So to continue my experiments with pasta sauce, i created another cream based sauce. These are slowly becoming one of my regular recipes as cream sauces require comparatively must less maintenance and cooking time.
Ingredients
1 Stalk of broccoli
3 Rashes of bacon
50-100g of mince meat
1/2 onion diced
1 stalk of leek finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
Double cream
(Serves 3 perhaps or 4)
Cheese of choice (mozzarella, goats cheese, if you like that sorta thing)
Method
1. Start up boiling water and add salt. Cut up broccoli bits and place into the boiling water. The broccoli should get fairly soft.
2. Meanwhile dice the onions leek and garlic.
3. Start up a pan on medium heat, add oil and fry up the garlic first then to that add the onions and leek. Cook until soft. Place the bacon and mince in and cook on high heat until the bacon bits are quite crisp.
The following steps in unnecessary but probably would speed things up. After your down with the leeks and onions, take them out of the pan and put aside. Now fry up the bacon and meat, then add the leeks and onions back in. (that should be faster, but more work)
4. While the pan is going, your broccoli should be ready. Drain water away and blend the broccoli until its quite fine, but not complete mush.
5. Once the bacon bits are as you like it, chuck on the broccoli (slowly, as your stalk of broccoli might somehow be twice the size of the one i used). So add slowly to the mixture until its quite green. Basically you don't want it to be so much broccoli that there isn't enough bacon and mince to go around.
6. Add cream until its reaches a gluggy consistency, then add a little water until it's just slightly more watery then the consistency you would expect for a pasta sauce. Add a chicken stock cube (i think if you want you could add lemon or a little vinegar at this point) mix and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed.
7. Simmer. As a last step add a loose handful of cheese in. Not too much or it will make the sauce all gluggy.
Done =D
Id recommend starting the pasta (spaghetti is good for this sauce) right after the brocolli is done. If your feeling lazy you could probalby reuse the water from teh brocolli to do the pasta =P
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
Gordon Ramsay's scrambled eggs
Soemthing i saw on tv a while ago which i filed away for when one day i actually would wake up early enough to cook myself a hot breakfast. Since ive started polyphasic sleep i've tended to be quite hungry so a big breakfast is extremely satisfying, after soldiering through the midnight munchies.
Ingredients
1/2 onion
chunk of butter
3 eggs
2 dollops of cream
2 rashes of bacon
1. Preparing the egg mixture. Very uncomplicated, combine eggs cream and mix. Add a bit of salt and pepper to the mixture to taste.
You realised you just tasted raw eggs and cream, which is kinda gross. I actually dont add to taste, i add cos everyone does, and Gordon did as well.
2. Get two pans, one on high heat and one on medium heat. Throw the bacon bits on high heat with no oil (bacon makes its own greasy oil). Throw in butter and onions onto medium pan.
3. Onions should be "sweating" and not browning. After they've "sweated" for a while (3 minutes) Throw in the egg mixture and put the heat down a little. Gordon didn't do this, but who doesnt like onions?
4. Apparenlty Gordon reckons scrambled eggs is all about texture so whats important is to control the heat of the pan to make sure the eggs dont cook too quickly and get too solid. BLAH BLAH
I dont have "mhad fire skills", i just tend to mix vigourously while taking the pot on and off the pan in imitation of Gordon. I compensate for my lack of skills with throwing in a good load of parsley and a little bit of mint. I believe chives would be pretty good to, if you had it around.
Just keep mixing it until it gets to slightly less then the texture u want. Gordon reckons it'll cook a little as it sits, although generally it doesnt sit long enough over here for that to happen i think.
5. Bacon is probably done before the eggs unless you turned the heat down to try and get them both to finish at the same time. I suggest that you do that, just so you dont have cold bacon to go with your warm eggs.
7. Plate it (cracked pepper) and eat it, and goto work. Probably could go the extra mile and get bread, rub garlic on it, butter and toast it, without increasing your cooking time. Unfortunately we dont keep bread around the house.
I think i manage to do the whole thing in around 18 minutes, and ate it in around 2 =)
Ingredients
1/2 onion
chunk of butter
3 eggs
2 dollops of cream
2 rashes of bacon
1. Preparing the egg mixture. Very uncomplicated, combine eggs cream and mix. Add a bit of salt and pepper to the mixture to taste.
You realised you just tasted raw eggs and cream, which is kinda gross. I actually dont add to taste, i add cos everyone does, and Gordon did as well.
2. Get two pans, one on high heat and one on medium heat. Throw the bacon bits on high heat with no oil (bacon makes its own greasy oil). Throw in butter and onions onto medium pan.
3. Onions should be "sweating" and not browning. After they've "sweated" for a while (3 minutes) Throw in the egg mixture and put the heat down a little. Gordon didn't do this, but who doesnt like onions?
