A surprise pie!

I had some bacon and eggs in the fridge, but felt like doing something other than frying, and the result was very pleasing and provided a lovely bachelor meal and tasty work lunches to boot. I can hardly wait to run it by the boys!

I’m new to the pie game, but I’m getting better at it. And so far - the boy test has been ok.

Generally you use a short crust pastry for the bottom and puff for the top, but this time I used puff all around, and really enjoyed the result.

Recipe - Bacon and egg pie

Ingredients

• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 4 rashers bacon, rind removed
• 5 eggs
• 1 onion
• 1 red capsicum
• .5 cup grated mild cheese
• .25 cup crumbled stilton (or other blue or bighty cheese)
• 1 handful green beans
• 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
• 2 birds eye chilies, chopped
• ground pepper and cumin to taste
• Butter for greasing the pie tray

Method

Preheat oven to 180º. Grease a 25cm (or there abouts) pie dish with butter.

Take 2 sheets of puff pastry and allow to thaw (no, I’m not quite up to making my own pastry yet)

Chop bacon, onion, capsicum and beans. Place in a cold frying pan on medium to low heat on the cooktop. This allows the bacon fat to render out and the flavour to distribute nicely. Sauté for 10 minutes. (If you’re feeling lazy, you can just pile everything into the pie and cook, but the result isn’t as good)

Place a sheet of pastry into the pie tray and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Stretch the pastry out a little so that there is some extra over the sides (the puff pastry will shrink a little in the oven).

Place the pie tray and pastry base in the oven for 10 minutes. By this time, the pastry will have ballooned up, but that’s ok. Poke of few holes in and pat it back down flat, then add mixture from frying pan.

Sprinkle cheeses over the top.

Take one egg and whisk in a small bowl.

Crack the other 4 eggs over the top of the pie mixture. Sprinkle chilies and shallots. Season with pepper and cumin.

Top with the second sheet of puff pastry.

Trim with a sharp knife and brush the pastry with the egg mixture to that it glistens. This will help the pastry go golden and crispy. With a fork, poke holes in the pie lid to allow steam to come out.

Return to the pie to the oven and cook for 40 minutes.

Remove when golden!

Lamb two ways

A rainy no-child Sunday begins with a hangover and a bus ride to Marrickville Market.

I love cooking and shopping with my boys, but I struggle to find the right balance of doing jobs and needfuls, and just hanging out, playing games and reading, and going on adventures. I suppose that, over any 2-month period, you do all of those things, you can’t be too bad a dad…

This week, I’m cooking ahead with a leg of lamb from Marrickville Market’s Young Lamb Man. Young is here. Marrickville Market is here.

As you know, I like to butterfly a leg of lamb to retain the bones for stock, and marinate and barbecue for yiros.

Today, though, I tried to make the most of the two major cuts in a lamb leg - the shank, and everything else.

The shank I set aside for a bachelor soup or the slow cooker, while the rest I butterflied, rubbed with garden herbs, and tied into a roasting roll.

The roasting roll is now marinating in the fridge, with the shank tucked into the freezer.

The roast is a 3-boy dinner, with enough for school lunch wrap the following day. Super!

Recipe - easy carving herbed lamb roast

Ingredients

• Butterflied leg of lamb
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 sprigs sage
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• cooking twine for tying

Method

With a mortar and pestle (or blender) create a herb paste with the rosemary, sage, garlic and olive oil.

Lay out the lamb with the fat side down, and rub the paste into the lamb.

Roll the lamb and tie with cooking twine. Today, I used three butchers knots across, and one down the length, which works fine - but there are prettier, more elaborate ways to do it.

Place it, covered, in the fridge for a of hours (or overnight) in this case.

Remove from fridge about an hour before you plan to cook it.

Preheat oven to 200º.

Roast uncovered for 15 minutes. Drop temperature to 160º. Remove lamb from oven to baste with pan juices. Return to the oven for another 30 mins, basting again after 15 mins.

This should achieve a medium-rare roast, with lovely pinkish slices with a crispy crust.

If you prefer medium or well done, just add one or two extra 15 min cooking periods - but don’t forget to baste for each!

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carving.

Butterflying lamb leg and removing the shank

Tying a butchers knot

Marrickville chicken feast!

At Marrickville Markets the other day, I was assured by the Wootton beef guy, that the chickens he sold from his mate’s farm would be the best I’ve ever tasted. A big call. But I can confirm it was pretty damn good. This is how I cooked it.

Recipe: Chicken pieces, risoni pasta, and green beans

Ingredients

• 1 chicken cut into eight pieces
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups risoni
• 3 cloves garlic
• .5 kg green beans
• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 3–4 red, tabasco chilis, chopped
• Chopped parsley
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• Black pepper

Method

You’ll need a heavy-based oven-proof pan with a good lid. Preheat oven to 200º.

