So you know those weekends where you just feel like cooking up a whole lot of something different but the other members of your family just screw up their noses and say “EWWW, I dont eat that S@#T!” Oh the people in your family dont say that too you? Well neither do mine, but my husband doesnt enjoy my experimentation on the nest of occasions and this weekend i just needed to make something different yet sorted out my husband at the same time…. Soooooo….

I made his favorite mince.  Sounds boring right? Well that part was, but the other parts, the ‘different’ or ‘yuck’ [as my husband says] parts were the fun bits, the bits that while might need ‘some’ improvement, are still worth a shot, especially if you are trying to be a little wheat free like me at the moment.

So what is it you say?! What could possibly make mince more exciting?! Well, well well [three holes in the ground] have i got two exciting things for you…

My polenta pastry & my polenta bread, both work magnificently with a good batch of what i call a mexican mince, i guess you could call it chilli con care mince, but im not sure it would classify as a classic chilli con carne!

So first things first

The Mince

Stuff you’ll need

• Mince
• Onion
• Garlic
• Canned Tomatoes
• Tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, chilli sauce
• Vinegar
• Basil / mixed herbs
• Kidney beans
• Refried beans (you can leave these out if you like, i just think it thickens the sauce a tad)

How i did it

So basically – make mince…. Fry off onion and garlic, brown mince, season & add herbs.  Add canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, bbq sauce, chilli sauce and a dash of vinegar (just add a splosh of each and add more or less depending on what flavors you like).  Then add the kidney beans and let the sauce simmer down for about 1/2 hour – 3/4 hour.  At the last minute add maybe a 1/4 can of refried beans, not too many or thats all the sauce will taste like [oh and you will probably fart - yes, yes i just said fart - your way to the moon the next day from all the beans!]

Donskies, you could also use this mince for tacos or burritios or whatever, i always just cook up a big batch and freeze it so that husband has something to eat when he doesnt feel like cooking!

So now that the mince is made lets get to making the FUN stuff!

Mexican Pie using Polenta Pastry

Stuff you’ll need

• 1 cup polenta
• 100grm cold chopped butter
• 1 egg yolk
• ice cold water
• dusting of flour

• Some of the mince you just made
• Mix of tasty and Parmesan cheeses

If you have ever made pastry, basically you are just making pastry with polenta instead.  You could either make the pastry in a food processor by crumbing the polenta and butter, then adding the yolk and water until it forms a dough, or by hand basically with the same technique.

Once you have formed a dough flour a bench (if you are completely wheat free, obviously use wheat free flour) and gently kneed the dough until some of the flour is through it and it has come together without being too dry.  Flatten to a disk and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour.

Remove from the fridge and roll to a thin sheet, now as you can see my technique needs much practice and i think next time using the same pie dish i would make more dough to make it easier.  So once rolled out place over a pie dish, it is obviously way better if your pastry doesnt rip like mine did, cause as you know patch jobs on pastry just dont work – dont believe me? Check out the images! (still tasted just as awesome though)

Ok so once you have been successful in putting the pastry in the dish, refrigerate for about 1/2 hour.  Pre heat the oven to about 180 deg cel.  Once chilled, blind bake the pastry for about 20 minutes then remove from the oven, place some of the mince inside, sprinkle some cheese on top and place back into the oven until the mince is warm, crust golden brown, and cheese nice a grilled…

CAREFULLY remove from the pie dish, the pastry is quite delicate… And Enjoy, maybe with a side salad or a side of salsa with tomatoes cucumber onion and avocado…

Want more?! More you say more?!

Well i have more, yes i do… What on earth are you going to do with all of that left over mince? Or the next day when you really dont feel like cooking, what do you do?  Well you have polenta in the cupboard, you have the mince, you have the cheese… So lets make…

Mexican Mince & Polenta Bread

Recipe taken directly from here

Stuff you’ll need

• 2 cups polenta
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

How i did it

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Oil a baking pan [i used two small round spring form pans, i guess you could use whatever you like, a loaf pan etc, just adjust the cooking time accordingly] and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of the cornmeal and the boiling water. The cornmeal will become mushy and then stiff. Set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the remaining 1 1/2 cups of cornmeal, the sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Beat the egg into the cornmeal mush and stir in the oil. Whisk in the buttermilk to make a thin batter. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisk just until the batter is smooth, and immediately pour it into the prepared pan.

Bake until the center of the cornbread is slightly rounded and firm and the edges are golden brown.

Once the bread was cooked i let cool slightly before removing from the pan, and then slicing using a bread knife.

