July 4 - An Australian Family Celebrating Our American Heritage - inspired by Bill Ives family Gumbo

Cold early July winter nights in Australia - time for a Cajun Gumbo perhaps ? Great slow - comfort food ! And hey - today is July 4 - American Independence Day isn't it ?

In Australia many of us with family from the UK tend to think mostly of our Anglo Saxon heritage - overlooking the mix - other Europeans eg  the Basque - the Hugenot - plus the Asian - the African-  the Middle Eastern - and also the Americas.

Both my husband and I have American heritage in our family trees - in my case - the details are very very hazy and uncertain - whereas my husband's is more certain - California - from Sierra Nevada via South Africa. So sometimes as a reminder I do like to do some American themed cooking.

Recently I was inspired by Bill Ives as he shared his mother's Cajun Gumbo with Paula Thornton (aka Rotkapchen ) in a post #e2conf Boston Conference convo. I was delighted when he responded to my request for a genuine Southern Gumbo recipe : sharing his 2004 blog post : First Make a Roux - please read it : it is such great knowledge sharing. 

I had done Gumbo's with a Roux once or twice - although more frequently "cheated" without a Roux via a slow cooker approach. If you find risotto's take time - be warned - Gumbo's take much much longer.

Tonight I used Bill's Roux as the base, with a modification of my own KerrieAnne's Chicken, Andouille & Vegie Gumbo (see below).

 

after about 45-60 minutes of slowly stirring over low heat to avoid burning the Roux it slowly browns - deepening in colour

I hadn't intentionally done it as a July 4 theme - somehow it just worked out that way after coming across Bill's Gumbo convo's.

Then I did a Twitter search this morning and discovered lots of folks salivating about their Gumbo's.  There seemed to be so many Gumbo themed tweets this weekend - then it dawned ... of course July 4 - I was just so busy and nearly hadn't realised the date. And. in Australia we don't necessarily appreciate that Gumbo is July 4 theme fare in the south around New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA)

I'd googled Gumbo's a few times in the past ..  and it's now been 3 years since I visited Gumbo Town and downloaded its Gumbo pages - but it remained my favourite inspiration ( until I read Bill Ives' post). Here's some Gumbo links to Gumbo Town ....

• Seafood Gumbo
• Chicken & Andouille Gumbo
• not to mention "Making the Roux" : "More than anything else, it's the roux that gives gumbo its particular character. ... A Cajun roux is just flour cooked in fat until it acquires a dark color and a deep, complex, somewhat smoky flavor with nut-like overtones." - I love the advice given by Gumbo Town - great knowledge sharing

Then a check of Delicious social bookmarks on Gumbo revealed an intriguing story - the debate over the history of Gumbo - as well as YouTube Gumbo.

For the last few years I used the above Gumbo Town pages as inspiration for my own KerrieAnne's Chicken, Andouille & Vegie Gumbo :

Ingredients

1/4 cup Canola oil                                        

1/2 cup plain flour ( aka all purpose flour)

500gm ( 1 lb) chicken breast chopped small pieces                 

500gm ( 1 lb) Andouille sausage - sliced 

2 cups chicken stock                                    

1 capsicum (bell pepper) chopped finely

2 cans tomatoes (400g size)     - sometimes I use 4 tomatoes for less tomatoey Gumbo                     

2 tbpsns parsley chopped

2 tbspns Worcestershire Sauce                    

2 leaves spinach chopped 

2 onions finely chopped                                

optional Tabasco sauce

2 carrots finely chopped                                

optional Jalapeno peppers

1 medium potato diced                                  

1 cup Okra chopped

2 sticks celery finely chopped                        

1/2 tspn cajun spice

2 zucchini's (courgettes) finely chopped                            

1 bay leaf

20 ml crushed (minced) garlic           

1 tspn lemon juice                        

shake each of thyme black pepper cayenne pepper ground cumin

Method

1. Make a roux like in Gumbo Town's pages
2. Add stock - slowly - a little in time - stir in each lot
3. Add all other ingredients except spinach and zucchini
4. Simmer gently until vegetables are tender but not mushy
5. Add zucchini & spinach and simmer another 5 minutes
6. Serve over steamed rice

Then there's Gumbo Pages : " dedicated to the preservation of New Orleans culture."- I really liked Mark Savoy's Gumbo & the Simple Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

 - not to mention American Government Health Page Chicken Gumbo & About.com's Gumbo pages : for the time challenged there are slow cooker Gumbo's : eg Chicken & Sausage at About.com or the Epicurious slow cooker version.

 

A few more ideas that I discovered during my Twitter search on July 4 2010  ....

