Beef Blur-guignon and kofta wraps

I made beef bourguignon on wednesday night but the photos were all awful as it was piping hot and it kept steaming! Served it on mash with steamed baby carrots. Though they do look like strange cadaver fingers in this photo...


It was delish, no leftovers as usual as the love of my life polished it all off!

Tonight I made beef kofta (supermarket ran out of lamb mince) in lebanese wraps with salad and a spiced yoghurt sauce. I didn't have any string to tie it together so I used a paper bag handle which looked a bit silly but kept it together for the photo.

Quick and easy, I used cumin, cardamon, coriander seeds, paprika, cinnamon (tiny bit), garlic, chili, onion and an egg and some polenta to bind. Same spices and salt and pepper mixed though greek yoghurt, cut up tomato and then throw it all together in the lebanese bread with some mesclun.

Thats all, I can't believe I have not eaten chicken all week, usually its all about chicken and fish and only beef once or twice a week. Chicken tomorrow, maybe something asian-y...

Night!

Pho-ly delish

As promised here is my pho; beefy noodley spicy and yum!

It is a great meal when you want something soupy hearty and healthy!

To make pho properly involves cooking beef brisket or shin beef for several hours with the spices to make the stock.And the end result has the slow cooked beef and the very rare thinly sliced beef thrown in at the end. But I use liquid stock as I have a life and a job!



Here is the recipe:

1L Liquid Beef Stock

1 bunch asian greens, you can use whatever pak sum, bok choy, chinese broccoli

1 brown onion sliced thinly into crescents

1 -2star anise (break it up a bit)

half a cinnamon stick

half a tsp coriander seeds

1/4 tsp ground cardamon

garlic: couple of cloves

nub of ginger (technical term???)

fish sauce, bit of a pour maybe 1 tablespoon

1-2 tsp sugar or sweetener equivalent

Really Thinly sliced Beef

Wide dried rice noodles (or fresh are even better if you can get a hold of some)

Fresh coriander

Beef stock + spices + fish sauce + garlic + ginger into saucepan and simmer for a while, longer the better I like to do it for at least 20 min or so...

Chuck onion in for 10min until softened but not really falling apart or until cooked as you like it.

Throw in noodles until soft (traditionally I think you are supposed to cook the noodles separately and ladle the soup over the top but if you are eating it straight away it doesn't matter; if making a big batch for a few days just make up the liquid with the onions and stick it in the fridge). Just before serving throw in beef and asian greens and return to boil until greens just wilted and beef still a little rare. Serve with coriander on top.

Enjoy! ( slurp, slurp slurp....)

Roast beef with parsnip

While I was at the markets on Saturday I saw some amazing fruit and veg and I decided that I would try to cook at least one or two new things each week. This week I bought some parsnips and some capers packed in salt. I have eaten parsnips before butnever cooked them. I just roasted them with some potatos.

They were sweet and yummy, I think they will have to feature with ever roast I cook from now on!

I also had some geen beens which have been really good lately... are they in season??? I thought they would be a spring thing?? Either way they are currently cheap, sweet, crunchy and bright green and I have been using them alot.

I saw some taro, purple yams, lotus root, jerusalem artichoke and celeriac at the markets which tickled my fancy, so maybe next week? Can you tell its winter and I want starchy vegies!

I think I will make some pho tomorrow I need a bit of spice and some rice noodles; absolute comfort food!

OMG Master Chef just finished and Julie won! I love Julie she is a bit nuts like me! Now I can go back to the gym in the evenings; I wont be glued to the TV watching Master Chef!

Pumpkin risotto and chicken breast

Title says it all really!
Yum!

Hello, my name is Undomestic Goddess and I am a bookshopaholic...

I bought it!!!! I went to a huge book sale and it was there. My heart raced, my breathing increased and my hands began to shake. It was here. It was cheap. It would be mine.

I have left the price tag on the book as I am tickled pink I got it for $29.95 and its the hard copy. I have seen the soft cover in Borders for around $80.

I have already been flipping though. Absolute high class food porn!



I also bought this which I have also wanted for a while and just haven't got around to buying. I got the hard cover for $19.95. The soft cover is usually $30 so I was happy with that.

It is a great reference and written very well.

I also bought Scott's journals; I really love reading accounts of arctic/antarctic explorers the hardships and their perserverence and drive is amazing. It really transports you so far from our comfortabl lives in the modern world.

Tonight I made Salade Nicoise with tuna, coddled eggs, black olives, potato, green beans and some butter lettuce at the bottom.

I had not made it before but the combination of flavours, colours and textures was lovely.

Here is a photo with dressing which I made from a couple of anchovy fillets, a clove of raw garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

I also had to do a watered down version of the salad for Mr Undomestic Goddess who doesn't like eggs, tuna olives or anchovies. Um, so not really a salade nicoise. He got ham and cherry tomatoes with the lettuce, beans and potato. It didn't look as photogenic so its not featured here.

Got to go, Masterchef is on TV!

Comfort food friday...

Tonight I made some savoury muffins and pumpkin soup as promised. It was particularly yummy...

The muffin recipe is a modified one I found by googling bacon muffins. It is from the bega cheese website (so daggy, I know!)

Here is my version

Preheat oven to 190 deg

3 eggs
50g butter
1 cup milk
3 shortcut bacon rashers, chopped finely
2 large shallots, chopped finely
2 1/2 cups SR flour ( or plain flour with baking powder)
1 cup grated cheese

Melt butter. Whisk in eggs and milk.
Sift flour and mix in shallots, cheese and bacon. (I also added a shake of season all spice/salt mix)Mix in eggs/milk/butter until just combined. Spoon into muffin tins.
Cook for 25-30 minutes.

Next time I would probably add a bit more bacon, but they were lovely, light, fluffy, and soft in the middle and crunchy on the outside. I also tend to use plain flour plus baking powder instead of SR flour.... I have heard that moisture in the air can react with SR flour and stop it from raising as much as it should, which makes sense as it comes in paper packaging which is not airtight. The other reason I tend to use plain flour is that I put flour into unmarked containers and then promptly forget what type of flour it is! This way I can assume it is plain.



My pumpkin soup was awesome as always. Just butternut pumpkin, onion, chicken stock, milk and then served with a splash of cream and for a change this evening some thyme. I hadn't used thyme before but it was lovely and fragrant and lemony, a nice contrast to the creamy sweet soup.


That is all, thank goodness its friday!

Easy peasy mid week dinners

Here is a pie made from some leftover osso bucco and vegies and I made some pastry for the top. It is a "rough" puff pastry and worked ok except that I rolled it a little thick as it was a bit cold..I probably didn't need to rest it for as long as I did. Tasted good though, but not a great picture.


The meat was literally falling apart, so yummy!


Tonight I took some pasta

And made some puttanesca. Well they say you are what you eat so this is a bit of a worry! (Anyone who doesn't understand please google puttanesca!)

I was going to make pumpkin soup with some savoury bacon and cheese muffins but I didn't have chicken stock or SR flour in the cupboard so that was that and I had to whip something up from stuff in the pantry. I will do the muffins and soup tomorrow!

This week I have not made very exciting meals or things I have already featured so my blog has been very quiet. Apologies...

I'm online!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had nearly a week with no computer or internet and I was starting to go a bit barmy with the thought of another weekend with no internet!!!! I bought a new laptop online last week as ny old one was starting to give up the ghost. Then it did. On friday night. I am still going to have to take it to some kind of rent-a-geek to get my itunes library and photos off it, but in the meantime, my gorgeous little toshiba has arrived (this afternoon) and I am back! To celebrate: roast chicken.

I stuffed it with a mixture of roughly chopped rye bread, garlic, red onion, tomato, bacon, rosemary and parsely. YUM.

This is my lovely other half's meal. He is a breast man and likes brussel sprouts so I cook them even though I hate them.

This is mine. I like the legs and I just had some brocoli as my greens. I am planning on having some leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I will make a concerted effort to post some more pictures soon! I'm not sure how to deal with the steam coming off the food though, it is a bit of a constant problem in getting clear shots as well as being bad for my camera (I'm assuming). If anyone has any tips leave a comment!