Do you Fondue?

I love a meal where there is a bit of audience participation. I’m talking about a meal which involves dipping, dunking, cooking and eating. Making your food just the way you like it. We were hosting a brown bag wine tasting at the weekend and I wanted to provide food that would not take away from the wine. Ok ,well to be honest, I did not want the food to take away from my participation in the wine tasting. I didn’t want to have to keep popping off to the kitchen to prepare food. So I decided to let my guests do the work for themselves.

We enjoyed a fabulous Fondue recently when we were in Whistler skiing. Ever since we came back from that holiday I’ve been thinking of dusting off our fondue and having some friends over. This was the perfect time to do that. I don’t like to do things by halves so I decided that the whole meal would be made up of DIY cooking. We would start with cheese fondue. For mains we would have a beef fondue where cubes of beef are placed in very hot oil and left to cook, then dipped in an array of different sauces. For dessert we would have chocolate fondue. Strawberries and jumbo marshmallows dipped in drunken chocolate.

What a meal. Most peoples favourite foods – cheese, meat and chocolate and not a vegetable in sight. Actually, that’s entirely true because I did cook up some shoe string fries just to cover that food group.

The meal was really wonderful. We started the night with some champagne just to celebrate us actually managing to get together to have this wine tasting night we have been talking about for over a year. There were six of us tasting wines (three couples) and each couple brought some of their favourite wines. The idea was for us to cover each wine bottle and number them. Then we had questionnaire sheets where we had to guess details about the wine such as varietal, year, aroma, flavour, cost. We were all very descriptive and enthusiastic about the details early on in the night. People were coming out with descriptions such as “This wine has herbaceous, fruity supple flavour with good legs and a wonderful after taste”. By the last bottle it was more like “This wine is definitely a Red”. The night was great fun - a good excuse for some friends to get together, drink some (ok, plenty of) great wine, get messy while making dinner and laugh a lot.

As the host J and I got to enjoy the whole night too as we had chopped and prepared all the sauces prior to the arrival of our friends. All we had to do was fire up the fondue and let everyone look after them selves. This meal went on until the wee hours of the morning and by the time the last couple left we were way too merry to clean up. The next morning I was never so thankful for a dishwasher. I am a stickler for using the right glass for the right wine so we ended up using champagne, red, white and dessert wine glasses. Add to that a few glasses for water and beer and you’ve got yourself almost every glass we claim to own. It was so much fun it was well worth all the washing up.


Starter
For the cheese fondue I used a basic recipe. I cut up some baguettes of bread the day before so they were slightly stale. I found that the sour dough bread worked best in the fondue. I heated the cheese mixture in a saucepan so that the fondue flame didn’t have to do too much work.


Main
I bought the best beef available and cut it up in to small cubes. I heated up some peanut all with a splash of garlic infused olive oil for extra flavour. For sauces I went for a variety of flavours. I cheated here and used store bought sauces so no recipes for this part. We had béarnaise sauce, a wasabi mayonnaise, satay sauce and finally a chilli soy sauce.


Dessert
I broke up some dark chocolate and added some cream. I heated this up in a pan and then added some Baileys and Frangelico. I served this with some strawberries and some great jumbo marshmallows.

Can someone pass the cholesterol

We made it home in one piece. The 24 hour journey was made all the better by the fact that we were both able to sleep for so much of it. The only real mishap was when me tongue and lips stuck to the ice cream they gave us. There should be a warning on those things. I couldn’t even let J know what was going on, as I couldn’t talk. I did some heavy breathing and it did eventually release my mouth.

It is so wonderful to be back in Ireland. It’s been over two years since my last visit and, much as I love Sydney, I do miss Dublin. Everything looks so green and lush at the moment because there has been plenty of rain in the last few weeks. The gods have been good to me though and we’ve had nothing but sunshine since I arrived.

Mum and Dad were out at the airport with the welcome home banner, which was lovely. The first thing we all did when we got home was have a cup of tea. This has been followed by many “anyone want a cup of tea?” questions since. I had put in my order for the meal I miss the most so that Mum could get all the perfect ingredients. This meal is no gastronomic complexity it is a plain and simple fry-up. There has to be the Clonakility black and white pudding, the Superquin sausages and the brown bread (and a pot of tea of course). Mum was very good and let me snap a photo before she served it up. And just so you know that’s not a single serving in the photo, it is the family serving. Delicious, now someone call the heart doctor.

