Butterfly for Christmas

Well, I had in mind a barbecue chicken for Christmas dinner once the boys were back from their big family lunch with their mother. Bummer that it was pouring rain, but not to fear, the oven will have to substitute.

What I’ve been thinking over since my last Portuguese chicken experience was what makes this style so different from regular barbecue bird. The obvious reason is that the chicken is butterflied, not whole.

Why butterfly

Because the chicken lays out flat, it can be barbecued direct on the grill, rather than through convection or rotated on a spit. It also cooks more quickly as a result. The downside can be that it can be dry if not prepared properly. This is what I found in my last Portuguese chicken experience, which made me think - “I can do better than this”.

Also, because you remove the chicken back, which generally gets tossed out uneaten when you cook the whole bird, this portion can be retained for later stock making. Just have a bag in the freezer, and once it’s full, it’s stock time! No waste. Good.

How butterfly

First, I always take out the wishbone, because the kids like the wish thing. This is easily removed by going to the neck end and isolating the bone with a small, sharp knife. The bone pops out easily.

Take a whole chicken and place it breast down on a chopping board.

Starting from the tail end, use kitchen shears to cut down one side, the full length of the spine. Then repeat down the other side. This should leave you with a four centimetre slab of backbone for your stock stockpile.

Flip the bird over and flatten out with the breast bone facing towards you. There’s a kind of coin-shaped piece of cartilage at the top of the breast bone. Slice it down the middle then remove it. This reveals the top of the breast bone. You can then follow the bone with your fingers under the thin membrane, all the way to the end and along the cartilage at the end of the bone. Do this on both sides, then lift out the breast bone. This is also called the keel bone, and now you can see why.

With the chicken still laid breast down, trim excess fat and skin flaps. Finally, clip off the wing tips. These are better used in the stock bag than being burnt on the barbecue.

Place flattened, skin side up, in an oven dish or something similar. Here's a YouTube video which shows the basics.

Two bad things about the vid is 1. Throwing out the stock bones 2. Cooking while wearing a ring.

The marinade

The marinade to butterflied chicken is what stuffing is to whole chicken. It keeps it moist and flavoursome.

My favourite is like this.

• .25 cup olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• Teaspoon salt
• Tablespoon ground black pepper
• Tablespoon smokey paprika

Mix this in a bowl, and apply to the chicken using a pastry brush, so that it’s generously covered. Keep the remainder of the marinade for later.

Cover the chicken and let it rest in the fridge for a least an hour.

Cooking

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Give the chicken another coat of marinade before placing in the oven. After 30 minutes, baste with marinade again. After another 30, repeat. Another 15, and it’s done.

Red and hot!

Last night I wasn’t feeling so hot (of course I was hot, I just wasn’t feeling that way), so I pulled out all five of my frying pans: which can only mean one thing. Mexican!

Well, my experimental, chicken-stock-softened, supermarket-bought, fried white corn tortillas were a disaster. I will hide them in my lunch box, and eat them hurriedly with my shoulders hunched at work tomorrow.

My Mexican rice, however, was three things. Red, hot, and red-hot!

Today, to console myself for tortilla failure, I lobbed into the Mexico City factory at Mortdale. All their sales dudes were out on delivery (I should have phoned ahead, but I am sooo impetuous), so I high-tailed it back to the inner west where Essential Ingredient has returned from its quixotic relocation to the North Shore, and sells Fireworks corn tortillas for $3.65 for a packet of 12. I am waiting on an email reply from Mexico City to see if they have retail distributers about the place too. If so, I shall post.

I was ravenous by the time I returned home, whereupon fresh tortillas and last night’s Mexican rice, reunited me with my hotness!

Recipe: Mexican rice

Red, hot, rice

This is the too-often overlooked staple of Mexican food. It is delicious and satisfying as a main meal; it can step back and let pulled pork or BBQ chicken pieces take the main credits; it works splendidly cold as a salad; it keeps well in the fridge or freezer. Am I getting through?

This version is spicy, with green and red chillies from my courtyard garden. Cooking for children, I use a half red capsicum, finely chopped, and add a pinch of paprika. My youngest son fully loves red capsicum, and my oldest fully doesn’t.

I find the capsicum is cooked in nicely, hidden in plain sight, and we’re all happy!

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups long grain rice
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1.5 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 1.5 cup chicken stock
• 3.5 cup water
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 red tabasco chillies, sliced
• 2 green tabasco chillies, sliced
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tea towel

Method

This is derived from the glorious Diana Kennedy.

Rice: there is a lot of talk about rinsing rice. I don’t rinse rice. I buy good quality rice (rice is cheap), which should be hard and true. Rinsing is a waste of time and water. Gluey rice is not due to the tiny amounts of starch that might be on the outside of the grain membrane, it is due to breaching the membrane (Diana recommends rinsing, but I lovingly disagree).

Heat oil in a generous, heavy-based frying pan on medium heat.

