Ribollita

This week’s soup is a classic Italian dish, Ribollita from the river Café Cook Book (Blue), I’ve never made or eaten this before so was looking forward to seeing what it is like. Note that I couldn’t find any Cavolo Nero & don’t know if you can even buy it here at all, so according to the book I have substituted with silverbeet but I am no longer authentic.
Also I used beans in a can so you can see I am a real cheat, sorry but I just cant be bothered with all of that soaking when the tins taste pretty good to me & can cater to my sometimes lazy streak. I halved the quantities & still got 6 good sized servings jam packed full of veggies – I left mine quite thick with not much liquid at all. Oh and one other thing, you will need a bloody big pot even if making only a half serve! In the end you have a good hearty soup for a cold Winters night, the silverbeet gives it a particular earthy flavour & the bread a nice and unusual texture.

Ribollita

Serves 10

250g cannellini or borlotti beans, soaked overnight with 2 tablespoons of bicarb of soda (or use a tin & cheat as I did)
1 large tomato
½ bulb garlic
a handful of fresh sage leaves

1 large bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped
2 whole heads celery, chopped
450g carrots, peeled & chopped
4 medium red onions, peeled & chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 x 800g tin peeled plum tomatoes, drained of their juices
2kg cavolo nero, stalks removed, leaves coarsely chopped (or sub with swiss chard/silverbeet, savoy cabbage, kale, broccoli or rape leaves)
2 loaves stale ciabatta bread, crusts removed, sliced or torn
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Drain the beans well (and rinse if from a tin), place in a saucepan, cover with fresh cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes, then drain again. Pour in enough fresh water to cover by about 5cm, then add the tomato, garlic bulb & sage. Return to the boil & simmer, covered, occasionally removing any scum that comes to the surface, until tender, which can very from 40 minutes to 1 ½ hours (or considerably less if from a tin). Keep the beans in the water they’re cooked in.

In a large saucepan fry the parsley leaves, garlic, celery, carrot and onion in the oil for about 30 minutes until the flavours combine. Add the tomatoes & continue to cook on a gentle heat for a further 30 minutes, then add the cavolo nero and half the cannellini beans with enough of their liquid to cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.

In a food processor, puree the remaining beans and return to the soup with just enough boiling water to make the soup liquid. Add the bread, a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil, and season well with salt & pepper. As exact amounts are not possible, you must balance the amount of liquid to bread so that the soup is very thick.

Kluski Soup - A childhood favourite

When my mum came over this week she made some Kluski soup, this is a Polish recipe that my Grandma used to make for us all of the time, I love it & it’s really very simple so I really should make it myself sometime too, I sometimes forget about the simple things in life in my quest to try out so many new foods & recipes. Kluski are basically Polish dumplings that are added to chicken noodle soup. We cheat & use a packet mix, of course if you make home made chicken stock it is so much the nicer for it.

So thanks Mum & Happy Mothers Day for yesterday!

Kluski Soup

2 packets of Continental Chicken Noodle Soup (Not the low salt one)
2-3 large carrots
3-4 potatoes
2 eggs
Flour

Make the soup to packet instructions & add some chopped carrots. When the carrots start to soften add the peeled & chopped potatoes. As this is cooking, make your kluski, in a mug beat the 2 eggs lightly, add enough flour & stir until you have a thick dough, it needs to not be runny but still be able to be stirred. When the potatoes are nearly done, drop teaspoons of the dough into the soup & cook for a couple more minutes until the dumplings are just cooked through. Serve immediately.

Slow Cooked Shoulder of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables & Shepherd’s Pie

Yesterday I made this slow cooked roast from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners & turned it into a pie as suggested. The aroma in the kitchen all afternoon, not too mention the lovely warmth filling the house was wonderful. When it came out of the oven though I was a little disappointed to find that even after 4 hours my lamb was a little tough & wasn’t the greatest cut of meat – may have to rethink my butcher. Apart from that, the flavours were wonderful & the roasted veggies had that sweet, garlicky flavour from all of the juices, much nicer than the traditional mince meat, bland shepherd’s pie of old.

