Kumara Sformato

This recipe I got from Kitchenist's blog.

Bake 2 Kumara until soft a little vegetable oil will help.

Meanwhile make a cheese sauce.

Melt 30gms butter, stir through some flour and use a little milk to keep the sauce liquid, stir through some grated cheese until melted.

Mix the cheese sauce through the mashed Kumara and top with grated cheese

Oven bake at 160c for 25 minutes

Wayne's Eton Mess

Process together a punnet of raspberries with 5 strawberries

Whip up 150mls of cream

Crumble 1 meringue, pour in fruit, add whipped cream top with fresh strawberries and ice cream.

Nice!!

Cheese and silver beet pie

Blanch 2 bunches of sliced silver beet leaves in boiling water and drain well
Line a creased pie dish with 1 tortilla
Mix 250gms ricotta cheese
150gms of crumbled feta cheese
1 cup of grated tasty cheese
2 beaten  eggs
3 sliced spring onions
Drained silver beats

Alternate a layer of the cheese mix with a tortilla
Top with grated tasty cheese
Cover and bake at 160c for 35 mins stand for 10 minutes before serving

I served this with pan fried salmon

The Chef behind the Bar

Scott Thomas has written an interesting and worthwhile cookbook here. His focus for the book and professionally is pub food. For anyone who has been watching TV from the United Kingdom you will have noticed the whole gastro pub movement. Thomas believes the Australian food scene really needs the shake up that good pub food will bring.

Having set up two successful pubs in melbourne Thomas is in a good situation to share what works and the attitude required to transform a bar into a whole lot more. He outlines the idea of basing the whole venue on a welcoming and homely bar. Relaxed customers are the key and the whole business is based around the idea of a pleasant location for a drink and a bite to eat. Building off this then is the idea of a relaxed dining area serving good quality food at reasonable prices.

The key to success seems to be a positive staff and a relaxed approach underpinned with good quality food served in a way that relaxes and encourages social interaction. The menu is far from fussy, yet reflects care with the choice of seasonal quality ingredients. Bar food ranges from smoked haddock croquettes, tamarind chicken wings and of course a good quality burger. However this is Australia and you can also have a meat pie, fish and chips or a good steak in short what any Aussie might expect but done to a very high standard.

This is only the tip of a gastro pub and the dining room offers guests that little bit more in terms of quality and variety. At its heart the gastro pub establishes a high level of food in an environment to make it more accessible to customers who might never choose to go to a restaurant of similar standard. The dining room features some lovely recipes a stilton souffle caught my eye as did the roast poussin with walnut bread sauce. Deserts to do not disappoint with a range of traditional English deserts such as rhubarb eton mess, treacle tart and steamed brown ale pudding.

In short this book gives a great picture of how these two successful pubs in Melbourne work and with over 60 recipes why they are so popular. Its a good book with solid recipes that are clearly explained, well pictured and with instructions that most cooks can reproduce at home. This is a very enjoyable book.

Brenda's Totally pro Spaghetti Bolognese

Brown 1 Kilo of beef mince
Combine with  Leggo's Italian Herb sauce
Add 1 dash of Tabasco sauce
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 chopped tomato
150mls thickened cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with pasta of choice garnish with grated parmesan cheese

Pumpkin and Cheese Pies

Begin by blind baking some shortcrust Pastry into individual pie shells

Cut one butternut squash into 1 cm pieces
Cut one spanish onion into segments
Drizzle with olive oil and oven bake

Mix ricotta cheese and goats cheese with a little milk and spoon into the bottom of the cooled pie bases

Top with the baked vege and garnish with dill and parsley

For a little extra add some smoked salmon on top.

Treacle Tart

I used a pastry shell you could of course make your own.

225gms golden syrup
50g treacle
100ml thick cream
100gms butter
2 beaten eggs
150gms breadcrumbs
1 lemon zest and juice

Combine butter, syrup and treacle and heat.
Then stir through other ingredients

Bake at 160c for about 40 minutes

Stuffed Butternut Squash

Chop a butternut squash in half scoop out the seeds douse with olive oil and bake at 180c for 40 mins.

