Sweet and Sour Pork

500 g Pork pieces

Oil

2 small Onions, quartered

2 cloves Garlic, crushed

½ cup Chicken liquid Stock

225 g Pineapple pieces in Syrup

1 tablespoon Cornflour

¼ cup Tomato Sauce

½ teaspoon grated root Ginger

2 tablespoons Vinegar

2 tablespoons Brown Sugar

1 chopped Red Pepper

1 can Baby Sweetcorn

100 g Mushrooms, quartered

 

Trim fat from pork and cut into 2 cm pieces.  Heat oil in a saucepan or wok.  Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is clear (I found a low heat helps).  Remove from pan.  Add half the pork pieces and quickly brown on all sides.  Remove from pan.  Repeat with remaining meat.  Return meat and onions to pan.  Add stock and bring to the boil.  Cover and cook gently for 30 minutes or until meat is tender.

Drain pineapple, reserving juice.  Combine juice and cornflour, mixing until smooth.  Add pineapple pieces, tomato sauce, ginger, vinegar (the original recipe said white, I used red wine vinegar, still turned out lovely), sugar, pepper, sweetcorn and mushrooms to pan.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Return to the boil.  Stir in cornflour mixture and boil for 2 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly.  Serve with rice or noodles.

Serves 4-6

 

Only now did I realise that it did not in fact say to use a frying pan or wok, but a saucepan.  I don’t yet have a wok, and used my big cast iron frying pan, which once again was too small for this lot.  Next time I’ll use my big saucepan, which should make the whole thing easier to stir.  I think this is one of my favourite meals so far, and it went beautifully with Baz’s rice.

Baz’s Rice

My semester is finally over, I have just handed in my final assignment.

Thanks to our friend and former flatmate Baz for this recipe.  Makes a nice, soft, creamy rice to go with your favourite sauce.

For each cup of rice, use 2 cups of water.

Boil Water with 1 teaspoon Salt

Put Rice in a separate pot on a high heat with a tiny bit of Oil and stir it so it doesn’t burn.

Add a clove of Garlic, a few slices of Capsicum, or some Herbs for added taste.

Cook until the rice is toasted.

Pour the water onto the rice, put it on a low heat, do not let it boil, and put the lid on.  Do not stir.

Cook until all the water is gone and the rice is level.  Try to avoid lifting the lid too much to check on it.

To see if it’s done, make a small hole in the rice with a spoon to see if the water is all gone at the bottom.

A break between recipes

I got into cooking about three weeks ago now.  I’d just stopped working and my wife started working full-time, and since I’m only studying part-time I spent most of my new free time as a stay-at-home nester.  The term “nesting” I have mostly come across in regards to pregnant women getting into homemaking (cooking, housework, setting up their baby’s new room, etc).  Apparently it can also apply to non-pregnant women (and presumbaly to non-women too).

I got all excited about playing house, and did the washing, and the dishes, tidied and cleaned like there was no tomorrow.  Turns out there is a tomorrow which I can spend doing some more washing and dishes and cleaning and tidying!

And I braved the kitchen.

I had previously done a bit of baking, which I quite enjoyed.  The only cooking I’d really done was in some previous jobs, but always for elderly people with near non-existent tastebuds.  I’d never cooked bacon (it spits and I was scared of it!) and didn’t like pots of boiling water (they spit too).  Now, I suddenly don’t even think about them.  The meal’s gotta be cooked, and I’m it, and it’s not gonna get cooked if I hide behind the fridge to avoid the spitting pots!

So now it turns out that I can cook!  My wife even tells me I cook very well.  I’m surprising myself more and more every day, as I try out new things, or repeat something I’ve made before and make it better (the cabonara is so easy I’ve made it several times, and it seems to get better each time!).

So now I think I’m up to date with all the recipes I’ve used so far and I’m sure many more will follow.  Tonight’s dinner can go up once I’ve finished my last assignment for this semester, after which I am on holiday until March.

Scalloped Potatoes

4 medium Potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 small Onion, finely sliced

1 cup grated Cheese

Salt & Pepper

1 cup Milk

1 Parsnip, peeled and thinly sliced (optional)

1 Carrot, peeled and thinly sliced (optional)

 

Place a layer of potatoes in a medium sized casserole dish.  Sprinkle with some onion, cheese, salt and pepper.  Cover with a layer of parsnip and carrot.  Repeat until all ingredients are used up, ending with a cheese layer.  Pour over milk.  Bake covered at 180ºC for 40-50 minutes or until potatoes (and carrots & parsnip) are tender.  Remove cover after 30 minutes.

 

It took much longer than 50 minutes to bake…  about 1½ hours or more!  Then again, I just realised that “remove cover after 30 minutes” is probably referring to when it’s been in the oven for 30 minutes rather than 30 minutes after it comes out of the oven.  I shall try that next time.  Once it was finally done, it was really yummy, except the parsnip wasn’t quite done.  Might boil the parsnip for a few minutes before putting it in next time.

