Beef, Onion and Red Wine Pie

While it's still cold out here I thought I'd take advantage of the weather and use the oven to warm the house. I don't honestly think I've ever made a savory pie and had a craving for hearty, homemade food.

Beef, Onion and Red Wine pie. Ok, I cheated and used 'Alcohol Removed' red wine. I know when cooking there's no need to, but I couldn't be bothered dealing with the look I'd get, as a pregnant woman, buying wine from the only bottle-o in town. Even if I explained it was for cooking. Then I'd get the 'yeah, right' look. When I saw the bottle in IGA - problem solved!

For a pie, it's quite quick. Cooking beef, onion, garlic then adding stock, thyme, a bay leaf, wine and water. Season and let simmer. I love those 'walk away and forget about till the timer goes off' type recipes. Easy peasy.

While the mixture cooled I defrosted some shortcrust and puff pastry that everyone keeps in the freezer. I lined my newly bought pie tin (I had somehow managed to keep from Noah as he LOVES to play with everything in my kitchen) with shortcrust. Poured in my now warm beef mixture then topped with puff, pressing the pastries together. A good brush with some beaten egg and into the oven for another 'set and forget' timeslot.

The result:

A very yummy dinner! Another to be tagged and made again!

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

As it's getting colder it's nice to cook a whole roast and warm the house up with the heat of the oven. As we've all been sick lately I wanted something with lots of healthy garlic and was glad to find a whole roast chicken recipe.

But, this chicken is cooked in stock and wine on the stove top, not in the oven. But, oh well. It'll still taste great.

After stuffing it with fresh lemon, I rubbed the skin with some oil and seasonings. I browned some eschalots and garlic in the bottom of my cast iron pan then removed them and dropped in the chicken, breast down so the skin would start to crisp up. But, I didn't put enough oil in the bottom and all that happened was the skin sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Bugger.

After 5 minutes I turned it, pouring more oil in and browned the bottom of the chook. Another 5 min later and I re-added the garlic and eschalots with some stock and Riesling. Wait, no, I didn't have any Riesling, so I used a wine I have sitting on the bench waiting for me to be not-pregnant so I could drink it. I did the next best thing and cooked with it instead.

Now, the recipe states to simmer it covered for 30 min, then for another 30 min uncovered. I did this, but found that I was always basting the chicken in the stock and wine as I was scared the breast would dry out being out of the liquid. I suppose if the skin hadn't burnt off I wouldn't have worried about it as much, but I did this every 5 minutes.

Pulling the chicken out at the end the beautiful aroma of lemon greets me. I carve it up and we ate it with some polenta and my home grown cherry tomatoes. I loved the subtle hint of lemon through the chicken meat. I squeezed the cooked garlic out of their skins and stirred it through my polenta. Great!

While it didn't cure our colds, it filled our hungry tummies!

Creme Carmel

I don't think I've ever even eaten a Creme Caramel, let along made one. But I was looking for a dessert one week night and found I had all the ingredients, so I gave it a go.

It's actually pretty easy, a basic baked custard recipe as well as a caramel. Creme Caramel.....bit self-explanatory really....

Custard is something I make a lot as my son Noah loves it and it's a nice way to fill his tummy at the end of the night. I usually use only milk, but this recipe included cream to make it a bit richer. The only difference is the custard I make includes cornflour to thicken it and this one doesn't, but I suppose the cream did that job. Adding an extra egg yolk so it sets well when baking, I set the made custard aside while I made the caramel.

I've only made caramel a handful of times in my life, so it's something I'm still new at. Boil sugar and water till it's golden using a brush in water to brush down any crystals that form on the sides. Check. BE CAREFUL. Boiling sugar syrup is not a nice thing to get on your fingers.

When I removed the caramel from the heat I poured it directly into the ramekins. The recipe says to let it sit for a few moments to allow the syrup to begin to set. I think this is where I went wrong. I did let it sit for the allocated 5 minutes, but when I turned them out after cooking a lot of the caramel was stuck hard in the bottom of the ramekin. Even after dipping it into hot water to loosen it up a bit. Next time I won't leave it for so long before pouring the custard in.

Bake in a bain-marie. Check.

My oven is stupid and I had to bake for an extra 5 minutes.

Refrigerate till cold. Check.

As I mentioned, they didn't turn out easily, but a lot of caramel still came out with them, so it wasn't a huge loss. I really liked them, finding the custard quite smooth and delicate. I liked that the rich caramel didn't take over the custard either.

