Beef Stroganoff

I’m eating meat again at the moment, although not much, and I couldn’t resist trying this delightfully simple crockpot Beef Stroganoff recipe from Best Recipes, on the weekend. I love this recipe site, and this beef dish will now be a firm favourite. Not only was it easy, but it tasted fabulous and the consistency was perfect – rich and creamy just like a stroganoff should be.

I did it on LOW so all up it was 8 hours cooking time – the 5 hours they say at the top of the recipe is if you cook on HIGH.

This definitely serves 6 as the recipe states, and could actually serve more if you have it as part of other dishes – great for a party buffet. I didn’t bother cooking pasta and green beans, as suggested, because I knew it would be very filling and there’s only me to feed – I just had a little black rice with mine. I have lots of leftovers in the freezer now!

Happy Fooding!

Smokin’ Potato Pie

A delicious, light meal, this smoked salmon and mashed potato quiche-type dish is great for a lunch or to make the day before a picnic and slice up cold. This comes from the AWW Potatoes cookbook from 2003, out of print and replaced by more recent potato cookbooks from AWW, from what I can find. I did see it in the National Library’s catalogue here, but couldn’t find any secondhand copies out there anywhere. As with all of AWW’s cookbooks, it is chock full of “real” recipes that work!

I’ve only ever made this as a large pie shape, as directed, but I was thinking this morning that it would also work well as individual serves, baked in a muffin pan, or shallow-fried as little potato cakes, a la blini. Worth experimenting with.

Smoked Salmon Pie

1 kg potatoes, peeled and chopped roughly

40 gms butter, softened

1/4 cup (60 gms) light sour cream

200 gms smoked salmon, chopped roughly

2 eggs, separated

2 spring onions, finely chopped

cracked pepper, to taste

Boil, steam or microwave potatoes until tender. Drain and mash in a large bowl with the butter and sour cream.

Stir in smoked salmon, one of the egg yolks, both egg whites and the spring onion.

Spoon the mixture into a deep, 22cm-round springform flan or cake tin (lined with baking paper first), smooth the top with a spatula and brush with the remaining egg yolk.

Bake at 180C for about 25 minutes, or until pie is heated through and browned lightly.

Serve warm or cold, cut into wedges.

Happy Fooding!

Mexican Salad

Well I am back into the swing of things well and truly…..loads of studying, thinking about Christmas (less than 2 months away!), and the usual boring things around the house – ironing etc. Also really hanging out to go out on the boat again now that the weather is mostly really great and warm – fingers crossed for this weekend if the wind/sea conditions hold. I wish I had more time for my craft activities at the moment, but it is not to be. Hopefully I will get a good catchup over the Christmas holidays, in between visitors coming to stay.

This vibrant, colourful salad is one that a lacemaking friend of mine, Margaret, has been making to bring to the annual Christmas gathering of that particular lace group, for years and years. We’ve all pinched it from her as it is so yummy and popular. I am sure you could vary the layers and put in whatever you like really. It looks best served in a high sided, glass bowl, so that you can see the colours of the different layers, through the sides.

Mexican Salad

cos lettuce leaves

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

cucumber, sliced

400 gm can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

red capsicum, finely chopped

green capsicum, finely chopped

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

tasty cheese, grated

1 jar salsa (your choice of mild, medium or hot)

1 large ripe avocado, chopped

200 ml tub sour cream (low-fat)

corn chips

Break the lettuce leaves into bite sized pieces, and place in bottom of a large, deep, glass bowl.

Layer the remaining ingredients on top of the lettuce, in the following order: celery, cucumber, kidney beans, capsicum, onion, cheese, salsa, avocado, sour cream.

Last to go on top is the corn chips – crushed these in your hands and sprinkle to cover the top. Refrigerate until serving.

Happy Fooding!

Final product. Yum!

Heavenly Dessert

The original recipe for this simple dessert, actually called for it to be served as a salad, during a main meal! I don’t really get that as it is totally a sweet, dessert type dish. Although there aren’t many ingredients, it does make quite a large bowl as I’ve pretty much doubled it from the original. If you can’t get shredded coconut, you can use dessicated coconut instead.

