700 g – 1 kg baby new Potatoes, scrubbed

a handful of chopped up Salami

a handful of chopped up Bacon

4-5 Gherkins, sliced

approx  ½ cup Mayonnaise

5 Spring Onions

1 tablespoon Sour Cream

a couple of pickled Cocktail Onions, if you like

Cook potatoes in boiling, salted water, cover and simmer gently until just tender, about 10-15 minutes (mine took more like 20 minutes, they were a bit soft, but my wife tells me that’s the way they’re meant to be).  Pan-fry the salami and bacon until crisp.  Remove, draining any fat off before adding to the salad.  In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard and gherkins.  Drain cooked potatoes and rinse in cold water, drain well.  (You might want to chop the potatoes before boiling, but i chopped them after draining.  Bit messy chopping cooked potatoes though.)  Turn into a salad bowl with salami, spring onions, cocktail onions, bacon and toss with the dressing.  Season with whatever you like to taste.

The original recipe has radishes in it too, which I didn’t have but would like to add next time.

125 g Butter, softened

¾ cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 Egg

2 cups standard plain Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

2 tablespoons Cocoa

a handful Chocolate Chips (approximately)

Icing:

10-20 g butter, softened/melted

2 cups Icing Sugar

½ teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 tablespoon Cocoa

2 tablespoons Water

Cookies:

Preheat the oven to 190°C.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy.  Add egg, beating well.  Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together and mix into creamed mixture.  Mix chocolate chips into the cookie dough.  Roll heaped teaspoonsful of mixture into balls and place on an oven tray.  Flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake at 190°C for about 12 minutes.  Leave to cool down before icing.

Icing:

Sift icing sugar and cocoa into a small saucepan.  Add butter and vanilla.  Add water gradually to get it to a spreadable consistency.  Put on a low heat for a few minutes and stir until the cookies are ready to be iced.

3 cups standard plain Flour

6 teaspoons Baking Powder

75 g Butter

1 to 1½ cups Milk, approximately

1 cup grated Cheese

pinch Cayenne Pepper

½ teaspoon Mustard

extra Milk

extra grated Cheese

Preheat oven to 220°C.  Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Rub in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.*  Add cheese, cayenne pepper and mustard.  Add milk and mix quickly with a knife to a soft dough (sprinkle on a bit more flour if it gets too wet).  Knead a few times (in the bowl is fine).  Lightly dust an oven tray with flour (or use baking paper).  Press scone dough out onto this.  Cut into 12 even sized pieces, leaving a 2 cm space between scones.  Brush tops with milk and put a bit of cheese on top of each.  Bake at 220°C for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 12

*  The recipe actually says “Cut butter in until it resembles fine breadcrumbs“.  I’ve never understood how you’re meant to do this, but my wife suggested “rubbing it in”.  So i just dumped the whole 75 g chunk of butter into the flour mixture and pretty much kneaded it in with my hands, rubbing bits off the chunk of butter into the flour, until it was nicely distributed through the flour, and it did end up resembling fine breadcrumbs.

25 g Butter

2 tablespoons standard plain Flour

2 cups Milk

1 cup grated Cheese

Salt & (white) Pepper  (I used black, but that’s a personal preference, I think)

½ teaspoon dry Mustard

Preheat oven to 190°C.  Cook broccoli in boiling, salted water until tender.  While broccoli is cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan.  Stir in flour and cook until frothy.  Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens.  Remove from heat.  Add ½ a cup of the cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and mustard.  Drain broccoli and transfer to an ovenproof serving dish.  Pour sauce over the broccoli.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Cook at 190°C for 20 minutes or until golden.

This was originally a Cauliflower Cheese recipe, but I happened to have a broccoli that needed to be eaten.

Serves 4-6

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!