Hubby thought they were too rich but he thinks anything with flavor is too rich. Next time I make it I'll make a single serve. Might be tonight....

Pizza!!!!!!

Just like everyone else, I too love pizza.

Home-made is always better.

We have a take-away night once a week and sometimes instead I'll make home-made pizza's instead of eating the greasy food from the only available take away in the town. Usually I'll use flat bread as a base and top it with all the things we like to eat, but I was excited to make a base from scratch and luckily the Seasons cookbook provides a great base recipe.

A big thing for me is working with yeast, which I haven't done since I was a teenager making pizza bases in my Mum's bread maker (they were always the BEST pizza bases!). I was nervous to try it without the safety of the bread maker, but there's only one way to learn new things hey?

So I activated the yeast by adding it to some water with some sugar to feed it and set it aside until it bubbled at me. Then I mixed it with the dry ingredients gently and set it aside to prove. Once it had doubled in size I cut it into quarters and set it aside again until it had doubled in size.

See? Not as hard as I thought! They were so soft it seemed a shame to flatten and roll them out, but it must be done for a good pizza!

First I made Hubby's pizza. A Meat + Meat + Meat pizza. Just the way he likes it.

Then a little ham and pineapple one for Noah. I must admit, I'm pretty sure I ate more of it than he did.

Then, I made a smaller one with the garlic topping recipe in Seasons. Definitely more garlic next time. I could probably eat it straight from the bulb I love it that much. It was very simple: garlic, cheese and olive oil. Definitely don't forget the olive oil or it's a bit dry.

Then my favorite. Pizza Margherita. The first thing that strikes me about this recipe is that there is no sauce for a base. The tomatoes are squeezed to extract the juice (so it doesn't go soggy) and then lovingly placed on the pizza along side some mozzarella, basil and olive oil. When baked the cheese forms the missing sauce base, but I still found the end result a bit dry. In my opinion, anyway. Next time I'll make a basic tomato sauce base, but still keep the rest of the ingredients the same. Less cheese so my ass doesn't get so big.


 A crack of salt when done baking makes the world of difference. DON'T FORGET IT!

While different to the usual take away version of the Margherita, it was still a great pizza to eat and full of flavor.

Roast Pumpkin and Garlic Soup

I grew up with my Dad's Pumpkin Soup and his Apple and Rhubarb stew. I will say that absolutely nothing beats Dad's pumpkin soup....mainly because I'm not the one cooking!

When I was pregnant I routinely made myself roast pumpkin soup for my work lunch. I'd cook up a big batch on Sunday and eat it throughout the week. I made so much soup I got sick of it. I could not physically eat any more pumpkin soup.

My son is now 18 months old and as the weather cools Pumpkin soup seems more and more appealing. I realised the other day that I haven't had any since my pregnancy, so a warming lunch time soup and buttered toast will hit the spot.

The difference is the honey and cream. So. Much. Cream. Roasting the Pumpkin with honey really brought out the sweetness in the vegetable, but next time I'll definitely use less. (I didn't exactly measure.....) After blitzing it, you add some cream. Then more cream. Then sour cream.

So much cream. I suppose that gives it the....uh...creaminess. It's a very smooth soup and easy to enjoy. And freeze for lunch the next day.

More garlic and less honey and I'll be in heaven.

Cheat's Ricotta, Spinach and Mint Gnocchi

Please note: I've never made gnocchi before. Never. Ever. So when I found this 'Cheat's' version, I thought, 'Sweet! It'll be easy and taste great!' Yes, I've eaten gnocchi before. Beautiful. Soft. Not anything like what I made.

I think where I went wrong was overworking the flour in the mixture. I think it activated the gluten too much as the end result were so  - er - glutenous, that I didn't like it very much at all. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I stood there mixing and rolling for ages, I was very aware not to, but still. Not a good result.

And my cream was off, so I made a quick butter and garlic sauce and tossed them in that, but they were ruined long before they got to that pan.

They formed well. I found the recipe needed a touch more flour than what it calls for or they wouldn't hold together at all. Not much, maybe a tablespoon? But without it, the gnocchi were falling apart and no way they would have survived boiling water. There were in long enough to come to the surface and I removed them when they started floating. Then tossed them in the butter and grated a bit of fresh Parmesan over the top.

But, as I facebooked, they tasted like dumplings without the Beef Stew. Very bland. Very glutenous. Not at all enjoyable for full meal. That's ok. I'm not going to like everything I make, that's for sure.

Isn't that the point to cooking? So I can improve technique, my taste and learn more.

