Real Men Make Their Own Quiche
Originally I was going to make this for lunch but when I realised it was already midday it turned into a dinner instead and I’m sorry it’s another zucchini recipe but they’re in season.
Bacon and Egg Slice
My mum used to make this with puff pastry and no spinach. Puff pastry would have been nice for the flaky top but the short-crust I used still worked.
Orange Stuffed Chicken Marylands with 5-Spiced Carrots and Beans
Orange Stuffed Chicken Marylands with
5-Spiced Carrots and Beans
Boston Baked Beans
Boston Baked Beans - Serves 2-4
250 grams of cannellini beans
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 tin of tomatoes
150 grams of pork speck
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves
1 bay leaf, torn
Salt and pepper
Heat oven to 180ºC. Soak the beans overnight. In a large saucepan,
fry the onion, speck, cloves and bay leaf until the onions are
transparent. Add everything else except the beans and simmer for 10
minutes to reduce the liquid a little.
Drain the beans and add. Put a lid on the saucepan and bake for
three hours, stirring occasionally. Serve.
Homemade Turkish Bread
The texture is beautifully chewy and has a well developed flavour too. Unfortunately it didn’t have those extra large air-bubbles inside you’d get from your store-bought turkish bread but I think if you left it long than I did you’d be fine, it was also a little cold when I baked mine and that never helps.
Homemade Turkish Bread
Homemade Turkish Bread - Makes 6
Sponge:
½ cup of warm water
1 sachet of yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar or honey
1 cup of flour
Dough:
1¼ cup of warm water
1 sachet of yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar or honey
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups of flour
1 cup of whole-grain flour (I used rye)
1 tablespoon of salt
Sesame seeds or nigella seeds (black onion) for garnish
1 egg, beaten for a glaze
Mix the sponge ingredients, except the flour together and set aside
until foamy, about 15 minutes. Add the flour and combine well.
Cover with a tea-towel or loosely with plastic wrap and set aside
overnight. Don’t cover the sponge tightly because the air inside
with become anoxic and the yeast will die.
The following day, mix the second lot of yeast, water and
honey/sugar together until foamy then add the remaining ingredients
except the sesame seeds or nigella seeds and egg then knead until
the dough is smooth and very elastic. Add more flour if the dough
is too wet. It should be slightly damn but silky smooth. Mine took
20+ minutes.
Pre-heat your oven to 250ºC. Once the dough is the right
consistency, ball up and place in an oiled bowl covered with a
tea-towel or loosely with plastic wrap for 3+ hours or until the
dough has doubled in size. Punch down the dough then kneed again
for another 10 minutes or so. Divide into six pieces and roll out
to the desired shape, quite thinly and put on a greased baking try
and put in a warm place for an hour or more until the dough has
risen significantly. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle over the
sesame or nigella seeds.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the crush is golden.
His Name Was Robert Paulson
Jack (Ed Norton) and Bob (Meat Loaf) at support group in Fight
Club
I was considering calling this post “My Meatloaf has Bitch Tits”
but that doesn’t really portray the damn fine tasty meatloaf that I
made tonight. I know it’s a bit of a tenuous link but Meat Loaf
played the character Robert Paulson, the guy with bitch tits that
Jack meets at his testicular cancer support group... With torn off
pieces of fresh buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomato this
meatloaf really is a notch above what you’ve probably ever
considered a meatloaf could be.
The original recipe for this meatloaf comes from Mario
Batali’s father (via Epicurious), which might explain Mario’s
own bitch tits. The entire loaf, if made as directed weighs in at
2-3 kg! I intended to make half of this but I wasn’t paying
attention when I went to buy the ingredients and bought enough to
make the full recipe, luckily meatloaf can be frozen well. Sort of
like Meat Loaf’s assets. I
cheated a little in this recipe, David Jones had some great looking
beef rissoles that had onion, carrot, parsley and a few other bits
already mixed through in what looked about the right proportion so
I bought that instead of just plain minced beef. For a little more
vegetable matter in a meal that will be almost entirely meat I made
some balsamic roast vegetables to go along side - just baby
carrots, red onion, parsnip etc tossed with some olive oil and a
splash of balsamic and roasted along side the meatloaf for the last
half hour.
