2. Mains

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Monday Meats

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Oooh I got you hey?  Expecting another Sunday sweet, but little did you know I was going to be too busy to post this weekend.  So here’s an amazingly delicious recipe for pork dumplings.  We like to make them from scratch, including the dumpling wrappers, but you can always use bought ones, it’s much faster.

Pork and Shiitake mushroom dumplings

Makes about 24

  • 2 shiitake mushrooms, chopped (you could use dried/soaked ones)
  • 250g (1/2 lb) pork mince
  • 1 egg
  • 95g (1/2 c) drained canned water chestnuts, finely chopped
  • 3 green shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 Tbs Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing)
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
  • generous pinches of salt and white pepper
  • 24 flour dumpling or wonton wrappers (recipe below)

Combine all the above ingredients (besides the dumpling wrappers) together in a large bowl and mix well with your hands, it’s messy, but the best way. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 15 – 30 minutes to develop the flavours.

Place half the dumpling wrappers on a clean work surface. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the pork mixture into the centre of each wrapper. Brush the edges with a little water. Pinch the edges together to enclose the filling. Repeat with remaining wrappers and pork mixture.

For steamed dumplings: Line the base of a bamboo steamer with non-stick baking paper. Place 8 dumplings in the steamer and place over a wok or saucepan of simmering water. Steam, covered, for 6 minutes or until cooked. Repeat, in 2 more batches, with remaining dumplings.

For fried/potsticker dumplings: Heat 2 tablespoons of peanut or sesame oil in a wok or fry-pan.  Not too hot, use a medium heat.  Place the dumplings in the pan and put a lit ontop.  Cook for 6-8 minutes without stirring and then scrape the dumplings off the pan (they don’t call them potstickers for nothing) onto a plate to serve.

We like to eat these with noodles and green or snake beans.  But they are great alone with a soy dipping sauce any time of day.  You can also freeze them before you cook them, just place some baking paper between each one in a container and freeze for up to 3 weeks.

Dumpling wrapper recipe:

Makes about 30

(Wonton wrappers can also be used, they generally have an egg in them)

  • 1 1/2 c flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2/3 c Ice water

In a bowl mix together the flour and salt, then stir in water a little at a time, only as much as you need to form a smooth dough.  Knead the dough for a minute or two and then let it rest for about 20 minutes.

Tear off little golf ball sized pieces of dough, roll into a ball with your hands and then roll out really really flat with a rolling pin.  Aim for about 1 mm thick and about 7.5cm or 3 in round.  Very thin. Repeat with all the dough (it’s a workout!)

Song for this recipe: “Heat of the Night” – Asia  Heat

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Lasagne

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

This week was Kel’s birthday, the youngest, and although I live on the opposite side of the planet I knew exactly what to make for dinner on her birthday.  Her favorite – a great lasagne.  Truth is I never really made one before- Beans always makes them, but being busy with work the task was up to me.  I asked Jamie, Ina, Stephanie, Nigella, and the Italian Mum’s that I work with and woh, out came the best lasagne I have had in a long time.

It’s quite easy to make- just a bit of prep time.  We like to add veggies and also have a layer or two of bechamel sauce.   For vegetarians, the meat can easily be substituted from crumbled firm tofu.

  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 600g (1.3 lb) lean beef mince VEGETARIANS firm tofu, crumbled
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 2 Tbsp tomato paste
  • 400g (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped
  • 10 – 14 sheets lasagne pasta
  • a few large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
  • 1 1/3 cups grated mozzarella cheese
Basic Bechamel sauce with parmesan (optional)
  • 500ml (2 cups) milk
  • 1/2 c parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 brown onion, halved, coarsely chopped
  • 4 whole black peppercorns
  • 40g butter
  • 2 Tbsp plain flour
  • Pinch ground nutmeg
  • Pinch ground cloves
  • Salt & ground white pepper

Bechamel sauce recipe below – if you’re using it, make it first!

For the lasagne:

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened.  Add the mince, and cook, stirring to break up the meat, for 5 minutes or until browned.

