This is a really REALLY simple recipe that I threw together last night for some friends.
1 large tub of mixed cherry tomatoes (I had a giant tub from Costco, so it was maybe 750g?)
200g feta cheese (Greek feta, made with sheep & goats milk)
garlic oil
dried basil
Wash the cherry tomatoes, and put them in a baking pan. Add in the feta, sprinkle some basil on top, then toss it in garlic olive oil (or you could use garlic and olive oil if you're not needing to worry about FODMAP).
Bake in oven for 25-35 minutes at 180C. I hadn't pre-heated the oven, so I think mine was in there for about 45 minutes because I was distracted.
A few thoughts:
You could swap out some of the feta for black olives.
If you baked the tomatoes for the first 20 minutes, then put the feta in for the last part, it'd probably keep its shape better.
I served it with pork belly, but it'd go well with steak or chicken, too. Or maybe just a piece of crusty bread, as my mate suggested.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Friday, December 26, 2014
Potato Bake
The ONLY post for 2014 - talk about slack!
But a few people have asked for the recipe now, so it's probably time to get it online, so instead of typing it out I can just give a link.
This is Lee's potato bake, with modifications, mainly because I'm a lazy sod.
Feeds LOTS.
2.5 kilograms (ish) of potatoes, peeled and sliced*
900ml cream
1 sachet of spring vegetable soup - the kind that makes a litre
2 sachets of random creamy cup a soup (I tend to do cream of chicken, but whatever you want, really)
300g (ish) of bacon, diced. I use Barossa Federation bacon. They slice it thinly for me, but I don't think it makes me their favourite customer)
2 onions, diced. Or 1/3-1/2 a packet of diced frozen onions.
Cheese to go on top
Preheat oven to 150C,
Boil potatoes for 5-10 minutes. The stove top here struggles to get to boiling, so it's not an accurate time. Basically, you want potatoes to be soft but not mush.
Drain potatoes.
Layer 1/2 the potatoes in a large (lasagne size, 40cm x 25cm. Ish) tray**.
Mix together all the other ingredients except the cheese.
Pour 1/2 the cream mix over the potatoes
Put the rest of the potatoes in, and then pour the rest of the cream mix over the top.
Put cheese on top.
Put in oven, bake until cheese melts/goes brown/you're hungry/guests have arrived.
*Seriously, if you make this often, get one of these. But get it at Harris Scarfe or somewhere on sale when they have them out for $20 instead of $60.
** if you use a larger, shallower pan, you get a greater cheese to potato ratio. When Lincoln is involved, this is a good thing.
But a few people have asked for the recipe now, so it's probably time to get it online, so instead of typing it out I can just give a link.
This is Lee's potato bake, with modifications, mainly because I'm a lazy sod.
Feeds LOTS.
2.5 kilograms (ish) of potatoes, peeled and sliced*
900ml cream
1 sachet of spring vegetable soup - the kind that makes a litre
2 sachets of random creamy cup a soup (I tend to do cream of chicken, but whatever you want, really)
300g (ish) of bacon, diced. I use Barossa Federation bacon. They slice it thinly for me, but I don't think it makes me their favourite customer)
2 onions, diced. Or 1/3-1/2 a packet of diced frozen onions.
Cheese to go on top
Preheat oven to 150C,
Boil potatoes for 5-10 minutes. The stove top here struggles to get to boiling, so it's not an accurate time. Basically, you want potatoes to be soft but not mush.
Drain potatoes.
Layer 1/2 the potatoes in a large (lasagne size, 40cm x 25cm. Ish) tray**.
Mix together all the other ingredients except the cheese.
Pour 1/2 the cream mix over the potatoes
Put the rest of the potatoes in, and then pour the rest of the cream mix over the top.
Put cheese on top.
Put in oven, bake until cheese melts/goes brown/you're hungry/guests have arrived.
*Seriously, if you make this often, get one of these. But get it at Harris Scarfe or somewhere on sale when they have them out for $20 instead of $60.