4. Apparenlty Gordon reckons scrambled eggs is all about texture so whats important is to control the heat of the pan to make sure the eggs dont cook too quickly and get too solid. BLAH BLAH
I dont have "mhad fire skills", i just tend to mix vigourously while taking the pot on and off the pan in imitation of Gordon. I compensate for my lack of skills with throwing in a good load of parsley and a little bit of mint. I believe chives would be pretty good to, if you had it around.
Just keep mixing it until it gets to slightly less then the texture u want. Gordon reckons it'll cook a little as it sits, although generally it doesnt sit long enough over here for that to happen i think.
5. Bacon is probably done before the eggs unless you turned the heat down to try and get them both to finish at the same time. I suggest that you do that, just so you dont have cold bacon to go with your warm eggs.
7. Plate it (cracked pepper) and eat it, and goto work. Probably could go the extra mile and get bread, rub garlic on it, butter and toast it, without increasing your cooking time. Unfortunately we dont keep bread around the house.
I think i manage to do the whole thing in around 18 minutes, and ate it in around 2 =)
Monday, July 9, 2007
steaks and sides
Carrots + corn + cheese
This somehow just worked, i klinda pulled it outta my arse, but who knew carrots could taste this good. I decided to slow cook the carrots to make it really sweet and carrotty. To do this, i used a good scoop of butter and carrot slices on a low heat with the lid on.
The carrot seemed to steam + fry slightly in the heat. after about 20 minutes they were pretty soft, sweet and yummy =) To taste i added Herbs de Provence, a collection of herbs from France.
To add to this, corn from a can and a good chuck on herbed goats cheese. Sweated this a bit more till the cheese melted and voila =D a great side to any steak. yeah for carrots.
Steaks
$20/kg Eye fillet sliced thickly. I took a lot of care to make sure i was going to do this right, so after lots of internet research here is the steps i used.
1. Let steaks come to room temperature
2. Pepper steak, do not salt. Apparently salt draws moisture out of the steaks.
3. Preheat the pan to a high temperature
4. Sear the steak on one half of the pan for 30 seconds, salt generously.
5. Then switch to the other side of the pan. This makes sure teh other side of the pan is hot.
6. Now stick it in an oven/broiler at 160 for about 5 minutes to get a nice steak.
7. Make sure you check after about 4 minutes to makes sure the steak is to your liking, then guage how long to leave it. The timing changes due to thickness and how you like your steak.
There are two ways for this, ure four fingers can be used to determine the wellness of a steak. Put your finger to your thumb and then press down on the fleshy part of your palm, this corresponds to how your steak should feel as you press it. Goes, rare (pointer finger) to well done (pinky). Another way (from iron chef) is earlobe, cheek, tip of nose and i forget the last one. Who wants steaks well done anyway? =)
So yes, thats my steak experience. For a $6 (350g) peice of meat, it required a lot of careful work but it was well, well worth it. Soft and juicy, same went for the carrots =)
sorry no pictures, but well.. use ure imagination.
This somehow just worked, i klinda pulled it outta my arse, but who knew carrots could taste this good. I decided to slow cook the carrots to make it really sweet and carrotty. To do this, i used a good scoop of butter and carrot slices on a low heat with the lid on.
The carrot seemed to steam + fry slightly in the heat. after about 20 minutes they were pretty soft, sweet and yummy =) To taste i added Herbs de Provence, a collection of herbs from France.
To add to this, corn from a can and a good chuck on herbed goats cheese. Sweated this a bit more till the cheese melted and voila =D a great side to any steak. yeah for carrots.
Steaks
$20/kg Eye fillet sliced thickly. I took a lot of care to make sure i was going to do this right, so after lots of internet research here is the steps i used.
1. Let steaks come to room temperature
2. Pepper steak, do not salt. Apparently salt draws moisture out of the steaks.
3. Preheat the pan to a high temperature
4. Sear the steak on one half of the pan for 30 seconds, salt generously.
5. Then switch to the other side of the pan. This makes sure teh other side of the pan is hot.
6. Now stick it in an oven/broiler at 160 for about 5 minutes to get a nice steak.
7. Make sure you check after about 4 minutes to makes sure the steak is to your liking, then guage how long to leave it. The timing changes due to thickness and how you like your steak.
There are two ways for this, ure four fingers can be used to determine the wellness of a steak. Put your finger to your thumb and then press down on the fleshy part of your palm, this corresponds to how your steak should feel as you press it. Goes, rare (pointer finger) to well done (pinky). Another way (from iron chef) is earlobe, cheek, tip of nose and i forget the last one. Who wants steaks well done anyway? =)
So yes, thats my steak experience. For a $6 (350g) peice of meat, it required a lot of careful work but it was well, well worth it. Soft and juicy, same went for the carrots =)
sorry no pictures, but well.. use ure imagination.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Roast pork - chinese style
So here we go, standard recipe and standard preparation. Nothing fancy to see here except a good solid base recipe to start.