Pâté please

Good Lord, it’s been nearly two weeks since my last post. Apologies. Where has the time gone? I have been busy celebrating, walking and playing with my new toy.

Let me elaborate – we celebrated my Birthday last week with a wonderful trip to Guillaume at Bennelong. This was a surprise meal organised by J and was one of the best meals I have ever had. Would you believe, on the day, I couldn’t find my camera anywhere so I have no photos to tempt you with (except this one I borrowed off their website). I have always wanted to try out the restaurant at the Opera House but never got around to it. I hadn’t actually mentioned to J that I wanted to go there so it was a coincidence that he had chosen it. The service was absolutely perfect. The staff were friendly and informative but not in the slightest bit intrusive. Of course they won me over when the waitress arrived with an extra plate of my favourite cheese because I had gushed so much about it on the cheese plate. To be honest I had a few too many glasses of red wine to remember what the cheese was called but it was divine. It was all runny and gooey and full of cheesy goodness. I’ll just have to make a return visit so I can find out what the cheese was called.

I have been walking like a demon recently. In work we have signed up for the Global Corporate Challenge. The idea is you have teams of seven people and you all wear pedometers every day for 5 months. Each member has to try to get the maximum number of steps each day. They recommend aiming for at least 10,000 steps every day. We have ten teams participating in work and the competition is making everyone do lots more exercise. I constantly hear people talking about how they are going to rack up more steps in a day. My competitive nature is killing me though. I have an absolute walking machine on my team and I am determined to get more steps than her. The other day I did 33,000 steps in one day. That’s nearly 21km. It was great exercise but I was shattered by the end of the day. I slept like a teenager that night.

And then there is my new toy. I have decided that after 18 months and almost 6,000 photos using a simple point and click Canon Ixus 55 it was time to upgrade. J did all the research for me. He loves that kind of thing whereas I just want to walk into the shop and walk out with the best product, no homework done at all. I’m a lazy consumer but he is the complete opposite and loves to check every option out before he makes a purchase. We decided on the canon 400d with the image stabilising lens. This lens is going to be the making of me. I seem to be constantly taking photos in dim light. Now there will be no more blurred shots because this fancy pants lens takes care of this. I love it. No idea how it actually works but I love it. My next plan of action is to do a photography course so I can learn all about f-stops and aperture.

Right so, back to the food. I received the most beautiful Pâté knife from my very good friend B. And when one has such a lovely knife then one really must make Pâté to use it on. I had no idea Pâté was so easy to make. I found this recipe. Tweaked it slightly by adding a little more brandy and a little more of the herbs and ended up with a delicious smooth Pâté that tasted great. For lunch yesterday we spread it on some fresh bread and added a little Fortnum & Mason Cumberland sauce for contrast. With a glass of crisp white wine it was just perfect for a lazy lunch on a public holiday Monday. If only all weekends were three days long.

Lunch of the Gods

I know, I know they are only hot dogs but it's all about the construction and execution of this lunch that made it fit for the Gods. The frankfurters were top quality. The bread was fresh and doughy. The sauce was delicious and it was all topped of with the oh-so-fancy onion marmalade that I was given as a present by the lovely S when she came to visit. I have been dying to try it out and this seemed like the perfect occasion. J and I were having a lazy afternoon so I decided to make one of J’s favourite lunches and enjoy it out on the balcony with some of his current favourite beer. What a girlfriend I am. The things you do for love.

J and I have two very different memories of hotdogs. His memory is all about his Mum preparing a special treat for the boys for lunch on a Sunday. Mine involves stumbling out of nightclubs during my college days and tucking into the best food god had ever created. Granted my very high opinion of those hotdogs had more to do with the copious amounts of cheap wine I had consumed and less to do with the culinary effort of the street vendor.

But no matter where our passion for hotdogs originates from, we both agree that they are a tasty little treat made all the better by this condiment

Why I'll never be a vegetarian

This is the main reason why I could never be a vegetarian. A lovely Leg of Lamb would always lead me off the straight and narrow if I were to try to be a vegetarian. As would an Eye Fillet Steak, Chicken Kiev or a well made Pork Sausage.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many vegetarian dishes that I really love. I could go for weeks on just vegetarian food but then, all of a sudden, I would get a craving for a nice juicy steak or a delicious roast dinner and once that craving hits there would be nothing for it but to satisfy the craving.