• Seafood Craving's Scallop Gumbo
• Healthy Home Recipe's Chicken Okra Gumbo with Sausage
• Karol's Kitchen Seafood Gumbo
• Mahalia Jackson Okra Gumbo
• Myriam's Seafood Gumbo
• Two Silly Yak's Gumbo - suitable for Coeliac's  ?
• Fishing News Daily : Creole Shrimp Gumbo with Duck

Now we have a huge quantity of Gumbo leftovers - some to my Mom (aka Mum in Oz-speak) - some for my husband's lunches (instead of brown bagging it) - and a few nights during the week.

My 77yr old Mum hadn't tried Cajun Gumbo before ... and tonight she lined up for seconds ! So good to see her enjoying such a range of international foodie experiences. She always has liked to be experimental - guess that's where I get it from !

 

 

 

 

KerrieAnnes Lamb Shanks around the Globe at Tony Hollingsworth Request

I've been a big fan of Taste.com for ages and had been adding some of my favourites to their "My Taste" section - where home style cooking foodies can share. The Teenager had insisted I upload some of the favs that were fading fast in my old handwritten notebook.

Too easy, then, to locate some of my favourites I've been doing for years and share with Tony Hollingsworth under his AskTonyFood persona. And there's a lot more of foodie's Lamb Shank favs over in My Taste too !

My preference is to used Frenched Lamb Shanks and they fit better in the slow cooker that way ! 

 

Lamb Shanks - Slow Simmered Lemony

 

Cooking Time

120 minutes

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 4 lamb shanks
• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• salt & pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 2 sticks celery, sliced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup of water

 

Method

 

1. 1. Cut slits in lamb shanks & spoon in crushed garlic

1. 2. Combine flour with salt & pepper

1. 3. Coat lamb shanks in seasoned flour

1. 4. Heat oil in large fry pan & brown lamb shanks all over

1. 5. Sprinkle with sugar & cook for another 5-7 minutes

1. 6. Remove from pan

1. 7. Add onions and celery to pan & fry until onion has softened

1. 8. Pour off oil from pan

1. 9. Add lemon juice & water - heat - scraping bottom of pan until boiling.

1. 10. Replace shanks into fry pan and cover

FRENCH LAMB SHANKS ONE POT

Preparation Time

25 minutes

Cooking Time

120 minutes

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 4 lamb shanks Frenched
• 4 small onions peeled cut into ¼
• 2 tsp garlic crushed
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 large carrot, peeled & diced
• 1½ stalks celery
• salt & black pepper to taste
• ½ cup beef stock
• ¼ cup red wine
• 220g tin tomatoes
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 8 baby new potatoes
• 
  
• Method

1. PREHEAT OVEN 200 C Fan Forced

2. Place cut onions on base of large baking dish.

3. Add prepared shanks on top & roast in oven for 15 minutes

4. Add garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, salt, & pepper.

5. Return to oven for another 15 minutes.

6. Turn shanks over & add carrot & celery & roast another 5 minutes.

7. Pour off any fat. Add stock, wine, tomatoes, rosemary, & potatoes.

8. Cover with foil.

9. Reduce heat to 160 C & cook for a further 60 minutes.

10. Remove foil & return to oven for a further 15 minutes.

11. Turn shanks & potatoes over for a final 15 minutes.

12. SERVING

13. Serve with green peas, garlic bread.

 

Lamb Shanks - Braised

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6)

• 4 lamb shanks
• Plain flour for coating
• 2 tbspns olive oil
• 1 clove garlic - crushed
• 1 tspn oregano - dried
• 1/4 tspn ground black pepper
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tbspn honey
• 1 tbspn lemon juice
• 4 onions - peeled
• 4 carrots - peeled & halved
• 2 stalks celery - quartered
• 2 potatoes peeled & quartered
• 4 tbspns Plain Flour - extra

Method

1. 1. Preheat oven to 180-190oC

1. 2. Wipe shanks with damp paper towels

1. 3. Coat with flour

1. 4. Slowly heat oil in large fry pan then brown shanks - occasionally turning all over

1. 5. Add garlic, oregano, pepper, stock, honey & lemon juice - mix in

1. 6. Move shanks and sauce to large greased ovenproof casserole or baking dish - cover

1. 7. Cook for 90 minutes

1. 8. Turn shanks then add vegetables - recover

1. 9. Cook for further 35- 40 minutes

1. 10. Remove shanks to serving plate & surround with vegetables

1. 11. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of remaining liquid - skim off excess fat & reserve 1 tbspn

1. 12. Place fat in saucepan - blend with extra flour. Add stock & heat until smooth & thickened

 

1. 13. Pour over lamb shanks

 

 

 

 

 

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Italian Oven Baked Chicken - who says Medical Diets have to be boring

I love experimenting with spicy food - have done so for years - and then my significant other felt unwell & found himself on a restricted medical diet for a short period. Hmm steamed chicken could get boring night after night.

Naturally I had been worried that my ongoing experiments with international cuisine might not have helped, but I was assured that some herbs & spices were okay, as long as the oil content was controlled.

