So why am I talking about Christmas in July?  Christmas in July is a bit of an ex-pat tradition in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons are turned on their head.  I know no-one believes me, but it does get cold in Sydney.  Don’t be fooled when you check the BBC world weather and it says 19C with a blazing orange sun.  The important part to note are the lows 0f 4C, which lower the temperature of single brick, uninsulated houses to temperatures that should never be experienced inside a house.  It does get to at least 16c most days, but only for a couple of hours in the middle of the day when I am usually freezing my butt off in an air-conditioned office.  So to try and make the best of a bad (ish) situation it seems like a good idea to have a big Christmas roast because this is something you certainly don’t get to cook in December.

Bring in the first unidentified European dish.  I can’t say British for this one as the guests were greeted with a glass of mulled wine which fits better at a German Christmas market; but it is something that the Brits have embraced and is certainly something to be enjoyed on a winters day. Not everyone had heard of it, but once it was described as a ‘warm Sangria’ all were willing to try and most came back for more, so much so that we ran out.

So it’s mid-July and all our Aussie friends pile over to ours for a traditional Christmas Roast.  Christmas in the Midgley house always starts with picky bits, so I made a plate of canapés to get us going. These are firm favourites in the Midgley house, that have been wheeled out more times than I care to remember: mini Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish cream; hot smoked salmon and potato lettuce cups; mini herb omelettes rolled with ricotta Parmesan and herbs.  I have to get the Yorkies in there somewhere, because there is just no room in the oven for Yorkshire pudding and Christmas Dinner.

For the main course it is pork. I know, not traditionally for Christmas but I didn’t get my act together in time for turkey or ham.  Graham has been looking forward to this for twelve months, not for the turkey but for the sausage wrapped in bacon and the bread sauce to dip them in, so despite not having the turkey we did have all the trimmings.  This was the next big question from the Aussies, “What on earth is bread sauce?” Well it’s exactly what it says, a sauce made of bread.  You bring some milk to the boil and flavour it with onion, cloves, nutmeg and bay leaf, then you strain and mix the breadcrumbs into the milk, season and then add some butter and cream until you reach your desired consistency – not too sloppy but not too thick.  Admittedly it does taste better with turkey, and I did have to have some apple sauce for the pork, but Graham, I have to confess after 11 years I am now quite partial to a little sausage (homemade of course) wrapped in prosciutto (I can’t get good streaky bacon here and my homemade bacon doesn’t wrap very well) dipped in bread sauce.

When I say all the trimmings, we really did have it all. There was also stuffing balls (as there was no turkey to stuff), Brussels sprouts, braised red cabbage and last but not least we must not forget the roast potatoes. The roasties are my favourite part of the roast, but because they are my favourite we don’t have to wait for a special occasion to eat them.  I try and get a roast potato fix at least once a week during winter, and I make sure I have a constant supply of duck fat to keep me going.  The roast potatoes are so important, (and the one thing I get asked about over and over again) that I am going to dedicate a whole post to the perfect roast potato.

It has taken a few years, but I think we have made a move from Poms to almost true blue Aussies and we have started to carve out the traditions of the Midgley Christmas. It now means a barbecue around the pool in December and a Christmas in July party in July; we have the best of both worlds, how did I ever dare moan?!

EDIT: I was so keen to get this post up before the end of July that I forgot to talk about the awesome desserts.  We really didn’t need dessert after my ridiculous over catering, but my wonderful friends dutifully provided sticky date pudding and apple tart tatin because they know desserts are not my strong point.And despite the fact we were all ridiculously full we all ate a portion of each

Pancetta Lardons

In the real world I work with children with Autism. For any of you who knows anyone with Autism you will know that many people with Autism have similar personality traits. People with Autism tend to have a special interest; they often like to stick to a routine; their special interest is often a large part of their life; once they’ve started something it can be difficult to stop; they are often sticklers for rules. Sometimes I think there is a bit of Autism in all of us, and this Charcutepalooza challenge is certainly bringing out my Autism.