Slow Cooked Shoulder of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables & Shepherd’s Pie

1 x 2.25kg shoulder of lamb, bone in
olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
a handful of fresh rosemary sprigs
2 red onions, peeled & quartered
3 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, cut into pieces
1 large leek or 2-3 baby leeks, trimmed & cut into pieces
a handful of ripe tomatoes, halved
2 bay leaves
a handful of fresh thyme sprigs
2 x 400g tins of good quality plum tomatoes
1 bottle of red wine
Potatoes (For Mashing)

Preheat oven to 200c. Rub the lamb with oil, salt & pepper & put it into a roasting tray. Using a sharp knife, make small incisions all over the lamb & poke rosemary leaves & some quartered cloves of garlic into each one. Add the rest of the garlic cloves, the onions, carrots, celery, leeks and fresh tomatoes to the tray, then tuck the remaining herbs under the meat. Pour the tinned tomatoes over the top, followed by the wine. Cover the tray tightly with a double layer of foil & put it into the oven. Turn down the oven to 170c & cook for 3 ½ to 4 hours, until the lamb is soft, melting & sticky & you can pull it apart with a fork. Gently break up the meat, pull out the bones & extract any herby stalks. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins & mush it in. Shred the lamb, and check the seasoning.

To turn this into a shepherd’s pie, transfer the lamb & veggies to a casserole dish, cover with mash potato, add a sprig of rosemary & bake in the oven at 200c for 35 minutes until golden.

Puy Lentil Soup

Well with the cold weather setting in it’s time for me to start making my usual pot of soup per week. Today I felt like I needed some fiber so it was this very hearty soup from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. The soup was very tasty & didn’t require any extra seasoning, I think this is because my vege stock was very salty. It was also quite thick with almost no liquid remaining, bordering on a stew I guess, no complaints from me there, served with some crusty fresh bread it was the perfect lunch.

Puy Lentil Soup

50g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped Spanish onion
½ cup sliced leek, white part only
½ cup chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
400g tin chopped Italian tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock, or water
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
½ cup lentils du Puy
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
½ cup finely chopped parsley

Melt butter and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and leeks & cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add celery, garlic & chilli and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, stock (or water), bay leaves, oregano & lentils & bring to the boil. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper if needed & stir through parsley.

Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

This is another dish from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners in his top ten. It’s a pretty good pie, I’m a pie fan loving any type of pastry dish so this was a winner for me, a good combination including lots of veggies & the filling was not too runny as I find a lot of pie recipes are. One note however, the recipe is to serve 4, once you add the mash & any other sides you will get at least 6 very generous serves out of it & that’s saying something as Michael & I are pretty big eaters (I hate to admit it but its true, can you tell?)

Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

Olive Oil
2 knobs of butter
1kg boned & skinned chicken legs (cut into pieces) – I used thigh fillets
2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed & sliced into 1cm pieces
2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
3 sticks of celery, finely sliced
a small handful of thyme, leaves picked
2 tablespoons flour
1 wineglass of white wine
285ml/1/2 pint milk
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
255g good pork sausages
1 x 500g pack of all butter puff pastry (or a couple of sheets of ready rolled as I used)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 220c. Take a large casserole pot & add a lug of olive oil & the butter. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery & thyme & cook slowly on the hob for 15 minutes. Turn the heat right up, add the flour, and keep stirring for a couple of minutes before adding the wine, a wineglass of water & the milk. Season with a little salt & pepper, then cover with a tight fitting lid & simmer very slowly on the hob for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir it every so often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. The sauce should be loose but quite thick. If it’s too liquid, just continue to simmer it with the lid off until it thickens slightly.

Pour the mixture into a pie dish. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, roll it into balls, brown then in a little oil & sprinkle them over the stew. Roll out your pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Egg wash the rim of the dish & drape the pastry over the edges & trim. Egg wash the top, crimp the edges & cut criss crosses into the top to allow the pastry to go crisp & flaky. Cook in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden on top. Serve with sweetcorn & mash.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

