Recipe 26: Country Style Meat Patties

Growing up in literally the middle of nowhere meant no takeaway food.
However, since moving to Melbourne I can't seem to stop myself wanting to eat out Western, Eastern, Indian, you name it- I want to absorb the flavours. Perhaps it is because I never had it as a child and now, I want to make up for lost time.... or more than likely, am just so god damn lazy.
But, this blog isn't about how great restaurant food is. This is a place where I can solely focus on recipes that 'warm the heart', 'feed the stomach' and 'make you feel contented' without breaking the bank.

So takeaway night, is generally now 'home pizza night'. Although one recipe I have perhaps failed to write up earlier is my homemade burgers. So simple , so cheap and always a winner- I am only going to give the meat patty recipe, as obviously just after cooking a meat patty, you grill some buns (or toast some bread), add some lettuce, tomato, pineapple, (Bacon and an Egg if you want the "works"), mayo, tomato sauce and cheese, and you have got yourself a 'healthy' burger.

Country style Meat Patties

Makes about 8 patties

1 onion finally diced
Handful of dry mixed herbs - Thyme, Rosemary, Marjoram, Basil, Oregano ad Sage (or herbs of your choice)
500g Beef mince
1 egg
2 cups of breadcrumbs

METHOD

1. Combine the mince, onion and herbs together with hands until all mixed in. Season with salt and Pepper.
2. Add egg and mix in with hands
3. Add breadcrumbs slowly, (depending on the quality of the mince and the size of the egg, you may need less or more of the breadcrumbs.) you want to keep on adding until you can put the mince into balls without a) them falling apart (too much breadcrumbs) or b) mince slipping through your hands (too little breadcrumbs). IF you get to the stage where they are falling apart as you have added too much breadcrumbs, just add another egg.
4. Once at the right consistency to your liking, flatten out into patty shapes and either cook straight away - or I recommend popping them in the fridge for a few minutes to let them set. Then cook just like you would with a brought one- hot pan, flipping over when golden brown.

Recipe 25: Marinated Bean Salad

As funds are getting tighter- I have now had to start digging into the freezer to find whatever I have to make a dinner. For a few weeks in December Aussie Farmers Direct provided me with at least a kilo of string beans/ Climber beans- something that as a family we do not eat a lot of, as basically, I only know how to boil them and then put them on a plate beside a piece of meat.
Thank goodness for Jamie Oliver's "Jamie at home". Everything is basic ingredients but fabulous taste and this one was no exception!

Marinated Bean Salad

Marinade:
2 small shallots or 1/2 a small red onion, peeled and very finely chopped.
Handful of fresh soft herbs - recommend chervil, parsley, tarragon, the yellow inner celery leaves are nice as well
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil


Approximately 250g Green Beans or Mixed Beans topped but not tailed


METHOD

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in the beans and cook for about 5 minutes. When perfectly done, drain them in a colander.
2. To make the marinade, mix the shallot or onion in a bowl with the herbs, mustard, vinegar and approx of 4 tbsp of Olive oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then add the hot cooked beans and toss. Put to one side to allow the beans to cool down and take on all the fantastic flavours - then eat!

Recipe 24: Lemon Meringue Pie

Recipe 24- a favourite in our household, although the first time I made this the lemon's I used was so sweet (or sour) that literally, you had to let the slice of pie to "air" before eating, otherwise your face would suck in! So a note- if you do decide to make this, make sure you taste your lemons and if they are exceptionally sour, don't use the full amount stated in the ingredients, instead replace it with a bit more water e.g. instead use 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a cup of water.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Base: 
Sweet Shortcrust Pastry (previous recipe)

Filling:
1/4 cup cornflour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon rind
1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup of water
3 egg yolks (put the egg whites in a separate bowl for the topping)
1 tbsp butter


Topping:
3 egg whites
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence


METHOD

1. On a lightly floured board roll out the pastry (if not already done so) to a 6mm thickness. Use to line  20cm flan ring. Trim off any extra pastry
2. Bake blind (see techniques) at 190c for 20 minutes.During this time do steps 4,5,6. after 20 minutes proceed to 3 (then go to 7).
3. Remove the bake blind material and return to the oven for 1 minute to dry out pastry base. While pastry is cooking make the filling.
4. Filling: Blend cornflour, sugar, lemon rind and juice together until smooth. Add water then cook ovr medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from heat stir in yolks and butter.
6. To make the topping: Beat eggs whites until stiff but not dry, beat in sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until very thick and glossy. Stir in vanilla. You know when the meringue is ready when pulling out the beater it forms peaks that do not fall over.
7. When the 1 minute is up, add the lemon filling and pile on top the meringue.
8. Return to the oven and bake again for 10 minutes or until golden.

A shot at pastries

Mad or completely bonkers, well, that's what I thought when deciding to make my Lemon Meringue Pie from scratch. But when you have guests in a few hours and packing up your child to then unpack him to go to the grocers, the idea of 1) getting an extra recipe for my blog and 2) not moving a sleeping baby, won out.