Heavenly Hash

2 x 200ml cartons sour cream (I use low-fat – or you could try it with Greek yoghurt instead)

2 x 250gm pkts of marshmallows (any colour)

2 x 310gm cans mandarin segments

2 x cans pineapple chunks OR crushed pineapple (can’t remember the size but it is slightly larger than the mandarin cans)

1 cup shredded coconut

Cut the marshmallows in half (using a pair of kitchen scissors is easier than a knife). Drain the pineapple and mandarin segments.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, and refrigerate until serving.

On a savoury note, this week my boyfriend made a shepherd’s pie for dinner one night, and it was the BEST one I’ve ever had in my life! I totally forgot to take a photo, and he just makes it up without a proper recipe. Next time I will watch and take notes. It was divine.

Happy Fooding!

Microwave Scalloped Potato & Bacon

I can’t claim this as my own invention, so I must give credit to the original source, which is the Australian Women’s Weekly Microwave Cookbook (#1). When I first had a microwave oven, about 20 years ago, I was determined to only buy one if I could justify the purchase by actually COOKING in it, not just heating baked beans and melting butter! I bought the 2 AWW microwave cookbooks, because I find all of this series of books are tried and true, really do turn out like the pictures (not like some posh celebrity coffee table cookbook that you never actually make anything out of, which so often happens), and they are also quite inexpensive, which was a major consideration for me at that time.

My copies of both of these books (as with most of my AWW ones) are food-splattered, falling to bits at the spine, and generally well loved. They have given me SO much over the years. They are both out of print, but you can easily find them on eBay or other secondhand book sources. I’m including the pics and ISBNs below in case you want to go track down copies – well worth it.

I’ve written this down with quantities as per the book; however, I do tend to not measure it these days, so feel free to play with the quantities of potato/bacon. I add parsley sometimes too.

This dish is ideal for preparing up to the point of putting in the microwave for final heating, then putting aside until you are ready to serve.

Scalloped Potatoes With Bacon

500g potatoes, thinly sliced

4 bacon rashers, chopped

3 spring onions, chopped

300g carton sour cream (I use low-fat)

1 cup tasty cheese, grated

Place potato slices evenly into a shallow dish. Cover & cook on HIGH for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Combine bacon and spring onions in a small dish; cover with a paper towel, & cook on HIGH for 2 minutes or until slightly soft.

Spread sour cream over potatoes. Top with bacon mixture and grated cheese. Cook on HIGH for 5 minutes or until heated through and cheese melted.

Serves 4-6 according to the book, but only 3-4 according to me!!!

Happy Fooding!

ISBN 0949128325

ISBN 0949892718

Vegetarian Fajitas

I really like the flavour of soy mince – there are various types and brands available, but the one pictured below is the one I can easily get here in Perth. As well as being vegetarian, it is also gluten-free, low-fat, cheap, and has no artificial nasties in it. It also tastes like meat, so you can serve this to a meat & non-meat eating audience quite happily and please them all.

For the easy and very quick vegetarian fajita mixture pictured above, I simply stirfried a chopped brown onion, half a green capsicum (cut into strips), and 2 stalks of celery (chopped, including the leaves) in a tablespoon of olive oil.  I then added the reconstituted soy mince (follow pkt directions – in this case it was just put it in a bowl, pour over stipulated amount of boiling water, leave for 5 mins then use as desired) and a packet of fajita seasoning (or any other spicy flavourings). Stir fry for about 5 minutes, stirring and adding water, bit at a time, so that it doesn’t stick to the pan.

That’s it really – I served this with tortillas and various accompaniments – choose whatever you like – guacomole, rice, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, taco sauce, yoghurt, cucumber, refried beans, chopped chillies…..then wrap up and eat.

For a gluten-free version of the wrapped end result, use GF tortillas or wraps (Mission brand makes good ones).

Happy Fooding!

This is the fake mince I use

Secret Ingredient Chilli Con Carne!