** if you use a larger, shallower pan, you get a greater cheese to potato ratio. When Lincoln is involved, this is a good thing.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
Lincoln promised me he'd remember every thing extra that I chucked in the recipe, so I could remake it. I should really test his memory, as this is testing mine!
I started off with the standards...
1 cup of self raising flour
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup caster sugar
80g butter, melted & cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
(and then I investigated the fridge, and found the chocolate melts I'd bought for some reason but hadn't used)
1 bag Cadbury milk chocolate melts (I think dark would have worked well, too)
(realised there was no vanilla, and hell, I like vanilla)
1 tablespoon vanilla
pinch of salt for the hell of it.
For the sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
4-6 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 cups of boiling water.
Preheat oven to 180c. Grease a 2L+ (I used a 2L container, and it JUST stayed in the container. It was close though. Use a bigger one if you have one) baking dish.
Sift flour, salt, caster sugar & cocoa in to a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl/jug, whisk butter, milk, vanilla and egg. Slowly add this to the flour mixture, although I forgot and just dumped it all in, and it worked out well. Mix well.
Add in the chocolate melts, stir to combine, then pour in to baking dish.
Sprinkle brown sugar & cocoa on top of pudding mix (I think I used 4 heaped tablespoons of cocoa). Using the back of a soup spoon or other large spoon, slowly pour the boiling water on to the spoon to fall in to the pudding dish. Why do you do this? It apparently stops the boiling water from disturbing the sugar - but when you think about it, the sugar's going to melt anyway. I generally get bored of doing it that way about 1/2 way through. Also, I have a tendency to burn my fingers when I do it that way. Perhaps I should pour slower.
Bake in oven for 30-40 mins. Lincoln had his with just king island cream, I had it with mixed berries and cream.
What I want to try next time: chopping up a block of Lindt dark chocolate and chucking that in, instead. Leaving chunks of chocolate to see if you get chocolate pockets. Would also be interesting to try with some Haighs peppermint or orange pastilles. If you don't do another flavouring, I also think a shot of espresso would work well in it, too.
I started off with the standards...
1 cup of self raising flour
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup caster sugar
80g butter, melted & cooled
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
(and then I investigated the fridge, and found the chocolate melts I'd bought for some reason but hadn't used)
1 bag Cadbury milk chocolate melts (I think dark would have worked well, too)
(realised there was no vanilla, and hell, I like vanilla)
1 tablespoon vanilla
pinch of salt for the hell of it.
For the sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
4-6 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 cups of boiling water.
Preheat oven to 180c. Grease a 2L+ (I used a 2L container, and it JUST stayed in the container. It was close though. Use a bigger one if you have one) baking dish.
Sift flour, salt, caster sugar & cocoa in to a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl/jug, whisk butter, milk, vanilla and egg. Slowly add this to the flour mixture, although I forgot and just dumped it all in, and it worked out well. Mix well.
Add in the chocolate melts, stir to combine, then pour in to baking dish.
Sprinkle brown sugar & cocoa on top of pudding mix (I think I used 4 heaped tablespoons of cocoa). Using the back of a soup spoon or other large spoon, slowly pour the boiling water on to the spoon to fall in to the pudding dish. Why do you do this? It apparently stops the boiling water from disturbing the sugar - but when you think about it, the sugar's going to melt anyway. I generally get bored of doing it that way about 1/2 way through. Also, I have a tendency to burn my fingers when I do it that way. Perhaps I should pour slower.
Bake in oven for 30-40 mins. Lincoln had his with just king island cream, I had it with mixed berries and cream.
