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.

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?

Winter Salad

So, I got tired of eating salad at lunch for work...  Ok, I lie.  I still love salad, but I wanted something warmer.  I ate soup for a while, but now I have another new recipe that I've randomly put together.  For want of any other name, I'm calling it a winter salad, but really, it's just roasted vegetables.  I've eaten it with left over roast, with charcoal chicken, with lamb yiros meat, and with chicken tikka.  It seems to go with most things.  Or it could just be that I eat random stuff.

1 eggplant
2 zucchini
2 carrots
2 onions
3 sticks of celery
2x 400g tins of crushed tomatoes
Rosemary
Garlic
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 180c.
Cut the vegetables up in to fairly chunky pieces, I tend to do about 3cm pieces, obviously you can do smaller or larger as you prefer, just adjust the cooking time.
Mix the vegetables up in a casserole dish/Dutch oven.  Pour the tomatoes over them, then add a dash of olive oil, the garlic and rosemary (to taste).  If you've used tomatoes that don't have added salt, you'd probably want to put a little salt in there as well, or use garlic salt instead of plain garlic.  Or both.
Cover and roast in oven for an hour or so, until vegetables are soft (in the cast iron Dutch oven I have it takes 1.5 hours).

You could also put in some potatoes if you like, or squash...  I was just randomly throwing stuff in from my fridge (I know, it's so different for me to do that...)

Chicken Soup

I wasn't going to post my chicken soup recipe, I mean, after all, there's got to be like a MILLION (said with the SA accent, not the Eastern states I'm looking at you Eddie Mcguire accent...  We have Ls in SA.  You should try them sometime...) recipes online, right?
About 11,900,000 results (0.32 seconds)
Ok.  Right.
But, I mean, how many of them have chilli in it?
About 5,180,000 results (0.28 seconds) 
Pfft.  What about garlic and chilli?
About 16,000,000 results (0.27 seconds)
... wait.  Why are there more with garlic and chilli, than with just chilli?
About 2,000 results (0.52 seconds)
That's better.
Ok, but what about people who put curry in it, too?
About 784 results (0.32 seconds)
Crap.
Ok, but how many people have a cute dog that eats any vegetables that fall to the floor while making the soup?
No results found for chicken soup recipe +chilli +garlic +curry  +"cute dog eating vegetables"
Right, I win.


So, really, this recipe is all about cleaning out your fridge.  You know those vegetables that are ... well, they're getting elderly.  In their twilight days.  Not quite had it, but definitely looking to move to an assisted living facility.
And as for chicken...  Normally I use a whole free range chicken.  But in honour of the clean out, I checked my freezer yesterday, and I had two free range chicken maryland...  Perfect.
And to this I added:
1 chilli
3 cloves of garlic
2 leeks
1 carrot
1 zucchini
2 stalks of celery (including leaves at the top, they're one of the best bits)
1/2 a bunch of parsley
1/3 cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 red capsicum
1/4 small chinese cabbage
1C of beansprouts (those nice ones you get in Chinese cooking, not the evil skinny alfalfa sprouts)
1T (approx) of curry powder (yes all right, the amount was actually "what I had left", there was no measurement)
1L of chicken stock (because I didn't start with 1 whole chicken and making my own stock...)

So, in my majorly large saucepan (which is not my gigantic stockpot, I didn't go that far, not having a full chicken) I fried up the leeks and chilli and garlic, until the leeks were starting to separate.  I added the chicken, and fried that for a little while too, just until the skin wasn't white.  It doesn't really matter, normally I just chuck the whole chicken in water to begin with.  So yes, you can skip the frying part...

And then I added all the vegetables, chopped up of course.  (yes, you can count that as "everything else aside from bean sprouts".)  And then the stock, a bit more water because I didn't have quite enough to cover everything, and the curry powder.

Bring it to the boil, let it boil for about 30-40 mins  however long you like really.  When the meat starts to come off the chicken by itself, and the vegetables are cooked, you're good.

Pull the chicken out of the soup, and put it in a large bowl.  The next step is VERY important.
Allow it to cool a bit before trying to remove the meat.  Or you'll end up with burnt fingers, which is why I'm trying to type this with bandaids on all my fingers.

Add the meat back to the saucepan, add the beansprouts, and bring it to the boil.