Pancetta phase 1

I have had a special interest in cooking for many years now, but more recently it has gotten to the stage whereby I can’t walk past a bookshop without looking at the cookbooks, and more often than not I end up buying one.  When I started cooking, it was out of necessity, I had a new husband whom I had to feed when he arrived home from work, but once I got over the first few disasters I actually realised I quite enjoyed it. The more I cooked the better I became and the better I became the more I wanted to  challenge myself.  Having been given the best Christmas present EVER in 2009 (a food mixer with grinding and sausage stuffing attachments) and finding myself spending more time than is perhaps healthy reading a sausage making internet forum; charcuterie was the natural, next step.

Bresaola

Most sensible people undertaking this challenge (Charcutepalooza) would probably find making one cured meat product a month sufficient, but not me. Once I get an idea in my head I kind of get a little obsessed and one project turns into two, then three, then four.  Thankfully with charcuterie each recipe is very different, and although I started four projects all on the same weekend, they were all completed at very different times, so the influx of meat was staggered.

Ready!

I’ve already reported on the bacon, duck prosciutto and kangaroo prosciutto, but at the same time I also embarked on some pancetta, beef bresaola and kangaroo bresaola. I went off to Eveleigh Markets for the pork belly, and I found an awesome producer, but because it is essentially a farmers market you can only have what they’ve bought with them that day, and on that day their largest piece of pork belly was a kilo. They did try and sell me two bits to make up the 2.25kg I wanted, but I had to point out that two halves does not make a whole in this case.  To compensate I also bought a piece from the supermarket and did a bit of a taste test and I’m not sure why I ever thought otherwise, but there really was a big difference in taste and texture with the organic, rare breed pork compared to the supermarket pork.  I know the world talks about the importance of this, particularly in the world of charcuterie, but sorry guys, I had to try and test it for myself, and now I’ve done it, I’m converted.

Bresaola

Those of you who follow me on twitter will also know I had the same dramas with the beef for the bresaola. I spent $50 on the best piece of beef I could source from Eveleigh Markets, however, when I got it home I realised it was far fattier and sinewy than is ideal for bresaola. I tweeted my dilemma, and was reassured that bresaola is fairly straight forward, so I trimmed it to within an inch of its life at set to work on the cure. It has since also produced a dinner of stroganoff and a small roast, so it was $50 well spent. I also couldn’t resist testing it against a more appropriate cut of supermarket beef and a piece of kangaroo.

For the bresaola, the rare breed beef out shone the supermarket beef by miles, but I think the kangaroo bresaola was the quiet achiever. The intense, gamey flavour of the kangaroo was enhanced by the dry cure and the only mark it had against it was there just wasn’t enough. I desperately need to find somewhere that sells larger chunks of ‘roo.

Sliced

So all in all the Charcutepalooza challenge is feeding my Autism nicely. I have a deadline to produce my meat by each month – I like to stick to a routine. I’m a stickler for the rules – my post will not be published a second earlier or a second later than the 15th of the month. I have a new cookbook, which entices me to cook more than just the monthly challenges.

And “What does one do with all this meat?” I hear you cry. Well, we’ve eaten very well over the last few weeks and here is a run down of a few of the dishes:

I couldn’t resist eating the kangaroo bresaola just as it is, but it was also sampled with rocket and shaved parmesan.

Kangaroo Bresaola Eaten Neat

The pancetta has been served in many pasta dishes, including a summery carbonara. The usual recipe with peas and lemon zest added.

Summer Carbonara

The bresaola was served simply with rocket and manchego – superb.

Bresaola served the traditional way

Pancetta sliced and wrapped around a fillet of beef and porcini.

Fillet of beef

The pancetta worked well as a stuffing for an Italian style lamb roast.

Lamb Roast

And also enhanced the roast poussin

Roast Poussin

]]> http://www.niccooks.com/food/ive-gone-meat-mad/feed/ 1 http://www.niccooks.com/uncategorized/overgrown-summer-squash/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=overgrown-summer-squash http://www.niccooks.com/uncategorized/overgrown-summer-squash/#comments Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:52:14 +0000 nic http://www.nicandgraham.com/?p=1066

Summer Squash

I got a bit enthusiastic in the garden centre and ended up buying a few things without really knowing what I was buying. One of those was a type of summer squash, which I thought was the funny little yellow things I see in the supermarket. So once they started growing I keenly waited for them to turn yellow so I could harvest them. However, mine didn’t turn yellow, they just kept on getting bigger. Then I checked the label and realised they were never meant to turn yellow, as I have a different variety and perhaps they should’ve been picked when they were a little smaller. So what should I do with an oversized squash?! Well there was only one thing for it, it had to be baked squash, especially for Graham, who declared it a childhood memory and summer on a plate (well stuffed marrow was and this was pretty close). So I thought I’d share the recipe here as it’s so old fashioned it’s not really something you see in cook books, but it made a very tasty dinner to use up a glut of squash.

