Tag: matt preston

Matt Preston’s Pork Braise

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Matt Preston calls this pork braise this favourite – ever – and my Lordy, it is definitely something great.

Like, completely, excessively magnificent. Finished with whole, toasted pecans, because why not?

The caramelisation of the pork pieces is critical and so take the time there.

Otherwise, its just a matter of combining all the ingredients and into the oven it goes.

I served this with the basis Neil Perry’s Pan-Fried Polenta (I just didn’t do the pan-frying) and a great cabbage braise with butter, cider vinegar, capers and dates.

Moorish.

Ingredients

1.2kg rindless boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4cm pieces
2 tbsp plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 c pineapple juice
140gm tomato paste
1/3 c soy sauce
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp curry powder
1cm knob of ginger, peeled and finely grated
3/4 c toasted pecans

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Place the pork and flour in a large zip lock bag, season, , seal and shake until coated.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a fry pan over a medium-high heat. Cook the pork in batches for 4 – 5 minutes, or until well browned all over. Transfer to a casserole dish.
  3. Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until aromatic. Add the pineapple juice, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, curry powder and ginger. Bring to the boil.
  4. Pour over the pork. Cover and bake for 2 hours or until the pork is tender.
  5. Stir in the pecans and season to serve.

Matt Preston’s Pineapple Ketchup

.Reading time 1 minute.

Makes: 300ml

Oliver Dog (14) made this sauce for a Matt Preston burger and its a very good sauce.

I reckon with a toasted cheese, it would be amazing.

Definitely give it a go. When I say it’s not going to win awards, it actually probably could.

Ingredients

50gm sultanas
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
1/3 c tomato paste
3/4 c cider vinegar
1/3 c brown sugar
2 tsp sea salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
8 canned pineapple rings
2 tsp ground coffee (or a shot of espresso)
2 whole cloves
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 c honey

Method

  1. Blitz the sultanas, onion, garlic and tomato paste in a food processor until smooth. Scrape into a large heavy-based saucepan and stir in 3/4 c water along with the vinegar, brown sugar, salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
  2. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 1 hour, uncovered, stirring regularly.
  3. Purée the pineapple rings in the food processor. Add to the pan along with the coffee, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and honey. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
  4. When the ketchup is thick, sieve and return to a thick pan. Bring to a simmer, season, adjust cider and honey and reduce until thickened.

Matt Preston’s World’s Best Rissoles

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

I get the feeling that rissoles are back in vogue.

And thank you for that!

They still have the stigma of being a daggy, lazy dinner – left behind in the wave of MasterChef and salmon-three-ways – though it is the nostalgia and honesty of the rissole that now makes it on trend.

These Matt Preston rissoles are really good and served with a puréed mash and buttered peas, they closed off a weekend of cooking perfectly.

For lunch, Nat made Thomas Keller’s Cauliflower Panna Cotta with an Oyster Jelly and Bulgar Caviar; the night before, we made handmade noodles for a fusion Chinese/Middle Eastern dish.

Which is exactly why we needed these rissoles and why rissoles are what you need to hold back the endless waves of culinary complexity and sous videing. Enough is enough!

Enjoy.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely grated
1 zucchini, coarsely grated
800gm lamb mince
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 heaped tbsp of whatever European herbs you have: basil, oregano, parsley, coriander, tarragon or majoram, though not sage or mint
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 egg
Sea salty and freshly cracked pepper
1/4 cup mint jelly
2 tbsp malt vinegar (we used black vinegar)
Mash (into which we mixed two finely chopped raw French onions)
Buttered peas

Method

  1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat; add the onions, carrot and zucchini, and cook, stirring for 5 minutes until everything softens. Set aside to cool.
  2. Add the mince, tomato sauce, herbs, oats and egg to the vegetable mixture and season. Mix well using your (clean) hands until well combined. Shape into 12 rissoles.
  3. Heat the remaining oil in the pan. Add the rissoles in batches a cook for 5 minutes each side or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
  4. Add the mint jelly and vinegar to the pan and stir over a medium heat until the jelly melts. Return the rissoles and toss in the liquid for 2 minutes until coasted, sticky and glossy.
  5. Serve with mash and peas.

Matt Preston’s Cheat’s Lamb Pide

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 (2 of you in reality)

One of our favourite pastimes comes in three parts:

  1. Long, lunch with a few bottles of wine
  2. A few more drinks at home, music, laughter, talking shit
  3. Making the sort of dinner you want after 1. and 2.

Point 3. of course requires planning because you can’t just decide on a whim to cook something wonderful and outrageous on the couch at home. You not only need the ingredients to be in the fridge, you likely need to have made a start on it… because nobody feels like cooking a fresh meal at 7pm on a Saturday night after a few wines.

We spent a few nights up in Newcastle last year leading up to NYE.

We love a place up there – Parry Street Garage – which serves great pizza and pasta, great wines and beers and more great wine. And it was within walking distance of our AirBNB.

Fast-forward a few hours, the music is on and we commence Matt Preston’s Cheat’s Lamb Pide.

Fast forward another hour or so and we have the best, Saturday-night – still drinking wine – dinner, in Merewether.

Do this the next time you have your own long lunch and finish (or start) the night right!

