Author: Robert Beerworth

I love cooking, wine, travel, my three boys, and two girls, Avalon and my beautiful wife and best friend and cook, Nat...

Hasselback Potatoes with Sage

.Reading time 1 minute.

Hasselback Potatoes with Sage 

How good are Hasselback Potatoes?

The addition of sage makes them even better.

Ingredients

16 small/medium white potatoes
½ cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for brushing
32 fresh sage leaves
Flakey sea salt

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  2. If you know your Hasselback, prepare as normal, brush with butter and slip 2 sage leaves into each potato. Season with salt.
  3. If you don’t know your Hasselback, peel the potatoes. Place in a medium-depth cooking spoon and slice down thinly, ensuring you do not cut the entire way. You want to create a fan:

    CUtting-Hasselback-Potatoes.jpeg

    Brush with butter, slip in 2 sage leaves into 2 fans of potato and season with salt.

  4. Roast the potatoes, brushing occasionally with (more) butter until fork-tender, golden brown and tender. 30 minutes or so.

Credit for the fine illustration where illustration credit is due: http://glamorousglutton.com/hasselback-potatoes-stuffed-bacon/

(Not) Butter chicken

.Reading time 2 minutes.

(Not) Butter chicken

Serves: 4

The last ‘generic’ curry I I typed up, I commented that I had always steered clear of the Indian take-away favourites – Rogan Josh, Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken – because, well, they’re the sold-out, hardly Indian curries. 

In fact, butter chicken was the worst of the lot.

Often a flavourless, nuclear yellow/orange goop, I literally only entertain it because the boys will eat it: validation that it must be bland. (Sorry boys).

So by typing this up, you must have guessed it.

This is a seriously good curry. A seriously good, rich, flavoursome, moorish butter chicken, so much so, that you’d say it isn’t butter chicken.

So maybe after-all I haven’t cooked butter chicken.

Either way, you will love it. Just tell them it’s not butter chicken.

Ingredients

1 kg chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, finely chopped
2 bsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 stems, curry leaves
1 red chilli, chopped including seeds
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 x 400gm can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
165ml coconut cream
1 tsp golden syrup
½ concentrated chicken stock cube

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
  2. Season the chicken thighs well and add to the pan; cook until golden brown. Set aside.
  3. Add the butter to the pan and when heated, add the onion and cook cover a medium heat until softened. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
  4. Reduce the heat to low and add the curry leaves, chilli and spices and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and coconut cream; add the golden syrup and stock cube and stir to dissolve.
  5. Return the chicken and cook on a low heat for at least an hour; several more if you have the time.
  6. Check the seasoning and serve garnished with the fresh coriander and steamed white rice.

Pulled slow-cooked lamb shoulder rolls

.Reading time 2 minutes.
FullSizeRender (1).jpg
You get out what you put in. Case-in-point.

Pulled slow-cooked lamb shoulder rolls

Serves: 6 – 8

Well, that was predictable.

A 10-hour, slow-cooked lamb shoulder, a wonderful cumin mayo, rocket, caramelised red-onion and a baguette from the best patisserie within 10 miles of North Sydney.

Predictably amazing. 9/10 sort of stuff.

We had this as part of a dusk picnic last weekend and it took the whole thing into memorable category.

It might seem a bit of work for a sambo, though come out the other side and you’ll be a bloody sambo hero.

Picnic nailed!

Ingredients

1 bone-in lamb shoulder, about 1.4 – 2kg
¼ cup currants
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley and rosemary, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
¼ cup pine nuts
1 cup verjuice or white wine
Extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 140c.
  2. Soak the currants in the verjuice to soften.
  3. Heat a saucepan with plenty of the oil and cook the onion and garlic until softened. Allow to cool and then mix with the remaining ingredients including the currants and verjuice.
  4. Place the mixture in a heavy casserole dish and place the lamb on top. Cover with a lid or a tight layer of foil and place in the oven for 10 hours, checking periodically to ensure it doesn’t dry out and to marinate the meat. Add more verjuice or wine if necessary.
  5. When cooked, remove the lamb and set aside to cool slightly. Shred the meat from the bone and discard the bone and any fat etc.
  6. If keeping the sauce (which you should!), return the casserole dish to the stove, heat to high, add a splash of wine and stir until you have a thick sauce. Use a fat separator or other method (look up the ziplock bag method) to separate the sauce and discard the fat.
  7. If serving without a roll, flake the lamb onto a platter and pour over the sauce.
  8. If serving with a roll, stuff with the lamb, a dash of the sauce, rocket, caramelised onion and cumin mayonnaise.
  9. Stand back and prepare for the accolades.

