Rissoles love

Now I know all of you that aren’t from Australia probably don’t get the title.
The Castle is a top Australian movie, and one of those really quotable movies too.
One of the most endearing moments is how every night the lead male compliments his wife on his cooking. And one of those meals is rissoles.

This is my mums rissole recipe – its a bit hit and miss but you get to squelch a whole heap of ingrediants up.

Into a bowl goes 500gm mince, 1 egg, 2 pieces soggy bread, a dash of worcestershire sauce, and some BBQ sauce. Quantities aren’t really important here. Also feel free to add stuff. I usually add chilli flakes, fresh herbs, salt, and pepper.
To get soggy bread, soak the bread in water and squeeze it out.
You’ll end up with a bowl full of squelchy potential.

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Now squelch it all together until it’s ready to roll into balls.
Then dip into bread crumbs or rolled oats, whichever you have in the cupboard.

Then set them in the freezer. This is important. Otherwise they fall apart when you cook them.

After about half an hour, they should be good to cook. You need a really greasy pan, and be ready to flip them.

Serve with salad and a couple of episode of friends. Tomato sauce on top works a treat.

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cherry ripe cupcakes

I work with cake lovers.
Every occasion is celebrated with cake.
You’re the new starter? You bring cake.
It’s your birthday? You bring cake.
You happened to swing past the cake shop on your way to work? You bring cake.
You do something noteworthy at work? You bring cake.

In my case, I’m leaving.
Which means I have to bring cake.

So I made a batch of Red Velvet cupcakes, and a batch of cherry ripe cupcakes.
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Taste.com.au has the super easy recipe which I made into a cherry ripe cupcakes.

What you need
The Cupcakes
2 cups Self Raising Flour
¾ cup castor sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs
125 g melted butter
¾ cup milk
2 (50g) packets glace cherries (chopped)

The Icing
400g icing sugar
50g soft butter
200g cream cheese
½ cup desiccated coconut.

The Method
Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder) in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
Mix wet ingredients (eggs, butter, milk) together and then pour into dry ingredients.
Stir until just combined and then add the glace cherries.

Pour into patty cake lined cupcake tray.
Place in 200deg oven for 20 – 25 minutes.

While that’s in the oven make the icing.

With a mixer beat the butter and the icing sugar together.
Once that’s started to cream together, add the cream cheese until it looks smooth.
Add the coconut.

You need to wait for the cupcakes to cool before you can ice them – but once they’re iced, mmmm.

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a not boring packed lunch or how to use schnitzel as a verb, an adjective, and a noun

Who said a packed lunch has to be boring.

If you’re lucky enough to have a sandwich press in the office, you can have a lunch like this.
Chicken Schnitzel and salad.

It takes a little bit of effort to prepare. It really helps if you have a craving for chicken parma the night before and are schnitzeling chicken anyway.

So how to schnitzel a chicken.

In one bowl beat an egg.
In another pour in breadcrumbs.

Cover your rolling pin in glad wrap (so all the nasty raw chicken doesn’t seep into your wooden rolling pin – I don’t know if this is actually a thing but it helps me sleep at night), and take all your frustrations out on an unsuspecting chicken thigh.

Dip the beaten chicken thigh into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs (both sides), then into the sandwich press.

You now have two options.
You can put the schnitzeled chicken into a pan and cover with tinned tomatoes and cheese before plonking it in the oven.
OR
You can put the schnitzeled chicken into a plastic container for eating at work.

I chose both.

So here’s the chicken parma and here’s my work lunch.
I like to heat up my pre-cooked schnitzel in the sandwich press, but I suppose you could eat it cold or pop it in the microwave.

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Red velvet cupcakes

this wonderful recipe for velvet cupcakes is divine.
Not that i’ve done extensive research, but my first try at red velvet was a success and i’m blaming this recipe.

Or mostly the recipe to turn ordinary milk into buttermilk.
I am never prepared enough to buy (or remember to buy) all the ingredients for a recipe. And buttermilk always seems like a waste unless I’m planning on baking scones and pancakes in one week.

So that pretty much sold the recipe. And my oh my it was delicious.

To the point that I baked them before dinner, iced them just before going to knitting group, and when I got home there was three missing.
They were really good.

Om nom nom nom.

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Pasta to keep vampires away

This was my signature dish when I was studying. It was during my teenage rebellion because it’s always had too much garlic in it (which I had to buy myself, as garlic was never in the house).
It’s not healthy but it will keep the vampires away. (Assuming your vampires subscribe to the common trait of disliking garlic. I like vampires that don’t like garlic.)

Step 1
Put grated cheese, crushed garlic, herbs, salt & pepper in a bowl.

Step 2
Cook angel hair pasta

Step 3
Add pasta to cheese & garlic using the starchy water as a sauce.

Step 4
Eat – preferably with white wine and big bang theory.

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A leisurely lunch at Blackbird

It was a Thursday.
Lunch was beckoning.
And it was too nice a day to be inside. So my packed lunch went in the fridge for another day, and a colleague and I walked down to grab a bite to eat.

We spotted Blackbird, and even though I have a phobia of actual birds, birds in name only don’t scare me.
We had a look at the menu on the window (always a good start), found something that we liked and so decided to stay.