The other day I had people in and out so I baked this pleasing cake from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie. Whilst it turned out very nice in the end it wasn’t without some drama. Firstly I have an electric fan forced oven that usually cooks perfectly as per recipe instructions or if anything faster so I was surprised when after cooking for a bit over the recommended 50 minutes and a skewer coming out clean, I left it for 10 minutes then went to turn it out & it started dripping out!!! Maybe I should have left for 5 seconds as recommended, I thought he was just being fussy in the recipe. I was not happy so I quickly turned the oven back on & stuck it in for another 20 minutes or so by which time it was finally cooked. After all of that fussing it did break in half when turning out but I managed to patch it back together with the very yummy icing which tasted just like cheesecake & a not too sweet one at that. I also had heaps of icing left over & I iced the sides too.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder
115g ground almonds
115g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
sea salt

Icing
115g Mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 22cm square or round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest & juice. Stir in the flour & baking powder & add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices & carrot & mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them in the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin & cook for about 50 minutes until golden & risen. Check to see if cooked by poking in a cocktail stick, remove after 5 seconds & if it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If sticky it needs a bit longer so put back in the oven. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together & spread generously over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts & serve.

Spicy Tomato and Fennel Soup

This soup from Bill Grangers Bill’s Food is quite unusual in that you don’t add any stock or water, it is pure roasted veg with some olive oil thrown in, all pureed up. It has a very rich & intense flavour that is quite nice though I would be tempted to water it down a bit next time as it can beceome a bit overwhelming halfway through your serve.

Spicy Tomato and Fennel Soup

2kg vine ripened tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small carrot, diced
½ small fennel bulb, finely chopped
60ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin oil
2 tablespoons sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Basil leaves to serve

Preheat oven to 200c. Place the tomatoes, garlic, carrot and fennel in a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Cover with foil & bake for 1 ½ hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes or until the vegetables are well cooked.

Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender & blend until combined. Serve with basil leaves sprinkled on top

Char Sui Pork with Asian vegetables

Another quickie tonight – so quick in fact that Michael whipped it up as I was held up on my way home from work (shopping & late trams as usual). After I marinated the pork last night there wasn’t much left to do except for a bit of chopping & grilling. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stone, Surfing the Menu. The pork is fantastic, juicy & tender from all the marinating & char sui is such a delicious flavour, with the added extra’s it was even better. The veggies were ok however the sauce was a bit too strong for my liking so wont be making them again.

Char Sui Pork with Asian vegetables

Marinade

200g char sui paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 garlic clove, bruised
1cm piece ginger, sliced

2 medium pork fillets

Vegetables

½ head of broccoli
1 zucchini
1 carrot
¼ each of red, yellow & green capsicum
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Asian shallot, sliced
1 small clove garlic, crushed
¼ teaspoon grated ginger
½ head pak choy, shredded
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a ceramic or glass bowl and add the pork fillets, turning to coat. Cover & refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 180c. Remove the pork from the marinade & seal on both sides in a medium fry pan, 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a roasting dish for 8 minutes in the oven, remove & rest covered with foil for 3-4 minutes.

Cut the broccoli, zucchini, carrot & capsicum into bite sized pieces. Heat oil in wok add the veggies & shallot, garlic, ginger & pak choy. Stir fry for 15-20 seconds. Add soy & oyster sauce & continue to fry until vegges soft, about 20-30 seconds. Stir through sesame oil & serve with the pork carved into 1 cm slices. Drizzle ay juices from the roasting dish over & serve.

Steak & Guiness Pie

For dinner tonight another favorite from Jamie Oliver, this time from Happy Days. The thing I love about this dish is it’s so easy & can be prepared ahead of time ready to just pop into the oven later.

Steak & Guiness Pie

680g stewing beef, diced
sea salt & fresjly ground black pepper
2 heaped tablespoons flour
Olive Oil
1 onion, peeled & roughly chopped
4 sticks celery, washed & roughly chopped
2 parsnips, peeled & roughly chopped
1 handful of fresh mixed herbs (ie rosemary, thyme & bay)
565ml/1 pint Guiness
2 x 400g rins tomatoes
1 x 500g pack puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Season your beef generously with salt & pepper, sprinkle with flour & toss around until coated. Heat 2 or 3 glugs olive oil in a large casserole-type pan & fry your meat until golden brown. Add the onion & fry for another minute, then add the carrot, celery, parsnips & herbs. Fry for a further 4 minutes then pur in your Guiness. Add the tomtoes & rbing to the boil, simmer for around 2 hours or until the meat is really tender, season to taste. At this stage you can move to the fridge until ready to serve, this will also intensify the flavour.

