Veal Strips with Boscaiola Sauce and Tagliatelle

Cast of characters

• Tagliatelle
• Veal strips - I used about 200g
• 6 rashers bacon, chopped - I used 4
• 200g button mushrooms, sliced
• 600ml cream
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon oil (not pictured)

Step 1
Cook tagliatelle in boiling salted water

Step 2
Fry veal strips in small batches and set aside. I dry fried them in a non stick frying pan

 Step3
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large fryingpan, add the bacon and mushrooms and cook stirring for 5 minutes or until golden brown

Step 4
Add cream and veal strips and cook over high heat for 15 minutes or until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon

Step 5
Stir in the shallots and serve over tagliatelle. Garnish with chopped parsley

Review
Delicious!

Steak Dianne

This is my version of Steak Dianne and is probably nothing at all like Steak Dianne is supposed to be but we like it so that's all that counts :) It is another of those things I make that I don't follow a recipe or measure anything so I can't give proper quantities- sorry.

Cast of characters

• Scoth fillet steak - should be fillet steak but scotch fillet is just as good
• Brandy
• Tomato sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Cream
• Garlic - for this recipe I use Gormet Garden garlic paste 

Step 1
Trim all the fat off the steaks, because of where the fat is (with scotch fillets) you end up with a couple of smaller pieces. Place the trimmed pieces between two pieces of Glad Wrap and pound (both sides) until the steak is very thin.

Step 2
Heat a frying pan to very hot and fry the steaks for a couple of minutes on each side - I use a non stick pan with no oil for this. Remove steaks and set aside.

Step 3
Add garlic to pan and stir (we like garlic so I squeeze out a decent amount) add brandy, I probably am a bit heavy handed as I use a few good glugs. Be careful when adding the brandy as it can catch on fire, if this happens wait for a few moments and it will burn out. Add a few glugs of tomato sauce and also Worcestershire sauce, stir to combine.

 Step 4
Add cream, I use a 300ml container and stir to combine. At this stage I also added a can of champignon slices too. Return the steak to the pan and continue to cook so that the sauce reduces and thickens.

The finished product

Review
Tonight we had this with steamed asparagus and homemade Hollandaise sauce and jacket potatoes with sour cream. Talk about a heart attack on a plate! At least we don't have this very often.

My Dianne sauce thickened a bit too much tonight, I was concentrating on the Hollandaise sauce because I didn't want it to curdle. It still tasted wonderful though. Hmmm, one day I might look up how to make proper Dianne sauce and try it out.

Vanilla Yo Yo's

Cast of characters

Biscuits

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 cup custard powder
• 175g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup icing sugar mixture

Filling

• 1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar
• 40g butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. - I use one tray and reuse the same piece of baking paper. 

Step 1
Put the flours and custard powder in a small bowl and mix thoroughly.

Step 2
Put the butter, vanilla and icing sugar into a mixing bowl and using a mix master, beat (medium/high speed) for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the sifted flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to medium and mix until well combined and smooth.

Step 3
Roll a rounded teaspoon of mixture into a ball and place onto prepared trays. OK, here's where I either get lazy or stay clean - your choice :) I use a small ice cream scoop 
Lightly press down with a fork. Repeat with the remaining mixture.

 Step 4
Bake for 12 minutes on the centre shelf of the oven until lightly browned. Stand for 5 minutes before removing with a slide to a cooling rack. Allow biscuits to completely cool.

Step 5
Make the filling. Beat the butter and icing sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon juice, beat on slow speed until combined. Increase speed to medium for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Step 6
Sandwich biscuits together with the filling.

Review
These are one of my family's favourites. They will keep for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

BBQ Sauce for Meatloaf

Cast of characters

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (preferably malt vinegar)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil slowly.

Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce

Cast of Characters - for meatloaf

• 1kg mince meat - I usually just buy a tray of mince, tonights was almost 900g - good enough!
• 11/2 cups breadcrumbs - I used seasoned stuffing mix for the extra herbs etc
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• salt and pepper 

Step 1
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Grease two loaf tins - I use pyrex loaf pans and I never grease them. Divide mix between the two loaf pans. Bake at 175°C for 30 minutes

Step 2
Remove from oven. Make holes in top of meatloaf and down the edges with a fork. Pour BBQ Sauce (recipe in next post) over meatloaves. Return to oven for a further 45 minutes.

