 40 minutes.

​​Take the bread out of the oven when it’s beautifully golden brown. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes, and then it’s time to slice and serve.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/easy-bread-loaf.html 
Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060722215217/

​​​​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​I've made many no knead breads but my husband kept asking me to make sourdough bread, so finally after a few unsuccessful starters I got one right and I am now a sourdough bread maker.

Actually I have now made three successful starters which I named Heidi, Polly and Isabel. Heidi I keep at home, Polly I make a work and Isabel I share to those that want to make sourdough bread. I've baked with all three and all were perfect.

Now when I say perfect, sometimes they crack not just where I slash it, but the crack elsewhere, but all are soft and delicious inside with an amazingly crunchy crust.

Sour dough bread making though easy, does require a lot of time. So this is a recipe you need to start in the morning the day before you want to bake the bread.

What it means when your starter has hit its peak is the highest point your starter will grow to before it starts to fall back down.

I like to use two plastic shower caps to cover my bannetons as it makes life easier.

Sourdough baking is so rewarding, once you've baked that loaf with a few simple ingredients, no preservatives, you just can't go back to store bought bread,

I will be adding photos and videos to this page to make sourdough bread making even easier. But I have tried to explain it as best I can for now.

Good luck and start baking today.

Makes 2 loaves
Start the recipe 1 day before you want to bake bread

​Sourdough starter
1 cup bread flour
​Just under 1 cup room temperature water

​1kg bread flour
750g warm water

20g salt
​10-15ml water, extra

Extra bread flour, for dusting

You will need 
2 x banneton baskets
​1 cast iron pot


First thing in the morning.

​Take your sourdough starter out of the fridge. Discard about half. Feed it with 1 cup bread flour and a little less than 1 cup water. Give it a good mix so no dry flour is left, place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. If your jar does not have a lid, just place a paper towel on top secured with a rubber band. Leave it on your kitchen bench for 2 hours. 
​
After 2 hours or when you think you have one hour left for your starter to hit it's peak. In a large bowl add your 1kg bread flour and 750g warm water. Give it a good mix so there is no dry flour left. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, leave for one hour on your kitchen bench.
​
Once your starter is at it's peak, add 220g of your starter to the flour and water bowl. You need to mix it in well using the stretch and fold method. It will be sticky. To do this, take a section of the dough furthest from you and stretch it up and fold it onto itself towards you. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. You need to do this about 10-15 times. Add 20g salt and about 10-15ml water. Mix it in with about 10 stretch and folds. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile feed your starter with 1 cup bread flour and a little less than 1 cup water, mix it in. Cover and place in the fridge until you need to bake bread next time.

After 10 minutes, you need to stretch and fold your dough. Set a timer for 10 minutes and start stretching and folding for 10 minutes, the dough will be sticky. This is the hardest part and yet it's not hard. Once the timer goes off, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave for 1 hour.
​
After 1 hour your dough may have done nothing or it may have started bubbling and expanding. Both are fine, your kitchen environment will determine how quickly things start to happen. If your kitchen is warm things will happen quicker, if it's cold it will take longer. No matter what your dough is doing you will do 4 stretch and folds now. Take a section of the dough furthest from you and stretch it up and fold it onto itself towards you. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. You need to do this about 4 times. Cover and leave on the bench for 1 hour.

Now you will repeat this process every hour until your dough has doubled in size, has bubbles and is wobbly when the bowl is gently shaken. This could take 2-3 hours, it could take 4-6 hours, this is why you need to start this in the morning so you have time for this to happen.
​
So your dough is wobbly, is bubbly and has doubled in size. Now dust your kitchen bench with bread flour. Pick up your bowl and let the dough gently fall out of the bowl onto the flour. Using a metal scraper with a quick confident action, cut the dough into two roughly equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, using your scraper lift the ends of the dough and drag them to the centre of the dough, you are trying to form a tight dough ball. You want to have the smooth side on top now. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Leave both on the counter uncovered for about 10 minutes to relax.

Generously flour 2 banneton baskets.

After 10 minutes, dust your dough with flour. Now using your scraper flip one dough ball over on your bench.
Now you will now gently stretch out the dough to form a 30 x 20cm rectangle, no need to measure, just roughly. I like to gently stretch it from underneath, pulling it out to shape it. Try not to squish it or you will knock out all the bubbles you spent hours forming. 

Now take one long end and fold it over 2/3 of the way towards the other long end. Then take the other long end and fold it over to form a kind of rectangle log.

