Not a Stew but a Stroganoff

Recipes #48 and #49.


Tonight I am cooking Beef and Ale Basic Stew. Mum hates the word stew... so we'll call it Beef and Ale Basic Stroganoff with lovely dumplings. It was easy to cook, I chose to cook it in the oven rather then the stove so I could sit and relax. 


I chopped 2 carrots, 2 onions and 2 celery sticks. Threw them in a oven proof dish with some olive oil and butter (butter was my touch... I've been reading too much julia Child lately and couldn't stop myself.) through in a couple of bay leaves and cook it for 10 min or until soft. I added pre-chopped beef, a can of Guinness, pepper, salt and a can of chopped tomatoes. Brought it to the boil and bunged it in the oven for 3 hours. (It's in there atm). 


For the dumplings a rubbed butter and self-raising flour together to get breadcrumbs and then added some chilled water to make a dough. Divided it in to 12 and rolled them in to dumplings. 


I added them to the stew.. sorry stroganoff for the last 30min and there is 5 min left on the cooking. I am hoping this fix's my headache :)


Fingers crossed!

Brushetta, Julie & Julia... does it get any better?

Over the weekend I attempted to make Granola (Recipe #45) for the 3rd time. First time I added currants which made it a little too sweet, the 2nd time I didn't add fruit and it was delicious over greek yoghurt so I thought I would make again since I had eaten the 2nd batch and was craving more. Yes well it sounded a great idea until the over powerful oven decided to burn the buggerey out of it. So I'd say that this third time lucky did  not work. The kitchen smelt like burnt-ness to I thought I would leave it for another weekend and make brushetta and watch Julie and Julia. (Fantastic afternoon may I say!)

For dinner I cooked the Perfect Roast Beef (Recipe #46). I placed the veggies in the bottom of the pan, placed the beef on top and cooked it for 1 hour while I went to basketball. Worked out perfectly.

We had roast veggies, yorkshire pudding and gravy. YUM.

Chickpea free

Dinner tonight was Pot Roast Meatloaf (Recipe #43). 


You start with cooking onions off in a frying pan with cumin and coriander till soft then leaving them to cool (I got impatient and didn't leave them to cool). Smash sayos up (I used Oscar) add them to a bowl with the cool onion, mince, dijon mustard, dried oregano, pepper, salt and 1 egg. Moosh with hands till combined and make a rugby ball out of the mince and place in a baking tray. Cook for 30min in a preheated oven at 200 degrees (I had the oven at 180 because we have a small oven that compensates by being too hot).


Chope your 2nd onion into 1cm pieces with 2 cloves of garlic and a chilli. Fry in a pan with smoked paprika (I cannot stand the smell of Smoked Paprika for some reason, but I did add it) When the onions are soft add the tins of tomatoes and chickpeas. Now we have had enough chickpeas for the moment. Everything Jamie can put chickpeas in he does so we decided to leave them out. I asked the family and it was a flat 'no chickpeas'. Add balsamic vinegar and worcestershire sauce and being to the boil and simmer for 10min.


Once the meatloaf had had it's 30min transfer it to a baking dish and pour sauce around it. Sprinkle with fresh rosemary and lay prosciutto over and around it. Put it back in the oven for another 15 min until prosciutto is crispy.  


We served this with couscous (that worked this time). Yum. It will be a meatloaf sandwich for work tomorrow!! 

Vegemite Pie

Recipe #40 and 41- Classic mince and onion Pie & Pastry Lid.


Last night I felt like soup but was the only on in my family who felt like soup. Very disappointing when you're trying to describe Fresh Mint and Pea soup to people who just turn up their nose and say...'Soup?'


So Vegemite Pie it was. I say Vegemite Pie because of course the obvious, there is Vegemite in it. First recipe I have made (apart from tiger toast) that asks for Vegemite. Ok well Jamie says Marmite but I thought I would Auzzie the pie up and use Vegemite.

I fried the carrots, onions and celery with fresh rosemary and dried bay leaves until the onions started to go translucent. Then added the mince, hot mustard, Vegemite, worcestershire sauce and 2 tsp of flour and stirred until everything was mixed through well. I have to admit the Vegemite did not want to spread I would advise mixing a splash of boiling water with it next time to make it easier to mix. The stock and boiling water was then added and left to cook with lid off for 1 hour. Jamie says lid askew but there was a lot of liquid so I thought lid off so the sauce could reduce which it did perfectly. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees when you have about 30 min left of cooking.


I then transferred the mince mixture into a ceramic pie dish to let cool slightly and let my pre-rolled shortcrust frozen pastry thaw. Next the pastry went over the pie. This is where I struggled and had holes in my pastry. Cook for about 40min or until golden on top.


The Vegemite Pie was YUM. We had it with buttered peas. Mum kept saying how English this meal was but I don't think so... Vegemite Pie is definitely Auzzie :)

Congrats Veronica and Shadi!

Recipe # 33: Cracking Burgers.
Hamburgers for dinner last night, obviously not made with ham... why do they get the name hamburgers?? If anyone out there in the endless void who actually reads this knows, please share this bit of trivia.
Cracking Burgers starts with Jamie asking you to bash 12 Jacob cream crackers in a tea towel and add them to 500g's of beef mince in a mixing bowl. We didn't have any crackers like Jamie uses (Auzzie version is sayo's) so I used store bought bread crumbs. My opinion is if your going to use store bought crackers you may as well use store bought crumbs. If your using fresh breadcrumbs on the other hand that is completely different.
Next went in 2 heaped teaspoons of Dijon mustard. Mmm I love the colour of Dijon mustard when it’s heaped out on a spoon. It almost looks gold.


Pepper and salt was next, along with fresh chopped parsley. You’re meant to add an egg next but I did a typical Danielle and read the recipe once over and thought I new better then Jamie and forgot to add the egg. I think this was why they were a little dry and didn't stick together well.

I shaped the mince into 4 patties and put them in the fridge while I watched my backed up TV of MKR. (p.s. SO pumped that Shadi and Veronica won!!!)


We had salad fillers such as avo, baby spinach, truss tomatoes, cucumber and gherkins to go with the burgers which were being served with hot Tommy mustard, tomato sauce and focaccia bread instead of burger buns as that was all we had at home.
I oiled the patties with Mum's trusty garlic spray oil (Love it!) and placed them on a hot griddle pan. No idea how long I cooked them for but I cooked them until they were cooked through and the cheese was melted on top. We had frozen wedges with our burgers -left over’s from my 21st that were still in the freezer :) probably not the healthiest choice but it was easy and quick since the grand finale of MKR was on TV last night and nothing was getting in the way of me watching that :)


A delicious meal in all.

Slightly off course.

    I'm back fear not fellow followers!
I have had a lapse and veered off course for a few days. But I have to be back on track asap because I'm so not going to make my dead line at all.


I cooked one recipe last week. Yes only one.
Receipt #20: Sizzling Beef with spring onions and black bean sauce. 


   Firstly you have to cook your rice and let cool. I cooked the rice but did not let it cool. I didn't see the point since I was cooking it again with egg later. Next was to chop the coriander, chilli, garlic, spring onions, ginger and mix in a bowl with sesame oil. Then cook in wok for about 2 min. Keep it moving so it doesn't burn. Add the Black bean sauce and soy sauce, keep tossing. 
   Transfer into a bowl and cover with foil. Add egg to pan with more soy sauce and scramble. Add rice.
   Serve with coriander leave and lime spritz on top. 


It was delicious except it kept we awake all night from the flavour enhancer in the black bean sauce. I was high as a kite all night with heart palpitations. So worth it!