Pickles

I truly am the queen of procrastination.

Ask me when my essay is due.
Ask me how much I have done....

Its so not pretty!

So yesterday I decide to make piccallili. I hunted the web, as you do, and found this recipe which looked pretty good, genuine, and I am sure I remember watching this guy cook on some show.... Rick Stein's Piccalilli recipe

If you dont know what Piccalilli is, its a kinda cauliflower pickle chutney, seems to be an english foody thing and its served with things like ham off the bone.

Good recipe - I enjoyed making it. I only made a few changes to the recipe - fresh ginger and pickling mix with solid nutmeg and allspice etc. After 24hrs of soaking, simmering, bottling etc, here is the product.



Very yummy, I have soaked up the sauce with a garlic pita for lunch, and now the pickle gets to age for the next month or so, then we can crack it open :)

I shouldnt imagine we will eat all 8 jars, so I think we will have to gift some.

Pay attention!!!

Do you want the best meat lasagne recipe around?

I am finally Ok with sharing my personal recipe....... So pay attention - I have been told its the best, and its by far my favourite!

So start with an onion and garlic. According to taste, but I do about 1 onion/500g of mince, and about 3 cloves of crushed garlic.

Put some oil (I use olive) in a pan, heat, and add the diced onion and crushed garlic. Also add 2 anchovy fillets or the equivalent amount of paste. Heat until the onions start going clear, and the anchovy is well mixed through the mix. Believe me, the anchovy is worth it!!

Add the mince. I usually try to add half pork, half beef, but it works OK with half beef.

Brown mince and ensure its all broken up well. Large chunks are not pretty.....

Add tomato. I usually add peeled whole tomatoes. For 500g of mince you probably need about 700g of tinned tomatoes and the juice. I like whole tomatoes as they are easier to pick the skin and core out. If you wish add a tub of tomato paste (50g or so) and some water, but if you haven't got paste, add another tin of tomatoes.

Add the following:

1-1.5 cup wine (white or red, but I think white is nicer)
About 1-2t of white sugar (helps with the acidity, especially with tinned pure tomatoes)
Concentrated Vege stock 1T or so. I love Vegeta if you can get it.
Dried herbs, try italian or mixed herbs
pepper and salt to taste (depends on what stock you use)

Cook for about an hour. If it starts looking dry, add more water, about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir whenever you walk past.

Ideally this sauce should cook for about 3 hours. Its worth it, I swear :) Add water to stop it drying out, and just keep the cycle going.

Thats my spag bol sauce but I mix it with a few other things to get this.....





So you have to do homemade pasta. Anything you buy is rubbish in comparison. I find my breadmaker does a great job of the dough. About 4 eggs, some salt and about 300g of flour is enough for a large lasagne.

Cheese/Bechamel sauce

Hmm - I am a bucket chef when it comes to this, but I generally do about this:

Heat 75g of butter, and about 2T of cornflour in a pot, stir until its a paste. Add about 100ml of milk, mix and then add about 5-600ml of milk.
On a steady heat (not too hot, not too cold) heat sauce until it thickens. It should be heavy, if that makes any sense at all...... If after about 15mins, its not thickening, try adding another t or so of cornflour in T of cold milk. Eventually you will get a lovely sauce.

Add cheese - lots of it. I usually doa mix of something easy like colby or tasty and then some fresh parmesan. For 500ml of milk you need about 3c of grated cheese.

Time to assemble!

Put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of a ovenproof dish. Then the cheese sauce, just enough to cover it. Sometimes I add veges in now, like tonight I put a couple of layers of wilted spinach in. Then a layer of pasta sheets.

Meat, cheese sauce, pasta until you are at the top of your dish. Leave some space because the dish will rise in the oven.

After the last layer of pasta, put a small amount of cheese sauce, and a little grated cheese. Before the kids, I then used to sprinkle paprika, grated pepper and salt over
the top, but that has got the kybosh.....

Bake in an oven (180deg or so) until the sauce is bubbling and the top is a nice golden brown.

Leave for 10 minutes or so to settle, and then cut and serve. Everyone will enjoy!!!!

And the result is.....



Notes:

I really mix this up, its one of those fluid things that changes texture and taste everytime I make it, but generally its awesome!

Sometimes when I am doign the onion stage I might add some grated carrot and celery which is apparently the true italian spag bol sauce. Its not bad, but tastes nicer when you have an equal pork/beef mince mix.

If I have them, I also use fresh basil, oregano and thyme towards the end of the dish. Lovely, jubbly :)

I don't know anyone else who sweats anchovy with their garlic and onion, so if you copy this, give me credit!

Everyone thinks their spag bol sauce is the best, but really, this one is pretty darned awesome!

Anzac Day

Its a small thing, but every ANZAC Day I try to make these - Anzac bikkies from the Edmonds cookbook. Most kiwis would know what I am on about, but the aussies are going to be lost!

The Edmonds cookbook is a must have in any kiwi kitchen. I think its been published since the 50s and it has evolved with NZ. I love it - specially since it has all the handy conversions in the front. So whenever I am cooking USA recipes, I have to pull this out to convert ;)



This batch were interesting! Everytime I make them they are a little bit different, sometimes they are stodgy, other times chewy. I admit I like the chewy ones best - I think its a function of the butter!

So I think the origins of Anzac bikkies were that they were the ingredients readily available during WWI, (but I can't see butter being available.....) and I think they were baked and sent over to the troops. The other great thing about them is they are great for kids to make as they dont have any egg, so the mix can be eaten raw, which obviously is great when you have little hands with you. Jenna loves cvooking with me :)

Its my first Anzac Day back in NZ for a number of years, and it was nice to see the NZ spin on the day. I have missed the kiwi feel to the "celebrations". Anzac Day always makes me feel very sad - I could never let my children go to fight in a war, and I dont know how parents do it - even now. I hate the waste of life, what a horrendous waste, and while I know those poor boys and men did it for the good of the country, sometimes I wonder. Specially with the political nature of the wars of today. Surely there were ways to avoid Gallipoli and the whole bloody war??