The finished product

All served up with mashed potatoes Dutch carrots and broccoli with cheese sauce - yummy

Fish Balls

This recipe is one that you are going to have to trust me when I tell you that the finished result tastes so yummy. I've been making these for at least 20 years and my family love them.

Cast of characters

• 1 tin Home Brand Australian Salmon - this stuff looks disgusting but it is the only salmon that works for this recipe. Fancy expensive tinned salmon does not have the right flavour.
• 250g Brown rice
• 250g - 300g Grated tasty cheese
• Grated parmesan - I used about 1/2 a cup tonight
• Breadcrumbs
• Eggs
• Plain flour (not in photo)

Step 1
Boil rice in a large saucepan until tender but not soft and mushy. Drain and leave to cool. If you are in a hurry you can cool the rice by running cold water through it in the colander. Return the well drained rice to the saucepan. You could use a bowl for the next steps but to me that's just another thing to wash up.

Step 2
Open the salmon and drain. I rest the strainer in a dessert plate to catch any further drips while I pick through the salmon. This salmon is definitely the stuff that John West rejects and I only ever buy it to make these fish balls.

Pull the salmon apart and remove all the bones, don't expect to find nice delicate little bones like in the expensive stuff either. These bones have more of a dinosaur quality to them. Remove all the skin by sliding it off with your fingers and also remove any of the dark brown bit of salmon the same way.

After all the skin, bones and yukky bits have been removed flake the salmon using your fingers and add to the rice in the saucepan.

Add the cheeses and two eggs and using your hands mix thoroughly. At this stage you can decide if you want to add more cheese or salmon. I never measure anything and tonight I had more rice than I thought I would so I added another can of salmon, a bit more cheese and another egg and mixed it all through. The mixture should be kind of wet. If you can't form a ball that will hold its shape adding another egg and mixing it through should fix the problem.

Step 3
Form mixture into balls, squeezing your hands together to make sure the balls are firm. Roll in flour, then egg and finally breadcrumbs.

Step 4
I deepfry them for 5 minutes or until golden brown. If I didn't have a deepfryer I would mould them into patties rather than balls and then fry them in a frying pan.

The finished product

Here is one opened up, its hard to see but the cheese is all melty inside.

Review
Because these are quite messy to make I like to make more than I need and I freeze the extras before the deepfrying step.

The fish balls are ok to be reheated but you don't get the melty cheese effect like when they are freshly cooked.

My son also likes these cold, in fact he likes them best cold.

Cheese Scones

These are the cheesy scones used in the recipe below. Recipe is from recipes+ magazine.

Cast of characters

• 2 shortcut bacon rashers, rind removed, finely chopped
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 25g butter
• 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
• 1/2 cup milk (aproximately)

Step 1
Heat a small frying pan over high heat. Add bacon; cook, stirring for 5 minutes or until the bacon is crisp.. Remove from pan. Set aside to cool slightly.

Step 2
Sift flour into a bowl. Using fingertips, rub in butter until it resembles fine crumbs.. Stir in parmesan and bacon.

Step 3
Add enough milk to make a soft sticky dough.

Turn  dough onto a floured surface.

Knead until smooth. Press dough out until 2cm thick. Using a 3.5cm pastry cutter, cut 16 scones from the dough. I used an egg cup of aproximately the right size.

 
Tip - a soft sticky dough will produce light scones.

Cheesy Scone-topped Chicken Casserole

This is a recipe I found in a recipes+ magazine

Cast of characters

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 600g chicken thigh fillets halved
• 1 medium brown onion, finelychopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 300ml cream
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
• 150g button mushrooms, quartered - I used mushroom cups which are a little bigger
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, sliced - I used less than 1/2 cup
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 300g piece pumpkin, peeled, cit into 2cm pieces - I had it ready but forgot to add it - oops
• Cheese Scones (recipe in next post)
• milk, to glaze

Preheat oven to 200°C

Step 1
Heat oil in a frying panover moderately high heat. Cook chicken in batches for 2 - 3 minutes or until seared. I used a large frying pan so I did mine all at once. Set aside.