In this dish, place chicken pieces skin-side up, along with peeled garlic cloves, halved. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with pepper.
Cook uncovered in the oven for 15 minutes until the skin begins to brown and look crispy.

Remove from oven, drop temperature to 150º. Removed chicken pieces from pan, add chicken stock, then risoni and beans.

Return the chicken pieces to the pan, then sprinkle the tomato salsa and chopped chilli over the top.

Cover, and return to oven for 30 minutes. We’re aiming for the risoni to be plump and soft, but not mushy.

Finally garnish with chopped parsley.

Open fire barbecue - talk to the hand!

Building a fire under a grill brings a whole new level of enjoyment to one of my favourite things - the barbecue. The kids especially enjoy busting sticks and scrunching newspaper.

The key of course is to wait for the flames to die down until they are gently waving over the coals, and spread the coals out evenly before adding the food.

Most barbecues, but especially open fire bbqs, will have hotter and cooler regions.

The easiest way to locate these is by holding the palm of your hand out, starting high and working low. If your hand gets uncomfortable within about 5 seconds about 6–8 centimetres from the hotplate, that’s good for steaks and veggies. If it takes longer, that’s good for sausages. And if it feels hot but not hurty, that’s where you send your cooked stuff to keep warm.

On our holiday on the NSW central coast, I had the kids kindling up which I chopped the veggies and cleaned the squid (fresh from the Wallace Lake co-op - super!) My eldest leaned over my shoulder and asked how I was going to cook the carrot - he saw a saucepan nearby and disapproved.

Preparing the vegetables

When I said I planned to steam them, he said “No Dad, we love them when they’re barbecued!” I tell myself I’m a selective pushover!

To my surprise, my Mum who was with us had never seen carrot cooked this way - and if you haven’t tried it, it works a treat! Unlike potato, you don’t have to par-boil it, just whack it on the plate until it begins to blacken in places, and turn it once like a steak.

The trick with barbecuing all veggies, is to oil the veggies, not the grill. Slice it all up, pop it in a plastic bag, pour in some oil, give it a shake, and you are ready to go!

Cleaning squid

Don’t be intimidated - it’s not so difficult. Hold the hood in one hand, reach in above where the tentacles are, and pull the two sections apart. The guts and ink sack will come out pretty easily. If the shorter tentacles are longer than about 4 centimetres, I keep them. The very long pair I discard, as they are gristly. You can either cut the tentacles away from beneath the beak or dig the beak out and keep the tentacles connect - this is probably best if you’re barbecuing.

For the hood, once you pull the wings off (they are also gristle and are discarded) the thin layer of skin comes off pretty easily. Then you simply slice across for calamari rings.

For barbecuing, the pieces need to be oiled in the same way as the veggies, and cooked hot until they just begin to blacken.

My family and I were very happy with our open fire mixed grill!

Pretty pollie chicken

It’s election day in Australia, and in honour of the rubber chicken sandwiches all politicians endure at fundraising barbecues, here is a super recipe for a tender, juicy, tasty bird. All you pollies out there, this is how your fundraisers can step up!

I had a bunch of friends over for Sunday barbecue a couple of weeks back, with queso blanco dip and paprika yogurt chicken the main features, along with barbecue fried haloumi, grilled octopus, and salads (salads contributed by my excellent guests!)

It’s always very gratifying when someone asks a “how did you?” question. In this instance: “How did you get the chicken so juicy?”

Well, here it is.

Recipe: Barbecue paprika yogurt chicken

Ingredients

1 chicken

Marinade

• 2 cloves garlic
• Juice .5 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon tahini
• 2 teaspoons smokey paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons yogurt

Method

This can be done either with a butterflied chicken or with chicken pieces. For barbecues, I prefer cutting the chicken into pieces, giving me one less job at serving time.

For barbecuing and casserole, I tend to leave the breast bones on rather than fillet the breast.

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl. Then dip each chicken piece in one at a time, making sure each piece is thoroughly covered, then transfer chicken pieces to an oven dish, and cover.

Place in the fridge for at least 3 hours, but overnight is best.

About an hour before cooking, remove the chicken from the fridge to that it returns to room temperature.

Heat barbecue grill on high and preheat. The way you tell if it’s ready is to place your hand about 10 centimetres above the grill and, if it ouches after about 4 seconds, it’s ready. This is also a good way of mapping the hotter and cooler sections of your grill.

Now, here’s the secret! Preheat oven to 150°.

Before placing the chicken on the barbie, wipe of excess marinade with a paper towel. I sometimes forget, or am too lazy, to do this, but I always regret it, as the extra fat in the yogurt can make the chicken prone to flare-ups.

Place the chicken pieces on the grill, skin side down, with the wings on the cooler spots of the grill. Once on the grill for a few seconds, give the pieces a gentle shift, to keep them from sticking. Barbecue covered for about 5 minutes each side, turning once.

While the chicken is cooking, give your oven dish a thorough clean.

Once the chicken is done, place the pieces into the oven dish, cover, and pop it into the oven to finish off - about 15 minutes.