Firstly- a technique called "cutting in" is something you need to know about when making pastry. To "Cut in" use a knife or food processor to combine butter with flour to get a crumb-like consistency.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

1 cup standard plain flour
75g butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water


METHOD

1. Sift flour, cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
2. Stir in sugar. 
3. Add egg yolk and water. Mix to a stiff dough. 
4. Roll out into sheets and chill for 30 minutes before using.

You can also add 2 tsps of mixed spice to the flour for a Spice Pastry or 1/2 cup of chopped walnut or nuts of your choice before mixing to a stiff dough to make a Nut Pastry.

Recipe 21 & 22: Greek Salad with Lemon dressing

I love summer, nothing like vitamin D, a tan and summer fruit and vegetables. I also seem to be ok with dealing with greens.

Recipe number twenty one, (187 to go!) is one of the quickest salads ever and still is quite filling, so can be used as a main. Although Jamie Oliver deems it "Greek Salad"  I don't believe its exactly kosher.... it has Greek feta and olives- that's about it.

I have made this now twice and slightly different both times. Word of warning though, do not make it 1hr advance of your dinner party, otherwise it turns everything soggy :(

Avocado and Feta Salad

2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1 spanish onion
1 tsp dried oregano
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil
Handful of pitted olives
1 lemon
about 200g Feta Cheese
Lettuce mix (or Cos lettuce)
1/4 Ciabatta loaf *optional see step 5*

METHOD

1. Peel, stone and avocado. Cut into wedges and place in a bowl with squeezed half of a lemon. Cut the tomatoes erratically into 1cm shapes, finely dice the shallot.
2. Put the tomatoes, shallot, oregano with the avocado, splash with vinegar, a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside for 5 minutes
3. Rinse the lettuce mix and either put on separate plates or on one platter. Sprinkle the pitted olives onto the salad, spoon the avocado and tomato mix on, crumb feta cheese over. Toss the salad lightly.
4. Just prior to serving, drizzle the vinegar mix over the salad and with the second half of the lemon spritz the salad. Or alternatively serve with the lemon dressing (recipe 22)
5. *To add a little bit of carbs, grill slices of ciabatta with olive oil and either serve on the side or, wait till cool and then crumb over the salad (if you decide to crumb the bread, I would recommend preparing it just after step 1.)

Lemon Dressing

1 Lemon

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

METHOD

1. squeeze a whole lemon into a jug and then add olive oil - double that of what was squeezed from the lemon. e.g. if you squeeze 50ml of lemon juice, use 100ml of olive oil.
2. Taste and then add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Note: it will separate after a few hours, just shake before serving.

Technique: Blind Baking - useful for pies.

I had never heard of this until the other day when I had to make a lemon meringue pie (next post). Stupidly the first thing that went through my head was 'where do I get a blind man from to bake' and 'surely that means baking by feel not by calculations and time etc.'... Suppose this is the reason why I am doing this challenge, as I was wrong on both accounts.

Blind Baking or "Bake Blind": 

 Blind baking is the technique cooks and chefs use to pre cook a pastry, when the filling it will be used for:

• needs little cooking itself so pre-cooking the pastry shell is important so as not to serve a raw pastry
• is wet or a liquid, so pre-cooking or blind baking is required to stop the pastry absorbing the moisture and being a wet mess
• is dense, so we pre cook the pastry to ensure it is cooked

METHOD

Loosely cover an unbaked pastry case with a sheet of baking paper larger than the size of the tin. Fill with dried beans, pasta or rice and bake. This ensures the pastry base is cooked sufficiently for holding moist fillings. Baking blind beans or rice can be stored and re-used.

It took a couple of goes to get this right- the first time I did it, there was not enough rice weighing the baking paper down and the pastry rose- which is not very good if you need to actually put something in your so called "pie"! The second time was better, I also pricked the pastry with a fork before putting more rice on the baking paper. 

Recipe 20: Potato and Horseradish Salad

I got stuck into cleaning out the pantry today. Its been a mess for so long, full of bits and pieces that are in no particular order and so much so that we have doubled even tripled some ingredients like gravox (seriously, who needs 3 packets of the stuff? We make gravy only once every 3 months or so!). After doing that, I turned to our fridge and was not surprised to find so many bottles of pickled ingredients right at the back, but also resting amongst the piles of pickled onions, chargrilled capsicums was none other than 1/4 of a jar of horseradish cream- something that I had become somewhat addicted to during my pregnancy.
Being 30c, I realised that there was no way I could cook something hot.
With untold bags of new potatoes and Jamie Oliver behind me I set out to make a potato salad that would go with the beef roast strips that were resting in the fridge.

