Spreading the Christmas cheer

It's been quiet on this blog. Too quiet. Reason being, as those who know me will know, is that I've avoided experimenting too much with recipes over the last 6 months while working on dropping some weight. That, plus I've been a little slack. However, Christmas time in my family is always a time of special foods, and that slight over-indulgence. So here's 3 holiday recipes for Christmas gatherings (or any time, really).

Apricot Balls

This recipe I inherited from my mother who, in turn, inherited it from her mother. Apricot balls were my favourite treat growing up, and I just could never get enough of them. Be warned though that you will get messy making these. Mixing with a spoon just doesn't cut it.

Ingredients

makes about 45 balls

200g dried apricots, diced

200 ml sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

1 packet Arnotts Morning Coffee biscuits (or milk arrowroot if you can't find them)

Extra desiccated coconut

Method

1. Process the biscuits into semi-fine crumbs using a food processor. Place in a mixing bowl and add the apricots and desiccated coconut and mix well using your hands.
2. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix thoroughly. If the mix is a little dry, add 1 tbs of water and knead the mix until it's well bound.
3. Roll teaspoon-sized portions of the mix in your hands to form balls, then roll in the extra coconut to coat.
4. Once all balls have been created, place in the fridge for about an hour to allow them to set. Enjoy!

Rum Balls

This is another recipe which, like the apricot balls, I inherited from my grandmother. It's almost identical to the recipe above with just a few modifications and, in my family, often served alongside the apricot balls.

Ingredients

Makes about 35 balls

200 ml sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup cocoa

1 packet Arnotts Morning Coffee biscuits

1 tbs dark rum

Desiccated coconut to coat

Method

1. Process the biscuits into semi-fine crumbs using a food processor. Place in a mixing bowl, add the cocoa, and mix well using your hands.
2. Add the sweetened condensed milk and the rum and mix thoroughly. Knead the mix until it's well bound.
3. Roll teaspoon-sized portions of the mix in your hands to form balls, then roll in the coconut to coat.
4. Once all balls have been created, place in the fridge for about an hour to allow them to set.

Home-made Irish Cream

This recipe came from one of my wife's workmates, and went down a treat at the gathering where I was first introduced to it about a week ago.

Ingredients

300 ml cream

200 ml sweetened condensed milk

2 tbs chocolate topping

3 eggs

1/2 tsp coconut essence

1 cup scotch or whiskey

Method

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl or jar and mix on low speed with an electric mixer or barmix until thoroughly combined.
2. Pour into a decanter or other container for serving.

Bringing the heat to winter

This is a post I've been planning on writing for a good couple of months, but have put off usually due to lack of time or surplus of apathy. It's not so much being recorded here so I can remember it (I know it blind folded), but to share with you, the reader, because I think that it is the bee's knees, the duck's nuts, and the cat's pyjamas all rolled into one. So without further ado, I give you...

Slats' Chilli Con Carne
serves 6-8


Ingredients
2 tbs oil
900g beef chuck steak, finely diced
3 large red onions, halved and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tbs cumin
1 tbs paprika
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1-2 tsp ground chilli
800g can diced tomatoes
470g can corn
470g can kidney beans
2 cups water
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1 tbs brown sugar
grated cheese to serve

Method

1. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a large saucepan over a med-high heat, and cook the beef in batches for 2-3 minutes until browned all over. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil to the pan and throw in the onion, cooking for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and spices and cook for 1 minute until fragrant, then add the water, tomatoes, corn, beans and beef and bring to the boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered for 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the liquid reduces and thickens. Towards the end of the 2 hour period the mixture may start to stick, add more water if required.
4. Finally, add the vinegar and sugar and stir thoroughly. Serve hot with grated cheese, pickled jalapeno chillies, and crusty bread or flour tortillas.

Notes:

• I've tried making this recipe in a slow cooker and I wasn't really a fan of how it turned out. There was just too much liquid left in the mixture. If you want to try cooking this in a slow cooker, I'd suggest taking the lid off for the final 30-60 minutes to allow some of the liquid to evaporate.
• I've also tried making this recipe using mince instead of diced chuck steak. It was ok, but the chuck steak version is just outstanding and I'll not be tempted to make the mince version again.
• If you really like some extra 'oompf' in your chilli (or is it chili?), you can change the ground chilli for cayenne pepper.

Best of Britain

Health-freaks be warned. The following post contains food likely to cause arterial cramping and excessive saliva generation.

On what has been by far the coldest day of the year here in Canberra, it was a happy coincidence that the meal I had planned to cook was an example of what the British do, oh, so well. Stodge. Getting up this morning, I had an idea of what I wanted to put together tonight, but that was all it was. An idea.