Put the pasta sheets on to boil- we’re just going to cook it for about 10 minutes- to soften it before baking- so keep your eye on it.  Just take it off the heat and drain the water after 10 min or soft.

Now add carrot, tomato paste, tomato and oregano to the mince mixture. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350ºF). Lightly grease a 6cm-deep, 20cm square or rectangle baking dish. Arrange 2 pieces of pasta over base of dish. Spread one-third of the mince mixture over pasta. Top with one-third of the spinach. Top with pasta pieces.  Then a layer of bechamel sauce (if using) then more meat, a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese, spinach, pasta, bechamel,  meat, until you reach the top of the pan.  Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cheese is golden and melted. Let it stand for 10-20 minutes (to set). Serve.

For the bechamel sauce:

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat until gently foaming. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until mixture bubbles and begins to come away from side of pan. (When making a sauce that contains flour, it’s important to cook the flour. If you don’t the sauce will taste floury) Remove from heat.

Pour in half the milk gradually (otherwise the sauce will become lumpy), whisking constantly until mixture is smooth. Gradually add the remaining milk, whisking until smooth and combined. (If sauce becomes lumpy, strain through a fine sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to remove any lumps.)

Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and add the cheese. Taste and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Song for this recipe: “Kelly watch the stars” – Air Air - Moon Safari - Kelly Watch the Stars

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Spinach and feta Gözleme

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Finally a not so sweet treat!  Gozleme is a Turkish flat bread, often sold at markets around the world.  It’s a great snack easily heated up in the toaster at work and not too hard on the waistline.  There are quite a few filling options, but the most common (and our favorite) is spinach and feta.  Also you can just make the dough with flour, water and salt, which is probably more traditional than using yeast, but the recipes below is truly delicious.

  • 7g (1 sachet) instant dried yeast
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 3 c plain flour
  • 1/3 cup olive oil
  • 100g (3.5oz) baby spinach
  • 200g (7oz)  feta cheese, crumbled
  • lemon wedges, to serve

Combine 1 cup of warm water, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Stir and let stand in a warm, sunny place for 5 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.

Sift flour into a large bowl. Add yeast mixture and 2 tablespoons of oil. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes or until elastic. Cut the dough into 4 and place on a greased baking tray. Cover with a clean tea towel. Stand in a warm, sunny place for 20 minutes or until dough roughly doubles in size.

Roll each piece into a 35cm x 45cm (13in x 17in) rectangle. Place one-quarter of spinach over half of each rectangle. Top with feta and season with salt and pepper. Fold dough over to enclose filling. Press edges together to seal.

Preheat a barbecue plate or heavy saucepan/griddle on medium-high heat. Brush one side of each gozleme with oil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until nice brown spots start to appear. Brush uncooked side with remaining oil. Turn over and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove to a serving plate. Cut gozleme into quarters and most important – serve with lemon wedges.

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Souper

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

It’s getting getting warmer here in the North, but the nights are still pretty chilly and from talking to family at home in Australia it sounds like it’s getting chilly in the evenings there too – so it’s the perfect time for everyone to eat soup!

I mean, isn’t soup just the best?  I could happily eat bowls full with crusty bread for weeks.  I was craving this soup for days before I made it.  Brings back childhood memories, when I didn’t like soup because I couldn’t chew it. Now it must be the coziest meal I can think of.

Ham, Barley and Vegetable Soup

  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 1 brown onion, chopped
  • 1 (about 500g) smoked ham hock (or diced thick ham)
  • 8 c water
  • 3/4 c pearl barley, rinsed, drained
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 2 celery sticks, sliced
  • 1 zucchini, sliced
  • Salt & freshly ground pepper
  • Crusty bread, to serve

Heat the oil in a large  saucepan over medium heat. Add your onions and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes. Add ham hock and water. Cover and bring to the boil. Now reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Add the barley to the pan. Simmer, uncovered, for a further 30 minutes. Add carrots, celery and zucchini and continue to cook for 20 minutes or until the meat starts to fall off the bone. Remove ham hock from soup and set aside to cool slightly and take the pan off the heat.