What I want to try next time: chopping up a block of Lindt dark chocolate and chucking that in, instead. Leaving chunks of chocolate to see if you get chocolate pockets. Would also be interesting to try with some Haighs peppermint or orange pastilles. If you don't do another flavouring, I also think a shot of espresso would work well in it, too.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Dad's Pea and Ham Soup
Another family recipe, this time from the van der Wel archives. This is Dad's recipe, I'll start with what he wrote:
"If making a big batch with plenty to spare I usually have in it:
750 gms yellow split peas (I buy them at a health food place in the market in the western mall close to Gouger St because they are the freshest I have found)
750 grms bacon
750 grms bacon bones
10 debreziner (hard sausage - source is barossa fine foods stall in market)
3-4 leeks
1 carrot
3-4 sticks of celery
1-2 onion
1-2 potatoes
This quantity fills the large stock pot you bought me - from memory this is about 10 litres"
Great, thanks Dad! I don't remember how big the stockpot is - to be honest, I don't remember buying you a stockpot. Ok, maybe vaguely.
Dad's pea and ham soup is obviously not the normal English pea and ham soup... And certainly not the stuff you could float a pie in. But it's really tasty, and I think he actually normally makes it in a pressure cooker.
Which I'm going to try. I have a pressure cooker, I've had one for a few years now. I'm just not so certain I want to cook in something that's liable to explode if I forget about it. That's not FOOD under pressure, that's ME under pressure.
But then thanks to Liv, I found out about the pressure cooker/slow cooker all in one. That's my kind of thing. Means I can recycle the slow cooker to someone else (thanks for taking it, Dad!) and have a two in one combo that takes up the same amount of space. Anyone want an un-used normal pressure cooker?
Anyway, onwards. Dad forgot to tell me that he usually does the split peas and ham bones in there, and then once they're done adds all the vegetables to the stockpot and adds more water.
I put it all in the pressure cooker and then watched it, hoping it doesn't explode. I know you're wondering how long, and truthfully, I don't remember, I just used the guide from my pressure cooker.
Ah hah! According to the instructions, it was 40 minutes.
So, that's how I did it. According to Dad's spoken instructions, (ie, when I was telling him about the volcano I had in my kitchen), he does peas/bacon/bones in pressure cooker, then pours in to 10L stockpot, adds more water, vegetables and the rest of the meat. Until done. Vegetables should be very soft.
"If making a big batch with plenty to spare I usually have in it:
750 gms yellow split peas (I buy them at a health food place in the market in the western mall close to Gouger St because they are the freshest I have found)
750 grms bacon
750 grms bacon bones
10 debreziner (hard sausage - source is barossa fine foods stall in market)
3-4 leeks
1 carrot
3-4 sticks of celery
1-2 onion
1-2 potatoes
This quantity fills the large stock pot you bought me - from memory this is about 10 litres"
Great, thanks Dad! I don't remember how big the stockpot is - to be honest, I don't remember buying you a stockpot. Ok, maybe vaguely.
Dad's pea and ham soup is obviously not the normal English pea and ham soup... And certainly not the stuff you could float a pie in. But it's really tasty, and I think he actually normally makes it in a pressure cooker.
Which I'm going to try. I have a pressure cooker, I've had one for a few years now. I'm just not so certain I want to cook in something that's liable to explode if I forget about it. That's not FOOD under pressure, that's ME under pressure.
But then thanks to Liv, I found out about the pressure cooker/slow cooker all in one. That's my kind of thing. Means I can recycle the slow cooker to someone else (thanks for taking it, Dad!) and have a two in one combo that takes up the same amount of space. Anyone want an un-used normal pressure cooker?
Anyway, onwards. Dad forgot to tell me that he usually does the split peas and ham bones in there, and then once they're done adds all the vegetables to the stockpot and adds more water.
I put it all in the pressure cooker and then watched it, hoping it doesn't explode. I know you're wondering how long, and truthfully, I don't remember, I just used the guide from my pressure cooker.
Ah hah! According to the instructions, it was 40 minutes.
So, that's how I did it. According to Dad's spoken instructions, (ie, when I was telling him about the volcano I had in my kitchen), he does peas/bacon/bones in pressure cooker, then pours in to 10L stockpot, adds more water, vegetables and the rest of the meat. Until done. Vegetables should be very soft.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Dairy/Wheat/Sugar* Free Cherry Ripe Muffins
Or in other words, challenge accepted. With more footnotes than a Terry Pratchett novel.
