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Food Philosophy and Gluten-Free Gnocchi with Prawns

3 Apr gnocchi finished

gnocchi ingredientsThere’s been a little dietary shake-up at the Holsby Bar and Grill.

My Facebook friends would have seen that after a tumultuous year of illness, I’m trying a stint of no wheat and no sugar because there is some evidence that perhaps these things are not great for the human body.

Such blasphemy.

Many people have exulted at the news and kindly send me websites and recipes with substitutes and sweet treats that are actually great for you… if you like that kind of thing.

I’m sceptical about whipping up an avocado and pretending it’s chocolate mousse, and biscuits made from chick peas and mashed banana tasting like TimTams, but I’ve agreed to give this thing a whirl.

I could use this time to cleanse my body from carbs and treats, but that’s really not my style. Instead, I’m getting creative. I’m discovering ways that I can still make my treats using different products.

potato in the ricer for gnocchi

My philosophy has always been that cooking your family’s food from scratch is the way forward. I still believe that baking your family’s biscuits and slices is a million times better than buying packets of stuff.
I’m now experimenting with different flours, and natural sweeteners that are better for you than sugar. Coconut flour, sweetened with fruit puree – still not a TimTam, but you know, it’s pretty good.

Use what YOU want to use. Use my recipes as a guide.

I’m not turning ethno-bongo-paleo-tastic, I’m just trying something different for a few weeks to see if it does make a difference to my wellness, because I’m sick of my illness.

Do we as a society consume too much wheat?

Yes.

Are we as a society addicted to sugar?

Yes

If you are interested in finding more out about what the effects of these things have on your body, google it. This is not that blog so I’m not going to bang on about it.

I think the biggest thing to remember is variety. Some wheat is ok, but if you’re eating half a loaf of bread for breakfast, sandwiches or noodles for lunch, muffins for snacks and pasta for dinner, then you’re consuming too much.
Not pointing any fingers, certainly not at any triathletes I may or may not know.

I promise to blog the Easter gluten-free orange cake with sugar-free ganache that was such a hit on Facebook. I don’t want anyone to worry about my calorific intake.

Speaking of calories, I finally made gnocchi.

rolling and cutting gnocchi

I saw a Maggie Beer recipe that I wanted to try so I used that but replaced the wheat flour with gluten-free rice and corn flours. It worked fine and was supremely yummy… probably had something to do with the large amounts of butter in the buerre noisette sauce.

Oink.

My mum was here to eat it and she agreed that my gnocchi was a much greater success than hers, then she reiterated that until I cooked a goose I could not touch her crown.

Gauntlet was officially thrown.
If you see me with a cross-bow at Centennial Park, give me a wave.

Yield – 4 adults

What you will need :

  • 750g waxy potatoes, scrubbed. I used Dutch Cream but you can use Nicola.
  • 2 free range eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 125g plain flour (gluten free if you want to be cool like me)
  • 170g cold unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
  • 1/3 verjuice
  • 40 sage leaves (about one bunch)
  • extra virgin olive oil, for cooking
  • 16 raw king prawns or yabbies
  • sea salt and cracked pepper

gnocchi finishedWhat you need to do - 

Steam unpeeled potatoes until cooked through (about 30mins) but not palling afart. Pop aside until cool enough to handle, then slide their skins off. Press hot potatoes through the potato ricer over a bowl, then add eggs and salt.
Spread flour into a rectangular shape on the counter and spread your potato mix over it. Quickly mix it using a cutting motion with a pastry scraper or flat edged knife. When it comes together to form a dough, give it a little squeezey love with your hands but resist the urge to knead.

Divide into quarters and rolls into a sausage about 2.5cm wide. Cut off 1.5cm chunks and gently press with a fork to leave an indentation that gathers sauce.

Preheat oven to 200C

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, and in batches cook your gnocchi until it rises to the top and floats. Mine took about a minute or so. Drain well and transfer to a flat dish.

Place 150g butter and sage into a large flat baking dish. You want a single layer so a big roasting tray or large lasagne dish works well. Bake butter for 5 mins or until sage starts to cook and go all fragrant and yummy.

Increase oven temp to 230C. Transfer poached gnocchi to your melted butter tray and bake for 5 minutes. Flip or turn each gnocchi with tongs, then drizzle 1/4 cup verjuice over the lot, before popping back into the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat remaining butter in a pan woth a splash of olive oil until the butter goes nut brown. Reduce heat and quickly cook your prawns until pink each side and just cooked through.

Season and deglaze pan with remaining verjuice. Place this lot into your buttery gnocchi goodness and give a toss.

Serve immediately.

gluten free gnocchi with prawns

I’ve been wanting to try gnocchi for ages, but kept putting it off, so I reckon it’s perfect top hook up with my homegirl, G, at Bunny Eats Design for this month’s Our Growing Edge.

our-growing-edge-banner

 

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A Pie in the Sky is Worth Two on the Plate…..Beef & Lentil Pie with Parmesan Pastry

8 Mar

Beef and lentil pie ingredientsI’ve had a really crazy week.

