The Genial Hearth
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Archive for Recipes
December 13, 2008 at 10:58 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
We took advantage of the lovely weather and visiting friends to try tapas again (I’ve added links to most of the recipes now).
This time, we added Spicy Almonds. Most recipes called for blanched almonds, so I started doing that. I soon grew weary of it, so went ahead without blanching the rest.
Spicy Almonds
almonds
olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper
Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Spray with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper. Stir up to ensure that nuts are covered on all sides and return to a single layer. Cook at about 180˚C for about 10-15 minutes.
December 13, 2008 at 10:27 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Labne
yoghurt, greek style
salt
thyme
EVOO
olives, kalamata
sumac
Drain the yoghurt (after you’ve mixed with salt) for at least a day in the fridge (we wrap it in a chux, and place it in a sieve over a bowl). Spread on a plate, drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with thyme, sumac and olives. Serve with turkish bread.
December 13, 2008 at 10:07 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Tapanade from The Naked Chef
by Jamie Oliver
250 grams olives, black, de-stoned (if you can get them already de-stoned, do… black olives appear to be a clingstone variety)
1 clove garlic
6 fillets anchovy
salt
pepper, black, freshly ground
EVOO
1 lemon, juice
Finely chop the olives, garlic and anchovies by hand or place them in a food processor and whizz until smooth. Correct the seasoning, add olive oil to loosen and, very importantly, add lemon juice to taste.
Serve with lightly toasted pieces of turkish bread.
December 13, 2008 at 10:03 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Chorizo in Cider from here
4 chorizo sausages
bottle of cider
Slice the chorizo. Fry it up until it begins to brown. Pour in the cider, and continue to cook until the cider becomes syrupy. Serve hot or at room temperature.
December 13, 2008 at 9:42 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
Mushrooms with Burnt Butter and Sage based on a meal eaten at Duende (We ate this, and loved it so much that we sat in the restaurant cleaning the plate with our fingers it was so good!)
mushrooms
butter
sage
prosciutto
lemon
Slice the mushrooms. Cook in a little butter and oil, and put on a serving plate.
When choosing your sage leaves, try to use a variety of sizes, some small, some medium sized but leave the extra large leaves for other uses.
To make the sauce use a generous amount of butter. Place the butter and the sage leaves in the frypan and cook over a gentle heat. You’re aiming to cook the leaves until crisp, while the butter begins to brown. Then remove from the heat.
As soon as it has reached the brown stage, remove it from the heat. Pour over the mushrooms. Sprinkle with some prosciutto and a good squeeze of lemon.
December 6, 2008 at 10:30 pm · Filed under Advent, Domestic Life, Food, Recipes, Season, Wine
My understanding of Bisschopswijn is that basically it’s mulled wine—just the Dutch name (clove studded oranges were pretty common in most recipes that were specifically Bisschopswijn). Obviously, it’s not really the weather for traditional mulled wine, so I went looking for some different chilled versions (we’ve previously done a Riesling which was okay… but not fantastic). I came across the following, which looked great (Sparkling Shiraz!) but sadly uses orange juice (our hostess is allergic:-( ) I eventually decided to try it, with some modifications.
Chilled Mulled Wine from Australian Good Taste, December 2005
125 milliliters orange juice, fresh (1/2 cup) (I used the juice of two lemons, because ours are not very juicy… with water to make up half a cup)
27 grams caster sugar, (1/8 cup) (I used 30 grams—mostly to make it easier to measure, but I did think it might help balance the lemons)
7 centimetre cinnamon stick
4 whole cloves
(I also added a shake of nutmeg and a shake of allspice)
(I decided to add a couple of tablespoons worth of cointreau/grand marnier as was suggested in one of the other recipes I came across.)
750 milliliters chilled sparkling shiraz, (1 bottle)
Stir orange juice (lemon juice and water), sugar, and spices in a saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until syrup thickens. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool.
Transfer to a bowl (add the cointreau/grand marnier) and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 3 hours to infuse.
Remove and discard the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Pour syrup among serving glasses. Top with sparkling wine and serve immediately.
Notes:
You can prepare the syrup up to 2 days ahead.
This was pretty good. I definitely preferred it to the Riesling we did. I will try it with the orange juice another time (probably this summer), and I might crush some mace to add. If I’m going to put ground spicese in, it would be worth putting them in a bag of some description. It wouldn’t stop all the sediment, but it might reduce it a bit.
