If I was cooking this weekend it would be…..

I’m away so no cooking at all in my kitchen, instead we will be celebrating Janine’s birthday.  Can I tell them you will be 40?  No one will believe it. 

Lunch at Otto, very happy with that - good food, great view it’s a very Sydney thing to do and we are hoping that we get the sunshine with it.

If I was at home we might repeat an all time favourite, why – probably because Nick turned up with one of the largest bags of potatoes the other day and what better to do than mash them.  Almost getting too hot for this but all our friends on the other side feeling a little cool give this one a try.  Its also a great dish for your new slow cooker Maggie and that way you won’t heat the whole house cooking it.

Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks

Serves 6

6 small lamb shanks

Plan flour for dusting

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

6 red onions, finely sliced

A handful of fresh chopped rosemary leaves

4 garlic cloves peeled and chopped

175 ml balsamic vinegar

300 ml red wine

Preheat the oven to 200

Dust the lamb with the seasoned flour

In a heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid, heat the oil and brown the shanks, then remove.  Lower the heat, add the onions and cook for about 10-15 minutes until brown.  Add rosemary and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.  Raise the heat and add the balsamic vinegar and the wine.  Reduce for a couple of minutes.

Return the shanks to the pan, reduce the heat and cover.   Cook for about 2.5 hours check occasionally basting and add more wine if they look dry.  Serve whole, with the juices over a great mash potato.

My mouth is watering just contemplating this dish.

Enjoy

Love Mary

You asked for Lasagne Janine, its an all time favourite in our house and this one is special.

James, Jimmy, Jimbo or Jimmy da Man, call him what you like but he’s a bit fond of a slice of my lasagne and this ones from a book he gave me a few years ago.  Thanks James. 

It takes a little time to prepare so worth making a couple of trays or one really big dish.  It freezes well, great for a Sunday night when you just got home from one of our frequent 3.5 hour drives.

 I’ll give you the cheat version using shop bought pasta – fresh but not home made is okay for this one.  Go to the bottom of the page to see all the ingredients for this one before shopping .

Lasagne Al Forno

Adapted From the book ‘the food of italy – a journey for food lovers’

Meat Sauce

30g butter (I use olive oil )

1 onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, finely chopped

½ celery stalk, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

120g pancetta (or prosciutto and if you can’t get either bacon will do)

500g minced beef

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

Pinch nutmeg

90g chicken livers, trimmed and chopped (it’s worth it if you can get them, if not leave it out)

80ml white wine (I’ve used red when that what I have)

330 ml beef stock (I’ve just added red wine and that works too)

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

Heat the butter or oil, add the chopped vegetables, garlic and pancetta.  Cook for 5-6 minutes over a medium heat until soft and golden.  Add the mince, cook for a further 8 minutes, add the oregano and nutmeg and season well with salt and pepper.  Stir in the chicken livers and cook until they change colour, pour in the wine (1^st lot) and increase the heat and cook until evaporated.

Add beef stock and tomato paste and simmer for 2 hours!  Add a little water to keep moist but towards the end let the liquid be absorbed.

Bechamel Sauce

65g butter

40g plain flour

Pinch nutmeg

2 ¼ cups milk

1 bay leaf

Heat the butter in a saucepan over low heat.  Add the flour and nutmeg and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the milk.  Add the bay leaf, return to the heat and simmer, stirring often, until the sauce thickens.  Season, and remove the bay leaf.

Putting together

2 packets of fresh lasagne sheets, buy the ones that don’t need pre cooking and as you can see in the photo spinach pasta looks great

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Lightly grease a large oven proof dish, spread half the meat sauce in the dish.  Scatter with mozzarella, and then cover with a slightly overlapping layer of pasta sheets.  Spread half the béchamel over this and sprinkle with half the Parmesan.  Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of béchamel and Parmesan.

Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown and leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Wow I might have to make this one myself this week.

Love

Mary

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Many of you will have tried the following Orange Cake made by either Nick or myself for numerous friends.  Moist and dense, its tasty and not because we are so fond of Orange NSW, this recipe moved with us and its one of the best cakes you can make for all of the following reasons

1. Even if you stuff it up it still tastes great
2. Its impossible to stuff up
3. Its easy
4. Everyone loves it
5. You can eat it with ice cream and berries

Oh what a big mouth you have.....

The only reason you can’t make this cake would be not having a food processor in your kitchen, its essential. 

John you asked for the recipe, so here goes.  Let me know how yours turns out.

Any Orange will do, last one I made we used blood orange just because that was what was in the fruit bowl.  It was interesting, a little darker in color and the syrup was quite intense but worked well.

It comes from one of my favourite French cook books this one by Damien Pignolet simply titled….. French

Serious Orange Cake

1 Orange, washed and diced, with pips removed

200g sugar

3 eggs

150g self-raising flour, sifted

A small pinch salt

180g butter, melted and cooled a little

Orange syrup

60ml orange juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

1-2 tablespoons cointreau

Place the orange and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between additions.

Add the flour and salt and combine well.

With the machine running add the butter.

Transfer to a prepared tine (24cm greased) and bake at 170C for about 35 minutes.  A scure inserted should emerge clean and dry when ready.