We were both delighted. The service was fantastic, the food was divine, and it really made the most of the view.

It’s not generally a good sign when there’s no one else in the resteraunt but it really didn’t matter, we both had a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.
In particular what impressed me was the attention to detail. The waiter (silly me, forgot to catch his name) really made us feel welcome.
It’s not often I notice someone’s professionalism, but that’s what he had. Customer service was excellent, he had a light, jokey manner without being too over the top and made us feel comfortable and at home. You could tell that he more-than-likely enjoyed his job, which is a pleasure.

And then the food, was so much more than I was expecting.
I ordered the steak sandwich, having some preconceived expectations about steak sandwiches in general and baulking a little at the price ($23 is on the expensive side for a sandwich). This should not be called a steak sandwich. A sandwich it was not. This was a little slice of heaven on ciabatta.
The steak was cooked just the way I like it. Drag a cow past a heater once or twice (go on picture it). With the combination of the dressing and the rocket, and the really thick frites was just divine.

My colleague had the barley risotto, with beetroot and parmesan. Which apparently was wonderful as well. The bright pink dish was a little off-putting at first, but once we asked the waiter what was going on (and he knew what he was talking about) it made perfect sense.

And then we ordered desert.
Chocolate Fondant with chocolate syrup and white chocolate ice-cream.
We really should have shared desert.
I now understand what recipes talk about when they say the centre should be gooey. This was soo gooey.
I gained 5 kilos while eating it, and enjoyed every one of them.

The drinks list was very extensive, however being during the working day it wasn’t that kind of work lunch.
I think the next after-work drinks party will have to be held there. Even if it’s just to see the interior of the place.

With the location on the water, the service, the chocolate!, it’s a pity that I’m leaving this job soon and I won’t be able to have lunch there.
Definitely a keeper.
It was a little on the expensive side, but worth every penny.

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Blackbird Restaurant on Urbanspoon

chorizo macaroni

This is a recipe made up of leftovers. The leftover macaroni was cooked as a result of a macaroni flood (I tipped the bag a little way and it all came flooding into the water). The chorizo was the only meat that was in the fridge (it’s almost shopping day), and all the other ingredients are all things I always have in the cupboard.

The Recipe

½ chopped onion
½ stick Chorizo chopped in slices and then in halfs.
400g tin Tomatoes
1 glug Worcestershire sauce
2 glugs Tomato sauce
½ cup peas (I used frozen)
Fresh parsley
3 cups cooked Macaroni
Cheese to garnish

The Method
Fry the onion and chorizo in hot oil.
Once that’s cooked, add the tinned tomatoes, Worcestershire, and tomato sauce. Let that bubble away before adding the frozen peas.
Add the chopped fresh parsley (or whatever herbs you have).
Add the macaroni (it doesn’t need to be heated, the sauce will heat it through).

Once the macaroni is warm, serve in bowls with grated cheese over the top.

Serves 4
One serve went as is for the Mister.
One serve went over steamed frozen vegetables for myself.
One serve went in the freezer for another day.
And the final serve went towards my lunch.

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Mad Monkey and Hollowmen

A night at home with mad monkey.

I had a really late lunch (2:30!) so I wasn’t really hungry, and feeling very lazy.
So we ordered in. I had a Greek salad,with a garlic And rosemary pizza crust for carbs.
Mr Polka-dots had a Tom-Tom which isbacon, mushroom, creamy sauce with fettucine.

The salad was really fresh. It absolutely hit the spot. And I may have sneaked a couple of forks of pasta (and one sneaky dip of pasta on top of the pizza. One of the joys of eating at home). The pasta was pretty good. Nothing I couldn’t have made myself, but I didn’t want to cook now did I.

I have this weird thing about not watching sport whilst i eat (I always spill it, or end up not eating, or generally don’t enjoy it as much) so we always turn off whatever sport we’re watching and watch some entertainment.

Mister had an RDO today so he was home when I got home and was watching The Hollowmen. (Before I reminded him that there was a Chicago game taped and he promptly started watching that.) So once dinner arrived on went The Hollowmen again.
It’s an Australian comedy about Aussie politics. A bit like Yes Minister but dryer. It has some laugh out loud moments in this household, but it only lasted two seasons.

It revolves around the team behind the Prime Minister and the way they spin and make decisions for the country.
Here’s a clip, but I’m not sure it’s a program that really translates.
But then this household also loves Parks and Recreation which runs a similar premise.

When only biscuits will do

a basic biscuit recipe with three variations.

The first one has chai latte tea in it.
I only had chai tea bags so I tried to dilute it as much as possible.

The second ones have a hershey’s kiss on top of them.

The third ones have choc mint flavoring. Well choc mint drinking chocolate, and lots of it to flavour it.

I have no idea what we’re having for dinner but we have biscuits.

Here’s my amended recipe for chocolate mint biscuits

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons chocolate mint powder
1 tablespoon milk

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix until well combined. Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk, chocolate mint powder, and stir until just combined.

Spoon onto baking trays.
Place a Hershey’s Kiss on top of of each biscuit. Alternatively squish top of biscuit with a fork.

Cook in oven for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea. Or mug of hot chocolate mint drink for extra indulgence.

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