Sweet potato, silverbeet, and goats feta pies

You know sometimes you cook something, and it's nice but not quite perfect. So you tinker with it and perfect it. Sometimes you cook something and it is nice, but... not quite perfect, and not really nice enough for you to want to tinker with. That is what I thought of this dish. The cream cheese pastry was suitably short and crumbly, and great with the caramelised onion and garlic spinach. The sweet potato, in my opinion, added unnecessary stodge to the recipe.Rather than tinkering with it to make it better,I think omitting the sweet potato all together and making it a caramelised onion and spinach tart would be better...




The original recipe is found at Sweet potato, silverbeet and goat's feta pies - Gourmet Traveller

Vegetarian Sausage Rolls

Vegetarian sausage rolls - better than the meaty kind in my book! There are two variations for the filling. I have a weakness for sanitarium nutmeat so that will usually be my first choice of filling, but the chickpea and cannellini beans also work really well. Great snacks for a kids party, or for munching as an informal dinner on movie night.

This recipe makes about 20 mini sausage rolls, or 10 larger ones.
 

Ingredients

2 cups/ 500g mashed potato
2 cups beans/peas/lentils of choice [I find one cup each of chickpeas and cannellini beans gives the balance of not too dry or mushy] or 1 tin of sanitarium nutmeat.
1/4 to 1 tsp curry powder - to taste
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 cup of onion, fried (shrinks to about 1/2 cup)
season to taste 





2 -3  sheets of puff pastry

Method

Finely dice the onion and fry till translucent. Add in the curry powder and stir till combined. 
Mash or food process the beans/chickpeas or nutmeat.
Add the onions, herbs, and mashed potato into the bowl.
Mix together well with your hands.

Lay your thawed puff pastry sheets out. Cut into halves. Roll your filling into sausages/snakes and lay along one side of one half of the puff pastry. Gently roll the pastry and filling ensuring the pastry meets and slightly overlaps at the end of your roll. This seam forms the bottom of your roll. Press down gently to make sure your sausage roll is nicely shaped and the filling distributed evenly. Continue with other pastry sheets.

Cut your sausage rolls in half for large rolls, or in quarters for mini sausage rolls.
 
Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 mins or until the pastry is brown and crispy

Beetroot with Cranberry sauce

This is a very simple condiment that goes really well with game meats.

Ingredients

Beetroot with cranberry sauce,
served here with venison stew.

2 beetroots, sliced or cubed
2 or 3 tablespoons of cranberry jelly
1 tablespoon  butter
1 tsp of vinegar

method

Melt butter in a pan. Add beetroots and other ingredients. Cook gently until beetroot is tender. If needed a little bit of extra jelly or water can be added if it is too dry.

Venison and Ale Stew

Not an everyday dish, what with venison being so expensive! It is very tasty, and a fantastic stew for winter.

Ingredients

60g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 spring onions
4 cloves garlic
500g venison
15ml Whisky
300ml ale
2 tablespoon vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
300ml beef stock


Pepper and salt to taste

Method:

Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan and saute the onions and garlic. Lay the venison on top then tip in the whisky and stir the ingredients together. If you don't have whisky just use some of the ale. The whisky just adds another hit of flavour.

Add in the ale and stock, along with the vinegar, sugar and bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to boil, then simmer until the meat is tender - about 40 minutes. Check occassionally to make sure the sauce is not over-reducing.

Serve with your choice of vegetables. This goes particularly well with red cabbage, potato, sweet potato, and beetroot.

Pea and fennel soup

This is a lovely soup, with the sweetness of leeks and peas, the fragrance of fennel, and the savouriness of garlic. I just love the vivid green of this soup, it really brightens my day!

Quick and easy to make, and reasonably cheap when in season (fennel is really cheap at the moment!) this is a fantastic go-to soup for weekday meals. Serve with crusty bread for optimal eating pleasure ;) 

Ingredients

1 fennel bulb, finely chopped
1/2 leek, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
750ml vegetable stock
500g frozen peas - fresh or frozen
1 bunch spinach, chopped.

Method

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add fennel, leek and garlic, sauté until soft.
Add stock, peas, fennel, and spinach.
Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer until all the veg is cooked.
Purée until soft and smooth. 

Serve and enjoy!
 

Sweet potato and goats chèvre ravioli

I am glad to report my pasta making skills seem to be improving. While this still isn't the silkiest, thinnest, most luscious ravioli I've ever had - it was certainly presentable, the pasta was a good texture, and the filling was definitely delicious. You don't need a pasta machine to make ravioli, though it does help to get the dough nice and thin. A rolling pin and some patience work just as well. Fortunately, courtesy of a christmas present from my best friend I have a pasta machine so I didn't have to be so patient ;)

Method 

 The pasta dough:
200 g flour, Italian Type 00
2 eggs
olive oil

Sift the flour into a huge mixing bowl or on a chopping board. Make a well in the centre, add  the eggs, then incorporate the flour with your fingers and knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough comes together nicely. If the mix is too firm, add another egg or egg yolk or a teaspoon of olive oil (or, at a pinch a  little water), if it’s too soft, use a little more flour. Knead it lightly, and then shape it into a ball, tightly wrap in cling film and let rest for at least 30 minutes on the counter.

The filling
100g goats chèvre or ricotta (drained, squeezed dry in a cheesecloth)
2 sweet potatoes, roasted till soft and then cooled and peeled
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix together the sweet potatoes, chèvre and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper to taste.


Assembly
Roll the pasta into thin sheets with either a pasta machine or your trusty rolling pin.

Place teaspoonful balls of the sweet potato mixture on the dough, and then cover with more dough. Press down to form sealed edges, and cut into shapes.

Cook in boiling salted water until the pasta is al dente.

for the sage burnt butter sauce
100g butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 sage leaves

Add butter to pan and heat until butter begins to foam. At this point, add the sage and cook until butter has browned. Squeeze in the lemon juice and serve sauce immediately over ravioli.

Variation: I had actually intended to use toasted walnuts instead of the sage leaves, but did not have any at the time. I've used them since, and they work well.

Putting it all together

Place the ravioli on a plate with some extra goats chèvre crumbled on top. Finish with the sage burnt butter sauce. Enjoy!