making soup

This year has definitely been The Year of the Soup.

I've been messing around with soups for the last couple of Winters, but this year I really kind of dug in and have made some fairly epic soups. It all started with a recipe for tomato soup that Pixie from work gave me (that's it in the top right of the photo with all the cheese)... it was the first time I'd ever made a soup that required a blender at the end, and it was something of a revelation. I often find the diced vegetables in soup a little boring, the broth is always great, but the little cubes of disappointment can lack any real flavour... not so with blended soups.

That's not to say I haven't had my disasters, both blended and not. French Onion and roasted beetroot soup were recipes that went straight into the recycling once I'd tasted the soups. I mean, French Onion soup is essentially a big bowl of onions. And yes, I know the name should have given that away, and I don't really know what the hell I was expecting, but it wasn't the boring, beefy onionness. And the beetroot just tasted roughly like eating dirt. Thick, claggy purple dirt. Again, I think I was expecting a result more like the sweeter and cleaner taste of tinned beetroot... definitely not what I got. Oh, and carrot soup... I don't really like carrots that much at the best of times, but somehow I expected the carrot and honey soup to improve the flavour. Plus it came out very, very thin.

And I'm still looking for that perfect chicken soup recipe... I've tried a variety of ideas, and while some of them have worked, and others have partially worked, I haven't found that one perfect idea. Although what I have discovered is I much prefer shredded chicken than pieces of chicken... and adding more than a small palm full of pasta will result in noodle stew.

But I've essentially got it down to a fine art, albeit with the occasional misfire. It essentially comes down to a fairly simple formula...

1. Select vegetable (or vegetables) of choice and chop/dice into small pieces
2. Pick at least one member of the onion family (brown, white, red, spring onion, leek) and do likewise
3. Add onion, garlic and chili and stir until onion is soft
4. Add all other hard vegetables and stir over heat for about five minutes
5. Cover in stock
6. Bring to boil
7. Simmer for about twenty minutes or until veg is tender
8. Salt and pepper to taste
9. Blend as appropriate

This can also be augmented by the addition of tinned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, a can of coconut milk (this worked especially good in the sweet potato soup I made, which was more or less a variation on a pumpkin soup recipe), a tub of cream.

Oh, and as with all things, bacon makes anything better... so I tend to add more bacon than the recipes have called for.

But here are a couple of real live actual recipes... which I've since been adapting and augmenting... and remember that often times I doubled the recipes so that I had enough soup for a whole week's worth of lunches.

Tomato Soup
(originally from Taste.com.au)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
300g Sebago potatoes, peeled and chopped
600g tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 litre chicken stock
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
4 rashers bacon

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring, for three minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the tomatoes and potato, then the tomato paste. Cook for one minute.

Add stock. Season with pepper and a pinch of dried basil. Cover. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the potato is tender. Set aside for five minutes to cool slightly.

Add fresh basil. Blend until smooth.


Pea and Prosciutto Soup
(originally from Taste.com.au)

3 tablespoons olive oil
200g prosciutto
1 leek, trimmed, halved lengthways, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1.25 litres vegetable stock
5 cups frozen peas
125g light sour cream

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Coarsely chop the prosciutto and add to the pan.

Add the leek and garlic and cook, stirring, for three minutes or until soft. Add the stock. Bring to the boil. Add the peas and cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes or until just cooked. Set aside for five minutes to cool slightly.

Blend until smooth.

Cook the soup over medium heat for two minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Top with sour cream.


Moroccan Pumpkin Soup

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1kg pumpkin, peeled and diced
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 litre Campbell's Real Soup Base - Moroccan

Heat the oil in a medium size saucepan. Add onion and cook for one minute. Add the pumpkin, potato and stock.

Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or until the pumpkin and potato soften.

Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.


Potato, Bacon and Leek Soup
(originally from BBC Good Food)

25g butter
8 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
2 brown onions, chopped
4 trimmed leeks, sliced and well washed
6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 litres hot vegetable stock
300ml cooking cream

Melt the butter in a large pan, then fry the bacon and onion, stirring until they start to turn golden.

Tip in the leeks and potatoes and stir well. Cover and turn down the heat. Cook gently for five minutes.

Pour in the stock, season well and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Leave to cool for a few minutes, then blend until smooth. Return to the pan, pour in the cream and stir well.

Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.


Mushroom and Bacon Soup
(originally from Campbell's Kitchen)

80g bacon, diced
50g butter
1 onion, diced
500g mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 litre Campbell's Real Soup Base – Italian
sour cream or thickened cream and chives to garnish

Cook bacon in a medium greased frying pan for five minutes until browned and crisp.

Melt butter in same pan. Add onion and mushrooms. Cook for five minutes until softened. Add the flour. Cook for one minute. Transfer to a medium saucepan.

Gradually add stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes.

Blend soup until smooth. Top with sour cream and chives.


Useful soup related links

• How to make soup from almost any vegetable
• Campbell's Real Stock soup bases recipes
• Indian Mulligatawny soup

Current Mood:

lifescouts: baking cookies

Baking Cookies

I honestly have no idea why I haven't ever made cookies from scratch before.