Next time I will try cooking traditional gnocchi. With potatoes. And not cheating....

Coconut Bread and Quick Grapefruit Jam

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I've still been cooking my little heart out!

A few weeks ago I made Donna's Coconut Bread and Grapefruit Jam and took them to my Mothers Group for critique (and so I didn't end up eating it all by myself)

I love the jam. I'll have you know, I've only made jam once before and it sucked. Majorly, sucked. I'm pretty sure I had too much water and not enough fruit and it turned to burnt toffee and took me days to clean off the bottom of the saucepan. So to say I was a bit apprehensive at trying jam again was an understatement.

I am lucky enough to have my own beautiful Grapefruit Tree in my backyard and right now it is abundant with fruit, which all end up rotting underneath it as I'm not a big grapefruit fan. I used my fresh fruit in this jam and am very happy with the results. I had to simmer it for much longer than the recipe and to get the right consistancy I pulsed it with my stick blender a few times. So it's more of a marmalade than a jam, but still yummy nonetheless. It's sweet at first but has the lovely bitterness of the grapefruit at the back of your pallate when you swallow, which evens out the initial sweetness. I'm so glad it worked and I wasn't cleaning my damn saucepan again for ages!!

Thankfully some of the wonderful ladies in my mothers group took some home!

The Coconut bread was really easy to make, except I didn't have any buttermilk, so I cheated and used regular milk. And there was a mountain of butter in it. Like, literally, a small mountain....

I was expecting it to be lighter than it was, but I suppose with 3 cups of flour, it wasn't going to be that light. It had a lovely mild coconut-y taste, so next time I might substitute the buttermilk for coconut milk and give it a stronger coconut flavour.

It went really well with the jam and, thankfully, was gobbled up quickly!

Garlic Chicken

I love Garlic. Almost as much as I love Creamed Rice. But Garlic would be my top savoury love. I always use heaps in my cooking (probably why I don't get sick often) and could always use more. I grew up with my Dad eating pickled Garlic, straight from the jar. My poor Mum. I love Garlic a LOT, but not that much.

Pretty close though.

There are quite a few Garlic Chicken variation recipes in Seasons. I am so excited at this. I go through episodes where I just crave garlic, so I just had to try this one out.

Oh wow. It's so simple. Cut up Chicken - check. Cut up some Parsley - check. Crushed Garlic - chec....wait. No. I don't have a garlic crusher.

And I refuse to buy one. I don't mind that chefs use it, I completely understand the easiness of having a garlic crusher and if I'd never had one before, I'd go out and buy one. But I have. All I can say is, it's all well and good for a chef to use a garlic crusher. They don't have to clean the damn thing.

So I finely cut up my garlic instead.

Cook the chicken - check. Add the garlic and parsley - check. Breathe in deeeeeep and absorb the aroma garlic creates in my tiny little kitchen - check! Again, this recipe suggest serving it simply, but again I'm having it for dinner and need my veggies. So I chop up some Leek and Zucchini and after removing the Chicken from the pan, I quickly fry off the veggies in the remaining garlic fumes, with a little splash of Lemon Juice to help get all the yummy garlic flavour off the bottom of the pan. I eat it with the veggies and some polenta. No, I didn't serve it. Hubby was at footy training, so I just ate (inhaled) it myself.

And enjoyed every Garlicy minute of it. Definitely a recipe I will be making again. And again. And again......


And again!

Garlic and Mustard Beef Skewers.

I made these a while ago and just haven't gotten around to blogging about them. I have free time now but am on holiday, so I don't have the photos.

I'll up load them for you all when I get home!

Garlic and Mustard Beef kebabs with Aioli. These were really great. The recipe, I thought would be predictable, but it included Red Wine Vinegar, which I wouldn't have picked. When cooked I really think the vinegar helped mellow out the spiciness (yes, that's a word) of the mustard. I absouletly love mustard seeds though, so I wouldn't have minded anyway, but my 16 month old does mind.

I used some fresh beautiful grain-fed Rib Eye Fillets from out local butcher for this recipe and oh-mi-gosh, they were so so so so good. The meat was marinated in the garlic and vinegar and mustard mix for an hour, while I made the Aioli, before being threaded onto skewers and grilled on my George Foreman. The recipe suggests serving it with Lavish Bread, but as we were having them for dinner I whipped up some mashed Sweet Potato instead. Matched like a dream.

The aioli was a basic mayo recipe, egg yolks, garlic, a few other things, olive oil. It came together in my mixer great and I bottled it and refrigerated it for when the skewers were ready.