I loved the story my Mum told me about my young nieces deciding they were going to be vegetarians. The older niece was the first to decide and then her younger sister decided to follow suit. They were over at my Mum’s and she was spoiling them with some chicken nuggets. When the younger niece got a waft of the nuggets cooking she whispered in my sister’s ear that she no longer wanted to be a vegetarian. She is a girl after my own heart.

Even though I grew up enjoying a weekly roast dinner I never ventured to make one myself until I was in my thirties. Why, oh why, I will never know. A roast is so easy to make, the whole house smells delicious while it's cooking and it tastes so great. The roast pictured above smelt and tasted particularly good because of the garlic and the rosemary.

J loves his roast dinner. He gets to do the carving. I think it must be the hunter/gatherer in him that likes this bit. He enjoys platefuls of meat - this man would NEVER become a vegetarian. He is also a big fan of gravy but making the perfect gravy has always been something that eludes me. Does anyone have any tips for making good gravy?

from Great Casual Food
20g fresh rosemary
2kg leg of Iamb
2 cloves garlic, each cut into 8 slices
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
40g butter
1 small brown onion (80g), chopped finely
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 cup (125ml) dry red wine
1 1/2 cups (375ml) lamb stock

1. Preheat oven to hot.

2. Reserve 16 similar-size rosemary sprigs; place remaining rosemary in large flameproof baking dish.

3. Remove and discard as much excess fat from Iamb as possible.
Pierce surface of lamb all over, making 16 small cuts with a sharp knife; press a garlic slice and a rosemary sprig into each cut.

4. Place lamb on top of rosemary in baking dish. Pour oil over lamb; roast, uncovered, In hot oven 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to moderate; roast Iamb further 1.5 hours, spooning over pan juices occasionally. Remove lamb from dish; stand 5 minutes before slicing.

5. Drain juices from dish. Melt butter in dish over low heat; cook onion,
stirring, until soft. Stir in flour; cook, stirring, about 5 minutes or until
browned. Pour in wine and stock; cook over high heat, stirring, until
gravy boils and thickens. Strain gravy; serve with lamb.
serves 6
tip Beef stock can be substituted for lamb stock, If unavailable

Pie must do it

The cooking gods were in a good mood when they created puff pastry. I love anything wrapped in those delicious flakes of crunch. And I especially love when some of the pastry changes consistency as it absorbs the sauces. We often head around to our local drinking establishment, The Nags Head, for a glass of their finest red and a bite to eat. To be honest I couldn’t tell you anything else on their menu passed the Pies. They do the most delicious Chicken pie and Guinness Beef pie. These pies are fantastic and when I saw a recipe for Chinese Chicken pies in this month’s Delicious magazine I had to try them. The fact that the recipe also contains one of my current favourite ingredients – Five Spice Powder- was an added bonus. These pies were lovely especially as we are now heading into autumn here when the new chill in the air turns a girls thoughts towards comfort food.

Now I know what I am about to say has absolutely no place on a food blog but bear with me as my body is crying out for this. I have decided to do a little detox for a while. This means no more lovely pies with glasses of wine. To be honest I am worried that the blog will suffer for this ridiculous phase I am going through. Is anyone interested in healthy food? Or at least is anyone who spends their time reading about cooking, restaurants, cakes etc interested in healthy food? But I’m going cold turkey on the sugar, carbs and alcohol for a while. My body will be a temple. Will I stick to this plan? I really hope so. I’ll let you know how I’m going. I’ll be appealing to your voyeuristic side rather than your culinary side for a while. In the mean time here the recipe for those lovely chicken pies.


Chinese chicken pies

25g unsalted butter
1 small leek (white part only),finely chopped
8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbs plain flour
300ml chicken stock
1/2 cup (60g) frozen peas
2 cups (300g) chopped cooked chicken
80g thickly sliced ham, chopped
1 tbs chopped coriander
Pinch of five spice powder
150ml thickened cream
2 frozen puff pastry sheets,thawed
1 egg, beaten
1 tbs sesame seeds
Mixed leaf salad, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease pie dishes.Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the mushrooms and ginger, and cook for a further minute.

Stir in the flour, then gradually add the stock. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the frozen peas, cooked chicken, ham and coriander. Season with salt,pepper and a pinch five spice powder.Stir in the cream, then remove from the heat and allow to cool while you prepare the pastry.

Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares.Line each pie tin with one square, pressing well to the sides. Divide the , filling among the pie cases. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little water, then top with the remaining pastry.Trim the edges and crimp with yourfingers to seal. You can use any pastry trimmings to decorate the tops of the pies if desired.