Meanwhile cook up some royal quinoa (1 cup grain to 2.5 cups water, boil like rice then allow to sit)
Saute some onion and some baby spinach

Remove the pumpkin flesh dice finely and mix with other ingredients
Cover with cheese and bake until melted.

This was a vegetarian option while others ate roast chicken.

Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Maple Syrup

Clean and trim the sprouts and cut in half - blanch

Saute until golden in olive oil and butter

Meanwhile dice a quantity of quality bacon and cook with the sprouts.

Drizzle the maple syrup just before serving (or just after)

Makes a vegetable I don't normally like eatable. To quote one person at my table " It tastes good cause you can't taste the brussel sprouts."

Cauliflower Gratin

Another nice dish from Scott Thomas' book.

Separate stalks from florets
Blanch florets
Finely chop stalks and sweat with diced onion and 1 diced garlic clove when softened add horseradish and cream (you can put this through a blender if you wish)

Place florets in a baking dish pour on sauce and sprinkle liberally with curry powder

Grate some parmesan or cheese of your choice and oven bake until golden.

Corned Beef with Buttered Cabbage and Mustard Sauce

I took this recipe from Scott Thomas The Chef Behind the Bar, a review of the book will be up shortly.

Take a nice piece of corned silverside and simmer until cooked (30mins per 500gms is a good guide)
Simmer in chicken stock with carrots, onion, garlic, bay leaf, white vinegar.

For the sauce saute diced onion, diced garlic in a little butter, add Dijon mustard white wine and a generous helping of the braising liquid. Reduce, sieve and stir in some thickened cream. ( Much nicer than the usual boring white sauce)

Slice a savoy cabbage finely and light;y cook in butter making sure to season well.

Makes a very nice tea.

Cheats Caramel Pie

Ever wanted a zero effort desert, this is about as close as you can get.

No cooking at all, you can't go wrong.

Pie a pie flan from the supermarket, Already baked you have to open it.

Purchase one can of Nestle Top 'n' Fill Caramel, I whipped it but I don't think that makes any difference.

Pour the can into the shell, place in fridge.

Ok thats the hard part done.

To serve you can use cream and/or ice cream. I added banana (to give the illusion of health) but strawberries or raspberries would go well.

For variation you can add some chicory and coffee essence to the caramel.

Mushroom and Leek Quiche

I have done it, he says with a slight feel of exultation, my first Quiche. A little too firm and the pastry was not quite right but none the less a very tasty result for meat eaters and non meat eaters alike.

Start with shortcrust pastry, and thaw. Puff pastry which I partly used ie about half sort of led to mixed results. Blind bake for about 25 mins at 180c. (Blind Bake: Use a weight of dried beans, rice or pastry baking marbles to hold down pastry while baking. This stops the filling making the base soggy.)

For the filling I combined 4 eggs with 1 cup of low fat milk and whisked together.

Saute 1 finely sliced leek with 5 thinly sliced swiss mushrooms.

Lay mushrooms and leek on base and pour in the egg mixture, cook at 180c until set.

I garnished with fresh asparagus and for the meat eaters some smoked salmon.

Can be served with bread and salad.

The Leggo's Italian Cookbook

The don't write them like this anymore. It was 1975 and the whole idea of Italian food was very new to we Anglos in Australia. Yes I used to watch the large Italian families having their picnics and i was fascinated by the strange smells and unusual looking foods. Truth be told I used to watch the Italian and Greek shows on a Sunday morning, the food looked so different and exotic (the presenters were also quite attractive to a 15 year old boy.)

Things have changed a bit since then, italian food has become part of Australia's way of life. I must admit as much as I loved Spag Bol as a boy it is not a Bolognese sauce. I guess as we have learnt to cook Italian food properly and to appreciate it's heritage we have forgotten how strange it all was less than 50 years ago.