A week of cooking and shooting and I tasted the dream and as I was riding that wave it actually sucked me under and dumped me, complete with sand graze on the chin and pants full of shit grit.

Have you ever started something and it suddenly grew to be bigger than you imagined, so you kinda freaked out and wished you never started, except that you really want to finish so you just hide in a deep hole for a second? Or two?

Or ten.

As you know I’m currently turning my ebooks from cyber books to real booky books, that will smell like books and turn like books and that’s really exciting.

I’ve already done the hard work, right? So, it’s easy right?

I’ve followed my standard formula, which is surround myself with people who are professionals, so no one will actually realise I’m a busker.
It’s a brilliant scheme…..until one of the professionals notices that you have made a rookie error and ALL of the photos you’ve taken from the very beginning are perfect for a blogger, but not for someone who actually wants to publish their images.

Danielle….. You. Muppet.

What exactly does this mean?

Reshooting EVERYTHING.

Except one, measly, image that somehow made the cut.

So, first I tried to blame someone else, but my finger prints were all over it. So I tried to worm my way out of it, and then I squeezed out a few tears that seared my cheeks with frustration.

My ego was bruised. I decided it was all too hard. I’d spend my time in the kids’ sleep eating soft centred chocolates and watching Doctor Oz talk about which groceries are best bought in bulk instead of working on this crazy, pie in the sky dream that I have.

Good plan.

beef and lentil pie with parmesan pastryI gave myself an upper cut, told my ego to take a hike and suggested I stop being such a snivelling wimp and just get on with it. It’s the perfect opportunity to test all of the recipes again.

That seemed to do the trick, which is lucky because I never liked Doctor Oz anyway.

Also, our cover shoot got rained out. We shot something, and that something is perfectly lovely, but it’s not IT. It’s not the image I have in my head, so I must try once more to make it happen.

I have set a date to reshoot the cover and pleaded with the angels to please grant me a weather wish for just a few hours of one day. I can control many things but I can’t control this freaky assed weather we’re having. Begging for divine intervention is about all I have.

So, I guess you could say, I’ve had a little on my plate. It was all a tad overwhelming.

While I was cooking beef and lentil pies tonight, I received a message from one of the very first people to purchase my ebook.

She sent me 2 photos of my food that she and her husband had cooked, and told me she was working her way through my books and she loved them.
She said I inspired her to be a better mum, which is insane because I bet she never left her toddler to watch her baby, who subsequently fell off the bed.

As I put those little pies on the plate I cried and cried.

Mister H came into the kitchen and caught me and when I explained myself he was perplexed.

“But this is a lovely message to receive, right? What’s wrong?”

The tears were because just when I thought I was drowning, the Universe sent me a pair of Floaties. Divine intervention, indeed.

I have a dream, and even though it may be pie in the sky, it’s a damn good dream, and without dreams what do we have?

Do you have a pie in the sky dream? Will you share it with me?

Beef Lentil Ramekin Pies with Accidental Parmesan Pastry

You could use bought puff pastry for your top, like I was planning to, but when I went to grab it I was out…..oh, balls.
I was forced to whip up a quick pastry and I wondered what it would be like if I added parmesan…….OMFG, yum!

parmesan pastry

If you can be arsed, do it. If not, I will judge you not. I served it with smashed cauliflower, pumpkin and peas.

D Man ate this as is, and I gave Kiki a couple of spoons of pie mixture with the vege mash…..food for the whole family, my peeps. Cook once…..not thrice.

D Man eating pie

What you will need :

For the filling -

  • 300g beef mince (I used left over rare roast beef, minced)
  • 1 tin lentils, drained
  • 2 bacon rashers
  • 1 large leek, white only, chopped
  • 1 large carrot, finely chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 handful of fresh green herbs (thyme, oregano)
  • 1 handful of fresh chopped parsley
  • zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 1/2 cups of beef stock
  • a slug of worcestershire sauce
  • a big splash of red wine
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 2 tablespooons plain flour
  • salt and pepper

For the pastry - 

  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour
  • 100g chilled butter, chopped
  • 50g parmesan
  • a good pinch salt
  • 3-4 tablespoons iced water

Make the pastry first as it needs to rest in the fridge for between 1-4 hours depending on how impatient you are…..

In a food processor chuck your flour and salt, add your butter and parmesan and pulse until in resembles bread crumbs, add water one spoon at a time until it comes together in a ball.

Take from processor, form into a cool shape and wrap and fridge it.

cutting the pastry tops

In a heavy based frypan, add your bacon to a little olive oil, and when it’s getting nice and cooked add mince. When cooked throw in your leek, stirring until it’s all broken down and soft. Add your carrots and celery.