Golden and good to go!

Add the rice and stir through the oil, cooking until rice is lightly golden (5–10 minutes). Drain off oil.

Add to pan tomato salsa, garlic, chillies, salt and pepper.

Once it comes to a high simmer, drop the temperature down and stir. You need to get the mixture down so that it is almost dry again (about 10 minutes).

Add the water. Now, do not stir, but gently even out the rice so that there is even coverage of rice and water. Put the wooden spoon in the sink; say goodbye to it; its job is done. You will stir no more!

What we are doing now is simmering away the liquid and fluffing up the rice. As the liquid cooks off, we gradually drop down the heat. The simmer stays constant; the heat gradually drops. When the rice starts to lift and separate (like a Berlei Bra) and little volcano holes start to appear across the surface (about 10 minutes), remove the pan from the heat and cover with a cotton tea towel.

To keep the towel from flopping into the rice, tuck the corners under the pan, so you get a very Day of the Dead, drum thing happening! The tea towel draws out the moisture, and really helps fluff out the rice (When it comes to tea towels, Diana and I are as one).

And there it is, neither stodgy nor oily; full of flavours both subtle and strong; lunch and re-brand friendly; you can add peas and carrots, mussels and chorizo. Go crazy. Mexican rice!

BBQ rules part 2

The star of the show has to be that beautiful, flaming grill and the rich, smokey flavours (and that cute guy with the tongs and apron).
But to take the pressure off, and to allow for inclement weather, it’s good to have one main dish out of the oven.
Here is a BBQ chicken roast which makes the most of the BBQ occasion, while giving you some breathing space to spread your awesome cuteness around.

Recipe: Barbecue chicken roast with rice

Ingredients

1 chicken cut into 8 pieces (see this post for method)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, diced
Chopped herbs: parsley, oregano, thyme, basil
1 bay leaf
2 cups long-grain rice
1.5 cup all purpose tomato salsa
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Method

Preheat BBQ grill. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place chicken skin down on the grill and cook for 2 minutes each side, or until skin is golden and grill marks show. Pre
Transfer to bowl, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.

In a casserole dish heated to medium, add olive oil and onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add juices from the covered chicken pieces. Add chopped herbs. Add tomato salsa, bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

Stir in rice. Stir in stock. Place chicken pieces with the nicest looking side facing up. Season with salt and pepper. Roast, uncovered for 30 minutes, or until rice is soft.

A slightly different version, on a bed of silver beet and rice, tomato salsa on top

Comments

You can either do this several hours before your guests arrive, or pop the chicken on with the haloumi starters and, while your guests are enjoying their entrée nibbles, your chicken is underway and about ready by the time the snags and steaks go on.
This is also a very good stand-alone Sunday evening meal, with lots of left-over school lunch potential.
This week, I made a very pleasant solo laksa with the shredded chicken from my Sunday BBQ roast.

BBQ rules

It’s BBQ season! My very first major purchase in my bachelor mk 2 life - even before a decent bed, which I took delivery of last week - was a good, four-burner, wok-burner on-the-side, barbecue.

Last weekend was a children and parents BBQ. Tomorrow is school buddies only (and not a child in sight).

With any luck my blue tongue lizard will make a reappearance in the garden bed tomorrow, as it was such a hit with the kids last Sunday.

Here are the respective menus.

BBQ menu 1 - adults and kids

Nibbles

• Eggplant and yogurt dip (from the local Turkish place)
• Queso blanco cheese
• Turkish bread

Mains

• Chicken and rice casserole
• Marinated pork ribs
• BBQ veggies

Afters

• Smoothies (banana and strawberry)

BBQ menu 2 - adults

Nibbles

• BBQ Haloumi
• Dips
• Turkish bread

Mains

• Lamb skewers - paprika and yogurt marinade
• Cajun chicken and rice
• Veggies

Afters

• Scorched fruit and ice cream

BBQ rules?

What’s that black stuff?

Firstly, the idea that it’s ok for barbecues to be filthy is just plain wrong. A wire brush and a vegetable oil cloth rubdown is essential before and after each use.

For cleaning implements, you can pay extra for BBQ style wire brushes and poly scrubbers - but you pay half for the same (or better) thing if you go to a decent harware shop. It’s basically painting and tiling cleaning tools you want.

Hood up or down?

Down! If your bbq has a hood, it must be down (closed) during most of the cooking, to take advantage of the full, smoky flavours that the bbq is all about.

Preheat!

For any bbq, the temperature needs to be at optimal cooking level before the food goes on. I preheat my gas bbq for 20 minutes before a single slice is sizzled.

Handling meat?

The basic rules are1. Flip the steaks once2. Don’t poke the sausages

For a steak, medium rare, follow the two-minute rule. Place steak on the grill for 2 minutes, turn 90 degrees, leave for two minutes. Flip. Two minutes later, turn 90 degrees. Two minutes later, remove to a covered dish and let rest for at least two minutes. The juices in the dish are now the ultimate BBQ sauce.