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
600gm lamb mince
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
1/4 cup un-roasted pistachio kernels, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 oval-shaped rolls or small baguettes
1/3 cup Greek-style yoghurt (full fat!)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160c.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the lamb mince; cook, breaking up the mince for 10 minutes until well browned and crisping.
  3. Add the garlic, cumin, paprika and cinnamon and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato and cook for 4 minutes until the tomato starts to break down. Season.
  4. Time for a red wine: pour one glass and enjoy. Turn the music up.
  5. Combine the pomegranate seeds, chopped pistachios, parsley, mint, lemon juice and remaining oil in a bowl.
  6. Cut a long slit along the top of each bread roll, ensuring that you do not cut all the way through. Open the roll slightly and scoop out a little of the bread. Spoon in the lamb mixture into the rolls to fill. Place on a baking tray and bake for 5 – 10 minutes until warmed through and the rolls are crisp and crunchy on the outside.
  7. Top the rolls with yoghurt and sprinkle with the pomegranate mixture.
  8. Tequila time!

Matt Preston’s Toasted Cheese Sandwich with ‘Quickled’ Onions

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Matt Preston’s Toasted Cheese Sandwich with ‘Quickled’ Onions

Serves: 1 – 2

It is the night of New Year’s Day and that pretty much means toasties in a fry-pan.

It’s hot, you’re exhausted, you’ve had your wine and BBQ quota for the year and all you want is to curl up on the couch – with a beer – and watch Seinfeld.

The boys got their usual, plain-Jane toastie and loved it, though we had been saving this Matt Preston toastie for just a night like tonight.

And it killed it.

It is really special. It is simple to prepare assuming you have the right cheeses – which you really do need on account of their ideal melting points. The cheese melts like in a pizza ad.

And the ‘quickled’ onions leave a wonderful aftertaste.

Wow. What a way to start the new year!

Ingredients

1 leek, dark outer leaves removed
½ garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan
½ cup grated Gruyere
½ buffalo mozzarella ball, torn
25gm soften unsalted butter
2cm-thick slices white bread
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

‘Quickled’ onions

1 red onion, thinly sliced
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tbs red wine vinegar

Method

For the quickled onions

  1. Toss onion, salt and sugar in a bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes to pickle slightly. Stir through vinegar and set aside for 2 minutes or until needed.

For the toastie

  1. Clean and trim the leek. Place in a microwave-safe container and microwave uncovered on a high-heat for 4-minutes or until the leek is just tender. Split lengthways, remove the soft inner layers (discarding the outer layers) and chop.
  2. Stir through the garlic and cheeses and season well.
  3. Preheat a frypan over a medium heat. Line with a piece of baking paper.
  4. Butter one side of each slice of bread and place 1 slice (per toastie) on the baking paper.
  5. Spread dijon over the slice and make a slight indent in the slice and fill with the cheese mixture. Place the other slice of bread on top, adding more dijon if you can juggle and ensuring the buttered side is facing outwards. (I know that you know how to make a toastie; I am writing this for our young boys so that when they start properly cooking, they have a few recipes and instructions to fall back on).
  6. Cook for 2 minutes each side until melted or until golden and the cheese is melted.
  7. Serve toastie with the quickled onions.

Matt Preston’s Bolognese

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6

As much as I would like to cook something different and a little bit fancy each night, that trick doesn’t always work around here.

When Nat wants comfort and the boys want comfort, that’s what you do.

This bolognese is the best of both worlds.

It’s comfortable and yet, with the excellent soffritto and four or five hours of cooking time, it is certainly on the fancier side of bolognese. Sizzler buffet this is not.

Next time, I’d try to dial it up further with some milk to the soffritto and maybe some anchovies; perhaps veal and pork mince rather than just beef, though the bacon makes a nice touch.

As it was, it was more than fine.

The boys wolfed it down and Oliver asked for it in his lunchbox. Nat said it was the best she has ever had.

This dish won’t change the world though I know I will be asked to cook it again and again and I can certainly live with that!

Ingredients

Olive oil
40g butter
2 medium carrots, diced small
3 medium brown onions, diced small
4 bacon rashers cut into fingernail size tiles
2 celery sticks, diced small
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped and crushed
3 tbsp tomato paste
1kg beef mince
1 lemon; 4cm piece of peel/rind and then halved for juicing
500ml red wine
3 bay leaves
Splash Worcestershire sauce
2 cans tinned tomatoes
500ml beef stock

1 large pack of egg tagliatelle
150g Italian parmesan cheese, grated
1 loaf crusty bread and a green salad for serving

Method

  1. For the soffritto: Heat a heavy pan over a low-medium heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil and the butter and heat.
  2. Saute the onion, carrots and bacon. After a few minutes, add in the celery and cook the vegetables slowly until translucent. Sprinkle over the brown sugar and stir through. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for a further few minutes.
  3. Set the soffritto aside in a bowl.
  4. Add more olive oil to the pan and when hot, brown the mince. Add the browned meat to the soffritto.
  5. Turn up the heat and deglaze the pan with the red wine. When the wine has reduced by half, add back the meat, soffritto, bay leaves and a couple of good dashes of Worcestershire sauce, lemon peel, tomatoes and stock. Stir.
  6. Season with salt and a good squeeze of lemon juice from one half of the lemon. Reserve the other lemon half.
  7. Bring to the boil covered, remove the lid and turn the heat right down. Cook gently for four hours, turning occasionally to ensure it doesn’t burn. Finish the red wine left over in the bottle and put your feet up.
  8. Taste, season and get it thick, rich and dark.
  9. Cook your pasta, make your salad, grate your cheese, break the bread and enjoy!