Chuck in your stock, worcester and herbage, then add your lemon zest and wine. Season to taste. When your carrots are soft, toss in your lentils and stir. Add more wine if it’s too dry.

beef and lentil pie with parmesan pastryMix your flour into your water and when it’s well combined toss it into your mix. When you sauce is slightly thickened, turn her off and leave until you’re ready to roll.

Spoon into ramekins or pie dish (you could use porcelain cups if you were being cute).

Preheat oven to 200C

Roll out your dough until it’s about 5mm thick. Cut circles using a bowl or something similarly sized to ramekins and pop your tops on.

Stick in heated over until the tops are golden brown.

Steam up some veges to mash on the side and you are good to go!

Im flogging my blog with the lovely Grace today, so check out my fellow floggers if you have a spare mo.

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A Tribute to Triple Date Night and a Cheat’s Cassoulet

10 Feb cassoulet finished

cassoulet ingredientsWe used to have this thing we affectionately called Triple Date Night.

We were a group of six friends, three couples, and once a month or so we would call a nationality and create a dinner party. Whomever’s home was hosting would make the main course, and the others covered the entree and dessert.

You needed to make something you’d not done before and we had some wonderful meals and created some wonderful memories.
We always drank a lot of wine and one night someone even pulled out a Scooby Snack. Being as none of us had really smoked for about a hundred years, a couple of puffs and the party was over pretty quickly………aaaaah, Triple Date Night.

South American Night, Japanese Night, Italian Night, Middle Eastern Night, they all turned up veritable feasts on our tables.
I was most impressed by one special dater making home made Fortune Cookies and Turkish Delight…..I really miss that gal.

Usually, it was the girls that cooked but boys took Chinese night and I ate some of the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten. It was a time that we all cherished, but life did, as life does, change and our Triple Date Night split up.

Not for no good reason, one of the couples moved to Europe so that really threw a spanner in the works……..and we had babies and moved to the ‘burbs.
We have new and different gastronomical feats in our new home…and new and different people at our table. It shows that life is constantly evolving and changing but as long as there’s great food we can adapt!

For French night I made Cassoulet.

A real one, with succulent pieces of roast duck, herby Toulouse sausages and rich pork belly. It’s classified as French peasant food and once again I was reminded that if you’re ever going to be a peasant France is a cracking place to do it.

In Australia, peasants eat tinned Spaghetti and Spam.

That damned pot of beans took me three days to prepare in the traditional fashion and by the time it hit the table I was expecting it to positively sing like angels on my tongue.

Alas, I was underwhelmed. I smothered mine in Tabasco and it was nice. 

Not quite three days worth of nice. Also, bears mentioning that the original recipe made the biggest damned pot of Cassoulet you’ve ever seen and I was eating those beans for DAYS….

Toot toot.

cassoulet cooked

Anyway, I have since found a way to cheat it that is faster, easier and tastier. I often ferret around in the freezer and just use whatever meat I have in there…..bacon will do for speck, any chicken or duck, and old sausage works.
This can be eaten by the whole family…..I even blended some of the beans and carrot and gave it to the baby mixed with avocado. It does have a little salt in it, but I was so busy cooking this that I forgot her dinner!

Win.

What you will need :

  • 4 good sausages, I like Toulouse, choppped into chunks.
  • 1 cured chorizo, or 150g speck, sliced.
  • 1 chicken breast, or two thighs, sliced
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tins cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
  • a big handful fresh thyme and parsley, (dried is fine if it’s all you have, a tablespoon or so of each)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • salt and pepper
  • 85g fresh breadcrumbs
  • a teaspoon of dried thyme, extra

cassoulet finishedWhat you will need to do :

In a big heavy pot, preferably one that can go from stove to oven, pop your chorizo or speck on a low heat to cook and render out the fat.

When cooked remove from pot and add your sausages and chicken to cook in the rendered fat. Brown lightly and remove from pot.

Add a little oil if needed and toss in your onion and stir until translucent. Add your garlic and get it all yummo and fragrant. Toss in your carrots, and let them have a little sweat, before you add your tomatoes and beans.
Stir in your herbs and bay leaves, add stock and wine and leave for a few minutes.

Add your meat back in and let it all have a good bubble on the stove for about 20-25 minutes.

Pop your oven on to to about 180C.

In a bowl place your breadcrumbs, and season them well. Add your dried thyme and mix through.

Pop it on the top of your cassoulet and then drizzle a slug of olive oil over the top before placing into the oven until they brown slightly, and everything thickens and goes delicious.
It’ll probably take about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes.

Keep a little eye on it.

Serve it up with a lovely fresh salad – I love a baby spinach, apple and avocado salad with this as the crisp sweet apple and creamy ago really compliment the cassoulet.

I still add Tabasco to mine as I discovered something great that fateful day.

cassoulet yummy

 

For heaps more family friendly recipe ideas why not check out my ebooks.