Stuffed Summer Squash Serves 2

2 over sized summer squash
200g lamb mince
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove
tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
generous splash white wine
bay leaf
salt and pepper
olive oil

Chop the top off

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.

Start by preparing the squash. Cut the top off and reserve as a ‘lid’. Scoop out most of the flesh so that you have a hollow squash, with about a centimetre of flesh to hold the stuffing. Discard the very watery seeds but save any flesh that looks like it’s worth eating and chop to add to the stuffing.

Fry the lamb

Fry the onion and garlic in a splash of olive oil until soft but not coloured.

Add the lamb and rosemary and fry until the lamb is brown.

Add the white wine, chopped squash flesh and bay leaf and cook until the lamb is cooked and the most of the liquid has evaporated (5-7mins) then season to taste.

Stuff

Put half the lamb mixture in each squash, put the squash ‘lid’ on and wrap in foil. Bake in a preheated oven  for about half an hour until the squash is cooked but still holding it’s shape.

Serve

Serve with boiled potatoes, runner beans and onion sauce.

Zucchini

We grew Zucchini/courgette* last summer with minimal success. They would get to 5 or 6 centimetres long and then they would shrivel up and die, very few made it to full size which was a bit of a disappointment after we had loads from one plant, planted in a grow-bag in Manchester.  So when the same happened to the butternut squash we grew in Autumn we had to undertake more research. And that’s when we discovered squash sex!!!! Apparently, in order for a squash to grow successfully, the fruit has to be fertilised by the male flower, which in Manchester was obviously not a problem as we clearly had a good swarm of bees. But this part of the job seems to be failing here, the bees are sacked, it has to be done manually. So each morning (and it has to be done first thing before the flower dies) Graham or myself go into the garden, find all the open squash flowers and transfer a little pollen from the male flower to the female flower on the fruit. No technical equipment is required, just a little pinch of pollen dusted on the centre of the flower, and “Bob’s your uncle” squash grows big enough to eat!

So with this new found ritual, we have a highly successful crop of zucchini/courgette* which means I have to come up with a variety of recipes to deal with them!  Last years favourite was dug out from the depths of my delicious magazine, so crab and zucchini pasta will become a regular again, but we have so many I have to think if alternative options.

Option two is chicken breast baked in a bag with zucchini. It was one of those recipes that is loosely based on another (numerous Jamie Oliver recipes) so I’m going to do my best to re-write it here:

Chicken breast with Zucchini (serves 2)

2 Chicken Breasts
2 Small Zucchini, halved lengthways then sliced into half moons
1 clove garlic, chopped
handful thyme, leaves removed and chopped
Small glass of white wine
Olive oil
butter
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mix the Zucchini, garlic and thyme leaves in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and coat with a splash of olive oil.

Season the chicken breasts.

Prepare 2 squares of foil large enough to enclose the chicken. Place a quarter of the zucchini mixture in the centre of each piece of foil. Place the chicken breast on top of the zucchini then divide the remaining zucchini and place on top of the chicken breasts.

Top with a knob of butter, then start to enclose the chicken before adding the splash of wine to each parcel. Ensure the chicken is enclosed in the foil and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breast.

Serve with sautéed potatoes and veg/salad and drizzle with some of the juices from the chicken parcel.

Go on give it a go, then you can tell me if my recipe writing is up to scratch!!!!

*delete as appropriate

I’ve made a game terrine, with a duo of homemade chutney. I haven’t really made much chutney in the past so I thought I would test a selection of recipes from the BBC food website. The verdict:

Nigella’s Beetroot and Ginger Chutney had way too much vinegar for me. This one should have been the best. The colour was amazing, and I have a new found love of beetroot since moving the Oz, but the flavour was overwhelmed with vinegar. The ingredients were still swimming in vinegar at the end of the allotted cooking time, so even after draining a significant amount out it was still on the tart side.  I will make this one again but halve the vinegar content.