Now grab a short end with both hands and quickly and confidently start to roll up the dough as tight as you can. You will end up with and round/ovalish shape. Grab your scraper and flip the dough into your banneton, the bottom of the dough will now be the top in the banneton. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Dust both doughs with flour. Cover both bannetons loosely with shower caps. Leave on the bench for 1 hour.
​
After 1 hour the dough should have expanded/relaxed a bit. Dust with flour again. Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.
​
The next day place your cast iron pot in the oven Preheat the oven to 260C/240C fan forced for 30-40 minutes. Leave the dough in the fridge, we want it fridge cold going into the oven. 

Once your oven has preheated take one dough out of the fridge. Uncover, dust the top with bread flour. Either using baking paper or a silicone mat place the paper or mat over the banneton. Flip the dough onto your bench and gently pull off the banneton. Dust the dough lightly with flour, now using a bread lamb or a sharp knife, gently slash the dough gently down the centre of the dough, do not go deep, a light slash.

Place in your preheated pot using the baking paper or silicone mat as a handle, put the lid on and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes reduce the oven temperature to 230C/210C fan forced and take the lid off and bake a further 30-35 minutes.  

Once baked remove from the pot, place on a cooling rack without the mat or baking paper and allow to cool completely.

Now you can bake both breads on the same day or I like to keep the other dough for the next day, I've even left it for 3 days (as we didn't eat the first loaf fast enough), it was just more sour.

​If you follow the steps you will enjoy sourdough bread that is light and fluffy inside with a beautiful crunchy crust.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/sourdough-bread.html 
Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060722042394/

​​​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​Now there are many many sourdough starter recipes you can find online (and in cookbooks) and 99% of them I could not understand. They all had food words that I found unfamiliar and it all just seemed too hard. This recipe is for those people like me that needed things simplified, where simple words and instructions are needed. I don't really care why things happen, I just want them to happen.

Now the first time I tried this starter recipe I used only plain flour as per recipe and it did not work, so I adjusted the recipe to include the dark rye flour as I did read somewhere to use it and I had it at home. You only use dark rye flour the first time, after that when you feed the starter use only plain flour. You could probably use whole meal flour instead of the dark rye if that is what you have at home.

I name my starters. My first successful one is Heidi and while writing up this page I'm starting another one calling her Polly, and then I made a third one I named Isabel. Heidi stays at home, Polly I took to bake at work and Isabel I share with family and friends.

​The weather will affect how your starter behaves, temperature, humidity, altitude all affect how a starter works. Warmer places things happen quicker than in colder areas.

Making a starter can take about one to two weeks.

With the water I read to use filtered water. I don't, I just boil up my kettle, let the water go cold, then use that.

Black liquid called hooch can form on a starter. It forms when your sourdough starter is hungry and needs to be fed. Hooch is actually alcohol and is a by product of the fermentation occurring in your starter. Some people stir it back in, then feed their starter, other people discard it and feed their starter. I still haven't had this happen to my starter, but if I did, if I had just a bit and it was light or greyish, I'd stir it in, feed the starter and keep going. If I had a lot, like 1-2cm or it was really dark black, I'd pour it off, replace it with water, and then feed the starter. You can prevent hooch by keeping your starter fed well and often.

With regards to the jar, I just use gherkin or large jam jars, as they have a wide opening and I always have them in the house. I like to have two available and when one jar gets messy I transfer to a clean jar as making a starter can get messy.

Why do we discard and throw away the starter when feeding it, because as a home cook if you didn't discard it, you would have so much starter you would never be able to use it all. However, I only throw the discard away initially, once my starter is established I keep the discard in a separate jar that I don't feed and I use that in other recipes which I will share also.

The only time you need to give up and throw it out because of mould, not hooch, mould. Mould is fuzzy and different to hooch. I have never got mould on mine, but supposedly it can happen.

If you want to watch this process, go to msemilyrose11 on Instagram, she has it in her highlights.

Though I love my fast no knead bread recipes, sourdough bread does taste better, you just need the time to make it.

​Recipe adapted from msemilyrose11 on Instagram
​
Makes 1 starter
​
The start:
1/3 cup dark rye flour
2/3 cup plain flour
Just under 1 cup room temperature water
​700g glass jar

To feed: each time
1 cup plain flour
Just under 1 cup water

I like to start this in the morning.


