Honey soy chicken wingettes

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Serves          4

Ingredients

  • 10 chicken wings
  • ¼ cup ketjap manis (Indonesian soy sauce)
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • Garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 fresh red chili (quantity depends on your taste)

Process

  • Cut chicken wings into 3 at the joints. Discard wing tips.
  • Combine ketjap manis, chili, honey and garlic in a bowl. Add chicken and toss to coat.
  • Leave to marinade overnight in refrigerator.
  • Barbecue but I prefer to cook them in a non-stick wok, a few at a time – better control over the cooking.

Note: Can be cooked ahead of need and transported to wherever and eaten cool.

Sausages with root vegetables

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The oven is great for cooking sausages; an alternative to frying or grilling.

 

 

 

 

Serves         4.

Ingredients

  • 4 parsnips scrubbed
  • 4 carrots scrubbed
  • 3 onions
  • 1 chili finely chopped
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 8-12 sausages
  • Fresh thyme leaves
  • Coarsely chopped parsley

Process

  • Heat the oven to 200C.
  • Quarter the parsnips and carrots from root to tip. If they have woody cores, trim them out.
  • Peel the onions and depending on size, cut into quarters or eighths.
  • Put the parsnips, carrots, chili and onions in a roasting tray, trickle with oil and season well. Cover with foil and roast until the parsnips are tender.
  • Remove the foil; add the sausages to the tray and sprinkle over the thyme. Return to the oven and roast until the sausages are cooked and everything is golden and starting to caramelize.
  • Allow to rest for five minutes before serving, scattered with parsley.

Note: Organic, low fat sausages are readily available rather than el cheapo butcher bargains, which seem to be 50 per cent fat.

Update

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Very little to add. Much of the content listed here has been updated (but not on this blog) and I still have to find the web app that offers improvements in:

  • Uploading
  • Updating
  • Accessing

With regard to WordPress, after 2 years I am developing more skill but there are glitches. I can’t get rid of ‘Recent Successes’ — there have been many — but it is now redundant.

Thai red beef curry

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I use chuck steak for this curry. It will take a little longer to cook than rump but there is much more flavour

 

 

 

 

Serves          2

Ingredients

  • Olive oil
  • Large onion finely sliced
  • 500gm chuck steak, trimmed and cut into thin slices
  • 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
  • 1 cup stock
  • 150gm fresh shiitake mushrooms, halved
  • 230gm can sliced bamboo shoots, drained
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • ½ cup coconut cream
  • ½ cup basil leaves
  • Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Process

  • Heat oil in a French oven over medium-high heat. Cook beef, in batches each side until golden. Transfer to a bowl.
  • Reduce heat to low. Add oil if needed and slowly brown onions.
  • Add curry paste and cook, stirring until aromatic.
  • Add beef
  • Add stock and stir until curry paste has dissolved.
  • Add mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Pour mixture over beef and stir to combine.
  • Cover and cook on low for 1 hour. Combine sugar and coconut milk in a jug. Stir into curry.
  • Cover and cook for a further 30 minutes.
  • Stir in basil. Spoon curry over rice.

Mustard Alberto

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A mild, fuss free, enjoyable mustard. This recipe makes three 200 gm jars.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mustard powder – grind black mustard seeds in spice grinder
  • ¼ cup very cold water
  • 1 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 finely chopped onion
  • 5 crushed garlic cloves
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon whole juniper berries
  • 2 tablespoons cold fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar

Process

  • In a bowl stir together mustard flour and water to make a paste.
  • Combine vinegar, wine, onion, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and juniper berries in a saucepan and bring mixture to a simmer over moderate heat. Simmer until reduced by two thirds.
  • Remove bay leaves and blend the mixture – I use the Kenwood blender.
  • Stir the mixture into the mustard paste. Add the lemon juice, salt and sugar and stir to combine.
  • Let mixture stand for at least 20 minutes. Transfer the mustard mixture to a saucepan; bring to a simmer over low heat and cook for 15 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and allow to cool.
  • Transfer to a sterile jars and seal tightly with new lids, and store on a dark, cool shelf for at least a month or up to 6 weeks, before using.

Mustard will mellow with age. I have used this after 12 months and very delicious. Once opened, keep refrigerated and is edible for 6 months.

Note: Sterilizing jars is easy — boil them in a large pot, let cool and remove with tongs. Use new lids — recycled lids may have an unseen damaged seal. Our source for lids is Green Living Australia.

Bread – multi-grain with linseed and sesame

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I have made bread for most of my life and lately have been using a Sunbeam bread maker rather than the mix-knead–prove-knead-prove-cook in oven method. The Sunbeam (bought from Sunbeam’s seconds shop in Alexandria) turns out consistently good bread.

Ingredients

  • 500gm Laucke’s Multi-Grain Mix (http://www.laucke.com.au).
  • 100gm linseed freshly ground in a spice grinder.
  • 100gm sesame freshly ground
  • 350ml tepid water,
  • 1 ½ teaspoons Laucke’s dried yeast (comes with the 5kg bag).

Process

  • Weigh up the flour, add the linseed, sesame, yeast and water.
  • Select your programme.

Freshly ground linseed and sesame are an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acid and quite cheap. Laucke’s products are GM free. I transfer the flour to plastic containers and store one in the fridge — to avoid weevils towards the end.

Mango chutney

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An excellent addition to grilled sausages and curries. Very messy in the processing but worth the effort. I bought a carton of large, over-ripe mangoes for $6.

Ingredients

  • 1.5kg mangoes, peeled and diced
  • 2 large red chilies, de-seeded and chopped
  • 60gm fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
  • Juice and the zested rind of 1 lemon
  • 500ml white wine or cider vinegar
  • 750gm brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 teaspoon allspice powder
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric

Process:

  • Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil, stirring often.
  • Cook for 1 hour or until mixture is thick.
  • Bottle in sterilized jars and seal.
  • Will keep for 12 months (have tested this) but once opened, refrigerate.

Ken Cameron recommends adding fresh grated ginger.

Stock

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I have just made 15 litres of stock — very easy as long as you have the freezer space to store the raw material, and then the finished product. We keep vegie and meat scraps such as broccoli stems, chicken carcases after filleting, fish skeletons, etc and freeze them until we have a boiler full. When sufficient, move them to the boiler and add:

  • Vegeta powdered stock
  • Star anis
  • Whole pepper
  • Juniper berries
  • Oregano flakes
  • Other things you might fancy
  • Water

After bringing to the boil, simmer for about 4 hours. Smash down the contents with a quality masher and let cool. Skim off the pepper corns, fat and other floaties you don’t want and then press through a colander into bowls. Bottle the liquid — we use reusable  containers — and freeze. The waste — that which wont pass through the colander — we put into containers and freeze as a supplement to the dog’s evening meal.

The resultant stock is thick and full of flavour — not your store-bought weakness — and it re-processes food you would normally compost. Forget the recipes that call for beef, vegetable, or whatever stock — this multi-purpose stock is the go.

Aldi’s Panini Grill

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Our ultra-reliable Breville benchtop griller was retired — grilling plates embedded with guk — and I was tempted by this Aldi item at $40 something. It clearly states in the manual ‘…grilling of meat…’ and the specs. looked good. It does a fine job of grilling but has one failing — it distributes the fat over the bench top making a greasy mess. The fat-collecting cup remains fat-free. Back to a new Breville.

And another thing. I have begun editing this web content and there are some strange links, comments and errors. Will slowly winkle them out.

Update

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Currently attempting to change the format  and edit out much inaccuracy. On paper I am now at the third revision and time to resume the struggle with WordPress and get the site updated.