When I was in England last July, I was so very impressed by a simple meal that my grandma cooked up for my two brothers and I, so much so that I made some mental notes of what went into it and vowed to give it a go myself. I've tried it once before, and it was ok, but this time I set out to use that information together with what I could find online to throw together my own creation. The result was, in my own opinion, absolutely sensational. So here you go, my very own...

Bangers & Mash with Apple and Onion Gravy
(serves 4)

Ingredients
8 thick pork sausages
4 large potatoes, suitable for mashing, peeled and diced
1 brown onion, sliced
1-2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs flour
1 cup dry cider
1-2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs HP sauce
malt vinegar, salt, cracked pepper to taste

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the potatoes, cooking for 15-20 minutes until soft. In the mean time, add 1 tablespoon of the butter and the oil to a heavy-bottomed fry pan and heat over a medium heat. Add the sausages and cook for 2-3 minutes each side before turning.
2. Remove the sausages from the pan and place under a grill on low heat to keep warm while you prepare the gravy. Add the onion and apple to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes until the onion is golden brown and translucent.
3. Add the flour to the pan and stir to soak up all the liquid. Cook for a minute to cook the flour, then stir in the cider and sauces. Add a generous splash of malt vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper. If the gravy is too thick at this point, you can add a little water to thin it down a little.
4. Drain the potatoes and mash them with the remaining butter and salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the gravy over the sausages and serve with peas or beans.

A couple of notes on the above. 

1. The ingredient amounts are general guesstimates by me, as I just added ingredients until I was happy with the taste. 
2. If you're not a fan of pork sausages, beef works just fine, but thick is definitely better than thin.
3. I found a suggestion for mashed potatoes which involves baking the potatoes rather than boiling them. I think that sounds like it would be fantastic, but didn't have the 90 minutes spare to bake my potatoes.

Comfort Food

As the temperatures drop, I find myself becoming happier and happier. Winter is by far and away becoming my favourite time of the year. Sure, it's freezing outside, and at our place it's freezing inside too (as visitors can attest, hopefully we've fixed that for this year). But the cold temperatures for me also mean delicious, warm, and comforting stews and pies, with the trade of salads for the steamed vegies and mashed potatoes of my British ancestry.

Just last night I cooked one of my favourite finds from a year or so ago:

Beef and Guinness Pies.


Making home-made pies is a fairly recent development for me, but growing up I used to love the Steak & Kidney pies my dad used to make; And I've always loved the various Beef & Ale-of-some-sort pies from the pub. Last year, I decided I wanted to try my arm at a Beef and Guinness Pie and so went and scoured what is fast becoming my favourite recipe website taste.com.au for a likely looking recipe. After comparing a couple of different recipes, I settled on the recipe available via the above link and, last night, cooked it again but with a few modifications I'd thought of since last time.

serves 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup plain flour
800g beef chuck steak, cut into 3 cm cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, cut into wedges
2 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
50g mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
1 can of Guinness (440ml)
1 1/2 cups beef stock
2 dried bay leaves
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 sheet of ready-rolled frozen puff pastry
1 egg, lightly whisked with 1 tsp milk
Mashed potato and steamed beans to serve

Method

1. Place the flour in a large bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Gently toss the beef in the seasoned flour to lightly coat it. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan or flameproof casserole dish over  high heat and cook the beef in batches, turning occasionally, until brown all over, then remove to a separate bowl.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and cook, for 5 minutes or until the onion is golden. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute until aromatic.
3. Add Guinness, beef, mushrooms, stock, bay leaves, and thyme and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to very low and cook, covered, stirring occasionally for 2 hours until beef is tender and the sauce thickens slightly.
4. Remove from the heat, season to taste with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Spoon pie mixture among four, greased 1 1/2 cup ramekins. Cut the pastry sheet into quarters and place over each pie. Use a small, sharp knife to cut a small slit to allow steam to escape from each pie and brush with the egg mixture.
6. Place pies on an oven tray and bake for 20-30 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden. Remove pies from the oven and serve with mashed potatoes and steamed beans.

These pies taste fantastic with either a nice BBQ sauce, or with my favourite: HP brown sauce.

Domi-No's

When planning this week's meals, I decided I wanted to make a pizza. Not just any old pizza, I wanted to try to emulate the best pizza I've ever had, which was in a café in a little piazza on a side street in Florence, Italy.

Italians make their pizzas elegant in their simplicity. Don't get me wrong, there's times when a pizza with an inch-thick layer of toppings is great! But after Italy I've found myself looking more for the delicate merging of complementary flavours.