So for our regular Sunday Night Dinner with my Mum, I found myself looking at Donna Hay's Baked Italian Chicken from "The Instant Cook" - so simple with only a few modifications to suit the medical diet.

First of all it needed Pesto - instintively I started to write it on the shopping list we keep on the fridge. And then I thought of the Basil plants in the vegie patch - they aren't going to last long as winter approaches - already getting ready to go to seed. Yet, there are still so many large luxuriant Basil leaves on each of the bushes.

So I decided on DIY Pesto & consulted Donna Hay's "Short Order Rough Pesto" in her "Modern Classics - Book 1"

1/2 cup fresh Basil leaves from the vegie patch plus 1/2 tspn crushed Garlic, 2 tbspns fresh grated Parmesan cheese, 2 tbspns Olive Oil & 1 1/2 tbspns toasted Pine Nuts - all blended together with a stick blender - Donna Hay just chops the Basil & Pine Nuts, however I preferred to blend them. Although it did take some detaching of the Pesto from the blender's blades !

I only needed 2 tbspns for the Italian Oven Baked Chicken so the rest of the Pesto went into tiny glass jars topped with Pendleton Estate's Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2008 Picual/Frantoio Blend (from South Australia's Limestone Coast) - the Teenager is already making comments about how good Pesto tastes on those mini European toast breads.

Ps. I should mention that I had decided to try toasting the Pine Nuts in the Microwave on a Browning Dish - note to self - next time do it in 20 second intervals - not 60 seconds in one go - as I plucked out the blackened burnt one's from the not so burnt.

Although the Baked Italian Chicken did not include potato or pumpkin I decided to add these to the dish...

• 
  Take 2 large Roma Tomatoes & quarter them
• Lightly spray large baking dish with cooking spray then place large sheet of baking paper into dish - place quartered tomatoes onto baking paper - very lightly sprinkle or spray with olive oil & grind black pepper over top.
• Chop peeled potatoes into slightly larger than bite size chunks & toss into the baking dish - sprinkle with Italian or Tuscan Herbs
• Bake for 10-15 minutes at 230oC - remove from oven
• Chop peeled butternut pumpkin into slightly larger than bite size chunks & toss into the baking dish - sprinkle with Italian or Tuscan Herbs
• Bake for another 20-30 minutes until knife can just penetrate potato chunks but not soft
• In the meantime take 2-4 chicken breasts (depending on appetites) & halve.
• Spoon 1 tspn Pesto on each piece. Top with 1 tbspn fresh grated Parmesan - then wrap 2 slices Prosciutto around each - however if you don't like Prosciutto just leave it off
• (Note - I had bought the Prosciutto from the Leisure Coast Gourmet Deli off Cabbage Tree Lane in Fairy Meadow - north of Wollongong - so popular with The Gong's Italian community - not to mention many others from the 80+nationalities in Wollongong.)
• Note - I usually prepare these a little ahead of time and leave them in the fridge until ready to bake
• Place these on top of potato & pumpkin chunks in baking dish - bake at 200oC for 20-30 minutes until chicken is cooked but still tender and not dry.
• Use large egg slice & spoon to gently lift & serve chicken, potato & pumpkin chunks with quartered tomatoes onto plates. Serve with steamed beans. - Serves 4-6

 

Too easy - and afterwards ... my home cooked Quince Paste (now that was a learning journey ... ) with a Tawny Port ...

 

 

Golabki Golubsty Krautwickel Toltott Kaposzta Sarma - Slow Food Saturday

Balandėliai, Golabki, Golubsty, Kaalikaaryleet, Kaldomar,  Kohlraden, Krautwickel, Toltott Kaposzta, Sarma, or my own Red Cabbage Rolls on another Slow Food Saturday. And of course, go to Wikipedia if you want to see even more names for cabbage rolls.

Fascinating how so many European countries have their own version of cabbage rolls - some use pork & veal mince, some just pork mince, others beef mince & some quite an amazing combination of meats. Some add breadcrumbs, others cooked rice or risoni pasta. Some use passata, others tomato puree, tomato juice, canned tomatoes, tomato soup, even fresh tomatoes or no tomato at all.

Cabbage can be overlooked compared with its cousins Asian bok choy & Italian cavolo nero - but it is just so good for slow food.

In fact when I checked my cooking library & the web, including Wikipedia, I found so much diversity in styles. 

I loved the look of the Polish Golabki and the Italian Pork & Tomato Cabbage Rolls on www.Taste.com

My really lovely book of German Cooking from Hahndorf which I brought back from a trip to Australia's Barossa Valley has Krautwickel. I found another version of Krautwickel in an old Country Style magazine. I had been surprised to discover that Krautwickel does not contain tomatoes in the sauce.