Day 1: Place dark rye flour and plain flour into your jar. Add 2/3 cups water, give it a good stir, keep adding water only until the mixture is like a really thick pancake batter, you just want all the flour mixed in well. If you've added too much water, just add a bit more plain flour. Place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. If your jar does not have a lid, just place a paper towel on top secured with a rubber band. Leave it on your kitchen bench. See you tomorrow.

​Day 2: You may have bubbles starting in your starter, you may not, either way we continue with the recipe. Discard half of your sour dough starter into your bin (do not pour it down your sink). Now feed your starter with 1 cup plain flour and a little less than 1 cup of room temperature water. Mix well to combine. I like to pour it into a clean jar as the process gets very messy. Place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. Leave it on your kitchen bench. See you tomorrow.

​Day 6: My starter grew yesterday, but not crazy out of the jar today, which was nice as less to clean up. No matter what yours is doing today you will be feeding it twice. Once in the morning, once in the evening. I did the morning one at 7am and will do the evening one around 7pm.
If yours has a greyish liquid called hooch on top, stir it back in then, discard half of your sour dough starter into your bin (do not pour it down your sink). Now feed your starter with 1 cup plain flour and a little less than 1 cup of room temperature water. Mix well to combine. I like to pour it into a clean jar as the process gets very messy. Place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. Leave it on your kitchen bench.
Now if yours grew like mine did, grab a large rubber band and place it over the jar in line with the top of the starter, this is the line where you will see how much it grows. Repeat this process again in roughly 12 hours. See you tomorrow .

Day 7: No matter what yours is doing today you will be feeding it the same as yesterday. Once in the morning, once in the evening. I did the morning one at 7am and will do the evening one around 7pm.
If yours has a greyish liquid called hooch on top, stir it back in then, discard half of your sour dough starter into your bin (do not pour it down your sink). Now feed your starter with 1 cup plain flour and a little less than 1 cup of room temperature water. Mix well to combine. I like to pour it into a clean jar as the process gets very messy. Place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. Leave it on your kitchen bench.
Now if yours grew like mine did, grab a large rubber band and place it over the jar in line with the top of the starter, this is the line where you will see how much it grows. Repeat this process again in roughly 12 hours. See you tomorrow.

Day 8: Today we are feeding her once today, then we will be doing a float test to see if the starter is ready to bake with. Discard half of your sour dough starter into your bin (do not pour it down your sink). Now feed your starter with 1 cup plain flour and a little less than 1 cup of room temperature water. Mix well to combine. I like to pour it into a clean jar as the process gets very messy. Place lid on top, do not screw it shut, just pop it on top. Leave it on your kitchen bench for about 2 hours (could be longer). The starter needs to grow to it's peak before we can do a float test.

If your starter is not like mine and it isn't growing like mine yet, you need to keep feeding it twice a day until it does. So many things affect starters, temperature, humidity, altitude etc. Starters can take 2 weeks to develop depending on these factors.
​
Day 8: Part 2: Float test: Place room temperature water in a jug.
Add a blob of the starter to the water, if she floats she is ready to bake with, she is now an active starter.
If she sinks, you will need to feed her in the evening again like on day 7. You will continue the day 8 process again tomorrow. 

When she floats she is an active starter, you can bake with her now, you can make discard recipes with her, you can share her etc. This starter can be used for the rest of your life. For discard recipes from now on when you feed your starter you no longer throw out half. That half I now store in a separate jar labelled discard and I use that to make muffins, crackers etc, I will share those recipes also.

Now as I'm baking a sourdough loaf tomorrow (you need all day to prep a loaf so you won't have time today. Don't let that scare you, it's easy, you just need time) I will feed her again tonight (this time I will keep the discard in a separate jar), so the starter is ready for baking with tomorrow. Leave the starter on the kitchen bench overnight, place the discard in the refrigerator.
​If you are not baking with her tomorrow, feed her as per normal, keep the discard in a separate jar, place both jars in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake.

Now go to my sourdough bread recipe where I will show you how to make 2 loaves from one mix. ​

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/sourdough-starter.html 
Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060722042218/

​​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​These Thai green curry sausage rolls are delicious. They have a great fresh Thai flavour filling surrounded by crisp puff pastry.

Dipping them in sweet chilli sauce just adds an additional spice and flavour, but they are delicious even without the sauce.

You can make them in advance and freeze them. Just bake them for an additional 10 minutes if they go into the oven frozen.

