We split 1/8 cow with J’s family (from local supplier Bonnie Beef) and towards the end of my stash I’m always left wondering what to do with the final batch of sausages. On Saturday night I put my powers of Google to work and came upon this recipe from Coles.
Always keen to get some additional vegetables and use what I have, I added carrot and celery, subbed beef stock for chicken stock and used fresh corn. Instead of cooking it in a saucepan (not sure how I am supposed to cook sausages in a saucepan Coles!) I used my extra large frypan and cooked my rice like a paella.
The result was a tasty Saturday night dinner and a different use for those excess sausages. And there were lots of leftovers, which made for a tasty Monday lunch. And on Mondays, anything that gets me through is worth a try!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Oil
- 6 Sausages (I used beef)
- 1 Onion, diced
- 1 Celery stalk, diced
- 1 Carrot, diced
- 1 teaspoon Cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Tumeric
- 1 1/2 cups Basmati rice
- 3 cups Stock (I used half beef half water)
- 1 Cob of corn, kernels removed
- 1/4 cup Currants
- Natural yoghurt to serve
Directions
- In a large, deep frying pan, heat olive oil on high.
- Cook your sausages, turning regularly, until browned and cooked through.
- Remove from pan and set aside, covered to keep warm.
- Using some of the sausage fat in the pan (depending on how much fat your sausages cook out) saute onion, garlic, celery and carrot on medium heat until onion is translucent.
- Add the cumin, paprika and tumeric and stir through until fragrant.
- Add the rice and stir until coated.
- Add stock and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and leave to simmer gently for 12-15 minutes or until stock is absorbed and rice is cooked. You may need to add more water - check on your rice as needed.
- Slice up sausages and add to rice, together with currants and corn.
- Serve with natural yoghurt or raita and cucumber slices or coriander.
These came from a recent edition of Donna Hay magazine, of course with several adaptations based on what I had in stock. The dumplings are quite similar to a ricotta gnocchi recipe I have made previously by Maggie Beer. This is a nice light meal but is still satisfying because of the protein from the ricotta.
I used spinach leaves from our garden – sadly the spinach plant has since been fried by the heat. The recipe calls for baby spinach but you could also use normal spinach – you would just have to cook it briefly first and squeeze out the moisture.
The dumplings would also work well with a more traditional tomato pasta sauce, or you could do a brown butter sauce (much like Maggie Beer’s recipe). I recommend serving with a nice fresh green salad – my philosophy is you can never have too many vegetables!
Ingredients
- 200 grams Baby spinach or other spinach, wilted, wrung out and chopped
- 1 cup Fresh ricotta
- 2/3 cup Parmesan, finely grated
- 1/3 cup Plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 2 Eggs
- 1/3 cup Chives, chopped
- 1 clove Garlic, chopped or crushed
- 40 grams butter
- 300 grams Cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1-2 Ears of corn, kernels removed
- 1-2 Anchovy fillets, chopped (or to taste)
- 1/2 Red onion, finely sliced
- 1 clove Garlic, chopped or crushed
- 2 tablespoons Olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Vinegar (I used apple cider but recipe calls for white wine)
- Salt and pepper
Directions
- In a medium sized bowl mix the tomatoes, anchovy, corn kernels, red onion, mint, garlic, olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and toss to combine. Set aside until you are ready to serve.
- In a medium bowl combine the spinach, ricotta, parmesan, flour, eggs, chives, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix until a sticky dough forms.
- Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil on the stove.
- Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and roll in extra flour in a bowl or on the bench.
- Cook in batches (5-8 balls at a time depending on your saucepan size) for 3-4 minutes. You'll know when they are done because they float to the surface.
- Remove with a slotted spoon, set aside and cook the rest of your dumplings.
- Heat a large frypan over high and melt the butter.
- Add your dumplings and cook for 2 minutes each side until they are golden.
- Toss through the tomato salsa and extra parmesan and cracked pepper to taste.
- Sometimes it’s too hot to cook. Brisbane is currently experiencing a heatwave, and with it my desire to cook disappears.
- I am so sick of ham. It turns out a 10kg ham is far too big. It also takes far far too long to heat through, resulting in burnt glaze
 But a glaze of seeded mustard, brandy and marmalade is delicious!
- I don’t really “get” gogi berries. Or green tea. Or coconut water. Or a lot of other so-called “super-foods”.
- I secretly really love the fake cheese on corn chips/twisties/cheezels etc.
- Butter makes everything better. Add margarine to the list of things I don’t get.
- Sometimes it’s just easier to have friends over for takeaway and wine. And sometimes it’s just easier to have wine.
- I lick the spoon. I eat the raw dough. I stand over the stove taking bites from the leftovers.
- Most of the time, breakfast just isn’t my bag. I eat it, but I’m generally uninspired by it.
- Cupcakes – meh. Generally they are dry and the icing is too sweet. Macaroons, however, are a trend I can get behind.
- Hot chips. I’ll pick them over the baked potato/side salad any day.
Happy belated new year! I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things after the twin joys of a sinus infection and a frenzy of deck painting. Real recipes to follow shortly.
It was my birthday last week and it came after a 3 week trial of little/no added sugar. My conclusions from that little experiment was – 1. I was eating way too much sugar. 2. I could never give up sugar for any length of time. 3. However, when I do have sugar it should be worth it.
So, I don’t think it was a coincidence that on my birthday the lovely J gifted me with the icecream-maker attachment to my Kitchen Aid. In my opinion, homemade icecream = totally worth it.
I’m not going to lie here – icecream making is a time-consuming process. Particularly your first time. You have to make the custard, chill the custard, chill the icecream-maker, churn the icecream, freeze the icecream. I hope I haven’t lost you yet! I do think it’s worth the labour – a lot of it is not time you’re actively doing anything – just waiting around.