For sausages, the important thing to realise is that they aren’t steaks - full on heat will create problems. Get to know you BBQs hot and cooler spots (the all have them, despite the advertising claims) and your steaks go hot and your sausages go medium. Don’t poke. Flip once.

Where your steaks don’t want to go, your sausages do. It’s a beautiful thing.

What about veggies?

Barbecued vegetables (and fruit) is delicious. I use the grill for meat and seafood, and the plate exclusively for non-meat - haloumi cheese, vegetables and fruit. I think it is good manners to vegetarian friends for them to know that their meal is genuinely meat free. It just keep things simple.

Guilty secret? You can’t do eggs on the slotted grill. I use the plate for this. Sorry…

Simple, easy, tasty, cheesy

Home made queso blanco cheese.

Keeping to the theme of springtime delights, here is a recipe that brings a creamy and delicious cheese for lunches or snacks, and protein packed left overs (whey) for smoothies that you and your kids will love. Or you can go one step beyond, and use the whey to make ricotta.

Queso blanco is a mild, creamy white cheese great as a base for dips, fantastic with crackers as a snack, and a deeply satisfying addition to many Mexican dishes, including my flat food pt 2!

In its simplest form, it has a mild and wholesome flavour like bocconcini - but spreadable. It doesn’t melt, however - until it reaches your mouth!

What do you need to make this treasure? Milk, salt and vinegar. And a piece of cheese cloth (muslin). However, if you like a little extra, this cheese comes to new life if you add herbs or spices such as cumin, chives, pepper … hmm. Nice.

You can make this with regular supermarket milk, but it really benefits from good quality full cream milk. Riverina brand is good I think. But any full cream milk will work.

BTW, I like the pic below, because the cheese in its wrapper reminds me of the face-hugger pods in Alien.

Recipe: Queso blanco

Yields

• 400–600g cheese
• 2 litres whey

Ingredients

• 4 litres full cream milk
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons crushed cumin seeds
• 1 pinch smokey paprika

Method

Heat milk in a pot (start heat low, then increase to medium if you want to reduce your pot-cleaning at the end) until the milk is just about to boil. You can tell it’s close because tiny bubbles start to rise, there is a shimmering on the surface - and it feels really hot to your pinky!

Then pour in your vinegar and gently stir. Here the magic happens, and the curds start to separate from the whey. The curds (from which we’re making our cheese) are lumpy and stringy, and gently stirring will help the separation process. Remember the separation process? Well, this one ends in cheese! And whey.

Stir gently for a couple of minutes. Turn the heat off, then stir gently for another five.

Line a colander with a piece of muslin about 40 cm square, and place over a large pot or dish to retain the whey.

Gently pour the curds and whey through the strainer Occasionally you’ll need to gather the corners of the muslin and squeeze out the liquid a little.

When all the whey has passed through and all that is left only a little puddle that can be contained inside the muslin line colander, it is time to add the remaining ingredients.

Sprinkle the salt and the cumin, and a little pinch of paprika onto the cheese. Tie the quarters of the muslin using some cooking string and hang over to sink for four hours, or up to 12.

Return the remaining whey to one of the milk bottles and place in the fridge this you can use later for really yummy, protein-packed smoothies.

You can also use the whey to make ricotta.

Now, you will find many recipes on the internet for what is basically my queso blanco, claiming this is ricotta. Wrong! Ricotta (Italian for re-cooked) is not strictly a cheese, but a biproduct of cheese making, by using the whey. They ricotta makes use of a different set of proteins than those that form the curds of the queso blanco.

I have never made ricotta (I generally can’t wait to get the bar mix out for those smoothies!) but here are two recipes for making ricotta from whey.

• How To Make Ricotta Cheese Using Only Whey
• How To Make Great Ricotta Cheese From Whey

Flat food pt 2

Spring is here. Time to start thinking about lighter, sharper, busier flavours. Thank you comfort foods, your job is done. Time for the party plate!

All over Sydney Mexican restaurants are opening like cactus flowers. As a home cook cuisine, Mex is really good fun, and a good combo of plate food and portable food. Diana Kennedy’s “The cuisines of Mexico” is the very best place to start.

In the meantime - here’s my main meal flat food.

Corn enchildas, cumin lime pork, refried beans and white cheese.

I like soft corn tortillas, but they are much harder to find in supermarkets and delis than the wheat variety. Try Senor Nila on the northern beaches, Mexico City in the south, or Fireworks in the west. Otherwise, Woolies stocks the “A taste of Mexico” brand which has white corn tortillas, which I used for this recipe.

The mild white cheese in Tex Mex is Monterey Jack. There are some very funny posts on blogs about how difficult it is to import American cheese into Europe, mostly ending in - what would we need this awful cheese for anyway?

