Meatloaf

I love when the weather starts to cool down and I can justify making beautiful, warming comfort food. Casseroles, stews and puddings to warm your soul and make your tummy happy!

Meatloaf is one of those comfort foods that I love to make. So daggy and old fashioned, but oh so delicious. My husband loves meatloaf, but he always wants a plain and boring one. As usual, I like to make mine a bit more fancy and wrap the whole thing in proscuitto or add roasted capsicum puree for some richness.  To make us both happy, this time I've kept the meatloaf relatively plain, but added a sweet potato mash topping, covered with grated cheese. Crispy, a little bit sweet and delicious.

Serve this meatloaf hot, with  plenty of extra chutney or tomato sauce, steamed green vegies or a side salad. Any leftovers are great the next day in a meatloaf and sauce sandwich!

Marvelous Meatloaf

1 large sweet potato (approx 400g), peeled and chopped
1 Tbs butter, chopped

1/2 cup cheese, grated
700g beef mince
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped

1 zucchini, grated
1 carrot, grated
1 Tbs fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 Tbs fresh oregano, finely chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup mango chutney
1 Tbs Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Line base and sides of a 24x14cm loaf pan with baking paper, extending the paper over the sides.
Place sweet potato in a large saucepan of cold water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes, or until soft.

Drain and then mash with butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

Combine mince, garlic, onion, carrot, zucchini, herbs, egg, breadcrumbs, chutney and mustard in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix well. 

Press mince mixture into prepared pan and smooth the top. 

Bake for 30 mins or until starting to brown. 

Remove meatloaf from the oven and cover the top with sweet potato. 

Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the sweet potato.

Bake for another 15 minutes or until the meatloaf is firm and the cheese is melted and crispy.

Stand for 5 minutes in the tin, then carefully remove to a serving plate.

Serve in thick slices with green vegies or a salad and extra chutney or sauce on the side.

Enjoy!

A Light Vegetarian Option After Too Much Chocolate!

After some pretty indulgent eating and drinking over Easter, and maybe a little too much chocolate, it's nice to get back to regular eating habits.

We had a beautiful roast pork on Easter Sunday, with the best crackling I've ever had! I love roast pork with lots of vegies and gravy, but it can leave you needing a nap afterwards!

Tonight's dinner is a nice light vegetarian meal with lots of vegetable goodness. I've added my favourite haloumi as well, for some salty, cheesyness. I know that the fried haloumi doesn't really make this overly healthy, but it still tastes pretty good!

When you cook the broccoli, make sure that it is slightly under cooked, so that there is still a bit of crunch. There is nothing worse than soggy vegetables.

Adding a bit of extra texture to the dish are the toasted macadamia nuts. I love macadamias, but when they are toasted or roasted, they just have so much more flavour. I always have to roast more than I need, otherwise there don't end up being any left over to cook with! If you didn't want to turn on the oven just to toast a few nuts, you can easily do it in a dry frying pan on the stove. You won't get quite the same flavour and the nuts won't brown evenly, but it can be quicker and easier to do it this way. Just keep tossing the nuts in the pan so that they don't burn on one side.

Pickled radishes have become a bit of a staple in our house since I made them a few months ago and absolutely fell in love with them. I've never been much of a radish fan, as I find them too hot. Pickling them changes all that and makes them sweet and vinegary at the same time. They are really easy and quick to pickle too, so you can whip up a batch in the morning to eat that night or the next day. As long as you store them in the fridge in a sterilised jar, they should keep for a week or so. I make up a solution of 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1 tsp salt, stirred to dissolve. Pour this into the sterilised jars which are packed to the top with thinly sliced radishes. Seal, tip a few times to ensure the air bubbles are out and put into the fridge. The radishes are great as an accompaniment to roast pork or chicken, in sandwiches, salads or just on their own. Give them a try, especially if you're not normally a radish person!

Broccoli, Haloumi and Toasted Macadamia Salad

1/2 cup macadamia nuts

350g brocoli, cut into florets

180g packet of haloumi, sliced into 5mm slices

2 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 Tbs pickled radishes

1 Tbs pickling solution

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground pepper to taste

A few sprigs of parsley, to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Place macadamias on an oven tray and toast for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. 

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add broccoli florets and boil for about 2 minutes or until just cooked.

Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

Add nuts, spring onions, radishes, pickling solution and oil to the bowl and toss to coat. Season with pepper to taste. You shouldn't need any salt, as there is some in the pickling solution and the haloumi is salty.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a fry pan over medium heat.

Add haloumi slices that have been patted dry with kitchen paper, and fry for a couple of minutes each side, or until a beautiful golden brown.

To serve, toss the haloumi through the salad and pile on to plates. Top with a couple of extra macadamias and fresh parsley.

Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns

I LOVE hot cross buns and nothing beats the smell of homemade buns baking in the oven in the lead up to Easter.

It drives me mental that hot cross buns are in the shops just after Christmas and I refuse to eat them until Good Friday. It's not that I have any religious affiliation, it's just that I don't like to have them before it's actually Easter.

For the last 12 years or so, I've been making my own hot cross buns, using various recipes. Some years they have been light and fluffy, other years as dense and hard as rocks! The recipe I'm currently using I came across about five years ago and have been really happy with it. Now that I have my gorgeous red Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook, it's much easier to knead for the required length of time. Using my arms was too much hard work. If you don't have a mixer, you can easily make this recipe by hand, but it just needs a bit more elbow grease.

The key to light buns, is not just in the kneading, but also in the rising. You really need a nice warm place for the dough to rise and double in size. If they don't rise properly, they are likely to turn out like rocks and not be very nice at all.

Luckily for me, yesterday was a beautiful sunny autumn day, so I could leave them to rise outside in the sun. If the weather is not so good, place near a window with the sun coming through or put the heater on low.

This year I thought I'd try something different with my buns, and rather than doing the traditional sultana and currant variety, I thought I'd try dried cranberries and toasted macadamias. They were delicious! My husband doesn't normally like hot cross buns, but took some to work this morning and said that they were "the best ever!" That's a pretty good recommendation.

If you prefer the traditional variety, substitute the cranberries and macadamias for 1 1/2 cups of mixed currants and sultanas and add the finely grated rind of one orange. For something different, you could use chopped dates and dried apricots or any other dried fruit and nut combination.

Enjoy your buns straight out of the oven or cut in half and toasted with lots of butter and a nice cup of tea or coffee!

Happy Easter.

Hot Cross Buns

700g plain flour + 50g extra for crosses

1/4 cup caster sugar

3 tsp (14g) dried yeast

1 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup macadamias, toasted and chopped

300ml milk

100g butter, cut into cubes

1 egg

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

1/4 cup water

Combine flour, sugar, yeast, spices, salt, cranberries and nuts in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.

Place the milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat until the butter melts and the mixture is luke warm.

Add lightly beaten egg and whisk to combine.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture.

Mix on low speed until mixture is combined, then increase to medium speed for another 10 minutes.

The dough should have formed into a smooth ball with no loose ingredients.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for about 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough by punching it to remove some air and then cut into 20 equal pieces.

Lightly knead each piece on a lightly floured surface into a ball.

Place all the balls onto a lightly greased oven tray so that they are just touching.

Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and stand in a warm place for another 40 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees.

Combine 50g flour with 1/4 cup of water and stir to form a smooth paste.

Spoon into a piping bag or a ziplock bag and cut the corner off. Pipe lines onto the buns to form crosses.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes. You want the buns to be golden brown and sound hollow when tapped, so watch the time carefully.

While the buns are cooking, make the glaze.

Combine the sugar, mixed spice and water in a small saucepan and heat gently, while stirring, until the sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Remove the buns from the oven and slide onto a rack.

Brush the glaze over the buns and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

Easter Treats

Now that it’s the week before Easter I can finally start to make some Easter treats. One of my pet hates is the fact that shops start stocking eggs, bunnies and hot cross buns a few days after Christmas. It drives me crazy!

I much prefer to make my own chocolates and hot cross buns, rather than buying something mass produced. Last year I made some rocky road, which was devoured in minutes. I must admit, it did taste pretty good!

This year I decided to make some rocky road again. It’s easy and you can really add anything you like. To make it a little bit different, I used some of my favourite chocolates in the mix. Growing up in Adelaide, FruChocs were a special treat. They are chocolate coated dried peach and apricot balls and are seriously delicious! You can now get them in milk, white or dark chocolate, but I've used the original ones. This recipe actually came from the FruChoc website, so I can’t take credit for it’s amazingness.

For some reason, if you live anywhere but South Australia, they are actually called ApriChocs. Don’t ask me why the name change. The good news is that you can buy them at your local Coles or Woolworths, in the chocolate/confectionary isle. Whatever you do, make sure you get out there and try them!

If you can’t get FruChocs, any other round chocolate or chopped up chocolate bar would work well. Maybe Maltesers for some added crunch. Make sure you do go to the effort to toast the cashews and almonds. That extra roasted flavour is amazing! I also used half milk chocolate and half dark chocolate for the coating, as I like the combination of the two.

Enjoy and Happy Easter!