Over the years I've baked plenty of other things, but cookies has never been one of them. I think I've made a couple of those "cookie dough in a tube" batches, but that's it. So when the Lifescouts badge for baking cookies came along during April/Childhood month, I knew it was one that I had to do.

And I was ordering some more of the physical badges a week or so ago, and figured the incentive of getting the badge would be enough to get me to actually make some cookies.

I already had a recipe I'd found... I mean how can you go past a recipe titled "best big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookie".

Honestly though, I'm not sure how great a recipe it is... they seem okay, but it's not like the boys from Burger Theory have anything to worry about... their cookies are about a thousand times better.

It may have been my own fault... looking at the recipe again just now, I think I put slightly less butter in than it called for, and I also decided to use cooking chocolate buttons snapped into pieces (I tried chopping them, but it ended up being easier to just snap them by hand), for that bigger chunkier chocolate effect.

I also had no idea exactly when to take them out of the oven, it ended up being mostly based on guesswork and while none of them were overcooked, I think some may be more successful than others. Having said that, my oven temperature isn't great at the best of times, but I ended up leaving them in the oven for much longer at a slightly higher temperature... your mileage may vary.

The original recipe also called for the cookies to be made up of "four rounded tablespoons" of mixture. That's clearly a typo, because when I made the first batch I used a single tablespoon and the cookies were GIANT. Even making them with a single teaspoon made fairly big cookies... although given the big chocolate chunks it wasn't like I could make neat little balls of dough.

But, good or bad, here it is (with the corrected portion details)... along with the photographic proof that I made me some cookies.


Best big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookies

250g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
200g dark brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
325g chocolate chips


Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line baking trays with parchment.

Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended.

Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop a heaped teaspoon of cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays. Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.

Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Current Mood:

pancake tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday... so that means one thing, and one thing only.

Pancakes!

It's about the only time during the whole year where I can be bothered to make pancakes, possibly because I usually overindulge and totally pig out on them, and hence am not really interested in them again for about twelve months.

And when I say "pancakes", clearly I'm talking about the thin delicate crepe kind of pancake... not the fat flurry American kind.

Last night I grabbed "The Usborne First Cookbook" (which I've had for about a thousand years, and I know has a pancake recipe in it) off the shelf, and discovered that because I'm such a creature of habit, I actually had kept the recipe that Ma gave me on a slip of paper where the book's version of pancakes is.

And this morning before I went to work, I mixed up the batter (probably far too much batter to be honest) and left it to brew or ferment or whatever batter does.

I'm not completely sure where the recipe Ma gave me comes from... I'm guessing from my Nanna originally, and possibly from her mother before her... or else from some long forgotten cookbook and just absorbed into the family and claimed as ours.

So I figured I'd share it with all of you. It's not like pancake recipes aren't amongst the simplest things you can make... you can't really go wrong with eggs, milk and flour... but this mixture has never let me down.

Although this time it did do a weird whoopee cushion inflating thing a couple of times that I've never seen it do before... it was fine when they came out of the pan though. I'm guessing it may be to do with the fact the mixture was fermenting for twelve hours.

Pancakes

1½ cups of plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
2½ cups of milk

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.

Mix the eggs and the milk and combine with the flour slowly, ensuring that the flour is fully incorporated.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or until needed.

Heat a medium sized frypan (non-stick... because it's just easier) until hot, coat lightly with butter (or use spray oil) and pour in enough mixture to cover the bottom of the pan (normally I use a soup ladle, since it makes for easy pouring) and tilt frypan to let the mixture cover the base.

Once the pancake moves freely in the pan and the underside starts to turn golden, flip it over and cook for another minute or so.

Serve with sugar and lemon, or honey, or Nutella and sliced banana.

Current Mood:

our christmas goodies

It has been a very, very, very, very long day... but as with Trimming the Tree before it, a much better organised day for the most part.

I was up this morning at some seemingly ungodly hour to incredibly Winter-eske weather... but that was fine, because there is nothing worse than trying to work with warm chocolate and whatnot on a hot day...

I was down at Ma's by about 8am give or take... and it was pretty much on like Donkey Kong from that point. I started with my Rocky Road (woohoo), and then did pretty much all the prep work... mixed the dry ingredients, soaked all the dried fruit in booze (trying something new this year), washed and dried things over and over and over and over (I swear, I cleaned the food processor no less than 6 times)... and Ma made the balls... at least until I ran out of prep, then I started on balls.

We got all that part done by about noon, had some lunch, then started on the chocolate dippage and decoration... but we were pretty much done by about 4:30 give or take.

Which all makes it sound easy... but it's exausting, tiring work. But really, the end result is totally worth it, even if I hardly eat any of it (bar my Rocky Road obviously).

I also Twittered the beginning, middle and end of the process.