Once the meat is cool enough to handle, remove the flesh and shred or chop it before returning to the pan of soup. Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Reheat the whole things and then divide among bowls and serve with the bread.  Wish I was there for another bowl!
Original recipe by: Alison Turner (Fresh Living – 13 June 2005)

Song for this recipe: “Winters love” – Animal Collective. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs - Winters Love

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Mexican salad

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Continuing on our theme of international salads, this wonderful Mexican style salad is really delicious as a side to maybe chicken and tortillas. We eat it as a meal and it is honestly the most perfect combination of flavors for a salad ever! And so healthy!

mexicansalad

  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
  • 2 c corn kernels (frozen or tinned)
  • 2 spring onions, diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
  • 1 red capsicum/bell pepper, diced
  • 3 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • 1/3 c olive oil
  • 1/3 c fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp honey
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste

Mix the oil, lime juice, honey and salt and pepper together in a little jar or bowl. Add all the other ingredients to a big bowl and toss with the dressing. Let the salad sit for a little while – an hour or so if you have time, for the flavors to develop.

Song for this recipe: “Mexican Mavis” – Boy & Bear Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis - Mexican Mavis

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Beet, avocado and spinach salad with goat cheese

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

This has become a fairly common combination- beets and goat cheese, but rightly so, when you try it you realise that it makes perfect sense. The flavors and textures go just right. In this salad avocado also makes a great addition, if you’re in a cool country at the moment, keep your beets warm, otherwise refrigerate them for refreshment.

beetavogoatsalad

  • 1 bunch beetroot
  • 250g (8.8oz) spinach
  • 1 avocado
  • 75 g (3 oz) goats cheese, crumbled
  • 1 Tbs walnut oil or extra virgin olive if you don’t have walnut
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small red onion, minced
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • splash red wine vinegar
  • salt

Wash beetroot and cut off the leaves. Throw out any bruised or yellow leaves and soak remaining leaves in a basin of cold water with the spinach. Steam the beetroot until they can be pierced easily with a skewer, then gently rub off the skins with your fingers. (Our clever friend Sar uses dishwashing gloves for this messy task).

Slice the beetroot thickly and put into a bowl. While the beetroot is still warm, sprinkle half the walnut oil over top and add a little pepper.

Sauté the onion in olive oil in a small pan for 2 minutes and place over the beetroot. Shake over red wine vinegar and taste for salt and sharpness.

Gently dry the salad leaves and arrange on a flat platter. Peel and slice avocado and arrange amongst greens. Combine beetroot gently and quickly tumble over leaves with all the juices. Finally sprinkle with large crumbs of goats cheese and serve.

This salad is wonderful alone, but makes a perfect side for lamb also.

Recipe adapted from The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander

Song for this recipe: ‘Beat Street ‘- Grandmaster Flash Grandmaster Melle-Mel & The Furious Five - Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Melle-Mel & The Furious Five: The Greatest Hits - Beat Street

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Scones

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

I always like to make breakfast for my sisters and this is our favorite (after a hot fry up maybe). Devonshire tea is easy to get in Australia, scones with jam and cream and a cuppa, but it’s so simple to make your own. Scone recipes are different in different places, but real scones- English scones, are really easy to make and they make the most lovely breakfast (/afternoon tea) imaginable.

scones

(Kelly’s batch! Nice work Poots)

  • 2 c self raising flour (you can add 2 tsp of baking powder to plain flour if you don’t have self raising)
  • 60g (2oz) cold butter
  • pinch of salt
  • 3/4 c milk
  • Whipped or clotted cream and jam to serve

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF)

Place the flour and salt into a bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and then rub it into the flour with your fingertips- this sounds like it might be time consuming, but it really isn’t. Rub until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs and then add the milk. Mix until you make a firm dough and then knead a little to smooth the wrinkles out.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 3cm thick (about an inch) then with a scone cutter- or a small glass or cup (about 6 or 7cm diameter that’s 2.5 in), cut out as many circles as you can, then roll the dough into a ball and repeat until all the dough is gone. Place these onto a greased baking tray and pop in the oven for about 12-15 min, until they have risen and just started to turn gold.