This is great party food, they are loved by all that have tried them. ​​

Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au/

Makes 36

500g chicken mince
100g green beans, finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
2 green shallots, finely chopped
50g (1 cup) panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
2 tablespoons Thai green curry paste
2 eggs
3 sheets frozen puff pastry, just thawed
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Sweet chilli sauce, to serve
​
Combine the mince, beans, kaffir lime leaves, shallot, panko, coriander, curry paste and 1 egg in a bowl. Season. Mix until well combined.

Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan forced. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Lightly whisk the remaining egg in a bowl.
​
Cut the pastry sheets in half. Place one-sixth of the mince mixture along one long edge of each piece of pastry. Brush the other long edge with whisked egg. Fold pastry over filling, pressing to seal. Cut each roll into 6 pieces. Place the rolls, seam side down, on the prepared trays. Repeat with remaining meat mixture and pastry.

Brush the pastry with egg. Use a small sharp knife to pierce the tops a few times to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through and golden. 

Serve the sausage rolls with drizzled with sweet chilli sauce.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/thai-green-curry-chicken-sausage-rolls.html
Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060721371010/

​​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​Recently I started cooking at a Bowling Club, it's like a little what's cooking Ella hobby kitchen, I cook what ever I want, no set menu and the members can buy dinner to eat in or they can have it take away.

Some nights I make things I've made for years, sometimes I'll just try something new, this was a something new dish.

This was very popular with those that tried it. It's not too spicy, the meat is super tender and the flavours were very very nice.

I love how easy this is to make, it's great for those days that you don't want to spend hours in the kitchen. Here a few minutes of initial prep, then it simmers away on it's own and dinner is done.

Some people frown upon the use of curry pastes, I do not. I love the convenience of a quick fix every now and then and in this dish it works perfectly.
​
You can make this dish in a slow cooker, just add all the ingredients, except the fresh coriander, into a slow cook, mix to combine. Turn on slow cooker to low and cook for 8 hours or turn it on high and cook for 4 hours.

This is an easy dish to make and you'll save money not getting take away for the family.

​Recipe adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook 'The Slow Cooking Collection'

Serves 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
​​1.2kg pork scotch fillet (neck), cut into 3cm pieces, discard fat
2 large onions, sliced thinly
5cm piece fresh ginger, grated finely
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup vindaloo curry paste
400g tin diced tomatoes
3/4 cup (180ml) beef stock

1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves, to serve, to taste
White Rice, to serve
or
Naan Bread 
​

Place oil in a large saucepan over a medium high heat. Add pork, cook in batches 4-5 minutes until coloured on all sides, remove, set aside.

​To the same saucepan add onions, sauté for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add ginger and garlic, stir for about 1 minute. Add in tomato paste, stir for about 30 seconds, then stir through the curry paste, diced tomatoes and beef stock. Return pork the the saucepan, stir to combine. Cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 2 hours or until the pork is tender. Remove lid if your vindaloo is too watery and continue cooking until it reaches your desired thickness. Taste for seasoning.

Serve hot with coriander leaves, rice or naan bread.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/pork-vindaloo.html 
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​Burek is something my family loves and we are lucky enough where we live that you can buy great bureks. It is the most delicious pastry, nothing like store bought filo, with a simple mince filling, but it is delicious. Honestly when my husband calls and says he's in Rockdale do we want burek, we never say no.

But like with everything else, I love trying to make things myself. So I give burek making a go.

If you listen to people who make bureks all the time they will tell you, you make the dough by feel, no recipe is needed. Now to a novice like me or for someone whose grandmother or mother never made bureks, this is not something that can happen, we need a recipe as a guide, so that one day we can also say I make the dough by feel. But until that happens, here is a beginners recipe for burek making, experts look away, it will never be as good as your grandmothers or your mothers bureks, but it is really good.

Now this is not a midweek meal dish, this is a lazy Sunday where you have loads of time, and you just want to play in the kitchen a bit.

Where the recipe tells you to divide the dough into two dough balls, those new to stretching dough can divide it into three dough balls.

I use half of my dining table, I am no where near as good as those that can stretch it over an entire table.

​Don't add extra mince, I did once when I had a 500g pack and though why not, well because it was too much mince.

If you get ​holes in dough, don't stress, once you roll the whole thing up, no one will now.

​Next time I make this I will add more detailed photos.

Anyway here is beginners 101 in burek making, lets become experts together.