Once we'd had a little bit of dinner we then had to box up all the goodies I take for people at work... which is 11... plus one for Tink on Friday... so an even dozen. And it's not just the little boxes of goodies, it's also little bags with a couple of Ham Hearts and a couple of Mince Tarts in them...

But I do love the reaction when people see them...

And I'm going to reveal the magic this year and include the recipes...

This is how you do it (more or less... I generally double the booze components... well, at least double)...

Rum Balls

1 tin condensed milk
1 packet crushed plain biscuits
1 cup desiccated coconut
½ cup chopped sultanas
2 tbls rum
2 tbls cocoa
chocolate sprinkles (to coat)

Combine rum and condensed milk, add to dry ingredients. Form into balls and roll in chocolate sprinkles (or additional desiccated coconut).


Chocolate Balls

In saucepan, combine:

1½ cups white sugar
125g (4oz) butter
3 tbls cocoa
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Allow to boil, remove from the heat and add:

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup toasted muesli
1 cup desiccated coconut

Allow to cool, roll into small balls then roll in extra coconut.


Sherry Truffles

1 tbls cocoa
¾ cup sultanas
2 tbls chopped Glacé cherries
½ cup chopped walnuts
125g crushed sweet biscuits
⅔ cup condensed milk
1 tbls sherry
250g dark chocolate melts
30g Copha
50g milk chocolate melts

Combine condensed milk and sherry, add to dry ingredients (except the chocolate and Copha) and mix well. Roll mixture into small balls and refrigerate 10-15 minutes.

Melt dark chocolate and Copha over double boiler. Dip truffles in chocolate and coat, tap off excess, then place on foil lined tray. Allow to set. Drizzle milk chocolate over the top to decorate.


Hazelnut Delights

1 packet crushed plain biscuits
1 tin condensed milk
⅔ cup Nutella (or any chocolate hazelnut spread)
300g milk chocolate melts
100g roasted hazelnut halves

Combine biscuits, Nutella and condensed milk. Allow mixture to stand for a while until stiff enough to roll into small balls, then refrigerate 10-15 minutes.

Dip balls in chocolate and coat, tap off excess, then place on foil lined tray. Top each ball with hazelnut half. Allow to set.


Macadamia Apricot & White Chocolate Truffles

½ cup chopped dried apricots
2 tbls brandy
550g white chocolate melts
30g butter
½ cup condensed milk
60g chopped macadamia nuts
½ cup desiccated coconut
silver dragée (decorating balls)

Combine chopped apricots and brandy, cover and stand for 30 minutes. Combine 300g white chocolate melts and butter in a pan, stir over low heat until melted. Combine condensed milk, desiccated coconut, macadamia nuts and apricot mixture into a bowl, add chocolate mixture and stir well. Place in wide bowl and refrigerate for an hour.

Roll mixture into small balls and refrigerate 10-15 minutes.

Melt remaining white chocolate. Dip balls in chocolate and coat, tap off excess, then place on foil lined tray. Top each ball with silver dragée. Allow to set and store in refrigerator.


Mini Chocolate Puddings

350g Christmas pudding
200g dark chocolate melts
75g white chocolate melts
red mini M&Ms
small green candies (holly or tree shaped if possible)

Roll pudding into medium sized balls. Melt dark chocolate. Dip balls in chocolate and coat, tap off excess, then place on foil lined tray and refrigerate 10-15 minutes.

Melt white chocolate and pipe small amount on the top of each ball. Top each ball with red mini M&M and two small green candies. Allow to set.


Peppermint Ice Balls

2 cups icing sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 can condensed milk
½ peppermint essence
3½ cups desiccated coconut
40g dark chocolate melts (to decorate)

Combine condensed milk and peppermint essence, add to dry ingredients and mix well. Roll mixture into small balls and refrigerate 10-15 minutes.

Melt dark chocolate and sprinkle over balls randomly. Allow to set.

Current Mood:

pink's soup

I made soup tonight, chicken & veg soup with noodles... which is not the soup in this post, but it did make me remember that I never got around to posting the recipe for soup that Pink posted on Twitter...

And it's very, very tasty!

Pink's Vegetable Soup

2 medium brown onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Olive oil
4 tomatoes, diced
2 bay leaves
6 cups vegetable stock
1/3 cup brown rice
1 tin kidney beans, drained
1 cup fresh green beans, chopped

Sauté garlic, onions, carrots and celery in the olive oil for 10 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and bay leaf then cover with vegetable stock and add brown rice. Bring to the boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer for 50 minutes.

Add kidney beans and fresh green beans then simmer for 10 minutes or until beans are tender.

Current Mood:

smashed broccoli

I originally caught the recipe for smashed broccoli (supposedly you can "smash" potatos as well, but I haven't looked for a recipe for that yet) by accident when I happened across an episode of Huey's Cooking Adventures (he annoys the hell out of me, but occasionally makes something that looks somewhat interesting), and it sounded really, really nice. And also simple.

But I didn't write down the recipe or anything, so when I came to make it I had to do a Google search on "smashed broccoli" which lead me to a recipe that sounded about right, that I then corrupted a little to suit both my own tastes and the contents of my pantry...