December 5, 2008 at 10:06 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Freezer, Menu, Recipes
+
+
with a sprinkle of
= Meat and Lentil Rice (Adas Polo) from Passion for Pulses: A Feast of Beans, Peas and Lentils from Around the World
250 grams rice, long grain/basmati
200 grams lentils, dried green (just ordinary green… I’ve done it with the French-style ones, and while it works, the texture is definitely better with the softer ones)
2 tablespoons oil, olive
1 large onion, chopped
200 grams mince, beef or lamb
1 chilli, green or red, seeded and finely chopped (or chilli flakes)
salt
pepper, black
2 centimetre ginger, fresh, finely chopped (I’ve been known to use ground ginger)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon cinnamon, ground
¼ teaspoon cardamom, ground
1 teaspoon rosewater
½ teaspoon saffron (or a shake of turmeric)
⅓ cup water
60 grams sultanas
50 grams dates, pitted and chopped
nuts, cashews or pistachios, raw or roasted, roughly chopped
Cook rice in salted boiling water for about 15 minutes (longer if using brown rice) until just soft. Drain.
Rinse lentils. Put in pot and cover with plenty of fresh water. Bring to the boil; simmer for about 20 minutes until lentils are tender. Drain.
In a large frying pan, sauté onion in oil until golden.
Add mince, chilli, salt, black pepper, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, rosewater and saffron mixed with water; cook over medium heat until mince is done (about 15 minutes).
Stir in lentils, rice and fruit. Cook for a few minutes until heated through.
Mix well; sprinkle with nuts just before serving. I usually serve it with green beans, but I’m still looking for other options for side dishes. It freezes really well.
This is one of my favourite meals:-) I first came across it at my hen’s night (I had a hafla, and every one brought a middle eastern food to share.) It was so good I asked for the recipe. I didn’t ever get around to making it though. Then we eventually got the book, and this recipe leapt out at me and I made it and thought it was fabulous… It was only a couple of years later when looking for something in my email archive that I found the recipe I’d been sent:-) It’s now a fixture in my menu plan:-)
December 5, 2008 at 8:52 am · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Freezer, Menu, Progress, Recipes, Season
I really enjoy reading The Pioneer Woman. A lot of the recipes she makes work for me—because she doesn’t use ‘exotic’ ingredients (US specific) like a lot of other US sites. So I’m a regular reader of her cooking pages. I’ve even made a few.
Of course, the ones I’ve decided to make regularly, do use not-easily findable ingredients:-( So here’s what I actually do.
Chicken Spaghetti (based on the recipe from The Pioneer Woman, hers is supposed to serve 6, but I’ve cut it down a bit and now it serves about 6 of us:-) )
2 cups chicken, cooked (this is one of my ‘using up leftover chicken’ recipes)
2 cups stock, chicken
500 grams spaghetti, thin
2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 1/2 cups milk (to replace 600 milliliters Cream of Mushroom soup, (2 cans) )
1/2 onion, grated
1 capsicum, green, diced
1 capsicum, red, diced (instead of the pimentos we can get, but have to search out)
2 cups cheese, cheddar, grated
1 teaspoon seasoned salt—dash of paprika, garlic, turmeric and onion powder with some salt (instead of the Lawry’s seasoned salt)
cayenne pepper
pepper
salt
1 cup cheese, cheddar, grated (extra, for the top)
Dice the green capsicum, red capsicum and grate onion.
Next, break the thin spaghetti into pieces until you have around 2 1/2 to 3 cups.
Cook the spaghetti pieces in boiling chicken stock to cook (water with a little stock powder).
Allow the spaghetti to cook for several minutes, until very al dente (or, until it still has a nice “bite” to it.) You do NOT want to overcook the spaghetti, as you’ll be baking the dish again later.
Meanwhile, make a white sauce of the butter, flour and milk (be sure to warm the milk). Add the chicken stock. Sprinkle on the seasonings (dash of paprika, garlic, turmeric and onion powder with some salt, pepper and cayenne pepper). Add the chicken, the capsicum, the onion and the grated cheese.
Now, place the cooked spaghetti into a casserole dish.
Stir thoroughly, then take a bite and check your seasonings. Add a little salt if needed, a little more pepper, and maybe a little more Cayenne if you didn’t have enough the first time around. Make sure it’s seasoned enough!
And top with an additional 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar.
Bake it at 180˚C for 35 to 45 minutes until hot & bubbly.
Notes:
This can be frozen, unbaked. Or you can cover it and refrigerate it, unbaked, for up to two days before baking. I actually prefer it about a day after it’s been cooked… the ’sauce’ is just a more pleasing texture.