Paneer Chilli Fry

.Reading time 5 minutes.
FullSizeRender.jpg
If you tell them you made the cheese, who knows how they’ll react. Because who the hell just makes cheese for dinner?!

Paneer Chilli Fry

Serves: 4 as a starter

Nat and I did the Nilgiri’s cooking class last Saturday and it was excellent.

The class, run by Indian restaurateur Ajoy Joshi, is pretty famous in Sydney and it wasn’t hard to see why. As a restaurateur, Ajoy has been very successful and we have eaten at all his restaurants including Tellicherry which serves upmarket, really clever Indian food backed by personable service.

In terms of the class, we learnt new techniques and gained a greater appreciation of the use and background of different spices and ingredients.

Case in point was this Paneer Chilli Fry, only the second time we have made cheese as part of a dish.

A combination of the cheese, the spices and the buttermilk, it is just wonderful. Really special in fact and definitely something you would look like a genius presenting as part of an Indian feast.

The cheese (Paneer: homemade Indian Cottage Cheese) component requires a little concentration at the beginning, though it isn’t tricky and I’ve written the instructions to keep it as foolproof as possible.

If you, like me, are on a never-ending quest to find better and better Indian food to cook, this is absolutely something you must try.

Just ensure that you don’t try and use anything but full-fat milk. Cheese needs an 8% fat content, with the addition of the cream in this dish making up the 4% fat content of the full-fat milk. Skim milk simply won’t leave you with anything but wasted milk.

Ingredients

Paneer

1 liter cream milk
100ml fresh cream
½ cup white vinegar
Muslin cloth (for straining)

Marinade

1 tbsp fresh ginger, crushed
1 tbsp fresh garlic, crushed
1 ½ tbsp fresh green chillis (including the seeds)
4 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tbsp chilli powder
Salt to taste

To prep/serve

2 – 3 tbsp vegetable oil
300ml buttermilk
Juice of one lemon
Chat Masala to taste
1 bunch fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Method

Paneer

  1. Place a saucepan over a medium-heat and add the milk and cream. Stir in a figure of eight, ensuring that you are scraping the bottom of the pan to ensure none of the milk/cream sticks.
  2. When steam starts to come off of the milk, stop stirring. Continue to heat until it starts to boil. Take off the heat and ensure that it doesn’t overflow and spill; this likely means blowing on it to cool it.
  3. Tip in some of the vinegar and the substance will curdle. Add enough vinegar until this is happening.
  4. Scoop the curdled milk pieces into the muslin cloth using some sort of strainer or slotted spoon. Discard the whey from the saucepan.
  5. Tie the cloth reasonable tightly and place the cloth/curdled milk in a colander to allow additional whey to drain out; place the saucepan on top of the cloth and weigh down so that you have an inch-thick compact disc. Allow to drain and compress for at least 20 minutes to allow all the whey to drain out.
  6. Cut/shred into dices and set aside.

Marinade

  1. For the marinade, mix the ginger, garlic, chilli, coriander seeds, chilli powder and salt.

To serve

  1. Heat the oil in a pan until it smokes. Add the marinade to the pan, reduce the heat and cook until the marinade caramelises. Add the buttermilk and reduce until well heated and slightly thickened.
  2. Add the diced paneer and toss until coated in the marinade.
  3. Sprinkle with the freshly squeezed lemon juice (to taste) and fresh coriander leaves.

Stephanie Alexander’s Chocolate and Almond Cake

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Stephanie Alexander’s Chocolate and Almond Cake

Serves: 6 – 8

You want decadent, you got it!

A favourite of the wonderful Stephanie Alexander, it is simple to prep and even simpler to serve; double cream, some raspberries and a picnic on the grass like we did.

This is a tick tick number and one to definitely try for a casual dinner when you want to really wow the team.