And there you have it, tender, juicy, tasty chicken (and rich juices in the dish) ready for the plates of happy guests!

May the sauce be with you

Kids love tomato sauce, and I’ve got no real problem with having a bottle from the supermarket in the fridge. The trouble is that supermarket sauces do contain a ridiculous amount of sugar, often including high-fructose corn syrup, which has a very intense sweetness produced through an equally intense manufacturing process. Isn’t sugar sweet enough for crying out loud?

So, with my kids away, it’s time to experiment. The aim is to have ketchup perfection by the time Spring, and another barbecue season, rolls around.

This is the recipe I tried for my first batch. It produced about 4–5 cups of good, tasty ketchup. As you can see, the colour is reddish brown, which is fine for me, but my boys will be expecting that nuclear red of commercial sauces. My hot, sweet chilli sauce from a previous post - Missing, making, and bringing the bling - is a very bright red, so next time I think I’ll include a roasted and peeled red capsicum. I will also try adding a granny smith apple for a smoother consistency.

Once I get the regular ketchup sorted, then I’ll turn to a slightly spicy barbecue sauce for my 11-year-old who likes a little more punch!

For this recipe, I used my slow cooker. Once I’d completed the saucepan and frying pan mixes, I popped it into the ceramic slow cooker insert, and refrigerated, covered. Just before going to bed, I pulled it out and placed it into the cooker, set it on low, and away we go!

Recipe - Ketchup

For the small saucepan

• .5 cup cider vinegar
• .5 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (I like Lea & Perrins)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• .25 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 clove

For the frying pan

• 2 cans tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 onion
• 2 clove garlic

Method

In a small saucepan, heat the saucepan mixture, bringing to a boil, and stirring to dissolve the sugar and evenly distribute spice and mustard. Once this is achieved, turn off the heat.

Heat pan on medium, add oil, coarsely chopped onion and chopped garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, stirring. Raise heat to bring to boil, simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat.
Tip the frying pan mixture into your slow cooker. Pour the saucepan mixture through a strainer into the slow cooker also.

Cook on low for 8–9 hours.

(You can just as well simmer in a larger saucepan for about 3 hours)

Let the mixture cool a little, the put through a blender or smooth-up with a bar-mix.

Place into sterilised containers and refrigerate. What you don't bottle, you can freeze for several months.

There! Who says bachelors can't be saucy?

Bachelor stockings!

There is something about the very small effort over a very long time when making stock that just works!

With my under–9 football team’s game rained out (go the mighty Wanderers!) - and a rainy weekend ahead of me - I took the opportunity to go to my local butcher and spend a couple of bucks on bones. I already have three chickens worth of backs and wingtips in the freezer. So: Saturday is beef stock; Sunday is chicken stock.

For beef stock, the best bones to choose are marrow and chuck bones - the leg and the neck.

My meal plans for the beef stock I’m making today are: slow-cooked rendang danging (Indonesian beef curry), slow-cooked osso bucco with citrus and, for when my children come back from a holiday with their mother, spaghetti bolognese. I’ll have enough for another two meals at least, but don’t want to give myself a headache from thinking too far ahead!

For this recipe, which yields 2 litres of stock, you’ll need an 7 to 8 litre stockpot.

Recipe - brown beef stock

Ingredients

• 2 kilogram beef bones
• .25 cup olive oil
• 2 carrots
• 2 onions
• 2 stick celery
• 2 portabella mushrooms
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 litres water
• 5 black peppercorns (lightly crushed)
• 2 bay leafs
• 2 sprigs oregano

Method

1. Have your butcher cut the marrow and chuck bones into pieces. At home, remove any excess fat
2. Preheat oven 200°C (fan-forced) and place bones in a large baking tray, drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn, then roast another 15 minutes
3. While the bones are browning, chop vegetables into chunky pieces
4. Heat for litres of water in a stock pot
5. When bones are done, remove them to the stock pot and add some water to the roasting pan to deglaze. Add bay leafs, oregano sprigs and pepper corns
6. Place chopped vegetables into the pan and return to oven. Cook for a further 15 minutes
7. Place vegetables into the stock pot and bring to boil for about 10 minutes. Reduce to simmer a slow boil - you need more of a boil than a simmer to make sure you extract all the marrow and other goodness from the bones
8. Over the next few hours, come back every 30 minutes or so to enjoy the aroma, and to skim the froth can scum that rises to the top. A slow boil for 4 hours is best, or a little higher for 2 is also ok.
9. When you’re ready, remove the big bits from the stock pot with tongs
10. Skim and strain through a muslin lined sieve into a clean container, before dividing, stir to get an even consistency at the end
11. Cool quickly by dividing stock into small containers - about 2 cups is good, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
12. Remove layer of fat, under which you will have fantastic, jelly consistency, super-tasty beef stock!Reseal
13. Label and date stock and freeze for up to 3 months