Although I started fairly basically, there is something so wonderful about true vanilla bean icecream that I knew it was the right choice. My imagination is already somewhere down the road, thinking of all the fantastic and interesting flavours I can make – the kind you can’t buy in a supermarket. I’m thinking – fig and pistachio, pecan and burnt caramel, basil, coconut icecream, coffee icecream, dark chocolate icecream, chocolate and chilli icecream, hazelnut… the list goes on…
But I’m here to talk about vanilla bean icecream. As a child, I was always more interested in chocolate, in strawberry, in that crazy triple swirl icecream that is no colour or flavour naturally occuring on this green earth… As an adult, I have come to appreciate the subtlety of vanilla, particularly good (real!) vanilla.
I have it on good authority that David Lebovitz is the king of icecream. I already have my eye on his book, The Perfect Scoop. I was able to find his recipe for vanilla bean icecream online, and it is adapted below.
Details
60 + overnight min
60 min
Ingredients
- 1 cup Whole milk
- Pinch salt
- 150 grams Sugar
- 1 Vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 2 cups Cream
- 5 large Egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
Directions
- Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan. You want to milk to be fairly warm, but not boiling.
- Scrape in the vanilla bean seeds, then add in the pod and infuse for 1 hour, covered.
- Separate out egg yolks into a bowl and stir together.
- Once your milk has infused, set up a bowl filled with water and ice.
- Rest another bowl inside the icewater, and add your cream. Set up a seive or strainer on top the bowl.
- Meanwhile, rewarm your milk, again until warm but not boiling.
- Gradually add your milk mixture into the egg yolks, stirring constantly.
- You should do this gradually to avoid scrambling your eggs!
- Once all combined, scrape your mixture back into the saucepan.
- Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula.
- The custard will gradually thicken, it is done when it covers the back of your spatula.
- Allow to cool slightly, then gradually add the custard to your cream, straining through the seive.
- Stir as you add to the cream.
- Once the mixture has cooled slightly, add the vanilla essence.
- Chill until no longer warm, then store overnight in the fridge.
- The following day, churn the mixture in your icecream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.
- Freeze until you wish to use, and enjoy the taste of rich homemade icecream!
This recipe is a little more time consuming, as the stuffing can take a while to prepare. To save time, you could pre-cook the barely, or even make the stuffing in its entirety the day before. It’s worth the effort and the stuffing makes a great salad or lunch on its own. It is quite similar to a recipe I have published before, from Smitten Kitchen, for a Mediterranean barley salad. You could also substitute another grain – rice, quinoa or bulgar would all work here.
For some reason, I love to stuff vegetables. I’m not sure why I feel this way – it just seems like such a nice way to present a meal. I’ve used capsicums in this recipe, but you could easily stuff eggplants, tomatoes or zucchini. We ate these as a meal in themselves, but you could also prepare them in advance and serve with a protein – steak, fish, prawns, chicken – almost anything would work. They would also be a lovely, impressive-looking dish for a dinner party – and I know many of us probably have several of those in the upcoming weeks!
Details
15 min
65 min
1 h, 20 min
Ingredients
- 2 cups Stock (chicken or vegetable)
- 1 cup Pearl barley, soaked
- 1 Onion, diced
- Olive oil
- 1 small Eggplant, roughly chopped
- 2 medium Zucchini, roughly chopped
- 1/2 Red or green capsicum, chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, diced finely
- 1 teaspoon Ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon Ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon Red chilli flakes (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon Tumeric
- 1 cup Natural or Greek yoghurt
- large Handful cherry tomatoes, halved
- large Handful kalamata olives, halved
- 1/2 cup Feta, crumbled
- Handful Parsley and mint, to taste
- 4 large Red capsicum, hollowed
Directions
- Preheat oven 180*.
- Cook your barley in the stock for 35-45 minutes until it is cooked through but still chewy. Add more water while cooking as necessary.
- Meanwhile, splash some olive oil in a large frypan and bring to medium heat.
- Cook your onion until it starts to become translucent, then throw in your eggplant, zucchini, capsicum and any other veges you want to add. Cook until they start to soften slightly.
- Add the garlic and stir briefly, then add your spices - I used cumin, coriander, oregano, tumeric and red chilli flakes.
- Stir well and cook until fragrant.
- Add the cooked barley to the pan, stir well and then add natural yoghurt.
- Finally, add your cherry tomatoes, olives, herbs (parsley and mint) and feta. Stir to combine.
- Stuff mixture into hollowed out capsicums. Sprinkle with a little more feta if desired.
- Cook on trays in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the capsicum starts to soften slightly. Serve as is, or with any leftover barley.
Last year was the first time I attended the Brisbane Good Food and Wine Show. I was pretty excited this year when I was contacted by the PR team and offered a free double pass plus a free double pass to give away on the blog. Deb was the lucky recipient of the pass – hopefully she had a good time!
So, Saturday J and I (together with his family who bought earlybird tickets) took a train into Southbank (unfortunately South Brisbane is closed at the moment) and joined the crowds.
The Show this year aimed to focus on local producers, particularly those affected by the Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi. For the first time, the Show also had a large number of ‘gluten free’ producers.
We spent several hours wandering around, trying lots of delicious samples – highlights were the cheeses and yoghurts (Barambah Organics, Kingaroy Cheese and Yarra Valley Dairy) and that one tiny spoonful of Movenpick (Meringue and double cream icecream)!
I glued my teeth together with a sample of brittle from the Feast Magazine demonstration stall.
I also loved the food mural (pictured below) – very clever.
Thanks so much for the free tickets Square One PR!
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