 FruChoc Rocky Road

400g dark or milk chocolate, or a combination of the two, chopped

125g marshmallows, roughly chopped

125g dried apricots, chopped

100g cashews, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

100g almonds, lightly toasted, coarsely chopped

250g Milk or Dark FruChocs, roughly chopped

Grease and line the base and sides of a rectangle slice pan with baking paper.

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl and melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts. Stir between bursts to ensure the chocolate is melting evenly.

Place the FruChocs, marshmallows, dried apricots, cashews and almonds in a large bowl. Drizzle over the chocolate and use a metal spoon to gently stir to combine. Spoon into prepared pan.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or until chocolate has set.

Turn out onto a chopping board and use a sharp knife to cut into pieces.

Wrap in cellophane to give as a gift or store in the fridge until it is needed.

Sweet Maple Mustard Salmon (And an Apple Tarte Tartan)

A feast was had in the eat quaff laugh household last night to farewell my parents, who had been staying with us for the week. We've had an awful lot of food and wine this week, so I wanted to cook something special, but different to everything else we've had.

Given my love of salmon, fish it was to be. I wanted to try doing something a bit more fancy and a bit more interesting than I usually do, so set about looking for recipes. The Tassal salmon website has loads of great recipes on it for using all sorts of salmon pieces - fresh fillets, hot and cold smoked, whole fish. I stumbled across a recipe for maple mustard salmon and my decision was made!

This recipe was so easy and the flavour imparted to the salmon was delicious. The recipe says to coat the fish in the marinade/glaze just before cooking, but I left mine to marinate in the fridge for about three hours. I wanted to have everything prepared so that when my guests arrived there wasn't much to run around and do. Whether marinating for  a longer time made much difference to the intensity of the flavour, I don't know, but it tasted great and the flesh was lovely and moist.

I served my fish with potatoes and green beans, as suggested on the recipe. The potatoes I simply roasted with oil, salt, white pepper and rosemary and the beans were steamed and drizzled with a lemon infused olive oil, salt and pepper. I purposely kept the vegies quite simple, because I didn't want too many competing flavours on the plate.

I was really happy with how this dish turned out, and will definitely be making it regularly from now on. I might even experiment with different sorts of mustards. The sweetness wasn't overpowering, which I thought it might have been. In fact, it would be great with chicken or pork too.

If you have a moment, swing past the Tassal website and have a look at their great recipes. If you live in Melbourne or Hobart, the Tassal Salmon Shop is a great place to pick up some beautifully fresh fish, and other related products, at a wonderful price. They also hold cooking classes and other events, which are all listed on the website. The Melbourne store in Kew has a cafe too, which is a great place to stop for a bite to eat.

Maple Mustard Salmon

6 salmon fillets, skin removed 

2 Tbs grainy mustard

1/2 cup maple syrup

Salt and pepper to taste

Roasted potatoes and steamed green beans, to serve

Carefully pin bone the salmon fillets to remove any small bones that might be remaining.

Rinse and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Combine mustard and maple syrup in a large container.

Place fish fillets into the container and turn gently to cover in the marinade.

Leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours, if you have time.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the salmon fillets on the tray so that they are evenly spaced.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until just cooked, but a little pink on the inside.

Heat the remaining marinade in the microwave or on the stove top for a couple of minutes until it boils and thickens slightly.

Serve the fish on plates with the vegetables and spoon over a little more of the sauce.

Enjoy!

Apple Tarte Tartin

Dessert was an apple tarte tartin, which was delicious. I was given an Emile Henry Tarte Tartin dish by my inlaws for Christmas, and given they were coming over for dinner too, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to use it again. On a cold and wet Melbourne night, it was a wonderful dessert. You don't need a specific tarte tartin dish to cook this though. As long as you have a fry pan with an oven proof handle, you can make it just as well.

125g butter

250g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

50ml water

1 egg yolk

8 small granny smith apples

200g caster sugar

80g butter, cut into small cubes

To make the pastry, place butter, flour and salt in a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg yolk and water and blitz again until it comes together and forms a ball.

Knead gently on a lightly floured surface and then wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Remove the pastry from the fridge about 30 mins before you want to roll it out so that it softens a little.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Peel and quarter the apples, removing and discarding the core. Set aside.

Heat the fry pan or tarte dish for a few minutes over low heat to pre-warm.

Pour in 170g of the sugar and allow to melt and caramelise. Swirl gently to prevent the sugar burning in the middle.

Once the sugar is mostly caramelised, add 50g of butter and allow it to melt.

Remove the pan from the heat and arrange a layer of the apples, rounded side down, pushing them close together.

Add a second layer of the apples, rounded side up, so that you fill most of the gaps.

Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top and dot with the remaining butter cubes.

Roll out the pastry to a rough round slightly bigger than the circle of apples.

Gently place it over the top of the apples and tuck the edges around the fruit.