I'm fully aware that it doesn't LOOK terribly interesting.... I'm not going to come up with a description for it's appearance, I'm sure you can all do that on your own... but trust me, it tastes about a million times better than it looks. I would suggest that you serve it with some form of chicken, in my case a nice piece of grilled chicken straight off the George Foreman grill (which I usually do every Monday... very predictable). And this recipe should serve two people (or one greedy-guts like me).

Smashed Broccoli

1 head of broccoli, including stems (coarsely chopped)
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves (coarsely chopped)
pinch of chili flakes (to taste)
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
salt and black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot then add the chili flakes and garlic (the dry garlic flakes work just as well as fresh garlic).

Throw in the broccoli and toss to coat in the oil. Pour in the chicken stock, cover, and let the broccoli steam for 10-15 minutes until almost all the liquid has gone.

When it is quite soft, mash about half of the broccoli with a fork or potato masher until smooth, leaving the other half mostly untouched. The broccoli should be partly smooth and partly chunky.

Stir in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper. Serve with chicken.

Current Mood:

hearty herdbeast stew

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to make Hearty Herdbeast Stew... which used to be on very high rotation as one of my specialties... and it's also one of the few recipes that actually comes out of a book. Granted, the book in question is The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern by Jody Lynn Nye with Anne McCaffrey...

Yeah, I know, it's never anything simple or usual with me, is it.

I was a big fan of McCaffrey's Pern books when I was younger (actually, all of her books, but there's more of the Pern ones than any of the others), although I will admit that I've kind of gotten over most of her stuff in later years, especially since she started doing all her books in conjunction with other people. But back in the day I was a big fan.

So when I saw the DLG, I had to have it, and when I realised there was a recipe in it for Herdbeast (cow basically) Stew, well, I just had to try it. And it's also suprisingly good, so it ended up in fairly regular rotation for a while.

Like with just about everything I make regularly, I don't always bother stick to the recipe anymore... like the fact that I don't bother peeling most of the vegetables, or I use multiple small potatoes instead of two big ones. Other than that I pretty much stick to it, since it's not really that complicated. It is good "fill you up" warming winter food though.

Hearty Herdbeast Stew

300g herdbeast (beef) cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 garlic clove (if desired)
1 small onion
1 can tomatoes in their own juice
1 cup water
2 potatoes, peeled
1-2 carrots, sliced
1 rib celery, sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 can corn kernels, drained
1-2 bay leaves
salt & pepper
dry mustard
garlic salt
parsley

Dredge the pieces of meat in flour until coated. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and when bubbly, add the meat, browning the pieces on all sides before sprinkling with salt and pepper. Add the onion and garlic and cook until transparent, then add the tomatoes and cup of water. Break up the tomatoes with a spoon, then add the potatoes, bay leaf, carrots, and celery.

Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, reduce to a simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add corn, spices to taste. Bring the stew to a boil again, cover, and return to simmer. Cook for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until corn, potates, and meat are all tender.

Uncover and cook for 15 or so minutes until stew is slightly thickened, remove bay leaves and serve.

Current Mood:

quick quiche

I have to say that I'm actually quite fond of quiche... the whole "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" thing notwithstanding... although, as a gay man, is liking quiche playing into the stereotype... who the hell knows... and honestly I don't even think it matters anymore...

Where was I... oh yes, quiche...

For whatever reason I seem to be going through all my favourite "family recipes" of late and either reintroducing them to my ongoing repertoire or else making them myself for the first time... and I'm up to my old favourite, the Quick Quiche... a lot of the things that stuck around in the family cookbook were things that generally didn't take a whole hell of a lot of time or effort... there are some exceptions to that rule, but a lot of it is actually quite simple to make.

And anything where you throw all the ingredients into a bowl, mix it up, then throw it in the oven sounds good to me...

I actually added a couple of cups of grated vegetables to mine... a carrot, a zucchini, the aforementioned onion and, although I know Tom will be making that face, mushroom. And after observing that the whole thing puffed up quite a bit during cooking, I did actually wonder if maybe I had added too much... but it never spilled over the edge and it seemed to calm down once it came out of the oven. It did seem a little less solid than usual once I cut into it, but it wasn't bad overall.

If you're just doing the "plain" version, you can add some tomato slices to the top of the quiche (over the cheese) which finishes it off nicely.

Quick Quiche

3 eggs
1½ cups milk
¾ cup pastry mix
½ cup chopped bacon or ham
1 chopped onion
½ cup grated cheese
parsley, salt and pepper

Mix eggs, milk and pastry mix together until smooth, then add all other ingredients (except the cheese) and combine thoroughly. Pour into a greased pie plate or quiche dish. Sprinkle the cheese on top and then bake for approximately 40 minutes at 180ºC.

Current Mood:

chicken with tomato and mango relish

I know I've said this with a lot of the previous recipes, but I honestly don't know where this one came from... not even the vaguest clue...