I’m afraid you must eat these with jam and cream. You may use any kind of jam/jelly you like, and I don’t eat cream on any other occasion, but jam goes first then cream and we highly recommend a strong black tea to go with them.

PS Lemonade scones are very popular right now- we think that it’s a tiny bit sacrilegious, but if you’re keen on a sweet scone, just substitute lemonade for the milk. Let us know…

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Chickpea and sweet potato koftas

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Mollie Katzen is one of our favorite foodies. Her recipes are so fresh and healthy they just make sense. Everything we make from books of hers always turns out great and tastes like a new version of something already familiar and homey.

We eat these like veggie burgers, on a bun with salad, tzatiki and cheese. But koftas are essentially Indian so you can serve these with rice and yoghurt. It’s great to make a bunch, freeze them and warm them up in the oven later.

  • 1 medium-sized sweet potatokoftas
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked chickpea (1 can)
  • 1 large clove garlic
  • 2 scallions, diced
  • 2 tsp lightly toasted cumin seeds
  • 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
  • 2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 Tbs unbleached white flour
  • 1 c peas (fresh or frozen)

Peel and dice the sweet potato and cook it in boiling water until soft (about 10 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces). You should have about 1 1/2 cups of cooked sweet potato. Transfer to a food processor or blender.

Add all other ingredients, except the flour, peas, and oil. Purée until fairly smooth. (The mixture will be very thick, so be patient!) Transfer to a bowl. Stir in the flour until thoroughly incorporated, then gently stir in the peas. Form into patties.

Place a skillet or heavy based saucepan over medium heat and add a little bit of vegetable oil. When the oil is really hot, add the patties, and sauté for about 8 to 10 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned and heated through. Serve with rice or salad or on burgers!

Original recipe: Mollie Katzen’s vegetable heaven.

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Split pea soup

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

It is getting wintry weather-wise here in Montreal, perfect soup weather. Split pea soup is one of those super hearty, super healthy, easy to make meals that leaves you feeling perfectly satisfied on a chill evening.

peasoup

This recipe is a version from the very famous Pea soup Andersen’s, a wonderful restaurant in California, just off hwy 101, north of Santa Barbara. Which goes to show pea soup is for any weather!

Serves 3-4

  • 1.5 l (2 pints) water
  • 1 c of Green Split Peas
  • 1 branch of celery, coarsely chopped
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp of ground thyme
  • 1 pinch of cayenne
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Salt & pepper

In a pot put a splash of oil then fry the onions for a few minutes. Add all the rest of the ingredients and boil hard for 20 minutes, then slowly until the peas are tender. Strain through a fine sieve and reheat to serve.

You can easily make this pea and ham soup by adding a pork bone to the pot, or fry up a couple bacon rashers and add to the mix.

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Lemon, zucchini and chicken pasta

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Leftovers… I quite like them. Sometimes it’s hard to think of what to make with the weird collection, but usually you can make a really fast dinner with them. Next time you have some left over chicken (we always do after we roast a whole one), why not try this simple and delicious recipe?

chickzuccpasta

serves 2-3

  • 300g (12 oz) farfalle pasta
  • 40g (1.5 oz) butter, chopped
  • 1 zucchini, coarsely grated
  • 1 yellow zucchini, coarsely grated
  • 2 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 c shredded cooked chicken
  • 1 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 large lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
  • 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
  • grated parmesan cheese, optional, to serve

Cook pasta in a saucepan of boiling salted water, following the packet directions, until tender. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat half the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add zucchini and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until zucchini is soft. Add chicken and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the cooked pasta, remaining butter, green onions, lemon rind, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and parsley to chicken mixture. Cook, stirring, over low heat until heated through (only about 5 min). Sprinkle with parmesan, if using. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with crusty bread and steamed greens.

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