Saturday, March 7, 2009

This weeks meals

It's been a week of just grab what you can from the fridge and call it a meal this week.
Tuesdays dinner was so memorable - not - that I cannot remember what the heck it was and no piccie to prompt the memory.

Wednesday we had crumbed chicken on a bed of leek & mushroom with a chunk of Persian Fetta crumbled over the mushrooms which slightly melted and gave a lovely creamy texture to the mushroom & leek.


I sauted one leek and a handful of thickly sliced mushrooms in a knob of butter for flavour and a tablespoon of o.oil, when plated I crumbled the fetta over the mushroom bed and lay the crumbed chicken on top.


Thursday was the old stand-by, Spaghetti Bolognese, at least I made the sauce instead of using a jar.

and of course, served it with a salad.

Recently the Darling popped into some electrical hardware type store down in the back blocks of town, didn't notice the industrial kitchen supply store just a couple of doors down did he.
I skittled in there and got myself one of these little babies,

a Microplane zester, I love the way it grates the Parmesan Cheese to a light and fluffy little pile that melts down into the sauce.

And what can I say about last nights dinner, not even sure what to call it.

The support team were invited to dinner but they got a better offer late in the day, so there I was with 2 B.B.Q chickens, which turned out to be a good thing.

Did a little ferrying of a son around town and didn't get home until 7p.m., hungry dogs, cat and a Darling were waiting to be fed.

Chopped up an onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 stalk of celery and 1/2 a green capsicum, popped it all into a frypan with some oil over a pretty high heat, as soon as the onion started to soften I poured a can of chopped tomatoes, added some dried oregano, salt, pepper and a dessertspoon of tomato paste and a glass of red wine.
While it all simmered down to a reasonable looking sauce I stripped one chicken and chopped the meat. Kept the best for us and fed the rest to the animals, they thought they had reached heaven and almost forgave me for being so late with their dinner.

Stirred the chicken into the sauce to just heat, topped it with a few sliced black olives and some zested parmesan and served it over rissoni - not trying to be artful there, just out of everything else.

We were both surprised that it tasted as good as it did. Sometimes the gods do smile on you.

The Grandies are coming for a sleep-over this arvo so dinner tonight will be ...........erk and ugh.........sausages....

Monday, March 2, 2009

Pasta with Simmered Veal Shanks


After an afternoon having fun with the Grandies we were invited to share dinner with the support team.
It was delicious.......
Didn't have my camera so have to rely on this scan from Donna Hay's book 'Off the Shelf - Cooking from the Pantry'. I love all of her books, and this one has quite a few fave recipes, along with her book ' 'the instant cook' - just love these books, they make great gifts too.

There are links to Donna's books and some recipes on her site
along with a new book 'no time to cook'
http://www.donnahay.com.au/about-donna-hay/biography.php

This is Donna's recipe:

pasta with simmered veal shanks

6 thick slices veal shank
2 x 400g (14 oz) cans peeled tomatoes, crushed
4 cups (1 3/4 pints) beef stock
1 cup (8 fl. oz) red wine
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped thyme leaves
cracked black pepper and sea salt
400g rigatoni or penne
parmesan cheese to serve

Place the veal shanks, tomatoes, stock, wine, garlic, thyme, pepper and salt in a deep frying pan or large saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer over low to medium heat for 45 minutes or until the veal is tender.
Remove the veal from the pan. Simmer the sauce, uncovered, and reduce until it thickens. Remove the meat from the bones and chop.
Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of lightly salted boiling water until al dente. Drain. Mix the veal into the sauce and toss the pasta through. Place on serving plates and top with parmesan
Serves 4

The DIL served it with a lovely crisp salad, and sides of sliced avocado and persian fetta and of course the finely grated parmesan.... Bliss.