Merlots Cafe

Our usual Monday catch up lunch with our youngest was a simple affair today, for son an omelet for a late lunch and we had coffee and cake.

Buffet Lunch at Crown Plaza, then Lamb on the Spit for Dinner.

Looking back over the pools toward the resort, the restaurant is on the same level as the Palm Trees, and overlooks the reflection pools and canal. The Golf Clubhouse is the building on the right of the picture. Unfortunately, too far away for me to capture, there were 3 kangaroos sunning themselves further down on the green in front of the clubhouse.

We were invited by youngest son to try the new Buffet Lunch and were most impressed, the service is excellent and the food was wonderful and plentiful, every dish had a faint addition of herbs or spice for extra flavour, almost unnoticeable and not readily identifiable, very cleverly done.
We started with thin slices of roast beef with a Pommery mustard rub served with a red wine jus, carved for us by Chef Michael, then on to the ever so tender roast loin of pork and crackling with caramelised apple rings and apple sauce. The hot vegetables were tiny new potatoes, roasted pumpkin and sweet potato, braised asian greens with just the tiniest hint of chilli. The salads were a light fluffy cous cous with moroccan spices and yoghurt dressing, a lovely wild rocket with finely shaved fuji apple, a tomato and parmesan salad and a potato salad with a light creamy wholegrain mustard dressing, there were beautiful breads, fresh rolls straight from the oven, fresh fruits and lovely torts and cheesecakes. All in all, more than you could try in one sitting.

The view from the edge of the restaurant out over the reflection pools to the canal with its abundance of water fowl and on to some very expensive real estate.

On the way home we got a call from the Support Team (middle son) inviting us to dinner. He was roasting a leg of lamb on the B.B.Q, well that's a treat we wouldn't want to say no to. The lamb was meltingly tender with just the right amount of pink and a wonderful flavour. He did a red wine marinade that he used to continually baste the lamb while it turned over the flames. The remainder of the marinade made a very nice red wine gravy.

A large platter of roasted vegetables to go with the lamb, crisped and fluffy potatoes, onions, zucchini, carrots and pumpkin and a dish of cauliflower and brocolli cheese, nicely browned around the edges. Yummo.
So in all we had 3 separate meals with our 3 sons this weekend. Surely a record for us and very enjoyable. Guess who's on a diet next week? .....again.

Lovely lunch, and no piccies to be seen

A day of beautiful food, we started with coffee with the eldest and new bride, followed by lunch at a lovely eatery in Woolloongabba, where we had the "Fish Finger Sandwich" as recommended by friends, the fish fingers were thick long ribbons of salmon, lightly crumbed and fried, served between thick slices of fresh bread with lettuce and tomato and a chunky tartare sauce. Heavenly. we then went on to have coffee and dessert at Freestyle in Fortitude Valley.
Then home rather late. Dinner needed to be fast and simple. Put some Penne Lissce on to cook, finely sliced up a couple of rashers of bacon and put them on to fry until crisp, drained the pasta, reserving a couple of tablespoons of pasta water, added some of the pesto from last night with the last of the oven dried tomatoes, added the bacon, a little of the pasta water, sprinkled parmesan over and served. fast....easy....delicious.

and where are the piccie's I hear you ask? well I would like to know the answer to that myself, what on earth I pressed to send them off into the ether I wouldn't know but send them off I did, because even the Darling can't find them, they are gone and it was such delicious food too, guess that means we will have to revisit the same places again.

Lamb Fillet on a bed of Oven Dried Tomatoes with Mint Pesto

Pleased with the flavours of the Mint Pesto and the oven dried tomatoes to serve with tonight's Lamb Fillet dinner.

Mint Pesto:
1 cup of loosely packed, washed mint leaves
60g. good quality Parmesan cheese, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons flaked almonds
1 small clove garlic
1/2 cup olive oil

Place all the ingredients except oil into a small bowl food processor and whizz until combined, add 1/4 cup oil and whizz to emulsify, scraping down sides of bowl, continue to add oil until you reach the consistency you desire, I used a little more than 1/3 cup oil. Place into bowl and pour a little oil over to seal.

The tomatoes were easily done, halve as many tomatoes as desired, I used 1 punnet of mini roma tomatoes, halved and laid cut side up on a baking dish, sprinkle with a little balsamic type vinegar, scatter finely chopped garlic and fresh basil and salt flakes. Place into a 140deg C oven until tomatoes have collapsed down, turn oven off and allow tomatoes to cool in oven.
I served the grilled lamb fillet on a bed of tomatoes and the pesto over the lamb.

Pasta with Proscuitto and Rocket

Somehow or other, it turned out to be a tiring day, shaving a fur-ball down to a sleek pooch took time and quite some effort...........however the pooch is pleased and that is what is important. So dinner this evening was an old fav of Penne Pasta with Grilled Prosciutto and Rocket, dressed with a balsamic and olive oil dressing and plenty of Parmesan grated over.

