A bit boring I know, though a good, home-made tzatziki is pretty cool.
Low fat – if you do it with low, or zero fat yoghurt – and tasty with pretty much anything you can throw at it. Meat, crackers, vegetables.
No guilt.
Ingredients
1 Lebanese cucumber, coarsely grated
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
200gm low-fat (or fat free) Greek-style yoghurt
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
1 clove garlic, crushed
Method
Put the grated cucumber in a fine-meshed sieve over a bowl and sprinkled with a pinch of salt. Set aside for 20 minutes or more to drain off the excess moisture.
Place the salted cucumber, yoghurt, mint and garlic in a bowl and mix to combine. Season and enjoy for the next few days.
From India by Rick Stein really is a beautiful cookbook. It feels as bright and colourful as Rick himself and the stories behind each recipe are inspiring and wonderful to read.
You really appreciate the origin of what you are about to cook and it really does take appreciation of the dish to the next level.
And appreciate you will this excellent curry from Rick – or Mr Singh – a talented and well-kept cook he met in India.
The pureeing of the base ingredients changes the texture and makes the whole thing simply feel as one. There is a nice lingering heat and of course after all that time cooking, the lamb is starting to fall apart.
As far as solid, homemade winter curries go, you could do a whole lot worse than this one.
Win.
(I have changed the ordering and wording of the method versus Rick’s recipe. With an hour and a half of cooking time up your sleeve before you need the powdered spices, you would be mad – or with plenty of time on your hands – to do the recipe in reverse as per its original writing.)
Ingredients
½ tsp cardamom seeds (for about 8 green pods)
4 – 6 cloves
3 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
10 garlic cloves roughly chopped
4 cm ginger, roughly chopped
75ml vegetable oil (or ghee)
100ml Greek-style yogurt
1kg lamb shoulder (or leg), deboned, trimmed of excess fat, 3cm pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tbsp cream
Method
In stages, using a mini food processor and rinsing out in-between, blend the onions to a puree with a little water; puree the tomatoes; blend the garlic and ginger with a tablespoon of water to a slack paste.
Heat the oil in a heavy pan over a medium heat and gently fry the onion paste for 15 minutes until golden; add the ginger and garlic and fry for an additional 3 minutes. Stir in the yogurt, meat and salt and cover over a low-medium heat stirring occasionally for 30 minutes or until browned.
Stir in the garam masala and chilli powder and then pour in just enough water to cover the meat. Simmer, covered for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, grind the cardamom seeds and cloves to a fine powder. (This, in my experience, needs a glass of wine.)
Stir in the cream and pureed tomatoes followed by the cardamom and clove mix. Seal the pan by first covering in foil and then the lid. Cook over the lowest heat for 40 minutes until the lamb is tender.
Remove the seal and quickly cook off any remaining liquid until you have a good gravy.
Neil Perry of course and reasonable quick to whip up, Nat and I cooked this for a Saturday lunch as part of a weekend of cooking and we were blown away.
We used a very good and aged parmesan and shaved it in; not the yellow stuff you get in the supermarket. Some warmed, crusty bread and wow.
We were warm and completely satisfied for the entire afternoon.
You must do this!
Ingredients
750gm green zucchini, cut into 1cm-thick pieces
Extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bunch basil
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper
1½ liters chicken stock
125ml pure cream
40gm unsalted butter
40gm parmesan, grated, plus extra to serve
Method
Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-based sauce pan over a medium heat and add the zucchini, garlic, basil and a good pinch of sea salt. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the zucchini starts to soften.
Add the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 8 minutes.
Pour the soup into the blender and pulse until well pureed though still with a bit of texture; not completely smooth.
Return to the saucepan and stir in the cream, butter and the parmesan.
Serve with a sprinkle of grated parmesan and a good ground of fresh pepper.
This is a pretty classic dish and I put it up mainly to remind you that you do not cook nearly enough mussels and should rectify that.
Mussels are cheap, healthy, tasty (well, the sauce) and easy to cook.
Mussels also look pretty fancy and give the impression you have gone to some effort with some level of skill to boot.
We didn’t have these with crusty bread which would have been awesome; though we did make a cracking green salad (asparagus, avocado, cucumber, butter lettuce and a great dijon/white wine vinegar vinaigrette) and some simple, twice cooked potato wedges.
Really fun and really tasty.
Ingredients
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1.5kg fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded
¼ cup chopped fresh basil Warm crusty bread to serve
Method
Heat olive oil in a large pan over a low-medium heat and gently cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes until coloured. Turn up the heat and add the wine and tomatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer for another 10 minutes.