Ingredients

125gm good quality dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
1 tbsp brandy
1 tbsp espresso
100gm unsalted butter, softened
½ cup caster sugar
¾ cup ground almonds (we blitzed them in the food processor)
3 eggs, separated: lightly beat the yolks, beat the egg whites until firm though not dry
Icing sugar for dusting
Double cream and raspberries or strawberries to serve

Method

  1. Preheat the oven the 160c. Butter an 18c, round cake tin and line with baking paper: this is a cake that can split and leak easily so the baking paper is best.
  2. Combine chocolate, brandy and espresso in a heatproof bowl that fits snugly over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not touch the water. Heat without stirring the chocolate until it is melted. Stir and add the butter and sugar. Mix well.
  3. Add ground almonds and stir very well. Remove from the heat. Stir in the beaten egg yolks. Lighten the mixture with a spoonful of the beaten egg whites and then softly fold in the rest.
  4. Spoon the batter into the cake tin. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and allow to completely cool in the tin, remembering that the cake is fragile and will plit.
  5. Carefully turn onto a plate, dust with icing sugar and serve with the cream and berries.

Boost Juice’s Banana Buzz

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Boost Juice’s Banana Buzz

Serves: 1

The only drink I ever order from Boost Juice is a medium, Banana Buzz; I had one just yesterday and they’re just awesome.

Here is your way to try the amazing Boost Banana Buzz and save $6.40.

It is spot-on.

Ingredients

1 large banana
1 cup (skim) milk
2 large scoops Bulla Frozen Yoghurt (original flavour) or similar, frozen, plain Greek Yoghurt
½ tbsp honey
1 cup ice cubes

Method

  1. Combine all and blend to a smoothie.

Gordon Ramsay’s Lasagne al Forno

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Gordon Ramsay’s Lasagne al Forno

Serves: 4 – 6

Innovation when it comes to lasagne, spaghetti bolognese and the like, is neither wide, nor particularly wanted.

We crave these pastas because we know these pastas; and thankfully, adding a twist with the addition of milk, or anchovies or diced bacon, doesn’t really screw with the formulae or take them too far away from what we crave.

Having already typed up a lasagne – and certainly having cooked plenty of other variations in the past – I was unsure of whether I should type this one up.

Not because it isn’t amazing because it is.

Though for all the other reasons. Anchovies and bacon, cream and ricotta, a good lasagne is all you asked for and so how many nip-tuck variations do you really need?

You need to try this one.

Sure, it’s ultimately just a lasagne, though I type it up for two reasons.

Firstly – as I said – it really is very good. And secondly, to get you to cook lasagne, something we just don’t cook enough of.

Cook what the people want and they want this lasagne.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oilive oil
½ large onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 pinches, dried oregano
500gm minced beef
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp red wine
400gm can tomatoes
50ml milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the sauce

25gm butter
25gm flour
300ml milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
60gm Cheddar cheese, grated
30gm Parmesan cheese, grated

6 sheets, lasagne sheets

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 220.
  2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over a medium-high heat; cook the onion, carrot and garlic, adding the bay leaf, a pinch of oregano, the Worcestershire sauce and a little salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is softened.
  3. Add the mince and break up; add the tomato puree and cook, stirring, until the meat is browned.
  4. Add the wine and cook of the alcohol before adding the tomatoes. Simmer for a few minutes. Add the milk and set aside from the heat.
  5. Cheese Sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan. Ad the flour and using a wooden spoon, stir to form a paste. Over a gentle heat, add a third of the milk, whisking to prevent any lumps forming. Add the rest of the milk slowly, whisking as you go. Season with salt and pepper and a ground of nutmeg. Allow the sauce to cook out for a minute or so and add the Cheddar cheese. Stir and remove from the heat.
  6. Spoon half the meat sauce into the bottom of the baking dish and place pasta sheets on top. Pour in half the cheese sauce and spread evenly. And then more meat and pasta sheets and cheese… you know how to layer a lasagna.
  7. Finish with grated Parmesan and sprinkle with another pinch of oregano; lightly season.
  8. In the oven, 20 – 30 minutes until golden.

Chicken, Pumpkin and Cashew Curry

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Chicken, Pumpkin and Cashew Curry

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a really neat curry from The Blue Ducks’ ‘Real Food’ cookbook, a book we really like and have had some early success from.

It is unusual, both in terms of the amount of curry powder you need for it, as well as the wonderfully fragrant paste of ginger, garlic, curry leaves, lime leaves, coriander roots and lemongrass; though it definitely, definitely pulls together.