Brush the tops of the pies with beaten egg, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place pie dishes on a tray in the oven and bake for 20 minutes for until the pastry is golden and puffed. Serve the pies with a mixed leaf salad.

Meal Makeover

When I was younger I had a love of Chef Sauce (or brown sauce as they call it here in Australia). This love had little to do with the sauce itself and everything to do with how it helped me to eat the meal I disliked the most - the dreaded Bacon & Cabbage. My Mother did a fantastic job of raising four children while running a very orderly household. Mum is probably one of the best cooks I know now but back in the day when she had a million things to do, there was a bit of neglect for some dinners. Bacon & Cabbage was my least favourite meal for two reasons – the fat on the boiled bacon and the mushy cabbage. To help this meal go down I would smother it with Chef Sauce which could almost totally mask the flavour of the watery cabbage.

I have never once, ever, considered making this meal as an adult myself. Recently Mum told me about her new updated version of Bacon & Cabbage. I listened but to be honest I never believed this meal would be up to much. So Mum decided to prove me wrong.

For a start she replaced the old boiled fatty bacon with a fantastic leg of cooked ham thickly sliced (after removing even the slightest trace of fat). The cabbage got a complete make over. We bought a head of tight crispy cabbage instead of the floppy old green leaves that Mum used to use. The Cabbage was chopped up after removing the white veins from the crunchy leaves. Some diced bacon was fried up in some butter and then removed from the pan. The cabbage was then fried in the butter and bacon fat for a few minutes until slightly tender. Then the bacon was added back in, along with lots and lots of cracked pepper. Even the mashed potatoes were given a lift with the addition of some seeded mustard.

Now I have to eat my hat (with Chef Sauce of course) because this meal was excellent. J has already requested that I add this to the weekly dinner repertoire. It’s amazing how cooking styles have changed so much over the years. Also we are blessed with the availability of such good quality produce these days. A simple meal like this tastes fantastic mainly because of lovely crunchy cabbage and top quality ham. Now I only need a smidge of brown sauce for old time’s sake.

Pizza Perfect

I’ve never been a big fan of pizza. That is, until a little pizza restaurant opened right beside us. We were curious to see how it would fare as four other restaurants had failed in the same spot over a period of two years. The Rosso Pomadoro was off to a great start because they knew how to market themselves. Apparently the owner’s partner was in Marketing and did all the right things to make this place appealing to the people in the area. They stripped out the dowdy interior and painted the walls red. They displayed some funky modern paintings from the neighbouring gallery and even got the artist to paint some massive tomatoes on the cement floor.

They serve wood fired pizzas on a lovely thin base. There are no Hawaiians or Four Seasons here. It’s pure quality Italian style pizza with cured meat, fresh cheese and tomato combinations. They were a bit snooty when we asked if there was any garlic bread - apparently that was a little below them. And don’t even dream of asking for a half-and-half pizza. Their snobby attitude to pizza soon grew on us (as did the expensive price) and we became regulars of both the take away and the eat-in pizza. The restaurant has free BYO but doesn’t have a licence to serve alcohol. This makes it a great spot to take visitors after picking up a bottle of our favourite wine at the bottle shop a few doors down. There’s nothing like supporting your local business, especially when they provide such good products.

We’ve recently moved away from the area but occasionally we get a pizza craving so now we’ve started making our own and I absolutely love it. I know I should make my own bases but, to be honest, the pita bread bases you can get at the supermarket are great. They are the size of a medium pizza and make a quick and easy meal during the working week. What I really love is being able to mix and match your toppings depending on the mood you’re in. Need more comfort cheese - lash it on, don’t want your meat crispy - don’t add it until the last minute. Pictured above is our MYO pizza with parma ham, olives, marinated red pepper, sundried tomato and basil.

A good bottle of wine, your own home made pizza and an episode of House – what more could you ask for? Ice-cream maybe? But that's a completely different post.

Rosso Pomadoro
90-91/24 Buchanan St,
Balmain,
9555 5924


-

(not) preparing for the move

I had great intentions of packing up the apartment this weekend. We are moving next Saturday and not a single thing has been packed yet. We did manage to get all the boxes, bags and tape we need for the move. Now I feel even worse because I can see how many boxes and bags we still need to fill.