‘Monterey Jack’, or the more Mexi ‘Questo Blanco’, are pretty bland cheeses that can be substituted with bocconcini, or other mild white cheese. OR you could make your own! Easy and so tasty! See our next exciting recipode for home made Queso blanco. I am eating it spread on crackers right now, and it’s yum!

Recipe: Lime pork enchiladas

Ingredients

Yields 8 enchiladas

• .5 kilo pork mince
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 8 soft corn tortillas
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 brown onion
• 1 red onion
• 4 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil
• .5 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• fresh coriander
• ground cumin
• pepper
• juice 1 lime
• 1 cup grated or crumbled mild white cheese
• .5 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method

Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius.

Finely chop tomato, coriander and red onion. Set aside

Pan fry the pork mince in the vegetable oil with pepper, and coarsely ground cumin. Add juice of lime, stir until evaporated and pork is browned. Set aside.

In the same pan, using the oil left over from the pork, sauté diced brown onion.

Add the red beans, including the broth, stir and mash. After a while, they mixture will start to gather into a kind of pancake. Once you can roll it off the pan, it’s ready.

Set aside.

In the same pan, bring stock to a simmer.

Rest each corn tortilla in the stock until they soften (about 30 seconds).

Place on each tortilla a tablespoon of the pork, beans, tomato, and white cheese. Roll each tortilla and place on an oven tray. Sprinkle with yellow cheese. Place in oven until the yellow cheese starts to brown and the inside juices start to bubble from within - about 30 mins.

Flat food p1

Last Sunday was fathers day, and my boys suggested, as a fathers day treat, that I make them pancakes.

Actually, the request was more specific. The word was crepes.

Flat breads of various kinds are incredibly useful bachelor foods for breakfasts, snacks, work and school bags.

And for dinner? How about corn enchiladas with cummin-lime pork? More on that in Flat things pt 2.

Crepe or pancake. Basically the difference is a pancake includes a raising agent and a crepe doesn’t.

Crepes are more likely to be eaten folded or rolled, while pancakes are more likely to be eaten with syrup or salsa.

Smaller pancakes (flapjacks) can be eaten in a stack.

If you add extra caster sugar (and some vanilla essence) as well as a raising agent and make smaller cakes, you get pikelettes, which seem to be an Australian / New Zealand invention.

Wikipedia has a really good discription of pancake styles around the world at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake

Crepe recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1.25 cups milk
• .5 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon butter

Yields 6–8 crepes

Method

The most important thing is not about making the crepes, but keeping them warm. Put the oven onto 60 degrees now, and pop in a dinner plate.

Mix all ingredients except the butter in a mixing bowl using a whisk. The mixture needs to be smooth. When you lift your whisk out of the mixture, it needs to run, rather than fall in blobs (not too thick), but leave ripples where it falls back in the bowl that stay for a moment or two (not too thin).

Heat half the butter in a frying pan. The heat needs to be high enough for the butter to melt and start to bubble, but not so high for the butter to burn.

When the butter is melted and coving the pan evenly, add the batter, just enough to almost fill the pan. I like to leave about a cm of space on the outside to the edge of the pan because I think the slightly smaller size looks better on the plate, and that bit of extra space makes turning the crepe a little easier.

When the edges of the crepe start to turn up, and small air bubbles start to pop in the mixture, it is time to turn them. Add extra butter as required.

Remove them one by one to the warming plate.

Serving

My boys and I like sprinkling with raw sugar and lemon juice and rolling them up. Yum!

A side benefit to crepes is that it is one of the few ways my kids will eat eggs without the slightest hassle.

What about the little dudes?

An adult interlude ...

Results for previous entry Adult food were quite satisfactory. Couscous is a lovely stuffing medium, and the combination of lime and dried fruit works very well. A jar of whole spice garam masala should be placed along side of my Good old standbys of a previous post. The rice was yum and well received. Relief!

Adult conversation turned (inevitably) to feeding kids.

My most intensive cooking time for my boys (until bachelorism, where cooking is making a comeback) was from late nappies to kindy - them, not me.

Rule 1: Size matters
Rule 2: Time matters
Rule 3: What matters, matters

The most important thing you can teach a child about food, is how to eat something they don’t particularly like.

Size matters

This is so easy to forget. We see it every day. But children are ... small.

Some children of course will just eat what’s put in front of them. They feel hunger strongly and will only complain if what you dish up is truly disgusting. Most, though, find mealtime a challenge for various reasons. Back to size.

Place your hand, fingers stretched out, on the kitchen bench. That is about a meal. A little less than a meal maybe, but in the general neighbourhood. Now think of how much smaller a four-year-old's hand is compared to yours.

For a little dude about 1 metre high, an adult size serve of food looks like a sack of potatoes. Even if they know they can eat it, it just looks … big!

Time matters

I remember a friend remarking on her beloved grandmother’s perception of time passing. She was so used to it, time slipping by: “it’s like, every 15 minutes, you’re having breakfast again”.

It takes time to learn about time. For children, a week is a month, a day is a week. Five minutes is an hour.

