Three Simple Xmas Day Recipes (For Making Anytime!)

If I had of thought about writing this post before we all tucked in on xmas day there might be some better photos to go along with it. But I didn't and there's not, so you'll just have to settle for my marvellous pavlova, our colourful, eclectic table and Ferdi in a santa costume! 

This was our first xmas in our first proper house and it was ace. We have the step-sons staying with us right now, so their Mum came over for lunch and present opening. We stuffed and roasted a turkey and served it with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, buttery peas, fig salad, gravy and cranberry sauce. For afters we had pavlova with whipped cream, berries and pomegranate. It was a team effort, and it was all quite delicious. 

Here are three super simple yet super tasty recipes we used on the day:

Duck Fat Roast Potatoes 

1. Preheat your oven to about 190˚C or so. Put a biggish metal roasting pan in there to heat it up. 

2. Give your spuds a good scrub. Don't peel them - they're tastier with the skin on, plus it saves a heap of time and mess! 

3. Chop them into cubes; not too small but not too big. 

4. Throw the cubes in some salted, boiling water. Leave them in for about 7-10 minutes.

5. Drain your spuds really well, then put them in the hot metal roasting pan. 

6. Sprinkle liberally with chunky sea salt. Daub liberally with duck fat. 

7. Roast for 45-60 minutes, adjusting the temperature and oven position as required (ie. if they are browning too quickly drop the temp, if they're not crisping up enough give them a blast of heat). 

It's pretty hard to overcook these guys so don't fret too much. On the flip side, if it looks like they're going to be ready early don't be afraid to pull them out of the oven for a rest. 

From my head and years of trial and error. 

Fig + Mint Salad 

1. Halve 8 figs and arrange them in a bowl. 

2. Whisk together the juice of 1 orange, juice of 1 lemon and 50ml extra virgin olive oil. 

3. Add 1 loosely packed cup of mint leaves, roughly chopped, and 1.5 thinly sliced golden shallots. 

4. Season to taste then spoon over the figs and eat! 

This was delicious with the roast turkey, I think it'd go well with roast pork as well. Oh, and maybe barbecued prawns. And some kind of chicken. Actually, it'd go with pretty much anything!

From the December 2014 edition of Australian Gourmet Traveller. 

Never-Fail Pavlova 

1. Preheat oven to 200˚C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. 

2. Place 4 egg whites in a bowl. 

3. Combine 1 tablespoon cornflour and 1.5 cups of sugar, then add to the bowl with egg whites. Next - add a pinch of salt and 5 tablespoons boiling water. 

4. Beat on high until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture holds its shape well. You'll know it when you see it! 

5. Important! Half way through beating add a teaspoon of white vinegar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence. 

6. Pile the mixture on the oven tray, shaping with a spatula. I made two pavlovas - one was low and wide, the other thick and high. I think the low and wide one turned out better; it had a good ratio of crisp outside to soft, marshmallowy inside.

7. Place in the oven and drop the temperature down to just under 150˚C. Bake for about an hour, until it's dry to the touch. If your meringue starts to tinge drop the temperature down some more.

8. Once cooked, leave the oven door ajar and allow to cool completely before removing.

9. The meringue can be stored for a day or two. Before serving top with your favourite topping. 

I went for a classic whipped cream and berries combo - one with pomegranate and one with passionfruit. Although I adore pomegranate, I do think the passionfruit one was better - a pav really needs the tang of passionfruit to cut through the sweetness of the meringue. 

From the CWA Classics cookbook. 

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I was pretty pleased with how my pavlovas turned out. I'm pretty sure they're going to become a new xmas tradition. I'm already looking for inspiration for next year so please tell me - what are your favourite pavlova toppings? 

ps. I hope you had a delicious day too!

Soup days...

I'm not sure about you, but sickness means soup time in our house. It was the same when I was a kid, and even now the first thing my folks in Australia think of if I let on that we're under the weather is how they can post me a batch of my step-dad's patented flu killer, aka chicken soup. (Interestingly when I was in Hong Kong I was told that if you follow the guidelines of Chinese medicine you absolutely should not eat chicken soup if you're sick, because it strengthens the bad guys.)

But for us, soup represents healing and warmth and care. It also makes a great camping-out-in-the-hospital meal because all you need is a good thermos and some crusty bread and you've got a tasty home cooked meal! So, with the husband being ill I've been souping it up big time. 