But it is, without a shadow of a doubt, my 100% favourite Summer recipe... basically whenever mangos are in season, and particularly when they start to get cheap, it's a good time to buy up big, since the relish can be easily frozen until you need it.

That's actually what I did with the relish this time, since I bought a mango last week and I don't think it would have lasted until Tuesday (although an overripe mango isn't any kind of hinderance to this dish), I made up the relish, wacked it in the freezer and then pulled it out yesterday afternoon for dinner before the movie.

The other thing that makes this the ultimate Summer dish is that you can have it at just about any temperature combination... cold relish, warm rice and chicken... warm relish, rice and chicken... cold relish and chicken, warm rice... cold relish, rice and chicken... it's beautiful, quick, easy and tasty.

Chicken with Tomato and Mango Relish

4 chicken breasts
1 stick celery (chopped)
1 bay leaf
1 onion (chopped)

Combine celery, bay leaf and onion in large pan half filled with water. Bring to boil then add the chicken. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Drain, discarding the bayleaf, and serve the chicken, celery and onion mixture with the relish on rice.

Relish

2 teaspoons oil
1 onion (chopped)
2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice
¼ cup of water
1 tomato (chopped)
1 mango (chopped)
2 teaspoons fresh mint
1 teaspoon grated lemon or lime rind

Heat the oil in small saucepan, then add onion and cook until soft. Add the lemon juice, water, tomato, mango and mint. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened slightly. Stir in lemon rind to finish.

Current Mood:

sausage rolls

I honestly don't remember where we got this recipe... probably out of some random cookbook (actually, now that I think about it, it might have been out of this really old Women's Weekly cookbook from the 70's with the bad, bad, bad photos where all the food looks slightly radioactive)... but it's been a standard in Ma's repertoire for as long as I can remember.

I cheated somewhat with my rolls... I didn't have any sausage meat, but I did have turkey mince, so I used that instead (actually that was the whole purpose of making them, because I wasn't sure what else to actually do with the turkey mince)... and I forgot to get any eggs, so I didn't bother with the whole egg wash thing (I had planned to use a little milk though... but didn't end up doing that either). Plus I only had about half as much mince as the recipe calls for, so I only made half as much mixture.

And I know this will be much to Tom's horror, but I also added a handful of finely chopped mushrooms to the mix.

The turkey filling was interesting... a little bland in the final analysis... it might have been better if I'd added something like balsamic vinegar or soy sauce to the mix just to give it some more bite, or else gone nuts with the spices or something, but overall, they came out pretty well (especially since this is the first time I've ever made any version of this recipe).

Sausage Rolls

750g sausage mince
1 large onion, peeled and grated
¼ teaspoon mixed herbs
salt and pepper
4 thick slices of white bread
warm water
3 sheets frozen puff pastry (approx)
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

Cut the crusts from the bread, and place in a separate bowl. Pour over enough warm water to cover, and let bread stand for five minutes.

Put the sausage mince, onion, mixed herbs, salt and pepper into a bowl.

Drain water from bread, squeeze it gently to extract excess water. Add the bread to the sausage mince mixture, then mix well.

Spoon the meat mixture into a large piping bag that doesn't have a piping nozzle attached. With the pastry at room temperature, pipe the meat mixture along the edge of the pastry. Fold the edge of the pastry over the filling, then turn again so that filling is completely enclosed in pastry. Do the same on other side of pastry sheet, then slice down the middle to make two long filled rolls. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.

With the back of a knife, flatten rolls slightly at intervals. Brush rolls with combined cold water and egg yolk. Cut rolls into four pieces.

Put the rolls on a greased oven tray, side by side, just lightly touching.

Bake in a hot oven 250-260ºC for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate (190-200ºC), and cook further 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Current Mood:

fishy crisps

In my culinary repertoire there are three main dishes involving tuna... Tuna Thingy a la Yani, which was adapted from Ma's recipe, Toona Noodle Doo, which came off the back of a soup can label and Fishy Crisps, which was a recipe I was taught back in Home Ec in high school.

It's weird how stuff sticks in your memory... but I remember that we made it just before Easter, and when I brought the recipe home Ma and I ended up making it for Good Friday.

If I remember correctly the original recipe had cream instead of mayonnaise, but other than that it's pretty unchanged.

They're handy little parcels too... good hot or cold... perfect for picnics or a quick "grab and go" munchie attack.

I made this batch last night for dinner before the we went off to see Stormbreaker, since the movie started earlier than usual and I wanted something quick and easy to make. In addition to the twelve in the picture, I also did one "giant" one, basically just one piece of puff pastry folded over to make a long "loaf" and filled with the mix. While it wasn't great, it didn't come out half bad either.

I did make one major screw-up though... just as I as about to start putting together the last four parcels I realised I hadn't put any cheese in the mixture... d'oh... so I figured I could add a little cheese to the last four, grabbed the light mozzarella cheese (I haven't used mozzarella in these before and wanted to see how they came out with the cheese being all stringy and stuff) out of the fridge, opened it, only to discover that it had already started to go mouldy. And I only bought it on Saturday... URGH!