Pear Chutney Nice but not outstanding. A better proportion of vinegar to other ingredients, which made a nice, squidgy consistency. I didn’t use any saffron in it, but I don’t think that would have made a vast improvement! I always think saffron is more for colour than flavour, and a very expensive way of adding colour if you ask me!

A chutney for rabbit terrine was a last minute addition as I also made a rabbit terrine. In terms of evaluating the flavour, it may be unfair critique as I tried it the following day, but the recipe didn’t say it had to mature for weeks on end. The disappointment for me with this one was the ketchup. I could actually taste it in the final product, which was a bit disappointing for someone who usually likes to make things from scratch.

Christmas Chutney was by far the best. I will definitely be making this one again. The only slight variation I made was using dried figs instead of dates, but it was utterly delicious!

Scotch Egg

I also made some scotch eggs and minted pea soup, which would make quite good accompaniments to the dish above. I can’t believe I have gone all these years without sampling the delights of home made scotch eggs. I used to love taking them to school as part of my packed lunch, but those ones weren’t a patch on the home made ones (served with a bit of chutney!), and it is the perfect way to use up some of the left over sausage meat I am always left with after making my home made sausages.

Here is the recipe for the soup, if you would like to give it a go.  I found the recipe in Gordon Ramsay’s British Pub food, but you know me, I just can’t stick to a recipe if I try.  So I swapped the shallots for onions as I don’t have the time or patience to peel shallots, and I know this is probably scandalous, but in something like soup, I can’t taste a significant difference! Graham also suggested if I did it again I should put crispy bacon on top, to make it a posh pea and ham soup, and he was absolutely right, second time round it tasted even better!

Chilled Pea Soup

Chilled Pea soup
Serves 6 as an amuse bouche or two for a tasty summer lunch

Olive oil for frying
½  onion finely chopped
300g frozen peas
350ml chicken stock
1 slice of pancetta/speck/bacon
2 prigs mint, leaves only, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and slowly fry the onion on a medium heat until cooked but not brown (about 5 minutes).

Heat the stock in a second pan.

Once the onions are cooked add the frozen peas and the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 mins until the peas are cooked then add the mint leaves. Remove from the heat, allow to cool for a couple of minutes then blend until smooth.  Season generously with salt and pepper, as you need more seasoning for cold soup.

Pour into a bowl set over iced water to cool quickly (this is not absolutely necessary but keeps the nice green colour). Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

Just before you’re ready to serve, cut the pancetta into 5mm cubes and fry until crisp. Drain onto kitchen paper and allow to cool.

Serve the chilled soup in small coffee cups, with a sprinkle of black pepper and the pancetta cubes on top.

Macaroons take 1

A friend recently got some chickens for her garden, and she promised me that once the hens started laying excess eggs I could have some. Well Friday was the day, sitting on my desk when I got to work were 4 of Speckle’s eggs. With freshly laid eggs I had to find a suitable way of appreciating them so I made the Royal Mail inspired egg salad (see last post). But having only used the yolk I couldn’t waste the rest of the egg.  The obvious option for egg whites is meringue, but with only two small whites (Speckle is still a novice layer) I thought I’d have a crack at macarons.

For the first attempt I followed a recipe from the BBC food website, but it was a little vague as to how long you whisk the egg whites for, and I don’t think I did it for long enough judging by the flat results

Macaroons take 2

Not one to give up easily, I had another crack at macarons today, but this time I whisked for at least five minutes as I added the caster sugar which made them much stiffer. No collapsing problems today, but they also didn’t form nice smooth tops. They are better, but still not right I think! They do taste good though, and here is the recipe for the cream I made to go in them:

150ml whipping cream
1tblsp Limoncello
1tblsp Greek yoghurt
1tsp caster sugar
strawberries or raspberries

Put the Limoncello in with the cream and whisk until thick. Stir in the yoghurt and caster sugar.

