Hungarian Beef Goulash

Ingredients:

500 grams of Beef Bolar Blade diced

1 Tablespoons of Plain Flour

2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

1 Large Onion Diced

2 Carrots peeled and sliced

2 Cloves of Fresh Garlic finely diced

1 Tablespoon of Sweet Paprika

1 Teaspoon of Cumin

1 Tin of diced Roma Tomatoes

1 Whole Red Capsicum

250 ml of Beef Stock

2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste

1/2 Cup of Extra Light Sour Cream

What to do:

Add the diced beef and flour to a freezer bag and toss to coat. Heat a dutch oven on the stove top and add a tablespoon of the oil. Brown in batches and remove.

Slice the capsicum, remove the seeds and roast under the griller until black. Cover with alfoil for 5 minutes to let the skins sweat. Remove the skins and dice.

Add the other tablespoon of oil to the dutch oven and add the onions, garlic, paprika and cumin. Give it a good stir to combine, then pop on the lid and turn to low and cook for 5 mins.

Return the meat to the dutch oven, add the tomato's, carrots, beef stock and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Pop the lid back on and cook on low for approx 2 hours. Add the sour cream and stir to combine. You can serve with Mash, Noodles, or boiled whole baby spuds with garlic butter! I've served with sweet potato and pumpkin mash on this occasion.

Lj's Corn Beef Breakfast Fritters

Lots of goodness in these lovely Corn Beef Breakfast Fritters! Great way to start the day!

Ingredients:

2 Free Range Eggs

1/2 Cup diced Corn Beef

1/2 Small Grated Zucchini

1 Large Portabello Mushroom

1 Heaped Tablespoon of finely diced Red Capsicum

1 Heaped Tablespoon of finely diced Red Onion

1 Tablespoon of SF Flour

1 Heaped Tablespoon of Low Fat Cottage Cheese

What to do:

In a non stick pan saute the mushroom and zucchini and let it cool. Mix together all of the other ingredients until well combine and then add the veggies. Spray your non stick pan with cooking spray and cook just like you would pancakes!

Yum Yum Yum!!!!!

Lj's Dukan Beef & Vegetable Stir Fry

Really felt like a stir fry for dinner tonight... Based on ingredients that are on the Dukan Diet list.

Ingredients:

 125 Lean Rump Steak (all fat removed) sliced thin

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Fresh Garlic Clove Sliced

Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

2 Swiss Brown Button Mushrooms sliced

1/2 Carrot sliced

1/2 Small Zucchini Sliced

1 Shallot Sliced

3 Fresh Green Beans Sliced

1/4 Small Capsicum Sliced

What to do:

Start by slicing the steak and popping into a snap lock bag and adding the garlic, olive oil, soy sauce and cracked pepper and salt.

Heat a non stick pan and add a splash of olive oil. Saute the vegetables until they are as tender as you like, I prefer them with a little bit of crunch. Remove from the pan and set aside. Get your pan really hot again and cook the rump. It will take only a few minutes depending on how thin you sliced it. Add the vegetables back to the pan and combine with the veges.

Sissy's Slowcooked Blade Roast in Coke..

A sneak peak at my Sister's dinner tonight! Will load some more pics and the cooking times later today :-)

2 x 375ml Cans of Coke

French Onion Soup Mix

Freshly crushed Garlic

Rosemary

Pour the Coke into the Slowcooker and sprinkle over the French Onion Soup Mix. Rub the roast with freshly crushed Garlic and then place into the Coke. Top with fresh Rosemary.

Lj's Slow Cooked Y Bone Steak with Homegrown Cherry Tomatoes & Mushrooms

I picked up a cheap piece of Y Bone today and decided it would be lovely slow cooked.

I have cooked in a Dutch Oven on the stove top but you could easily use your slow cooker after browning the meat in a fry pan if you don't have one.

Ingredients:

300g Y Bone Steak

1 Medium Onion Sliced

2 Cloves of Garlic Sliced

6 Button Mushrooms Sliced

Punnet size of home grown Cherry Tomatoes Diced

1 Campbells Beef Stock paste sachet (Equals one stock cube)

1/2 Tablespoon of Cornflour with 1/4 Cup of Water

What to do:

Heat your pan to Medium to High and spray a small amount of Cooking Spray. When the pan is hot enough

brown and seal the meat. Add the Onions, Garlic, Mushroom and Cherry Tomatoes.

Saute until semi soft and then turn down the heat to Medium Low. Add a small amount of water, approx 1/2 cup and pop on the lid. Let it simmer away for an hour or so, by this stage the meat should be almost falling off the bone. You can remove the bone at this stage and chop the eat into bite sized pieces. I used tongs and pair of kitchen scissors.. easy and no mess as you can do that without taking it out of the pan.

