Cornbread

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup milk
1 large egg

Cornbread, shown here with my Sweet Hungarian Heat!

1 1/4 cups yellow, white or blue cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Heat the oven to 200°c. Prepare a 8-inch square pan or 9-inch round cake pan with the cooking spray.
2. heat the butter over low heat until melted.
3. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter, milk and egg with a fork or wire whisk until well mixed. Add the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once; stir just until the flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy). Pour batter into the pan; use a rubber spatula to scrape batter from bowl. Spread batter evenly in pan and smooth top of batter.
4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve warm.

Sweet Hungarian Heat - Chilli

I'm never sure if this is a goulash or a chilli. Either way I think it is delicious, and great for a cold night. Warming and hearty, enough heat to tickle your throat, but not enough to burn. A nice amount of sweetness to balance. Lovely with cornbread, crusty bread, or whatever takes your fancy.

Ingredients

3 large onions diced
3 cloves garlic finely diced/minced
2 large red capsicums sliced
1 red bullhorn chilli
1 Hungarian hot pepper or 2 jalapeno peppers
1 carrot finely diced (you can add celery here as well)
1 tbs hot Hungarian paprika
1 tbs sweet Hungarian paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt to taste
¼ -1/3 cup of brown sugar
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup of tomato paste
600g of gravy beef (or any beef suitable for slow cooking)
1 can of beans – borlotti, kidney, or black – or the equivalent in fresh cooked
Olive oil
Water or stock

This will take about 3 hours in a slow cooker – will take less on a stovetop.

1. Saute the onions and garlic till soft, add in carrots, peppers, and capsicum and soften. Put into the slow cooker.
2. Brown the beef and add in the hot and sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, and a good pinch of salt. Put into the slow cooker.
3. Take 1 cup of water or stock and pour it into the frypan you browned the beef in to lift all the remaining spices from the bottom of the pan and pour into the slow cooker. I also added in a handful of cherry tomatoes I had, they went well.
4. Add in the sugar and vinegar. Add enough extra water or stock to just cover the ingredients. Give it all a stir. Put the lid on and let it come to a simmer. Leave for an hour.
5. With any chilli this is the time now to make some adjustments – need some more heat? Add a bit more paprika or chilli. Want more sweetness? Add a bit more brown sugar. If you want a bit more zing a little drop more of vinegar until you have the balance you want. Cook for another hour then add in the beans and cook until done.

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!