Croutons - What do to with leftover bread

This is a bit like... as the saying goes "teaching  your Mother how to suck eggs" 

But just another way to use up your leftover baguette.

Yesterday I forgot I had bought a baguette to have with our lunch...silly me... so there it was sitting on the stairs. Shame to waste, so this morning I made croutons 

So so simple, just slice the baguette,  lay them on a tray, spray with olive oil and 

sprinkle sea salt flakes over them 

As easy as that

Bake in 160 degree C oven for about 15 minutes

turn the tray around for even baking

and back in for about another 5 mins

They should be golden and crunchy 

Pop them on a rack to cool

Great with soup

or with your favourite dip, in this case Hummus dressed with Lemon Olive Oil

And a couple of leaves of Coriander and few littles of Fresh Chili

Just to pretty it up

Yum

Fettucine Cabonara with a Green Twist

What to do in Lockdown

Why not make your own Pasta.  

It's easier that you think. You can either make it totally by hand 

or

More of a "cheats" way, use the food processor

you still have to do some hard work kneading but it's all worth it in the long run

Go to this link https://sososimple.blogspot.com/2010/02/simple-ravioli-anyone-can-do-this.htm

I had a helper, Granddaughter Cleo was a dab hand at making the pasta

Both methods are shown here, on this occasion...we did the Food processor method 

Once you have made your Pasta, roll it into a ball

Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour

Take it out and start the roll process

We have a Pasta Roller, that I purchased in another life

Not only does it roll it out as thin as you would like it then cuts it into the required style

Cleo and I decided that Fettucine was what we wanted

Thought a form of Cabonara was just the ticket 

When looking for the perfect recipe... I found Ina Garten's Spring Green Spaghetti

So we adapted it to our taste and it was very tasty indeed 

Cabonara is quite rich so the addition of the greens made it feel just a bit more healthy

So once you have made the pasta, Grab a broom, wipe the handle and dust it with flour and hang the noodles over it, to dry out

So its time to cook and assemble

You will need

Approx 400 gms pasta

8-10 snow peas julienned lengthwise

1 cup shelled fresh peas (1 pound in the pod), or frozen peas

12 to 14 thin asparagus, bottom third discarded and tips sliced in 2-inch pieces

2 tablespoons good olive oil

5 rashers of Pancetta. (I used streaky bacon) 

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 extra-large eggs

2 extra-large egg yolks

3/4 cup freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

5 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced diagonally

1/4 cup minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Zest and juice of 1 lemon 

Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil

Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes

Take out a cup of the water and set aside

Add the snow peas, asparagus and the peas (I used frozen)

Cook for another 2 minutes longer 

Drain the pasta and vegetables together

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium (10- to 11-inch) sauté pan over medium heat,

Add the bacon and cook for 7 to 9 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned.

Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and set aside

While the bacon cooks, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water and set aside to heat the bowl. Just before you drain the pasta, pour the water out of the bowl.

Put the cream, eggs, egg yolks, freshly ground black pepper and some sea salt and 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water into the bowl and whisk to combine.

Immediately, add the hot pasta and vegetables and toss with tongs for a full minute or two, until the pasta absorbs the sauce.

If necessary add enough reserved hot pasta water, to keep the sauce creamy 

Add the 3/4 cup Parmesan, the scallions, chives, lemon zest and juice and toss well.

Add the bacon and serve hot sprinkled with extra chives and Parmesan.

Voila, dinner is served 

 

We Love Pasta

Well I love Pasta and I love to try it in so many ways. I was planning on roasting some prawns but "quelle domag...not in our freezer today, so I had a good look in the fridge and look what I found

In the fridge was a piece of carrot, a piece of courgette, 1/3 green pepper, half a leek, 1 lonely mushroom and and some bacon...in the freezer some frozen corn, and some breadcrumbs

Perfect

You can use what ever you like but this was such a good and colourful selection

Plus in the pantry I found some some spaghetti

So put on a pot of well salted water to boil for the pasta

Then prep your vegetable

Grate the carrot and courgette

Remove all the outside leaves of the leek, wash it and slice 

Slice the mushroom and the green pepper and you are ready to go 

Put a pan on the stove and bring up to medium heat

Chop the bacon and sauté 

When the water has come to the boil add the spaghetti and cook till just al dente around 6-8 minutes