This pizza in Florence was simplicity itself. It had a thin crust, a fresh tomato sauce/passata as the base, some mozzarella cheese, and just a few pieces of Italian sausage. I've already been making my own pizza bases for a while now, and just love the flavour it lends to the pizza, so all I needed extra was some mozzarella, some sausage, and a good quality passata.  Off to the local fresh food and produce markets and a delicatessen there that specialises in bits and pieces from around the globe. Given that I was making my tomato soup this week, I decided to make use of the bunch of basil that I bought for that as well.

makes 1 pizza
Ingredients
dough
1/2 cup of warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups pizza flour
3/4 tsp dried yeast

topping
3-4 tbsp quality tomato passata
1 pinch dried mixed herbs
200g shredded mozzarella or pizza cheese blend
2 Italian sausages
1 handful of fresh basil, torn

Method

1. To make dough, add water, oil, salt, flour, and yeast to your bread maker. Select the Dough - Pizza setting and start. Once the dough is ready turn it out onto a floured surface and knead and press it into the approximate size of your pizza tray or stone. If using a pizza stone, place the stone into the over and preheat to 200°C. Otherwise, preheat the oven at this point.
2. Place pizza base on the tray, and spread the passata over the base, using a spoon in a circular motion from the centre to provide even coverage. 
3. Sprinkle with the dried herbs, then the cheese.  Pinch out the sausage meat into small meatballs approximately 2cm in diameter and scatter across the pizza (you should end up with about 16 meatballs altogether). Finally sprinkle the fresh basil across the pizza.
4. Place pizza into the over and cook for 25-30 minute until the cheese is starting brown and the sausages are cooked. Slice and serve.

All up, I was supremely happy with how the pizza turned out. I still need to work on my dough shaping ability, as I'd like the crust to be much thinner than it was (think Domino's classic crust as opposed to thin 'n' crispy, which is how I like it), but the taste was pretty spot on, and definitely a hit with my wife.

As an extra note, if you don't have a bread maker and want to make your own dough, I got my recipe from www.taste.com.au. It's got instructions there on how to make the dough by hand. The astute amongst you will note that I've halved the quantities of the ingredients for my dough. Simply because the amounts they suggest will make 2 decent sized pizza bases. I also combined the wholemeal and plain flours to be just pizza flour. I use Lighthouse brand Bread & Pizza flour which should be available from your local supermarket.

Get Your Shabu On!

This is really just a quick post to mention a place that I've been going to with some friends for a couple of months now. Every Wednesday night, as part of my efforts to strengthen my core and prevent back spasms that lay me up in bed for weeks on end, I do an hour's pilates class in town. Now the timing isn't great, it starts at 7 and goes for an hour. Given that it's punishing the abs, food beforehand doesn't go down well, and if we waited til we got home to cook, we wouldn't be eating until 9-9:30. Hardly ideal.

Enter Mr. Shabu Shabu. A small Japanese cafe situated about 3 mins away from pilates in the "University Quarter" of town, this place does the best cheap ramen and udon noodles I've found in Canberra. For around $13, you can get a large bowl of ramen noodle soup, with a pork schnitzel (called tonkatsu) and japanese curry. This tastes fantastic, although I will admit if you haven't been addicted to it like I have, it does look a little suspect. But one taste and you'll be hooked. Throw in the fact that you get free Japanese green tea when you sit down and it's a lovely little place to go for a quiet dinner after a workout.

Pizzas @ Debacle

With my grandma making her annual 6 month pilgrimage back to the UK on Thursday, the family got together tonight for 2-for-1 pizzas out at Debacle in Braddon. Having not been to Debacle before, but having heard from a multitude of friends about their pizzas, I was looking forward to having some tasty pizza and beers.

The beers, while expensive (although less then the cost of a pint nowadays from an old favourite, The Wig & Pen), were very tasty. It's the first time I've been able to try Budvar on tap; It's certainly tasty, but shows once again how America makes a (very) poor imitation of foreign exports. I've only had Budweiser once, but vowed then and there to never have it again as it tasted, to me, as though someone had emptied half my beer and replaced it with water.

The pizzas, while tasty, weren't the taste epiphany I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad. But I think I still like the pizzas at Babar's in town better. Debacle's pizzas seemed to have an over-abundance of toppings, to the point of being a distraction from the dish. Having had my favourite pizza ever in a small cafe in the back-streets of Florence, I've come to enjoy the less-is-more approach to pizza toppings. You don't need to go overboard with the amount or number of ingredients to make a good pizza. Just get the taste balance right. And put it on a thin crust (this was an option at Debacle, but not one chosen by the family).

Having said all that, would I go back? The beers alone make it irresistible for me to go back. And on a 2-for-1 Tuesday, I'd certainly go another pizza. But it's not Florence.

