Tag: bacon

Thomas Straker’s Chicken, Leek and Bacon Pie (TikTok)

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Serves: 6

Nat found this recipe on Instagram and whilst we have been plenty burnt by Instagram and TikTok recipes in the past, just watch the video below and tell me we should/could have moved on?!

Like our signature Snapper Pie from The Boathouse, this pie is a labour of love. Time is your friend here. From roasting the chicken the night before. The gravy reducing for hours. The baked potato mash (will I ever do a mash that isn’t baked potato again?).

And of course, homemade shortcrust which is absolutely essential.

The sum of the parts is extraordinary. This is a signature pie. We almost feel embarrassed to have cooked a chicken pie prior to this one.

The gravy was probably the finest gravy I have ever had. Together with the pie and that incredible crust; and that mash. I am not overstating it. This is 2-hat cooking, a recipe they would never manage to take off the menu. We both agreed, a chicken pie could surely not go further. We’d well and truly found the outer limits of what a chicken pie could be.

It was a rainy Sunday in Autumn in Sydney when we (Nat) cooked this. A decanted 2019 Barolo. And it frankly doesn’t get better.

Ingredients

For the chicken
1 large free-range chicken
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
1 large eschalot, peeled
1 lemon, halved
4 garlic, peeled
Two sprigs of rosemary

For the chicken filling
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
250gm streaky bacon, chopped
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white and green parts thinly sliced
2 garlic, thinly sliced and rubbed well through salt
1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
2 1/2 tsp softened, unsalted butter
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 c hot chicken stock
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

For the gravy
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 stick of celery, coarsely chopped
Half a bunch of flat-leaf parsley including the stalks
7 peppercorns
A good splash of Madeira (or sherry)

For the shortcrust pastry
1 c plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
115gm cold, unsalted butter cut into cubes
3 tbsp ice water

For the mashed potatoes
5 large, unwashed potatoes
1/2 c cream
80gm unsalted butter
Salt

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200c. Rinse the chicken and stuff the cavity with the eschalot, lemon, garlic and rosemary. Drizzle over the olive oil and season well. Roast in a roasting pan for 1 1/4 hours or until cooked through, basting occasionally with the oil and juices.
  2. Set aside and allow to cool slightly Remove and discard the skin. Remove all the flesh, chop coarsely and place in a large mixing bowl. Discard the ribs. Combine the bones and remaining chicken and juices and set aside to make the gravy.
  3. In a fresh pan, cook off the bacon until slightly browned and set aside.
  4. In a separate pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and sauté the onion until soft. Add the leeks and continue cooking until softened. Turn down the heat and add the garlic, cooking for a few minutes and finally add the cooked bacon. Take off the heat and stir through the cooked chicken flesh, parsley and mustard. Season with pepper.
  5. In a pan, heat the butter until bubbling. Add the flour, whisking constantly. Slowly pour in the chicken stock, continuing to whisk until you have a thickened mixture. Add to the chicken mixture, stir through and set aside.
  6. For the gravy, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the chicken bones and juices, sautéing for a few minutes. Add the the vegetables and the peppercorns, cook until softened and then cover with boiling water and add a few splashes of the Madeira. Reduce the heat, cover and cook down until you’re close to a gravy consistency. Check the seasoning, strain and set aside.
  7. For the shortcrust pastry, put the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and process, cutting the butter into the flour until you have a coarse meal. Add the cold water and process for 30 seconds until you have a soft dough. Remove the dough, shape it into a thick dough, wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Bring to room temperature prior to rolling.
  8. For the mashed potatoes, heat the oven to 180c. Wash the potatoes well and spike all over with a fork. Bake on a baking tray for 1 1/2 hours or until cooked through. Set aside to slightly cool. Peel by hand, removing and setting aside the flesh. Heat the butter in a saucepan and using a ricer, rice the potato flesh, adding it to the butter. Add the cream and season with salt, adding more butter or cream as need-be.
  9. Heat the oven to 220c. Lightly oil your pie tin. Roll out your shortcrust pastry and line the tin. Fill with the chicken mixture. Cover the pie with more shortcrust pastry, sealing well with a fork. Trim the edges and brush all over with the egg wash. Create a small hole in pie to let the steam escape and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
  10. Send the kids to their rooms. Have a bottle of good red decanted. Serve the pie with the mash and plenty of gravy and goddam, enjoy.

Eggs En Cocotte (Baked Eggs)

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

My mother used to make these eggs for us as kids on special Sundays.

And special these eggs are!

So simple, so wonderful. Such a treat – almost brunch material.

You could add spinach or even cheese if you were inclined, though this recipe is for the original and in my opinion, the best.