To make the pies, preheat oven to 190c. Put your meat filling into a dishor dishes (if making individual pies). Cut your pastry into circles about 1cm bigger than the top of your dish(s). Brush the rims with beaten egg, place the pastry on top squash the excess down the sides to secure. Lightly score the top of the pstry in a criss cross pattern & brush with the remaining beaten egg. Bake for 45 minutes until golden & Bubbling.

Sweet & Sour Pork

Last week I made this dish from Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking. The sauce was absolutely fantastic, the fresh ingredients work a treat & the flavours were beautiful, fresh & delicate. On the pork however I need some practice, I have no clue how to deep fry! I suspect I didn’t heat my oil high enough before I started so the end result was still tasty but not crisp, golden & luscious as promised. It’s funny you would think that deep frying would be the easiest cooking method of all but because I have always steered away from it, you know, too much fat, etc, I am way behind on this technique. Anyway the flavours were there & lots more recipes to perfect my technique on yet!

Sweet and Sour Pork

1 ½ tablespoons cornflour
1 tablespoon cold water
2 x 300g pork neck fillets, cut in half lengthways and then into bite sized pieces on the diagonal
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
3 teaspoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup plain flour
¼ cup cornflour
vegetable oil, for deep frying

Sweet and Sour Sauce

¼ small ripe pineapple, peeled
1 small carrot, peeled
1 small cucumber, peeled
¾ cup malt vinegar
5 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoons seal salt, extra
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons ginger, julienne
½ medium sized yellow pepper, julienned
2 small tomatoes, finely sliced
2 tablespoons light soy sauce

Blend cornflour with water in a bowl until dissolved. Add pork, egg yolks, soy sauce, sesame oil & salt and mix well. Cover & leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.

To make the sauce, remove core from pineapple & finely slice into pieces. Using a vegetable peeler, finely slice carrot lengthways into ribbons. Cut cucumber in half, slice on the diagonal & set aside, together with carrot & pineapple.

Place vinegar, wine or sherry, sugar & extra salt in a medium heavy-based saucepan & stir over high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, add garlic, ginger, reduce heat & simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Add pineapple, carrot, cucumber, pepper & tomato & simmer for a further 3 minutes or until pineapple is tender & tomato has broken down slightly. Stir in soy sauce, remove from stove & set aside.

Combine plain flour & extra cornflour. Add the pork & mix well. Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Deep fry pork in batches over high heat for 1 minute, then reduce heat to medium & fry for another 2 minutes, or until pork is almost cooked through. Remove & drain on absorbent paper. Gently reheat sauce. Return all pork to the hot wok & deep fry for a further 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, crispy & cooked through. Remove & drain well on paper. Serve with sauce.

Spiced Slow-cooked Lamb Shanks

The other day I realised that winter is nearly over & to my shock & horror I haven’t made a single batch of lamb shanks this season. Well of course I had to rectify that immediately & cooked up this tasty version from Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef. The thing I love about this dish is the fact that really you just chop everything up, cook it a bit then chuck it in the oven for a couple of hours & wallah you have a gorgeously tender piece of meat falling off the bone, complete with intensely flavoured veggies, a little mash, polenta or whatever takes your fancy on the side & your meal is complete.

Spiced Slow-cooked Lamb Shanks

4 lamb shanks
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon corianders seeds
1 small dried red chilli
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon dried marjoram or oregano
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 large carrot, quartered & finely sliced
6 sticks of celery, quartered & finely sliced
2 medium onions, quartered & finely chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
170ml dry white wine
6 anchovy fillets
2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes
1 handful of fresh basil, marjoram or flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Season the lamb with salt & pepper. Smash up the coriander seeds & dried chilli & mix with rosemary & dried oregano. Roll the lamb in this mixture, pressing it well. Dust the lamb with the flour.

Heat a thick bottomed casserole pan, add the oil, brown the meat on all sides & then remove from the pan. Add the garlic, carrot, celery, onions & a pinch of salt and sweat until softened. Add the vinegar & allow it to reduce to a syrup. Pour in the wine & allow to simmer for 2 minutes. Add the anchovies & tinned tomatoes, kept whole. Shake the pan & return the lamb to it. Bring to the boil, put on a lid & simmer in the oven at 180c for 1 ½ hours, then remove lid & cook for a further half an hour. Season to taste & stir in the fresh herbs.