J and I are very different in that I like to plan and be organised, he hates to plan and likes to live in the moment. Well damn him, his lack of organisation has rubbed off on me and the worst bit is I still have the guilt about not having everything sorted in advance. Tonight ... I’m definitely getting started on the packing tonight. I’m going to start with the things I know we’re not going to use before next weekend. Maybe if I pack all the pots and pans we can eat out every night this week.

I am incredibly excited about moving into our new house. I love it and it’s going to be fantastic to have so much space to live in. There is even a garden where I can at last release my herbs from their little pots. My one and only concern is that we are moving from a small kitchen to a tiny kitchen. We have plans to extend the kitchen but I have a feeling they may take a few months to materialise and in the mean time I am going to have to get used to surviving in a wincey little space. I’ll take a picture after we've moved in so you can see what I’m talking about.

We’ve become soft since living in the apartment. For the last four years we’ve had reverse cycle air conditioning to keep us warm in the winter (and cool in the summer). We’re moving to an old Victorian house that I have a feeling is going to be pretty cold until we get some form of heating organised. In anticipation of this I’ve been familiarising myself with meals that have the added bonus of heating you up. This weekend I made a lovely Beef pie from this months Donna Hay magazine. My good friend, H, very kindly gave me a years subscription for my birthday back in May. The pie was excellent and I can just imagine the two of us huddled around the pie dish in the new place trying to keep warm.


One of my favourite gadgets in the kitchen is my mandolin. I love how thin it slices. Last year I gained a new found respect for how thin it slices. We had my parents staying with us and I was all excited about some meal I was cooking for them. I was doing my prep work and talking to them at the same time. I was distracted and forgot to use the little plastic guard thing when I was slicing an onion. Before I knew it I had sliced some of my thumb off. God, it makes me feel weak just thinking about that. It took me months before I could pluck up the courage to use the mandolin again. Thank goodness I did get over my fear because I’d never be able to cut slices as thin as it does to layer on top of my pie.


Beef and potato pie

1kg (2 ¼ lb) beef, diced
Plain (all-purpose) flour for dusting
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250g (80/4 oz) button mushrooms, quartered
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons seeded mustard
3 cups (24 fl oz) beef stock
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
600g (1 ¼ lb) desiree (waxy) potatoes, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C . Dust the beef in the flour. Heat a large heavy-based saucepan over high heat.
Add half the oil and cook the beef in batches for 4-5 minutes or until browned. Set aside.
Add the remaining oil, onion and garlic to the saucepan and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the onion is softened.
Return the beef to the pan.
Add the mushrooms, bay leaves, mustard, stock, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until the beef is tender.
Place the potato slices and olive oil in a bowl and toss to coat.
Place the beef mixture in a 4-cup (1Iitre/32 fl oz) capacity ovenproof dish, layer with the potato and cook for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are golden.

First Osso Buco

Another crisp sunny winter morning saw me off to the market with some friends. It was the first Saturday of the month so the SMH Food Growers Market was on in Pyrmont.



I used to be a regular here ever month, until I discovered a weekly market closer to home. It was good to be back. This is a bigger, classier market and I was surprised how many more stalls there are now. The number of new meat and fish vendors was impressive and the quality of their produce was even more impressive.

I just love this Market and the only thing that stopped my buying up everything in sight was that I just couldn’t physically carry it. I waited until near the end of our visit to purchase my flowers but even then I was trying to make purchases while knocking everyone in sight with my big bunch of native Australian flowers.

My best purchase of the day was some fabulous Venison Osso Buco from a lovely couple at the Mandagery Creek Venison Stall. These guys were great fun and a pleasure to talk to. I was tempted to go for the Venison Shanks as there was a recipe I wanted to make but they convinced me to go for some Osso Buco. Not only have I never cooked Osso Buco but I have never even eaten it before. It has become very popular on menus in Sydney in the last few years but I have never ordered it myself.

So, laden down with all my market goodies I headed home and got out the cook books to look for some Osso Buco recipes. There was even a recipe for Veal Osso Buco in the Newspaper. I guess it’s the season for it because it’s so chilly at the moment. I went for a recipe in Food We Love that sounded like what I was looking for. It was for Veal but how different could Venison be? Well, apparently 45 minutes in the oven different. When I followed the recipe exactly the meat was still a little chewy but after putting it back in the oven for an extra 45 mins it was perfect. We enjoyed a nice hearty Venison Osso Buco with green lentils and a bottle of Moorebank Private Vineyard 2002 Merlot and some crusty warm bread.