We forgot to eat it. But, I did serve it a few nights later with some basic grilled Chicken. Yum.

Coconut Rice and Vanilla Honey

I love creamed rice. Love, love, LOVE creamed rice. I can't express how much I love it. If i were ever on Death Row (which would probably be for eating too much chocolate!) my last meal would be creamed rice.

I grew up with my Dad's creamed rice. It's my absolute favourite dessert, any time of the year. Hot, straight off the stove with cold, cold ice cream is the best way to eat it. Every birthday I'd get a lovely big bowl of creamed rice, which always followed Dad's Pumpkin Soup. The best two things that Dad can cook, well in my opinion anyway. So when I found this recipe, I had to try it. I knew straight away it would be completely different, but I don't care. It's creamed rice.

The big difference between my Dad's recipe and the Season's one is that Dad uses plain white rice and the recipe I was following uses Arborio, or Risotto, rice. And, the absorbtion method is again different. Arborio rice is renown for being difficult to cook with, having to stand there and stir for what feels like hours upon hours. Season's says to add the rice and water all at once and let come to the boil. Ok. Easy. Gives my arm a break too. (when Dad cooks it he brings milk and sugar to the boil then add's the white rice to cook it)

Once boiling, it only takes 10 min for the water to absorb, which is a lot quicker than I anticipated, I add the sugar and coconut milk and let cook for a few more minutes then its done. Huh? Done already? Seriously? I'm loving this recipe.....!

It's served with Vanilla Honey, which is just a matter of slicing a fresh vanilla bean, removing the seeds then adding them and the bean to 1/2 a cup of honey and heating gently so the vanilla infuses. Some sliced stone fruit and I added some fresh blueberries.

I loved it. So simple. The coconut in the rice wasn't over powering but the honey could easily take over the dish, so only a little is needed. Eating it warm made it seem quite rich but cold the next day and it seemed to have mellowed out a lot. And I ate all the leftovers myself.

Birchier Muesli

Looking through 'Season's'  I'm grateful to find a breakfast recipe. I am a big fan of toasted muesli and have never made my own before so I was keen to give it a go.

The recipe supplied is quite simple and neat, so I add my own tweaks to it. It's a great base recipe, of oats, almonds, apricots, pepita's, dried apple and honey, so I add sunflower seeds, LSA (ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds) and cranberries, just for a little extra sweetness. I cut up the dried apple and mix it through rather than roasting them as whole slices. Mixing it all up in the tray with the honey, I leave little clumpy bits so they cook together and I'll have little crunchy clusters in my cereal. Tip for the new cooks: spray your measuring cup for the honey with some cooking oil, it will slide right out!

The original recipe cooks the muesli for 15 min, but I leave it in for an extra 10 so it's really golden, just the way I like it. I think there's enough to last me about a week and a half, more than the average $5 - 7 box of decent toasted muesli, so it's definitely a recipe I'll be cooking over and over. I love it's simpleness, so I can add my own flavours to make it just the way I like.

What do you make for breakfast?

Sponge Kisses with Cream

For Valentines Day I thought it only fitting that I make something that's titled 'Kisses'.

Sponge Kisses with Cream, a very simple sponge recipe that's easily whipped up in my Mix-master, baked in rounds and sandwiched together with some thick cream. My husband loved it, but then again, he loves anything with cream. I found it a bit lacking. I could've added a bit more vanilla extract to the mix. Then a friend suggested some lemon zest, which would've been very nice as well. Or mixing somethig through the cream too. Either way, they were very nice kisses. And kisses is what you need on Valentines Day.

X X X X X X

Promise!

I promise I've been cooking!! Please don't think I started the challenge then left it hanging there....waiting to be eaten. 

Last night I cooked some yummy yummy 'Kisses'. Just right for Valentines Day. I promise to share more about them with you shortly. Tomorrow even. Right after I catch up on some much needed sleep........

Promise!

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart

Okay, so I don't have a tart tin. I'm improvising. I guess you could say I'm cooking my 'interpretation' of Donna Hay's dishes. Well, I'm trying to anyway.

Fig and Goats Cheese Tart. Do you know how hard it is to get a fig where I live? Impossible. I was lucky enough to be visiting Emerald last week and pounced on the best fig I could find in Wollies, as there's guaranteed to be...uh....NONE here. Ever. So, I had my beautiful ripe fig and wanted to do something beautiful with it. I love figs. I got very close to cutting it up and making my cardboard-tasting-gluten-free cereal a whole lot better, but I resisted so I could bring you my Tart.