But, for the record, they work just as well without cheese.

Fishy Crisps

1 large can of tuna in brine
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small tin sliced champignons (or a few fresh mushrooms, sliced)
a handful of grated cheese
enough mayonnaise to combine (I use Heinz Salad Cream)
4 sheets of frozen Puff Pastry

Allow puff pastry to thaw (but don't let it dry out).

Combine all other ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Cut each pastry sheet into four squares, then place approximately a tablespoon of mixture into centre of each square (be careful not to overload the square or it won't close up properly. Fold all four corners in towards the middle and upwards, to make a parcel, then pinch pastry together to seal (a little water or milk can help it stick to itself).

Cook in moderately hot oven (about 220ºC) for approx 20-25 mins.

Makes approximately 16.

Current Mood:

pineapple rice surprise

When I was a kid, dessert on a Sunday afternoon didn't get any better than Pineapple Rice Surprise... for more than a few birthdays my two cousins and I would happily opt to have PRS instead of a cake.

And so highly prized were the glace cherries that decorated the top, that when we got our portion with our cherry on it, the cherry would come off, be licked clean of meringue and then placed on out coaster so it could be "kept safe" by turning our glass upside down and placing it over the cherry until we had finished eating, so nobody else could steal it. Not that I ever remember anyone actually stealing anybody else's cherry...

I'm guessing that the recipe came off the back of a packet of Calrose Rice... but I honestly don't know.

And for the record, I know this isn't an everyday kind of thing... hell, it's not even a "sometimes" food... it's very definitely a "special occasion" food (of course, the only special occasion I have today is christening my new casserole dish after the untimely death of the old one)... but it tastes so damn good...

Pineapple Rice Surprise

2/3 cup Calrose Rice (medium grain rice)
1 cup boiling water
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
2 eggs (separated)
450g can of pineapple pieces (drained)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Glace cherries for decoration

Pour boiling water over rice in medium saucepan. Stand for 10 mins, then drain off the water.

Add milk to the pan, cover and place on low heat. Stir occasionally until rice is tender and mixture has thickened (about 35 mins).

Remove from heat, add sugar, margarine and beaten egg yolks. Stir over heat for 1 minute. Remove and add vanilla. Pour into casserole dish and allow to cool.

Spoon most of the pineapple over the rice mixture. Beat the egg whites until they become stiff, add sugar, then beat until meringue is stiff and glossy. Spread over pineapple, then use fork to create peaks in the meringue.

Decorate with reserved pineapple and cherries into flower design. Sprinkle with brown sugar.

Cook in moderate oven (180ºC) for 15 minutes until meringue is golden brown.

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crumble

On Monday I mentioned making apple, pear and rhubarb crumble, and got asked for my recipe...

To be honest, I don't really have one, I just make it up as I go... but I'll give it a try and see what we come up with...

This is just the way I made it today, you can adjust the quantities of stuff to suit yourself... you may need to make more crumble mix if you have a very large but shallow dish... and obviously you can make it will all apples, all pears, all rhubarb, whatever... but I like this mix, the pears cut the tartness of the apples a little, and add the sweetness, which means you don't need to add any sugar to the mush mix.

Apple, Pear and Rhubarb Crumble

3 Granny Smith Apples
3 Pears (something fairly sweet)
4 sticks of Rhubarb
Juice of 2 Lemons
1 and a half cups of oats
1 cup of sugar
Half a cup of flour
3-4 tablespoons of butter/margarine

Now, I only use wholemeal flour and raw sugar in my kitchen, so that's what I used... oh, and instant oats, but I'm not sure that matters... and the pears I use, I have no idea what kind they are, but they're round like apples, not so much pear shaped.

Peel and chop the apples, pears and rhubarb, then add to a big saucepan with the lemon juice (you can also substitute water or apple juice for the lemon juice if you're not sure a huge fan of things being a little "tart"). Cover and cook over a low heat until the whole things becomes mush (keep an eye on it, stir, and check for your desired level of mush). The whole thing comes out kind of pink because of the rhubarb.

Place in a oven proof dish and allow to cool a little (I left mine for maybe a couple of hours).

Combine the oats, flour and sugar in a bowl and mix together. Melt the butter, then add to the dry mix and combine with your fingers. It should reach a consistency whereby if you squeeze it, it becomes a solid ball but if you put your fingers in it, it will crumble (I stole that line from another recipe, but my mix should do roughly the same thing).

Spread it across the top of the apple mix, then cook in a very hot oven (around 200-250°C I guess) for about 20 minutes until the crumble is browned.

Serve with cream or good vanilla icecream.

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tom's chicken curry

I mentioned in my Musings post today that I was going to attempt to make Tom's Chicken Curry... I'm always up for new and reasonably easy ways to make things involving the words curry and chicken, so I knew I had to try this one...

The photo isn't one of my better food photos... this is actually what was left over after I'd fed J, Monkey and me... and it had been sitting on the counter top while we ate before being scooped out into this smaller container. There should be enough left for Ma and I tomorrow though.