I was talking about this recipe in another group, and figured I should probably get it down somewhere before I forget it, and get asked for the recipe a week later, at which point I struggle to remember what I put in it.
This is actually mark II of everything free cherry ripe muffins. The first ones didn't have enough cherries in them. I've a sneaking suspicion this lot don't either.
1 3/4C Almond meal**
1C dessicated*** coconut
1/2C cocoa
1/2t bicarb soda
pinch of salt
1C + 1/2C cherries
1/2C raisins
1/2C water
1 banana
1/3C liquid coconut oil
1t vanilla essence
1T lemon juice
4 eggs
200g 85%**** chopped***** dark chocolate
Chop up cherries, I put 1 cup in a saucepan, and the other 1/2 cup left to go straight in to mix. To the saucepan, add raisins and water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute or so, then remove from heat, leave to cool for about 10 mins.
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a blender, mix the cherry/raisin/water mix, add the banana, coconut oil, vanilla & lemon juice. Mix until reasonably smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond meal, coconut, cocoa, bicarb soda and salt.
Pour the blended mix in to the bowl, then add the eggs, mixing well.
Fold in the chopped chocolate and cherry pieces.
Pour in to muffin tins. This mix made 15 muffins.
Bake for 20-25 mins, they're done when a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in tray.
* from title: clearly, 85% chocolate has sugar in it. I'm still not counting that.
** when I say 1 & 3/4 cups, what really happened is that I ran out of almond meal. It should have been 2 cups. I don't think it's suffered.
*** Have I mentioned previously that as a kid I used to call it desecrated coconut? Couldn't understand why my mother laughed whenever I said it.
**** last time I used 90% dark chocolate. I didn't have any in my stash this time, so had to go down a level.
***** I chopped up the chocolate quite coarsely this time. It's got some nice chunks in it, so that if the muffin gets microwaved, it'll have some gooey chocolate in it. You can thank me later.
I was talking about this recipe in another group, and figured I should probably get it down somewhere before I forget it, and get asked for the recipe a week later, at which point I struggle to remember what I put in it.
This is actually mark II of everything free cherry ripe muffins. The first ones didn't have enough cherries in them. I've a sneaking suspicion this lot don't either.
1 3/4C Almond meal**
1C dessicated*** coconut
1/2C cocoa
1/2t bicarb soda
pinch of salt
1C + 1/2C cherries
1/2C raisins
1/2C water
1 banana
1/3C liquid coconut oil
1t vanilla essence
1T lemon juice
4 eggs
200g 85%**** chopped***** dark chocolate
Chop up cherries, I put 1 cup in a saucepan, and the other 1/2 cup left to go straight in to mix. To the saucepan, add raisins and water, and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute or so, then remove from heat, leave to cool for about 10 mins.
Preheat oven to 180C.
In a blender, mix the cherry/raisin/water mix, add the banana, coconut oil, vanilla & lemon juice. Mix until reasonably smooth.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond meal, coconut, cocoa, bicarb soda and salt.
Pour the blended mix in to the bowl, then add the eggs, mixing well.
Fold in the chopped chocolate and cherry pieces.
Pour in to muffin tins. This mix made 15 muffins.
Bake for 20-25 mins, they're done when a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in tray.
* from title: clearly, 85% chocolate has sugar in it. I'm still not counting that.
** when I say 1 & 3/4 cups, what really happened is that I ran out of almond meal. It should have been 2 cups. I don't think it's suffered.
*** Have I mentioned previously that as a kid I used to call it desecrated coconut? Couldn't understand why my mother laughed whenever I said it.
**** last time I used 90% dark chocolate. I didn't have any in my stash this time, so had to go down a level.
***** I chopped up the chocolate quite coarsely this time. It's got some nice chunks in it, so that if the muffin gets microwaved, it'll have some gooey chocolate in it. You can thank me later.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Hamburgers
You know, if I were to ever write a cookbook, I reckon I'd call it "random shit I've chucked in and it turned out ok". Not that I think I'd sell many copies with that name, but you never know.
