Lamb, walnut and pineapple casserole

It may sound a bit weird, but this is a delicious recipe!

I found in the Herald Sun's Tuesday food supplement a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd give it a try....and since then I've made it again.

The recipe calls for lamb, but I've also made this with beef and it was just as good

I'm not a fan of sweet and sour dishes but this isn't too sweet, even though it contains pineapple juice.

Here's the recipe.

Lamb, Walnuts & Pineapple Casserole

This quantity serves 4

Preheat oven to around 180

1.2 kgs diced lamb
2 tblsp flour
2 tblsp oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 chopped onion
2 cups pineapple juice
2 teaspoons curry powder
small tin of tomato paste
4 tblsp soy sauce
2 tblsp vinegar
2 tblsp brown sugar
3/4 cup walnuts

Toss meat in flour and fry in oil till browned a little.

Remove to casserole dish then fry the garlic till just cooked and add all other ingredients (except walnuts) and bring to the boil for a minute

Pour over the meat and cook in the oven for around 2 hours for lamb.Best to check it after an hour to see how it's going

When cooked, add the walnuts and serve with buttered noodles.

For a change, you can use beef, pork or chicken...but you may need to adjust the cooking time for chicken and pork. It's all trial and error really....

Enjoy!

Pizza to go...

I'm not a big lover of pizza...or pasta for that matter. I eat it and I enjoy it, but I'm really more a meat and potatoes sort of girl

But, I've started making pizza at home on a Friday night...and I've even been making my own pizza dough.

Last night we tried a seafood pizza.....it was delish!


Seafood pizza

I considered buying a pizza cooker/oven thingy, but thought I'd try it first in my oven, and it worked out just fine.


All in pizza, with fresh basil and bocconcini

The dough recipe I use is by Karen Martini. I have "tweaked" it a little though because when I used her measurements I ended up with a dough soup.

Here's my amended recipe for the dough

2 cups Strong Flour
1/2 cup Semolina
1 cup tepid water
50 ml Olive Oil
7½ g Yeast (1 sachet)
10 g Salt

Put the dough hook on your mixer and into the mixer bowl add all the dry ingredients. In a jug put the tepid water, oil and yeast and whisk it for a few seconds
 
With mixer on low and dough hook attached, add the wet ingredients all at once and then raise speed to high.

Mix until you have a silky smooth dough; about 10 minutes. ... Spray another large bowl with oil and put the dough into it. Place a tea towel over the top and leave to prove for as long as you can - overnight is ideal but I do mine in the morning and it's plenty of time for that evening. I punch it down once after about 3 hours, then just let it sit until I'm ready to use it.

The All-In pizza includes just about everything I had in the fridge...red onion, a jar of marinated capsicum, bocconcini, tomato base, fresh basil, sliced mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and olives.

The Seafood pizza had a tomato base, as well as bocconcini and sliced mushrooms and some marinara mix I picked up at the local fishmonger

Seafood pizza

Hope you like it...MONT sure did

Pale and Mysterious - Poached Chicken

This is a very pale looking dish, but what it lacks in colour it certainly makes up for in flavour....and it's just perfect now that the days are turning a little cooler here in the Southern hemisphere and it's getting warmer in the north.

I first saw Ben O'Donoghue make this on a lazy Saturday afternoon while watching "The Best in Australia" on one of the new digital TV channels. It's Poached Chicken and Tuna Mayo Salad, and I love it for it's simplicity.

Image from here

I tweaked this a little from Ben's original recipe...here's my version


You'll need
--------------
1 free range chicken
2 pork bones or spare ribs
Big handful of parsley and stalks
4 spring onions, chopped in 3 inch pieces
2 cloves Garlic
1 carrot
1 lemon
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Good pinch of salt.


Tuna Mayo
--------------
1 tin Tuna in oil
3 egg yolks
Lemon juice or white wine vinegar
400 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

Salad
-------
500g New Potatoes
8 anchovy fillets
2 tablespoons capers
Chopped parsley

First of all, juice the lemon and set the juice aside for the tuna mayo. Use the cut lemon pieces in the poaching water for the chicken

To poach the chicken, place it in a large pot and cover with cold water. Add the pork bones, parsley and stalks, shallots, garlic, left over lemon halves, carrot, salt and peppercorns and bring to a simmer for six minutes then turn it off and let it stand, covered for at least 1 hour.
Remove the chicken and set aside. Don't forget to keep the chicken stock and freeze it for other dishes.

To make the tuna mayo, whisk together egg yolks and lemon...and while whisking, slowly add the olive oil. As soon as you have mayonnaise, add the broken up tuna and season to taste.

For the salad, cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain and cut in half then set aside. Dress them with a little of your tuna mayo and add the capers.

To Serve...break up the chicken (you can discard the skin if you wish) arrange some meat on a plate with the potatoes and spoon over the mayo then garnish with the anchovy fillets.

That's it. I served this with some steamed green beans rather than a salad. Enjoy this on a lovely Sunday afternoon with the wine of your choice. We had a very nice De Bortoli Windy Peak Chardonnay

For a change, you can use celery leaves or baby spinach or any other green leafy veg you like...

It really is a lovely Sunday lunch. Yummo!

(sorry still no camera so I had to rely on Ben's photo from Best in Australia)

Let's Party!

I've linked up with Sarah's Linky Blog Party, Good Life Wednesday over here at Beach Cottage

Come on over. The water's fine!