Recipe adapted from Andrea Pisac's cookbook Croatian Savoury Baking

​Makes 1 large burek or 6 individual bureks

For the phyllo dough:
500g bread flour
4g salt
280ml water, lukewarm
20ml sunflower oil, plus more to coat the dough
10ml apple cider vinegar

For the meat filling:
200g onion, finely chopped
350g beef mince
10g salt
2g pepper
30ml water

For the coating:
100ml water
50ml sunflower oil

​40g bread flour, extra, for dusting
​

For the phyllo dough: Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the salt and whisk to blend evenly.

Combine water, oil and vinegar in a bowl, stir then pour into the flour mix. Using a wooden spoon, bring the dough together-it will be shaggy at this point.

Use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook to work the dough at medium speed for 5-6 minutes, The dough should come away from the sides of the bowl easily. Transfer it to a work surface and give it a few kneads. The dough should not stick to your surface or your hands.
(If you don't have a stand mixer, knead by hand for about 20 minutes).

Divide the dough into two equal parts/dough balls. Place each in a separate dish, brush with a thin layer of oil and cover with cling film. Set aside to rest for at least one hour at room temperature.
​
For the meat filling: Add the chopped onion to the beef mince. Mix in the salt, pepper and water. Mix with your hand until it becomes a compact mass. Cover and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
​
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan forced. 
For individual bureks you will need to grease a large rectangular baking tray.
For the large bureks you will need to grease two large pizza trays.

Cover your worksurface (I use 1/2 my dining table) with a clean tablecloth and dust it all over with flour.

Place the first dough ball in the middle and flatten it with your hands, aiming for a rectangular shape if you have a rectangular dining table or round if using a round table. Using a rolling pin, stretch the dough further, uniformly in each direction. Sprinkle with a little oil and gently spread it on the dough with your hand. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
​
Place your hands underneath the dough, palms facing upwards, as far as you can towards the centre. Gently stretch the dough, always from the centre to the edge. By the end, your dough should be virtually transparent. Trim off any thick edges.
​
The size of one dough ball is enough for three burek shapes so run a knife along the dough area to divide it into three parts.
Take half of your mince (set the other half of the mince aside for your other dough ball). From the first half of the mince divide it into three equal parts. Scatter 1/3 of the mince on one long end (usually the end closest to you) of each of your dough pieces and in the middle, but leave 1/3 of the dough mince free. This empty length will form the outer layers of the burek and adds crunch.
​
You will use the tablecloth to help roll up the bureks. Lift the edge of the tablecloth using two hands that are spread out to the width of the dough and roll up the dough, the rolls should be slightly thicker than your thumb. Now you will shape this roll, then repeat this process with the middle mince filled piece of dough, then the last mince filled piece of dough.
​ 
How to shape them: Now you can make individual bureks where you will get 6 bureks or you can make 2 large bureks, that is up to you.

​For the large ones: Lift up the dough roll and place one end in the centre of your greased pizza tray, now roll up the dough into a spiral shape (think a snail shape). Now your second mince filled roll, you will put one end right next to the end of your first roll and continue the spiral pattern. Do the same with your third mince filled roll. Brush the bureks lightly with a little oil.

​For the individual shapes: You are going for a more oval shape here than round, take each mince filled roll and you will swirl it around itself four times. Place each burek on your greased baking tray. Brush the bureks lightly with a little oil.
​
Repeat this whole process with the second dough ball and the remaining mince until you have 2 large bureks or 6 individual bureks.
​
Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 180C/160C fan forced and bake for a further 25 minutes.

In a bowl mix together the water and oil.

Take the bureks out of the oven and brush them with the water and oil mixture and return to the oven for about 5 minutes until you have a golden crust,

Serve warm. Individual ones serve whole, the large ones cut up into triangles like a pizza.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/burek-with-meat.html 
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​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​This is what you make when you want a Jam Doughnut but you don't feel like making jam doughnuts. You want to make something that tastes like a jam doughnut, but it involves far less effort. 

Bread making has honestly become a central part of my cooking adventure, I'm loving it. You get a different bread every day, different tastes, different textures, it's honestly very rewarding.

Here a simple focaccia is converted into a sweet treat. Every bite is delicious.

You will need a piping bag here, or a sturdy snap lock bag.

​If you do want to try making doughnuts, here is my favourite recipe. 

And anyone that wants to learn how to make different focaccia flavours should follow lace bakes on instagram, she's amazing.

This really is so much easier to make than doughnuts and definitely something you need to try.