They’re right here!

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Mexican Rice Salad and a World of Awe

3 Feb

mexican salad ingredientsI’ve had a little bloggers block of late.
The problem is not that I don’t have any ideas, au contraire, dear Holsby lovers. The problem is that I have too many things to write about and thereby slip into paralysis.

I have about 6 half written blogs at the moment, and I actually think they’re all fairly pants….but one thing I’ve discovered, is that it may well be my blog, but what I think of my posts doesn’t count for shit. The stuff I love slides by unnoticed and something I’m blasé about, y’all go nuts over.

So, it’s not for me to judge…….I’m just here to amuse.
Le jongleur, if you will.

I’ve been a little strapped for time too. No idea what I’m doing all day, but suddenly another day is gone.
I’m constantly amazed by the wonderful Veggie Mama or the divine Heart Mama. They write gorgeous and prolific blogs, they parent and they WORK A REAL JOB, too…..and they’re cool. In totally different ways, but they just seem like cool Mamas.

Zanni at Heart Mama is one of those ‘gentle parenting’ types and I ‘fessed up to her recently that when my head is about to explode and I’m going to wring D Man’s neck I endevour to take a breath a think -

‘What would Heart Mama do?’

It’s like the old ‘What would Batman do?’ but I don’t reckon Zanni gads about in black lycra.

In my mind she always speaks in gentle tones, reaches for peppermint tea, and encourages free thinking, whereas I reach for wine and hog tie when required.

Heart Mama would never do this -

HomerChokingBart
I guess everyone feels like someone else is doing it better than them. Everyone feels like other people are more together, more organised, more calm or more ‘onto it’ than them, but it’s totally pointless, really.
In a world of individuals, we really can’t compare ourselves to others.

It’s nice to have people to admire from afar though.

I made this rice salad up ages ago and I always serve it when I’m dishing up Mexican.
I’ve never really thought it to be anything spectacular, but after serving it at Fajita Sunday recently (which I’ll get around to blogging some month) I’ve actually had a number of requests for it……..so here it is.

It works as part of a feast table, but it’s also great served with marinated fish or chicken and a dollop of guacamole.

Yield : enough for 6-8 as a side or 4 as a main part of meal

What you will need :

  • 1 cup brown rice, cooked
  • 2 corn on the cob, BBQ’d if you can or 1 tin corn
  • 1/2 large red capsicum, finely diced
  • 2 marinated roasted peppers (you can roast your own but I’ve been using the jarred ones since Jamie Oliver has talked them up!)
  • 1/2 Spanish onion (I forgot one so I’m using spring onions from my garden – although I photographed a brown onion cos I forgot I had them), finely diced
  • 1 whole bunch coriander, stalks included, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • salt and pepper
  • a glug of good olive oil

What you will need to do :

BBQ your corn and slice it off the cob. If you do not have time or a BBQ it is nearly as yummy just to use a tin. Time is precious, we are not.

Todd everything into the bowl and mix well to combine. It’s best tossed and dressed an hour or so before eating so the rice has time to soak up all the married flavours.

Too damned easy……very damned yummy.

mexican salad finished

Do you know someone having a BBQ today?

Flick this quick, easy salad over to them……

If you’re looking for more quick and yummy ideas to feed your family, you can pick up my ebooks here.

 

 

 

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Middle Eastern inspired BBQ lamb fillet with broccoli tabbouli

28 Jan

lamb and broccoli tabbouli ingredientsI’m not entirely sure how lamb became the unofficial meat of Australia Day. One would be more inclined to think it should be sausages, but some very clever advertising from the lamb industry has rendered them the star of many bbqs on the day that we celebrate the ‘discovery’ of Australia.

I use inverted commas because, of course, Australia was discovered a few times before this official date, and let’s not even go there on the fact that it didn’t really need to be discovered at all because a very noble people already owned the land and had done for a very long time……but I digress. This is a recipe, not a political statement.

Back to clever advertising, I reckon the Sam Kekovich lamb ads are great. This year is not my favourite but after working in advertising (audio side) and seeing a gazillion crapola ads, clever writing stands out of the pack. I often have a giggle at the Australia Day ads that’ve been released annually since 2006.

If you’re not from around these here parts….check it out. This was the first one, and there’s one every year….this year the old boy even gets his Gang Nam on whilst trying to recover from Lambnesia!

This recipe was supposed to be up in time for Australia Day but we’ve had a little blip in our schedule this week and things have not run as smoothly as the corporation would have liked……thankfully, this lamb can be eaten any day of the week, any week of the month, any month of the…..yeah, that.
This rub works on lamb chops too, and to be totally honest I’ve actually put it on chicken and fish also. It’s a super simple Middle Eastern inspired crust.