Beef and Italian Sausage Meatloaf
with Sundried Tomatoes and Mozarella
Beef and Sausage Meatloaf - Serves 8 or
more
1kg of lean beef mince
500g of buffalo mozzarella, torn into pieces
500g of italian sausage, cases removed
2 cups of chopped fresh basil
2 cups of fresh breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup of sliced sun-dried tomatoes
5 garlic cloves
1½ tablespoons of dried oregano
2 teaspoons of salt
2 × ½ cup of tomato sauce
3 eggs
½ cup of dry red wine
Pre-heat your oven to 190ºC. Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients
together in a bowl except one of the half cups of tomato sauce.
Mould into a loaf shape and place in a loaf tin and even out the
surface. Brush on the remaining tomato sauce. Bake in the oven for
about an hour and fifteen minutes or until a meat thermometer
reaches 70-75ºC at the centre of the loaf.
Balls, Meat and Tarts
Hot Guy and the Dykes on
Bikes
Marching Boys - Mardi Gras
'08
For the balls, who else could I turn to
except Jamie Oliver? I took
his spiced doughnut recipe and to simplify things I made doughnut
balls instead of the traditional shape. I was pretty happy the way
they turned out, very light and puffed into almost perfect spheres
when they fried. It took a little bit of time and effort but they
were great. The dough was so soft and silky it was a pleasure to
work with, particularly because I was worried that it'd even turn
out. I don't usually have any milk in my house and I forgot to get
some at the store so I took a gamble and watered down some plain
yoghurt. It seemed to do the trick.
Doughnut Balls
As for the meat I stopped at Hudson Meats and picked up some
moroccan lamb burgers, american bbq ribs and some honey soy chicken
drummetts. I hope I didn't smoke out my neighbors too much. There
were a few other people having bbq's so I don't think it really
mattered.
Moroccan Lamb Burger
Then there was the tart, a very simple
tomato and cheese tart using ready made puff pastry. It took all of
5 minutes prep time and 12 minutes to cook. Using two sheets of
puff pastry, I used one as a base and cut thumb width strips from a
second one and used those as an edge, two layers worked just about
right. Once the sides were built up I grated in some mozzarella and
parmesan, layered with sliced tomato and seasoned with salt, pepper
and a bit of dried oregano. Popped in the oven for 12 minutes and
it was done. I think it tasted better when it was cold and looked
like it'd have held up well for a picnic.
Tomato and Mozarella Tart
Jacket Baked Lamb Shanks
This isn't my favourite shank recipe, which I couldn't find the day I wanted to make these, so I used what I had from Jamie Oliver's book, "Cook with Jamie". It's simple food, even though the recipe can look daunting to read for the inexperienced but it boils down to inserting a knife along the bone of the shank to make a small finger sized pocket to stuff a herb butter, then wrapping each shank individually in foil with a medely of diced veg under them (and a splash of white wine). The best part of this is that even though it takes 2.5 hours to cook, your house absolutley fills with a glorious smell of roast lamb from about 20 minutes in. If I knew more people in my apartment building I'm sure I'd have had them knocking on the door to invite themselves over for dinner.
Time did get away from us a bit, stuck in project work (yeah right - more like the wine) so the vegetables were over done. I think next time I'll have more veg and cut them bigger so they hold up to the long roast better.
If you're going to make these for a dinner party, wrap the foil parcels neatly and serve them intact to your guests so they can cut them open to get the full whaft of intensley smelling steam as it bursts out.
My favourite recipe for lamb shanks though, which I will detail another time, has the whole meaty shanks slow roasting in thick soup of tomato and mined vegetables. The soup keeps them incredebly moist at the same time as injecting the meat with flavour. They end up so tender you have to take them out with a spoon to stop them from falling apart!
Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks - Serves 4
(via How to Cook by Jamie Oliver)
6 Springs of fresh rosemary
150g Butter
15 Fresh sage leaves
2 Springs of fresh thyme
Salt and Pepper
4 Lamb shanks
12 Cloves of garlic
2 Large carrots
1 Onion
1 Leek
2 Glasses of white wine
Preheat your oven to 200C/400F. Pick all of the leaves off the herbs and put in a blender with the butter and whiz together, season with salt and pepper. Using small sharp knife and slide it between the bone and the meat to form a finger shaped pocket in all of the shanks and stuff as much of the herbed butter into the pocket. This will fill the heart of the shank with flavour.
Dice all of the vegetables and douse with oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and on four sheets of foil, share out the veg and place a shank on top of each pile. Make a boat shape with the foil and pour a quarter of a glass of wine in each foil boat. Wrap the foil tightly around the shanks and vegetables. Put all of the parcels on a tray and bake in the oven for 2.5 hours.
Serve the intact parcels to each guest so they can open them their selves.