December 2, 2008 at 9:48 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Recipes
A couple of years ago (or thereabouts), we came across this recipe. At the time, we couldn’t work out where to find Elderflower cordial (we now know you can get it at both IKEA and Coles), so we just made the Syllabub and put it on frozen raspberries. Usually I’d serve it in sundae glasses, but for simplicity, I used bowls today—it’s definitely much more picturesque in glass:-) It’s just the right quantity to make in the Tupperware milk shake maker, which makes it very easy to do, and great for kids to help with:-)
Elderflower Scented Fresh Raspberries with Cider Syllabub from the West magazine
600 grams fresh raspberries (or frozen)
4 tablespoons elderflower cordial
300 mls cream
2 tablespoons alcoholic apple cider
2 tablespoons lemon juice
50 grams caster sugar
Macerate the fresh raspberries with elderflower cordial overnight. Mix the cream with the apple cider, lemon juice and caster sugar. Leave this mixture, covered, in the fridge for twenty-four hours or slightly longer if possible. (Otherwise, whisk it together vigourously to thicken it, then leave to stand as long as possible.)
Place the raspberries in the bottom of serving glasses or bowls. Scoop the set cream off the top of the syllabub and divide evenly among the bowls.
Serve immediately.
October 31, 2008 at 9:50 pm · Filed under Baking, Food, Recipes, Season
At the last school I taught at, all the year nine food students made Gingerbread houses at Christmas time. It was fabulous to watch their progress (they were made over a number of sessions, the dough, shaping and baking, assembly, decoration).
The last couple of years, I have considered making one at home for Christmas. Each time I have decided against it on the grounds that we already have enough to do (well, and the kids were really too young to get into it:-) ). But I really wanted to make them with the kids… Last year, it suddenly occured to me that Halloween might provide the ideal opportunity:-) (You know… what with Hansel and Gretel and the witch in the gingerbread cottage…) And because it’s not a celebration we’ve ever really ‘done’, I don’t have anything else competing with it as an activity:-)
So this year, that’s what we did:-)
I used my usual Gingerbread recipe (although, I’m thinking I need to up the ginger in it… it seems rather more bland than I’d remembered). (I kept some aside to make gingerbread men—Puggle has got a bee in his bonnet about them and insisted we made some:-) I think I might forget about playdough, and just use gingerbread when we have a need for dough play—it’s such a pleasant dough to use). I just managed to get two houses out of the remainder. Sadly, it was a bit too close, and some of the final pieces shrunk back rather when they were cooked:-( (Somewhere I’m sure I have some tinplate leftover from making the shirikin Tin Ducks… I should ponder making gingerbread house cutters—it would make that stage much quicker!)
I used a template from here. I decided on a basic Gable design—keep it simple for now:-)
My plan had been to break the steps up over a number of days, but the reality of nap times this week (really reliable!) meant that I didn’t get as much done ahead of time as I’d hoped… For future reference, any assembly that I’m going to do must happen while the children are not requiring my attention—I think it will be at least another year before Puggle can begin to assemble his own, so I’ll be doing them for a while yet:-)
I found a selection of images of gingerbread houses online, a mix of professional and homey, and made a screen-saver of them. I had this on for most of the day. Next year, I’ll include some images of our houses from this year.
We used far more of a batch of Royal Icing than I would have believed! (One egg white, beaten slightly, mix in well-sieved icing sugar to make a runny paste… add a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge until it’s all used up. Mix small quantities with more well-sieved icing sugar to the desired consistency.)
I chose to use mini-ziploc bags, which I think was a good plan. While not the cheapest option, I really appreciated the strength of the plastic (more durable than the paper cones I usually use—not an issue for me, but I think it would have made for a rather more sticky kid experience), and being able to put the icing in the bag and seal it, put me under less time pressure. In the end, I also used an elastic band to seal the icing into the corner. That meant the kids didn’t have to work to keep their icing under pressure unless they were actually piping. To be more organised, it might be worth preparing a number of bags ahead of time, and then just snipping the corners as they were needed (Puggle tended to run out of icing far more quickly than I did, even though I gave him more:-) ) I also needed to be more careful with the consistency of the icing, although some of that is probably because I’m out of practice—it needs a bit of ‘run’ to it if you want to do interesting piping:-)
I think though, that they turned out really well… Puggle certainly enjoyed the experience (Bilby wasn’t so keen on using the ‘glue’… she liked putting things on the gingerbread, but unless they happened to end up where I’d iced, they didn’t stay. She preferred playing with the dough when they were shaping the Gingerbread men).
So, here they are. Puggle’s is at the front (lots of lolly experimentation:-) ) and you can just see mine in the background. We’ll keep Puggle’s here to eat (not sure how one goes about that yet, I suspect there’ll be some smashing involved:-) ) and we’re taking mine to be part of a morning tea on Sunday (I don’t think we need to eat two whole houses—especially with all those lollies:-) ).