Lentils - Love 'em or not?

This is a vegetarian dish that I've been making for years. I first tried it back in the early 90's after finding the recipe in the Age Epicure section. Back then Epicure was on a couple of the newspapers' pages, not the pull out, stand alone supplement it is now

Anyway, it's an aromatic lentil dish that has some cummin and curry in it...not too much though

Again, the photographs aren't top notch as they were taken on my mobile phone...

For 2 people you'll need:
----------------------------
1 brown onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup lentils
2 handfuls of spinach (I love spinach so I usually double this)
1 teaspoon cummin powder
1 teaspoon curry powder

Here's what you do
----------------------
Fry the chopped onion in a little oil then stir in the cummin and curry powders and mix till the aroma hits you

Add the tomatoes and lentils, then cover with water, (about a cup) put on the lid and cook for about 3/4 of an hour. This may take longer, just cook until the lentils are soft and the tomatoes have collapsed and the onions have disappeared.

Turn off the heat and add the spinach, stir well and let sit until the spinach has wilted.

Put a dollop of yogurt on top and serve with good crusty bread

To make it a little more interesting, you can also add some chopped mushrooms and capsicum at the start to boost the veggie content. I've even included some pieces of pumpkin when I've had them in the fridge

Hope you like it.

Baking - Carrot Cake

It's been a long time between drinks...or recipes, but I'm here and I'm cookin'!

This carrot cake recipe is easier than I thought it would be. I'm used to making my tried and tested banana cake, but I think this is even better.

Here's what you'll need
---------------------------

 3 Eggs
 1 Cup White Sugar (or half white & half brown)
 ¾ Cup Cooking Oil (Virgin Olive Oil)
 1 1/3 Cups Of Flour
 ½ Teaspoon salt
 1 1/3 teaspoons Bicarb Soda
 1 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
 1 1/3 teaspoons cinnamon
 2 cups grated raw carrot
 ½ cup nuts (I used half walnuts and half pecans)
 1 teaspoon vanilla


Here's what you do
----------------------
 
Grease a square 8” tin. (I used a round one)
Heat oven to 300 Deg F (150 Deg C).

Beat eggs and sugar until frothy.
Add oil, stir in sifted dry ingredients then fold in carrot, nuts and vanilla.
Bake for  55mins to 1 hour.

When cool, ice with a cream cheese frosting

Frosting
----------

 4oz cream cheese
 250g (½ lb) icing sugar
 a few drops of lemon juice

It really is that simple....and it's great with a cuppa....which is what I'm about to have right now.

The photos aren't that good as they were taken on my mobile phone...hopefully I'll have a new camera soon.

Christmas Menu 2010 #4 - Ice Cream Cones

A lot of work goes into a magazine cover, because it's meant to be so gorgeous and enticing you won't be able to leave the shop without it.

...and so it is with Delicious. The December issue, featuring Valli Little's White Christmas Ice Cream Cones, is a vision befitting the Magazine's 100th Edition!

But when deciding to attempt something you see on the cover of a mag you should always remember what effort has gone into the photograph to get it looking the way it does. Believe me there is a LOT OF STYLING & ZSHUZING!!!

I decided to make Valli's Ice Cream Cones for our pre-Christmas get together...and here's the result. Certainly not a disaster by any stretch, but not as "sharp and precise" as Valli's.

Not bad though

Valli makes them sound very simple and while they weren't hard, they were fiddly and a little frustrating, but hey, I'll be better next time....and there will be a next time.

Here are Valli's instructions, I'll tell you what I learned at the end.

Makes 8

125 gr mixed glace fruits
1/3 cup sherry
125 gr dark chocolate
1.25 litres vanilla ice cream, softened
2/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted and chopped

Finely chop fruits and place in bowl with sherry and let soak overnight
To prepare paper moulds, cut eight 30cmx20cm sheets of baking paper. Trim 8 sheets of plain A-4 paper into the same size
Lay baking paper sheet over a sheet of regular paper and bring top right corners into the middle of the paper and then roll to form a cone shape. secure with sticky tape...repeat with the remaining sheets of paper and place in 8 champagne flutes or slim wine glasses.

Finely chop or grate chocolate, drain the fruits and discard the liquid...fold into softened ice cream with the almonds and chocolate then scoop the mixture into the cones, packing down ice cream tightly to get it into the point. Put in freezer overnight

To serve, remove tape and unwrap the paper. Invert cones onto serving plates.

Here's what I did...I bought myself some poly cones from a craft shop to help me with the shape and size thinking it would make it a little easier to get the "mould" right...the thing is though, the baking paper and poly cones don't like each other and are extremely slippery to handle.

Sticky tape doesn't take a firm grip on the baking paper either....and remember, don't put a piece of tape near the top of the cove because it'll be extremely difficult to remove and keep the "point" in tact when you want to serve them

If you use berries, as I did rather than dried fruit, chop the berries up as they can get stuck at the point end of the cone, preventing ice-cream getting all the way down.

I also mixed in some grated white chocolate and thickened cream (about half a cup) into the ice cream with the berries.

Here they are in the freezer.....

...and here's the end result.

I put a drop of green food colouring in the last batch to give them a different look....

So there you have it. Definitely worth the effort...but do a trial run before you attempt this for a big night...and make sure you do it AT LEAST A DAY or more in advance.