Sunday Roast: Yorkshire Puddings

Sunday roasts have held a place in our family for as long as I can remember. When I was little my Nan would cook a roast every Sunday after church. As I grew older and then when we moved away from my grandparents Sunday roasts still happened but they weren't the huge family affair and they didn't happen every weekend. But like all things wonderful, the Sunday roast has come around again and has started a tradition for a new generation.

Life is busy and things get in the way of the little things we sometimes enjoy. But for the most part one of my brothers, his wife and their two little ones are at Mum and Dad's for a family dinner on the weekend. We mix it up every once in a while and have tacos or lasagne but most weeks it is a roast. And I have to say that I love the 'tradition' of it. The memories that are being made, the delicious food we share and the crazy, silly things we talk and laugh about at the table.



Last weekend we mixed it up with a Saturday night dinner and a simple meal of jacket potatoes using bolognese left over from my Super Charged Lasagne. So when Sunday came around and I was longing for that roast and a little bit of nostalgia as well.

As I mentioned, as a kid it was my Nan who cooked the Sunday roasts and let me tell you they generally had all the trimmings. One of my favourite trimmings is Yorkshire Pudding. I mean how much more of a nod can there be to my family's heritage than gorgeous little golden puddings to go with your roast beef and gravy! I haven't had Yorkshire Pudding in... well I can't even remember when the last time was. So my mission last weekend was to give this nostalgic classic a go. My puddings ended up with a hollow centre but let me tell you they did not disappoint! I am going to do a bit of research and try them again in the near future to figure out what went wrong but they tasted super yummy so I'm not stressed. I have a feeling it might be from leaving the fat filter in the oven after the roast which has a tendency to mess with baked goods.



This week's tips/hints:
* These little babies are just wonderful with your roast beef and lots of delicious gravy.
* Once they have cooled, pop the leftovers in the freezer. Now you can have Yorkshire Puddings ready whenever you want them!
* Make sure you get the pans and the oil really hot. The batter should sizzle when you pour it in.
* Make sure you let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes. This is a really important step in ensuring that your batter is smoother leading to deliciously light and crispy puddings.

Enjoy! Xxx

Yorkshire Puddings

Serves: 12
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 15 - 20 minutes

Ingredients

3 eggs
115g plain flour
285ml milk
a pinch of salt
vegetable oil

Method

Whisk eggs, flour, milk and salt together until well combined.
Pour batter into a jug and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

While the batter is resting, preheat oven to 225°C.
While the oven is warming up, place a 12 pan muffin tray in the oven, on the top shelf.
Once the oven is up to temp and the muffin tray is hot, carefully remove the tray and close the oven again to maintain the high heat.
Place a tablespoon of vegetable oil in each muffin hole.
Pop the tray back in the oven for 5 minutes or so until the oil is smoking hot.
Slide the shelf with the tray half way out and fill each muffin hole with Yorkshire Pudding batter and gently slide back into the oven, as quickly as possible.
Allow the puddings to cook until they are golden and crispy, about 15 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DURING THIS COOKING TIME! It will lead to sunken puddings.
Remove from the oven and serve as soon as possible.

Comfort Food: Supercharged Lasagne

Comfort food. It is a marvellous thing and everyone you know has at least one type of comfort food. Now I'll be honest, none of my comfort foods could be termed 'healthy'. I like to comfort myself with salt and carbs and greasy food. Two of my big comfort foods though are lasagne and mac & cheese.



I remember, as a teen, that my best friend's Mum made THE BEST MAC & CHEESE EVER! I'm sure she still does but it's not really convenient for me to turn up on her door step requesting mac & cheese anymore. So for years I have been trying to perfect my own recipe. I still haven't managed it but I will not give up!

Lasagne, however, I have got down pat. Basic lasagne is in my regular rotation of meals that I cook, sometimes though you just want or need that little bit extra. Enter my supercharged lasagne. This baby takes the classic to a new level, with added bacon, mushrooms and five types of cheese.

The added bonus is that I cooked up a double batch of bolognese mince so that we can have jacket potatoes for a cheeky Saturday night dinner as well.

This weeks tips and hints:
* I chose to use a packet of shredded four cheese blend and some extra parmesan cheese. You can use any cheese you want. I often just use tasty cheese.
* This recipe is great for adding hidden veggies for those stubborn kids (or grown ups ;) ). Simply grate some carrot and zucchini into the mince.
* You could add the mushrooms to the mince, instead of layering them.
* Similarly you could keep the bacon as whole short cuts and layer it through instead.
* I have found that using fresh lasagne sheets makes a huge difference. You can buy them from the fridge section at the supermarket. They are also great for cannelloni, no more breaking dried pasta tubes, simply roll them around your filling!