Many are distinctly tomato-ey - although the "Family Circle Microwave Cookbook" is more sauerkraut & less tomato. These seem similar to the Austrian Kohlraden

The Hungarian Toltott Kaposzta on the SBS site features sauerkraut - again no tomatoes - although the Hungarian cabbage rolls in the AWW "Great Cooking Classics" has some tomatoes in a chicken stock base - plus celery in the pork mince mixture. I really want to try out the Croatian Sarma with its fascinating range of meats - also from SBS's foodie site - but I need to save that for a really really slow Saturday. The Slovenian style Sarma at Recipezaar looks a little less daunting to be honest.

AWW's "New Casserole Cookbook" version has a more Moroccan feel - like the one on their web page - whilst their "Country Cooking" features an Italian style with prosciutto, parmesan, white wine & risoni pasta. Then there's another Italian one on www.Taste.com with chargrilled capsicum & basil leaves. Not to mention an "Italian American twist on an Eastern European classic" at About.com:AmericanFood. And an Amish Pennsylvania Dutch cabbage roll recipe which features a can of tomato soup - although another Amish style uses canned tomatoes. Julie Stafford's Cabbage Rolls in her "Taste of Life from the Microwave" are also Moroccan-like.

I've even seen a Greek one somewhere ... found after a search of my cooking library bookshelves ... Lahanodolmades in Tess Mallos' "Greek Cookbook" aka Yemisto Me Lahano in her "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook", and Lahanodolmades also in Sarah Maxwell's "Meze Cooking" - all are similar to dolmades made with vine leaves - but minus the currants & pine nuts - and simmered/steamed rather than baked like many cabbage roll recipes. Angeline Kapsaskis in "The Commonsense Greek Cookery Book" uses tomatoes in the mince mixture & simmers them in water - then served with a Saltsa Avgolemono style sauce - but with milk added - ie  combination of Hollandaise/Bechamel style sauce with lemon juice.

Turkish cabbage rolls are known as Lahana Sarma with tomatoes in the mince again and not in the sauce

I discovered a whole blog devoted to cabbage rolls recipes ... featuring 22 different recipes so far ... including Slavic Cabbage Rolls.

Then there are the Golubsty in the beautiful "The Delights of Russian Cuisine" that I discovered at a Russian restaurant at the Brisbane Expo, where my significant other, David, had been attending a Fujitsu IT conference on the Expo site. Golubsty is tomato-ey, and with carrots in the tomato sauce. Then there's the Lithuanian "Balandėliai" with green capsicum (bell pepper) but without the carrot. The Swedish Kaldomar on Recipezaar have cream & milk in the filling - but without tomatoes in filling or sauce - the Danes also have Kaldomar whilst the Finnish call their Kaldomar Kaalikaaryleet. Wikipedia mentions that Swedish Vine/Cabbage Rolls were first mentioned in 1755 when Anna Christina Warg (aka Cajsa Warg) "published was to be a very long-lived classic of the kitchen: Hjelpreda I Hushållningen För Unga Fruentimber ("Assistant in Housekeeping for Young Women")"

And the final word ... from Claudia Roden in her "A Book of Middle Eastern Food" - suggesting cabbage rolls "should be very easy to make in England, and a welcome change from the usual boiled cabbage"... she covers cabbage rolls with and without tomato sauce.

Anyway I decided to do an improv - I had run out of green Savoy cabbage leaves - so decided to try the red cabbage I had in the fridge - but I had never seen red cabbage rolls anywhere before to be honest. And whilst it started out as one of those "take a can of soup" style - it certainly diverged - and I would certainly go for passata or sugo if I couldn't get Heinz Big Red Spicy Tomato.  Normally I avoid this approach - however Cabbage Rolls being one of my exceptions to this bias. My significant other, David, even queried had I decided to do the cabbage rolls specially with the red cabbage.

I wondered what colour the dish would end up given the combination of tomato & red cabbage. It emerged to be a deep rich colour - almost identical to the colour of the Pokerface 2008 Cabernet Merlot we had with dinner.

 

 

Method (serves 6-8)

• 6-12 large cabbage leaves - red or green - depending on preference - steamed for about 5 minutes then cooled - need to be tender enough to roll but not too soft either
• 500 gm pork & veal mince
• 1 rasher of bacon chopped - optional
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 6 spring onions sliced finely
• 1 445 can tomato soup - Heinz "Big Red Spicy Tomato" is best - but will need to add water during cooking to prevent dryout & burning - alternatively add 1 can passata/sugo with 4 tbspns tomato paste if Spicy Tomato is not available
• 1 tbspn lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• few grinds of black pepper
• shake each of sweet paprika, marjoram, caraway seeds & dried parsley
• toothpicks
• water - if needed during the baking to prevent dryout
• dill

1. Combine all ingredients except cabbage leaves, lemon juice, bay leaf, dill  & tomato soup - mix well - I use my hands to get it all mixed up nicely.
2. Take 1/3 cupful's or amount to fit neatly into each cabbage leaf when rolled up - roll up - secure with toothpick(s)
3. Place the smaller cooked unused cabbage leaves in base of greased casserole dish
4. Pack cabbage rolls in layers on top of cabbage leaves- place any unused cooked leaves on top
5. Add tomato soup (or passata/sugo with the tomato paste)  to top carefully & then sprinkle in lemon juice
6. Cover & place in oven set at 180oC - cook for 1 - 1/2 hours
7. After first 20-30 minutes - check to see if too dry - add the water if necessary - spoon sauce over cabbage rolls
8. Repeat after 60 minutes.
9. Can be served sprinkled with dill & crusty bread - we had Ciabatta.