Meanwhile

Remove the bacon and place in a bowl, add the mushroom

It does look a little lonely but it was worth it

Remove and place with the bacon  

Then add the chopped leeks

Saute them gently till soft 

Add the rest of the ingredients including the bacon and mushroom

Saute till soft

Throw in a good slurp of wine and turn heat up so that it evaporates

Meanwhile while this is happening

In a another pan add some oil... about 2 tbs, 

Heat till just about smoking and then add the breadcrumbs

Toss well and cook till they are just nice and toasty

When the pasta is cooked

Using your tongs, add it to the vegetables and toss well

Place on your plate

Sprinkle the toasted breadcrumbs over the top and enjoy

Lunch is served and very good it was too

 We have a bucket full of onions. Well it was full but we have been using them

Have to be used...French Onion Soup methinks 

There a nice lamb bone from last nights roast and after stripping the meat off...(nothing better than cold meat sandwiches)

I popped the bone into a large pot add some aromatics and

Voila Lamb stock

So I peeled...with a few tears...some onions 

Sliced them and popped into a pot with some butter

Nice slow cook about 30 minutes and they are soft, sweet and delicious 

Don’t forget to stir them regularly 

Don’t want any burnt bits

Caramelised but not burnt

Add a dash of white wine and leave to simmer for about 10 mins

And Voila 

Lunch is served 

The traditional way to serve French Onion soup is with a cheese toasted crouton on top but I’m happy with a little chopped parsley 

And a cold lamb sandwich on plastic white bread

Perfect  

Making The Best Of Leftovers

 I have always been The Leftover Queen, I can't abide throwing good food out. This is not a recipe, just a good tasty idea for Waste Not Want Not... I am also a believer that soup is not just a Winter Dish. It's an AnyTime Dish

In the fridge were 2 containers of food, leftover from yesterday. Some mushroom soup, incidentally which was store bought. Plus cold boiled potatoes, corn cobs and a little broccoli for that touch of green, all leftover from last night's dinner

Instead of making croutons to sprinkle on the soup, I decided to chop up the Vege and sprinkle them on top...as simple as that

The soup needed a little extra zing, so I heated it up with some cream, just enough to thin it down a bit and make it extra creamy.

Meanwhile I chopped up the potatoes, stripped the corn off the cob, broke up the broccoli, popped them into a pan, on medium heat, which contained some butter

Turned the heat up...so that the potatoes would get some colour, seasoned them with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

About 4-5 minutes was enough

I grabbed a pretty serving bowl, filled it up with the hot soup, scattered the Vege on top and                        

Voila... Lunch and Delicious it was too 

New Way To Use Bagged Salads

There was a chicken carcass in the fridge, so immediately popped into the pot and I made some beautiful chicken stock
There was enough to put in the freezer for later and another litre or so to make soup for lunch.
Except for an onion and 2 sad looking carrots, I was a little low on soup vege
BUT  also in the fridge was a bag of an Asian Chopped Salad, why don't I use that, after all a 

really nice mix of vege plus... there is a sesame ginger dressing and some croutony crunchy things...perfect for lunch I thought

Ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil

1 med onion finely chopped

2 small carrots grated

1 bag Asian Vege with little bag croutony things

1 litre chicken stock

Sesame and ginger dressing

In a pot heat the olive oil and add the chopped onions

Cook till soft then add grated carrot

Stir and season with some salt and freshly ground black pepper

Add the Asian Vege and stir plus a little more seasoning 

when soft add the chicken stock

Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20-30 minutes

Before serving add the Sesame and Ginger dressing

Into your soup bowl, and maybe a few crunchy "croutony" things on the top 

Plus some chopped chives for colour 

Yum

Perfect lunch

Will do that again

Fish Pie - Always a Favourite

We had lovely fresh Gurnard for dinner on Thursday. I was very generous with my quantities and there was enough left over for another meal

When fish has been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, it is not quite so good just pan fried, so I turned it into Fish Pie

With a Bechamel Sauce doctored with veggies and lemon and this is a delight to eat.