I made Taste's chicken and sweetcorn soup for the first time, and it was tasty and ridiculously easy. I also made Stephanie Alexander's delicious and surprisingly creamy (for a soup that has no dairy products) leek and potato soup. And this week I made a beef, barley and leek soup based on another ridiculously easy recipe, this time from Smitten Kitchen. 

Does sick mean soup in your world? Any favourite recipes you can share?

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In other news, we had to cancel our trip to Australia, which was a bit sad but rather sensible considering the circumstances. And not so bad as we've decided to fly the step-sons over to see us instead (how great that we are able to do that!). 

And it looks like we'll be hanging out with the nurses for a few more days yet, but that's okay because the nurses are lovely. 

And we've been watching so many DVDs, to try and keep boredom at bay. Including the new version of V which I though was great (if you like sci fi, check it out). Plus re-watching old favourites like Boston Legal, Best in Show, Flushed Away and Charlie Wilson's War.

And, in related news, I've now got the Words With Friends and Draw Something apps - so start a game with me if you like (I'm 'ejorpin').

And yesterday a repairman set our fridge on fire, which caused me to freak out a bit and have a little cry (I find sometimes everything is a bit more bearable after a little cry, don't you?). And our lovely gardener gave me a hug and told me not to worry, which was pretty sweet of her. 

And today has been much better than yesterday, thank goodness!

A Happy Salad for the Weekend

Living in Seoul has made me realise how very spoilt we are in Australia with our year round access to fresh produce.  Sure, some of that comes from apples stored forever and a day, but some of that must come from the fact that Australia is a really big country with a variety of climates from tropical to arid to whatever Tasmania is.  And we kind of take it for granted that you can get good quality lettuce, pears, beans, avocados, grapes, peas and other such deliciousness at pretty much any time of the year.  

But I take this for granted no more!  In Seoul, access to fresh fruit and vegetables is incredibly seasonal. These days when I see something new and tasty appear on the supermarket shelf I get genuinely excited and I make the most of it while I can, because who knows if it'll still be on the shelves next week.  

Currently beetroot has been making a much appreciated appearance at our local supermarket, and to celebrate I've been making this happy salad a lot!  It's a great entree for a simple meal - maybe of flash fried steak, red wine sauce and a crusty bread stick.  I love the sweet earthy flavour of roasted beetroot, and the bright colour it adds to the salad - yum!

Beetroot + Goats Cheese Salad

1. Roast your beetroot - wrap it in foil and stick it in the oven at 180C for about two hours, you'll know it's done when a thin skewer passes easily through it. 

2. Skin your beetroot - rub it under running water.  You may want to wear rubber gloves here as it can get rather purple.  Leave to cool for a bit and then chop it in to chunks. 

3. Toast some walnuts - crumble a handful of walnuts in to a heavy based pot and toast over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Keep an eye on them so they don't burn! 

4. Toss leaves and beetroot in dressing* - throw some tasty leaves in a bowl (I like using mache for this, but a soft butter lettuce could work too), add your beetroot chunks and dressing and mix about until everything is well coated. 

5. Put everything together on a plate - divvy out the leaf and beetroot mix, then sprinkle with toasted walnuts and crumbled goats cheese. 

6. Eat!

*Dressing - any basic vinaigrette works well with this salad, so feel free to use your favourite.  If you're curious, here's the one I use: squeeze of lemon juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 2 tsp white wine vinegar, sea salt and ground black pepper.

An ode to the humble sandwich

Sandwiches are the unsung heros of our kitchens.  Too often they are underrated, easily dismissed, overlooked for things that we think are less 'every day', more complicated.  But I think a sandwich is a wondrous thing.  Yes, it's a complete and easy meal, but more than that a sandwich can be something of exquisite tastiness; a delicious harmonious blend of flavours, at once comforting and exciting.

We recently procured a meat slicer.  It's like the ones you see at the butchers or in a deli, but made smaller and less lethal for the home kitchen.  As a result we have been roasting many of God's creatures (pig, turkey, cow), thinly slicing the meat and mixing it up in all kinds of sandwich.  Our most ambitious to date has been our take on the hoagie (a 'seriously oversized sandwich' according to The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches).  Ours had ham, turkey, a soft and mild cheese, mustard, mayo, crunchy iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, capsicum, spanish olives and dill pickle on a chewy baguette.  Yum.

ps. If you're in any way interested in the humble sanger I'd highly recommend The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches.  It covers all the classics - croque monsieur, club, roast beef - but also includes such intriguing concoctions as the Elvis (mashed banana, bacon, peanut butter), the 'spamwich', the 'fluffernutter', the all-in-one breakfast sandwich (bacon and eggs wedged bewteen two waffles), and the doughnut sandwich ('not for the faint of heart', apparently).

ps (again). Do you love a sarnie?  What's your favorite thing to throw between two slices of bread?  I'd love to know!