Put something in front of them that they know will take half an hour to eat … it’s not so much the food, it’s getting their heads around anything that can take so long.

For both rule 1 and 2, my advice is think small. By all means, cook what you think they’ll eat. But don’t serve what you think they’ll eat. Serve them half first, and let them eat it, and achieve it. Let them take a break, leave their seats, see if the rain has stopped or what the sunset looks like, then come back to the table and have a second helping.

What matters, matters

The most important thing you can teach a child about food, is how to eat something they don’t particularly like.

This is something that “cooking for children” books don’t tell you, because all of their recipes are so great that any child will love it (unless you’ve been a bad parent, which you probably have been…).

Managing likes and dislikes is exactly the same as managing emotions. A huge amount (possibly the full helping) of growing up is about finding a way to distinguish between minor and major catastrophies - can you be the judge?

It is important to recognise that kids have a right to likes and dislikes. It’s also good to teach them to make decisions and judgements. Their likes and dislikes really matter to them, and they should really matter to you. It’s also important for children to learn that not every dislike is a game-breaker.

If there is a plate of food that contains stuff your child likes and stuff your child doesn’t, you can say: Which is the stuff you will eat all of, which is the stuff you will eat some of, which is the stuff you will eat a tiny bit of…? If they make these decisions easily, good. If they are really stuck, you can offer them something on the plate that they don’t have to eat at all, provided they eat more of something else. You just need to be giving them healthy options.

Conclusion

The most important of these is - What matters, matters. Learn from your child, and your child will learn from you.

Adult food!

Cooking for adults

At last the spice cabinet comes out. I have discovered a wonderful Indian spice shop close by - you know the kind, DVDs, rice sacks, and lots of whole spices in plastic bags sealed with a staple. Fresh curry leaves too!

I have chicken stock in the freezer, so I’m thinking: the bird!

I want a roast chicken, but also want some aspects of the Malaysian staple (get it?) chicken rice.

Here’s the plan.

Roast chicken with stuffing

Stuffing

• couscous
• pan-browned rice, cracked in a mortar
• buised cardamon
• lime wedges

Rice

Steamed with chicken stock and whole-spice garam masala

Roast Veggies

• Spanish onion
• Baby carrots
• Garlic
• Cayenne chilies

Finely slice bok choy, blanch and sprinkle over the top last

I’m thinking, little cupped rice mounds, all neat and prissy, with chaos of bird bits, veggies and bok choy.

Bring on the grown-ups. Wish me luck!

Golden and crunchy

Guess what we're having for dinner? Two guaranteed to get a yay and a victory fist pump from my boys is cottage pie, and lemon-seasoned fish fingers.

Tonight I made cottage pie (I generally do it with cubed chuck steak, but this time, on request because we hadn't had it for a while, I used the traditional lamb mince).

Last week, though, I wheeled out a favourite from their preschool days. Lemon-seasoned fish fingers.

Two things the meals have in common is they're golden and crunchy. The lovely mashed potato with bread crumbs and grated parmesan from the oven, or the seasoned bread crumbs from the wok.

I like to give my kids fish once a week, but they're not mad keen on it. They'll eat it, but you have to ride 'em a little. Not with this meal though.

Recipe: Lemon-seasoned fish fingers

Ingredients

• 1 cup bread crumbs
• .75 kilograms boneless fish fillets (orange roughy is perfect, ling is also very good. I prefer orange roughy because of the texture, its more sustainable fishing status, and because it's a member of the slimehead family)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 2 cups canola oil

Method

Combine bread crumbs, lemon zest, salt and garam masal. Spread this out evenly on a dinner plate.
Beat eggs in a bowl
Slice fish fillets into thickish fingers
Dip the fish fingers into the egg, then roll them in the bread crumbs so they have a nice even covering
In a wok for frying pan, bring oil to a high heat just before smoking
Deep fry three or four fish fingers at a time until they are golden brown (texture like sun)

Serve with steamed rice and stir-fried or steamed vegetables.

This is one of those meals that has something for both kids and adults. I found it a good way of introducing my boys to some new flavours. It's also fun to make, with a little fish finger production line, with someone dipping the fish in the egg, someone rolling the fish in the crumbs, someone laying it out neatly ready to be fried.

Another key to gradually expanding children's taste boundaries is condiments and sides. Children can find a big, busy plate quite confusing and daunting... but that is another blog post I think.

Taking stock

There's nothing like making stock for taking stock.

On a rainy Sunday, and my boys returned to their other home, it's time to prepare for when they're back again.

Yesterday I used my trusty slow cooker to make for my boys and me, chicken and tomato rice. I like to buy a whole, chemical free chicken (don't you love it when they are labelled "chemically free"?) and cut it in pieces myself. It makes me feel like Kitchen Man.

Here's the technique I follow. Note, that the chicken back is retained for later stock making.