The final result

Chop the strawberries into quarters (don’t worry about chopping raspberries they are small enough) then assemble the macarons. Put a blob of cream on the base of one macaron and carefully place the strawberries/raspberries around the edge, then sandwich the second macaron on top. Repeat until all of the macarons are complete.

Please note that these quantities are a vague guess and made enough cream for 6 macarons for someone who is not really a cream lover! You may need to adjust the quantities to suit your own taste!

Egg Salad

For a while now I’ve been wanting to write my own cookbook. I felt the need to write my own book because when I cook for others I often get asked for the recipe, but the problem is, more often than not I haven’t followed a recipe, but adapted or sometimes just made it up! So as an extension of my Jamie project I’ve decided to blog about my other cookery adventures.  The Jamie project is all about following his recipes and forcing myself to try recipes that I wouldn’t normally do whereas this blog will be a place to write my own recipes so I can recreate them again and maybe if you’ve been over for dinner and liked something you could try it too!

So the first recipe is one I have tried to recreate from an amazing meal we had a the Royal Mail Hotel last year.  I don’t think it’s exactly the same, but it’s a tasty entree that looks good on the plate. So here is the recipe for the Royal Mail inspired poached egg salad.

Royal Mail Poached Egg Salad Serves 2

2 egg yolks (with spares in case of breakages!)
splash of grapeseed oil
2 slices of pancetta
100g of mixed sprouts
100ml good chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
Truffle oil to serve

Put a splash of grapeseed oil in a 50ml shot glass and rinse around so it is greased. Repeat with a second shotglass.

Place the egg yolks in the shot glasses carefully without breaking them. Allow them to come to room temperature.

Chop the pancetta into small cubes about 5mm square. Fry until crisp and drain on kitchen paper.

Combine the sprouts with the crispy pancetta and set to one side.

In a small pan reduce the chicken stock by half and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a pan of water up to 65 degrees centigrade and use a thermometer to maintain this temperature. Place the shot glasses containing the egg yolks into the pan of pre-heated water and allow to set for 5-7 minutes.

Whilst the egg yolks are setting, dress the sprouts with the truffle oil and place them in a mound on the centre of the plate, making a dip in the centre for the egg yolk to sit in.

After 5-7 minutes (depending on how set you want the yolk to be) carefully pour the yolk into the centre of the sprouts trying not to break it.  Sprinkle the yolk with a little salt, then pour the reduced stock around the bottom of the sprouts.

When you cut into the yolk it should be just set on the outside but still runny on the inside – simple but delicious!

So here’s a quick run down of what Nic had in store…

Figs and pig

Course 1

Fig wrapped in Prosciutto with balsamic reduction.

Figs are in season – hooray!

A beautiful start – I love figs and I love pigs. What I love even more is thinly sliced pig wrapped around figs.

The sticky balsamic was also lovely – go Nic!

Gyoza

Course 2

Home made Gyoza with soy and chilli dipping sauce.

I love food like this.

In fact we are almost regulars at a chinese dumpling place in Ashfield. Ok, ok – I know Gyoza are Japanese really, but they are at least similar to Chinese dumplings – especially because these are cooked identically to my favourite Chinese ones – with a fried bottom.

Awesome.

Raw fish, yum!

Course 3

Tuna with crispy noodles, herbs and chilli

Raw tuna – give me raw tuna and I’m a VERY happy bunny!

I find almost any excuse to go to the Sydney Fish Markets just to get my grubby paws on sashimi fish – tuna, kingfish, whatever. I’m not fussy.

Just as long as it’s fish, and raw, I’m happy.

Epoisses cheese

Course 4

The best cheese course ever. Bar none. Epoisses cheese with maple syrup

Seriously, the best ever.

We discovered this combination when at a lovely little restaurant/cafe in Surrey Hills called Bentleys where I had it as a desert. Nic chose a chocolate something-or-other if I remember correctly, but I had to guard this cheese with my life once Nic got a small taste of it. It was that good.

Fig & Honey Semifreddo

Course 5

Home made Fig Semifreddo

This has lasted all week so far – quite a treat for mid-week puddings!

We don’t really do puddings, but Nic’s has been practicing recently. This is a beauty – and it’s also great to have stuff like this in the freezer so we can even have puddings mid-week!!

So, in conclusion, I can’t wait until my next birthday!!!!!