Stuffed Steak in Red Wine and Tomato Sauce

Made the stuffing by placing all the ingredients into the small food processor and giving a good whizz around

Stuffing for Steaks
A sprig of each thyme and parsley
1/4 brown onion - use the other 3/4 for the sauce
1 clove garlic
1 rasher bacon
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
a good splash of red wine to moisten

Tomato and Red Wine Sauce
3/4 brown onion, finely sliced
1 large clove garlic
1 410g can diced roma tomatoes - without added sugar
pinch of brown sugar
1/2 cup red wine
Black pepper and pinch of salt
olive oil

Heat oil in frypan, add onion and garlic and cook until onion is just begining to brown, add the red wine which will deglaze the pan, then add the tomatoes, pinch of brown sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for 5 mins.
While sauce is simmering, spread stuffing over half of each piece of thinly cut steaks - I used topside steaks, fold other half of steak over stuffing and secure with a toothpick.

Remove tomato sauce to a bowl, wipe out pan and add another splash of oil, when pan is heated, add stuffed steaks, turning over when browned, then pour the tomato sauce over the steaks, cover pan and simmer until steak is tender, approx. 40mins, depending on thickness and age of beef.
Serve with Garlic Mashed potatoes and steamed vegies.

Fillet of Lamb with Balsamic Glaze

Balsamic Glaze............well not really, used Balsamic vinegar but certainly not the "real deal", just a nicely flavoured balsamic vinegar I found at a local Deli. Pan fried a lamb fillet, sliced on the diagonal, plated with mashed potatoes and steamed vegies, then poured the glaze over the lamb slices.

Balsamic Glaze for 4
1/4 cup of each, balsamic vinegar, sugar, water. Combine these three in a small saucepan, heat until sugar has melted, bring to boil, lower heat and simmer until a thick syrup. Use part of syrup to deglaze pan when lamb fillet is cooked. Add back to balsamic glaze, stir to combine and serve over lamb fillet

Eating out all Day

Went off to our local for lunch and shared this Lamb Pizza with Chilli and Mint. The Pizza really didn't need the extra layer of melted cheese, the Feta would have been enough. Cheese to me is a little like Vegemite, a little goes a long way, but on the whole it was a tasty pizza.
Dinner was at the Support Team's local, we both ordered Veal dishes, but with lunch being so filling not much veal was actually eaten and I didn't enjoy my dish at all. Will have to give them another go sometime in the future.

Hearty Beef and Mushroom Pies

Hearty beef and mushroom pies for dinner...........To use "Hearty" when describing any food conjures up such a vision of plenty and comfort. The actuality is that I made enough of last night's beef casserole to use for a meat pie for this evening. Although the filling was the same beef recipe, with the addition of a deeply glazed pastry top and the roasted pumpkin, the crunchy roasted Parmesan potatoes and steamed beans, it was a whole new dish.

Pastry Lids for Meat Pies and Parmesan Roast Potatoes.
You will need:-
potatoes for 2 servings
finely ground best quality parmesan cheese
olive oil

1/2 teaspoon butter
1 small egg, separated
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry

Steam the potatoes, I used cocktail chats and once steamed, cut them in half.
Thaw the sheet of puff pastry, spread the half teaspoon butter over one half of the pastry sheet, fold unbuttered half of pastry over onto buttered half, forming a rectangle, cut the rectangle in half again, forming 2 squares, using a sharp knife, cross hatch or slash the pastry, not cutting through into the second layer. Place pastry on baking paper on an oven tray.
Mix the egg yolk with a few drops of milk and brush liberally over scored pastry.

Whisk the egg white until foamy, add the cooled potato halves, turn to coat, then tip into a well oiled baking dish, sprinkle with finely ground parmesan cheese. Place the baking dish and the pastry sheet into 210 deg C oven. baking without turning potatoes until potatoes and pastry are both well browned.

As dinner was so easy it seemed a good idea to lash out on a warming but simple dessert.

Caramel Apple Slices with Vanilla Ice-Cream.
1 granny smith apple per serve, peeled, cored and sliced into 4 rings
1 dessertspoon butter
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
1/4 cup pouring cream
1 dessertspoon milk

Melt butter in a heavy fry pan, turn to low heat and add apple slices, allow to caramelise slowly to a golden brown, turning as needed.
mix brown sugar, milk and cream together and pour around apple slices in pan, simmer until sauce changes colour, increase heat and reduce to a syrupy sauce, serve apples in bowl with scoop of vanilla ice-cream, pouring the last of the caramel cream syrup over the ice-cream.

Bubbling away happily, a caramel sauce in the making.

The finished dessert.

Please cue the Muzac, something stirring I think, and then the announcement
........."This blog posting comes to you by courtesy of the Darling"..........he loaded the dishwasher while I blogged, jokingly saying he would need credits, as he gets credits for piccies on my other blog, and of course I am happy to give credit, well, life has to be a bit of give and take don't you think?.

Casserole of Beef , Bacon & Mushrooms in Red Wine

There are many recipes and variations of this dish. We have it probably once a month through the winter months, the above variation was a last Minuit affair, so meat wasn't as thick as is usually recommended and the bacon was standard thickness rashers, also no baby onions, all this meant was that the dish cooked quite quickly, about an hour from start to finish.