Broccoli tabbouli is a new discovery for me. My trainer was talking it up recently and the idea piqued my interest no end. I like broccoli, I like tabbouli – what’s not to love, right?
It’s incredibly good for you, and although I used freekeh, which I just adore the nutty taste of, you could use quinoa, or burghul, or cous cous or whatever.

Yield : 4 plus leftover salad, which rocks with tuna FYI

What you will need :

  • 500g lamb loin
  • 2 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
  • a head of broccoli, wizzed in the food processor until finely chopped
  • half a bunch of mint, chopped finely
  • half a bunch of parsley, chopped finely
  • 1/2 large red capsicum, chopped
  • a couple of sweet grilled pieces of capsicum, grill your own or from a jar (optional)
  • a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 spanish onion, finely chopped
  • juice of one lemon
  • salt and pepper
  • good quality olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons hummus
  • 3 tablespoons Greek style natural yoghurt
  • 1 tablespoon harissa or chili sambal (optional)
  • sumac and/or dukkah to serve

What you will do :

Cook your freekah according to packet instructions.
Place all of your spices into a clean plastic bag (ensure it has no wholes because that would suck), and mix them together. Toss your meat into the bag and give it a good shake around making sure all of the meat is covered.

Pop your meat on the BBQ or under the grill, or whatever. Just cook it good. I’m a medium rare kind of lamb girl, so I do about 5 – 7 minutes per side depending on how thick the piece is.

Chuck all of your salad ingredients into a big bowl, including your drained freekah, and toss with the olive oil and lemon juice.

Mix your hummus and yoghurt together, adding chili if that’s your bag. Drizzle on top and spinkle with your sumac or dukkah. I used both because I like bags of flavour.

Plate it all up and devour. Yum.

D Man liked this wrapped up in a pita bread….I think the tabbouli was a tad tricky (judging by the state of my floor), but mixed with the hummus sauce in a wrap changed the consistency to something more manageable.

Do you have a friend that needs healthy, affordable ideas for feeding their family?

Flick this recipe over to them, maybe they’ll love it!!

middle eastern lamb and broccoli tabouli

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From my garden to my table – Warm beetroot salad.

18 Jan beetroot harvest

beetroot harvestOne of the redeeming features of living in suburbia is a big garden.

I always dreamed of having a vegetable patch, not because I’m adept at farm husbandry nor even possess a particularly green thumb, but because I wanted to teach my kids about where food comes from.

Thus far our lettuces have been prodigious and our spring onions have certainly sprung. Our truss tomatoes are also worthy of a special mention as there is nary a day that we can’t harvest a luscious, sweet fruit from the vine.

beetroot harvest I’ve had my eye on the beets for what feels like months……the leaves were fab and green, then died, then grew again, and the beets themselves, well…… they’re organic.

I was expecting greater things from my first round of beetroot. My Dad said to pull them when they were the size of snooker balls, but they sort of stopped at an assortment of testicles and eyeballs. I kept hoping for another growth spurt, alas, I think they’d done all they were gonna.

I shuffled a few around in vain hope that they would do something spectular but thus far they’re looking sad, with the leaves lying down and resting (not dead, resting).

This is one of my favorite salads of all time. It’s super easy, quick and tasty and spectularly good for you. I would like to add at this juncture that it also make a fascinating talking point for potty training toddlers, because it is most startling to a novice.beetroot salad ingredients

I admit that I usually make a much larger amount than this but my yield was a tad paltry.

Mess with the amounts to your taste. I like lots of nuts and tangy balsamic.

What you will need :

  • one bunch of baby beets or a few large beetroots, leaves intact, washed.
  • a small handful of walnuts
  • a chunk of fetta, add to taste (I’ve used sheeps this time but whatever tickles you)
  • a splash of olive oil
  • a splash of balsamic, or a squeeze of lemon juice
  • salt and pepper

beetroot salad
What you need to do :

Preheat oven to 180C

Wash beets and remove, but save, the leafy tops. Wrap beets in foil and place in hot oven for about 30 minutes (depending on size. These took only 15 minutes. Give them a poke and if they yield , they’re ready).

When cooked take out of oven and leave to cool. Take off foil and slide the skins off with a firm thumb.Discard skin and foil.
Chop beets into desired size.

If your beetroot is store bought, your leaves will need to be chopped a bit.
Mine were still little and tender.
Add olive oil to a large fry pan and toss in your leaves, stirring until just wilted.

Chuck in some balsamic or a squeeze of lemon juice. Add beets to pan. Break your walnuts up a little and toss them in, season and take off heat.
Crumble your fetta through, and voila!

Warm beetroot salad loves steak, pork, chicken or fish so it’s super versatile. Roast some potatoes, steam some beans and you are well on your way to food nirvana!

beetroot salad finished

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Pork and Fennel Pasta Bake…..just a little bit fancy

11 Dec

pork and fennel ing Out here in the Boondocks there are not so many great restaurants. I guess after living in Sydney’s dining epicentre, we were always headed for gustatory disappointment moving to the ‘burbs, but we live in hope, because even sub-urbanites need to eat, right?