Like I mentioned in the comments on Tom's blog, next time I'll be using diced tomatoes rather than the whole kind... and cutting the chicken into much smaller pieces... I had great massive hunks of chicken, that although they were all really really tender, were perhaps a little on the unwieldy side.

I also maybe need to think about getting some sherry to appropriately deglaze the pan... I did it with the chicken stock, and it worked pretty well, but it might have worked a little better with booze of some description.

The downside was that all that frying of chicken and other things not only really warmed up my apartment (yaaaay) but also made a lot of smoke (booo)... so much so that my smoke detector went off and we ended up opening the door for a little bit to let it all out.

The other downside was that it took longer to prepare than I expected, and then it has to cook for 90 minutes, so we didn't end up eating until about 8pm... next time though, I know I need to start it earlier.

And I also need to get one of those cast iron casserole dishes you can put on the burners and then stick in the oven, since I kind of skipped that step in Tom's instructions. I'd love to get one of the Le Creuset ones... but they cost an arm and both legs.

But it'd definitely something I'll be making again! Thanks Tom!

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toona-noodle-doo

Now we should all know that I'm not the least little bit "traditionally" religious... or "untraditionally" either really... but some traditions or routines from your childhood just stick... and since today is Good Friday... and all through my childhood we always had some kind of fish on Good Friday (there have been a couple of years where I decided to go completely the opposite way, and eat as much meat as I possibly could... but really, I'm not that big on red meat anyway, so what's the point)... so I'm making something that's NEARLY as much a part of my childhood as that... Tuna Noodle Casserole... and since I've shared various other recipies before (Tuna Mornay, Muffins, Rocky Road), I figured I might as well share this one too...

Oh, and the title of this post is what Ma and I tend to call this dish... I honestly don't know why anymore...

Tuna Noodle Casserole (aka Toona Noodle Doo)

250g pasta shells (cooked)
2 tablespoons margarine
1 finely chopped onion
425g can tuna - drained and flaked
440g can Cream of Celery Soup
½ cup sliced celery
2 eggs (cooked and chopped)
½ cup milk
½ cup grated tasty cheese

Directions

Melt margarine, add onion - cook until transparent. In lightly greased casserole dish combine large shells, tuna, soup, celery, eggs and onion, add milk. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well and top with cheese. Bake in moderate oven at 180ºC for 45 mins. or until heated through.

Current Mood:

muffin recipe

Cheese & Bacon Muffins (left), Banana Walnut & Sultana Muffins (right)

I made more muffins yesterday... when I was on the phone to Ma on Sunday night I mentioned I'd made Wholemeal Banana, Walnut and Sultana Muffins on Saturday, but they were gone now... and she asked why I'd bothered telling her if they were all gone... so I decided that I'd make some for her... then I decided I really wanted to make some savory ones as well as the sweet ones. So I got very industrious... I made a batch of Wholemeal Cheese and Bacon Muffins, then, while they were in the oven, I made a batch of Wholemeal Banana, Walnut and Sultana Muffins... it all worked out really well actually.

So I decided that I should share my muffin recipe. The only drawback is it doesn't make those big huge mushroom shaped muffins... if makes, well, little cake shaped muffins like in the picture. They're nice though!

So the official recipe goes like this... but I'll add my version in italics afterwards...

Banana Muffins

240g plain flour
5ml baking powder
pinch salt
pinch nutmeg
100g sugar
1 egg
80ml milk
80ml cooking oil
112g banana pulp mixed with 12ml lemon juice

1 cup wholemeal selfraising flour
pinch salt
pinch nutmeg
1/2 cup of raw sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil
2 mashed bananas mixed with a little lemon juice

Directions

Sift together dry ingredients. Beat egg, milk and cooking oil thoroughly. Make hollow in centre of dry ingredients and stir in milk mixture and banana pulp. Stir only until all traces of flour have disappeared, even though the mixture appears lumpy. Do not overmix. Spoon into greased muffin tins, two-thirds full and bake for 30-35 minutes at 190ºC. Serve with butter and honey.

So there you go... that's the standard version...

Of course, for the Wholemeal Banana, Walnut and Sultana Muffins I add walnuts and sultanas, but I pretty much play the amounts my ear... although I think I overdid the sultanas this time around.

For the savory versions... I replace the sugar with at least the same amount of grated cheese (in the ones I made yesterday I put in at least a "cup" of cheese), and banana is swapped for around two handfuls of bacon cubes or sliced bacon or sliced ham or some sort of meat product. The nutmeg comes out, and pepper and a large pinch of dried parsley goes in. Last time I made the savory ones, I also added some sundried tomatoes that I had left over too.

And because I use this totally groovy blue silicon muffin tray I don't need to grease it... the muffins just pop right out!

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rocky road for christmas

I mentioned the other day that I'd picked up the ingredients to make homemade Rocky Road, and this morning (since it a lot cooler than it was yesterday, or will be the next couple of days) I figured I'd make it... Ma isn't making her usual vast array for sweet nibbly treats, so I figured I should step up to the plate and at least make Rocky Road...