The exception to this method the way I do it, is that I keep the bone and gristle on the breast, and cut the breast halves across the bone, so that the breast is quartered. That way you get 10 evenly sized pieces.

As this is more about the stock, I'll whiz over the chicken casserole, except to say that it's made with my good old standby tomato salsa, and that about 1 hour before you want to eat, you pull out all the solid ingredients with a slotted spoon, and pour in enough medium grain rice so that there is only a fingertip of liquid above the rice layer. Then place the solid ingredients back and re-cover.

My freezer bag was now full of chicken backs, ready for taking stock and making stock on a rainy Sydney Sunday. Here goes.

Recipe: Chicken stock

Yields 11 cups stock.

Ingredients

• About 1kg chicken pieces
• 2 carrots
• 2 onions
• 1 leek
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 clove garlic
• 6 pepper corns
• 4 tablespoons canola or olive oil
• 2 litres water

Method

• Preheat oven to 200º
• Roughly chop the veggies, and put everything (except the water!) in a roasting pan and into the oven for 30 minutes
• Remove the contents to a large, heavy based pot
• Use some of the water to make sure you get all the bits and pieces (and flavours) from the roasting pan. Add this water and the rest to the stock pot
• Raise heat to full and bring to boil
• Drop heat back to a simmer
• Simmer for 2 hours, occasionally skimming off the brownish grey film that forms on the surface
• When the 2 hours is up, remove all the solid pieces (do not discard - these are your dinner, and just reward for an arvo of stock-making goodness. Once cool enough, strip off the good meat from the chicken bones, and put this with the tasty veggies. Fry up some ginger and chili in a pot, add the stock bits and some fish sauce. Add 2 cups of your stock and bring to boil, then add a handful of rice noodles - and there's your dinner. Yum!)
• Strain the stock (I use a mesh strainer lined with a paper towel). Strain twice.

I think storage amounts of 1.5 cups is most versatile.

These will keep in plastic containers in the freezer for several months. Make sure you put a date on the label or lid.

And there you have it. Lovely, healthy homemade chicken stock.

First destination? Malaysian chicken rice.

Favourite things

These are a few of my favourite things

Coddlers

By now you know I love to coddle. While this entry will be devoted more to the kitchen gear that has helped me most in transitioning, my little coddlers are things I discovered during my marriage and have brought with me into my new, downsized world.

They meet one of the most important criteria of bachelor food - scaleability. I currently have four one-egg coddlers. Cooking four eggs takes no extra time than cooking one, no extra cooktop space, and very little extra cleaning up. It is also very easy to manage different likes - more spicy, less spicy; harder, softer etc.
I had a very pleasant late breakfast this Sunday, with two slices of toast drizzled with olive oil (I use olive oil instead of butter in all my sandwiches etc - it tastes nicer, and its cholesterol is of the Good variety).

The eggs were flavoured with salt and sliced chili. Lovely and warm.

Now on to my bachelor purchases...

Rice steamer

This has been extremely handy, and takes the worry out of rice. I use basmati rice, as it has a fantastic flavour and has a good GI (Glycemic Index), 1 cup of rice with 1.5 water; 2 cups rice 3 cups water etc, etc...

Once it's done, it keeps the rice nice and warm and fluffy. Another big advantage for the down-sized is that it frees up cooktop space for my wok. And speaking of which...

Carbonized steel wok

You can get expensive stainless steel, or non-stick, ceramic coated etc versions of this, but why would you?

Here's how to properly season a wok. This is Poh's version, who has a lovely smile and a great set (bachelors can say these things). I did this on my gas barbecue with my boys one weekend, and it was great fun. And speaking of which...

Gas barbecue

I have a small courtyard - so there's a big BBQ in it. Because of this, I get more use out of the outdoor area. The same would go if I had only a small balcony (and a small BBQ). It gets me outside - and it cooks me great meals. There's not much you can't cook on a good BBQ, even dessert. I make a very tasty scorched fruit and icecream dessert which I'll get round to posting eventually.

Mostly, but not exclusively, barbecues are for quick, intense activity style cooking, pretty much the opposite of the slow cooker. And speaking of which...

Slow cooker
Like the rice cooker, the humble crockpot takes pressure of precious cook-top space. It is not so much a time-saving device as a time-distributing device.

Most roast and casserole meals should include browning the meat (and often the vegetables too) in a pan on a high heat, before consigning it to its slow cooked fate.

Slow cooking needs to be done over a whole day - for cook times five hours or less, don't bother - use a casserole dish or stewing pot. The slow-cookers best work happens between the 5 and 7 hour mark.

I have an oval shaped one rather than a circular, as it's more versatile, being able to handle roasts and joints etc.

Brisket roast - used, then rebranded

So many of the tastiest cuts of beef are the cheapest ones. With beef in particular, there is always a trade-off between tenderness and taste. Let me introduce you to the Brisket - one of the tastiest cuts of all, and cheap as cheap.
The point end brisket is what you ask the butcher for. Generally it's about 2 kilograms, but can be more. You want the whole thing - and it wants you.

