Not Quite Creamy Potato Bake

There's a really great recipe here for potato bake that I've cooked before and loved. A few months back I decided to tweak it a little with what I had on hand and it ended up becoming something that very slightly resembled the original recipe if you turned sideways and squinted at it.

Each time I make it I forget to take a pic and by the time I remember it's pretty much been demolished and looking a shadow of it's former divine glory. So I'm going to give you the recipe and hopefully remember to take a picture.

Vicki's Creamy Sweet Potato/Butternut Pumpkin/Feta Cheese Bake

I use:

A small carton of pure cream (300ml)
Please use pure cream. Thickened cream is pure cream beaten with a whole lot of additives added to keep it thick. If you ever need thickened cream buy pure cream and beat it for a few minutes. It will taste ever so much more delicious without all the additives and your body will thank you.
A mixture of diced sweet potato and butternut pumpkin

Usually half a butternut pumpkin and a small sweet potato. Or feel free to have all sweet potato or all butternut pumpkin. Use what you personally prefer or have on hand.

A large onion (or couple of smaller onions) sliced
180g package Goat's Milk Feta Cheese diced or crumbled
Grated Cheddar Cheese and Parmesan Cheese

Again, use whatever cheese you personally prefer. A note on grated cheddar cheese: it has added flour to keep the pieces separated so be mindful if you are gluten intolerant. If you grate it yourself you know exactly what's in it.

This is what I do:


Preheat the oven to 170 deg C. If it's too hot the cream will separate so don't be tempted to cook it faster at a higher heat.

Grab a casserole dish (preferably one with a lid).
Throw in the diced vegetables, the sliced onion, the feta cheese and mix it around. Get in with your hands. It's great fun.
Pour over the cream.
Sprinkle over the cheeses.

Put the lid on the casserole dish or cover it with foil/whatever heat tolerant cover you have.

Bake for one hour. Take the cover off and bake for another half hour.

Done. Simple. Delicious. Eat it. Thank me later. ;)

A few other combinations you might like to try:

Throw in some diced bacon/prosciutto/ham/salami.
Add some pine nuts.
Basil would go beautifully with this.
Make it a one dish dinner and add some broccoli and diced chicken.

Enjoy and keep cooking!! Pure, simple food as close to natural as possible.

Roast Chicken and Vegetables

Roasted Chicken

I sit here sipping on my chai tea ruminating over what was one of the most awesome roast meals I have cooked to date. Start with one fabulous chicken allowed to roam free with the wind in it's feathers chasing insects, scratching in the dirt, swallowing grubs and everything else required for a heavenly chickeny existence. Let it grow to a healthy size 18 and then sell it to me. For the extremely tiny price of $12. Local primary producers now occupy a serious chunk of my food loving heart.

Now take your free range, organic chicken and rub some soft, creamy butter over and under the breast skin of this gorgeous bird and run your hands over her legs as well. Cut an Aussie bush lemon in half and see if you can fit into the cavity. (A simpler and just as tasty version of Jamie Oliver's Perfect Roast Chicken.) If not, no matter, slice it into chunks and put in as much as you can. Gently place her onto a rack inside a roasting dish. I don't have a roasting rack.... I just use a cake cooling rack. Let her steam in a 200 deg C oven for 1hr 20 minutes. After the hen has been in the oven for 20 minutes I like to add in the vegetables and let them cook for a good hour.

Tonight I excelled myself and made real gravy like Mum and Grandma used to. Brown 2 tblsp of plain flour in a hot, dry frypan. Add in the juices from the roasting pan while continuously stirring so that no lumps form. Skim off the fat because it won't blend in. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the gravy to the boil and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes until the flour cooks. Taste the gravy. When it's ready you can't taste the flour.

Serve this glorious, fresh, delicious food at your table. Grab your fork and tuck in!

Chocolate Weet-Bix Slice

One of my favourite slice recipe as a kid was what my Grandma called Kabs. It's really a chocolate slice made with Weet-bix/VitaBrits/whole wheat breakfast cereal brick thingys. I made some for the school tuck shop tonight so of course it made sense to double the quantity and make some for home as well. Mr 10 LOVES this slice.

Chocolate Slice (with Weet-Bix/VitaBrits)

3 Weet-Bix or similar, crushed

(What I do is keep all the crumbly and flaked bits from the bottom of the packet when it's finished rather than tossing them out.)

1 cup coconut

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tblsp cocoa

1 tsp vanilla

150 g butter

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Melt the butter and add in the vanilla. Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix it together.

Press the mixture into a greased and lined slice tray. Bake at 180 deg C for about 15 minutes or until browned.

If you want to ice the slice:

2 cups icing sugar

1 tblsp cocoa

2-3 tblsp hot water

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa. Mix in the water. Ice the slice and cut it while it is still hot. Otherwise it will crumble when you try to cut it.

You can sprinkle coconut, 100's and 1000's or your favourite sprinkles on top of the slice.

