BUGGERS TO FLOAT, CHEESE CRUNCHIES AND A LOVE CAKE

We had a day up our sleeve while in Invercargill, after our muttonbirding sojourn, so we ended up having a great mothers day with a mates family. It was a great time to sample some home cooking and rekindle some old friendships with some very good people.

The first recipe was from a woman we much admire who is hovering around 90 years of age. She still lives alone and she still drives and still cooks and is the quinessential Southland mum grandmum and great grandmum.

The wee cheesy bikkies she baked were a hit - they were very cheesy and crunchy and a bit hot - which we guessed correctly was cayenne. But the crunch was hard to identify and we thought maybe it was cornflakes. It turns out the crunchy bits were potato chips! And our mums mate used salt and vinegar flavoured chips.

we opted for plain chips.

The recipe is dead simple

60gms of butter

1/2 cup of flour

1 cup of very tasty cheese

1 cup of crushed up potato chips..(lots)

and a bloody good pinch of cayenne.

Mix to a bikkie dough ball up and place on greased tray - flatten with a fork.

Cook at 180deg for about 20 mins or until the edges got a bit brown.

Enjoy with soup or on their own. or topped with more cheese!

The second recipe was created by my mates sister inlaw who hails from Bluff. She baked a divine cake called the Nutmeg Love cake. The heady spicy aroma is bloody divine.

It was served with sour cream and eaten in reverent silence.

So for the Nutmeg Love Cake you need

1 1/2 cups of raw sugar 1 dsp molasses

2 c of flour 225 butter

1/2 teasp of salt 1 t nutmeg

1 teasp baking soda 1 cup sour cream

1/2 c of chopped nuts (optional) we used walnuts

Melt the butter, and the molasses together and mix in the flour, sugar, salt, and nutmeg making a crumbly mixture, press half into a lined baking dish

Stir in sour cream, baking soda and egg into the remaining mix spread over base. Sprinkle nuts on top.

We used yoghurt because we didn't have sour cream and it was a little flat. the sour cream obviously lessens the density.

Bake at 180 for 35-40 mins. Allow to cool before cutting.

Its a great cake.

and finally the son and heir to the mortgages requested " Buggers to Float," which is a donut type mix fried in rendered muttonbird oil, while we were on the muttonbird islands. Its an old Rakiura Maori favorite.

Here's the basic recipe

625g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

75g butter

75g sugar

1 egg

1 cup (250ml) milk

oil for deep frying

Mix and then pat out like scone and pinch into balls about the size of a snooker ball.

Get the fat/ oil smoking hot and drop in carefully. They sink and then roll over as they cook browning deeply.

Then when they are ready put onto a paper towel and roll in cinnimon and sugar.

Your arteries will heave.

You can do a cheesy version as well.

Just our way of saying that there are better heart stopping options than a KFC Double Down out there...