Mushroom Soup

This recipe is by Gordon Ramsay as it appeared in last months Delicious magazine. It is supposed to be made with Madeira which I didn’t have handy so substituted sherry as suggested as well as a couple of other little tweaks. I like the fact that as well as the mushies it contains lots of other veggies so nice & healthy. It turned out to be quite thick & tasty, another great winter warmer even though its not very pretty to look at.

Wild Mushroom Soup

1 litre chicken stock
½ cup medium dry sherry
50g unsalted butter
3 leeks (white part only), finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
1 tspn crushed coriander seeds
Leaves of 4 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
500g mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
100ml crème fraiche
Truffle oil, to drizzle

Combine the stock & sherry in a saucepan and boil until mixture is reduced by one quarter or until you have 800ml. Set aside until needed.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Cook the leek, onion, celery & carrot for 6-8 minutes until the onion is translucent & vegetables are soft. Add the reduced stock, coriander, thyme & bay leaf & simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms & cook for 3-4 minutes until just soft.

Remove the pan from the heat, discard the bay leaf, then puree with a hand held blender. Top with crème fraiche & drizzle with truffle oil to serve.

Taxi

Sunday night my lovely husband took me out for dinner to Taxi for our 6 year anniversary (dating 6 yrs not married – yes I know I am milking as many dates as possible for fancy dinners & special treatment), I have been dying to go here for ages so yes it was my choice & not his. When we arrived at the entrance, which if you don’t know is also the Transport bar entrance, I had my handbag searched, guess they were not taking any chances on the crowds expected to arrive to watch the Oz v Brazil game later that night which we did not hang around for & luckily as a sad loss for us. Also they checked our reservation so that when we arrived upstairs they were waiting for us which was a nice touch. I have to say the service we received all night was very special & impressive, not often one comes away from a restaurant being able to say that I find. The ambience was lovely & romantic, soft lighting, funky music, nice & warm – nothing worse than a cold restaurant where you have to keep your jacket on to stay warm! I was seated on one of those long couches they have with Michael seated opposite, this was great in that I love the old couch seat, very comfy & I had the added bonus of being able to look out & see all of the city lights.

On to the food, to start with we were brought some bread rolls, which they also kept offering us all night – another nice touch not having to beg for extra bread. Then after we had placed our orders – which took a very, very long time as so much delicious sounding food to choose from, we were brought an appetiser – a shot of Carrot, ginger & 7 spices soup – was fantastic & wish I had the recipe, would make a great winter warmer soup. Next I had the Salad of Masterstock pork belly & quail with apple puree, again very nice & the apple puree the pork was placed on made a great accompaniment. For the main I had one of the specials of the day, Half a duck steamed & roasted, rubbed with schezuan spices, served on from what I can remember a salad that contained shredded pumpkin, mint & pink grapefruit amongst other things. I am a big sucker for duck & if its on a menu will order it 9 times out of 10 so have very hight standards, it very tasty & cooked to perfection, not to dry, not to pink & lovely crispy spiced skin. After this I was pretty much full but of course there was no way I was leaving without sampling some dessert from the menu, this turned out to be a very wise decision as my choice was to die for & the best course yet. I had the Cuban Dark chocolate & macadamia mille feuille, absolutely luscious & I nearly had to pick up the plate & lick it clean. Not a cheap night but great if you want something a bit special, wish I could go every week!

Taxi
Level 1, Transport Hotel
Federation Square, Melbourne
Ph: 9654 8808
http://www.transporthotel.com.au/

Pappardelle with amazing slow-cooked meat - Dinner Party prt 2

This recipe comes from Jamie’s Kitchen. It calls for beef, venison, wild boar or even pigeon. I chose to use lamb shoulder as for some reason I really wanted a lamb pasta. I also made double as I was cooking for 8 adults & 3 children & the recipe serves 4. I was a bit worried when I started thinking it would turn into big lumps of hard chewy lamb but the end result was sensational. Theh lamb flaked apart as promised & combined wiht the sauce was a lovely rich, thick wintery sauce that went perfectly with the pasta. I served with a mixed lettuce & parmsesan & a capri salad. Everyone seemed to be very happy with their dinner & all plates were emptied!