There are many versions of chilli out there, some made with mince, others with stewing cuts – all of them are worth making and taste pretty good;  here, however is one tweaked from a recipe my friend Elena gave me a few years ago, that has something a little different – chocolate!  Yes that’s right, good quality, 70% cocoa dark chocolate (I usually use Lindt, and conveniently you have to buy a block that is more than the required amount, meaning some leftovers for the chef…..) – and it really makes the chilli quite rich tasting.

There are no vegies in this version either, it is pretty much just meat and beans.  You can also use whatever type of minced meat you like – in this case I have used beef, but it works just as well with pork, lamb, chicken or turkey.  The chilli can be made the day before and reheated quite easily, making it very convenient, although as you can see it is such an easy and fast recipe (nothing to chop up even) that apart from pre-soaking the kidney beans there is really nothing to it.

Chilli Con Carne

~ 500 gms minced meat

2 cups dried kidney beans

1/2 tsp chilli powder

425 gm can refried beans

1 pkt chilli seasoning

140 gms tomato paste

50 gms 70% cocoa dark chocolate

~ 1 1/4 cups water (use the refried beans can)

Soak the kidney beans in water overnight. Drain and rinse, then simmer in a saucepan of water along with the chilli powder, for 45-60 minutes or until cooked. Drain and put aside.

In a non-stick heavy based large saucepan (or wok), dry fry the mince until browned.  Add the chilli seasoning, tomato paste, refried beans and a can of water.  Bring to a simmer then add the chocolate and heat gently until chocolate is melted.  Add the kidney beans, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (you can add a bit of extra water if it seems too thick, depending on how you like it).

Serves 4

I like to serve this with dollops of plain Greek yoghurt or sour cream on the top, fresh parsley or coriander, and naan bread. Grated tasty cheese sprinkled on top is good too. This is a really great comfort food to pig out on whilst watching a movie. And VERY filling!

Happy Fooding!

The Great Egg Scramble: Part 6

Rich & cheesy

Hmmmm, not too impressed with this week’s trial, The Lady’s Perfect Scrambled Eggs.  I made it exactly as specified, except for reducing the quantities.  If I used 4-8 eggs like most of these recipes have called for, just for me, I would have had a heart attack by now!

The eggs were very slow to cook, I guess because of the structural changes caused by adding sour cream to the mixture.

On first tasting, I thought oh this is quite nice and cheesy; but actually, by the time I had finished my portion (2 eggs’ worth) I felt quite over-full and almost a bit sick – I think it was just too rich, especially for first thing in the morning!

I have one more recipe to try next week, and then I will do a bit of a re-cap.

Happy Fooding!

My First Post…..and First Baking Attempt for 2011

Welcome to my first ever published blog (I say published, because I did have to do a fake blog for a school assignment last semester – but no one in the real world saw that except close relatives!).

Being an obsessed foodie, the subject of food was not really hard to come up with!   Here you will find my humble opinion on lots of food related things over time – recipes, reviews, cooking successes (& failures!) etc.  I am still fiddling with the settings and learning the WordPress ropes, so I hope you will forgive any botched formatting or links that might take me a while to perfect.  I will tweak things over time, but the general consensus is that one should jump in and start posting straight away and not procrastinate – so here I am!

I am generally more a savoury person than sweet, but a few days ago I picked up a bag of nectarines (my favourite fruit!) dirt cheap – so to start off the new year, this morning I decided to make a Nectarine Sour Cream Cake.  As I live alone I will freeze most of it for when I need to “take a plate” to lace or embroidery (I am a member of the Australian Lace Guild‘s WA branch, and also the WA Embroiderers’ Guild).

I found this recipe at Best Recipes, an excellent recipe site (and local as well, so the ingredients referred to are generally ones I can always get here).  I followed the recipe exactly, but found the cake was not fully cooked in the centre with the recommended cooking times – which could actually just be the difference between our ovens.  I added an extra 10 minutes and it was actually a tad overcooked around the edges – but better inside – probably needs a bit of adjusting next time.  Anyway it tastes good and the nectarine topping (added part-way through the cooking time) is to die for.

Here is the end result:

Happy Fooding!