What you get is a boneless slab of meat that, cooked long and low, makes the tastiest roast, with leftovers that make excellent sandwiches and rebranding.

This week's roast fed me and my two boys two main meals and two lunches. The second meal (which we ate last night) was a very successful piece of meal rebranding.

I have a slow cooker, which I love, and which uses much, much electricity than an oven. If you're using an oven, you will need a roasting pan with a good heavy lid that seals properly.

Recipe: Rolled roast brisket.

Ingredients

• Cooking string
• Tip end brisket
• Rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 Lemons
• Garlic clove
• 2 Onions
• Half cup red wine
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop rosemary and combine with juice of one lemon, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Rub the marinade onto the brisket all over.
• Cut three or four pieces of kitchen string about 30 cm each.
• To tie the rolled up beef, any old knot will do, but here is how you tie the very simple and handy butcher's knot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5mZD2kBEU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
• Place the beef flat on a tray or clean bench, and roll from the pointy end, with with the rough side of the beef in the inside of the roll. Tie with the lengths of string about 3 cm apart. Cover and place in fridge overnight. It's really good if you can marinate the beef, but even if you can't you will still have a beautiful tender roast.
• Preheat oven to 110 degrees.
• Peel and quater onions, leaving enough for the woody end above the roots to hold the onion together. Wash and quater the remaining lemon.
• Pour off excess marinade into a pan with extra olive oil. Bring pan to high heat and sear all around. Remove to a roasting pan (or place in your slow cooker). 
• Now sear the onion and lemon quarters. Place these in the pan too. Add wine to pan to pick up all the pan flavours, and pour into roasting tray (or slow cooker). Cook covered for 7 hours.

When I use my slow cooker, this leaves my oven free to roast the veggies in a conventional way. If you're using the oven to roast the beef, that's ok. Bring out the covered tray and let it rest, pop up the heat, roast your veggies, and by the time they are ready, your roast will be rested, warm, juicy, and ready to carve.

You will also have about 4 cups of very good beef stock. 1 cup for gravy, the rest for the freezer.

On Thursday I made this with roast potatoes, carrots, oinions, pumpkin and turnips. And some steamed silver-beet.

The boys weren't too keen on the turnip and would only eat one small piece each. Last night, they ate the rest.

Recipe rebranding

Last night I retrieved the leftover veggies (including leftover silver-beet) from the fridge, ready to do a little re-branding. I chopped and mashed them up and put them in a layer in a roasting dish. Diced the roast beef and collected the jelly juices, and placed them on top of the veggie layer. Covered it, and put it in the oven at 100 degrees.

While this was warming, I steamed 1 cup of basmati rice with 1.5 cups of water and .5 cup of my all purpose tomato salsa. In 45 minutes, the rice had absorbed the moisture, and the colour and flavour of the salsa.

Raised the oven temperature to 200 degrees. Removed the roasting dish, and place the rice in a thick layer on top. Popped it back in the oven to get nice and crunchy on top, which takes about 10 minutes.

Then it was ready to serve - a rich red-brown and crisp on top, and juicy and sweet in the middle.

The whole thing got eaten, including all that rejected turnip from the night before.

Re-heat or rebrand?

"Cook once, eat twice" is a truism of bachelor foodism. Personally, I find eating the same meal twice in a row a rather glum experience. But that's what the freezer is for, I hear you say. True. But a diet of frozen meals? Now we're back to glum.

What the freezer is really good for is sauces and stocks. Long live the good old standby! Long live it I say!

Last week my boys asked for pillow pasta, their preschool name for ravioli. With carrots and green beans in the crisper, and my all purpose tomato salsa in the freezer, it was worth a quick dash to the deli for a veal-stuffed version of one of their all time favourites.

(No, I am not so evolved as to make my own ravioli - but my time will come, oh yes. It will come.)

A little plastic punnet of tomato salsa is a pasta sauce, great with pan-fried fish fillets, a pizza topping (defrost it, roll the dough, and the kids will do the rest), and a very tasty addition to a pan of roast veggies. Or just as a condiment.

This is where rebranding comes in. Say I've got slices of beef and a plate of veggies left over from the previous night's roast roll of brisket? Steaming up some rice, stirring in 2 tablespoons of salsa, reheating the veggies in an oven proof bowl, topping with the rice them popping in the oven to brown the rice for a few minutes while you reheat the roast beef. Now we have last night's meal fresh and rebranded, and good to go.

So here it is, good old standby number one.

All purpose tomato salsa.
(Yields about 6 cups)

Ingredients

• 2 medium onion
• 1 clove garlic
• .5 teaspoon sugar
• 6 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tin tomato
• 4 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon capers
• .5 cup vegetable stock
• .5 cup red wine
• pinch: oregano, pepper, salt

Method

1. Finely chop onions. In a sauce pan, heat oil on low heat. Add onions, minced garlic and pepper.
2. Sauté at least 10 minutes, more if you have the time.
3. Add the rest of the soft ingredients and bring to boil.
4. Simmer at least one hour, two is best. Stir every now and then, squishing the chunkier bits agains the side of the pan
5. Let cool at little, then push through strainer.