Osso Buco

90g Butter
2 medium carrots, chopped finely
2 large brown onions, chopped finely
3 trimmed celery sticks, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2kg Veal Osso Buco
1/3 cup flour, for dusting
2 tblsp olive oil
2x400g chopped tomatoes
½ cup dry red wine
1 ¾ cups beef stock
1 tblsp finely chopped fresh basil
1 tsp finely shopped fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2.5cm strip lemon rind

Heat a third of the butter in a large saucepan; Cook carrot, onion, celery and half of the garlic until onion is golden brown. Remove from heat; transfer vegetables to a large ovenproof dish.
Coat veal with flour; shake away excess. Heat the remaining butter and oil in same pan. Add veal; brown well on all sides. Carefully pack veal on top of vegetables.
Preheat oven to 180C
Drain fat from pan. Add undrained tomatoes, wine, stock, basil, thyme, bay leaf and strip of melon rind; bring sauce to the boil
Pour sauce over veal. Cover dish; bake in oven about 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.
[Note: I used some preserved lemon instead of the lemon rind and it was delicious. We could definitely taste it in the sauce.]

The ultimate comfort food

It’s become a little bit chilly here at the moment. Unfortunately my landlady is winning the ongoing battle over our broken heating system so we have had to rug up at night. These cold nights got me thinking about my favourite comfort food – Irish stew.

The first cook book I ever bought was The Joy of Cooking back in 1998 (not that long ago really). No fancy pictures but lots of very practical recipes. This book was a godsend when I bought it. I had just moved to Australia and wanted to try something a little more adventurous than Spaghetti Bolognese. I was 25 years old and I had never cooked stew before - now that was a crying shame. But since I bought this book I have cooked stew constantly during the few cold months here. J loves it with a pint of Guinness but personally I prefer it with a glass of ice cold fresh milk. That way it’s not just a taste bonanza but a health bonanza too.

Irish Stew
Preheat the oven to 160C.
Heat in a casserole over medium heat:
2 tbls vegetable oil or 30g unsalted butter
Add and cook without browning, until softened:
2 medium onions, chopped
Stir in:
1.35kg boneless lamb stewing meat, cut into 2.5cm cubes, or 1.35kg lamb shoulder chops
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 3/4 tsp dried
salt and ground black pepper to taste
Mix in:
2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and sliced
750ml chicken stock or water
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Add:
4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
Cover tightly and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and add, stirring:
8 medium carrots, peeled and cut diagonally into 1cm slices
45g pearl barley ( I add 100g cos I love the pearl barley)
60ml whipping cream or double cream
Cover and return to the oven. Bake until the meat is fork-tender and barley is softened, 45 to 60 minutes more.
Season with:
salt and ground black pepper to taste
Serve sprinkled with:
chopped fresh parsley

IMBB24 - Make it in 30 Minutes

Entrée

Main

Dessert

This is my first attempt at Is My Blog Burning. I love the concept. A theme to keep you focused. This month it's "The Thirty minute dinner" hosted by Too Many Chefs. Make a full meal, as much as possible from scratch, that you can serve up in less than the time it takes to get a pizza delivered. You have 30 minutes to go from the basic ingredients to the table.

Now this is the story of my life. I get home from work at 7:00 and I have friends coming over for dinner at 7:30. I'm not a great multi tasker so I like to have all my cooking done before the guests arrive so that I can concentrate on them.

Hence I bring you Figs with procsiutto, goats cheese and almonds to start. Chargrilled Lamb Backstrap with Lentil for main and a tasty little dessert of Baked apricots with fruit mince and brandy.

Just to prove this three course feast can be prepared in 30 minutes I have laid out a detailed minute by minute guide to it's preparation. I even scheduled in some time for the all important cooks treat of enjoying a glass or two of wine while cooking.

Ingredients

Starter
4 large figs
4 slices of prosciutto
50g fresh goats cheese
50g mascarpone
Salt & pepper
2 tblsps of almonds
Rocket leaves to serve

Main
4 x 200g lamb backstraps
1 tblsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
800g canned lentils, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup basil
1/2 punnet cheery tomatoes
Plain yoghurt, to serve

Dessert
1 tin apricot halves in syrup
75g minced fruit
8 tsps brandy
16 small mint leaves
cream to serve