October 27, 2008 at 8:10 pm · Filed under Baking, Domestic Life, Food, Menu, Recipes
Now that Cygnet is here, I figured it was time to return to bread-making (partly prompted by reading In Defense of Food… Paddington talked about it here… Not sure if I’ll actually get to write a review myself, but I definitely thought it was worth a read). Only, I couldn’t see that I was actually going to get to it:-( Then I remembered that although my father had borrowed our bread machine, he hadn’t actually begun using it (after about a year)… In spite of my preference to make it entirely by hand, I thought that might be the solution.
Of course, I’ve never actually used a bread machine before. So I figured I’d start with a mix, to get a feel for how the dough works (I really don’t like the upright shape of the loaf, or the paddle hole in the bottom, so my plan was to use it for the dough, and then shape it, rise it in a loaf tin and cook it myself). Then I’d make the transition to using my own recipe (unless the bread mix was fabulous!) We got a multigrain mix which essentially was just like the bread we’d been buying (aside from slicing it ourselves)… but that meant it was kind of white. So I’ve started experimenting with making my own.
I wanted to stick to a 680 gram loaf (I’m keen to end up with a nice sandwich shaped loaf—so I need a reliable size:-) )I started with mum’s recipe and compared it with the quantities used in the mixes I had, and the recipes in the book (there were no wholemeal recipe in the book, or I’d probably have tried that for starters). The flour quantities were close (as far as I could work out, given mum’s is measured by volume, but the book uses weights), but there was more than twice as much water, and double (or more) the quantity of yeast in any of them. I tried halving the water… which was too dry. I was watching the dough at that point, and added more—but too much… it was rather sticky:-( But it worked. It turned out though, that I thought the yeast was more of an issue. It almost opened the top of the bread machine when it was rising, and I had to lower the shelf in the oven when I turned the bread around, because I couldn’t fit it back in!
So the next batch I did, I used half the water plus a dessertspoon, and half the yeast. The texture of the dough was better (and the bread was the same), but it still rose the same way!
So next I lowered the quantity of sugar, but that made no difference.
The only other thing to try was adjusting the flour/gluten flour mix. Mum’s recipe is supposed to be stone-ground flour, but I generally just use wholemeal… If you’re using stone-ground, you really need the lift of gluten flour to make good bread. (When I eventually sort out somewhere for the grainmill to work, I’ll have to play with this again, but that could be a while:-) ). The next loaf was rather flatter, because I tried without any gluten flour. So, I added some back, and that seems to be working out:-)
So, all that’s left to do is experiment with adding some grains so that we have a Wholemeal Multigrain Loaf (why are multigrain loaves all white?)
Wholemeal Bread Machine Loaf
300 millilitres of water (for a Breville upright, for others you may need to adjust)
450 grams wholemeal flour
50 grams gluten flour
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon olive oil
pinch of salt
Place the ingredients in the machine, in the order listed. Set it on the dough cycle.
At the end of the cycle, remove dough and place in an oiled loaf tin. Bake at 180˚C for 30 minutes.
September 18, 2008 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Food, Recipes
Well, the menu plan for tonight said Cauliflower Soup. When I went to get the cauliflower out, I realised there were some mushrooms left from the other night’s kebabs. A quick search revealed a few Mushroom and Cauliflower soups, so starting from here, I gave it a go.
I actually included
4 mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
butter
olive oil
1 cauliflower
500 mls chicken stock
flour
2 ish cups milk
salt
pepper
I sautéed the mushrooms and onion in the oil and butter. When they were soft and aromatic I added the florets of cauliflower and the chicken stock (plus some extra water). I brought it to the boil and boiled for about 8 minutes. I mixed a little of the liquid with the flour to make a paste and returned it to the pot (I should have brought this to the boil for a little longer, as it didn’t really thicken as much as I expected). I then added the milk, and seasoned to taste.
Dress with shaved parmesan, olive oil and black pepper. Serve with bread.
This wasn’t bad… I think better than plain cauliflower… but it needed a bit more punch.