Supercharged Lasagne

Serves: 4-6
Prep time:
Cooking time:

Ingredients

1-2 cups cheese
fresh lasagne sheets
3 Portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced

Bolognese Mince
1/2 onion, diced
2 pieces short cut bacon, diced
500g beef mince
1 tin crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
salt & pepper, to taste
dried or fresh herbs (I use thyme, oregano and basil), to taste

Béchamel Sauce
30g butter
60g plain flour
500ml milk
1 cup cheese
salt & pepper, to taste
nutmeg, to taste

Method

Fry off onion in a large frypan until them begin to change colour.
Add the diced bacon and gently fry until the onion is golden.
Once the onion is a nice golden colour, add the mince and brown on a medium-high heat. Use a spoon to gently break apart the meet as it cooks.
Once the mince has browned add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and salt & pepper, lower heat to medium-low and simmer gently until the sauce has reduced down and thickened.

While the mince is simmering, melt butter for béchamel sauce in a saucepan.
Add flour and cook for a minute or two, stirring regularly.
Slowly add the milk, whisking constantly.
Bring sauce to the boil, stirring constantly.
Reduce heat and simmer, stirring regularly, until it begins to thicken.
Remove from heat and stir in cheese.
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Set aside until you are ready to assemble. Stir occasionally to stop a skin from forming.

Gently fry off mushrooms in a little butter and olive oil.

When you are ready to assemble preheat oven to 200°C.

Now get ready to layer!
Scoop a little of the sauce out of the bolognese and spread around the bottom of you baking dish.
Place a layer of lasagne sheet on top of sauce, cut pieces to fit.
Place a third of the béchamel sauce.
Place half of the mushrooms.
Top with half of the bolognese.
If you are feeling particularly naughty, add a little cheese.
Place another layer of lasagne sheets.
Place another third of the béchamel sauce.
Place the rest of the mushrooms.
Top with the remaining bolognese.
Place a final layer of lasagne sheets.
Top with the remaining béchamel sauce.
Finish off with a layer of cheese (I add a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan here) and a sprinkle of herbs.

Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour, depending how crispy and golden you like your cheese.

Serve with your favourite sides. In our house we love to have potato gems, garlic bread and salad. Enjoy!

Bombay Beef, Lemon Saffron Rice and Homemade Naan

Hello again fellow food lovers! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I spent just over a week away, first at a Hot Rod run in Narrandera, catching up with family and old friends and then some time visiting my Nan. I love the Easter long weekend. Every year we travel down to attend the hot rod run, that I have been attending since I was 6 weeks old. I get to see friends that I often don't see at any other time of the year. And it is a great weekend, with great food, music, company and fun stuff to do, with the extra bonus of cool cars and awesome style. After the weekend I often hang around to spend some time with family because the town I grew up in is only 20 minutes away.

How I spent most of my long weekend. Relaxing with a view like this.

I haven't lived in Leeton for almost 15 years now, but I still have family there. While I love where I live and I have no desire to move back there, I love visiting once a year, returning to familiar places and seeing how the town has changed. I mean when I lived there we had just gotten Woolworths and that was a big deal. Now there is a McDonalds, Red Rooster, ONE set of traffic lights and other things I never dreamed of. But the heart of the town is the same, as shown by the out pouring of love, support and grief shown by the whole community following the tragic events surrounding the disappearance and murder of Stephanie Scott. Leeton is the kind of town where even if you don't personally know someone, you know someone who does or who has been affected by an event. My heart is breaking for a family and community in mourning. And I will admit that (as anyone who knows me can attest) this all hit a little too close to home and shook up a few of my own thoughts and actions.

Some of the hot rods in my family.

The other thing I love about returning to the Riverina? The food! There is no point beating around the bush, while Port Macquarie does somethings well and has a great hospitality industry, there is some food they just do better in the Riverina. I was enjoying the food so much (and posting so many facebook updates about it) that a friend had to ask if I was on a 'food-cation'. And if I'm honest that was pretty much what it was. I had a list of foods I wanted to eat and managed to tick them all off. Everything from Chinese, battered savs, pizza, to my version of bottled heaven, Portello and my favourite sweet treat, Junee White Gold (soft liquorice covered in white chocolate). The food was everything I remembered it to be, but I'm sure I put on several kilos! Haha

See what I mean about awesome style? This is one of my all
favourite dresses by Pigtails and Pirates.
Seriously check them out!

