Category: Food/ Lifestyle Blog

pork Sage sausage rolls

admin Food Blog

Ingredients

For the Sausage Rolls

  • 1 large onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 small carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 650 g (1.5 lb) pork mince (ground pork) (or a mix of pork and veal)
  • 6 sprigs of parsley
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon ground sage
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs or Panko breadcrumbs
  • puff pastry (I use 2 rectangular sheets which are 25 x 42 cm/10 x 16 inch)
  • sesame seeds or poppy seeds (optional)

For the Egg Wash

  • 1 egg
  • dash of milk

To Serve

  • Cherry Tomato Relish
  • tomato sauce (ketchup)

Instructions

To make the sausage roll filling

  1. Place the onion, garlic and carrots into a large food processor.
  2. Blitz until everything is finely chopped.
  3. Heat some olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
  4. Cook the onion mixture with a good pinch of salt for 3-5 minutes, or until the mixture starts to soften.
  5. Remove the onion mixture to a large mixing bowl and let it cool completely.
  6. Meanwhile, add the pork, parsley, salt, pepper, dried herbs and Worcestershire sauce to the food processor.
  7. Pulse for just a few seconds until the meat has an almost paste-like texture. You can skip this step if you prefer your sausage roll filling to have a chunkier texture.
  8. Remove the meat mixture to the mixing bowl with the onion mixture, and add the breadcrumbs.
  9. Use your hands to mix everything together until all of the ingredients are well combined.
  10. If you want to check the filling for seasoning, I recommend pinching off a small piece of the filling and roll it into a small patty or meatball. Fry the patty in a small pan with some oil, and taste for seasoning.

To form the sausage rolls

  1. For this recipe, I use 2 rectangular sheets of puff pastry which are 25 x 42 cm/10 x 16 inches in size.
  2. Cut the pastry in half lengthwise so that you have two narrow strips of pastry (12.5 cm/5 inches wide).
  3. Use your hands to place the filling in the middle of one strip of pastry. You want to form a long sausage which is roughly one-third of the width of the pastry.
  4. Make the egg wash by beating the egg and milk together in a small bowl.
  5. Brush one side of the pastry length with some egg wash.
  6. Carefully lift one side of the pastry over the sausage filling, and continue until the filling is fully encased in the pastry.
  7. Make sure the seam is on the bottom.
  8. Use a sharp knife to cut the sausage roll into whatever lengths you like. For entertaining, I suggest making the sausage rolls about 4 cm/1.5 inches long. Otherwise, I typically cut my sausage rolls about 8 cm/3 inches long.
  9. Cut a few slits in the pastry of each sausage roll.
  10. Repeat the above steps with the remaining filling and pastry.

To bake the sausage rolls

  1. If it is quite warm in your kitchen, I recommend putting the uncooked sausage rolls into the fridge for about 30 minutes before baking. This helps to prevent the pastry from shrinking upon baking.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F (without fan).
  3. Place the sausage rolls onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
  4. Brush the sausage rolls with some egg wash.
  5. Sprinkle the sausage rolls with some sesame seeds, poppy seeds, or just some coarse sea salt and coarsely cracked black pepper.
  6. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Depending on how big or small your sausage rolls are, you may need to adjust the time slightly.
  7. Serve hot or warm with some tomato sauce (ketchup) or Cherry Tomato Relish.

Kitchen Notes

FREEZING SAUSAGE ROLLS
* Follow the recipe above until just before baking the sausage rolls.
* Place the uncooked sausage rolls on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and place the whole tray into the freezer. Once the sausage rolls are frozen, place them into zip-lock freezer bags, and keep them in the freezer.
* Once you are ready to bake, brush the frozen sausage rolls with egg wash, and bake them from frozen. You will need to add another 5-10 minutes to the baking time.

VARIATIONS
* Change the herbs to your liking.
* Substitute the thyme and sage for 1 teaspoon each of cumin seeds and coriander seeds, lightly toasted and then ground with a mortar and pestle.
* Omit the carrots for a more traditional sausage roll filling.
* Add fresh spinach (as much or as little as you like) to the onion mixture before blitzing in the food processor.
* Cook 200 g/7 ounces of chopped bacon with the onion mixture.

OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly.

Czech Lentil Soup Čočka

admin Food Blog

Čočková polévka (Chochka)

A hearty Czech stew full of savoury toothsome flavour – goes great with sou dough bread and optional fried egg on top

 

500g of lentil dry wash and soak   Fry 1 onion with oil  Add salt pepper and bunch of allspice ground (½ cup ) And 8 bayleaves (take out when cooked fully)  Ground to powder bayleaf optional

 

Shove soaked and washed lentils  Chopped 3 potato

Cover in water (double the height of the ingredients so lentils are floating in water – lentils will absorb water and thicken

Stir and boil on low or medium

If watery add corn flower dissolved and turn up heat and boil at 100% to thicken

Let cool a tiny bit and add ½ lemon juiced

For a massive pot double ingredients

Irish Soda Bread

admin Food/ Lifestyle Blog

The world’s best No Yeast Bread – Irish Soda Bread! because it’s a 4 ingredient, 5 minute recipe made

▢ 300 g white flour (plain / all purpose)
▢ 265 g wholemeal flour (wholewheat, Note 1)
▢ 2 – 3 tbsp Extra Flour (either flour, for dusting)
▢ 1 1/2 tsp baking soda (bi-carb, Note 2)
▢ 1 1/2 tsp salt
▢ 500 ml buttermilk , fridge cold (Note 3)

Variations
Non dairy butter milk:
430 ml soy milk
1.5 tea spoon vinegar

1.5 Times Recipe
645 1.5
2.3 tea spoon
2.3 salt
450 g flour
397.5 g wholemeal

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F (200°C fan).
Line tray with baking paper.
Whisk both flours (not Extra Flour), baking soda and salt in a bowl.
Add buttermilk, stir until it’s too hard to stir anymore.
Sprinkle 2 tbsp Extra Flour onto work surface, scrape out dough, sprinkle with more flour.
Gently knead no more than 8 times, bring together into a ball. (Note 4)
Transfer to tray, pat into 2.5cm/1″ thick disc.
Cut cross on surface 1cm / 0.3″ deep using serrated knife.
Bake 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
Bake further 20 minutes, or until the base sounds hollow when tapped in the middle.
Transfer to rack and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Recipe Notes:
1. Flour – wholemeal flour gives this bread a slightly nutty flavour which is lovely. Coarse or fine ground. Can be made with just plain/all purpose flour but flavour is more plain. Don’t bother using bread flour – it’s wasted on this no yeast bread.
2. Baking soda – also known as bicarbonate soda (bi-carb), 3x more powerful than baking powder. Stronger rise power required for this no-yeast bread.
3. Buttermilk substitute:

1.75 cups (435ml) + 1 tbsp of full fat milk
1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice (or other clear vinegar)
Mix the milk and lemon juice together, set aside for 15 minutes. It will congeal on surface. Then use in place of buttermilk in recipe.
Volume is just shy of 2 cups of buttermilk (per recipe) because this substitute is thinner so you need to use a touch less otherwise dough gets too wet.

4. Dough stickiness – use more flour as required. The trick is to use just enough flour to make the dough manageable because stickier dough = more moist bread.
5. Variations – This bread is terrific as is, it’s a classic traditional Irish Soda Bread. Some popular flavoured versions (stir in with dry ingredients):

Oats – brush surface with extra buttermilk and sprinkle with oats. Can also mix in oats (up to 1 cup), but reduce flour in dough by 1/2 cup;
Raisins! Stir in 1 cup
Seeds! Pumpkin, linseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppyseed. Stir through and sprinkle on top, about 1/2 cup.

Misc Crap

Rustic flavour, great crust, keeps well for days. Slather with butter, mop your plate clean, dunk into soups – or Irish Beef and Guinness Stew!

“Irish Soda Bread takes just 5 minutes to get in the oven. So you can have fresh bread any night!”
What it tastes like

baking soda instead of yeast. more dense than your everyday white sandwich bread. Hearty and rustic – tastes kind of nutty from the wholemeal flour.

