Pork
Prawns
Ham
Bugs
Potato Salad
Bean and Tomato Salad
Mango Salsa
Author: Bill
Zucchini boats stuffed with prawns
The picture doesn’t really reflect the recipe, but it’s close.
Serves 4 to 6
1 kg small to medium young zucchini
500g prawns, in their shells
1/2 cup toasted, unflavored bread crumbs
1 teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black Pepper
1 large egg
Soak the zucchini in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain and rinse well under cold running water.
Drop the zucchini into boiling salted water. The moment the water returns to a boil, drain the zucchini, removing them gently from the pot. Set aside to cool completely.
Trim the ends off , cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, using a narrow-bladed tool, scoop out the insides, taking care not to puncture the skin. Leave a wall about 1/4 inch thick
Turn on the oven to 180 C
Rinse the prawns in cold water, shell them, and remove the dark vein from each. Chop them into pieces not bigger than a large pea.
Put the chopped shrimp in a bowl together with 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs, the garlic, parsley, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, salt, and grindings of pepper.
Seperate the egg, set aside the white, and add the yolk to the bowl. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.
Choose a shallow baking pan that can accommodate all the zucchini in a single layer. Grease the bottom of the pan lightly with olive oil and place the zucchini on it cut side up.
Sprinkle them lightly with salt. Beat the egg white lightly and brush the insides of the zucchini with it.
Stuff the zucchini with the prawn mixture. heaping them full enough, if possible, to form a slight mound.
Sprinkle the top of each boat with the remaining bread crumbs and pour the remaining olive oil over in a thin stream.
Place the boats in the uppermost level of the ovenfor 6 to 7 minutes, until the top forms a light, pale golden crust. Serve when lukewarm
Moussaka (Gluten Free)
This is a combo dish officially approved by the family. It will serve six easily and probably eight without leftovers depending on how hungry everyone is.
INGREDIENTS
5 large eggplant, sliced 1cm thick
Qty garlic salt
Olive oil
1kg beef mince
500g pork mince
(note Moussaka is traditionally made with lamb mince – but this combination works well)
3 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons tomato paste or more as you taste
1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tins diced tomato
1½ cup beef stock
5 medium potatoes, nearly cooked, sliced
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
60g butter
60g flour
½ litre milk or as required
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup corn flake crumbs
METHOD
- Mix the mince together
- Heat half tbsp oil in a deep frying pan and cook the mince in two batches,separating the mince with a spatula
- Place batches in a colander to cool and drain over a bowl – keep the juices
- Put more oil in the pan and cook the onions and garlic until soft and brown.
- Add tomato paste, cinnamon, salt, pepper, oregano, allspice.
- Cook and stir for a minute
- Add crumbled (between your fingers to make it fine) mince mixture and any juices
- Add diced tomatoes and stock and cook for around 40 minutes or when the sauce is thick and tasty
- Stir in parsley when cooking time is finished
- Meanwhile, cook potatoes for five minutes in microwave and sllce 5mm thick, when cool
- Fry eggplant on bbq (it’s quicker) with olive oil and garlic salt and drain on paper towel
- Assemble the moussaka in a 43 cm lasagne dish by putting down a layer of potato, eggplant, mince, eggplant, mince, eggplant.
- Make a bechamel sauce by heating the butter gently in a pan, adding the sifted flout gradually until it forms a dough mixture, then gradually add milk until it makes a thick sauce.
- Add nutmeg salt and pepper to the sauce and pour over the assembled moussaka.
- Mix the cheese and breadcrumbs and distribute evenly over the top of the moussaka
- Cook at 180C in the oven for around 40 minutes, checking halfway through the process.
Serve with a salad, crusty bread and lots of wine.
Ultimate Comfort Food
Colcannon
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg potatoes, scrubbed
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 1/4 cups hot milk
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
- 1 x 500g piece ham or bacon, cooked the day before
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped
- Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish
Directions
Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30 minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop with a knife before mashing. Mash thoroughly to remove all the lumps. Add 1 stick of butter in pieces. Gradually add hot milk, stirring all the time. Season with a few grinds of black pepper.
Boil the cabbage in unsalted water until it turns a darker color. Add 2 tablespoons butter to tenderize it. Cover with lid for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly before returning it to the pan. Chop into small pieces.
Put the ham in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until tender. Drain. Remove any fat and chop into small pieces.
Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes, stirring them in gently.
Serve in individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top by swirling a wooden spoon. Put 1 tablespoon of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.
Recipe from Food Network
OMA’S POTATO SALAD
Take 5 medium potatoes, 2 carrots and cook until just right (don’t overcook)
Peel while still hot, cut in small pieces
Add 1 table spoon of oil and table spoon of vinegar
Add parsley, shallots. fine cut (maybe some dill too)
take one large onion (pr. white) cut in small pieces
take 1 or 2 (dill pickles) sour cucumbers, cut small (Picklehead pickles are great!)
add mayonnaise (2-3 large spoons and taste)
2 slices of ham fine cut or crumbled bacon
mix all and let it stand overnight in fridge.
take out one hour before meal in the winter so it won’t be too cold..
Roast Lamb
Lawsie – a controversial and entertaining icon of Australian radio. Certainly intoduced me to some great music and this fantastic recipe. Keeping the dream alive.