Add the Beef Stock and the Cornflour and Water. If the dish need to be a little wetter to stay moist while cooking just mix in a little more water. Give it a really good stir to combine. Pop the lid back on and turn the heat to the lowest setting on your stove. I let it slow cook for another 2 1/2 hours or when the meat melts in your mouth. Check and stir every half an hour or so. Add a little more water if needed. 

Serve with your favourite mash. I have served with Kent Pumpkin. It was so sweet and delicious I just drained and mashed and only add a small amount of cracked himilayan salt.

A very few basic ingredients turned into a really delicious dish!

Lj's Healthy..ish Surf n Turf t-bone style

Healthy..ish Surf n Turf t-bone style.. Yum :-)



Delicious cooked T-Bone steak. I let my steak rest while I cook the prawns and sauce. I add a little olive oil to the same pan I cooked the steak in, add the prawns/freshly chopped garlic and cook on each side. The sauce consists of juices from the steak left on the bottom of the pan, cracked pepper, hiilayan salt and some light and creamy carnation milk mixed with a little bit of cornflour instead of cream to kinda make it diet LOL... oh and a splash of the Sauv Blanc I was drinking to bring all the juices off the bottom of the pan. Let the sauce thicken while stiring to Not the traditional way to cook garlic prawns but totally flavoursome :-)

Beef Goulash Lj Style

A few weeks back I bought a whole Wagyu Rump as apparently it's the ducks nuts.. I didn't think so. It was the crappiest piece of steak I have ever eaten. I decided to casserole the rest and make a goulash for dinner tonight. Not a traditional Goulash recipe as I like to add some veges but it's a fave comfort food in our house. Smelling good..... You can add more or less of any of the seasons to your tastes.

Ingredients

1 kg Diced Beef

2 Onions diced

2 Cloves of Garlic diced

1 lge tin Crushed Tomatoes

3 Tbs Tomato Paste

2 Tsp Smoked Paprika 

1 Tsp dried Mustard

2 Teas powdered Beef Stock

2 Tbs Susieshire Sauce 

(This is my Mum's version of homemade Worstershire Sauce)

3 Carrots diced

6 Button Mushrooms Sliced

1 Cup water mixed with 1/4 cup Plain Flour
Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper

What to do:

Very simple and easy slow cooker recipe...

Add diced beef and cover with the onions, carrots, garlic and mushrooms.

Mix together the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, Paprika and 

dried Mustard and beef stock and pour over the top. 

Cook on low for at least 8 hours. When the meat is tender, add the plain flour and

water mix and turn to high for about 15 minutes to let the sauce thicken.

Serve on fluffy mashed potatoes.

Silverside.. trying something a little different

Ingredients:

1.5kg Silverside

1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

2 Tbs Brown Sugar

1/2 Cinnamon Stick

A few cloves and peppercorns

1 Onion cut in quarters with the skin on

(Remove the skin and put into your white sauce, The skins have so much flavour)

1 Whole carrot

2 Fresh Bay Leaves

(I was lucky enough to get some straight off the tree and dry them myself last visit to the country)

What to do:

Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 120 minutes.

Let it rest while making your white sauce. 

Nice popped into the oven for 10 minutes with some seeded

mustard on top.

Serve with a mix of potato and sweet potato mash, fresh cobs of corn smothered 

in real butter and lots of greens..

Marinated Roast Beef with Seeded Mustard, Rosemary and Garlic.

Season your scored Roast Beef with sea salt and cracked pepper. In a pestle and mortar add a large clove of crushed garlic, a lge sprig of finely chopped fresh Rosemary, about a Tbs of Seeded Mustard (I've used my Mum's homemade... almost out Mum... hint hint!) a few splashes of good worstershire sauce, and a splash of olive oil. Make a paste and rub really well over the top of your roast beef.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Heat a roasting pan in the oven and transfer to the stove top. Place the beef in your hot pan with a splash of olive oil and sear on all sides except the top that you have marinated.  

Slice some onions and smash some garlic (enough for your roast to sit on in the pan) and place your roast on top. Reduce the heat to 200 degrees and pop into the oven and cook for a bit over an hr depending on how rare you like your meat. I like it pink so that is about right for a 1.5kg piece of Beef for my tastes. 

While the Beef is cooking prepare your veges and throw in after the beef has been cooking for around half an hour.  I'm doing roasted potatoes and carrots, fresh corn on the cob and peas. I boil my potatoes first for around ten minutes and smash them up a bit (Makes them really crunchy and crispy) Something I learnt from Jamie Oliver...