To serve i heated a pan, melted some butter and fried the bread on both sides.  Serve with the mince and a little cheese… Nomnomnomnom NOMMY!

Yumm Yumm, bet you didnt think that you could make so much with so little did cha?!

Sunday nights, they are the killer for me, all i want on sunday night is one last treat before the week ahead begins… This week [and hopefully next week too] i have been attempting even over the weekend to stay wheat free, dont ask me why, not sure, trying to loose the kilo i managed to gain last week, but whatever the case i came up with this little dish that while my presentation and photography skills definitely need work [can you tell its not my thing?] really did taste uber yummy!

Veal Rolls with Broad Beans & Leek

Stuff you’ll need

• 400-500 grams veal schnitzel [not crumbed]
• Bocconcini Cheese
• Olives, pitted and sliced
• Sun dried tomatos
• Broad Beans, peeled
• Leek

How i did it

First slice the bocconcini, olives and sun drieds.  Lay out a piece of your meat and season, then at the top end lay a few slices of the sun drieds and olives with some of the bocconcini.

The next part was a little fiddely but not too tricky in the end slowly roll the meat over the filling and into a nice tight roll, pushing the ends in as you roll – so that when the meat cooks the filling will stay inside.

Repeat the rolling process for all of the meat slices – we had about 6 pieces of meat, but they were pounded quite thin by the butcher.

Once the meat is rolled, place a few breadcrumbs on a plate and season with salt and pepper – you could leave this step out, but it does create a nice crust and help to hold everything together! Roll the veal rolls in the crumbs [rollin, rollin, rollin rolls... lol]

Heat up a dash of olive oil in an oven proof pan, place the veal in the pan and fry for a few seconds on each side so as to get a nice crust.  Make sure you are not cooking the veal too much as we want to finish it off in the oven [opps did i forget to mention that you need to preheat the oven to about 180?]

Once the veal is sealed on all sides, place in the oven for about 5 -10 minutes, make sure you dont over cook the veal, tough veal is gross – just saying…

While the veal is cooking, cook the beans in the microwave, make sure you dont over cook them or they go squishy – they still need to be firm.  Slice the leek and fry off in some oil, season to your liking, then when the beans are cooked add them to the leek and if your feeling naughty [which i was] add a knob of butter just before you serve.

Once the veal is cooked to your liking [or a little under] remove from the oven and let rest for a jiffy.

Serve with the beans & your ready to enjoy your feast!

Yummmmmmm

We are aussie, and what could be more aussie than a meat pie? A BIG MAN Meat Pie, that is what! 1kg of beef, 500 grams of mushrooms, tomato sauce, more salt than you know what to do with – good lord we are all going to have a heart attack! Lucky i dont do this often that is for sure (especially seeing i have prepared sweets as well, and we thought this was going to give us a heart attack!)

Big Man Pie

Stuff you’ll need for your heart attack

• 1kg chuck steak cut into 1cm cubes
• 3 onions
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 500ml beef stock (if your not keen on too salty – and next time i think i will reduce the beef stock qty, go for 250 ml + 250 ml water
• 500 grams chopped mushrooms
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup bbq sauce
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon vegimite
• 1 tablespoon sugar (or fake sugar)
• mixed herbs
• pepper

• 5 sheets of ready made puff pastry

• 3 cups peas
• Fresh mint chopped, or prepackaged mint
• Knob of butter

How i did it (gave us all heart attacks that is)

Mommy why are you cooking at 8am?

First peel and dice the onions and garlic, then dice the chuck steak if not already diced.  Heat a little oil in a pan and fry off the onion and garlic.  While the onion and garlic is frying coat the beef in seasoned flour.  Once the onion and garlic is nicly sauteed and somewhat clear, place in a slow cooker (or crock pot if you fancy).  Next seal / fry off the beef in some oil, remember to do it in batches so as it doesnt stew in the pan.  Place into the slow cooker as you go.  Once all the beef is sealed and in the slow cooker , fry off the mushrooms, again in batches so they dont stew.  Place into the slow cooker.

Once the mushrooms are out of the pan, place all the sauce ingredients including stock into the pan and scrape the bottom (apparently they tell me that this is where the flavor is) heat the sauce to a bubble then pour into the slow cooker and add the herbs.