I started off with:

• 740 grams of Turkish Delight (there's a second container under the one in the picture)
• 500 grams of marshmallows (I get the vanilla and raspberry (ie white and pink) ones for variation)
• 250 grams of raw pistachio nuts (not the salted kind)
• 750 grams of milk chocolate melts
• 375 grams of dark chocolate melts

You could just use three packets of the milk (or dark), but I thought I'd try something different... plus Ma loves dark chocolate and I love milk chocolate... so this way we're both happy.

Cut the marshmallows into halves with a pair of (kitchen) scissors.

Chop the turkish delight roughly, I usually chop the individual pieces into quarters, but just go with what looks right to you.

Combine marshmallows, turkish delight and pistachios in a bowl and mix.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (aka a bowl over a pan of water).

Pour melted chocolate over the dry ingredients and mix.

Line a shallow baking tray with foil and pour rocky road mixture into it, spreading it out the cover.

Refrigerate until set, then cut into appropriate sized squares.

Enjoy!

If you wanted to get really festive, you could spoon the mix into individual paper cases (the ones you use for muffins) and can then be given as gifts.

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tuna thingy a la yani

This is my Thermonuclear Tuna Mornay... nay... neigh... whatever...

I had the overwhelming urge to make this for dinner, since I kinda had some time on my hands (the model never showed for the photoshoot, although he did end up calling me late this afternoon, and we're rebooking for a later date).

It's my version of my Mum's recipie, I tweaked it and tweaked it, and, well, just added about a ton of spices to it, so now its very much my own. And so.... may I present...

Tuna Thingy a la Yani..

Ingredients

• 3-ish tablespoons butter/margarine


• 3-ish tablespoons flour (plain)


• 3/4 (three quarters, not three-four) litre milk (approx)


• Herbs and Spices to taste


• Two large cans tuna (in brine.... none of that oil crap)... undrained


• One can sliced mushrooms (and you can add fresh ones if you have them)... undrained


• One can corn (kernels, baby spears.... anything but creamed basically... I prefer kernels)... drained!!


• Random vegetables..... string beans, onion (cooked first), capsicum, anything around the place really

Amounts can be adjusted, since it makes a VERY large amount...

The Creation

Melt butter in REALLY BIG saucepan, when bubbly add flour. Stir (I use a whisk, coz I like whisks... and it breaks it up nicely) until all crumbly... may need more flour... it depends.

About " " much milk.... actually I have no idea and play it by ear.... add a little bit first and make a smooth sauce with the flour/butter then add.. ummm.. well a litre is too much, but between half to three quarters is about right..... depending on the size of the saucepan it should be about half to three quarters full too.

Stir sauce until it gets nice and thick and bubbly, making sure you get all the sticky bits off the bottom or they'll.... well.... stick!

Remove from heat and raid the herb/spice cupboard..... ummm... my "must haves" are pepper (quite a bit), curry powder (lots), mustard powder (some), garlic powder (you could use fresh too I guess)..... cayenne pepper (some), a good "handful" of parsley (the herb of the gods), basil, a dash of tabasco if you have it.... and a good whack of paprika...

Taste with a WOODEN spoon.... metal makes it taste funny..... it should be subtle at first and then creep up and WHACK you in the back of the head and yell "HELLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" or words to that effect. It should also be a nice curry yellow/papprika red colour.... with green-ey bits

DON'T add any salt.... that we will deal with momentarily....

Next.....

Drain the liquid from the two cans of tuna and can of mushrooms into the mix, then stir and return to the heat.... cook until it becomes thick again.... taste test again and add anything (herb, spice, pepper) you think is missing.

Then add the drained tuna and mushrooms.... plus the can of corn (which has been drained and the liquid gotten rid of) and any other random vegetables you want to add....

Stir through on the heat, and then remove and repeat taste/spice routine.....

Place in HUGE casserole dish.....

Toppings..... these can vary.....

• Classic (aka Too Much Time On Your Hands)... mashed potato (the real stuff... none of this instant crud), when mashed, use ice-cream scoop to make ring of "scoops" around outside of dish, plus one in the centre.... sprinkle with grated cheese and a little paprika


• The Crust... alternate about 4 layers each of cheese and breadcrumbs.... starting with breadcrumbs and ending in cheese.... for those who like tomato, thin slices can be placed on top.... without cheese covering them


• Classic Crust... combination of the two..... place potato on breadcrumbs and sprinkle cheese over the lot


• The Shephard... variation on Shepards Pie..... mashed potato again, but this time just spread over top of dish and then bake..... cheese optional


• The Dull or Economy... just the cheese.... or nothing at all

Bake in an oven that's been preheating....... I have no idea what temperature..... probably about 250 C or 500 F for as long as it takes to get all hot and bubbly and the cheese/potato to get golden brown..... it should be a "bit" burned around the edge and all bubbly.

Serves lots of people if you make something with it...

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