And lots of leftovers for those frantic after work dinners next week - will probably need to add 1/2 tbpsn of water or so during the reheating as the cabbage rolls do absorb the moisture with time in the fridge.

 

Years ago my sister Julie Lock Lee shared with me this recipe for microwaved German Cabbage Rolls - it has long been one my other fav cabbage roll recipes.

German Cabbage Rolls - from Julie Lock Lee

1. Place intact 8 big cabbage leaves in a large baking dish - add 1/2 cup water
2. Microwave on full power for 4-5 minutes then drain & cool & pat dry
3. Combine & mix together well : 500 gm mince, 1 cup rice,  small chopped onion, 1 beaten egg, 1/4 cup tomato puree, 1 tbspn lemon juice, 1 tbspn chopped parsley, salt & pepper
4. Shape into 8 rolls
5. Place rolls on base of each cabbage leaf, fold sides of leaf over filling & roll up
6. Place rolls seam side down in a large oblong baking dish - pregreased of course
7. Combine 440 gm can sauerkraut (undrained), 440 gm can tomato puree, 2 tbspns brown sugar, 1 thinly sliced carrot & 2-3 tbspns lemon juice.
8. Pour sauce over rolls & cover the baking dish
9. Microwave covered on Medium-High for 30 minutes - note this was for a 600-650 Watt Microwave so caution should be used with this time for more modern higher watt microwave ovens
10. Remove dish from Microwave oven & stand for 5-8 minutes before serving.

Serves 6

 

A further Google search revealed only a cery few examples of red cabbage rolls - Golabki style - although it would appear to be possibly an improv like mine.

Perhaps I might just keep on using the red cabbage leaves in future.

 

Wanderings from Beijing Hot Pots to Asian Dumpling Steamboat in My Thirroul Kitchen

Our family loves Asian Hotpots, Dumpling Soups & Steamboats - whether served in a specialist restaurant in Beijing or cooked at the table of our Thirroul seaside home.

When we travelled in China it was towards the end of Winter and we discovered they eat a lot dumplings in the north in the colder months, ie not just a rice based diet.

A favourite memory was definitely a Hot Pot Restaurant in Beijing where you select all your ingredients - meats, vegetables, sauces, noodles, dumplings and then steam at your table - see Pics 2 & 3. We've tried to recreate it back home in Australia for our Sunday night family dinners with Nan, who has always been adventurous with Asian foods.

Sometimes we've cooked Hot Pot at the table using our Swiss Fondue Pots - other times we've pre-steamed in a stainless stockpot on the cooktop & then transferred to the table. I generally like to use lots of Asian Greens, fresh prawns & sliced chicken with dumplings in a giant stockpot - especially in the cooler months. So plenty of leftovers later on for busy weeknights after soccer training etc.

I've been inspired by Steamboats in Charmaine Solomon's encyclopaedic "Complete Asian Cookbook" & Kylie Kwong's nostalgic "Recipes & Stories" (p 106-113) as well as "Heart and Soul" (p 180-183). Not to mention Tobie Puttock's Beijing theme in the July 2008 issue of Oz Delicious Magazine (p75) - see also his Lifestyle Channel show. Interesting as Tobie Puttock is better known for Italian cooking, and not Asian cuisine.

I experimented with Kylie Kwong's Steamboat from ABC, as well as Taste.com.au, Ho Mai's & Australian Better Homes & Gardens suggestions....

in the end I developed my own Steamboat Stock

2 litres chicken stock
1 shallot sliced finely
1 tablespoon finely sliced lemon grass
2 teaspoons fresh ginger (crushed)
2 teaspoons garlic (crushed)
4 dried Chinese Mushrooms
shake of salt
6 Szechuan peppercorns
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce - more if you prefer
1 tablespoon Mirin
1 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice Powder
1/2 teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 to 2 teaspoons Maggi Seasoning - Kylie Kwong's "magic ingredient in her Delicious Fried Rice"

Add all of the above to large stockpot & heat till boiling

Add your choice of sliced vegetables - fresh - nb canned Chinese Vegetables will help in emergencies with unexpected visitors
fresh prawns - peeled, deveined and chopped into 2 to 3 pieces
thinly sliced chicken breast or beef fillet steak
dim sum / dumplings - again frozen varieties from specialist Asian Grocery Shops will help in emergencies with unexpected visitors
noodles

nb after cooking as above - remove the Chinese Dried Mushrooms from the stockpot and slice before returning to stockpot

Do not overcook - especially the veges and prawns

Usually we serve from the stainless stockpot at table & ladle into Chinese Rice/Noodle Bowls

When reheating for midweek meals - I ladle into a pot on the stove top & add sliced fresh bok choy and sometimes additional fresh prawns before heating gently until hot but not "stewed".