For my birthday, back in July (July 7th, feel free to send gifts, money and/or champagne), Mister H and I ventured forth to one of the most expensive and well known dining spots in our locality – Black Water.

People had talked it up as one of the best, if not THE best restaurant in these here parts, and my man thought he’d give me a little birthday treat.

Let me preface this by saying, we don’t mind paying for great food, and great service is always such a delight…..did we experience this here?

Not so much.

The service was a tad underwhelming and the food was, well, it most certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as great as the price would suggest.

One of the things we ordered was a pork ragout and something timbale. I thought that sounded interesting. I have an extensive experience in fine dining as I worked in about a gazillion great restaurants, so I know the lingo. I knew what to expect when I see the word timbale, but what I didn’t expect was pasta bake.

With a fancy name.

pork and fennel dex

That was a tad well-done and over-caramelised on the edges……..burnt pasta bake.

Fail.

Mister H tried brains, they were ok if you’re into that kind of thing (I’m so not), and the mains were good. Dessert was by far my favourite with an apple tarte tartin and some kind of yummy ice-cream (it was a while ago, I’ve eaten a few meals since!), but I will never forget that regrettable pasta bake.

I thought today I’d show those guys how to make an uptown pasta bake.

pork and fennel to cook

Yield : 6 serves

What you will need :

  • 120g speck or bacon, chopped
  • 600g minced pork
  • 1 spanish onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 350g penne pasta, or whatever shape floats your boat
  • 420g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1/2 red capsicum, sliced
  • 1/2 cup red wine, or white if that’s all you have
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds
  • a good handful of fresh herbs like parsley, and/or oregano
  • 100g cheese, grated

If you want to go right uptown, you can add a layer of béchamel. Black Water did not…..nor did I this time, but I have before.

This time I just did a super thin layer of simple white sauce, flavoured only with a bay leaf.

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • a cup and a half of milk
  • a bay leave
  • salt and pepper

Melt butter in saucepan, add flour and stir. Leave to cook for a few seconds. Add milk and whisk to ensure no lumps. Toss in bay leaf and season and continue whisking until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon.

pork and fennel fini

What to do :

Fry up onion and garlic in a large heavy based pan. When translucent, add your speck and cook until fragrant and a little browned. Add your fennel seeds.

Toss in your pork and stir until cooked through. Throw in your capsicum, tomatoes, tomato paste and wine. Stir well to combine.

Chuck in your herbs and season to taste. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer with a lid on for about half an hour until sauce is thick and rich.

Meanwhile, pop on a pot of salted water and getting it to a rolling boil. Add your pasta and cook according to packet instructions.

Drain pasta and toss it into your finished sauce. Toss well to ensure all is well coated and throw into your oven dish

I did a really quick little white sauce that was about half the amount described in my bechemel recipe as I only wanted a thin layer rather than a lasagne type layer, but if you want to keep it simple, just throw on some cheese and be done with it.

Bake in the oven on 200C until it is browned and delicious looking.

Take that Black Water……that’s how you do an uptown pasta bake.

pork and fennel dex 2

 

If you want to see some more Toddler Friendly recipes, why not check out my books here.

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Beans Means…….Homemade Baked Beans.

29 Nov

I cannot hear the words Baked Beans and not think of that scene in Blazing Saddles….you know the scene I’m talking about?

Basically, it’s a load of cowboys sitting around a campfire eating beans and they all begin to thunderously pass wind only seconds after the beans pass their lips.
I’m not a huge Mel Brooks fan, but this scene is the first ever fart scene in a movie, so I will give him credit where credit is due.

You rarely see/hear farts in film. Considering they are a part of life and everybody does it, you’d think there would be a little more wind on celluloid.

I wonder if James Bond ever got a nervous tummy? He’s certainly been in some tight squeezes, so it wouldn’t surprise me, but I suppose he would not be as cool  if when push came to shove a little ‘eeep’ squeaked out of his tuxedo……or heaven forbid, a shart.

But I digress, back to beans.

I love baked beans, and they are actually incredibly good for you. Packed with iron, protein, calcium, fibre and they are low GI so they will keep you fuller for longer. All this, and they are really yummy too.

I made these beans as a side dish to a slow-roast pork belly. Pork and beans go together like Ginger and Fred, in my books. All at my table enjoyed the combo, but none more than Mister H and I who got to double up with eggs and beans for breaky the following day.

It’s surprising we didn’t singe our eyebrows, if you catch my drift.

The original recipe for this came from the Riverstone cafe in Bellingen, but I tweaked it to my taste. If you would like to see the original recipe it is here.