Just ensure that you get the curry powder to a powder, even if it means a second vino whilst working the mortar and pestle.

It is warm, comforting, fragrant and fun to pull together. Comfort being the operative word; this is simply a great chicken curry you’d happily eat every night with rice – or cauliflower rice as we did.

The original recipe asks for a whole chicken cut up, though we used 1kg of chicken thigh.

Final point: Kashmiri chilli powder.

Most of Rick Stein’s curries ask for it. Among many others.

Sure, you can substitute other chilli powders, though if you can, make the effort and get some Kashimiri chilli powder from an Indian grocer. It is mild and adds a wonderful red hue rather than simply being the Sherman Tank so many chilli powders are. It is worth it.

Ingredients

3 tbsp ghee (or vegetable oil)
1 large onion, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
5cm piece of ginger, chopped
10 – 15 curry leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves (remove the spine)
1 bunch of coriander, leaves picked and roots and stalks reserved
1 lemongrass stem, white part only, chopped
1 x 1.6 kg chicken, 10 – 12 pieces, skin on and bones in (or 1kg of chicken thigh)
200ml coconut milk
500gm peeled and deseeded pumpkin, cut into 5cm dice
400gm can diced tomatoes
100gm roasted cashews
1 heaped tsp salt flakes
Natural yoghurt

Curry Powder

75gm coriander seeds (yes, a lot!)
50gm cumin seeds (ditto)
8 green cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
6 black peppercorns
½ tsp ground turmeric
2 dried chillies
½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

Method

  1. For the curry powder, toast the coriander seeds cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves in a dry frying pan until fragrant and lightly coloured. Tip the spices into a spice grinder – or mortar and pestle – and grind until a fine powder.
  2. Place the garlic, ginger, curry leaves, lime leaves, coriander roots and stalks, and lemongrass in a blender or small food processor and blitz to a paste.
  3. Place a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the ghee and fry the onion until it is just turning golden. Add the curry powder and cook over a medium heat for 8 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure the spices don’t burn.
  4. Add the paste to the pan and fry for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken, coconut milk, pumpkin, tomatoes, cashews, salt and half the coriander leaves. Slowly simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Sprinkle with the remaining coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice (or cauliflower rice) and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Warmed Red Cabbage Salad with Toasted Walnuts and Goats Cheese

.Reading time 1 minute.

Warmed Red Cabbage Salad with Toasted Walnuts and Goats Cheese

Serves: 6

This is a really great salad.

Really, really great.

The melting goat cheese, the toasted walnuts, the apple, the balsamic vinegar. It’s warm, crunchy, rich and sweet.

This is a real treat.

Serve with lamb koftas, beef or chicken kebabs, BBQed pork tenderloin.

Ingredients

1 small head, red cabbage, cored and sliced into strips
1 small apple, cored and sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
2 – 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
200gm goats cheese
½ cup walnuts, toasted
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

  1. In a frypan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat and add the garlic and cook until fragrant though not browned. Add the onion and 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar and cook for a minute.
  2. Add cabbage and stir well; cook for 5 minutes or so until slightly wilted and softened though still bright coloured.
  3. Add apple, walnuts, season and stir well. Add the goats cheese and stir to gently incorporate. Taste for seasoning and add additional balsamic vinegar if it needs some acidity.
  4. Serve immediately.

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a recipe I pulled from the Weekend Australian Magazine by David Herbert and it is really quite good. I’ve been more hit than miss with his stuff in the past, though as far as a clean, healthy, spring salad goes, this is a winner.

If you haven’t cooked with bulgar, it is worth the effort to find it in your local organics shop.

It is less abrasive than quinoa, healthy, packed full of protein and fibre, and filling. Add the fresh herbs and vegetables and you have a salad that looks great, tastes great and is easy to prepare.

Try it with steak or lamb and you’ll be pleased you did.

Ingredients

150gm bulgar
¾ cup roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup roughly chopped fresh mint
200gm cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Seeds 1 pomegranate
3 spring onions, chopped
Juice, 1 lemon
2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

  1. Place bulgar in a bowl and cover with 500ml boiling water. Soak for 30 minutes and then drain well, removing all excess water.
  2. Combine cooled bulgar, parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, pomegranate, spring onions and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season well with the salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour over olive oil and toss well.