Comfort Food: Tuna Casserole

The good thing about the greatest thrifted cook book in the history of the world (aka Cookery in Colour) is that as well as being an absolute visual treat it is also your one stop shop when you want to whip up some fatty, salty, creamy comfort food (or anything involving toothpicks, ham or glace cherries).

So the other night when I was looking for a healthy dose of comfort food, I turned to it's glorious technicolour pages.  Resisting the urge to make the 'Tipsy Cake' (so called, I'm guessing, because it's chock full of sherry) I turned to my old favourite - tuna casserole.  Granted, I didn't stick to the recipe entirely (I used pasta instead of rice, I added corn and I left out the mustard) but I did make sure I included the key ingredient.  Nope, not tuna (although that is, obviously, in there) but a can of cream of mushroom soup.  And it was delicious.

[not looking delicious...yet]

[oven ready]

[tummy ready]

Here's the recipe I used (modified from the original) - feel free to add and subtract flavours depending on your cravings!

Tuna Casserole

3 cups cooked pasta

200 gm can tuna

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 can cream of mushroom soup (condensed)

About 1/2 cup of milk (depending on desired 'wetness'!)

Grated cheese, to your taste (the original recipe says 85 gm, I have a feeling I used more)

About 3/4 cup can corn

salt, pepper

Mix all the ingredients using only half the cheese.  Pour into a greased 3 oz (1.7 l) casserole dish. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.  Bake in moderately hot oven until the cheese on top looks yummy. Serve with a crisp green salad and lemon wedges.

Guest Post: Swedish Meatballs with Jessica from A Girl Writing

[meetballs by pommes79]

I hope you've eaten before reading today's guest post, because Jessica from A Girl Writing is going to make you drool a little with her recipe for Swedish meatballs - yummo!  Jessica found me through @gnomeangel who retweeted my call for guest bloggers!  Isn't Twitter a wonderful thing? I'm super happy to have Jessica on the blog, especially because I haven't cooked meatballs before, I think my life may be incomplete until I do!

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Cast of Characters: Ground beef, salt, pepper, beef stock, bread crumbs, EVOO [that's olive oil, for those of you a bit slow on the up take like me!], cream cheese, minced onion, minced italian parsley, egg, and minced garlic.  So I'm a bit of a cheat and hate to mince garlic, it ends up all over and then the sticky fingers.  I'd just rather not deal with it.

[Click on 'Read More' to see the full recipe after the jump!]

Chop Chop!

When I'm not galavanting across Europe eating my body weight in pasta and cured meats enriching our cultural and spiritual lives through travel, you can find me in Seoul trying to be healthy.  Which I am surprisingly good at.  For the first two thirds of the day anyway.  After 5pm it normally goes horribly, horribly pear shaped.  My mornings are all yoga and gym and probiotic yoghurt, my lunches are salads followed by a brisk walk.  But then it's usually an aperitif followed by too much wine and red meat and tons of carbs... But I think that's what they call a 'balanced' lifestyle, so it's all good.

Anyhow, back to lunch.  Salads can be kind of boring can't they?  But not when they are a chopped salad!  A delicious flavour burst in every bite, contrasting textures, tangy goodness - I read somewhere that a perfectly formed chopped salad should deliver a delightful balance of flavours in every forkful.  They are the best and there are endless variations so they never get boring.  

And they are so very easy to make.  Just assemble your ingredients, chop everything up, throw it in a bowl and mix well.  Then eat!  Here's one I made recently - I used tuna in spring water, crunchy iceberg lettuce, avocado, green beans, tomato, spring onions, parsley, Spanish olives and a simple dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Oh, and capsicum but if I made the same again I'd leave out the capsicum!

I served with water crackers and dill pickles on the side, mainly because I can not seem to eat a single meal (save breakfast) without involving some kind of pickle.  Just looking at this photo is making me want to eat a pickle actually.  Perhaps it's the influence of that kind of addictive sour taste in Korean food?  Or perhaps it's just because pickle is such a great word to say.

