Posted by Unknown on
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
My mum is visiting from Malaysia at the moment, so I have a captive test subject to try out a few new recipes on. This recipe we caught on Rick Steins Far Eastern Odyssey on TV last night. It looked pretty good and I love duck, so I decided to give it a try tonight. I popped into Springvale during my lunch break and bought a whole duck from the meat market and a bag of fresh oranges. Well it was a great success - the flavors are awesome, the star anise and orange juice are a great combo with the duck, It is also pretty easy to put together. I highly recommend giving this one a go!
Ingredients
- 1 Duck, cut into serving pieces
- 2 tbsp Vegetable oil (or duck fat)
- 3 Cloves garlic, peeled & sliced
- 3 cm Root ginger, peeled & sliced
- 3-4 Spring onions, cut into 4 cm lengths
- 6 Star anise
- 3-4 Whole chillies
- 1 Stalk lemon grass, bruised
- 2 tbsp Fish sauce
- 1 tbsp Palm sugar
- Juice of 3-4 oranges
- A “good grind” of black pepper
- Cornflour
In a large cast iron casserole dish or similar, sauté the duck pieces in the oil until the fat is rendered and the skin is browning and beginning to crisp. Pour off all but a tablespoon of fat.
Add garlic and ginger and stir, then add the orange juice, enough to not quite cover the duck. Add fish sauce, star anise, chillies, lemon grass, palm sugar and black pepper. Stir well and simmer covered until duck is tender(~1 - 1.5hrs). Add the spring onions about 10 mins before the duck will be ready.
Remove the lemon grass stalk and discard. Remove the duck pieces and spring onions to a warmed serving dish. Mix a little cornflour with some water and add to the sauce to thicken.
Serve.
I served it with some basmati rice and stir fried Bok Choy.
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Duck,
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Vietnamese
Posted by Unknown on
Friday, April 23, 2010
This is a quick, simple marinade with Moroccan flavors that I really like. I often use it to marinate chicken breast strips for grilling on the BBQ. It might also work well with fish, but I haven't tried it yet.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 2 tblsp olive oil
- 1 tblsp honey
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground tumeric
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
Combine all the ingredients and mix well, ensuring the honey dissolves. Add chicken or desired meat, cover and refrigerate for min 1hr. I occasionally baste the meat with the left over marinade whilst its grilling to get an extra flavor kick.
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Chicken,
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Morocco,
Recipes
Posted by Unknown on
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The only thing I like about Melbourne winter is home made soup, otherwise the whole season is pointless and a major inconvenience! This basic soup recipe is definitely a staple meal for me during winter, it's easy, healthy, cheap and prep is relatively quick and painless(especially if you have a collection of knives you enjoy using!). The qty here is what I generally make up in one batch and will last me about a weeks worth of work lunches! This soup actually improves after a couple of days in the fridge, if you are storing it any longer than 3 days I would freeze it. It thaws and reheats well.
Ingredients:
- 2 x tblsp Olive Oil
- 1 x smoked bacon hock*
- 1 x smoked bacon bone*
- ½ packet of Italian soup mix
- 1 liter of beef or chicken stock(home made is best!)
- 1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes
- 2 x carrots (peeled & coarsely diced)
- 1 x parsnip (peeled & coarsely diced)
- 1 x turnip or swede (peeled & coarsely diced)
- 1 x brown onion (finely diced)
- 2 x sticks of celery (chopped)
- 1 x leak (finely sliced)
- 4 x cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- Salt and pepper to taste
*Smoked bacon hocks/bones are available from my local supermarket delicatessen in winter. Try to find to the proper dry cured ones, avoid the ones that are packaged/vacuum sealed if you can. The hock will provide most of the meat for the soup and the bone is more for the flavor.
Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot, then add the onion and leak. Saute for a few minutes then add the garlic and continue to saute until the leak and onion gets some color.
Add the carrot, parsnip, swede and celery. Saute for another couple of minutes to sweat the vegetables, mixing it around with a wooden spoon.
Score the bacon hock with a sharp knife.(I slice the skin around the circumference about 3 times, through to the bone, this helps later when removing the meat from the bone.) Add the stock, the can of tomatoes(inc. the syrup), the Italian soup mix, the bacon hock, bacon bone and an extra 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for about 2hrs.
After ~2 hrs and add salt & pepper to taste. Simmer for another 1 hr or until the meat is falling off the bone. Turn the heat off leaving the pot on the stove. Remove the bacon hock and bacon bone from the soup. Separate the skin and fat from the hock and feed to the dog, shred the meat with a fork and return it to the soup. Also remove any meat you can from the bacon bone and return it to the soup. Discard the bones.