​Recipe adapted from Instagram _lacebakes_

Makes 1 focaccia

For the dough:
500g white bread flour
420g warm water
6g instant yeast
5g honey
1 tablespoon caster sugar
15g extra virgin olive oil
10g fine sea salt

For the filling:
1 cup raspberry jam
(piping bag needed)

For the glaze:
1 cup (125g) pure icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the pan: 
Sunflower oil


In a large mixing bowl, add the warm water, yeast, honey, sugar and extra virgin olive oil. Mix with a wooden spoon. Add in the flour and salt and mix together until you have no dry patches. Sometimes I find using a damp hand, I give the bread 5-6 kneads, just to incorporate the flour better. The dough does not stick to a wet hand.

Cover the bowl with beeswax wraps or plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Now it's time to stretch and fold the dough. Release the dough from the side of the bowl, using a damp hand. This will deflate it. Perform a set of stretch and folds on the dough. To do this, wet your hand, then take a section of the dough furthest from you and stretch it up and fold it onto itself towards you. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat the process. You need to do a total of 8 stretch and folds. You will get the dough roughly shaped like a ball. 

Cover the bowl again and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Repeat the stretch and folds again. After this stretch and fold, using damp hands, gather your dough and place it seam side down into the bowl, so the top is smooth.

​Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 1.5 hours at room temperature.

Prepare your 22cm x 33cm baking tray. Put a teaspoon of sunflower oil in your tray, spread it around. Scrunch up a piece of baking paper that is cut larger than your tray, unscrunch it and place it in your baking tray, pressing into the corners.

Pour 2-3 tablespoons of sunflower oil into the centre of your pan. 

Place dough in your prepared pan. Now, oil your hands and fold one side of dough towards the middle of the dough. Repeat with the other side, like folding paper into thirds. The flip the dough so the seam is at the bottom and spin it so that the long ends are parallel with the long sides of the tray.

Let it sit to proof, at room temperature for about 1.5 hours. During this time the dough will puff up and fill up the tray.

When you have 30 minutes left of proofing time, preheat your oven to 220C/200C fan forced. Place your oven rack in the lowest position in the oven.

Dimple the focaccia dough (no need to drizzle any extra oil here) then bake for about 20-22 minutes or until it's a deep golden brown. 

While the focaccia is baking, fill a piping bag with your jam.

Now make the glaze by whisking together the icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth. If too thick add a little extra milk, but only so it is a drizzling consistency.

When the focaccia is out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack and let it cool for 5 minutes. Poke the focaccia with holes, use a piping tip or large metal straw. Fill the holes with jam.

Place the cooling rack onto a larger baking tray and drizzle on the glaze. Brush the glaze evenly over the top and sides of the focaccia and then remove the cooling rack, set it aside, and rub the bottom of the focaccia into the glaze that has dripped onto the tray.

​Place the focaccia back onto the cooling rack.

​Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes for the glaze to harden.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/jam-doughnut-focaccia.html 
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​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​So it's my anniversary, my husband and daughter are in Croatia visiting my husbands parents, my son is France with his girlfriend and I'm home with my youngest son as he's in his final year of high school and couldn't go to Europe this year. So I ask my son what should we eat today, he suggested my Ham and Cheese Pastry Sun. I though ok, I had all the ingredients at home, but the ham, but I had pepperoni, so I suggested we change it to Pepperoni Pizza Suns so I don't have to go to the shops, and he agreed.

It was brilliant. My son and I finished this off in minutes. We loved it. We would tear off an end and eat it, it was perfect as a light lunch. The filling was delicious and the crisp pastry amazing. The centre piece .I gave to my son as it his favourite part.

Now you can trim the pastry to make it round, more sun shape, but I find that just a waste of pastry and in all honesty, I'm okay with imperfection.

Don't make the strips too thin, use the picture as a guide.

This recipe is a guide only, use whatever salami you like and as much as you like, but it needs to be really thin so it will bend easily. With the cheese, I didn't really measure it, just put on a good sprinkling.

I added mushrooms and capsicums as I had them leftover in the fridge from a pizza night, don't add too many thinking it will taste better, you only need a little and too much will make your bottom pastry soggy as both release water when cooked.

I used my own pizza sauce which is delicious and easy to make. You only need 1/2 cup so make as much as you need, definitely halve the recipe at least. If you do make the whole sauce it covers 3-4 pizzas and for you to have a few spoonfuls of just sauce, my kids love just eating the sauce. It's also great as a dipping sauce with polenta chips. You could probably freeze the sauce, I haven't tried as my kids eat it.