Add onion and garlic to pan , cook and stir for 5 minutes or until onion softens.
Step 2
Add flour to pan, cook and stir for 1 minute or until onion is well coated. Whisk stock, cream and mustard in a large jug; gradually stir into pan until smooth and combined. Return chicken to dish with mushrooms, tomato, parsley and pumpkin.

Bring to the boil. Remove from heat and transfer into an ovenproof dish - the dish I used was 19cm square.I put the chicken in the dish first and then poured the sauce over it. 

Step 3
Make cheese scones (recipe in next post)

Step 4
Arrange scones evenly over hot chicken mixture in dish. Brush top of scones with milk to glaze.

Bake uncovered for 20 - 25 minutes until scones are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped lightly, and chicken is cooked. Serve at once.

 Review
Absolutely delicious!!! Geoff, this could be made in an electric frypan without the cheesy scones and it would still taste great.

Roast Lamb

No recipe today, everyone knows how to cook a roast. I bought a new Rosemary plant on the weekend so I picked a sprig and inserted pieces into slits I had cut in the lamb. With the lamb we had roast potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin and mushrooms and steamed Dutch carrots and zucchinis.

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Cast of characters

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cups arborio rice
• 1/4 cup verjuice
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 brown onion diced
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes - I couldn't find the ones I thought I bought so I left them out
• 200g chicken breast diced - I used a whole chicken breast so it was probably a bit more than 200g
• 200g button mushrooms sliced
• 100g swiss brown mushrooms sliced
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• chopped continental parsley for garnish

Step 1
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add arborio rice and cook for 1 - 2 minutes stirring continuously. Add verjuice, cook stirring continuously until liquid is absorbed. Stir in stock 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring until liquid has been absorbed between each addition. Remove from heat.

Step 2
Heat butter and remaining oil in a medium frying pan over high heat. Add garlic, onion and chilli flakes and saute until onion is transparent.

Step 3
Add chicken and fry for 3 - 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for 4 - 5 minutes stirring occasionally until  the mushrooms are soft.

Step 4
Transfer chicken mixture and parmesan cheese to rice and mix well to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 5
To serve, place spoonfuls of risotto into serving dishes and garnish with parsley.

Review
This was much easier to make than I thought it would be, the stirring got a bit tedious but I will make it again. Dennis loved it.

Lamb Wellington with Spinach and Mushroom Duxell

Last night on Junior Masterchef one of the contestants made Lamb Wellington. Hell, if a 12 year old boy can make it - I should be able to too :)

I got so excited to make it that I forgot to take a photo of the ingredients, sorry.

Cast of characters

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 150g lamb backstrap, seasoned - mine said lamb fillet but I guess that's the same thing
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 4 button mushrooms finely diced
• 100g baby English spinach
• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 egg beaten

Preheat the oven to 220°C

Step 1
Heat oil in a frying pan over a high heat, add lamb and cook on each side for 3 minutes or cooked to your liking. Remove from pan and rest. For some reason this photo only wants to go in sideways, nevermind, you can still see it ok.

Step 2
Melt butter in a frying pan over high heat, add mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally

Step 3
Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil, add the spinach and cook for 1 - 2 minutes and remove. Drain well

Step 4

Lay a sheet of puff pastry on a baking paper lined oven tray, place lamb in the centre of the pastry sheet and spread with Dijon mustard,  spoon the mushrooms and spinach over the lamb.

Step 5
Wrap pastry to encase, seal ends and brush with beaten egg. Cut the second sheet of pastry into 2cm strips, layer over encased lamb in a latice pattern and brush with beaten egg. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden.

The finished product

Review
This was actually very quick and easy to make and the lamb was nice and pink when it was cut and so tender it almost melted in your mouth. I'll definitely do this again, Dennis gave it 10/10 :)