Potato and Horseradish Salad

680g new potatoes (I used 8 new potatoes)
salt and pepper
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 a celery heart, keep the small yellow leaves but with the stalks chopped finely
a bunch of flat leaved parsley, leaves picked and chopped
2-3 tsp grated horseradish (I used 1/4 jar of horse radish cream- which worked well instead)
3 heaped tblsp sourcream
a bunch of fresh tarragon leaves
extra virgin olive oil


METHOD

1. Chop the new potatoes into small pieces, boil the new potatoes in a pot of salted water until nicely cooked. Drain them and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Pour most of the lemon juice into a large bowl and add a good pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper, the chopped celery, parsley and horseradish.
3. Mix in the sour cream into the mixture, have a taste and if needed add more lemon juice.
4. Add the potatoes and mix well.

Serve with the roast beef, spoon on the potato salad and then for looks, garnish with the celery and tarragon leaves and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Nom, Nom, Nom, Best Potato salad I have ever made (but then again the first one I have made!)

Pineapple Relish?

My husband loves antipasto. When we first got together, we were poor students at the time and the likelihood of going out on a 5 star fine dining experience was non-existent. Instead we would hire a video/DVD and spend the night watching that whilst eating antipasto or what we deemed it "munchie food".

As a Christmas present, my mother gave him a recipe book - "Digby Law's Pickle and chutney cookbook - a New Zealand Classic" on how to preserve and make your own chutneys and relishes. Fatal mistake really, as this book has not left the kitchen since christmas day and now all we are eating is chutneys, relishes and sauces! Luckily enough over half of the recipes call for us to wait 6-8 weeks before eating.The author has long since passed away, but like the Edmond's cookbook which I have been living off for the past few years, is a staple in all New Zealand homes.

Whilst we were sitting outside one night with the evening glass of wine, our son long since been put to bed, my husband made the joke that as far as he could see anything could be made into a relish. Scoffing I rambled off a couple of vegetables and fruit to find that not only was there a relish, but a chutney, a way to preserve it and a sauce. Then I realised from our last shipment from Aussie Farmers Direct I had received a Pineapple, which was going to go to waste. (It would only be used to make Pina Colada's if only I had not drunk all the rum in a prior sitting.) To my surprise when I shouted from the kitchen "what about Pineapple" my husband flicked me the book resting on "Pineapple Relish".
Here was my new test, can I, the person who burns water, makes scones that birds won't eat as 1) they can't peck into them or 2) if they do eat them they will end up unable to fly and thus prey to our cat,  make a relish?? I was game enough and you know what, I think I did ok!

I strongly recommend that if you are making this, just prior to it being taken off the heat, to have a quick taste to see if you like it. The cool thing with relishes is that you can manipulate the quantity of the ingredients to your tasting.

Pineapple Relish

makes about 1 litre

1 Large Pineapple
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

METHOD

1. Peel and core the Pineapple. Cut into small (tiny!) pieces and place into a large saucepan.
2. Barely cover the Pineapple with water, bring to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes
3. Drain all the water out of the saucepan. Then add the remaining ingredients to the pineapple
4. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then simmer, stirring often for 10 minutes.
5. Spoon into hot, clean jars and seal

So I didn't do the last step as I only had a small pineapple and ended up halving the recipe, but I was amazed at how nice this tasted! It goes well with cold pork or ham, or my personal favourite tasty cheese!

Recipe 18: Maple-glazed chicken

I am so gutted I gave the Donna Hay recipe book to my mates husband for Christmas, there were so many awesome recipes to try out! I am starting to feel bad as when I am over there I end up just sitting in the kitchen going through their recipe books! This serves two as well, so there is no waste- something that is now become so important as finances are getting tighter.

Maple-Glazed Chicken

1/4 cup Maple syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp seasalt flakes
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 x 200g skinless chicken breast fillets
roasted parsnips and steamed sugar-snap peas, to serve.

METHOD

1. Place the maple syrup, water, chilli, salt and pepper in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat.
2. Bring to a simmer and add the chicken.
3. Cook for 4-5 minutes each side or until chicken is cooked through. 
4. Serve the chicken with the pan sauce, roasted parsnips and sugar snap peas.

Recipe 17: Rustic Summer Crumb Pasta

I love this recipe, all the ingredients are general stock standard items in our cupboards and after creating my vegetable patch, I have tonnes of herbs available. The only thing we don't have is buffalo mozzarella, so I generally replace this with either, grated mozzarella or parmesan. Even better, (as we tend not to eat leftovers very often) the recipe serves 2.

Rustic Summer Crumb Pasta

200g Spaghetti
100g sourdough or crusty bread
8 sun-dried tomato halves
2 tsps of crushed garlic
salt and pepper
11/2 tblsp Olive Oil
1/3 cup small basil leaves
1 small buffalo mozzarella, halved
2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
extra olive oil and grated parmesan to serve.

METHOD

1. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 8-10 minutes
2. Drain and return to pan to keep warm. While the pasta is cooking, place the bread, tomato, garlic, salt and pepper and oil in a bowl of a food processer (I used the stick blender again) and process in short bursts until the mixture resembles small crumbs.
3. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the crumb mixture and cook, stirring for 4-5 minutes or until the crumbs are golden. Toss the crumbs and basil with the pasta.
4. Divide between serving bowls and top with the mozzarella. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and extra olive oil.