Pappardelle with amazing slow-cooked meat

800g braising meat, seasoned & cut into large 5cm chunks
extra virgin olive oil
1 handful of fresh rosemary & thyme, leaves picked & finely chopped
1 small red onion, peeled & finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled & finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled & finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 wineglasses of chianti
2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons pearl barley
salt & freshly ground black pepper
400g fresh or dried Pappardelle
100g butter
2 handfuls of grated parmesan cheese

In a hot casserole dish (suitable for stove top) fry your meat in a little olive oil until golden brown then add herbs, onion, garlic, carrot & celery. Turn the heat down & continue to fry for 5 minutes or until vegetables have softened. Add your red wine & continue to simmer until the liquid has almost cooked away.

Add the tomatoes, the barley & enough water to cover the meat by 1cm. Make a cartouche of greaseproof paper. Wet it under the tap, rub with a little olive oil & place it over the pan. Put a lid on the pan as well to retain as much moisture during cooking as possible. Cook n a really low heat for 2-3 hours, its ready when the meat flakes apart. Season to taste & allow to cool slightly. Now pull the meat apart & keep over a low heat.

Cook your Pappardelle in boiling salted water & drain, reserving some of the liquid. Remove the meat from the heat & stir in the butter & parmesan & a little of the cooking water. Toss together with the pasta & serve with some freshly grated parmesan.

Tomato & Red Lentil Soup

With the colder than normal for May bloody freezing conditions outside, tonight for dinner I cooked up one of my favourite Winter staples, tomato & red lentil soup, dead easy, warming & very delicious

Tomato & Red Lentil Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 clove of garlic
2 tins crushed tomatoes
4 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup red lentils

Gently fry onion, garlic & carrot in a heavy bottomed soup pan until softened. Add tomatoes, stock & lentils, cook for approx 1 hour until all ingredients softened. Season to taste & serve with some crusty bread

Spezzatino with cheesy Polenta

Tonight for dinner I cooked up a lovely humble beef stew in keeping with my current theme of Winter slow cooking. It was an Italian dish inspired by Stefano de Pieri from Allan Campion & Michele Curtis’ Food With Friends’. I served it with some cheesy Polenta from the same book, the polenta was delicious, well worth the effort & a nice change for me from my usual mash potato or couscous. After 3 hours of cooking the meat was nice & tender & the liquid had turned into a delicious flavour filled thick goodness, very simple yet oh so good. The polenta was a great match for it & it was another great cold nights dinner, can you see the heart warming steam coming off it?

Spezzatino

Olive oil for cooking
2 carrots, diced
2 onions, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1.5kg blade steak, diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled
250ml (1 cup) red wine
4 potatoes, peeled & diced
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
250ml (1 cup) tomato sugo
1 bay leaf
salt & freshly ground black pepper
250-375ml (1-1 ½ cups) beef stock

Serves 6

Heat a large heavy based saucepan over medium heat. Add a generous splash of olive oil and carrots, onions & celery & cook for 5-6 minutes until soft but not coloured. Remove, add more oil if necessary & cook beef in batches. Cook until well sealed (browned), return vegetables to the saucepan along with all other ingredients & enough of the stock to cover the meat.

Bring to a gentle simmer & cook for 2 ½-3 hours over a low heat, partially covered until meat is tender. Check seasoning.

Cheesy Polenta

750ml (3 cups) water
750ml (3 cups) chicken or vegetable stock
270g (1 ½ cups) polenta
90g parmigiano, grated or shaved
salt

Serves 6

Bring water & stock to the boil in a heavy based saucepan. Sprinkle polenta over & whisk in to prevent lumps forming. Reduce to a low simmer & cook fro 20 minutes, stirring often until the mixture thickens. Take care, as the polenta can splutter & burn. Add more stock or water if it becomes too thick to stir. Remove from heat & stir through parmigiano, season to taste & serve.