One cuisine we do have here at home that I have just fallen in love with is Indian. I have always steered clear of Indian as I am in no way a fan of hot, spicy food. In fact I am quite a sook. I can't stand it and I'm not a big fan of the taste of chilli, something that the rest of my family just can't understand. So while I am careful to order only mild dishes, I still often find them quite hot. I am growing to love the cuisine though so last weekend I decided I should try my hand at my favourite dish, and control the spice level myself. So like always I read quite a few recipes and adapted them to suit my own tastes. I also attempted a red lentil dhal, which was a complete flop. So just ignore it in the pictures. I am going to keep searching for the perfect dhal recipe.

I can't even explain how much I loved this meal. I wasn't terribly confident about making the naan, but it was far easier than I anticipated and was just plain awesome. All three of these dishes will go into regular rotation I think. In fact I cannot wait to make them again! So without further ado here are my recipes for Bombay beef, lemon saffron rice and homemade naan. Enjoy!

This week's tips/hints:
* I used imitation saffron powder as I had never cooked with it before and was too nervous about it to spend $14 on the real stuff.
* I found these great frozen cubes of ginger in the freezer section. I hate grating ginger and always end up with left overs in the fridge that go to waste. These were great, I just popped out the right amount of cubes, added them straight to the pan and the rest are in the freezer until I need more.
* I didn't add any chilli due to my own personal preference, so basically add as much as you want!
* Same with the garlic. I only added half a teaspoon as it upsets my mother's stomach. You might like to add a bit more.
* I cook most things in coconut oil these days but you can obviously fry in what ever you like.
*Finally I will apologise for the picture quality this week. I was far to excited to eat my feast and far to lazy and tired to stage proper photos. So sorry for the bad iphone pictures!

Bombay Beef, Lemon Saffron Rice and Homemade Naan

Bombay Beef

Ingredients
500g stewing steak/gravy beef
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 small eggplant, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon tomato paste
400g chopped tinned tomatoes
200ml beef stock
240ml coconut milk

Method
Gently fry onions, carrots, potato and eggplant until it starts to soften.
Add the ginger, garlic, spices, tomato paste and beef. Mix to coat thoroughly.
Add tinned tomato and beef stock. Bring to the boil.
Reduce heat and add coconut milk.
Cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until beef is tender and potatoes are soft.

Lemon Saffron Rice

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 1/4 cups basmati rice
4 cups chicken stock
1 whole lemon, zest and juice
1 teaspoon saffron powder
3 cardamom pods, gently crushed

Method
Place butter and oil in a large saucepan. Melt butter over a medium-high heat.
Once it is shimmery hot, add rice and stir to coat.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add saffron, cardamom pods, stock, lemon zest and juice.
Bring to the boil.
Cover and reduce heat.
Simmer until the rice has absorbed all the liquid (about 10-15 minutes).

Homemade Naan

Ingredients
4 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup hot water
3/4 teaspoon dry yeast
3/4 cup warm milk
1 cup greek yoghurt
melted butter, for brushing
herbs for topping, option (I just topped mine with salt and pepper)

Method
In a medium sized bowl or jug dissolve sugar in warm water.
Add dry yeast and stir until dissolved.
Let sit for about 10 minutes, until mixture begins to froth and rise.
Add remaining dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl, form a well in the centre
When yeast is frothy, add warm milk and yoghurt.
Pour wet ingredients into the centre of dry ingredients.
Mix ingredients together with a wooden spoon or spatula. When dough starts to come together, use you hands to finish mixing, stop as soon as it comes together and forms a ball. It should be sticky.
Cover bowl with a damp tea towel and let sit in a warm place for 1 hour.
Divide dough into 8 equal balls. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece of dough into an oval shape about 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick.
Heat pan over medium-high heat until quite hot.
Brush both sides of naan with melted butter and sprinkle with your desired herbs or spices.
Place in hot pan cook for 1-2 minutes, until you see bubbles start to form. Flip and cook for a further 1-2 minutes, until large toasted spots appear on the underside.
Place naan in a tea towel lined dish.
Repeat with the rest of naan.

Satay Chicken Skewers

I did it! I finally tried one of my new recipes that I have had planned for weeks! Super simple satay chicken skewers. These were adapted from the Woman's Weekly Five Day Diet recipe book. I love the idea of this book. It is full of delicious looking, fresh, simple food and allows you to have your weekends free to eat whatever you want. My only (personal) problem is that while each recipe has the nutritional information the days don't seem to stick to a calorie intake amount. This is all personal preference though, I find I get better results if I set myself a calorie goal. So I took what I felt would work for me from the book and adapted it to fit. I often find that calorie controlled recipes (Woman's Weekly, Michelle Bridges, etc) are lacking in a variety of vegetables as part of the meal so I often bulk them out with extras because I love veggies (and I'm not going to beat myself up for going over my goal with veggies).