May 8, 2008 at 11:47 am · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Freezer, Menu, Recipes
I used to like tinned baked beans. We’d regularly have them for breakfast. Then Paddington made me these. They have exactly the flavours that I loved, but I know exactly what’s in them:-) So much better:-)
Baked Beans from Stephanie Alexander’s A Cook’s Companion
Serves 6 (makes about 20 breakfast sized serves)
375 grams beans, borlotti or red kidney, dried and soaked or a can of beans
2 tablespoons oil, olive
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 rashers bacon, thickly sliced streaky, cut into 1 cm wide strips
2 capsicum, red, seeded, cut into 2 cm squares
1 capsicum, green, seeded, cut into 2 cm squares
1 tin tomatoes, peeled, 400 grams
1 bay leaf
1 sprigs thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Preheat the oven to 160˚C. Rinse soaked beans, then put into a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil then strain and rinse with cold water. Heat oil in a large enamelled cast-iron casserole and sauté onion, garlic, carrot and bacon. After 5 minutes, when onion has softened and bacon is sizzling, add red and green peppers. Purée tomatoes and juice in a food processor and add to casserole with beans and remaining ingredients, except maple syrup. Mix well. Add sufficient cold water to cover beans by 4 cm. Transfer casserole, tightly sealed, to oven and bake for at least 4 hours. Stir well after 2 hours, checking tat it is still reasonably sloppy (if it is too dry, add a little water and reduce oven temperature). After 4 hours, stir in maple syrup, extra salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. The beans should now be in a rich sauce. If too thick, add a little extra water; if too runny and the beans are tender, increase oven temperature and continue to cook.
Notes:
Freeze in muffin trays, then decant into bags for quick breakfast—thaw and serve on toast.
May 6, 2008 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Menu, Recipes
When it’s been a while, I always find I’ve forgotten just how simple this is! It’s one of my favourite soups, and it’s always delicious:-)
French Onion Soup from Australian Good Taste, July 2006
Serves 6
1 tablespoon oil, olive
50 grams butter
1 kilogram onions, brown, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar, brown
2 tablespoons flour
1 litre stock, brown
125 milliliters wine, dry white
french stick, cut into 1 centimetre slices
cheese, sliced swiss/parmesan
Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring for 10 minutes or until the onion softens. Add the brown sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the onion is golden.
Add the flour and cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes or until foaming. Remove from heat. Gradually add the stock and wine and stir until combined.
Place the onion mixture over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, preheat grill on medium. Place the bread slices on a baking tray and cook under grill until toasted on each side. Divide the cheese amongst the bread slices, and grill until the cheese has melted.
Ladel the soup among the serving bowls. Top each soup with 2 cheese croutons. Season with pepper and serve immediately with the remaining croutons.
April 28, 2008 at 10:17 am · Filed under Domestic Life, Family, Food, Recipes
Some years ago, my sister and I did a trip around Europe. We spent a week attempting to ski in Austria (we were learning, and there wasn’t much snow). One of my favourite things from that portion of the trip was the Gulaschsuppe that was frequently served for dinner, and that we often chose for lunch (it was pretty cold, even though the snow was sparse!) On my return, I kept meaning to investigate a recipe so I could make my own, but never did. It came to mind just recently, so I was inspired to attempt it. Google is my friend, so it was quite easy to find a recipe—of course, it is now nearly ten years since the trip, so it’s hard to be sure how accurate it was, but it was certainly tasty enough to keep making:-)
Gulaschsuppe based on this recipe from Epicurious
serves 6
4 slices bacon, chopped
700 grams steak, boneless chuck, trimmed and cut into 2 centimetre cubes
1 tablespoons oil, olive
2 medium onions, (about 300 grams) chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 ½ tablespoons paprika, (preferably Hungarian sweet)
¾ teaspoon caraway seeds
2 tablespoons flour
1 ½ dessertspoon vinegar, red-wine
1 ½ dessertspoon tomato paste
1 litre stock, beef (bouillon)
440 milliliters beer, dark, (guinness)
¼ teaspoon salt, (skip with commercial stock)
1 capsicum, red, chopped fine
2 large potatoes, russet (baking)
pepper
In an 3-4 litre heavy pot cook bacon over moderate heat, stirring, until crisp and transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl. In fat remaining in pot brown beef in small batches over high heat, transferring it as browned with slotted spoon to bowl.
Reduce heat to moderate and add oil. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden. Stir in paprika, caraway seeds, and flour and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Whisk in vinegar and tomato paste and cook, whisking, 1 minute. (Mixture will be very thick.) Stir in broth, beer, salt, capsicum, bacon, and beef and bring to a boil, stirring. Simmer soup, covered, stirring occasionally, 45 minutes.
Peel potatoes and cut into 1 centimetre pieces. Add potatoes to soup and simmer, covered, occasionally until tender, about 30 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper.
It was pretty good, but I’d like to try wine instead of beer, and possibly a little more paprika (or maybe a little hot paprika as well as some of the other recipes suggested). It may be worth adding some carrotsand celery, just for a more balanced meal. It’d probably also be worthwhile trying longer, slower cooking (perhaps in the oven?) to try and get the meat more tender and shreddable.
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by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