Hmm, perhaps I should change the name of the blog to that...
Anyway.
Made hamburgers last night. No, still no photos. And they turned out well, so I thought I'd write down what I threw in, so, you know, if I want to make it again I've got more of an idea of what was in it. (When I shared a place with Michelle, everything got described as a "thing". She'd come home and ask what was for dinner (I wasn't working at the time) and I'd say it's a thing. With you know, chicken, or mince, or something. What was in it? "Stuff". Very helpful, right? And if she wanted me to replicate the dish, I couldn't, because it was random things I'd seen in the fridge/pantry, and thrown in.)
So.. Onwards.
I used (erm, approximately! I still don't actually measure stuff):
Patties:
500g of Barossa Fine Foods organic mince
1 small diced onion (ok, I didn't, I used some frozen onions which was about equivalent to a whole onion)
1/4 small red capsicum (don't tell Lincoln)
1 red chilli, chopped up finely
1 egg
1/2 piece of multigrain bread, ground in to bread crumbs
small handful of chopped fresh parsley (I was going to put some spinach in, but I forgot.)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 rashers of hot pancetta, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
Other stuff:
Pancetta, eggs, bread rolls, onion for onion rings, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, cheese, sauce.
Step 1: tell Lincoln not to worry, the green stuff is parsley, and the red stuff is chilli.
Step 2: mix everything together in a big bowl. Shape in to 4 BIG patties (I put the two spare in the freezer). Put the ones you want to use in the fridge for about 15 mins.
To give an idea of the size, I made them about 2cm thick, but about the width of my hand. So only those who have seen my hand would know what size this is.
I grilled mine on high for 5 minutes on 1 side, then flipped, another 5 minutes, flip again, turned the temperature down, and did another 5 mins each side.
After the 2nd five minutes, so when I turned the grill down, I cooked the onion rings for about 5 minutes, then chucked in some pancetta, did about another 2 minutes, and then the eggs, as Lincoln likes his like rubber, which is just wrong. Eggs got done for about 3 minutes, mine was whole and flipped, Lincolns was mushed to oblivion and spread thin to make sure it has that rubber consistency. Oh, and flipped.
Lincoln had his with a bread roll, pancetta, onions, eggs, cheese (on the last flip of the hamburgers, you can put cheese on top of patty and melt it) and sauce.
I had a naked, deconstructed hamburger, so I had it spread out over a plate with onion, lettuce, tomato, red capsicum, beetroot, pickles, egg, pancetta, and a wedge of smoked Dutch cheese.
Hmm, perhaps I should change the name of the blog to that...
Anyway.
Made hamburgers last night. No, still no photos. And they turned out well, so I thought I'd write down what I threw in, so, you know, if I want to make it again I've got more of an idea of what was in it. (When I shared a place with Michelle, everything got described as a "thing". She'd come home and ask what was for dinner (I wasn't working at the time) and I'd say it's a thing. With you know, chicken, or mince, or something. What was in it? "Stuff". Very helpful, right? And if she wanted me to replicate the dish, I couldn't, because it was random things I'd seen in the fridge/pantry, and thrown in.)
So.. Onwards.
I used (erm, approximately! I still don't actually measure stuff):
Patties:
500g of Barossa Fine Foods organic mince
1 small diced onion (ok, I didn't, I used some frozen onions which was about equivalent to a whole onion)
1/4 small red capsicum (don't tell Lincoln)
1 red chilli, chopped up finely
1 egg
1/2 piece of multigrain bread, ground in to bread crumbs
small handful of chopped fresh parsley (I was going to put some spinach in, but I forgot.)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 rashers of hot pancetta, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
1/2 cup grated cheese
1 teaspoon mixed herbs
Other stuff:
Pancetta, eggs, bread rolls, onion for onion rings, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, cheese, sauce.
Step 1: tell Lincoln not to worry, the green stuff is parsley, and the red stuff is chilli.
