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....

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.

Frittata for Lunch and Chicken Salad Dinner

This recipe for a Zucchini Mint Parmesan Frittata comes from Avec Eric, at
http://aveceric.com/category/gettoasted but be warned there is an error on this page and it is very difficult to get out of, better to try his other pages such as this great recipe for mission figs in bacon http://aveceric.com/2008/09/08/mission-figs-wrapped-in-bacon/

He does a lot of recipes for single serves, cooked in a toaster oven, but I converted it to a dish for two and served it with yet again a salad.

The Darling wasn't too sure, not being a lover of zucchini, but bravely gave the dish a go, and then came back for seconds.

The small amount of mint gave the frittata a lovely fresh taste, but would be overwhelming if too much was used.

My version of Zucchini Mint Parmesan Frittata
for 2

4 large eggs
half a zucchini, peeled and very finely julienned
3 tablespoons Parmesan, freshly grated
6 small mint leaves, finely shredded
2 teaspoons olive oil (optional)
salt and pepper


Heat oven to 180deg.
Using1 teaspoon oil, lightly oil a gratin dish
Place the eggs in a stainless steel bowl and whisk well
Add the zucchini, Parmesan and mint and if wanted 1 teaspoon olive oil
Season with Salt and Pepper

Pour mixture into gratin dish and bake for approx 12 mins or until the eggs are just set and the top is lightly browned.

I served it hot but it can also be served at room temperature.

Chicken & Melon Salad
Having spent a lot of the day quilting, a fast, easy dinner was called for, found this recipe on the net and it was great, tasty, fresh and easy to prep.
Serves 2

1/2 roasted or B.B.Q. chicken, cubed
1/3rd Cup diced watermelon
1/3rd Cup diced rock melon (Cantaloupe)
1/2 stick celery, finely sliced
10 red, seedless grapes,

3 red skinned potatoes,

Steam potatoes, cool and then quarter
Put prepared chicken, watermelon, rock melon, celery and grapes into bowl, add cooled potatoes.
Pour dressing over and toss together

Serve with a plain green salad.

Dressing
1/4 cup greek style yoghurt
1/4 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon mint jelly
1 teaspoon curry powder
8 - 10 fresh mint leaves,
Place all ingredients in processor or mini blender and blend until smooth.

Tiny taters and tiny mignons

In an effort to get some interest back into my cooking I am making an effort to post each meal here. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, it doesn't have to be a complicated, or even easy, recipe from one of the many books I own, it just has to be tasty and well prepared.

Thursday night was a disaster, blessed peas burnt .......again.......I really don't like dried peas........I burn them all the time, problem with that is that anything I have in the steamer above the peas is also wiped out, as was the case on Thursday.

I then threw a real spit fit, chucked a whole bunch of stuff that I cannot remember along with a can of tomatoes into a pot, slammed a pot on for pasta and had a new dish on the table in 25 mins, the Darling claimed it was tasty, I was still so ticked off I couldn't tell you if it was or not. He was probably just happy to get fed ;)

So this is what we had for dinner last night.
little fillet Mignon's, tiny red skinned jacket potatoes, done in the microwave with a cream cheese, butter and herb topping and a Greek salad, sans the cucumber as the Darling loathes cucumber.

The topping for the potatoes was easily done in the mini processor,

stripped the leaves from a 6inch length of oregano,
6 basil leaves
1 tablespoon cream cheese
2 teaspoons butter
whizz it around, stopping once to push the butter back down to the blades, and presto, yummy topping and not so bad for the cholesterol.

Ham and Potato Pie

Caught Huey on a cooking show the other day, and watched him make this great pie, it looked stunning all wrapped in its pastry case. Suitable to take on a picnic, very English pork pie style.

Sis & B.I.L. were calling in with some great news that needed celebrating, so decided to give the recipe a go. Had to substitute this smoked pork loin for ham, and I didn't have shortcrust pastry, only puff so decided on a pastry top only. Looked just great coming out of the oven and guess who didn't get a pic!
but here is one of the pie being assembled.
Huey reckoned the recipe was one of Donna Hay's and I always love her recipes.

This is what I did with explanations later of Huey's directions.