2 x 400g cans Italian diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Place the oil and garlic in a medium saucepan and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and sugar. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the sauce is thick. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

If you are looking to make a quick snack for your kids, or you have some leftover pepperoni (or even ham) to use up, try this, it is delicious.

​2 sheets puff pastry, I used Borgs
30-40 slices thinly sliced pepperoni, enough to cover the pastry in a single layer
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup tomato pizza sauce
2 mushrooms, sliced thinly
1/4 small red capsicum, sliced thinly
1 egg, beaten


Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan forced.

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place one sheet of the puff pastry onto your baking paper.

Scatter the tasty cheese all over the pastry.

Place the pepperoni over the cheese in a single layer.

Dollop over the tomato sauce, and try and spread it out. It does not need to cover the pepperoni entirely.

Spread over the mozzarella cheese.

Place the second pastry sheet on top of the cheese, try and press the edges together.

Now place a drinking glass in the centre of the pastry, don't press it down, you don't want to cut the pastry, just mark it.

Now cut out from the glass to the edges, making sure you cut through to the bottom pastry sheet. Make the slices thicker, rather than thinner. The pastry can't be too hard here or it will rip.

Remove the glass.

​Now take each strip and gently twirl them, press the ends down a little.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/pizza-pastry-sun.html 
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​I love pies, I really do. I get excited when I watch old movies and see them cooling on farmhouse window sills, or when I watched TV shows where pies were on the counter, like at Luke's Diner or the Peach Pit. There is just something beautiful about pies.

A great pie is the perfect bite, crisp pie crust base, a deliciously fruit centre and either a pie crust top or in this case a crumble topping.

Now some people have one favourite pie crust, I don't, I have many. Just like I love different fillings, I like different pie crusts. Sometimes I have a pie crust top, sometimes I have a crumble topping. Sometimes when I don't have enough pie crust for the top, even though the recipe says I do, I have a plan B happen and I make a crumble but add pie crust 'scraps' to the crumble topping and magic happens. Here you get a crumble but you also get pie crust, I didn't know if it would work, but it sure did. 

The apple and rhubarb filling is delicious, it is my favourite pie filling, if I had to choose one. The pie crust is perfect, crisp and delicious and the crumble topping I just love, one because I don't have to rub butter into flour, here you just melt and mix, and two I love the addition of the pecans.

If you are looking to make a simple yet delicious pie , look no further, make this, it's perfect.

Recipe adapted from New Idea Food 

Serves 8

125g unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup custard powder

Filling:
1kg Granny Smith apples (about 6), peeled, sliced
300g rhubarb (about 4 stalks), cut into 3cm lengths
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour

Crumble topping:
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
75g unsalted butter, melted
150g (1 cup) pecans, chopped
​ 
Vanilla Custard or Ice Cream, to serve
​

Lightly grease a 22cm round loose based flan tin. Place on an oven tray.

To make the filling: Combine apples, rhubarb, sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for about 12 minutes, or until fruit is just tender. Add blended cornflour and 1 tablespoon of water to pan. Cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Cool to room temperature.
​
Meanwhile make pastry: Whisk butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl until combined. Stir in sifted flour and custard powder to form a dough. Cut 1/4 from the dough, shape into a flat disc. Shape the remaining pastry into a flat disc. Wrap both in plastic wrap. Refrigerate both pastry discs for 1 hour.
​
Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced.

Roll out the larger pastry disc between two sheets of baking paper to a 24cm round. Remove top sheet of baking paper, invert pastry over tin, then remove the other sheet of baking paper, The pastry might break or crack, no stress, just press pastry together and make sure it goes up the sides of the tin. Cut off any excess pastry, just put it aside, you will use this.
​
Make the crumble topping: In a bowl add the plain flour, sugar, butter and pecans, mix it all together, to combine. Now the second disc of pastry and any leftover pastry, needs to be crumbled into the pecan mix. Just break it off into smallish pieces and mix it all together.
​
Spoon filling into your pastry case. Sprinkle crumble mixture evenly over the top.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until crumble and pastry is golden brown. 

​Stand pie for 20 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla custard or ice cream.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/apple-and-rhubarb-crumble-pie.html
Pin it:  www.pinterest.com.au/pin/399413060720481490/

​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella