Prize-winning Corn and Potato Chowder

• 10 pounds potatoes, mashed (with 1 litre half/half cream)
• 10 pounds potatoes, diced
• 8 pounds yellow onions, diced
• 4 litres of chicken stock
• 4 red peppers diced small
• 12 cans corn niblets
• 12 cans creamed corn
• 5 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper

1. Sweat the onions with 1 cup of water
2. Add everything else and bring to boil, simmer until diced potatoes are soft

Creamed Corn Casserole

This dish is a part of our tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas in my family. Serves about 8.

Ingredients

• 1 tbl olive oil
• 1 medium onion – chopped
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 3 eggs – beaten
• 6 ounces cheddar cheese – grated
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Lightly saute onions in olive oil
2. Combine all ingredients and half the cheese in a large bowl
3. Stir onions into mixture as well
4. Pour mixture into greased 9×9 casserole dish
5. Sprinkle with remaining cheese
6. Cover with aluminum foil
7. Bake at 375 degrees for approx. 35 minutes, until set.

Indonesian Beef Rendang

I tried a new place for lunch the other day.  I went to Ayo Eat in Market Square.  The chef is just by himself and makes only a few dishes, but they taste amazing!  I had the Nasi campur with beef rendang.  It is a basically beef curry with Indonesian spices.  It came with some coconut rice (Nasi Campur), sambal and some little crackers.

I liked it so much I decided to try and make some myself.  So I dug out my Asian cookbook and found a recipe for beef rendang.

Ingredients

• 3 lb chuck steak
• 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 4 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 can coconut milk
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground fennel
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbl Sambal Oelek chili paste
• 1 stem lemon grass (white part only)
• 1 tbl lemon juice
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Directions

1. Trim the fat and sinew from the meat and cut it 3cm cubes
2. Put onion and garlic into a food processor and process until smooth – add water if you need to
3. Put coconut milk in a wok, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer until reduced by about half. Do not allow milk to brown.
4. Add the coriander, fennel, cumin and cloves, stir for 1 minute.
5. Add the meat and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add the onion/garlic mix, chili paste, lemon grass, lemon juice and brown sugar.
7. Cook over moderate heat for approx. 2 hours uncovered until quite thick, stirring frequently.

For the best flavor, allow to cool and store in the fridge for a couple days.  Reheat slowly and serve with Coconut Rice and enjoy!

Related Articles

• Indonesia Traditional Food, Spices, Coconut Milk and Peanut Sauce (indonesia-travel.suite101.com)

Thai Red Curry with Coconut Rice

I’ve made this lots at home but never written it down. This is just one version so feel free to substitute shrimp for the chicken or substitute green beans for the peppers.

Hint: Do the rice first as it takes longer and it’s better if it sits for awhile after cooking in the rice cooker.

Coconut Rice:

• 2 cups of jasmine rice
• 3 cups of water
• 2 tbl coconut milk/cream
• 1 tbl sweet coconut flakes

In a rice cooker, put all ingredients in and switch it on.  Pretty simple eh?

Thai Red Curry:

• 2 tbl canola oil
• 1 tbl red thai curry paste
• 1 can Aroy-D Coconut Milk (this stuff is awesome – 85% coconut milk)
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 1 yellow pepper sliced
• 1 handful chopped fresh basil (Thai basil if you can get it)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 2 tbl fish sauce
• 4 chicken thighs – thinly sliced

Don’t start this until the rice is done.

1. Marinate the chicken in the fish sauce, garlic and ginger while you do the next two steps.
2. Heat the wok, add the oil and curry paste.  Stir until the curry paste is thoroughly mixed.
3. Add the coconut milk, stirring until it comes to a boil.
4. Add the marinated chicken, cook for 1 minute
5. Add the peppers, cook until the chicken is done (approx. 3-5 minutes)
6. Turn off the heat and add the basil, mix thoroughly

Serve and enjoy!

Best Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

After lots of different variations on bolognese sauce for pasta, I’ve settled in on this recipe.  Try it out and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 1 package mild Italian Sausage meat (Pork)
• 1 green pepper (diced)
• 1 large sweet onion (diced)
• 1 16oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 tbl flour
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 tbl Italian seasoning
• 2 tbl olive oil
• spaghetti noodles (or other noodles)

Directions

1. Sweat the onions and green peppers in 1 tbl olive oil and set aside
2. Cook the sausage in 1 tbl olive oil
3. Add the flour to the sausage meat and mix until combined and it starts to thicken
4. Add the can of tomatoes, seasoning, onions and peppers and tomato paste
5. Simmer for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 hours
6. Cook noodles in salted water, serve with the sauce and enjoy

Basic Homemade Bread

Wow – I’ve been quite neglectful of this blog.  Here’s my bread recipe that’s been getting stale in the drafts folder.  I expect to be posting more often with test recipes I’m working on.