As the oven was on, I decided to try this variation of a simple apple tart. From a sheet of puff pastry stamp out 6 3" circles of pastry, then stamp out 2.5" circles of pastry from 4 of the 3" pastry circles, giving you 2 bases and 4 outer rings. Place 2 rings on top of each pastry base, forming 2 tartlets. Place the tartlet cases onto a lined bake sheet and fill the center of each with pureed apple or apple sauce, sprinkle a little brown sugar over the apple and then top with overlapping slices of thinly sliced sweet apple, brush apple and pastry with cream and place into oven with the casserole, the combination of cream and the lower oven temperature keeps the pastry from rising as much as you would normally expect. Cook until nicely browned, brushing with more cream at least twice more. The cream gives a delicious glaze. Sift over a little icing sugar and serve with a dollop of cream or ice-cream or both. These are really a mini dessert, perfect for just a little sweet treat.

Sweet and Sour Lamb Casserole

Inspired by a recipe in Stephanie Alexanders "the cooks companion", a wonderful food bible. Her recipe calls for lamb shoulder and serves 6, I settled for forequarter chops to serve 3.

With new recipes I like to be fairly accurate with the recipe measurements and I find that when halving a recipe, its sometimes difficult to get fairly reliable measurements, how for instance to measure a half of a 1/3rd of a cup?, does one stand around ladling tablespoons of water into a 1/3rd cup and then decide on how many tablespoons there are in a 1/3rd cup? or does one just grab the 1/3rd cup measure and just fill it half way? and if that's the way to go, how do you write that into a recipe?? well I shall just plough ahead with the latter and hope that its not too unwieldy.

Sweet and Sour Lamb

half of 1/3rd cup olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 lamb four quarter chops, trimmed of all fat and halved
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 scant tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts
1 1/2 tablespoons sultanas ( the recipe calls for raisins)
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper

Heat 3/4 of the oil in a heavy frying pan and fry onion until soft, stirring often. Place onion in a sieve over a small bowl. Press on onion to extract all the oil. Wipe out pan, add the onion infused oil from the bowl and the remaining olive oil to pan, heat and add lamb chops to brown well.
Place lamb and onions in enamelled cast iron casserole. Pour off any fat from pan and deglaze with a little of the water. Add remaining water, tomato paste and vinegar, pour over onions and lamb in casserole, sprinkle sugar over and stir. Simmer, covered 45Min's, stirring a couple of times. Add pine nuts and raisins or sultanas and cook for 15-30Min's longer or until meat is very tender and juices is decreased. Season and serve. I served it with rice and peas and carrots simmered in honey and water. Pasta or Potato Gnocchi is also suggested as side dishes.

The meat was beautifully tender, the liquid was more of a broth than a gravy and although it went well with the rice I personally would have preferred mash. The sugar and vinegar balanced each other out, giving a nice piquant flavour,and the pine nuts giving crunch and texture to the dish. All in all a nice casserole, something I would do again even to using it to feed visitors as it could be done well ahead of time, just adding the pine nuts when re-heating.

Decided to finish the meal off with a chocolate self-saucing pudding, unfortunately I used a much too small bowl, I had forgotten how this pudding rises and splatters as it cooks, it just exploded in the microwave........chocolate pudding everywhere, nevertheless I just let it cook and salvaged enough for 2 servings, making more sauce on the stove top. I had made a half recipe so it should have served 3, well we lost a lot, ate 2 servings and there is still enough for another 2 serves. Shades of the "Magic Pudding"

Grandies to Visit.........

....on Saturday, they decided to stay for dinner and put in a request for sausages, trees and mash.

We scooted up to the butcher for some snags and went from there, they decided that dinner at 4 was a good thing.........managed to spin it out by involving them in "shucking" corn to make corn-wheels, taste testing the various honey's in the pantry to decide on which one would make the nicest honey carrots, deciding on whether carrots should be waffle or straight cut and then I took instruction on how to cut trees, not too much stalk Grandma!

They had a good time and ate well, reporting to the support team that they were allowed to have a lolly 'cause they had a healthy dinner. Glad they know the difference.

We then had the old fall back of crumbed chicken fillet, with a topping of pan sauted zucchini, mushroom, capsicum, tomato cheeks, basil, onion and garlic. For sides we had steamed tiny new potatoes in a parsley & basil butter, corn wheels, honey carrots and baby peas from the freezer.

Sunday Evening was planning a slow cooker meal of beef in red wine but got a call from the support team to join them for a Roast Lamb Dinner, Yum, so off we trotted, desert under one arm and wine under the other for a lovely Roast Dinner.
Please note: short stalks on the broccoli.....er... trees, mustn't have been short enough last night, it was pointed out several times. There was a lovely red wine gravy that didn't feature in the piccie, along with some beautiful plump roasted garlic cloves. Schmered over the lamb, just heavenly.