Ingredients

8 large eggs
4 rashes of bacon, julienned
1 c thickened cream
Freshly cracked pepper
Good buttered toast to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180c.
  2. Pan-fry the bacon over medium heat in a pan until slightly browned.
  3. Into four ramekins, divide the bacon and then crack two eggs per ramekin.
  4. Pour a 1/4 c cream over each ramekin and finish with a good crack of pepper.
  5. Bake for 25 minutes until set. Serve with some great buttered toasts to serve.
  6. And Champagne if brunch!

Nando’s Peri Peri Chicken LOADED Burger – with thanks to RecipeTinEats

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4

As we count down the weeks in single digits to the arrival of baby #4 – the first girl in the Beerworth family after Nat of course – Nat and I are carving out more and more time during the week to be together, preparing the house and hopefully, fitting in a late lunch to talk through the logistics and fun coming up.

Last Friday was sunny, we had new plants to pot, the cleaner had almost finished and it was time to regroup and walk-through the slimming running sheet of things to be done.

Enter, this incredible burger (plated on a toasted wholemeal baguette).

I initially chose this recipe – from the always reliable RecipeTinEats – because I needed something I could prepare in advance and then complete on the BBQ with a small outdoor kitchen. The cleaner in the house, remember?

I’m giving almost full credit here to RecipeTinEats. This is a very, very good marinade and pink sauce.

Indeed, Tom – our 12-year old – wants charcoaled chicken wraps for both himself and his friends for an upcoming sleepover to celebrate birthday #13 and I am definitely doing this marinade, minus maybe a chilli or two. Maybe on skewers over charcoal next time, rather than just on the BBQ?*

My addition of bacon, cheese and avocado though, took this burger to the LOADED level.

And nothing ever tastes better than on a toasted baguette.

I don’t eat much fast food though if you told me this was a limited-time burger – let alone their signature dish – I would not have doubted it.

Perfect heat. Perfect crunch. Just bloody wonderful.

Nat and I keep talking about honing in on a signature sandwich for both of us.

I’m a poached chicken and herbed-mayo slaw on a Vienna sort of guy and that is a sandwich I’m going to get right.

In the meantime, I’ll take this burger/baguette.

Bloody great.

(I have adapted this recipe to how we cooked it.)

Ingredients

Peri-Peri Sauce/Marinade

1 – 3 birds eye chillies (I used 3)
1 large red capsicum
5 garlic cloves
3 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp malt vinegar
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper

Pink Sauce

3 tbsp Peri Peri Sauce (above)
1/2 c whole egg mayonnaise
1/4 c sour cream

Burgers

1 tbsp olive oil
4 chicken thighs
8 rashers of bacon
1 avocado
4 slices of cheddar cheese
2 tomatoes
Lettuce of choice
Baguette, cut into fours and sliced horizontally

Method

  1. Place the Peri Peri Sauce ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour 1/2 c into a ziplock bag with the chicken and marinate overnight.
  2. Mix together 3 tbsp of the Peri Peri Sauce together with the Pink Sauce ingredients. Set aside/refrigerate.
  3. Toast the baguettes and fry the bacon.
  4. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a fry-pan or BBQ. Add the chicken and cook each side for 4 – 5 minutes until golden brown. Cover and rest for 5 minutes.
  5. To make the burgers/baguette, smother one side of the bread with pink sauce and the other with a quarter of the avocado. Slice the chicken and layer chicken, cheese, tomato and lettuce.
  6. A beer not essentially though recommended!

* Whether you cook the chicken in a skillet or over flames, get as much char on it as you can.

Lidia Bastianich’s Linguine with Bacon and Onions

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

I described this recipe to a cooking mate and he said, “so you cooked Carbonara” and I said “sort of, though with onions and less egg yolks” and he said said “so you cooked Carbonara with onions”.

He’s right, though I’m typing it because it is a sensational pasta – one where Nat made our own linguini – as well that the addition of the onions really are lovely, especially with the size of the cut of the onion.

If making your own pasta, we always use this amazing Kitchenaid pasta dough recipe and suggest you do too!

Fresh pasta is your every-time trump card.

Find the thickest bacon you can find, crisp it up, open a good red and this is a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.

Another Lidia win.

Ingredients

Salt
180gm slab bacon, ideally in one piece – or thick bacon
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large yellow onions, , sliced 1.5cm thick (about 3 cups)
1 1/2 c hot chicken stock
500gm linguini
3 egg yolks
1 c freshly grated Parmesean cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.
  2. Cut the bacon into 1cm slices and heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over a medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, untilthe bacon is lightl browned, but still soft in the centre, about 6 minutes.
  3. If there is more and 3 – 4 tbsp of fat in the skillet at this point, pour off the excess. If less, top up to 3 – 4 tbsp with olive oil. Add the onions and cook until wilted though still crunchy, about 4 – 5 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and adjust the heat to a lively simmer. Cook until the liquid us reduced by half.
  4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente reserving some pasta water.
  5. Laddle a cup of the pasta water and add it to the sauce along with the drained pasta. Bring to the boil, stirring to coat the pasta with sauce and adding stock or water as necessary to make it a generous coat.
  6. Remove the pan from the heat and add the egg yolks one at a time, tossing them through the pasta. Add the grated cheese and black pepper, toss through and serve.

