beef, veg and blackbirds baked in a pie

Recipe coming soon.

cardamon and pepper dusted fish with green beans and tomato concasse

We don’t eat a lot of fish because of its very high price here. But, on occasion, we pick up 1 kilo or so of Fresh Water Basa Fillets from our local supermarket for around $7.85 per kilo. Here’s a very elegant dish which I threw together with some ingredients we had on hand. One of us is not a big fish fan but she absolutely loved this dish and wanted me to make more the next day - but I couldn’t as I had used up all the beans. I served this with a simple rice pilaf which was made with long grain white rice, a generous knob of butter, homemade meat broth (made from ham, turkey & chicken bones), salt and pepper, fried shallots and a bay leaf for aroma - all simply cooked in a rice cooker. The recipe went like this…

stirfried mutton with walnuts, almonds, mushrooms & water chestnuts

Another dish mainly made up of pantry items, plus 600g of mutton leg steaks which are always very affordable at the local supermarket - sometimes around $5 a kilo. As per my usual Chinese stir-fry method, the mutton was very finely sliced against the grain while very cold - actually not quite fully defrosted - as this helps achieve a very fine slice. The slices were then mixed into the mystical veleveting mixture for true-to-Chinese-takeaway authenticity. Here’s the full recipe - note: you could also use beef, chicken, lamb or pork for this recipe instead of mutton.

roast corned beef with potatoes, parsnips, onions and yorkshire puddings

The other day we had a roast for late lunch / early dinner. It was absolutely magnificent. Instead of buying a chunk of normal beef (incredibly overpriced at the moment in the shops) we bought a pack of corned beef and roasted it up. It’s a bit unsual, yes, but it tasted absolutely fantastic.

simplest spicy summer soup

It has been pretty hot here lately and as such we haven’t felt like cooking a lot. This dish reflects that, as it took about 10 minutes to make and a minimal amount of ingredients. To tell the truth, I thought it would taste questionable. From experience tinned tomato soup (particularly the homebrand/el cheapo sorts, which is what I used on this occasion) is only really useful as an ingredient in other meals - i.e. not good as an actual soup in itself. This meal proved me wrong, though, as it was actually pretty darn good. Try it out, yourself, next time you can’t be bothered cooking for too long and want a tasty soupy lunch.  The recipe went like this…

lemon chicken marsala

Here’s a great-tasting, dead-easy chicken recipe I threw together the other day for an early dinner. This dish started with a corn-feed chicken which was on special at our local supermarket - about $6.00 for a 1.5kg bird. Marsala is a sweet, aromatic fortified wine. If you can’t find it you could use a medium-dry or a sweet sherry instead. Madiera or dry sherry would probably also work but would give quite a different flavour - although it would be perfectly acceptable but may require some sugar to balance the acidity of the lemon. This dish is so minimalist it’s almost not a recipe but here we go anyway.

lemon and herb corned beef with salad and pickles -AND- the easiest way to make homemade mayonnaise

This lemon and herb corned beef was really good served with salad, a tablespoon or so of mustard pickles, and a generous dollop of homemade mayonnaise. The corn beef was just simmered in water with a sliced up lemon, about 1/3 of a cup of sugar, some bay leaves, some peppercorns, cloves and dried thyme. It should be simmered for about 1 to 1.5 hours per kilo of beef. It should then be left to cool in the liquid before serving.

The mayonnaise contained two eggs, two tablespoons of French mustard, 1/4 cup wine vinegar, a level teaspoon of salt, white pepper, a tablespoon of sugar, and 750ml of sunflower oil (any vegetable oil is fine). Put all ingredients in a suitable sized jar or container (we usually use a recycled pasta sauce jar so you can easily seal it with with the lid and refrigerate for future use). We then use a stab blender to encorporate it. The trick is to initially keep the bottom of the stab blender (the part with the blade) pressed toward the bottom of the container. Hold down the button to start the blender. When the lowest part of the mix starts to emulsify and turn a creamy white colour, ever so slowely raise it up the mixture as each part starts to turn white.  You shouldn’t jiggle the blender around or up and down or anything - just keep it still and central within the jar you’re using. If the mix is getting too thick to the point that the blender can’t get through it well, you can gradually add up to 1/2 cup of warm water, a little at a time as you blend. When you reach the top of the jar all of the mixture should have turned a thick, creamy white colour.

This might sound a bit weird but the result is the best mayonnaise ever. It’s lusciously thick and creamy, and made from wholesome simple ingredients. If you use a clean spoon everytime you use it and make sure to keep it refrigerated, this mayonnaise should last a number of months.

You can add other flavourings as you see fit. The easiest and most versatile way is to scoop a few tablespoons from a plain batch and add different flavourings then, rather than adding them to a full batch. That way the one batch of mayonnaise can have a variety of different uses. For instance, to make seafood sauce (sometimes known as ‘thousand island dressing’) you might like to scoop out a few tablespoons of this mixture in to a small mixing bowl and add some tomato sauce, a bit of lemon juice, a little Worcestorshire sauce, some parsley or dill, maybe even a little smoked paprika and some tabasco or chilli sauce. Add a little of each, tasting as you go. You can make tartare sauce by adding some chopped raw onion, pickles, capers, parsley and lemon juice. You could make pickle mayonnaise, caper mayonnaise, herb mayonnaise, Dijonnaise, roast capsicum mayonnaise, Cesaer dressing, wasabi mayonnaise, anchovy mayonnaise, blue cheese mayonnaise.. the choices are endless.

Click here to see how we have used this mayonnaise in past posts.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!!!

“dinner for two” #2: simon johnson tomato and chilli penne with prawns and parmesan

Today I decided that it was about time I cooked up the “dinner for two” gift that my boss gave me for Christmas. I used the Simon Johnson penne, pasta sauce with chilli, and extra virgin olive oil. I topped it with the Blue Cow parmesan that was also included in the hamper. The only ingredients that I added were about 2 tablespoons of pouring cream (that’s all we had left in the carton!) and 2 generous tablespoons of sour cream. I also tossed about 1 to 2 cups of cooked prawns in to the sauce about 2 minutes before serving, just to heat. The result was one of the best pasta dishes I have eaten. Absolutely delicious and, unlike most pasta sauces I have used, not overly sweet. The flavour was very well balanced and I was happy that I didn’t have to season the sauce at all - the flavours were great out of the jar. Others might prefer to omit the creams, but I personally love creamy tomato sauces with seafood and it worked extremely well. We were both really surprised to find that the the chilli heat didn’t linger that long after eating this dish - despite being quite peppery while eating it. The Simon Johnson products aren’t something I would buy all the time - they’re far outside of my price range - but for an occasional treat they are definitely some of the best we have tried. The Blue Cow cheese, however, is something I think I’ll buy as a treat more frequently.. it’s really really good and you use less than the cheaper stuff. Bon Appétit!

The method went like this…

creamy garlic prawns with asparagus and pilaf -AND- how to make prawn stock / essence

This is another recipe utilizing more leftovers from Christmas - this time leftover frozen cooked prawns, tinned asparagus and pouring cream. You could certainly use uncooked prawns, however, and fresh asparagus too if you have those instead. The sauce is made using a strained stock consisting of the leftover prawn heads and shells, boiled up with garlic, a bay leaf, and some peppercorns. The result was a rich and very tasty essence of prawn that really delivers the taste of the sea to your sauces. Here are the recipes for the stock/essence, the creamy garlic prawns and asparagus, and the pilaf…

new year salmon skies

This evening a beautiful purple, pink, orange and yellow sunset filled the sky. The colours deepened over time to a lovely rich blend of purple and orange.

Happy New Year!