Serve!

If you want to add noodles, when you add the meat back in, you can add in some noodles and boil for a bit, but I don't like noodles, so I don't.

And yes, in case you were wondering...  This soup is a spectacular remedy for colds.

Slow cooked lamb chops

I bought some chops at the markets a week ago (they've been in the freezer since!), decided to experiment.

My experiment went thusly:

2 tins of tomatoes (organic, no added anything)
1.5 zucchinis (hey, I had 1/2 left over from another recipe)
0.5 eggplant (see above note)
1.5 carrots
"some" green beans.  I don't know, they were frozen, I poured until it looked right
1 red capsicum
2 stalks of celery
3 sprigs of sprigs of rosemary (sprigs?  Is that right?  I used like 3 twigs of it, each one about 5cm long?)
3 cloves of garlic (I like garlic...)
a bay leaf, I would have used 2 if I'd had more than 1 left...
1t beef stock
6 thin lamb chops.

Chop up vegetables.  Put in to slow cooker with everything else, cook on low for 8 hours.  You could also do high for 4 hours, but as I was going to work for 8 hours, it just seemed right.

You could serve it with mashed potato, or crusty bread...  I just ate it as is, there was a bit of sauce left over at the end.

What I'd do next time: more salt.  Definitely lacking in the salt dept.
I'd probably try frying the chops for a couple of minutes each side, just to see how that went - they tasted good, but as they're not as fatty as shanks, the texture was a bit different.
I'd probably try and reduce the sauce a little at the end, but as I said, it was still nice.

So, random lamb dish achieved!

Mexican Meatball Soup

This stuff is seriously good. Not just because it's a way to get humongous amounts of sour cream in to you, but it's got all sorts of good taste sensations...

Man I love this soup!

Meatballs:

500g mince

60g grated cheese

40g breadcrumbs*

2 eggs

1 clove garlic

1 small handful of coriander, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons lime juice

3 teaspoons ground chilli (or to taste... the original recipe said 1/2 a teaspoon)

1 teaspoon ground oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Soup:

Olive oil, for frying

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 jar of salsa (I like the doritos hot salsa)

400g tin of tomatoes

1L beef stock

400g tin red kidney beans (I use the Coles home brand mexican beans, actually)

1 small handful of coriander

Sour cream (lashings of it!), grated cheese and corn chips to serve.

Preheat oven to about 180C.

Mix all the meatball ingredients together. Roll them in to small(ish) balls - probably a little over a tablespoon of mixture/meatball - and line them on an oven tray. If this is one you also use for cookies, line it with oven paper first, much easier to clean. In fact, line it with oven paper anyway, it's easier.

Put meatballs in oven.

Heat up frypan/oil.

Drain and rinse kidney beans (ignore this step if using mexican beans)

Fry onions until softened - about 5 minutes? Add garlic and cumin, stir for another minute. Add in salsa, tomatoes, beef stock, and kidney beans (if using mexican beans, just tip the whole tin in!).

Bring to the boil & simmer for about 15 mins.

At this point the meatballs have been in for 15-20 mins, which is perfect.

Tip in the meatballs, add in the coriander, bring it back to the boil, simmer for about 5 minutes more.

Serve with MASSIVE amounts of sour cream (unless you don't have an addiction to sour cream, in which case, serve with sane amounts..), corn chips and cheese.

It reheats really well, too.

You can try eating it for breakfast, but just one word of warning - I had this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner one day. Put me off eating it again for a whole week. Don't say you weren't warned.

*Have I mentioned garlic breadcrumbs before? If not, here it is. I love garlic bread. Adore it. And I can never eat all of it. So the leftovers go in the freezer, and when I need breadcrumbs, I just put some in the blender. Extra garlic never hurt anyone that wasn't a vampire.

Salsa and Guacamole

I thought I'd publish these recipes. We've been to a pub in Tea Tree Gully that has this most amazing steak, with texas spices and a salsa on top. I've eaten it (in the name of working it out, honest!) enough times now to have a good shot at replicating it.

Unfortunately though, most of it is measured in quantities of "enough".

It has a couple of tomatoes, chopped

1/2 a stick of celery (ok, I was just trying that this time, not bad, I'll leave it in)

a bit of red capsicum

a bit of red onion

the juice of one lime

ground cumin

half a red chilli

handful of coriander

coriander root, ground

Chop the veges finely, add in everything else, leave to sit for a while.