Step 2: mix everything together in a big bowl. Shape in to 4 BIG patties (I put the two spare in the freezer). Put the ones you want to use in the fridge for about 15 mins.
To give an idea of the size, I made them about 2cm thick, but about the width of my hand. So only those who have seen my hand would know what size this is.
I grilled mine on high for 5 minutes on 1 side, then flipped, another 5 minutes, flip again, turned the temperature down, and did another 5 mins each side.
After the 2nd five minutes, so when I turned the grill down, I cooked the onion rings for about 5 minutes, then chucked in some pancetta, did about another 2 minutes, and then the eggs, as Lincoln likes his like rubber, which is just wrong. Eggs got done for about 3 minutes, mine was whole and flipped, Lincolns was mushed to oblivion and spread thin to make sure it has that rubber consistency. Oh, and flipped.
Lincoln had his with a bread roll, pancetta, onions, eggs, cheese (on the last flip of the hamburgers, you can put cheese on top of patty and melt it) and sauce.
I had a naked, deconstructed hamburger, so I had it spread out over a plate with onion, lettuce, tomato, red capsicum, beetroot, pickles, egg, pancetta, and a wedge of smoked Dutch cheese.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Gluten Free peanut butter choc chip cookies
Because I have a friend who has gluten issues, I was looking for a good gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Boy, did I find one.
Check out this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-gluten-free-recipe/index.html
It's got some fiddly amounts of different flour in it, but it work really well. I find the consistency of the flour at the end a little different, but that's about all.
So of course, having found the perfect recipe, I modded it.
For those that haven't seen the previous choc chip recipe (not gluten free) it's here.
http://kates-cooking.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/peanut-butter-choc-chip-cookies.html
There's a few differences between the two (besides the flour of course). One of the concerning things for me was the temperature. I wasn't sure how the higher temperature in the Alton Brown recipe would go, when I really like the texture of my cookies.
And Alton doesn't seem to have discovered that peanut butter makes almost everything better. At least according to Lincoln, anyway. And Trish.
So, I added 2/3s of a container of smooth (morally sound) peanut butter. I did this at the same stage as previously, just after the eggs and vanilla were added.
I also chilled overnight, due to wanting to have fresh cookies in the morning.
And baked one batch at 165C, the same temperature I do for the original cookies. Baked them for about 14 mins. (My cookies were smaller, I ended up with 40 cookies instead of the 24 the recipe says.)
The second batch were done at 170C. Ish. For 12 minutes. Ish. And I think they turned out better, though I'm not sure if it's because they had time to get closer to room temperature, or what happened there. What I noticed is that they didn't sink in as much as the first batch.
Anyway, they were all eaten, so it's all good, right?
Boy, did I find one.
Check out this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-chewy-gluten-free-recipe/index.html
It's got some fiddly amounts of different flour in it, but it work really well. I find the consistency of the flour at the end a little different, but that's about all.
So of course, having found the perfect recipe, I modded it.
For those that haven't seen the previous choc chip recipe (not gluten free) it's here.
http://kates-cooking.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/peanut-butter-choc-chip-cookies.html
There's a few differences between the two (besides the flour of course). One of the concerning things for me was the temperature. I wasn't sure how the higher temperature in the Alton Brown recipe would go, when I really like the texture of my cookies.
And Alton doesn't seem to have discovered that peanut butter makes almost everything better. At least according to Lincoln, anyway. And Trish.
So, I added 2/3s of a container of smooth (morally sound) peanut butter. I did this at the same stage as previously, just after the eggs and vanilla were added.
I also chilled overnight, due to wanting to have fresh cookies in the morning.
And baked one batch at 165C, the same temperature I do for the original cookies. Baked them for about 14 mins. (My cookies were smaller, I ended up with 40 cookies instead of the 24 the recipe says.)
The second batch were done at 170C. Ish. For 12 minutes. Ish. And I think they turned out better, though I'm not sure if it's because they had time to get closer to room temperature, or what happened there. What I noticed is that they didn't sink in as much as the first batch.
Anyway, they were all eaten, so it's all good, right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)