The slice is perfect to savour with the cuppa of your choice. ♥

Creative Sausages

Our household loves sausages. The ones made with real, quality ingredients. With some small changes Tray Baked Sausages is one of our favourite dishes. 

Tray Baked Sausages a la Me!

Grab a baking dish. If you're wanting to impress anyone use a nice one coz I serve it in the same dish it's cooked in.

Collect together:

8 sausages
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 cup of chicken stock
1 can butter beans
2 punnets cherry or grape tomatoes
Rosemary
4 large potatoes

Then do this with them:

1. Cut up an onion, throw it in the baking dish.
2. Crush a few garlic cloves, toss them in with the onion. We all know garlic and onions is like peas and corn. The go together. Small tip from Jamie Oliver. Don't peel your garlic if you're going to use a garlic press. The peel will stay in the press!
3. Open a can of whatever beans you have in the pantry. Give them a rinse and throw them in to the mix. I like butter beans or 4 bean mix. But don't go past chickpeas, kidney beans or whatever is handy in the cupboard. If you don't have any in the pantry - rummage through the fridge or freezer and see what you can come up with to add in.
4. Add a cup of chicken stock.
5. Lay about 8 gorgeous, thick, delicious, gourmet sausages atop the mountain of natural flavour enhancers.
6. Sprinkle over some rosemary. I only have the dried variety and it works just fine.
7. This is my favourite part... Get two punnets (one seriously is NOT enough for the avid roast tomato lover) of ripe, sweet grape or cherry tomatoes and with gay abandon place them around the sausages. My love of roast tomatoes surpasses... almost... my love of 10yo red wine! Almost. ;)
8. Now for the potatoes. We like our potatoes crispy so I cook them separately with their skins on coz naked potatoes means extra work and the skins crisp up nicely and crunch in your mouth. Cut them up, throw them on an oven tray and spritz them with some oil. A sprinkle of salt if you like. And they're ready.

Place everything in a preheated oven at 200 deg C (have you noticed I cook almost everything at this temp??) and leave it to cook for an hour to develop into delicious, nutritious goodness. Serve at the table in the dish.

Total prep time about 5-10 mins. Now tell me that cooking nutritious, delicious meals from scratch is time consuming. I dare you. ;)

Remember the fussy eater? She loves sausages! Only not mixed with other stuff. So I keep a few sausages aside for her and put them on the tray beside the potatoes for the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

Mmmmmm.... Lamb Shanks.....

Friday night we had friends over for dinner. They'd had a rough week so we decided to invite them over for dinner. I'd already decided to cook lamb shanks and after leafing through Taste I found this enticing recipe and thought it would go perfectly with this and some steamed green beans for a delicious, satisfying, easy meal. OHHHHH MYYYYY!! This is without doubt THE most delicious lamb shank recipe I have ever cooked. I doubled the recipe (because I always like to cook more for the freezer/more meals) and so far we've had two main meals and lunch for 4 adults and have enough left over to go into the freezer for another meal!!!

For dessert I cut up a punnet of strawberries and drizzled over some coconut liqueur and some chocolate liqueur from Castle Glen Liqueurs, let it marinate for an hour or two and served it with vanilla ice cream. Yummmmm

Quick and Easy Stir Fry Dinner

I've been out with my Mum all day. We've been back and forth, here and there looking at everything from art supplies to laptops to sewing machines. Getting home late, coupled with being quite weary from my busy day, meant a quick, easy meal for dinner.

I had a couple of cans of vegetables in the panty for just this occasion. Be sure to wash canned vegetables really well to wash off as much salt as possible. I had some snow peas in the fridge, along with red capsicum. There was some chicken in the freezer and a packet of noodles in the pantry. Voila!! All the ingredients for a stir fry.

Here's my stir fry - the quick, easy, version.

4 chicken thighs (the packet said 650g) sliced or diced
1 can champignon mushrooms
1 can baby corn
2 handfuls of snow peas
half a big red capsicum
1 large brown onion cut into wedges
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce (or oyster sauce is good too)
1/2 tbsp fish sauce (be very careful with fish sauce it is very strong)
1 tsp honey
Noodles or Rice to serve

I always cook the chicken first and remove a portion for the fussy eater who is quite happy to eat just some chicken and quickly microwaved broccoli.

Heat some olive oil in a pan, brown the chicken in a couple of batches and remove onto a plate. Add a little more oil and cook the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion is see through. Add the capsicum, baby corn and mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the snow peas. Add all the sauces and honey. Serve with rice or noodles.

If you really couldn't be bothered cooking rice I can vouch for the following: cook 2 packets of 2 minute noodles (after you throw the chemical laden flavour satchet in the bin) and stir them through the stir fry. Seriously! The family loves this.

This took me a total of 15 mins to cook. I kid you not. Open a few cans, slice up 3 ingredients and toss into the pan. Far more nutritious than a fried, takeaway dinner. Yay!