The hardest thing was actually finding the meat to do this recipe. I searched high and low, far and wide to find a place that would actually sell pork belly. But i could not track it down at all. (woolies and coles never stocks it, thats about as far and wide as i got) So i asked around a few people at work..
Turns out to westerners, its sold as Pork spare ribs ($9.99/kg). They cut it up into nice thin little strips but i asked if they had a good slab of it outback. Score! 1kg of pork belly with a good score of bones.
Took it home, and began the first step of preparation. Firstly salt THOROUGHLY. It's a big huge chunk of meat, if you dont adequately salt it, each individual slice wont have much flavour. Apply vinegar all over the pork. I'm not sure which one of these two should go first. Then find a nice sunny spot on ure verandah and leave it in the sun for the entire day while you climbing in the glasshouse mountains. Now if the glasshouse mountains are not reachable from your area, you may use the Blue mountains, or any other hilly area to substitute.
I know this goes against all instinct, meat must be in the cold for sure? but in the sun? yeah i agree with you, but i think the salt and vinegar help preserve the meat, at least for the day. My friend, the biltonger, coats his meat with vinegar, dries off with a towel and hangs it up to try for a week, so trust the vinegar =D
Now the rind of your pork should feel nice and hard, rub in copious amounts of chinese five spices. I like to add in cayene peppers and sezhuan peppers to the mix to give it that extra *POW*. Blast it in a broiler for about 30-45 minutes and your done.
yum yum.
make sure you season ure meat well.. and use proper salt, otherwise u get weak tasting pork.
The hardest thing was actually finding the meat to do this recipe. I searched high and low, far and wide to find a place that would actually sell pork belly. But i could not track it down at all. (woolies and coles never stocks it, thats about as far and wide as i got) So i asked around a few people at work..
Turns out to westerners, its sold as Pork spare ribs ($9.99/kg). They cut it up into nice thin little strips but i asked if they had a good slab of it outback. Score! 1kg of pork belly with a good score of bones.
Took it home, and began the first step of preparation. Firstly salt THOROUGHLY. It's a big huge chunk of meat, if you dont adequately salt it, each individual slice wont have much flavour. Apply vinegar all over the pork. I'm not sure which one of these two should go first. Then find a nice sunny spot on ure verandah and leave it in the sun for the entire day while you climbing in the glasshouse mountains. Now if the glasshouse mountains are not reachable from your area, you may use the Blue mountains, or any other hilly area to substitute.
I know this goes against all instinct, meat must be in the cold for sure? but in the sun? yeah i agree with you, but i think the salt and vinegar help preserve the meat, at least for the day. My friend, the biltonger, coats his meat with vinegar, dries off with a towel and hangs it up to try for a week, so trust the vinegar =D
Now the rind of your pork should feel nice and hard, rub in copious amounts of chinese five spices. I like to add in cayene peppers and sezhuan peppers to the mix to give it that extra *POW*. Blast it in a broiler for about 30-45 minutes and your done.
yum yum.
make sure you season ure meat well.. and use proper salt, otherwise u get weak tasting pork.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
capsicum and onion linguine
I'm not very good at pasta and basically if it's not a tomato base i got no idea what to do. So i thought i'd challenge myself with a cream base this time. It turned out quite well actually and i was very happy with it. Perhaps it could be improved with a dash of cheese, or white wine. I had neither in the kitchen unfortunately.
anyways here how i did it.
1) Blend 1 capsicum, 0.5 big onion, 1.5 chillis, paprika, salt and pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, olive oil.
2) Fry up some anchovies until soft.
3) Fry up the blended mixture until it changes from the dark red of capsicum to a more orange colour.
4) Add spices, i used mint and parsley. More italian ones such as oregano, thyme or tarragon would be good substitutes
5) Add butter and cream and simmer.
6) Add salt and pepper to taste
yum =) served with a side of mustard coated pork.. i need my meat =)
anyways here how i did it.
1) Blend 1 capsicum, 0.5 big onion, 1.5 chillis, paprika, salt and pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, olive oil.
2) Fry up some anchovies until soft.
3) Fry up the blended mixture until it changes from the dark red of capsicum to a more orange colour.
4) Add spices, i used mint and parsley. More italian ones such as oregano, thyme or tarragon would be good substitutes
5) Add butter and cream and simmer.
6) Add salt and pepper to taste
yum =) served with a side of mustard coated pork.. i need my meat =)
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
getting funcy...
so to add your conventional red curry recipe.
try adding honey, vinegar, soy sauce and mandarin skins. =) interesting =)
though if you are to add bamboo shoots, dont be like me and just chuck em in, make sure u wash them first or perhaps par boil them first, cos they give a certain smell to your dish if you dont.
Very undesirable...
try adding honey, vinegar, soy sauce and mandarin skins. =) interesting =)
though if you are to add bamboo shoots, dont be like me and just chuck em in, make sure u wash them first or perhaps par boil them first, cos they give a certain smell to your dish if you dont.
Very undesirable...
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