Serve steaming hot, with crusty buttered bread!
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Bacon,
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soup
Posted by Unknown on
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Thanks to "Dr Howard" from Foodie Forums for posting this recipe. Its a reasonably common recipe but I had not come across it before. I have a made a few changes but its basically the same. A mate and I used to enjoy a Savory Mince "one pot dinner" packet meal from the supermarket, I always wanted a recipe that replicated the meal but was made from scratch, not using a packet pre-mix! This comes pretty close to it, but of course using all fresh natural ingredients instead of a packaged pre-mix, it is also much better.
Ingredients:
- 1kg beef mince
- ~300g green peas (fresh or frozen)
- 2 x large onions (finely chopped)
- 2 fresh chillies (chopped)
- 8-10 cloves of garlic (minced or finely chopped)
- 1 tblsp grated ginger
- ~8 dried curry leaves
- 1 tsp black mustard seeds
- 2 tblsp Garam Masala (Make your own - its easy and worth it)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tblsp peanut oil
- 2-3 cups beef or chicken stock
- Fresh coriander (chopped)
In a heavy based saucepan or casserole dish, heat the oil. Add the curry leaves and the mustard seeds and fry until the mustard seeds start to pop. Turn the heat down a little and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Fry until the onion softens and starts to color. Add the garam masala and fry for a minute until fragrant. Add 2 tblsp of the tomato paste and fry for another minute.
Add the mince and fry until it browns. Add the cinnamon stick, the remaining 1tblsp of tomato paste and enough stock to barely cover.
Cook for 1/2 hour with the lid on stirring occasionally. Add the chilli and cook uncovered for another 1/2 hour or until most of the liquid has reduced. Add the peas and chopped coriander(save some for garnish) cook for another 5min.
Serve with rice or mash potatoes. Leftovers are also great on toast as a quick snack.
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Curry,
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Mince,
Recipes
Posted by Unknown on
Saturday, April 3, 2010
This is absolutely the best lamb marinade ever! I love making this for grilled lamb kebabs and its even good for marinating lamb chops before grilling them on the bbq.
Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp plain greek yoghurt
- 1 large brown onion
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
- 1/2 tsp fresh thyme
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
You will need to juice the onion, I peel and coarsely chop the onion and run it through a vegetable/fruit juicer but you can also process the onion into a pulp using a food processer and then strain the pulp through a sieve or some cheese cloth to separate the juice. There will be tears, a lot of them! Your eyes will burn and you'll cry like a baby, but it'll be worth it!
Combine the onion juice and the other ingredients in a large bowl and and mix thoroughly. Add the lamb (diced lamb for kebabs, chops or whatever cut you want to grill). Cover and marinate in the fridge for min. 2hrs. Grill and enjoy!
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Greek,
Lamb,
Marinade,
Recipes
Posted by Unknown on
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
I had some Osso Bucco in my freezer. The last remaining cuts of beef from my house mates cattle which were slaughtered a few months ago. The Osso Bucco was left because I was not sure of the best way to cook it. Well the weather has started cooling off in Melbourne and I started getting the urge for some hearty home made soup. So I concocted this simple recipe from a few other recipes I found on the net and it turned out really well!
Ingredients:
- Olive oil
- Osso Bucco (I used 2 x large pieces with about 2l of liquid)
- 1 x small onion (finely diced)
- 1 x leek (finely sliced)
- 2 x cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 x carrots (diced chunky style)
- 2 x sticks celery (sliced)
- 1.5L Beef stock (I used 1L of beef stock and 2 cups of home made vege stock I had in the feezer)
- 1 x 400g can of diced tomatoes
- 3 x dried bay leaves
- Salt and ground black pepper
Splash some olive oil into a large pot and fry the Osso Bucco pieces, one a time for a couple of minutes on each side until they are sealed. Place them aside.
Splash some more olive oil into the pot and throw in the onion and leek. Saute for a couple of minutes then throw in the garlic and saute until the onion and leek are softened.
Add the carrot and celery. Saute for another couple of minutes. Then add the stock, can of tomatoes, bay leaves and the Osso Bucco pieces. Bring to boil and cover and simmer for about 2 - 2.5hrs or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. I added ground black pepper about 1.5hrs in after tasting it - I decided it didnt need any extra salt as the beef stock was salty enough, but add to your taste.
Once the meat is ready, turn off the heat and remove the Osso Bucco pieces leaving the pot on the stove to keep warm. Remove the meat from the bone, chop it into chunky pieces and put it back into the pot, discarding the bones and any gristle or fatty bits.
Ready to serve with some crusty buttered bread!
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Osso Bucco,
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soup
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