I topped it with a mix of Mashed Potato and Kumara Yum

This will feed 3 or a greedy 2 people

The beauty of this fish pie is with the addition of the veggies into the sauce, you have a complete meal

You have to be quick to take a photo of the completed pie

Very very tasty

So you will need

300 gms of Gurnard or any other white fish

50 gms butter

3 tablespoons Flour

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

50 gms butter

1/2 leek finely sliced

1 carrot grated

1 red onion peeled and diced

splash white wine

1 lemon  zested and juiced

300 mls milk

1 large potato peeled and diced

1 large Kumara peeled and diced

A big knob of butter and a splash of milk

Toss the gurnard in seasoned flour, shake excess flour off and reserve

in a pan melt 50 gms butter when med hot add the fish

Cook till just golden about 4 minutes

Remove from pan onto a plates and add milk to the pan to soak up those wonderful juices

Meanwhile Into a pot add butter 

Melt over med heat

Add red onion and saute till soft but not brown

Add leek and carrot, saute gently until soft

Add reserved flour and mix well, cook through for about 3-4 minutes

Add warmed milk and stir well and cook gently until thickened,

Add lemon zest and juice 

Taste and add more seasoning if needed

Grease a casserole dish and add cooked fish

Pour the sauce of the top and set aside

Meanwhile cook the potato and Kumera in salted water till tender

Remove from heat, drain

and mash with milk and butter

Spread over the fish sauce and fork it well to get a nice ridged pattern

Dot with butter and cook for approx 30 mins at 180C

There ya go Golden and so so good

Prawns in Lemon and Garlic Butter on Lemon Basmati Rice

There are so many recipes for Prawns and Rice on the Internet

The idea of using Lemon not only whilst cooking the prawns but also in the accompanying rice

is such a good plan

Preparation and Cooking Time 25 minutes

                                    

350 gms Prawns, cleaned                           

4 - 5 cloves garlic  peeled and finely chopped                                            

1/4 tsp paprika                                                  

2 tbs butter                                                        

2 Tbs fresh Lemon Juice                                   

3 Tbs Fresh Snipped Parsley                            

Clean shrimp if needed, if not just rinse and let drain.

Cut lemon in half and cut off 2 slices for garnish.

Squeeze the remaining lemon for juice.

Meanwhile mince garlic

Melt butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-low heat.

Add paprika and sauté briefly. 

Add garlic and sauté until golden and tender, 5  7 minutes.

Turn heat up to medium and add shrimp. 

Sauté until prawns start to curl and turn opaque. 

Add lemon juice, parsley and heat through.

Very simple

And to accompany these juicy prawns

Just whip up this tasty lemon rice 

 

Lemon Basmati Rice

1/2 cup Basmati Rice 

1 clove Garlic

 2 tsp butter

1 cup, 250 mls Chicken Stock 

1 tbs fresh lemon thyme

1tbs lemon juice

Mince garlic.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. 

Add garlic and sauté briefly, 1  2 minutes.

Add rice and sauté, stirring for 1 minute. 

Add stock, thyme and lemon juice. 

Cover and cook for length of time on package. 

When done fluff with a fork

To serve: Arrange rice on a small platter. 

Spoon shrimp and sauce on rice, garnish with little extra parsley and serve with some lemon wedges on the side 

Enjoy 

Lamb Shanks-More Winter Fare

This time of the year people with Citrus trees are blessed with so much fruit.

So what to do with it?

I was given a bag of Oranges, we had Lemon on the tree and Grapefruit

So much colour

So I decided to use some of the orange juice in a casserole, along with some left over Rose Wine

Yes I did have some leftover wine!!!