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp traditional active dry yeast
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup multigrain flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbl olive oil

Directions

1. Proof yeast mixture (sugar, yeast, water) for 10 mins
2. Combine salt and flours
3. Mix yeast mixture with flours and oil
4. Knead
5. Coat lightly in oil, cover, let rise for 45 minutes
6. Punch down, separate into two halves
7. Roll flat and then roll into a log, pinch seam place into greased loaf pan
8. Cover, rise for another 45 minutes
9. Bake at 400C for 35-40 minutes

Pizza Dough

I’ve been trying to work out the best mixture for pizza dough and think I got it:

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbl yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 tbl olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients together in mixer
2. Form dough into a ball, coat in olive oil in bowl, cover and let rise for 20 mins
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F with baking stone on second most top rack
4. Cut in half and form into rounds, cover and let rise another 10 mins
5. Cover pizza peel with flour, add toppings
6. Slide into oven and cook for 7 mins
7. Enjoy!

 

Bacon Breakfast Bowl

My family loves breaky bowls.  They are really great comfort food on a cold weekend morning.

Note: This is not low-fat in any sense of the word.

Ingredients

• Potatoes
• Eggs
• Bacon
• Tomatoes
• Green Onions
• Hollandaise Sauce (see below)

1. Fry the bacon in a well-seasoned cast iron pan. Dice some tomatoes and green onions while you’re waiting for the bacon to cook.

2. Take the bacon out but leave the grease.  Put some cut up potatoes into the grease and fry those up.  It should soak up pretty much all the grease.

3. Make the hollandaise sauce (below) while the potatoes cook.

4. When everything is ready, scramble some eggs. 

5. Layer the bowl in this order: potatoes, bacon, eggs, sauce, tomatoes, green onions. 

Hollandaise Sauce

• 2/3 cup unsalted butter
• 3 egg, yolks
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt
• 1 pinch pepper

Directions:

1. Remove 2 tablespoons (25 mL) of the butter and keep cold in refrigerator. In small saucepan, melt remaining butter; keep warm.
2. In heavy-bottomed saucepan or in stainless steel bowl, whisk egg yolks until thickened and pale. Whisk in water and lemon juice. Add 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of the cold butter.
3. Set saucepan over low heat or place bowl over saucepan pf 1 1/2- inches (4 cm) barely simmering water; whisk until bottom of pan can be seen between whisks and wires of whisk become lightly coated, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, immediately whisk in remaining cold butter to stop the cooking of the yolks.
5. By driblets, whisk in enough of the melted butter to thicken to consistency of whipping cream. Increasing amount of butter slightly, whisk in remaining butter.
6. Season with salt and pepper.

Chicken and Basil Pizza

I like to make pizza quite a bit now. Jamie Oliver has definitely inspired me.  The crust I use is a new one for me, from the Artisan Bread cookbook.

The kids love to help make it too. When I made this pizza (and a ham and pineapple one too), my daughter ate half the toppings off it as we made them.

I use a round pizza stone on the top rack at 450F. They only take about 10-12 minutes depending on how much toppings you put on.

The Crust

• 2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tbl instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tbl salt
• 1 tbl sugar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Mix all ingredients together, let rise for 2 hours
2. Cut into pieces for however big you want your pizzas to be.
3. Roll out on a floured surface, ready for toppings.

The Sauce

• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tbl Italian seasoning
• 1 tbl sugar
• salt and pepper

1. Mix all ingredients together and let sit for at least 10 minutes. If you like, you could warm this up in a pot and let simmer for a bit.

The Toppings and Cooking

• 2 cups cooked chicken cut into cubes
• fresh whole basil leaves
• mozza cheese

1. Once you have the dough rolled out, brsuh on the sauce (or ladle it on).  Try and cover the crust edges a bit with the sauce, it will carmelize nicely there.
2. Layer a bit of mozza cheese on the sauce
3. Next the chicken and whole basil leaves
4. Finally the rest of the cheese
5. Bake on a pizza stone for 10-12 minutes at 450 F.

Artisan Bread

All I have to say is WOW!

I received a new cookbook for Christmas from my cousin-in-laws.  Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day

I have made a couple batches so far and man, is it ever fun and easy.  It tastes awesome too!

Here’s a video where the authors describe the technique.  Video