Yield : 6 portions

What you will need :

330g dried cannellini beans (or Great Northern Beans), soaked in water overnight

3 red capsicum, seeds removed, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

1 onion, coarsely chopped

75 ml olive oil

200 gm speck, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

2 thyme sprigs

1 fresh bay leaf

400 gm canned crushed tomatoes

1 tsp smoked paprika

30 ml maple syrup

a good dash of balsamic vinegar

a good dash of Worstershire sauce

To serve: poached eggs and toasted sourdough

What you need to do :

Drain your beans and chuck them into a pot of lightly salted water, so they are covered with an extra couple of centimetres. Bring to boil, and reduce to simmer until they’re tender (30-40 minutes).

In a food processor, chuck your capsicum, onion and carrot until finely chopped.

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add capsicum and carrot mix, speck, garlic and herbs and cook until soft (7-10 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato, bring to a simmer and add to beans. Add 500ml water, paprika, Worstershire sauce and vinegar, cover with foil and bake, stirring occasionally.

After 2 hours, check to see if they need a little more water, add if required, pop back into the oven for another 30 mins or so, until beans are nice and tender but not mushy. You want them to retain their shape.

Stir through maple syrup, season to taste and serve with poached eggs and sourdough toast.

We’re heavy on the recipes this week as it’s time to wrap up my Spring To Do list……and then we can get onto Summer!

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Pass the Pig…..American Style Pork Ribs.

27 Nov

Anyone who knows Sydney will know Hurricanes ribs.

Their flagship restaurant is down in Bondi and I have spent many a summer’s evening getting a rack of pork ribs, smothered in Monkey Gland sauce (sounds so wrong, but it tastes so right), taking them over to the grassy edge of Bondi Beach to devour those delicious, sweet, smokey ribs and washing it all down with a long-neck of Cooper’s Green ale whilst watching the surfers catch waves in the last of the day’s rays, my hands and face all glistening brown with the delectable mess.

I used to love living at Bondi Beach.

I lived there for many years. It was the kind of place that you go out for a loaf of bread and you’d get home three days later. I used to always keep a toothbrush in my handbag because you never knew what adventures you were going to have…….was it Bondi Beach, or was it just youth?
These days I can’t leave home without a nappy bag and child kit the size of freakin’ Texas, and social events are planned at least a week in advance……who is this imposter???

When I go to Bondi now, and I’m happy that I don’t live there any longer. I just smile at all the young and fabulous actor/model/designer wannabes.

I smile because they’re invincible. I smile because their butt is hanging out of their pants; the guys from the top, and the girls from the bottom.

I smile because I used to be them.

I wonder if some ex-Bondi, yummy-mummy ever came in from the ‘burbs and smiled at me dancing on a pub table with a lampshade on my head?

Probably. ’Tis the circle of life, no?

I wouldn’t want to live there again. Nowadays, I just see dirty streets, with piles of used, dumped furniture left lying around, and run-down apartment blocks that owners refuse to fix because they know that people will pay the exorbitant rents regardless of peeling paint and carpet that your feet sticks to.
The cafe scene is totally happening and the bars are really cool, but seeing as I’m barely happening or cool these days, it’s a moot point!

Anyway, I really miss those ribs.

I’ve cooked ribs a couple of times but usually used a bought marinade that claims to be ‘Down-Home Southern Style Seriously Good Rib Sauce’ or some such. I knew I needed to venture into the land of the Monkey Gland and find something that would ease the longing for Hurricanes and transport all who gnawed the bones to the grass of Bondi, if only for a minute, with the laughter of ghosts of backpackers and D-grade actors past tinkling in our ears.

Did these do it? Were they the ‘down-home’ pig ribs I was hankering for?

Well, butter my ass and call me a biscuit…..yes, sir, they were all that and more. A hushed voice at my table even muttered the words, with a mouthful of rib,

‘Better than Hurricanes’.

I ordered American style pork ribs at the Vietnamese butcher and they went away and cut them for me. There was a moment of panic when I pulled them out of the bag at home and they were long sides of pork belly. Totally wrong for this.

But I was committed. I removed a slab of belly, and retained the ribby goodness and got a’marinating those little puppies.

This is how it went -

Yield : 2-3 whole racks of ribs, for 4-6 people

What you will need :

  • 2-3 full rack pork/lamb ribs (for me, the only rib is pig)
  •  2 large alfoil roasting trays (turkey size) and a basting brush

For the marinade :

  • 1 cup of Brown sugar
  • 1 onion
  • 2 big cloves garlic
  • 1 cup of tomato sauce
  • 1 cup of BBQ sauce
  • 1 cup of Coca- Cola (full strength) (buy 2 litre bottle, rest is used for cooking)
  • ½ cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons of Worstershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons of balsamic
  • 2 tablespoons smokey paprika
  • 1 tablespoon rosemary
  • salt and pepper

Put your onion and garlic and rosemary into a food processor and blitz to a fine paste.

Chuck all other ingredients into a bowl and throw in your onion paste. Stir well to combine.