Antonio Carluccio’s Gnocchetti Sardi Con Broccoli (Sardinian Gnocchi with Broccoli)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

The first post I did for robbydogcooks.com was an Antonio Carluccio dish.

His pastas are always unique, always simple and always 1-hat. We can never fault them, especially the fact that you can start cooking at midday and serve lunch at one.

This pasta is wonderful.

And absurdly simple to make.

With a green salad and a glass of cold vino, it really doesn’t get better.

I have slightly adapted this recipe.

Ingredients

500gm broccoli florets
60gm smoked, streaky bacon, finely chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced
200ml heated milk
400gm Sardinian gnocchetti (I used Casarecce which seemed close)
A little hot water from cooking the pasta (this is important)
1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Cook the broccoli, drain and process in a food processor until finely chopped. Set aside.
  2. In a large pan, start to fry the bacon in the olive oil. Once it begins to brown, add the slices of garlic, which should not be allowed to colour. Add the broccoli and the milk and cook for 10 – 15 minutes over a medium heat, stirring every now and then. At the end of this time, the broccoli should be reduced to a creamy texture.
  3. Cook the gnocchetti until al denote, drain (reserving some of the water), then our the pasta into the pan with the broccoli mixture, adding the Parmesan, salt and pepper. Add a spoonful or two of cooking water so the mixture is creamy rather than stiff. Stir well over a moderate flame for a few minutes or so and serve.

Avocado Chicken Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

There was debate about whether this recipe should be typed up.

Not because it isn’t great or super healthy, though because it is just a bit too simple. It’s almost not a recipe.

(Plus Natalie had never had bacon and coriander and wasn’t sure if they went together, not withstanding that they obviously do because the whole salad tastes amazing.)

Anyway, it was the boys – Oliver and Tom – that pushed me to type this up. They loved the salad and wanted it somewhere so they could make it for their kids one day.

Make it fun like we did and put the ingredients in separate bowls: let people make their own unique salad, toss with the lime juice and olive oil and enjoy.

How good is healthy!

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, grilled and shredded
2 ripe avocados, pitted and diced
1/2 cup corn, grilled and hulled
1/4 cup red onion, minced
4 rasher of bacon, chopped and fried
2 tbsp coriander leaves
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. In a large bowl, add the shredded chicken, avocado, onion, corn, bacon and coriander.
  2. Drizzle with the lime juice, olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss gently to combine.

(Tomato, cucumber and black beans would also compliment this salad.)

Brussel Sprout Salad with Bacon, Apple and Buttermilk Dressing

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

As far as slaws go, this is a total winner.

You’ll reach for more and more.

Served along-side really anything that benefits from a slaw – chicken, pork, whatever – it is just wonderful.

Our favourite party trick is serving salads at BBQs that blow people away.

With little effort, this slaw is definitely part of that party trick and one I would commend to you, any night – or BBQ or lunch or whatever – of the week.

Don’t be fooled. It is excellent.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
4 bacon rashers (about 280gm) rind removed and roughly chopped
12 large Brussels Sprouts
3 golden shallots, thinly sliced
2 Granny Smith apples, cut into matchsticks
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 bunch chives, finely chopped to serve
Shaved Parmesan to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the bacon and fry, turning occasionally, until crisp: 6 – 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
  2. Shave Brussels Sprouts with a mandolin into a bowl. Add a good pinch of salt, shallots, apples and half the lemon juice. Toss to combine and set aside.
  3. Whisk together the mayonnaise and buttermilk, remaining lemon juice and season: drizzle over the salad and toss well. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
  4. Scatter the bacon, chives and Parmesan. Season again and serve.

Adam Liaw’s Chicken Veloute Stew

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

I am a big fan of Adam Liaw.

Since Masterchef fame, he has stepped it up big-time.

His Twitter account is very funny, he writes recipes for Fairfax Media and others, he travels extensively to cook and he serves up some really good dishes.

His food is obtainable and he writes ordinarily (in a good way) about it so that mugs like us can really feel his sentiment towards it… and the background to it.

This recipe is a really comfortable one and you only need to glance down the ingredients to know why.

You keep layering the vegetables and in the end, you have a whole dinner, starting with your chicken and ending with your broccoli and beans.

It is a Sunday-night sort of thing and with a bottle of red, some music and the lights down, it really is a great way to end the weekend.

Nat and I speak from experience!