John Laws Roast Lamb Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 Leg of Lamb (the smaller the better – with all visible fat removed)
Full bunch of thyme or oregano
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 Bottle of Tomato Juice (Small Spring Valley )
2 Cloves of Garlic, peeled
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Good Length aluminium foil – long sheets important
(Use oven bag instead of foil) BK
Cooking Method:
Rub the meat with the olive oil and put salt and freshly milled pepper all over. Place in porcelain dish with onion, garlic and herbs and pour the tomato juice over it and marinate it in the fridge overnight. Take two generous sheets of foil – lay them on your bench in a cross shape, place the lamb and everything else on it, add 2 tablespoons more of olive oil. Wrap the lamb up in foil making sure to tie the edges very tightly so that no steam escapes under any circumstances, while at the same time leaving the surrounding foil loose enough for air to circulate. Place it in a large baking dish and put in the oven – so it’s really like an oven within an oven.
Fast Method: Cook for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 250 degrees C, and then turn the oven down to 100 degrees C and cook it until you are ready to eat it (approx 3-4 hours)
Slower Method: requires the oven preheated to 100 degrees C and kept at this temperature for 7-8 hours.
Half an hour before serving have a look and remove the bunch of herbs and if you want you can baste it and roast it a little to give a bit more colour.
Veal Parmigiana
This is a fantastic recipe from Jo Turnbull on taste.com. You can find it here
Mods include adding a strip of prosciutto on top of each shnitz and spicing up the tomato a bit with home grown chilli
Best Curry
This is our fave curry – discovered by Glasgow Katie in the unlikeliest of sources.
CURRY POWDER
This is a useful general spice mixture and enough for seasoning 600-900 ml (1 ½ pints, 2 ½ 3 ½ cups) sauce or a dish to yield 4-6 portions depending on the ingredients.
Place 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 4 green cardamoms, 2 tablespoons cumin seeds and 4 tablespoons coriander seed in a small saucepan. Roast the spices gently, shaking the pan frequently until they are just aromatic. Remove from the pan and cool, then grind to a powder in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar. Mix in 2 teaspoons ground fenugreek, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon chilli powder.
LAMB CURRY
Mix 1 tablespoon freshly grated root ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger), a pinch of saffron, 3 tablespoons of oil, a large pinch of cayenne, salt and pepper.
In this mixture, roll 1.5kg (3 ¼ lb) neck or shoulder of lamb cut up in pieces and leave to marinate for 1 hour. Peel and crush 3 large tomatoes. Brown the pieces of meat in a large saucepan containing 25 grams (1 oz, 2 tbsp) ghee/butter then remove from pan.
In the same fat, fry 4 large sliced onions until golden, then add the crushed tomatoes, the prepared curry powder (above), 3 finely chopped garlic cloves and bouquet garni. Leave to brown for 5 minutes. Peel and grate an acid apple, add to the pan
and stir for 2-3 minutes. Replace the meat in the pan, stir, add a small cup of coconut milk or semi-skimmed milk, cover and leave to finish cooking gently for about 40 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning.
Serve this curry very hot with boiled rice, cashew nuts, raisins, and pineapple and banana dice flavoured with lemon juice, all in separate dishes.
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(I’d be careful about the chilli powder and the cayenne – I prefer to use fresh hot birdseye chillies. We also don’t use the coconut milk – it still tastes good)
Bill’s Burgers
This is a hamburger
The beauty of this recipe is that it is multi-purpose. You can just as easily use the results for meatballs with Italian sauce and spaghetti. It’s also gluten free. If you don’t care about that, just use normal breadcrumbs and plain flour.
Ingredients (makes 12 burgers)
1 kg minced topside steak
1 onion chopped finely
1 garlic clove crushed
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 lightly beaten egg
1 grated carrot
1 cup of corn flake crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika (optional)
½ level teaspoon salt or to taste
cracked pepper
choice of herbs/spices to taste- optional (oregano, basil, chili, cumin, coriander, curry powder, cajun spices etc)
maize flour
olive oil
Method
Put mince in a large mixing bowl
Add ingredients except breadcrumbs and flour and mix by hand
Add breadcrumbs until the mixture is firm enough not to fall apart when made into patties. It should not feel sloppy.
Make into 12 patties (divide mixture into quarters and make three patties out of each quarter – derr!)
Put flour onto a plate and turn each burger over, coating lightly.
Fry burgers four at a time in a lightly oiled pan until just cooked through. Don’t overcook because they will become dry. Keep warm in the oven (100 C)
Alternatively cook on bbq
Serve with salad, oven chips and bread roll, and a selection of condiments.
Glasgow Katie’s Spag Bol
50g (2oz) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
25g (loz) diced mushrooms (optional)
125g (4oz) pancetta or unsalted bacon, finely chopped
350g (12oz) minced beef, pork or veal, or a mixture
300ml (1/2pint) dry Red wine
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons tomato paste
300ml (1/2 pint) meat stock –
Heat the butter and oil in a deep saucepan, add the vegetables and fry until they soften and brown lightly.
Add the pancetta and minced meat and fry until the meat changes colour. Moisten with wine, simmer until it evaporates, then add seasoning, tomato paste and a little stock.
Cook slowly, covered, stirring occasionally and gradually stirring in all the stock.
Serve with tagliatelle.