As I mentioned, I don't have a tart tin. Well, actually I do. But it's a great big ceramic one and this recipe calls for small individual ones, so I used a ramekin instead. Lined with greaseproof paper so I could lift the tart out effortlessly. Oh, and store bought Shortcrust pastry is a godsend with a clingy toddler. I was so grateful to Donna that she'd put that in her recipe!

This recipe is rather easy and a great summer lunch (or dinner, as was my case). Pastry, fig (cut in half to show off the rose coloured inside), goats cheese (I used goat's Feta, as it was the only goats cheese I could find) then whisk some eggs, cream, chives (or parsley, in my case) and more cheese. Mmmmm....cheese.

The end product is delicious. The crisp pastry contrasts so well with the creamy cheese filling. I love the flavor of the Fig and Goats Cheese together, they compliment each other so well. Definitely one to make again.

Almond and Mint Chicken with Polenta fingers

Please excuse me, I can't remember the actual title of the Chicken dish....and couldn't be bothered getting up and shuffling into the kitchen when I'm oh so comfy where I am right now.

Oh, and while you're at it, excuse the crappy iPhone photos too. My camera battery is flat.

But, onto the cooking....

I love that this book is full of little side dish ideas. Crispy Polenta Fingers. I love Polenta. But, I usually cook it very differently to this, so I was excited to try a different recipe. My usual recipe calls for a mixture of water and milk and that keeps it nice and creamy. I add cheese and butter and we eat it soft, as a bed for a stew or slow cooked Lamb Shanks. So, to cook it in stock makes sense, but just a different technique for me. Add a knob of butter, to keep the creaminess. Add Olives then set. I'm already thinking of other things to add. Sun dried tomatoes. Bits of cooked veggies. Sweet Corn. Cut into long strips and bake till golden. Then top with cheese and grill till there's more gold. Oh, the possibilities!


Anyway, I made these with the Almond and Mint Chicken recipe. I'll be the first to admit....I overcooked the chicken. I was sitting there thinking, it'd be great with a bit of yogurt or sour cream, but then, if I just cooked it well it wouldn't need that! I got distracted sitting with my little man out the front and it got left in there a few minutes longer than necessary. It was a bit dry, but the almond and mint sauce that you pour over while it's still hot made a big difference. A bit of lemon. Bit of sugar. Bit of garlic. Then some good ol' olive oil.

Lemony Peach Cake

OMG, I have followers!! So I 'd better get a start on.....

Lemony Peach Cake. I LOVE that peaches are in season. Oh yum. Biting through the...well, peachy, coloured skin and into the sweet and juicy flesh to have it dribble down my arm so that I end up leaning over the sink. This recipe calls for three ripe peaches, but I only used two.

I ate the other one.

I made this cake for a birthday party for my local mothers group. Monday afternoon was spent with my son slung on my hip so he could watch everything while I poured butter, sugar and flour into my mix-master. I think becoming a mother should come with getting an extra arm and a mix-master. Otherwise nothing would ever get baked.

I loved the very subtle hint of lemon that's in the cake, so that people have to ask 'what's that other flavour....I can't quite pick it?' And, just to be healthy, I served it with Vanilla Yogurt instead of the recommended Double Cream. The yogurt seemed to keep it really light and moist. In fact, I'm sure there's a slice left in the fridge.....

Cook Book Challenge

So in my 101 Things in 1001 Days I've set myself a challenge to cook every recipe out of one cookbook. I loved this challenge when I saw it in the movie 'Julie and Julia' and think it's a great idea. AND, I'm giving myself longer than her 365 days to cook them, so it's got to be at least a bit achievable....right?

The only dilemma is....which cookbook do I use?? I'm a big fan of Jamie Oliver, but half the things he uses are unavailable in Australia and there's no way I'm eating Black Pudding. So, after going through some of my books, I've decided to use Donna Hay's 'Seasons'.


I love that she's an Aussie, so her recipes use products that I'm more able to buy (even out in whoop-whoop, where I live) and I LOVE seasonal food. Pumpkin Soup in winter, Peach and Pear Salads in summer.

Her recipes are easy to follow and yummy to eat, and that's the main thing!!

So that's 194 recipes in 1001 days. That can be done.

Oh, and no, I won't be posting the recipes from this book step by step. I'll be cooking my interpretation of them. I completely respect Donna Hay and her team and won't rip them off. If you like what you read, go out and buy the book for yourself.