Czech Roast Chicken

admin Food Blog

You can buy one whole raw chicken, and use the wings and one drumstick to make this Czech Chicken and Vegetable Broth Soup Recipe.

Chop up 2 large onions and some cloves of garlic, and put them where the chicken will go on the baking dish. Drizzle with oil and place the washed chicken onto the bed of onion/garlic. Sprinkle some caraway seeds and vegetable salt (vegeta/ telofix) onto the top of the chicken. Cover with aluminium foil and bake for one hour (the same cooking time as the soup.) The oven temperature is 200 degrees Celsius. You can make a covering with the aluminium foil so that it is air tight and also doesn’t touch the chicken – just try and see how it goes~!

 

Czech Chicken and Vegetable Broth Soup

admin Food Blog

wash and peel the following:
one whole onion, two large carrots, cut into three pieces each, one parsnip or other root vegetables, two or three raw chicken wings or drumsticks, one potato (optional), two stalks of celery (optional.)

This would make a large pot of soup – have enough so that it fills 1/3 – 1/2 of the pot, then fill the pot almost to the top with water (enough so that it doesn’t spill out while bubbling and boiling.) The water is to be cold. Add 10-20 whole pimento/allspice herb balls (they look like pepper,) two or three bayleaves, two teaspoons of salt and two tablespoons of vegetable stock or vegetable salt (vegeta/ telofix) or more salt.

Cover the pot with a lid and put it on the stove on high for 10-15 minutes until it is boiling, then reduce the heat so it continues bubbling/ boiling with the lid on

Cooking time: 1 hour.

If you buy a whole chicken, you can at the same time, with the same cooking time, bake the chicken with this Czech Roast Chicken recipe.

Chinese Style Lemon Chicken and Honey Chicken Recipe

admin Food Blog

You can try these sauces with European German Czech style chicken shnitzel

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

  • 2 double skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch for dipping
  • Peanut Oil for shallow frying
  • Marinade:
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons rice wine, vinegar or sherry
  • 2 teaspoons corn starch
  • Sauce:
  • 1 large lemon
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
  • Cornstarch/water mixture for thickening
  • Optional ginger/ stock of choice

Directions:

Separate chicken pieces into two halves and ‘open them by butterflying the thicker parts. This levels out the thickness so they will cook evenly. Marinate chicken 30 minutes. For the sauce slice the lemon into very thin slices. Remove seeds. Add the water, brown sugar and vinegar to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and simmer until lemon slices are soft. The skins will almost turn brown as they caramelize and are delicious. Thicken the sauce with a cornstarch/water mixture and cook until transparent. Break an egg over the marinating chicken and mix well. Dip chicken pieces in cornstarch and shallow fry. Remove chicken to chopping board and chop into pieces. Serve over a bed of rice and spoon the sauce over the breasts.

 Honey Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 lb. (approx 500 g) diced chicken
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1/4 cold water
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • sesame seeds
  • fried chinese noodles

DIRECTIONS:

  • Marinate chicken in soy sauce for a few hours.
  • Saute chicken in wok or fry pan until brown.
  • Mix cornstarch and water together. Add honey and pine nuts to chicken, then cornstarch mix.
  • Stir until honey thickens and coats the chicken. Mix in a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
  • Serve with boiled rice and steamed vegetables. Top chicken with fried Chinese noodles.

 

Pad Thai with peanut satay sauce

admin Food Blog

Ingredients:

8 oz. Thai rice noodles (or enough for 2 people), linguini-width, available at Asian/Chinese stores
4 cloves garlic, minced
optional: 1-2 fresh red chilies, minced
3 cups fresh bean sprouts
3 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup fresh coriander/cilantro
1/3 cup crushed or roughly chopped peanuts (or other nuts, such as cashews)
1/4 cup chicken stock
vegetable oil for stir-frying, and wedges of lime

PAD THAI SAUCE:
3/4 Tbsp. tamarind paste dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water (look for tamarind at Asian/Chinese or Indian food stores)
2 Tbsp. fish sauce, + more to taste
1-3 tsp. chili sauce, or substitute 1/2 tsp. or more dried crushed chili or cayenne, to taste
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. ground white pepper