Put the slow cooker on high, covered for an hour or two, then uncovered for the sauce to thicken and reduce, i had the cooker on for a total of nine hours, so uncovered for seven hours.  I added more herbs and a little fake sugar at hour 6 as i found the sauce very salty.  I know next time i would only use half the stock and replace with water – but my husband (king for the night) assured me that the beef was fantastic and the flavor was just right, not too salty (but then again i think he has lost his salty taste buds)

Right, now that the beef is done, grease and line a spring form baking tin, then arrange four of the sheets of puffy pastry into the tin.  Now i use store bought because it is easy and what my husband likes, if you like shortcrust then go for it! I think the traditional pie uses shortcrust on the base and puffy on the lid, so eh do what you please with the pastry!  Blind bake the base for about umm maybe 20-30 minutes depending how thick the pastry was, i am sure you all know how to blind bake, so again ill leave that one up to you

Now we are cooking with gas! (not really thats a figure of speech) Right so once the pie crust is par cooked, place the beef mix into it and then the last sheet of pastry on top for the lid.  Dont forget to cut a little steam hole in the top, and brush the top with an egg.  Place it back in the oven for about 20 -30 minutes or until the top is cooked through.

While the pie is cooking place the two cups of peas on to boil / cook them in the microwave, which ever takes you fancy at the time.  Once the peas are cooked, add a knob of butter and some mint or mint paste and roughly mash them.

Serve a lovely big piece of you man pie, with a lovely big scoop of minted pea mash….

Nomnomnom! Trust me, you and your man will be in winter pie heaven!

Roast Chicken the Ol’ Fashion Way

In a world of convenience and fast food it came to my attention the other day that i have never actually roasted a chicken.  Well i have roasted a chicken but never ‘from scratch’, you see since leaving home every time we have wanted a roast chicken we have either simply just picked up a pre-cooked one from the supermarket or bought a pre-marinated pre-stuffed one which only requires sticking it in the oven.

So yesterday i did something i never imagined i would – i cooked a chook from scratch… Yup and it was AWESOME, even if i do say so myself

Stuff you’ll need

• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup couscous
• 1/2 leek
• 2-3 stalks celery
• 100grm cashew nuts
• Italian herbs
• 4-5 cloves peeled garlic

• 2kg chicken (at room temperature)
• 2-3 onions (leave unpeeled, chop in half)
• Heaps of garlic (leave unpeeled, break the cloves apart)
• 1/2 leek
• 2-3 stalks of celery
• 6 dutch carrots (washed and stalks trimmed)
• 1 potato for your husband (because he doesnt eat “that green shit”)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Italian herbs

How i did it

First the stuffing.  I brought 1 cup of stock to the boil, added a dash of oil, removed from the heat and added one cup of couscous.  Cover the couscous and let sit for five / until all the liquid is absorbed.  While that was absorbing i put the cashew nuts and garlic in the blender with the herbs and pulsed a few times just to break up and blend without making it into a paste or anything, still really chunky. 

I sliced the leek and celery and placed in a hot fry pan with a large knob of butter – hmmm butter nomnomnom!

While the celery and leek is cooking entertain your cranky baby with a stick of the raw celery.. Apparently they love it & it quiets them down for at least the cooking time of the leeks and celery!

Once the leek and celery is cooked through, add it to the couscous with the nut herb garlic mix, stir through making sure all the flavors go through the couscous, place to one side.

Now for the chicken… Preheat the oven to 200 deg Celsius.  Ive never actually come face to face with a naked chicken and quite frankly, its a little scary lookin and feelin! Anywho i got over myself, washed my hands and did what i never thought i would ever do, i stuck my hand inside a chicken… ewwww!

Place handfuls of the couscous (stuffing) mix into the bird until it is full.  Before we go any further i have to admit to one mistake, which experienced chicken roasters would proberbly pick up when looking at the next few images… But honestly HOW DO YOU KNOW which is up and which is down?! I had no idea, so unfortunately i roasted the chicken up side down – how on earth can you tell which is up and which is down?

Is this up?

Or is this up?

Once the chicken is stuffed, place in your roasting dish.  Put all the vegetables (except the carrots and potatoes) around the chicken, drizzle oil over the chicken and vegetables.  Sprinkle the chicken with salt and Italian herbs and rub into the skin with the oil. Place in the oven.

I then baked it for about half an hour before placing the carrots and potatoes in the pan, at which stage i also turned the bird around as my oven is a little uneven.  I left the chicken in for a total of an hour and a half, but i guess it depends on your oven and how big the bird is.

Oh the smell was just what i needed on a cold winters evening!  I then covered with alfoil and let rest for about 5-10 minutes before serving.  It was awesome, we both went back for seconds and the plan to roast a chicken so that there are left overs for lunch went straight out the window cause there is NOTHING left!

I got my inspirations for this meal from here and here