Shepherd’s Pie

1 tablespoon Oil

1 Onion, chopped

500 g lean Beef Mince

2 tablespoons standard plain Flour

1 tablespoon Tomato Sauce

1 tablespoon Sweet Chilli Sauce

¾ cup liquid Beef Stock

3 Potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon Butter

1 tablespoon finely chopped Onion

1 cup grated Cheese

salt & pepper

 

Preheat oven to 190ºC.  Heat oil in a large frying pan.  Add onion and cook until clear.  Add mince and cook until well browned, stirring constantly.  Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.  Add tomato sauce, chilli sauce and stock.  Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  Set aside.  Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water until soft/tender.  Drain and heat for a few minutes to dry off excess moisture.  Shake the pan frequently during this time.  Mash potato (still on the low heat).  Add butter, onion and half the cheese, mixing until smooth and creamy.  Season with salt & pepper to taste.  Put mince into a pie dish.  Top with the potato mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake at 190ºC for 20ish minutes or until golden and heated through.

Serves 3-4

Apple Bread

This is the original recipe, which both Cheesy Potato Bread and Carrot Bread are based on.  The cheesy potato is listed in the Cookbook as a variation, the carrot I decided to try myself.

 

3 cups standard plain Flour

½ teaspoon Salt

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 tablespoon Sugar

1 small grated Apple (peeled and washed)

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

1 to 1½ cups Milk, approximately

Preheat oven to 180ºC.  Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder into a bowl.  Stir in sugar.  Add apple and enough milk to make a soft, smooth dough, mixing all together quickly.  Place in a 22 cm loaf tin (greased, or with baking paper).  Bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on base of bread.  When cooked, remove from tin and wrap in a teatowel or paper towels until cold.  Of course you could also start eating it while it’s still warm!

Carrot Bread

This is a variation of the Cheesy Potato Bread, so it’s made exactly the same, except instead of a grated potato, you add about ½ cup grated Carrot (peeled and washed).

Cheesy Potato Bread

3 cups standard plain Flour

½ teaspoon Salt

3 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 tablespoon Sugar

1 small grated Potato (peeled and washed)

½ cup grated Cheese (or more…)

pinch of Cayenne Pepper

1 to 1½ cups Milk, approximately

Preheat oven to 180ºC.  Sift flour, salt, cayenne and baking powder into a bowl.  Stir in sugar.  Add cheese and potato and enough milk to make a soft, smooth dough, mixing all together quickly.  Place in a 22 cm loaf tin (greased, or with baking paper).  Bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on base of bread.  When cooked, remove from tin and wrap in a teatowel or paper towels until cold.  Of course you could also start eating it while it’s still warm!

Lasagne

Noodles:

¾ cup Flour

1 Egg

¼ teaspoon Salt

 

Italian Meat Sauce:

250-300 g Mince

1 clove Garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon chopped Parsley

2 teaspoons dried Basil   (I had neither Parsley nor Basil, so I put in some dried Mixed Herbs)

1 teaspoon dried Oreganum

1½ teaspoons Salt

1 can Tomatoes

1 small pottle Tomato Purée

 

Cheese Mixture:

½ pottle Cottage Cheese

1 Egg, beaten

Salt & Pepper

2 tablespoons chopped Parsley  (again, I replaced this with Mixed Herbs)

½ cup grated Cheese (Parmesan recommended, I didn’t have any, so used Colby)

250 g (approx.) thinly sliced Colby

 

Preheat oven to 190ºC.  Combine flour, egg and salt and mix well.  If necessary, add a little water so the dough forms a soft ball.  Divide dough in half: roll each half in a rectangle 6 mm thick.  Cut into strips 5 cm wide and about 15 cm long.  (I don’t yet have a rolling pin, but managed to form and flatten some chunks of dough, and they really don’t have to look perfect, they just need to be usable as lasagne sheets).

Cook noodles in 2-3 litres boiling salted water for 3-5 minutes.  Do this in two or so batches.  As the noodles are cooked, try to hand them over the side of a colander until required.

To prepare the sauce, brown the meat in a saucepan until it separates; drain off any exceess fat.  (Don’t add the next ingredients until you can see the excess fat, and have drained it.  I didn’t notice it untill I’d started putting in the next ingredients and it really is quite and oily dish.)  Add the garlic, herbs, salt, tomatoes and tomato purée.  Simmer, uncovered, for approximately 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Make the cheese mixture by combining in a bowl all ingredients except the colby slices.

Cover the botton of a rectangular ovenproof dish with noodles.  Spread half the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles.  Add one third of the colby cheese slices and then cover with half the meat sauce.  Repeat layers and finish with sliced cheese on top.

Bake at 190ºC for 30 minutes.  Allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.

Mini Meatballs with Dipping Sauce

Meatballs:

450 g lean minced Beef

1 red Onion, finely diced

2 cloves Garlic, crushed

½ cup Coriander leaves, finely chopped (dried, mixed herbs work too)

100 g pitted green Olives, finely chopped

1 Egg, beaten

salt & pepper

Oil

Dipping Sauce:

4 tablespoons Sweet Chilli Sauce

4 tablespoons Tomato Sauce

juice of 1 Lime/Lemon

1 tablespoon Sesame Oil

2 tablespoons Soy Sauce

 

Meatballs:

Preheat oven to 190ºC.  Combine all ingredients except the oil and shape into 40 small balls.  Place in a roasting pan with the oil and bake at 190ºC for 15 minutes until well browned.  I left out the oil entirely and put them on a tray on top of a sheet of baking paper.  Worked fine.

Dipping Sauce:

Combine all ingredients in a glass jar.  Shake well and chill.  Serve meatballs hot with the dipping sauce.