I must confess I picked this book up because I thought it would be a shallow self promotion by a company and the recipes would be laughable. Turns out that is not the case. It does repeat so many of the mistakes of its day. Bolognese is not made by simmering an onion a clove of garlic then chucking in the mince and tinned tomatoes. It does include recipes for braised oxtail, Chicken Cacciatore and other dishes which was a level of Italian most Aussie homes knew nothing of.

I guess what I find interesting is the book is a hardback, ring bound and some trouble was taken in putting it together. It is no culinary gem but it opens an interesting door on Australia cooking past.

Tuna and Pasta Bake

Simple as:
Boil about 300gms pasta according to instructions (I used spiral but any small pasta will work.)

Melt 40gms of butter mix through 2 tbs of flour and add slowly about 2 cups of low fat milk stirring till it forms a thickish sauce. ( To make a cheese sauce grate cheese into this as you stir)

Take a large tin of Tuna and break up, mix through the cooked pasta and pour in sauce.

Top with low fat shredded cheese and breadcrumbs.

Oven bake at 180c until golden on top.

Serve with any vege to hand.

Vegetables with Mash and Kangaroo

Didn't know what to call this. Essentially I was trying to use up some of the vegetables in the fridge and create a meal suitable for a vegetarian and carnivores.

Mash:
Kumara and potato champ.
Cut up the kumara and potato and boil until soft. (Microwave for about 15 minutes.)
Mash with yogurt and add diced spring onions



Vegetables:
Start by sautéing one sliced onion
Add 2 cloves of sliced garlic
1 sliced zucchini
Whole dutch carrots
1 pun net of chopped mushrooms
1 can chick peas (lentils might be better)
1 Can diced toms
Any other vege you want to get rid of
Flavour with soy sauce

Meat:
Simple kangaroo sausages
Marinated kangaroo steak

Garnish:
Grilled haloumi cheese
Cooked brocolinni

Not a fancy meal but a way to use up leftovers

Piri Piri Chicken with Baked Potatoes

Vegetables:
Cut one large Kumara into bite size pieces and cut about 1/3 as much potato into bite size pieces.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with river salt and pepper
Oven bake for 1 hour at 180c
For last 10 minutes break up 100gms of feta and allow to melt into the vegetables.

Chicken:
Allow 2 thigh fillets skin on and bone in per person
Pan fry until golden brown then place into oven to finish off
Pour Piri Piri sauce on the chicken for last 10 minutes of cooking.

Pir Piri Sauce:
Roughly cut a spanish onion
Add 2 garlic cloves
1 chilli (more if you want it very hot)
Juice of 1 lemon
2tbs white wine vinegar
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 bunch of basil

Blend to a paste
( Recipe and ideas from 30 Minute Meals Jamie Oliver)

Chickpea Curry

Once again falling back on a curry for a vegetarian meal.

Dice 1 onion and fry until translucent
The add:
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Stir until fragrant
Then add
1 can chickpeas
2 cans diced tomatoes

Reduce and serve on basmarti rice with fresh yogurt and basil leaf garnish.

Quick and Easy Indian

The heart of this meal is a loin of pork marinated in yogurt and tandoori paste for 12 hours, then baked at 180c until cooked. (hint, place it on an oven rack)

Spinach and Tomato Side
1tsp cumin seed
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1tsp Gar-am masala
Fry until fragrant in vegetable oil
Add 1 tin of diced tomatoes
When cooked through add 500gms baby spinach leaves cook until just wilted.

Serve with a range of pre made pickles and condiments
Also added was a dhal dish bought at the supermarket

Serve on rice with fresh yogurt.

Cheese Fruit Tart

This one comes from the latest Good Food magazine, its on the cover.

Blend 1 pack Nice biscuits and combine with melted butter 100gms
Place into a flan tin use a glass to press it firm
Place in fridge for 30mins to harden

Blend 500gms of light cream cheese with Kahloua and sugar spoon into the flan base
Allow to set 30mins in the fridge

Now to dress
Cut two peaches into segments and arrange around the tart
Sprinkle fresh raspberries around the peaches

To top I blended 1 mango and poured over the lot.