Too easy after a busy day followed by soccer, Girl Guides (Scouts) !

 

Mosaics - A composite view

Pic 1 Athens

Pic 2 Delphi

Pic 3 Delphi

Pic 4 Istanbul - Topkapi Palace

Pic 5 Istanbul - Hagya Sophia

Pic 6 Istanbul - Hagya Sophia

Why we need to record - Mrs Joan Adams's Devilled Sausages - a childhood memory inspired by Kylie Kwong

Sunday night - for the last 15 years it has been an Aussie family get together night - I cook Mains and my Mum does the Desserts. And so my 16 year old, Kat, has experienced some very traditional Desserts as well as her Nan's latest experiments ....

Joyously, Kat is now emerging as a Foodie in her own right .... Japanese is her specialty, along with Cambodian dishes, Profiteroles & White Chocolate Mud Cakes... 

Tonight it was another of our traditional Aussie Sunday nights - a sort of comfort food theme - a left over night from Kat's 16th Birthday Party (a Disney Princess Party - and that's another story ... ).

We had heaps of leftover sausages (uncooked) & cubed cheese from Kat's birthday party. David had done his always absolutely superb Indonesian Chicken Sate in Peanut Sauce to complement my Delicious Fried Rice (another Kylie Kwong gem featured in Delicious Magazine a few years back) - hardly surprising that sausages were not going to be much in demand at the birthday party!

So for our Sunday night dinner I decided to cook the leftover snags using my Mum's Devilled Sausages recipe - partly from my childhood memory and part from Kylie Kwong's "Recipes and Stories" p 40-41 : "Mrs Adams's Savoury Sausages & Mashed Potatoes". Coincidentally my Mum is another Mrs Adams!

(And on this occasion I supplied the Dessert - more leftovers : Aussie Kids Party fav : "Frogs in the Pond" aka Chocolate Freddo Frogs in Green Lime Jelly (Jello). )

I had previously scoured Mum's decades old recipe clippings, but had not located her "Devilled Sausages" recipe, and so I was hoping that when Mum tasted my improvisation, that she might be able to shed some light on any specific ingredients that I had missed.

Over dinner, Mum admitted that she certainly recalled the dish, and thought my improvisation was fairly close - but sadly explained that although she had been searching her recipe clippings collection, so far she had not found her original recipe.

How many family treasures could that scenario apply to ?

So important to document them isn't it ?

Otherwise lost forever...Records matter ... otherwise knowledge sharing can be limited

PS ...

Sausages are fairly basic, traditional family fare - although it is easy to pimp them with trimmings. 

One of my fav memories is the trimmings used by my friend & caterer, Irene Tognetti, and also mother of one of Australian's Living Treasures : Australian Chamber Orchestra's Richard Tognetti.

It was local government election time, where Irene was doing the catering for 100+ folk at a Trivia Night fundraiser. Although I was fairly distracted being both a candidate & the campaign director, I was still so impressed with how Irene transformed what could have been just another mundane sausage sizzle.

How ? So easy really - with generous sprays of Rosemary on the platters of sausages for each table - so simple and so effective.

KerrieAnne's Devilled Sausages Recipe

- 10 sausages (ours come from our local Harvey's Gourmet Butchers in the NSW South Coast seaside village of Thirroul - their meat is so absolutely superb! )
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (sliced or grated or finely chopped - I used finely chopped from the excess I had prepared for the birthday party)
- Worcestershire Sauce (I use Lea & Perrins which is quite runny and not as thick as some brands)
- 4-6 Basil leaves (I used fresh from our Vege Patch - David is amazed how big the Basil leaves are this year - with all the warmth, rain & humidity ! )

Sauce
- 1/3 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup brown vinegar
- 3 tbspns brown sugar
- 2 tspsns Keens Mustard Powder

1. Preheat oven to 190oC
2. Grease rectangular baking dish
3. Combine sauce ingredients
4. Slit sausages lengthwise - but do not cut all the way through - then place them in baking dish
5. Spoon mixed sauce ingredients into slits in sausages
6. Arrange cheese (slices - grated or finely chopped) over the sauce filled slits in sausages
7. Sprinkle Worcestershire Sauce over the cheese - but do not be heavy handed
8. Bake in oven for approximately 25 minutes
9. Remove from oven - lift with egg slice or BarbieMate tool.

