All roads lead to Wellington

Well, not entirely true.  Only two roads lead to Wellington, something that would prove problematic should a natural disaster occur.  However, I digress.  

We had some leftover sheets of pastry recently, from a bout of pie-making, so thought 'hey - what about beef wellingtons?'.  I hadn't had these for absolutely years, not since I was a kid and Mum used to sometimes make them for dinner parties.  Her ones were always tasty, and I knew the key was not putting too big a slab of meat inside - you want to have a good meat:pastry ratio.  

So, we decided to stick with the traditional beef ('cause I can't see why you couldn't have chicken, lamb, or simply a vegetable filling), but with plenty of onion and mushrooms in with it, to heighten the flavour of the meat.  So, I panfried a small piece (about the size of my palm) of sirloin - salted, peppered, and beaten a bit too, to make sure it was tender.  Place that on a sheet of pastry big enough to fold over the meat (and whatever else you throw in there) and close around the edges.  If you're adding other bits in, do this now too.  We gave the onion and 'shrooms a wee fry too (in butter, of course!).  Press edges of the pastry down and brush with egg - this'll give the wellington a nice golden sheen when its done.  Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until it's the right colour.  

Now, traditionally a beef wellington has a layer of pâté on the beef, but that sounded too rich a parcel for me.  But if you're feeling traditional and want to invoke the shade of the 1st Duke of Wellington (his favourite dish, according to some sources), then grab your fav fois gras and get cooking!  

go bananas with some mini muffin madness

These little gems are the tastiest banana muffins I've ever made.  I've made loads before, but these ones, with soft brown sugar in place of regular or raw sugar, are super tasty and light.  I've made mini ones for one reason - they're a better size for school lunches and almost-one-year-olds.  This made 36 mini muffins, so should keep us going for a few days!  

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or a few more)

3/4 cup mashed banana

1/2 cup oil

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 180°c and grease mini muffin tray.
2. Mix dry ingredients in bowl. 
3. In another bowl beat egg, stir in oil and milk, then mix in the banana. 
4. Combine dry and wet ingredients.  Spoon into muffin trays and bake for about 10-12 minutes.  
5. Remove from oven and let sit for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool. 

Return to the village chicken - summer mixer # 2

Back in 2010 I blogged about a childhood favourite, resurrected in my mind by a chance meeting with a Rick Stein recipe book - Sticky chook.  Recent parlays with family in the UK has once again got me on the chicken train.  Sticky chicken drumsticks are such a winner.  Easy, tasty, kids love them, the list goes on.  The only downside is you get very sticky fingers eating them, but that's hardly a deal-breaker (hell, who am I kidding, for some that would be a deal-maker!).  

So anyhoo, having seen photos of Mark and Cindy's chicken culinary creations, I decided it was time our rotisserie had it's turn too (ha ha, no pun intended, but loving it!).  To give a nod to the season, we had ours with zucchini from the garden and fresh, summery salsa.  For the salsa I combined a small diced red onion, cherry tomatoes, corn (cooked on cob, then stripped), one nectarine chopped into small pieces and mint and basil.  It was kick ass, colourful and smelled great too.  The only thing is that next time I'd look for a way to bind the salsa together a bit more - perhaps a little oil, or balsamic.  Or a mix of those two?  Enjoy, summer mixer numero dos!   

The best of both worlds - summer mixer # 1

Happy new year, mes amis!  It's been a while since I've blogged anything, but hey - it's summer, and blogging about BBQs, whilst tasty, would become a trifle staid.  Though hey, trifle - merry Christmas too! 

It's back to work time of the summer now (or it was a couple of weeks ago), so meals have to be simple, and light ('cause it's been bloody hot people!!).  We love fish, and it's perfect for hot nights, especially when time, or energy, is of the essence.  

The other night we had some trevally left over from the night before, but not really enough for another meal for two.  So, out came from prawns from the freezer and I was thinking either panko crumbed, or pop the two into a tasty seafood curry.  Well, step aside boring ol' One-Dish-Fisher, make room for Seafood-Two-Ways-Britton.  Why have only one, when you can have both?  Good idea KB - a prawn green curry, with panko crumbed fish bites as a garnish.  It was brilliant.  Not rocket science, but brilliant all the same.  See - that's how you cook in summer - take the tried and true, and mix it up a bit.  Watch this space for the next summer mixer.  Nom nom nom...