So the first recipe I decided to try was the satay chicken skewers. They sounded tasty and super easy. And they didn't disappoint. I tried the pickled carrot and cucumber but found it a bit lacking only having the two types of vegetables and will probably have a salad next time. I also cheated and used 90 second rice, which I guess is only really cheating on the cooking time, but I hate cooking rice so I loved this. I was just cooking for myself tonight so I also appreciated that the recipe is very simple to halve. Add a glass of white wine and I was very happy.

My hints/tips this week are:
 Soak the skewers in water for about 30 minutes before you want to use them. It makes it easier to skewer the meat and stops them from burning when you are cooking.
While you can use any type of peanut butter, I think crunchy would work best. I used smooth as that was what I had in the pantry but think the extra crunch would have been awesome.
This recipe serves two.
Enjoy!

Satay Chicken Skewers



Ingredients
1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon grass
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
250g chicken tenderloins (I cut mine into 6 strips of similar size)
2 tablespoon peanut butter
1 cup chicken stock
brown rice, to serve

Method

Combine lemongrass, cumin, coriander, turmeric and chicken tenderloins in a bowl. Allow to stand for 15 minutes.
Thread chicken onto skewers.
Cook chicken in frying pan over medium-high heat until golden and cooked through.
Remove from pan and cover with foil to keep warm.
Add spices leftover from marinating chicken, peanut butter and stock to pan. Stir until combined and allow to simmer over a low-medium heat until the sauce thickens.
Serve with your choice of sides. Drizzle satay sauce over the top of the skewers.

I served my meal with brown rice and a simple pickled carrot and cucumber salad. To make the salad finely slice 200g carrot and 150g cucumber. Toss is 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 2 teaspoons of caster sugar. Allow to stand for 30 minutes. Drain off excess liquid and serve.

Spiral Vegetable Tart and Fruity Port Steaks

Well this week was the first week of the challenge. All week I had friends and family asking me when I was cooking, what I was cooking, when was I going to post about it. Being the first week I wanted to take my time and choose a recipe that I really, really, really wanted. I landed upon a recipe I had seen several months ago on Facebook for a spiral vegetable tart. I watched the video several times when I first came across it and have been dying to try is ever since. So I started trawling back through my posts trying to find the video I had shared. But unsurprisingly, if you know Facebook, it seemed to have been eaten and was never to be seen again. Luckily a quick Google search led me to the Food Republic website. I mean really it just looks amazing!

Now that I had decided on the tart, I had to choose a meat to accompany it. I decided to use meat that we had already purchased, so I set out to find a pork steak recipe to complement the rest of the meal. I settled on this fruity pork steak recipe from the BBC Good Food website. It sounded simple, but delicious.

I first ran into problems when I was shopping for ingredients for the tart. This was mainly my fault for trying to cook an Autumn or Winter dish on Summer! But I pushed ahead. I wasn't able to find the appropriate squash or carrots, instead I used regular carrots and added sweet potato in place of the squash.

I decided to speed up the process by using a mandolin slicer to slice the veges instead of a peeler. I have to say that this made the job of slicing all those veggies way less daunting.

I was worried about the coordination I would need to wrap the veggies into a neat spiral. But I found it far easier than I anticipated and was very happy with the results. Doesn't it look gorgeous! And it hadn't even been cooked yet!

Once the tart was in the oven (and yes I will admit that I checked every 5 minutes until it was ready!), it was time to start on the pork steaks. I liked the minimal amount of prep this recipe required. I took the time to slice the onion and apple before starting, so that once I started cooking everything moved smoothly.

From the moment the steak hit the pan the house smelt amazing. The smell of the Chinese five spice and pork was just mouth watering. I appreciated that it was a simple matter of adding each new ingredient at the right time. When it came to the glaze I had been unable to find red currant jelly, so I substituted raspberry jam. I think I was actually drooling from the smells by now.

Now all that was left was to pull the tart out of the oven and see how well it had cooked. It was stunning! My only criticism is how difficult the tart was to cut. I was worried that I was going to ruin the aesthetics when I was serving it. It was also very difficult to cut when eating. I do wonder if cooked for slightly longer, in a slightly cooler oven would have made the vegetables softer and easier to cut without over cooking the pastry. Or possibly blanching the vegetables before putting the tart together. The flavour however was divine! It was a huge hit and I will definitely be cooking it again.   

The pork was also a huge hit. The glaze was a bit runny, more like a sauce but the flavour was delicious! There were many 'Mmmmmmm's issuing from the family when they tasted it, and the plates were all scraped clean, as was the saucepan.

Overall I would call this week's feast a success! Both recipes will be added into my regular rotation and I would highly recommend them. 

In case you missed the links before you can find the vegetable tart recipe HERE, and the fruity pork steak recipe HERE.

Well that's it for this week, a GIANT thank you to everyone who has stopped by and please leave a comment. See you again next week!