To serve :  Garnish with fresh Basil leaves & serve with potato mash & steamed vegetables 

(Note

- Kylie Kwong's "Recipes & Stories" p 40-41 version has a Bacon slice placed over the sauce on each sausage, before the cheese is added - and did not have the Worcestershire Sauce sprinkling

- my Mum doesn't recall using Bacon in her version but reckons it would work quite well
- also, neither Kylie Kwong's nor my Mum's had the Basil leaves)

Elies se Armi - Greek Pickled Olives from my Thirroul Seaside Garden - Global Wanderings in My Kitchen

I've been to Greece  a few times and just loved the food, Spanokopita. Tiropitakia, Dolmades, Tzatziki, Taramasalata, Souvlaki, Greek Roasted Leg of Lamb, Cheeses (Feta & Haloumi), Saganaki, Garithes me Feta (Garlic Prawns cooked in Tomato & Feta Sauce), Baklava & of course the Olives.

Now our local Thirroul Bowlo Club eatery has turned Greek, run by the husband of one my old school mates, Efti, one of the few Greeks in Thirroul in those days. We'd celebrated our wedding anniversary at their inaugural Greek Bazouki & Belly Dancing Night. It was a great night with Greek dancing, even more so to find that some of our old workmates, who are members of the Illawarra Greek community, as well as being friends of friends of Efti's husband, had wandered up to Thirroul to help kick it off.

So enthused by Greek foods, about 10 years ago, I'd planted an olive tree in the front garden of our seaside home on the NSW South Coast. We have a southerly exposure to salt laden winds so everything takes ages to grow - if they survive at all. The olive tree grew & grew - competing with the banksia's that attract Sulphur Crested Black Cockatoos.

We didn't get any olives for a long, long time. And even if we had, I recalled the label on the little bush I'd bought said something about a caustic soda pickling method - surely there was something less nasty ? But most stories I'd heard mentioned the caustic soda method - really offputting.

Finally, 3 years ago we had lots of olives - not enough to press our own oil - but enough to bottle the olives themselves. By then I'd read a few more of my Greek cookbooks, and discovered caustic soda wasn't necessary at all.

So I used Elies se Armi, aka Pickled Olives, pp18-19 from the AWW Easy Greek Style Cookery book - similar to Tess Mallos's Greek Cookbook p98,Angeline Kapsaskis's Greek Commonsense Cookbook p16 & Bourke's Backyard Factsheet - ( full instruction details here ).

The tedious part is making the 2 lengthwise cuts to the stone in each olive, gloves are recommended if you don't want your hands dyed a burgundy-purplish shade. I mentioned the olive slitting to an ABL (Australian Born Lebanese) work mate and she muttered about her father's bottling of olives - not something she wanted to do again too often. Another Macedonian workmate confirmed that the brine pickling was definitely the way to do olives & mentioned that it is common to not get a good crop every year.

Altogether, it really is too easy - all you need is olives, water, salt and, at the end, olive oil. Change the water every day for 5-10 days, depending on whose recipe you follow, then leave them in the dark. I leave them for months, rather than opening after 5 weeks as some recipes indicate. Contributions to the Manisa Turkish website tend to agree - some suggesting keeping them in the dark for 6 months before opening.

My husband's bottled olives from last year's crop were checked by our nephew James, the Apprentice Chef, & he was very impressed that we bottled our own. James liked their flavour too. We'd emailed a copy of the technique to cousins down on their farm in Oaklands, near Corowa in southern NSW. Ann had been a high school cooking teacher, but had left to manage the farm finances. She is deadly with removing avocado stones with quick knife stab - but hadn't worked out how to pickle the many olives growing on their trees in the Home Paddock kitchen garden. But she was very keen to try it out.

So we're finding that we get reasonable crop every second year - depending on how many we lose to storms and alas, the sulphur crested black cockatoos & galahs who seemed to have enjoyed this year's crop. 

 

Postscript for @misssafet

Psari Lemonato from Tess Mallos Greek Cookbook - which I believe is out of print - possibly in her Complete Middle East Cookbook - recently reprinted

• 1 whole fish for baking (1kg)
• juice of 2 lemons
• salt& pepper
• 500gm potatoes very thinly sliced
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1/2 cup olive oil

1. Clean fish & slash each side in 2 or 3 places
2. Sprinkle inside & out with some of lemon juice & season with salt & pepper
3. Place in oiled baking dish
4. Arrange sliced potatoes around fish & pour remaining lemon juice over potatoes & fish
5. Season potatoes with salt & pepper - pour olive oil over contents of dish
6. Sprinkle with oregano then cover with foil
7. Cook at 180-190oC for 40 minutes (check after 30 minutes)
8. Remove foil & continue to cook for another 30 minutes or until fish & potatoes are cooked
9. Serve immediately with steamed spinach, green salad and/or Greek salad

Serves 4-5

 

Italian Roasted Pork Loin with Grapes - Sunday Night Family Dinner

I really loved Australian Table Magazine which morphed into BBC Australian Good Food Mag, which I wasn't so sure about. However tonight I adapted their Roasted Pork Loin with Grapes for my family's Sunday Night Family Dinner (haven't been able to find their magazine site online as yet !).