How D'you Like Them (Love)Apples

Whilst on the topic of soups, I was cleaning up the random mountain of papers on my desk the other day when I came across a recipe scrawled on the back of a primary school maths exercise sheet (from my wife's scrap-paper pile, no doubt). The recipe was one I copied down hurriedly over the phone from my mum whilst planning an entry for a Soup Cook Off with some friends of mine.
I'm glad I found the piece of paper now, as it's a recipe I was really happy with and think it's time to file it in a more permanent, and more organised, medium. The recipe itself claimed to be for Love-Apple Soup. This is the only time I've ever heard tomatoes referred to as Love-Apples.  With a few on the fly additions to the ingredients list, I came up with the following recipe for: Cream of Chill Tomato Soup.

serves....plenty
Ingredients

700g tomatoes, peeled and chopped

125g butter

3 sliced carrots

60g chopped bacon

120g flour

2L water

2 bay leaves

1 large handful of basil, corsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 - 2 tsp  cayenne pepper
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt, pepper, and caster sugar to taste

Method

1. Melt butter over a medium heat, add carrots and bacon and sweat them in a covered pot for 5 - 10 minutes
2. Add flour and cook for 2 - 3 minutes to make a rue
3. Remove from heat, add tomatoes, water, basil, garlic, bay leaves, and cayenne pepper
4. Bring to the boil and season to taste, then cook for 1 hour on a low heat, skimming the surface when necessary.
5. Blend in batches and serve with a dash of cream, some freshly ground pepper, and crusty bread.

I absolutely love this recipe, and it went down a treat in the Soup Cook Off, earning a second place behind an amazing French Onion Soup (which was the inspiration for the recipe I came up with).

Tearfully Delicious

A couple of weeks ago I tried my hand at a French Onion Soup. I looked at a few different recipes from taste.com.au and, in the end, picked and chose from a few to concoct my own recipe.

serves 4

Ingredients
80g Unsalted butter
1 Kg brown onions, halved and sliced.
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tbs plain flour
1 L Beef Stock
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 bouquet garni
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 30cm baguette, sliced
1 tbs dijon mustard
1/2 cup shredded gruyere cheese
sea-salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat butter in a large pot. Add onion and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until the onion softens. Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes until the onion is golden.
2. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually add the beef stock and red wine, stirring until combined.
3. Place the mixture over medium heat. Add the bouquet garni, bay leaf, and thyme and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until soup thickens slightly.
4. While soup is simmering, grill baguette slices until bread is dried, but not browned. Spread one side of each slice with dijon mustard and sprinkle with cheese. Place under grill and cook until cheese is golden brown.
5. Remove bouquet garni and bay leaf and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls and top with the baguette slices and a sprig of fresh thyme to garnish.

All in all the soup was a winner, though the cheesy croutons are a definite must as they contrast the flavour of the soup perfectly and turn a ho-hum meal into something wonderful. As an aside, the Gruyere was quite pricey ($50/kg) and from a flavour perspective I think you could probably get a similar result with a decent parmesan mixed with a little shredded mozzarella for the elasticity.

Who Needs Nando's?

Why go out and spend $9 on a burger at Nando's or Oporto's? As something that my wife and I have started making at home recently, I really love the flavours you can put into these chicken burgers. The below is a guideline of how I make mine, but experimentation with flavour is, of course, part of the fun.


(makes 2 gourmet chicken burgers)
Ingredients
1 Chicken Breast, halved depth-wise
4 rashers of shortcut rindless bacon
1/2 Avocado
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 handful of mixed lettuce
2 slices pineapple
60g cheese, sliced
2 Hamburger rolls (fresh from the bakery is best)
Satay or Nando's Peri-Peri sauce to taste (or something else, if you prefer)

Method

1. Mash the avocado in a bowl, add 1 tsp of the mayonnaise and mix well.
2. Heat a griddle-pan to a high heat and cook the bacon for 2-3 mins each side.
3. Meanwhile, cut the rolls in half and toast under a grill until dried but not brown. Place cheese on the top half and return to the grill to melt cheese and toast bottom half lightly. Remove bottom half when toasted and turn off grill when cheese is melted to your satisfaction.
4. Remove bacon from the pan and place under the grill to keep warm. Lower the pan temperature to med-high and place chicken in the pan, cooking for 4-5 mins each side until cooked through.
5. To assemble the burger, spread the remaining mayonnaise over the bottom half the the rolls, followed by the mashed avocado. Add a small handful of mixed lettuce and sauce of your choice. Top each burger with one half of the chicken, 2 rashers of bacon, and a slice of pineapple, then the top burger half.

A simple burger which nevertheless tastes fantastic, and can be put together for around $7 for two burgers. Definately cheaper than Nando's!