3 large potatoes, steamed, cooled and thickly sliced
1 onion, sliced and cooked in oil until just starting to colour a little
thin slices of smoked pork loin, probably 150grams, but enough to make 3 single layers in your dish.
4 eggs, whisked
1 cup cream
handful of parsley, finely chopped
leaves from 1 stick of thyme
little salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 Frozen Pastry sheets - I used Puff Pastry

Layer the onion, potato and pork 3 times in an ovenproof casserole, I used a 2 ltr corning ware dish.
In a bowl, whisk the 4 eggs, add the cream, chopped herbs and seasoning,
Pour over the layered potatoes etc.
Make an egg wash with one whisked egg and a little milk
Brush one sheet of pastry with the wash, lay the other sheet on top.
Lift sandwiched pastry onto the dish, and press down around edges to seal, trim.
Brush top with egg wash.
Make a slit in pastry it allow steam to escape.
Bake in moderate oven 180 deg C for 1 hour.

Huey used the same amounts and filling ingredients as above, but using sliced ham instead of the pork loin.
Line a 9" Spring form cake pan with shortcrust pastry
Layer the onion, potatoes and ham 3 times into the case.
Pour the whisked egg, cream, herbs and seasoning over the layers, being careful not to allow the egg mix to go down between the pastry and cake pan.
Using the cake pan as a template, cut pie top from pastry, lay over pie and press edges to seal.
Brush with egg wash, slit, and bake as above.

Honey Soy Sauce for Pork

Peered into the freezer this a.m., wanted to spend the day stitching and not shopping, was happy to see a pork fillet in there, so popped it into the fridge to thaw, that and some nice fresh pak-choy for a simple but tasty dinner. Cooked the pork in a honey, ginger, soy sauce, steamed the pak-choy and served them with steamed rice. Easy Peasy.

Ingredients: to serve 2
1 x 350 - 400 grm pork fillet,
2 Pak-Choy
1 dried chili, or 1 fresh red chill, seeds removed and sliced.
1 knob fresh ginger, cut into small chunks
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock or water
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup sherry, dry is best but sweet will do.

Trim the pork fillet, cut into serving sized lengths and then in half through the length.
Pound chili and ginger in a mortar or process in a mini processor, add the sesame oil and transfer to a frying pan, heat slightly (approx. 1 min. ) to release the oils in the chili and ginger.

Add the soy sauce, stock, honey and sherry, stir and bring just to the boil, place the prepared pork fillets in the sauce, lower heat to medium and cover, cooking pork for approx 10 mins until just cooked.

Trim the root end from the pak-choy, wash each leaf and cut into 1"(3-4cm) lengths
separating the stems to one pile and the leaves in another.
Steam the pak-choy stalks until just cooked but still crisp, add the leaves, turn heat off and cover.

Remove pork to a plate and keep warm, turn up heat on sauce and reduce until quite syrupy, take care not to let it go to far and turn into toffee, always a worry with any sauce with a high sugar content.

Return pork to sauce to coat, transfer to serving dish and pour remainder of sauce over.
Serve with the Pak-Choy and rice.

Another 20 minute fridge to table dish.

Enjoy with a nice glass of something lovely, something white and crisp? or maybe a bubbly?

Beef Stir-Fry with Mustard & Honey

Had the raw ingredients of round steak and beans, added a few extras.........
and decided to make a Stir-Fry with the aforementioned Mustard and Honey sauce.

See that lovely plump garlic clove?, it's 'Australian Garlic', grown locally, the cloves are large, mild, sweet and juicy.
They mince easily and lend a lovely flavour to your dish.
The garlic also costs 3 - 4 times the imported varieties but to buy a bulb is such a small $ amount, its only......um......well, 3-4 times the other stuff.
Ingredients:
450grams finely sliced round steak,
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
1 - 2 teaspoons of Grape seed oil,
150 grams beans topped and tailed and blanched.
1 1/2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
Scant 1/3 cup Honey

Method:
Over a moderate flame, or medium setting, heat the oil in a wok or fry pan, add the onion and garlic, cook until onion starts to go transparent but don't allow the garlic to brown. Remove the onion and garlic.

Increase the pan/wok heat and a few more drops of oil if needed, add the beef strips, stirring to turn and brown all over.

Add the beans, mustard and honey and cook stirring for a few Min's until the beans are cooked but still crisp.

Serve with boiled rice.

The above amounts serve 2 for dinner with enough for the Darlings lunch tomorrow.

Timing? put the water on to boil for the rice and by the time the rice is done so is everything else, including time to set the table. Approx 20 Min's and you have dinner on the table.

A bit of a cheating tip, prep the beans first, then as the water for the rice boils, dump the beans in a steamer, colander, sieve, whatever into the water for a min. remove and they are blanched, salt the water and add the rice. Go have a sip of wine to celebrate being so organised and clever.