Add the mussels, cover and cook for 3 – 5 minutes or until mussels open.
Remove the mussels into serving bowls and stir the basil through the tomato sauce. Season and ladle over the mussels.
This recipe is from Delicious magazine and it did well to get cooked and typed up.
I have one of those Country Road bags completely full of recipes pulled from different magazines and newspapers and with so many cookbooks and recipes online, it is a rare lucky-dip into the bag for the occasional lunch or dinner.
Anyway, pretty glad we picked this one.
Easy, healthy, tasty and definitely worthy of typing up.
Served with a parsnip mash (with cumin, cayenne, nutmeg and walnut oil) and some steamed beans.
Yum!
Ingredients
¼ cup olive oil
4 x 150gm sirloin steaks (we used porterhouse)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
Small handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus extra to serve
400gm can tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
Method
Place 1 tbsp oil in a frypan over a high heat. In batches, sear the steaks for 1 minute on each side and set aside.
Reduce heat to medium then add the remaining 2 tbsp oil to the pan. Cook garlic, anchovies, capers and parsley, stirring for 2 – 3 minutes until the anchovies melt.
Add tomatoes and oregano and simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until thickened.
Reduce heat to medium. Return steaks and any resting juices to the pan. Cover the steaks with the sauce then simmer for 6 minutes for medium-rare.
My fourth Bill Granger dish from his book, Everyday Asian.
And with a ‘great’ recipe strike-rate of three out of four and an easiness factor of ten out of ten, Bill Granger is officially no longer the suspect cook I had him for prior to cooking from this book. Going forward, i’ll trust him at his word and cook his recipes without worrying.
Donna Hay on the other hand…
Anyway, this is another really healthy, really tasty weekday number. The salad is really fun and served with some rice and a glass of white, this is a great couch/dinner/TV dish.
Ingredients
4 tbsp mirin
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 salmon fillets, skin off
Combine the mirin, soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Put the salmon fillets in a shallow dish, pour the mirin mixture over and set aside in the fridge for 15 minutes or more.
Heat a pan on high heat and cook the salmon until nice coloured and pink inside.
Meanwhile, pour the marinade into a small pan and heat over a high-heat for 4 minutes until it has reduced to a glaze. Pour over the cooked salmon and serve with the salad.
Salad
Whisk together the mirin, vinegar and sesame oil.
Use a vegetable peeler or mandoline to peel long ribbons from the cucumber.
I pulled it from Jamie at Home, one of Jamie Oliver’s excellent books and it is a serious cooking homerun. It is so rich, with the stewed meat and the pastry all around – not just on top – and then there is the cheese.
I have done this pie twice, both times with a mash and peas.
Winter can stick around a bit longer if it means pies like this!
Ingredients
Olive oil
3 medium red onions , peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 carrots , peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery , trimmed and chopped
4 field mushrooms , peeled and sliced
1 kg quality brisket of beef or stewing beef , cut into 2cm cubes
A few sprigs fresh rosemary , leaves picked and chopped
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
440 ml Guinness
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
150 g Cheddar cheese , freshly grated
340 g ready-made all-butter puff pastry
1 large free-range egg , beaten
Method
Preheat the oven to 190c.
In a heavy saucepan on a low heat, heat some olive oil and then add the onions and gently fry for 10 minutes, trying not to colour them. Stir in the rosemary and saute for another minute. Turn the heat up and add the garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Stir together well before adding the beef, a pinch of salt and a level teaspoon of pepper.
Fry fast for 3 to 4 minutes and then pour in the Guinness, stir in the flour and just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan with a lid and place in the preheated oven for about 1 ½ hours.
Remove the pan from the oven and stir. Return to the over for another hour or until the meat is tender and the stew is rich, dark and thick; you want a thick gravy.
Remove from the heat and stir in half the cheese, season and set aside to cool.
Grease a casserole and lay pastry on the bottom and walls, ensure that there are no gaps. Tip the stew in, even it out and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cover with the remaining pastry and criss-cross it lightly with a sharp knife. Brush the top with beaten egg and then bake the pie in the oven for 45 minutes until the pastry is golden and puffed.
The Boathouse – that wonderful restaurant right on the water at Blackwattle Bay in Glebe, Sydney – is famous for its snapper pie.
And it is a truly wonderful dish; sweated onions, cream, truffle oil, snapper and amazing pastry served with a smoked tomato and a simple mash. Yum.