(Note: the original recipe called for chicken wings… we are a breast and thigh family only, so I have updated the instructions below to reflect how we did it. Plus a few small changes to how the vegetables were prepped.)

Ingredients

8 chicken thighs, sliced
100gm butter
2 cups button mushrooms, halved
4 thick rasher bacon, cut into lardons
1 brown onion, sliced
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 liters chicken stocks
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme
1/2 small cabbage, roughly shredded
3 carrots, chopped
1/2 head broccoli, separated into florets
Handful of green beans, tailed
100ml pouring cream

Method

  1. Heat a little of the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-heat. Fry the chicken thighs until well browned though not yet cooked through; set aside. In the same saucepan, fry the mushrooms until well browned and set aside.
  2. Add the bacon and fry until browned, then add the onion and remaining butter and cook until the onions soften.
  3. Add the flour and cook, stirring for 3 minutes until a roux forms. Add the wine and chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring constantly to remove any lumps from the roux until you have a thick sauce. Season with salt and (white) pepper. Add the bay leaves, thyme, cabbage and carrots, reduce the heat to a simmer, then cover and cook for 20 minutes.
  4. Add the sliced chicken thighs to one section of the pot. Add the mushrooms to another section. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the broccoli and beans in their own sections. Simmer for a further minute and then taste and adjust for seasoning.
  5. Pour the cream over the stew and serve.

Martha Stewart’s Pea Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

We had an amazing Bill Granger Pea Salad last week and inspired, I was looking up pea salads we could serve this week along with some spicy lamb meatballs we we’re having for dinner.

This recipe came up a lot.

I used Parmesan rather than Cheddar and I cooked and then refreshed the peas rather then letting them de-thaw in the salad in the fridge for 4 hours… something you are most welcome to do if you wish.

The reason I’ve typed it up of course is that is a fantastic salad.

So much so that the next day, I did a double batch for a BBQ pool party and everyone loved it. Even kids.

Get onto this!

(Note: we cook our greens in the microwave; a dash of water in a microwave dish and you have crunchy, crisp greens without the need to boil or broil… In typing up this recipe, I haven’t prescribed how to cook the peas and however you do it, enjoy.)

Ingredients

1/4 cup (low fat) egg mayonnaise
1/4 cup (low fat) sour cream
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
500gm frozen baby peas
1/4 cup, packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
60gm, Parmesan cheese, shaved or grated
120gm smoked bacon

Method

  1. Cook the bacon in a large frypan over a medium heat until browned and becoming crispy: around 10 minutes. Drain well on paper towel and then julienne.
  2. Cook the peas until warmed through; refresh in cold water.
  3. Whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream and vinegar in a large bowl; season generously with salt and pepper. Fold in the peas, onion and parsley.
  4. Refrigerate until needed and gently fold in the Parmesan and bacon just before serving.

The Best Spaghetti Carbonara

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6

Where does one start?

Spaghetti Carbonara is that dish that divides more than any spaghetti dish. Cream or no cream?

Or mine is the best or that is the best?

This is the traditional or this one is even more traditional?

Or that Italians don’t even do Spaghetti Carbonara and it is an invention of the Americans: Italians don’t do pasta like this.

I don’t mind a cream-based Spaghetti Carbonara and how couldn’t you? Anything with pasta and cream – at its best – is amazing.

Though it isn’t traditional in the sense that I cannot find any pasta Italian cookbook of mine that asks for even a touch of cream.

Equally though, I can’t find a Carbonara in any of these books.

Which I think means that Carbonara definitely shouldn’t have cream though it probably isn’t an Italian invention either.

Which leaves us here: what is the best ‘traditional’ Carbonara recipe.

For 8 years straight until he was 18, for his birthday, my middle brother Adrian asked nothing else of me than that I cooked this pasta for his birthday.

This recipe was something my mother would do after a day on our boat and as kids, and it simply never failed to wow us.

After years and years of telling Nat this Carbonara was the best she would ever have, she finally let me make it.

And Nat – and the boys – agreed, this is simply the finest Carbonara that exists.

This truly is the best Spaghetti Carbonara you will ever cook.

And this is from someone that makes a point of ordering every time it is available.

THE BEST.

Ingredients

9 slices bacon, trimmed and julienne
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5 tbsp butter
½ cup julienned ham (or prosciutto)
12 tbsp grated parmesan
6 eggs, beaten
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
Spaghetti

Method

  1. Brown the bacon and pour off any fat.
  2. Cook the spaghetti.
  3. Add the olive oil, butter, bacon and ham and saute for 5 minutes without browning.
  4. Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan and beaten eggs, Place over the heat only to sufficiently to firm up the sauce.
  5. Season with salt and pepper and pour over the spaghetti.
  6. Serve with more grated Parmesan.