Minced Beef Bolognaise

This is a regular in our house. Everyone loves it because it tastes delicious, it is hearty and I serve it with scrumptious sides. I love it because the kids have no idea how many vegetables they are eating, it is quick and easy, you can toss in whatever is hanging around in the fridge after their friends have gone, everyone loves it and it's delicious!!

I have a fussy eater. She likes fairly bland food, doesn't like lots of texture and doesn't like to mix her foodstuffs. Unless it's to add sauce. She's just beginning to venture out of her food safety zone (at almost 8yo) and try new foods. She loves this dish!!!  What's more... I can freeze it in fussy 8yo meal sized portions so that when we want to enjoy a meal I know she'll loathe I can fish a ready made meal out of the freezer so she can also have a meal she enjoys.

Here's my recipe:

1kg Minced Beef*
3 rashers bacon
1 large brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic chopped or minced (add more if you like garlic)
2 medium sized carrots, grated
2 medium sized zucchinis, grated
6-8 largeish mushrooms
(These are the basics... add whatever you have in the fridge or pantry. Try broccoli, capsicum, green beans, kidney beans.)
1 large can diced tomatoes (or 6-8 large ripe tomatoes)
1 large can Heinz Tomato Soup (This is my secret weapon!!! And it has to be Heinz... the other brands just don't have the right mix of herbs for my liking.)
A dash of worchestershire sauce (you can leave this out if you'd rather)
Basil
Parsley
Oregano
(Add spices to your own taste. Don't be heavy handed... herbs enhance, not take over, a dish.)
1 tsp salt
Ground pepper to taste

Brown the onion in some oil.
Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes.
Add the bacon and cook for a few minutes.
Add the mince and cook until browned.
Add the vegetables.
Add the soup.
Add the spices to taste.

Let this simmer for a couple of hours on the stove. It really does make the flavour mindblowing. If you need dinner to be ready like 5 minutes ago microwave the grated and chopped veges before adding them.

Serve with:
.... grated parmesan cheese
.... warm, crusty bread or rolls
.... rice
.... corn chips
.... pasta
.... make lasagne
.... place in a casserole dish, top with puff pastry, pop in the oven to make a pie
.... thicken and make sausage rolls
.... wrap in tortillas with tomato, avocado, lettuce and grated cheese

We are having this for dinner tonight!! :)


*I try not to buy the cheap supermarket mince because it has added water. Yes, water. In their pursuit of the sweet, almighty dollar some supermarkets (and butchers) have been known to add water to meats to boost the weight. So you end up paying about $8 a kg for mince that is sometimes half water. That's $8 a litre for water people!!! You know that liquid in the bottom of the pan when you brown the mince?? It's water. This also means that the minced beef doesn't cook or brown as it should because it's boiling in water and loses it's flavour.

Chutney

The hubby and I had the house to ourselves for dinner on Friday night! Yay! The kids were off at a birthday party. :) So we indulged in some take away Indian delights from a nearby family run restaurant. You know when food is really good. The table falls silent, food magically disappears from the serving dishes and you wish you had grabbed that last piece of naan bread when it was still there.

I like to serve Indian food with a yoghurt dish and chutney. *Insert Homer Simpson drool.* It was with great sorrow that I scraped the last of the Jamworks Mandarin Chutney out of the jar. I picked it up in Stanthorpe a little while ago. The Granite Belt is one of my favourite spots on the planet (that's a whole post on it's own). I'd discovered a little gourmet deli shop a few suburbs over that sold it. Unfortunately my favourite little deli didn't survive the January floods that swept through the inner city. Sad, very sad.

Not knowing how I was going to get my hands on the next fabulous chutney to be had, Google and I conferred on some recipes and decided I could probably make some myself.

My Chutney Recipe

The kitchen yielded 5 oranges, a couple of red apples, an onion, some garlic and ginger, 2 cups of sultanas (this is double the quantity because I LOVE sultanas in chutney), 1 1/2 tblsp salt, cracked black pepper to taste, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and 2 cups of vinegar (a mix of white wine and apple cider). Cut up all the fruit and vege, put everything in a large pot and simmer it until it's thick. I swear, cross my heart, it was that easy. This recipe made 4 jars. I gave one away to friends last night when we went over for a bbq.

Next time I might not put in as much vinegar and maybe add some allspice. I had some with cheese and crackers for a snack and it's pretty damn fine. :):)

** Update: After having a few weeks to settle and develop the amount of vinegar in this recipe is just perfect.

Passionfruit

Cooking with fruit and veg that are in season is a great excuse to search out new recipes or pull out some old favourites. The hubby was given a bag full of passionfruit the other day so I surfed the net for a quick and easy recipe to use them up.

I found this recipe on Taste.com.au (my favourite source of recipes). The name was enough to capture my attention. :)

These were quick, easy, light and delicious biscuits. I didn't have fresh lemon on hand so I left out the lemon rind. These biscuits are perfect to have with a cup of tea without needing to ice them. I didn't have white chocolate so I made passionfruit icing and iced half the batch. Next time I'm going to make a double batch because they didn't last long!