Though they have another classic and one that Nat and I have ordered the two times we have had lunch there: the Salmon Roe & Potato Blinis with Wasabi and Crème Fraiche.
They are just awesome. And the presentation is like theater.
A bowl of the roe, chilled on ice; the small blinis, fluffy pancakes, served hot to allow the crème fraiche to melt. The wasabi and then the roe.
Eaten whole, the sensory experience is everything. Ditto the taste experience.
So set the task of doing the amuse bouche for a lunch at my parent’s place, I asked Nat what she thought we should do and immediately she answered this recipe.
Easier said than done right?
I pushed back on the basis that we didn’t have a recipe etc. though I should have known that it wouldn’t be that simple.
Shortly thereafter – pretty much on schedule – Nat had tracked down the blini recipe on some chef’s recipe organiser website and the rest was pretty straightforward.
It is in fact a simple dish and I promise that the recipe below perfectly recreates the dish at The Boathouse. Stunning.
You should make around 40 or so blinis and then factor in a teaspoon of crème fraiche and roe for each, with just a dash of wasabi.
Casually pull these out at your next dinner party and people will think you’re some kind of cooking prodigy.
Ingredients
1.2kg potatoes 3 whole eggs 500gm crème fraiche 175gm plain flour
175gm egg whites (whipped to a firm peak) (about 7 – 8 eggs in my experience)
100gm wasabi
300gm salmon (or trout) roe 4 lemon halves, tied in a muslin cloth to serce
Method
Peel and cook the potatoes. Puree, ideally through a ricer and allow to cool.
Whisk the whole eggs and 100gm of the crème fraiche into the potato puree.
Once smooth, fold in the flour.
Gently fold in the firm egg whites.
Heat a non-stick pan (you don’t really need to oil it and you don’t want your blini to be greasy) over a medium heat. Form the blini into small discs – small pancakes – around 4cm in diameter. Cook for three minutes each side and then set aside.
When ready, heat the oven to 180c and reheat the blini so that they are hot through.
In separate bowls, serve the wasabi, the remaining crème fraiche and roe and then serve a dollop of each on the blini. A dash of lemon juice and serve to your amazed guests.
This roast chicken is on a whole other level and a quick read through the ingredients will tell you why.
It looks and tastes dramatic. Real Jamie sort of stuff. The filling forms such a fabulous base for the chicken – so much so that you almost don’t need a side.
Though an orange, olive and onion salad couldn’t hurt!
Enjoy as much as I did.
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
1 cup couscous
Zest and juice of an orange
Zest and juice of a lemon, reserving the lemon halves
2 handfuls of pistachios, or any nut, roughly chopped
2 handfuls of dried blueberries, or any dried fruit
1 large handful of fresh mint and parsley, plus a little extra to throw on top, roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil, plus more to coat chicken
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 cardamon seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 180c.
Put the couscous, orange and lemon zest and juice, dried fruit, nuts and fresh herbs in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and half a cup of warm water and mix everything together.
With a mortar and pestle or spice blender, pound all the spices with the salt until you have a powder.
Stuff the bird with the couscous mixture. Block the cavity with lemon halves that you have squeezed the juice from. This will keep the couscous from falling out of the chicken.
Rub the chicken with a little olive oil and all of the spice mixture. Throw on the rest of the fresh herb mixture.
Roast the chicken for an hour or so until a thermometer reads 70c. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.
Rather than offending everyone’s grandmother by dissing stuffings containing nuts, oysters and apricots and jammed into the cavities of chickens and turkeys, I’m going to take a positive path with this post and simply state that as enjoyable as all the world’s stuffings are, my personal belief is that this stuffing is the world’s finest.
And I know I am not alone.
From a catering perspective, it is super simple, especially as it can be made independently of any turkey cavity. From a taste perspective, it is just awesome.
If tradition bars you from inching away from Grandmother’s secret stuffing recipe for Christmas lunch, add Turkey Subs to your repertoire and earn a free pass to try this stuffing
I promise you will never look back.
Ingredients
¾ cup minced onion
1 ½ cups chopped celery stalks and leaves
1 cup butter
1 large bowl soft white bread cubes
Powdered chicken stock
1 ½ teaspoons dried sage (not powdered)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Pepper
Method
Cook the onion and celery in the butter until soft.
Mix with the bread cubes until coated. Add the sage and thyme and stock powder and pepper to taste.
Turn into a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at medium heat for 30 minutes to an hour or until cooked through. Remove the foil at the end of cooking to crisp the top.
Robby Dog Cooks 