7:00 Turn oven on to 180C and put lightly oiled chargrill on a high heat
7:01 Put tomatoes in an over proof dish. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven.
7:02 Put apricot halves in an oven proof dish and put a tblsp of fruit mince in each. Put 1/2 teasp of brandy in each apricot half. Pour juice from tinned apricots around halves
7:03
7:04 Quaff some wine
7:05
7:06 Cut a cross in the top of each fig. Wrap a slice of prosciutto around each fig.
7:07 Mix marscapone and goats cheese together. Put a tblsp of cheese mixture in each fig and season with cracked pepper.
7:08 Place greaseproof paper on baking sheet and place figs on top.
7:09
7:10 Quaff some wine
7:11
7:12 Remove tomatoes from the oven and set aside
7:13 Put Apricots in the oven
7:14
7:15 Quaff some wine
7:16
7:17 Heat oil in a saucepan over a meadium heat.
7:18 Chop garlic and add to oil. Sautee for 1 minute.
7:19 Drain lentils and add to garlic. Heat for 3 mins.
7:20 Remove meat and leave to sand for five miutes.
7:21
7:22 Put figs in the oven for 5 mins or until prosciutto starts to brown
7:23 Add Basil and roasted tomatoes to lentils. Season with salt and pepper.
7:24 Slice lamb backstrap.
7:25 Plate lentils, basil & tomato mix. Add a few slices of the lamb backstrap and a table spoon of plain yogurt
7:26 Remove Apricots and plate with juice and a mint leaf on each apricot half
7:27 Remove figs from oven and plate with some rocket and almonds.
7:28 Quaff some wine
7:29 Serve Dinner and enjoy

Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes

Must try Julie's Liver

I think I can safely say that in the last 33 years I have tasted liver once, maybe twice. My Mum was not a big fan of offal so we never had it at home. I think I might have ordered it when trying to be adventurous at a restaurant years ago. But I have a vivid imagination so when Julie Powell wrote the following passage in her excellent book Julie & Julia (365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment) I folded the page over and decided I would have to give Liver a chance.

Julie wrote "One very good and simple recipe for calves' liver is Foie de Veau a la Moutarde. ... The crunch of the mustard-spiked crust somehow brings the unctuous smooth richness of the liver into sharp relief. It's like the silky soul of steak." Does this girl have a way with words or what? I had to try it. I would put to the back of my mind the function that the liver carried out and concentrate on the ‘unctuous smooth richness’.

I was on my own as J has been away for the week so I thought this would be a good time to experiment in case it didn't taste as unctuous as Julie said. When I went to the butcher and asked for a small piece of liver he said they sold whole livers for $2. "Go on so, I'll have the whole thing". I had no idea what size a calves’ liver was so I was a little surprised with the massive hunk of liver he gave me. When I got home it took me a while to get around to the task of slicing the liver. It was huge and to be honest it slightly repulsed me. After I cut off three slices I had to hide it under a bag because I just couldn't look at it any more. There was also quite a bit of blood on and around it.

So I dredged my slices of liver in some flour and then briefly sautéed them in hot oil and butter for a minute or two on each side. I beat together some mustard, minced shallots, garlic, pepper and a bit of fat from the sauté pan. I smeared this onto the liver slices, and then coated them in fresh breadcrumbs. I placed them on a baking tray and drizzled with melted butter. I then popped them under a hot grill for about one minute each side.

I have to admit they were delicious. The mix of flavours was fantastic. I also had some Dijon mustard for dipping and some excellent Shiraz for quaffing. There’s nothing like treating yourself when you’re eating alone. A great dish and I will definitely do it again. Maybe next time I might slice it a little thinner. In fact, next time, I might get J to do the liver preparation for me because I really didn't enjoy handling it. I think it brought back memories of school science experiments.

After cooking up the liver I still had a huge chunk left over. It seemed such a shame to throw it out but I really couldn't stand looking at it any more. I put it in the bin. I was afraid it might smell in the bin so I tied up the bag and brought it down the two flights of stairs in our apartment block to the shared bin area. When I turned to go back to the apartment I noticed a small trail of blood drops had followed me. No doubt the CSI people will be knocking on my door soon especially as J went away very suddenly???!!?!?