Chicken Stock

Well I know every good chef is supposed to make their own stock but to be honest most of the time I used the stuff in a carton as who really has the time??? However a combination of today being the start of Easter, deciding to go on a 4 day cooking & baking frenzy & having some chicken thighs that Michael mistakenly bought when I had asked for fillets, I thought I would make up a huge batch to freeze for later use, so huge I needed 2 great big pots to fit it all in. It really is very easy, you just need those 4 hours or so to hang around waiting for it which for once I had plenty of spare time. The aroma in the kitchen while bubbling away all day was delicious & I’m sure it will make a big difference to the dishes I make with it (it better anyway!!) & Mojo should enjoy the chicken. Even though it’s very simple I pretty much followed Jamie Oliver’s recipe which can be found in The Naked Chef & The Return of the Naked Chef, almost the same recipe in both, I omitted just a couple of things which I didn’t have handy, leeks & thyme.

Chicken Stock

For 4 litres of stock

2kg raw chicken carcasses, chopped
½ whole head of garlic, broken up but unpeeled
5 sticks celery, roughly chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 medium leeks, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
3 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
5 sprigs fresh parsley
5 sprigs fresh thyme
5 whole black peppercorns
6 litres of cold water.

In a large, deep, thick bottomed pot (or 2!), place all ingredients. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat & simmer gently for 3-4 hours, skimming as necessary, then pass the stock through a fine sieve. After cooling for about half an hour, divide into small containers & freeze or you can keep in the fridge for about 4 days.

Pasta E Fagioli

With the cold weather that has suddenly hit Melbourne I thought it was time to start cooking up some warming winter soups, this is my first of the season. The recipe comes from this year’s Delicious diary. Very easy & quick to make so good if you’ve had a busy day running around as I have & just want to knock up something in a hurry. The end result was a thick hearty soup, the rosemary flavours really shone through, very yummy.

Pasta E Fagioli

150g tubetti pasta (or other small pasta)
2 tbspn olive oil
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 sprig rosemary
2 x 400g cans cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
400g can borlotti beans, rinsed & drained
425g can whole tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 ltre (4 cups) vegetable stock
50g (2 handfuls) baby spinach

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water according to packet instructions, then drain.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook the celery, carrot & onion for about 10 minutes until softened but not browned. During the final minutes of cooking, stir in the garlic & rosemary.
Process 1 can of cannellini beans until pureed but still chunky. Add pureed beans, whole beans, tomatoes, stock & 1 cup water to onion mixture. Bring to a simmer, cover & cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir through pasta & spinach & season.

Vegetable Meme

Tankeduptaco tagged me for this vegetable meme, so here goes

Do you like vegetables?

Love vegetables & in my early 20’s I even had a couple of vegetarian years until I had an unbelievable craving for steak & never looked back after giving in, now I take my veggies alongside my meat though I do usually cook at least one vegetarian meal a week

Do you have a favourite vegetable?

This is a very difficult question as I love pretty much all veggies. I would have to say that strictly speaking the humble potato, probably the most boring though very versatile of veggies is my fave. As mentioned due to my peasant Polish/Lithuanian roots a lot of my favourite foods growing up were potato based, 2 of my all time favourites being potato pierogi served with sour cream (made by my Polish gran) & ‘meatballs’ (this was a dish my Lithuanian Nan used to cook up & I have no idea of the traditional name & have never seen or heard of it anywhere else & sadly don’t have the recipe, basically the filling was some sort of mince & was covered in a very fine potato mash mixture then boiled & served with a sauce of bacon cooked in cream- how bad can you get in the fat stakes?), would love to hear from any Lithuanians out there if they have eaten this or similar & if they have the recipe

Is there any vegetable that you think (or know) most people don't like, but you find great?

Fennel

Why?

I don’t necessarily think most people don’t like it just a lot of people, think it may be the strong aniseed flavour that scares some people away. I on the other hand love it & have used it for many dishes including a lovely roast pork & a really simple bouillabaisse that I whip up often in winter, promise to make again soon & post

Is there any vegetable that you think (or know) most people find great, but you don't love that much.

Radish

What experiences did you have with it?

I used to have to make millions of them into little flowers for garnish in a pub bistro I worked in when I was still in my teens which was very, very boring. I haven’t had a bad experience with them, I just don’t get it, to me they are tasteless so what’s the point?What kind of vegetables are unusual to you?Daikon & Rhubarb, they seem to be everywhere yet I have never laid my hands on them, though I have eaten rhubarb out. Plan to try them out in my kitchen one of these days. Also Okra, have never cooked with or eaten this mysterious vegetable, in fact I don’t even know what it looks like, may have to try tankeduptaco’s recipe!