It goes really well with... guacamole.

2 Avocados

more red onion

1 tomato

squeeze of lemon juice.

Mash the avocados, you don't want finely mashed, some chunks are good. Chop the onion and tomato, squeeze of lemon, you're done.

Individual Cheesecakes

Ok, I'm making these to take as dessert to a bbq, and as I'm fairly sure I'm going to be asked for the recipe (again!) I thought I'd get organised and actually type it out, rather than sending 1 link, and then about 17 follow up emails as I remember stuff.

The original recipe is here - NY cheesecake (gosh I love Debs recipes, and she's writing a cookbook, and if someone wanted a cake for his birthday, you know, something like a peanut butter chocolate cake, her cookbook might be a really good way to start the bribery and corruption. Just sayin').

It's fairly expensive to make, so I've put some notes in about how I've saved a few dollars here & there.

Ingredients:

Base:

225g of biscuits, crushed. I use McVitties Digestive biscuits, but you could also use Granitas (yum!) or anything that takes your fancy, really.

115g unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/4 t salt

Filling:

1k cream cheese (I buy neufchatel from the market. It's cheaper that way. If you don't have time but have money, you can get a kilo of philly cheese from the supermarket, but that's about $17, and a kilo of neufchatel is $10)

250g marscapone cheese (or just add another 250g of cream cheese in. I don't notice much difference in texture)

1 3/4 C white sugar

2T flour

1 Orange zested (yes, zest an entire orange).

1 Lemon zested (see above)

5 large eggs (also got from markets - that way you can get free range eggs cheaper than normal eggs in the supermarket)

2 egg yolks

1/2 t vanilla

Topping:

425g of blueberries (I use frozen ones)

3T lemon juice

1/3 C sugar

1T + 1t corn flour (so, 25ml)

3/4 C water

Preheat oven to 180C (160 if fan forced).

Line 2x12 muffin trays with large patty pans.

Make base:

Put biscuits in blender until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add melted butter, salt and sugar, combine.

Put approx 1T (loose) of base mixture in each patty pan. Press down with the back of a soup spoon, it should be about the right size.

Put in fridge until ready for filling. (Or, you know, don't. I didn't have room in my fridge once, didn't seem to make much difference).

Filling:

In a BIG mixer, put in the cream cheese, marscapone, flour, sugar, and zest. Mix slowly until combined. A few hints:

1) don't use the whisk attachment. I've got a Kenwood chef, it's got a K beater (which I only just realised probably is K for Kenwood. As a child, I was sure it was K for Kate, and I thought that was really cool. Anyway...) You don't want to introduce too much air to the mixture, so a paddle type beater is going to be much better.

2) mix it SLOWLY, unless you want to clean cream cheese off your ceiling.

2a) don't put the cream cheese in one big lump in to the mixer. See note about ceiling.

3) if you check Deb's recipe and do the calculations, you'll see that I have more cream cheese than her. Nobody has ever complained that there's "just a hint" too much cheese (and if anyone does now, they'll be banned from my cooking for eternity *laughs*) and if you get a kilo of neufchatel from the market, it's almost impossible to get all the cheese out of the wrapper. So it all works out in the end. Especially when you have a dog that loves stealing the wrapper eating all the bits of cheese left. Not that it's ever happened to me or anything.

Add the egg yolks, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl in between. You add the yolks first, just in case you break a yolk when cracking it, it's a bugger when that happens on your last egg and it was supposed to be just a yolk. Of course, if you're not as unco as me, add them in whichever order you like.

Add the eggs, one at a time, still scraping down sides in between eggs.

Add the vanilla.

Put filling in cases - each case will get about 1/2 a cup of filling, and will be extremely full.

Bake for 30 mins. It may puff and crack, but don't panic. The puff will go down as they cool off, and the cracking will be hidden.

Cool out of reach of dogs and children. Erm, if you don't have a dog, cool them anywhere you like.

Make topping (see, this is why it doesn't matter if the tops of it crack...)

Combine all ingredients in saucepan, bring to boil. Boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, allow to cool completely to get it to set.

Spread topping on top of cheesecakes.

Done!