Bake the tarte in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the caramel sauce bubbling.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Invert onto a serving plate and serve to the table in all it's glory!

Serve with dollops of pure cream for some cold weather indulgence.

And To Drink....

To go with the fish, I wanted a dry style wine that had enough body and acidity to match with the sweetness in the marinade.

This Rochford 'Cerberus' was perfect. Made from Yarra Valley gewurtztraminer, riesling and pinot gris it had plenty of lovely aromatics, with a little bit of sweetness. There was still plenty of acidity from the riesling and this matched wonderfully with the maple mustard flavours. 

We bought this wine a couple of years ago when we visited the Yarra Valley on a weekend. Rochford make a large range of red and white wines, with the usual varieties for the Yarra Valley, including pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling. They also make a couple of interesting blends or varieties, like a straight cabernet franc and this white blend.

As well as making some lovely wines, Rochford hold a number of concerts, including the 'A Day on the Green' series of music events. We have never been to any of the events, but I know they are incredibly popular. Definitely worth looking into if you feel like a weekend away!

Champagne and Fresh Pasta (With a Dash of Shiraz!)

It's been a busy weekend in the eat quaff laugh household. I've had family over to celebrate my little girl's 5th birthday and a couple of other personal celebrations. There has been lots of eating and drinking going on, but no time to actually write about it!

We started off the celebrations on Saturday night with an amazing bottle of 1998 Krug. What a champagne! This was certainly liquid gold! Beautifully yeasty, but still with amazing acidity and stone fruit flavours, it was delicious! My husband is not much of a champagne drinker, but definitely approved of this one. Shame it won't be a regular on the menu. If only we could win Powerball!

The Krug was too beautiful to serve with food. It was drunk with family, as a celebration of life and love, and just to savour the flavours on it's own. The perfect aperitif with loved ones.

Caught up in the wonderful champagne, and maybe a little bit tipsy, I completely forgot to take any pictures of the delicious dinner I'd made. Oops! It was a slow cooked osso bucco and red wine ragu served atop fresh tagliatelle. I didn't make the pasta myself, but the ragu slowly simmered away for 4 hours, making my kitchen smell divine! Fresh pasta definitely turns a simple dish into something sublime.

A slow cooked ragu might not look the most exciting, but what they lack in looks, they certainly make up for in flavour. If you didn't want to serve this with pasta, you could have mashed potato, polenta or couscous. Even just some fresh, crusty bread to mop up all those delicious juices would be fantastic!

Osso Bucco Ragu With Fresh Tagliatelle

1 Tbs butter

A good drizzle of olive oil

1kg osso bucco

2 rashers of short cut bacon, finely chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 sprigs of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
500ml red wine (I used a cabernet)
2x 400g tins of diced tomatoes
1 cup beef stock
250g fresh tagliatelle or other long pasta
Grated parmesan cheese to serve

Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
Heat the butter and oil in an ovenproof casserole dish over medium heat.
Sear the osso bucco pieces, in batches, until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the bacon, carrot, onion and garlic to the pan and cook for 10 minutes or until softened.
Add the red wine and reduce by half the volume. This should take about 5 minutes.
Stir through the tomatoes, stock, thyme and salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer.
Return the meat to the pan and make sure it is covered in the juices.
Place a lid on the casserole and bake in the oven for 3 hours, or until the meat has fallen off the bone.
You may need to add a little extra water if it starts to dry out.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
When the meat is cool enough to handle, remove all bones, fat and gristle and coarsely shred the meat back into the sauce.
Season further to taste.
Return the pot to the stove top to simmer gently for another 30-45 minutes, until the meat is tender and the sauce reduced.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water until al dente.
Fresh pasta should only take about 5 minutes to cook.
Drain well.

To serve, place a twirl of pasta on to your plates and top with a generous spoon of sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

And To Drink....

I used a lovely Barassa Valley Cabernet to cook with when making the ragu, as I wanted something nice and rich and full bodied.  As there wasn't much of that bottle left after using 500ml in the sauce, I unfortunately had to open something else!

Turkey Flat are another great Barossa Valley winery who create a wonderful selection of red, white and rose wines. The reds are their flagship wines and they produce some pretty amazing drops!

This 2007 Shiraz was a beautiful match to the ragu. Produced from vines planted in 1847, these shiraz vines are some of the oldest in the world. Even though I'd used a cabernet to cook with, the shiraz still matched perfectly. Having seven years of bottle age under it's belt, it was lovely and smooth with a beautiful rounded mouthfeel. The tannins were low and it was very easy to drink! There was some residual sweetness lingering and big plum and blackberry flavours, which complemented the slow cooked sweetness in the beef.