You can of course serve this with any seasonal fruit and set it to match your budget and taste.

Tastes great served with ice cream or fresh cream.

Calzone

I make these whenever I think pizza is getting a bit boring.

Make up your pizza dough as normal, I make mine in the bread maker.

Separate the dough as if you are making individual pizzas

Roll out each pizza thinly
Cover with tomato sauce and add topping, only place it in the centre
In this case it was ham, pineapple, mushroom and cheese.

Fold the pizza in half and seal the edges.

Brush or spray with olive oil place on a tray and bake at 180c until golden.

Cauliflower Curry

The idea for this dish came from Herbivorus, a great site.

Cut a  cauliflower into florets drizzle with olive oil and pepper, oven bake at 180c until caramelised. This is a great way to cook this vegetable it tastes really nice.

In a pan add olive oil and 2 diced onions
Add 4 diced garlic cloves
1 drained can of chickpeas
1tbs cumin
2tbs turmeric
2tsp cinnamon
2tbs fennel seed

Combine with water
When the chick peas soften add the cauliflower stir through and serve on a bed of rice.
Garnish with basil or coriander leaf.

Pad Thai

Never one of my favourites but it does make a quick an easy snack.

Cook the noodles in boiling water, drain and set aside.

Cut 1 Block of tofu into bite size pieces
Dice 4 Brown mushrooms
Dice 4 Oyster mushrooms
Slice 1 red chilli
Stir Fry until cooked
Add noodles and sauce

Serve on a plate and garnish with

One omelette thinly cut
Grind  a handful of peanuts
Thinly slice two shallots
Add one handful of fried shallots

Pesto and Tomato Pasta

Again a two pronged dish, a vegetarian option then cooked prawns added for the meat eaters.

Cook 400 gms of fettuccine.
Oven bake baby truss toms cut into half peppered and drizzled with olive oil.
Make up Pesto with basil leaves, parmesan, pine nuts and garlic with olive oil [(or buy it as I did) a recipe for pesto will come in posts to follow.]

Stir pesto through pasta with tomatoes. Garnish with basil and grated parmesan.

Cook prawns with Outback Cafe Seafood Sprinkle then combine with pasta mixture.

.

Vege Burger

As the new lady in my life is a vegetarian, I am discovering all manner of things to cook not using meat. This is a burger made from eggplant.

Chop 1 eggplant into 2cm cubes leave the skin on
Cook in boiling salted water for about 12 minutes or until soft
Drain and mash to get water out
Combine with 200gms low fat cheese
1 Crushed and diced garlic clove
1 stale slice of bread shredded
Add bread crumbs and combine until you can form a patty
Oven bake bake 20mins at 180c

Lamb with Steamed Zucchini and Couscous

Zucchini
Cut a Zucchini in half lengthways and scoop out the flesh, dice
Dice one onion and saute
Add pine nuts and some cooked rice
Flavour with Allspice, salt, pepper, thyme, cardamon
Fill Zucchini and steam until tender

Couscous
Using instant couscous, add equal quantities of boiling water
Flavour with pesto
Add 1 tbs olive oil

Lamb
Pan fry the lamb topping with dry Chermoula  to flavour

Pan Fried Salmon with Roasted Eggplant

Eggplant
Cut the eggplant in half and remove the flesh with a spoon
Spray the eggplant with oil and set aside
Meanwhile dice one onion and lightly saute with the diced flesh of the eggplant
Add pine nuts and several tablespoons of cooked rice.
Fill the eggplant shells with the fillings
Cover with grated cheese
Oven bake until Golden brown

Salmon
Take a nice fillet of Salmon and pin bone it
That is with your finger run alone the flesh and find any bones left in the fish
Remove with tweezers
Heat some oil in a fry pan
Place the fish skin side down until the skin becomes crisp
Then turn to complete the cooking

To serve add Horseradish Cream which goes very nicely with Salmon