Once my Beef is cooked, I let it rest while I make the gravy from the pan juices. All that lovely onion, garlic and juices will make the most delicious gravy with a splash of red wine. 

Beer, Beef And Bacon Pie My Way

I thought a nice warm meal might be the plan for this evening seeing as it's cold, rainy and thundering! I'm making a casserole and using it as a pie filling.

 Ingredients:

1kg Diced Beef  (I've used diced porterhouse as we bought a whole one that was shit steak)
4 Rashers of Bacon Diced
2 Lge Onions Diced
2 Lge Cloves of Garlic finely Diced
2 Lge Carrots Diced
3 Medium Potatoes Diced
6 Large Button Mushrooms sliced
2 Coopers Pale Ale 375ml
3 Tbs Powdered Beef Stock
3Tbs Plain flour mixed with a small amount of water into a smooth paste

What to do:

You can either cook this in the slowcooker, or in an oven dish that you can use on the stove top and then the oven. I have used a cast iron casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.  Brown the beef, bacon, onions and garlic. Add the remaining ingredients, but only one of the beers and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, pop the lid on and into the oven. Cook in the oven for approx 4 hrs, stir every half hour adding the other bottle of beer around a third at a time.

To make your pies....

Let your Casserole cool. In the meantime blind bake your pastry for the bottom of your pie. Line a Pie Dish with baking paper, lay down your pastry and cover with another layer of baking paper. Put some Ceramic pie weights into the pie dish on top of the last layer of baking paper. (If you don't have pie weights you can use rice or any kind of dried beans. I used to use Rice before I bought the Pie Weights and leave it in a container and only used it for blind baking) Bake in the oven at the same temp (150) as your casserole for around 10 mins.

Once your pastry has blind baked let it cool.

Add your Pie filling and top with some grated tasty cheese of your choice and place your pastry top on, sealing the sides with beaten egg. Baste of the top of your pie with beaten egg. With a sharp knife leave a few holes in the top to release the heat. Bake until the pastry is golden! Enjoy...

Lj's Mexican Tortilla Stack

My Mexican Tortilla Stack

Ingredients:

Packet of Torillas 

Avocado/Sour Cream/Lemon Juice to make Guacamole

Salsa and Grated Cheese (whatever you prefer, I use Grand Padana/Extra Sharp Parmesan and mozarella)

Batch of Thick Home made  Beef Bolognaise 

(Add Kidney bean, tacos seasoning and Chilli Sauce)

What to do:

Make a thick bolognaise and let it cool completely.  (I use beef mince, onions, herbs, garlic, tin tomatoes, tomato paste, packet of taco seasoning mix, home made chilli sauce, ground sea salt and pepper to season and a tin of kidney beans drained.)

Use a spring form tin greased with cooking spray. Add a tortilla to the bottom. Make a layer of your bolognaise and sprinkle some cheese, on another tortilla spread some guacamole and put it face down onto your bolognaise and press down. Make a layer of salsa and sprinkle some cheese, then bolognaise and then on the next tortilla spread with sour cream and put face down on top and press down firmly. Keep layering until you reach the top of the spring form tin. You can decorate the top however you wish... I like to make a pattern with some sundried tomatoes and capsicum and then top with cheese. Bake for about half an hour on 180.

There are so many variations you can make of tortilla stacks. When I cooked at Cafe Devine I used to make these almost daily they were so popular!

Different variations I made depended on what we had in stock at the time, as in what cheeses, veges and fresh meats etc.

You can use Salami and layer with different char grilled veges such as eggplant, capsium, zucchini, sweet potato and sundried tomatoes and fontina cheese... leave out the Salami for something vegetarian.

There are so many variations you can use, just use your imagination! And if you come up with something wicked let me know and send a pic so I can post it on here!!

happy cooking!!!

 

Beef, bacon, mushroom pie with a layer of tasty grated cheese, potato/sweet potato mash topped with pastry

Beef, bacon, mushroom pie with a layer of tasty grated cheese, potato/sweet potato mash topped with pastry.. Ready for the oven.

Add a splash of olive oil into a frypan or I use my cast iron dish with a lid and let it heat up. Sauté the onions, mushrooms and bacon. Coat the diced beef in a mix of plain flour, beef stock and cracked pepper and salt. Add the meat to the pan and brown. Cover the meat mixture with a few cups of beef stock (just enough to cover it) being to the boil, then put the lid on and simmer on low for around 4 hrs or until the meat is melt in your mouth. Let it cool and put into individual serving dishes that are oven proof. Top with some grated cheese, mash (I used cream in the mash instead of butter and milk for a change)and then the pastry. Glaze with egg and bake in a hot oven until the pastry is golden.