So chopped salad, delicious yes?  Here's some other ideas to try out:

- Grilled chicken, avocado, finely shredded cos lettuce, pistachios, a hint of basil; I think this would work nicely with a creamy dressing, a bit of mayo and yoghurt and lemon juice maybe?

- Kidney beans, corn, red and yellow capsicum, celery, lemon juice and olive oil

- Chickpeas, tons of parsley, salad onion, tomato, green capsicum, lemon juice and olive oil

- Lentils, spinach, red onion, tomato, parsley and mint; with a yoghurt and lemon juice dressing

- And I haven't tried this yet but I reckon something with prawn and mango as a base would be pretty tasty too

Let me know what your favourite combo is!

Roast beef on toast is a salad. Apparently.

Whilst here in Korea it is hot, hot, hot (and about to get wet, wet, wet - looks like the rainy season is starting with a vengeance this week - boo!) I know a lot of you are currently facing icy mornings and cold nights, and your thoughts are probably turning to thick socks, heating and comfort food.  And what's more comforting than a roast?  And roasts normally mean left overs...so, here's a super easy and so very tasty way to use up left over roast beef (and best of all it's *cough* a salad!).

The recipe is taken from Patricia Wells' Salad as a Meal which I blogged about a little while ago. Here's what you need: good sour dough bread, rare roast beef (sliced super thin), cracked pepper, butter and mayonnaise; and mustard, pickles and some kind of simple salad to serve.

Timing and temperature is the key here because you want to keep a bit of warmth in the toast, so it's a good idea to bring your roast beef to room temperature beforehand, and then to par toast your bread.  After you do the final toasting, slather your bread with butter and then mayo, and top with the thinly sliced roast beef.  Liberally douse with cracked pepper and then cut the toast in to fingers. We served ours on a wooden cutting board, with cornichons and a simple butter lettuce salad on the side.  And don't forget some good french mustard to spread atop your beef toasties!  The crunch of the toast, the meltiness of the butter, and the softness of the rare roast beef - delicious!

Kids in the Kitchen

[image by the always amazing TADA's Revolution]

Nope, not that slightly tragic 80s band...I'm talking about your kids, or your brothers kids, or those kids across the road - are they in the kitchen?  Do they cook?  And at what age do you start them off?  And why bother?  I've been thinking about this because the eldest step-son (who just turned 13) has always shown a bit of an interest in cooking, and because I've been thinking about the best ways to get both the step-sons actively involved in the whole meal preparation shamozzle.

Why?  Well, there's the obvious thing about learning a basic life skill and about making a connection between raw produce and what you actually put in your gob, there's the nutrition side to it too.  But cooking is so much more than that - it's about planning and timing and learning to sequence things. There's multitasking and co-ordination and self-sufficiency.  And there's science - how do you thicken a sauce?  Should you cook the onion or the garlic first?  What is the best heat for cooking bacon so it doesn't crisp up? 

I have fond memories of being put in charge of the family meal at an early-ish age (well, they are fond looking back now, I can't actually remember if I loved it at the time or not).  Once a week my sister and I would be responsible for planning and cooking dinner for the four of us.  And looking back I'm so grateful for having been given that chance, because now I have such a solid base to build on - it means I can do my favourite type of cooking which is more about combining flavours than following a recipe.  It means I can take five recipes for the one thing, pick out the bits I think will work best, and just wing it.

And even though getting the kids to take over the kitchen sounds a bit like bliss (a night off from meal planning!), I've come to realise it actual takes a great deal of patience (and a love of chicken, kids love to cook chicken, don't they?).  You have to restrain yourself from cracking the egg, cleaning the mess, correcting the measurements.  Which I'm actually not very good at...but I'm trying to get better!  Step one was to put Sam (step-son number one) in charge of lunch one day during the recent school holidays - he chose to make chicken schnitzel with potato wedges, which was seriously tasty!  Hurrah for chef Sam!  

You can find the recipe we used here (we left the spice off the spicy wedges) - it came from the Australian Women's Weekly Kids in the Kitchen cookbook which I would most definitely recommend if you're looking to get your young-uns in to the kitchen.  Just ignore the fact that in their menu suggestions dad gets lamb cutlets whilst mum gets beetroot dip, and there is no 'dinner for mum's brother's partner, Barry', or 'lunch for step-mum' for that matter...

I meant to take a photo of the finished product, artfully arranged on a serving plate but, well, I was hungry and it was delicious...ooops...