I have to admit that I don't always proceed through step 5. A little chunky or pureed, either way it's good.

Eggs eggsplained

Fried

Not my favourite googie, but let’s not be harsh. Use only olive oil. Frying in butter is gross. Moderate heat pan. Make sure temperature has been reached before you add the egg, that way it won't stick. Dad always liked his sunny side up (because eggs make their own sauce), but I like mine turned or folded. On a BBQ plate, an egg ring is a big help.

Poached

Key to this is the water needs to be just at simmering. Some teach to swirl the water to make a whirlpool and drop the egg into the centre - this is plain stupid as the forces are pulling the egg away from itself. We seek stillness. Poach is for peace. I break the egg into a soup ladle, then lower her down and let her slide off into the gentle waters. At the end they come out looking like little breast implants, so sweet.
Poached eggs are excellent in salads, and can be kept for several days refrigerated. If you’re going to do this, you pop them in icy water first, then pat them gently dry with a paper towel.

Scrambled

The trick here is to move the eggs as little as possible, not as much as possible. Folded eggs is a better description.

Omelet

The only question is: can I be bothered separating the whites and fluffing them first. This is a major mood barometer, like when peeling an onion: will I peel the papery skin as thinly as possible, or will I allow myself to peel back a full, fleshy ring with it?

Boiled

The eggs go into cold water, not boiling water. Putting them into boiling water will make the shell crack, and the egg will cook unevenly. Fool! Once a strong boil has been reached, drop the heat down to a gentle boil, just above simmer. One more minute (per egg) for soft, one minute more for mixed texture, another for hard, yet another for stone age types.

Baked

See recipe below.

Coddled

Now you're talking! Beloved of BnBs, and a fantastic breakfast in bed, but requires a coddler. (You can improvise and use a ramekin in a water filled dish in the oven - then it’s kind of half coddled and half baked. Go the coddler I say!)  I've bought my sets on eBay.
Not endorsing this particular set mind - but aren't they pretty!

Open coddler, drop in a drizzle of olive oil, tilt it sideways and roll around to let the oil cover the inside. Break the egg into it. Top it with pepper, salt, a shave of spanish onion, chives, a sliver of chilli - go nuts - cheese, szeuchan pepper crumbled crispy bacon, yes, yes, yes! Put the coddler/s in a pan, fill with water until it’s just below where the lid starts. Turn the heat up high to bring to a simmer. Knock the heat back once you reach simmer, then keep them there for another minute (same routine as with boiled eggs really).

What I’m cooking tonight is

Recipe: baked egg in a bowl

Bachelor food needs to be easily scaleable. If there’s two of you, that’s two bowls. Four of you, four. There’s a pattern emerging.
Ingredients

• 2 rashers of bacon
• 1 tomato
• 1 big handful baby spinach leaves
• 2 eggs
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon blue cheese
• 2 slices buttered toast, to serve

Method

• Preheat fan forced oven to 200°
• Slice tomatoes in half across the core
• Place bacon and tomatoes on a lightly oiled baking tray, and place in oven for 10 minutes
• While these cook, pour boiling water over the handful of spinach, then remove quickly and allow to drain
• Once the 10 minutes is up, drop the heat down to 150°, turn the tomatoes over, and remove the bacon
• Place the bacon into a breakfast-size oven-proof bowl (no bigger than fist size). I like to cut up the bacon with cooking scissors - makes eating so much simpler.
• Add the wilted spinach
• Gently crack the eggs on top, and season with pepper
• Place in oven for 10-15 minutes, until the eggs are done the way you like
• Remove tomatoes and egg bowl from oven and let rest while the bread is toasting
• Crumble cheese over the egg (the cream and blue of the cheese looks so nice with the white and green of the egg and spinach)

Serve tomatoes and egg bowl with buttered toast
An excellent breakfast in bed
It worked out nicely tonight, but maybe I should make little indentations in the spinach so the eggs don’t slide off to the side. Hmm.

Brucie wants his din dins!

Welcome to the BF blog by AB! About six years ago I started a two-year stint as primary carer for my two darling boys, and the diaries and journals that I kept about myself and projects went out the door for a diary of food and meals for my children (much of this based on recipes from my mother and nanna). Now I am a bachelor once more, food, shopping and meals are again a healing and healthy part of my life.

This blog will be recipes and discussion of food, ingredients, preparation, meal times, entertaining, and hibernating. Cooking for yourself, your friends, your potential (or actual) special friend, and for children - your own, your friends', nieces and nephews, foster children, or random little dudes. I am a great believer that there are many ways to be important and beneficial in children's lives, and being a bio-parent is only one.

Long live din dins!