Put ribs in roasting pan with half the marinade and leave to marinate overnight.

This part can totally be done in the oven, if you so desire, but it was a stinking hot day so outside was better for me….also, you do get a bit of a BBQ flavour throughout the meat if it’s done in the BBQ. Heat up BBQ with lid / Webber to constant 120-150 degrees with lid down.

Place ribs in BBQ but not on direct heat. I had the grill on with the ribs sitting on the plate next to it.

Pour remainder of 2 litre coke into roasting pan until ribs are fully submerged. Cover with foil and punch about half a dozen holes in it.

Cook for 5 hours at no more than 150 degrees. Your juice will barely boil, if at all, and mine did not seem to reduce much at all.

Take rib tray off BBQ and fire up grill section to blazing hot. Put ribs on grill and baste with remaining marinade (don’t be shy with slapping on the marinade)

Turn ribs every 5 mins and keep on basting generously. Do this for about 30 minutes until marinade caramelises and a sticky, gooey, gorgeous crust forms.

Remove from grill and tuck in….ensuring you get the full ‘smile’ of rib sauce.

Our buddies picking lettuce from the vege garden…..

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Rekindling Old Friendships and a Snapper Named Steve

12 Nov

I was driving along in my car recently and someone I hadn’t thought of in a long time popped into my head.

This wasn’t just any old ‘someone’, but someone who was once so close to me that he and I used to call each other brother and sister. We did this not because we are related by blood, but because trying to explain our relationship to people was too hard.

We were more than friends.

We were even more than best friends.

We were BFFs…… we thought.

I don’t know exactly where it went pear shaped, there was no singular event, but I do remember the time in our lives, and it was complicated for the both of us, to say the least. We were living together, but our lives were very separate. We were both engrossed in our own stuff and I guess we needed some space.

There’s space, and then there’s SPACE, because as I was driving along I realised that this man – that I once called my brother – did not know that I was married to a red-head, with whom I was set up on blind date.

He would think that was funny.

He did not know that I had a son with beautiful, deep grey eyes and a cheeky smile, and neither did he know that I had a daughter, named after my great-grandmother.

I had no idea where he lived, or even if he lived, and I was suddenly filled with profound sadness at this thought. As soon as I stopped driving I called his phone, hoping he had the same number.

I got voicemail, of course, what an anti-climax, and I left a message just saying I was thinking about him, and maybe we could talk if he wanted to.

I left it in his court, but at the very least I wanted him to know that he was in my thoughts.

I didn’t hear anything for a few days, and then I got a text. Maybe he wasn’t ready to talk, just yet.

Maybe he needed to see if we still had rapport?

After a few tentative texts back and forth, I invited him over for lunch, and I’m so thrilled that I did because it was just like old times.

Friendship is a funny thing, isn’t it?

How someone, with whom you were once invincible, suddenly doesn’t fit, and then perhaps down the line you do fit again. Or you fit differently but it’s still nice.

It isn’t the first time my river meandered away from someone who was my left bank and then, with time, moved back towards them, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but sometimes you just need to take a step towards someone….make the first move towards rekindling. It’s not about pride, or swallowing it, it’s about saying ‘Life is too damned short, I wonder what my old friend is up to?’

I strongly urge you to call someone today, someone you let slip away, and just tell them you’re thinking of them. You don’t need lunch or a grand gesture.

It feels really nice.

I wanted to BBQ a whole fish this Spring, and this lunch seemed the perfect occasion.

Meet Steve.

He was a 2 kilo snapper, and he was delicious.

I was hoping to BBQ a fish that I had never cooked before but when I was at the fishmonger, Steve was winking at me and I couldn’t resist his fishy goodness.

Yield : 1 BBQ’d fish

You will need :

  • one fish, cleaned and scaled
  • 3 cloves garlic, skin removed
  • juice and zest of 1 lime, retain husks
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 birdseye chili, deseeded if you prefer
  • 50ml olive oil
  •  handful of coriander root and leaves

What you need to do :

  • Score your fish deeply in the sides to allow for the marinade to penetrate.
  • In a mortar and pestle (or small food processor) add everything except the olive oil and pound until it forms a paste. Add your oil and stir to combine.
  • Rub mixture all over your fish, and put empty lime husks inside. Refrigerate for at least 40 minutes for let the flavours infuse.
  • Our fish BBQ cage thing was too small to accommodate Steve so we got a little creative and sandwiched him between two cake racks. He didn’t know the difference and it just kept him over the heat instead on directly on it.
  • We did a little lid up, and then a little lid down action, cooking each side for about 20 minutes. He was pretty fat, so you’ll need to adjust according to the fatness of your fishy.

I really think that BBQing anything makes it yummier, and Steve was no exception. I served him with a soba noodle salad, but you could eat this with rice and Asian greens, or stir fry, or even potato salad if it takes your fancy.

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