I deleted the white wine vinegar and replaced it with extra virgin olive oil.

I also added 2 medium potatoes (to serve 4) peeled & cut into segments as well as 4 small onions to the roasting pan an hour before roasting was due to end.

Then I added sliced capsicum (bell peppers) & eggplant (aubergine) cut into 2cm cubes to the roasting pan for last 30 minutes .

Served with sliced steamed Carrots & steamed French Green Beans.

The pork was so very succulently tender & my "70 something" Mum really loved it - especially the red grapes, as she had never had grapes in a mains before - and it's so important to have older folk keep eating & maintain an interest in food!

After dinner my Teen, Kat baked White Chocolate Mud Cake (WhiteWings) & Orange Cake (Greens) - both with Green Coloured Frosting - hmm well I used to do Purple coloured cakes ....

(PS Mum says she's about to experiment with a new Chocolate Cake recipe made with Beetroot pureed in a blender - now I am not so sure about that - however if she's willing to try my experiments then I obviously have to reciprocate !)

(PPS - I may need to buy a few more copies of BBC Australian Good Food Mag in future - features Suzanne Gibbs daughter of iconic veteran Australian foodie Margaret Fulton)

 

Turning Japanese - Global Wanderings in My Kitchen

I visited Japan a few times years ago, and really loved how they did Sukiyaki, Teppanyaki & Yakitori. I'd travelled there several times with my husband, David, and once on business. I persuaded our Japanese minder for the business trip to drop the fancy hotel restaurants and instead suggested that we head out on a crawl of Kyoto's Yakitori & Sushi bars. My Australian travelling mates loved it.

Although I love cooking, Japanese is not my specialty at home - David & our daughter, Kat, do most of the Japanese. In fact Sukiyaki became one of David's signature dishes, along with Gado Gado & Saganaki. He's relying mostly on memory of Sukiyaki restaurant dishes from his two visits to Japan with a bit of help from the Complete Asian Cookbook.

We loved going to the Japanese Teppanyaki restaurant in Surfer's Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast. And of course in Wollongong, there's the Fuji Yama Tepan Restaurant, the ever popular Roppongi (bookings essential) and more recently Moon's in the northern suburb of Woonona.

Kat, has been studying Japanese for about 6 years & acquired a taste for Japanese food, especially Sushi & Sushi Train restaurants. She's often helped out at the Japanese food stall at her school's annual Great Fete. 

When not nibbling on Pocky, Kat often snacks on Nori (dried seaweed sheets) and suddenly we find there's none left for the Sushi ! 

Fortunately David is also a Sushi-maker, with a Sushi mat & all the ingredients - now available from all our local supermarkets - so he teams up with Kat for Sushi-making, for those "bring a plate" functions.

Last year Kat spent a few weeks in Japan on a school excursion, which included a Japanese cooking lesson where they learnt how to make Okonomiyaki - Japanese Pancakes. We are also expecting to host a Japanese exchange student in March 2010 - so we may learn more about Japanese foods.

Recently @mqtodd tweeted about a great blog post on Japanese food : 10 Cool Japanese Foods. My favourite Japanese Food Blog would have to be Shiuoka Gourmet - the cycling gourmet - here's my fav post - and I really love his Bento Box postings too.

But of course there are now others blogging about Japanese food in the English language : 

• About Food by a Japanese Seattlelite
• Adventures in Bento Making
• Gaijin Gourmet
• Japanese Home Cooking Shizu
• Japan Food Addict
• Japan Navigator
• Just Bento
• Just Hungry
• Kyoto Japanese Cooking Class
• Mrs Donabe's Rustic Japanese Kitchen
• Naoko's Cooking Japanese Style
• She, The Epicurious

I actually only have one Japanese cookery book - plus my copy of the Complete Asian Cookbook does have a reasonable Japanese section. Fortunately I have collected many cuttings from magazines, all now carefully filed in the Japanese section of my Asian folders :

• Chicken Yakitori
• Curries - Japan style
• Donburi
• Gyoza
• Hotpot - Japan style
• Miso Soup
• Okonomiyaki - Japanese Pancakes
• Ponzu Chicken
• Rice based dishes with chicken or vegetarian
• Salads - Japan style
• Sukiyaki
• Sushi & Temaki
• Soba & Udon Noodles
• Tempura
• Teppanyaki
• Teriyaki Beef, Chicken, Fish, Pork, Prawns  etc etc
• Tonkatsu

And of course Taste, my fav Australian foodie site, features an extensive Japanese collection