Reader Recipe - Cheese and Onion Bread- 1 - $ - V

Luckily this afternoon I found an email from the lovely Erica at Recycled Fashion with a recipe to share. It's lucky because I had a little bit too much sake at the fantastic Ichi Ni last night and the likelihood of me making any food worth blogging about today is not too high! Although perhaps a Top 10 of hangover food could be something worth writing about...

However, I digress. Erica has a love of op-shop cookbook collecting just like I do and she found a real gem recently - The Vegemite Cookbook. Thank you Erica for sharing your rainy day baking and photos with us!


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of milk
1tbs Vegemite (Marmite would probably do just as well)
3 1/4 cups self-raising flour
250gm grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup chopped spring onions
(Erica also added some corn to hers which I think is a clever addition)

Preheat oven to 200C degrees.
Warm 1/2 cup milk in a pot and dissolve the Vegemite in it. Combine the flour, cheese, spring onions and remaining milk in a bowl. Stir in the Vegemite milk and mix all ingredients until well combined. Divide the dough into three portions.
On a lightly floured surface make three rounds and then place them side by side in a lightly greased loaf tin.
Bake for 55-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

The Cookbook Challenge Week 31 - French - Roast Lamb with Beans - 2 - $

Bonjour!

Before my stove blew up I was already shamefully lagging in The Cookbook Challenge and now I'm even more behind - mon dieu! However my new appliance has finally been installed, so I thought it best to just plunge on with the current week and cook a French inspired dish.

I've had my eye on this Roast Lamb With Beans ever since I was gifted Jamie Oliver's new book Jamie Does Spain, Italy, Morocco, Sweden, Greece and France and what better way to christen my oven than by cooking something directly on the racks!

Jamie gives the option of doing either a slow cooked version or a regular one. As I had the afternoon at home today I opted for the three hour cooking time and the pull-apart meat. And boy am I glad I did! This dish was sublime. The creamy beans as so full of flavour after soaking up the juices from the lamb it's almost obscene.
My first whirl with the new oven was impressive - and now I have a quality appliance it's time to start trying all those dishes I've been putting off!

My new oven and my new Wagons tea towel

It's really simple prep for this dish and if you don't have the luxury of a lazy arvo of cooking you can still get it done in the usual 1 1/4 hours that you would need for a regular roast.
The recipe calls for canned flageolet beans but if you can't get these any other tinned white beans are fine to use.

Ingredients - Serves 6 (As it was just Mr Tea and me for dinner I used about half the amounts below and a smaller lamb leg.)

1 leg of lamb on the bone (approx 2kg)
olive oil
10 cloves of garlic
small bunch of fresh thyme
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
3 medium leeks, peeled and sliced diagonally 2cm thick
2 onions peeled and finely sliced
1 fresh bay leaf (I didn't have these so just used a couple of little dried ones)
large bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
4 x 400gm tins of beans
1.5 litres chicken, lamb or vegetable stock (I used chicken)
salt and pepper to season

Preheat the oven on high.
Use a small sharp knife to stab the lamb leg all over. Season it with salt and pepper and rub in some olive oil. Slice 4 of the garlic cloves and stuff them into the incisions you made in the lamb. Poke in some thyme and rosemary too.
Meanwhile, put the leeks, onions and remaining whole garlic cloves in the baking dish you're going to roast them in and place on the stove over a medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and add a splash of olive oil. Cook stirring occassionally for 15 minutes or until they are soft.

Tie the thyme and half the parsley and bay leaf (if using a fresh one) together with cooking string and add it to the tray. Pour in the beans and stock and stir well to combine everything.
Place the lamb directly on the oven rack (I put mine on a wire rack and then on the oven one just so it was easier to get it in and out) and place the tray of veg underneath so all the juices from the lamb can drip down on top of it.
If you're doing the quick version, reduce heat to 180C degrees and cook for about 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 hours depending on how pink you like the meat. Rest the lamb for 15 minutes and put the beans back on the stove on a high heat to reduce the liquid (leave a little bit for when you add the mashed ones: see below).

If you're doing the slow cooked version, reduce the heat to 160C degrees and cook for about 3 hours. There will be no need to reduce the beans after cooking this long but leave them in the oven covered, to stay warm while you rest the meat for around half an hour (cover the meat in foil too).
Before serving put about a third of the cooked beans in a bowl and mash them. Stir them back in the tray of veg to make it nice and creamy. Finely chop the rest of the parsley and stir it through the veg too.
Serve the lamb on top of the beans.

Bon appetit!

Caramelised Onion & Feta Tarts - 2 - $ - V

It has been almost a year since I last made this recipe. That's because last time I literally made hundreds of the little things as part of my bridesmaid duties.
Of course I didn't mind making them, the bride is a fabulous woman I am blessed to know and I was honoured to be part of her bridal party and catering crew for the big day.
Tomorrow will be an even bigger day. Well perhaps. Said bride is due to give birth. But if her little bub is anything like her, she'll turn up when she pleases and not necessarily when she's supposed to.


Cooking is a great way to pass the time, so if any of you find yourself waiting around for something important to happen on Sunday, get in the kitchen and whip up some of these. They are delicious and at least that's an hour gone...

This will make 12 standard size patty pan tarts or 24 mini ones.

Ingredients

2 sheets frozen, ready-rolled short crust pastry
2 large (or 3-4 small) red onions, finely chopped
4-6 sprigs of fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 eggs
125ml cream
1 1/2 tbs olive oil
70gms feta cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper to season

Preheat the oven to 180C degrees.
Put the pastry out to thaw, leave the plastic sheeting on so it doesn't dry out.
Heat the oil in a small pot or pan, over a medium-low heat and add the onion. Don't use a non-stick pot or pan or the onions won't caramelise. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Cook the onion for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The last 10 minutes you may find the onion starting to brown up or burn, in which case, get it off the heat. You want it dark gold in colour and not crunchy. Set aside to cool.
Grease the patty pan tray and cut out the pastry. If you don't have a cookie cutter, use a glass that is slightly bigger than the circumference of the patty pan hole. If the glass sticks while cutting, just dust some flour around the edge.
Line the patty pan with the pastry, gently pushing the discs into the holes so they sit flush with the edge.
Measure the cream into a jug with a pouring lip and then gently beat in the eggs until they are combined. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the onion mix into the pastry cases, sprinkle the feta on top and then pour on the cream and egg mixture. Pour very slowly, and don't overfill.
Cook for 10-15 minutes until they are golden brown.
Leave to cool in the tray for 5 minutes and then serve if you want to eat them straight away.
You can serve them cold too, I think they are better this way. Or they can be made a day ahead and reheated at a low temperature for around 15 minutes or taken to a picnic.

Enjoy!

PS. Love you Sandi & Lairdy x