While the cake is cooking prepare the syrup.  Combine juices and sugar, bring to the boil1-2 minutes.  Add the cointreau and simmer 1 minute longer.

When the cake is ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 – 10 minutes.  Use a bamboo skewer to pierce the cake all over then spoon the syrup over the cake and laeve until completely cook before turning out. 

Love

Mary

How big was that Trout?

Growing up in New Zealand we had the benefit of living in one of the best trout fishing areas in the world.  I spent many days up and down the river with my brothers,  in the river and on the surrounding lakes fishing with my dad.  The purest trout fisherman these days don’t eat trout they just catch (weigh & photograph) and release.  Kiss before popping back I hear you say, well obviously NOT in NZ.  Trout can not be sold in NZ.  If you do want to eat it fishing it has to be and you can then cook what you catch. 

We have a friend that owns undisputedly the best fly fishing lodge in NZ (www.owenriverlodge.co.nz) and he would laugh his head off at the size of the fish I am about to present to you, and not be in the least interested in eating it.  This is a picture I took form him lodge looking over the Owen river from my room.

Not a bad view....back to the point....I’m in Australia not NZ and we farm, sell and eat trout here, any size.  I’m very keen on eating trout either fresh or smoked and was happy with these two little fish I found lying in a bed of ice on Friday.

So we invited John, Tash and Airen to join us for Saturday dinner.   After introducing them to the new chickens who where wandering around the yard being tormented by Tana.....

We sat back to enjoy the last of the day and try some freshly baked focaccia with roasted garlic, olives and rosemary (we will come to that recipe another day).  I served this with red and yellow peppers, simply charred, peeled and sliced and grilled Haloumi cheese and sliced salami.  Tash added a hummus that she will have to send me the recipe for, it was great.

Once the angel child went off to sleep we sat down to have the trout.

Trout wrapped in prosciutto with pine nuts

2 baby trout, cleaned and dried

¼ cup of sultanas

2 tablespoons of pine nuts

rind on 1 lemon

a handful of parsley

¼ cup of white wine

8 thin slices of prosciutto

200gms butter

Put sultanas and wine into a small pot and bring to the boil, set  aside and cool.

Finely chop parsley, add lemon rind 1 tablespoon of the pine nuts and the drained and chopped sultanas.  Season with a little salt and pepper and the stuff mixture into the cleaned and dried trout.

Lay 4 slices of prosciutto onto a board and place the trout on top wrapping the fish in the prosciutto and place into a foil lined baking tray.  I popped a slice of lemon over the head of the fish for those with a slight delicacy about these things (he shell remain nameless).

Bake for 20 -25 minutes at 180C, the prosciutto will become crisp.

Just before serving heat the butter and the other tablespoon of pine nuts until the butter browns and the nuts start to turn then serve this over the fish.

We served this with steamed asparagus and potato I had finely sliced and oven baked in chicken stock.  

The picture above shows the plate as served for 2 to share.

Enjoy, Love Mary

Is it just me or does everyone love spuds?

We had Keith, Ro and Chris for dinner last night and put some spring lamb racks on the barbeque. It was such perfect meat that I just spread it with a paste of fresh lemon, garlic and rosemary that I had pounded in the mortar and pestle with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  Left to do its thing for a couple of hours.  Nick cooked these rare and we served them with asparagus and french beans, just steamed with a touch of lemon infused olive oil to finish and best of all - the following potato dish.

Originally a recipe from Antonio Carluccio, I’ve adapted it to suit us.  Can’t remember what it was even called but we will call it…

Antonio’s Potatoes

This will be enough for 4 people

750g potatoes, cut in half (I use chat or kipfler or similar)

2 red onions peeled and cut in quarters

1 punnet of cherry tomatoes

A whole bunch of fresh basil – leaves only, I have also done this with other herbs, any soft herbs, mint, coriander, parsley or a mix is great too.

Put all ingredients into a roasting pan, toss with salt, pepper and plenty of olive oil and pop into an oven to bake 180C for about an hour.  You will need to toss this a couple of times while cooking.

Try this it really is tasty and will be an easy addition to your  summer barbeques.

Chook Chook Chookie….

This is a huge occasion at our house, finally the chickens have arrived!

It’s a whole new world of chook houses, chook food, chook feeders and chickens.  We are now the proud owners of three chickens of the laying variety or at least that’s what we are hoping.  Fresh eggs yipee. 

We celebrated by sitting on the lawn beside the chook house with a glass in hand fixated for far too long on how much time it would take these girls to realise they had a large upstairs bedroom and lots of fresh hay to lay (haha) their not so pretty heads. The spring weather has returned so it made the evening even sweeter.

So was it in bad taste that we where having barbequed chicken for dinner?

Here is a standard marinade we use often.  With a fresh simple salad it makes for a very quick, easy and tasty dinner.

Easy Chicken Marinade

1 red chilli (remove seeds if you don’t like the heat)

½ lemon chopped skin and all

1 clove garlic

A Fresh herb or choice (anything will do, basil, thyme, marjoram, mint, rosemary preferably something straight from the garden)

Pop it all in a large mortar and pestle with some salt and a drizzle of oil

Toss the chicken pieces and leave till your barbeque is hot. I’d suggest a minimum of an hour if longer pop it in the fridge.