Peanut Sauce
1 onion quartered
1 clove garlic peeled
20 g vegetable oil
100 g roasted peanuts or cashews
125 g chicken stock
50 g honey
1 level teaspoon Grainy mustard
1 level teaspoon curry powder
1 pinch cardamom powder
1/4 level teaspoon chilli powder
small amount of coconut creme (optional)

Preparation:

For a step-by-step version of this recipe (with pictures), see: Perfect Chicken Pad Thai, step-by-step!
Bring a large pot of pot to a boil and dunk in your rice noodles. Turn down the heat to low and keep an eye on them: you will be frying the noodles later, so you don’t want to over-soften them now. Noodles are ready to be drained when they are soft enough to be eaten, but still firm and a little “crunchy”. Drain and rinse with cold water to prevent sticking. Set aside.

Make pad Thai sauce by combining the sauce ingredients together in a cup. Stir well to dissolve tamarind and brown sugar, and set aside. Note: this may seem like a lot of sugar, but you need it to balance out the sourness of the tamarind – this balance is what makes Pad Thai taste so amazing!

Peanut Sauce
Place peanuts into TM bowl and grind to a paste approx. 20 secs speed 7. Set aside.
Chop onion & garlic in TM bowl 3 secs speed 7.
Add oil and cook 2 mins 100C speed 1.
Add ground peanuts, stock, honey, mustard, curry powder, cardamom & chilli & salt if using
Cook 3 mins 100C speed 1 or until thickened.

Warm up a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. oil plus garlic and minced chili, if using. Stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds). Add marinated chicken. When wok/pan becomes dry, add a little chicken stock, 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, to keep the chicken frying nicely (5-7 minutes, until cooked is cooked).
Add the noodles, and pour the Pad Thai sauce over. Using two utensils, use a gentle “lift and turn” method to fry noodles (like tossing a salad). Stir-fry in this way 1-2 minutes. If you find your wok/frying pan too dry, push noodles aside and add a little more oil to the bottom of the pan.
Add the bean sprouts and and continue frying 1 more minute, or until noodles are cooked. Noodles are done to perfection when they are no longer “hard” or crunchy, but chewy-sticky wonderful! Taste-test for seasoning, adding more fish sauce until desired flavor is reached (I usually add 1 more Tbsp. fish sauce). Toss well to incorporate.
Lift noodles onto a serving plate. Top with generous amounts of fresh coriander, spring onion, and crushed/chopped nuts. Add fresh lime wedges to squeeze over each portion, and if desired, serve with Nam Prik Pao Chili Sauce (homemade recipe) on the side. ENJOY!
Pad Thai Tip: For even more flavor, I’ll often make a double batch of the pad Thai sauce. Then, as I’m stir-frying the noodles, I’ll add more sauce until I’m happy with the taste (I also add extra fish sauce). Any leftover sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

http://thaifood.about.com/…

recipecommunity.com.au…

Cookies and creme fudge

admin Food Blog
  • 1 can condensed milk
  • 200g cup caster sugar
  • 125g butter
  • 200g chocolate or dark chocolate, chopped into pieces (or chocolate melts).
  • 1/2 x 150g pkt Oreo biscuits broken into pieces.  Around 6-7 biscuits.
  • 200g sugar, blend to caster sugar

Into the TM bowl, put the
condensed milk, sugar, butter
Cook at 100⁰C  for 8 mins on speed 3.

Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl with the spatula. (So nothing is sticking to the bowl, building up)

Cook for a further 20 minutes at Varoma temperature, on speed 3.  You can add an extra 2 minutes of cooking time if the mixture isn’t as caramelised as you would like.

Add the chopped chocolate and Oreo biscuits.

Stir the mixture for 10 seconds on speed 3-4, until the chocolate is melted.
Watch the mixture through the hole in the lid and stop as soon as it’s all combined and the chocolate is no longer visible.

Pour the mixture into a lined square pan or slice tray  and refrigerate until set.  Slice into small squares

From thermoblitz on Facebook
Taken from this transcription