I see your pecorino and I'll raise you a blue

It has been AGES since I blogged anything.  It's not that I haven't been cooking, but between baby, work and this and that, I just haven't tried anything new.  Boring eh?  Yummy (the tried and true recipes have a special place in my heart), but not a fascinating read.  However, here we go, with someone like what would happen if a tried and true stalwart got a makeover.  Macaroni Cheese becomes (dah dah dahhhhh) - La Torta Formaggio!  

20 g butter, melted

1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)

400 g pasta (I used macaroni, but penne, shells...)

125 g blue vein cheese (Kapiti Kikorangi, booyah!!)

1 cup grated pecorino or parmasan

2 eggs, whisked

1 onion, diced

good bunch spinach, stalks removed and shredded

handful mushrooms, sliced

1 more egg, whisked

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and brush 22cm springform cake tin with butter.  Shake breadcrumbs around tin until coated. Discard extra breadcrumbs. 
2. Cook pasta until tender. Drain and cool. Add parmesan, blue cheese and first two eggs. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir until well combined.  
3. Fry onion in a little butter or oil until soft. Add spinach and mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes or until spinach is wilted (you may need to cover the pan and keep temp a bit lower). Drain off or squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Combine in bowl with extra egg.
4. Spoon half the pasta mixture into prepared cake tin. Spread pasta evenly over base of pan and press firmly. Top with spinach mixture, spreading and pressing over pasta. Top with remaining pasta and press firmly. Sprinkle with extra parmasan. 
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden on top. Stand for 10 minutes before releasing clip and removing from tin.  
6. Serve with a leafy salad for a incredibly flavoursome change from the usual pasta dish.  

 

Hoki mai ra...

We love fish.  Catching fish, cooking fish, eating fish.  Talking with a friend the other night I came across a really nice way to liven up a piece of otherwise fairly bland fish - hoki.  Hoki is crazy cheap at the supermarket - $8.99/kg at the moment in Te Awamutu.  It's not as tasty au naturale as gurnard or snapper, but it's a really good way of getting plenty of fish into your diet.  We normally coat it with a little flour and panfry it in butter.  Or sometimes we'll chop it into smaller pieces, crumb it with panko and have tasty little fish bites.  However, this way wins hands down - topped with a parmasan and herb panko crumb and baked in the oven.  

We've done this with lamb racks before, but on fish would be my preference from now on.  

1 large hoki fillet (about 1/2 kg) - this'll feed two hungry adults
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
good grating parmasan cheese 
fresh herbs, finely chopped - I actually used a BBQ rub last night instead
couple dollops sesame oil - enough to have mixture bound enough to stay on top of the fish, but not too wet and clumpy 
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Cut hoki into two pieces. Place on baking tray (I put baking paper down first, to save having to wash the tray.  
3. Brush fish liberally with egg. 
4. Press crumb on top and place in the oven.  
5. Bake for about 5 minutes, then grill until crumb is nice and golden.  

NB: Panko crumbs are the creme de la creme of crumbing because they're always turn out nice and crispy, as opposed to normal breadcrumbs which can sometimes go a bit soggy.  Fogdog do them and are available at most supermarkets.   

bring the chinese home - cashew chicken

I'm one of those people who have a crockpot but rarely use it.  I mean, we cook the good ol' corned beef from time to time, but other than that...  I know there's a myriad of possibilities, but I think I've probably only ever used it for the odd sausage casserole.  So, when I came across this recipe through my sister-in-law Kaz, I thought it was about time to break out. 

We used to have a chinese restaurant in Hawera, where I grew up, called the Wing Wah.  It was our go-to for pretty much every family birthday or major event.  My childhood fav was cashew chicken.  This is a different tasting, but similar textured dish, and I'll be making it again!  It made a heap too - fed four for dinner, then enough leftovers for another two for lunch (with rice).  Crazy easy chinese at home, which effectively cooks itself! 

500 g chicken tenders (or breast, chopped up)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cashews
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 tbsp cider, rice or wine vinegar
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp grated ginger
3/4 cup soy sauce
8 tbsp tomato sauce
1 chilli, chopped (optional)
1 stalk lemongrass (optional)
3 tbsp peanut butter (I added this in, because I like the satayey taste)

1. Mix flour, salt and pepper in resealable bag.  Add chicken and coat.
2. Brown chicken in pan. 
3. Place into crockpot and add all other ingredients (except cashews). 
4. Stir and leave to cook on low for 3 hours. 
5. Stir through cashews and serve with rice and naan (or similar).