Brie and Bacon Quiche

Shortcrust pastry
Brie
Bacon
2 yellow peppers
4 Eggs
Double cream

Buy Frozen shortcrust pastry and put into quiche dish
Cut wedge of Brie into chunks and place on base
Semi -fry some bacon and chop up. Sprinkle over base
Roast some yellow peppers. !80degrees for 1 hour. Skin, deseed and chop. Sprinkle over base
Mix eggs, carton of double cream, salt and pepper and pour over base.
Cook in oven at 190 degrees for approx 30-35 mins

Maureen's Moroccan Lamb

400g Leg of Lamb
1 Tbsp olive oil
mixed herbs
1 Clove of garlic
1 onion cubed
1 red Pepper cubed
1 green Pepper cubed
1 tin of tomatoes
Greek yoghurt

1. Cut leg of lamb into cubes removing all gristle and most of fat.
2. Marinade in olive oil herbs , garlic and seasoning for at least 12 hours turning every so often.
3. Grill on skewers with onion pieces and red and green peppers.
4. Gently heat up canned tomato pieces.
5. Put down a layer of Greek yoghurt on a platter .
6. Lay tomatoes and then meat on top. Serve.

Eileen's Moroccan lamb

Serves 4. Takes about 2 hours

2 tbsp olive oil
550g/1lb 4 oz lean lamb, cubed
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
700ml/1¼ pints lamb or chicken stock
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
1-tsp clear honey
175g/6oz ready-to-eat dried apricots
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
25g/1oz ground almonds
25/1oz toasted flaked almonds
Steamed broccoli and couscous, to serve

1. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole. Add the lamb and cook over a medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes until evenly browned, stirring often. Remove the lamb to a plate, using a slotted spoon.
2. Stir the onion and garlic into the casserole and cook gently for 5 minutes until softened. Return the lamb to the pot. Add the stock, zest and juice, cinnamon, honey and salt & pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for 1 hour.
3. Add the apricots and ⅔ of the mint and cook for 30 minutes until the lamb is tender. Stir in the ground almonds to thicken the sauce. Serve with the remaining mint and toasted almonds scattered over the top.
Eileen’s Note: When making this recipe for 8 people use only 2 pints of stock instead of 2½ pints

Meatballs with Mozzarella and Basil

1kg ground meat (½ pork, ½ beef)
2 handfuls bread
2 tablespoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon cumin seed, toasted, pounded
½ teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted, pounded
2 small dried red chillies, pounded
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 egg
4 tablespoons olive oil

SAUCE:

1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch dried oregano
2 x 400g canned tomatoes
2 handfuls fresh basil, torn

OTHER:
50g mozzarella, broken up
50g grated Parmesan cheese
drizzle extra virgin olive oil
450g dried spaghetti, cook al dente, drain

If your meat is not already minced, whiz it up in a food processor to the required consistency and place it in a bowl. Use the food processor to turn the slices of bread into bread crumbs. Add the bread crumbs, dried oregano, cumin, coriander, chilli, rosemary, and egg to the minced meat and season with a good pinch of salt and a good twist of black pepper. Mix well, and with wet hands, roll, and pat into meatballs the size and shape you want. (These can be cooked straight away or put on greaseproof paper, covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 day.)

Preheat the oven to 400ºF/200ºC. Preheat a thick-bottomed casserole to a very hot temperature. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil, swirl around the bottom of the pan, and add your meatballs. Fry them until they are brown all over, being careful not to break them up but just moving the pan around so that all sides of the meatballs get nicely coloured.

Meanwhile, to make your tomato sauce, fry the onion and garlic in a little oil. Add the dried oregano and tomatoes, rip in the basil leaves, season, and gently simmer for a few minutes. Turn the heat down, and pour over the meatballs with the mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Drizzle with olive oil and cook in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden. Serve with the cooked and drained spaghetti. Yield: 4 to 6 servings
From [Jamie Oliver The Naked Chef]

Irish Farmhouse bake

50g/2ozs. Butter
8 rashers back smoked cut into strips.
1 lg. Onion finely chopped.
125g/4ozs. Sliced mushrooms.
6 large potatoes boiled.
1 tab. spoon chopped parsley.
150 ml/quarter pint double cream.
125g/4ozs farmhouse cheddar cheese grated.
Salt & pepper

1. Melt half the butter in a pan and fry the bacon until cooked and beginning to brown.
2. Remove from pan and keep warm.
3. Fry the onions and mushrooms until cooked and beginning to colour.
4. Cut the potatoes into wedges and arrange with the fried bacon, mushrooms and onions in an oval ovenproof dish.
5. Season with pepper and salt and add parsley.
6. Pour over the cream cover with the grated cheese.
7. Bake in a preheated oven 18o for 20-30 mins. Until crisp and golden on top and very hot.
8. Serve on it’s own or with grilled tomatoes. nb. A few wild mushrooms make this special. You can also add sliced courgettes or broccoli. Enjoy!!