We also had two Lamb Shanks and some vegetables in the fridge so I  improvised

These two shanks fed 4 of us

3 tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Lamb Shanks

3 tablespoons Flour

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 onion peeled and chopped

1 carrot chopped

2 sticks celery chopped

2 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped

Piece of pumpkin peeled and chopped

1 oxo cube dissolved in 1 cup hot water

1 cup orange juice

1 cup rose wine

Heat the oven to 160C this is a long slow cook

Dry the lamb shanks in a paper towel

Dredge in flour seasoned with salt and pepper

Put the leftover flour to one side

In a pan drizzle the olive oil

Brown the shanks and place them in a casserole dish

Add more oil to the pan if necessary and add the chopped onions

Cook for about 4-5 minutes until soft but not brown

Add the carrot, celery, garlic and pumpkin

Continue to saute until softened

Add leftover flour and mix well, 

Add the orange juice, rose wine and oxo cube dissolved in water

Cook until thickened

Pour over the lamb shanks and pop into oven 

Cook for about 3 hours

When cooked take the meat off the bone

Return to casserole and best served with mashed potatoes and a green vege of your choice

Enjoy

Colourful Salad-Perfect for A Winters Day- Rocket and Beetroot

This was a Salad I served at lunch in the weekend

It was very popular and seriously so so easy

It consists of

Bag Rocket

Mozzarella Balls

Roasted Beetroot

French Dressing

Make the Dressing (Vinaigrette)

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

6 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place all ingredients into a jar with a lid

Shake well

It's all ready to go

To feed 8 people

Take 6 medium beetroot

Wrap each one in foil and bake in a 200C oven till tender

Takes about an hour

Check with a skewer to make sure it is cooked right through

Remove from oven

Cool for about 15 mins

When the beetroot is able to be held in your hand

Peel and chop into wedges

Toss in 3 tablespoons of French Dressing, 

The beetroot absorbs the vinaigrette best when warm

Set aside

To assemble

In a flat salad bowl

Layout the rocket

Throw over the beetroot wedges and then the mozzarella broken into pieces

You can assemble this earlier if necessary

Just before serving 

Distribute another 2-3 tablespoons of the dressing over the salad and 

Toss lightly

Voila 

Salad is served

Huey's Steak Smothered with a Delicious Vege Sauce - Just right for these Chilly Days

I found this recipe lurking away on my iPad, obviously awaiting a day when it would just be the perfect dinner

Beautifully cooked Scotch Filet, smothered with a range of vegetables with gorgeous sweet and sour flavours

Well... yesterday was the day

I was staying down in Hawkes Bay and it was a chilly day, it rained...it was grey and miserable

What better but Huey's Steak to cheer us up AND it did

Hughey is an Australian TV Chef (Iain Hewitson) who I was very keen on, a few decades ago

I was very impressed with his recipes and there will be quite a few on this blog going back a few years

An excellent way to serve a piece of scotch filet, doused in a yummy sauce

Just some mashed potatoes plus a few extra vege on the side

Just perfect

Ingredients
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
sea salt & freshly ground pepper
olive oil
3x 200 gm scotch filet or sirloin steaks, trimmed of all fat & sinew
a good knob of butter
2-3 leeks, washed well & finely sliced
1 scant tbsp plain flour
½ cup lager, at room temperature
1 cup beef stock
1 tspn white or brown sugar
½ can diced tomatoes
a few sprigs fresh thyme
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Mix together the vinegar, 1 tspn salt and ½ tspn ground pepper with a splash of oil in a large bowl.

Add the steaks, toss well and set aside for up to 30 mins.

When ready, heat a little oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and just sear the steaks on both sides. Remove and set aside They will continue to cook in the next stage

Add a little fresh oil, if needed, with the butter to the pan and gently sauté the leeks until tender, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan now and again.

Then add the flour, mix well and briefly cook.

Pour in the beer and stock with any leftover marinade.

Then add the sugar, tomatoes, thyme and 1 tbsp chopped parsley.

Stir and cook until thick and fragrant.

Then return the steaks to the pan and cook to the desired degree, basting now and again.

Remove the steaks and set aside to rest for a few minutes, before thickly slicing, if you like.

Or just Pop the whole steak on the plate as below

Taste the sauce for seasoning.

And some extra vege on the side, Roasted Carrots and Cauli and some yummy mashed potato

Try this... this weekend...Guaranteed a success

Thank you Hughey I shall hunt for more of your gems to try as we get through this winter