Name a couple of vegetables that you cook and eat.

Tomatoes – so versatile, one favourite way is cherry tomatoes (or any small tomatoes, grape, mini roma, etc), roasted in the oven with olive oil, garlic & basil & then thrown in salads. Or a simple Salad caprese with home grown tomatoes & basil is always a winner too.

Roasted veg, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, parsnip, garlic, onions, carrots, etc all with some Rosemary thrown in – yum,

Any veggies in soups, ie a combo of squash, mushies, capsicum, onion, carrots, stock & some cous cous thrown in to thicken up or simple pumpkin soup – great winter warmers

Which vegetables do you want to know more about and bring into your kitchen?

Globe Artichokes & Rhubarb, 2 ingredients that for some reason I am not sure of the prep so always shy away from, plan to change that soonSome thoughts about vegetables.What can I say about veggies, well I think vegetables are fantastic either very simply cooked, ie bbq corn on the cob or dressed up to impress. The fact that they are good for you too is excellent as you can eat as much as you like unless of course cooked with loads of butter, cheese, etc in which case still eat loads & ignore the guilty feelings served up alongside, life is too short!

Name a great cookbook.

I don’t have any purely veggie cookbooks apart from a very old Women’s Weekly vegetarian book from my meat free days in my 20’s. Does have a few good recipes though including a great red lentil soup that I make many huge batches of every winter

Lastly I will tag The Apprentice Patissier, Sarah & Niki, again only if they have the time or inclination to share their thoughts

Spiced lamb tagine with preserved lemon & green olives

Well after going out for a fairly late breakfast this morning I wasn’t really up for lunch & instead when I got peckish late this afternoon I had some left over Christmas plum pudding made beautifully by my mum, I love the way these things last forever & get better with age (as do women of course), a very generous dash of custard & a minute or so in the microwave & yum all done!

As is typical of Melbourne weather, after a couple of gorgeous perfect hot days the sky turned dark, lightning flashed, the sky rumbled & then came the rain, has been pretty heavy & steady all afternoon which of course left me with lots of time to cook up some slow food for dinner as I couldn’t get stuck into the garden as planned.

Made the following Lamb Tagine which in my modesty I claimed to be ‘absolutely sensational & possibly even better than the one I had at Mecca Bah recently’. Michael though, as is usual said it was ‘nice’ but much preferred last nights duck as the flavours were not strong enough for him. Anyway I think this dish won out myself, lamb falling apart, beautiful subtle spicy flavours, & perfect with a glass of 2001 Brown brothers merlot & the sounds of the rain beating down outside. Now all I need is a Tagine Dish so I can make it for my next dinner party & impress everyone, next time I’m in Morocco perhaps…! The recipe was ripped from a recent magazine, sorry can’t remember which one, here it is

Spiced lamb tagine with preserved lemon & green olives

Olive Oil
3 sticks celery, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 medium brown onions, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbspn roasted & ground cumin seeds
1 tbspn roasted & ground coriander seeds
¼ tspn ground turmeric
¼ tspn ground ginger
¼ tspn ground cinnamon
pinch saffron threads
1 boned lamb shoulder, approx 1.5-2kg, cut into 6cm pieces
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
2-3 litres chicken stock or water
2 tbspn honey
2 tbspn harissa
1 cup pitted green olives, cut in half
1 tbspn julienne of preserved lemon
salt & pepper
1 cup picked & washed coriander leaves
1 cup picked & washed parsley leaves
steamed couscous to serve

In a saucepan big enough to hold the lamb, heat a good splash of olive oil, add the veges & garlic & cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until soft but not brown. Add the mixed spices, lamb, tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme & enough stock or water to cover the lamb. Bring to the boil, skim the surface of any fat, then reduce heat to low & simmer very gently for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Skim the fat from the surface again, then add the honey, harissa, olives & preserved lemon. Season to taste with salt & pepper, then transfer to a tagine dish (if you are lucky enough to have one that is!) for serving.

Scatter the herbs generously over the top & serve immediately with steamed couscous on the side.