Salt Crusted Burgers and Caramelised Onions

Oh my goodness, guys. I think I totally beat the cheeseburger recipe in terms of Most Delicious Burgers Ever. Also, these were much simpler, which makes it even BETTER. I've been following the blog Stonesoup for a while now, since I decided to learn to make sourdough and found a recipe on Jules' site (for the record, it was incredible, I just never got a good enough photo to post the recipe; if you are interested you can find it here. Also I understand that I have only been posting phone pictures lately which makes that reasoning invalid). The recipes are delightfully simple, and most contain less than 5 ingredients which is so great. The bonus with these burgers is that most of the ingredients I would generally have on hand anyway! Except bread. I've only just started keeping a loaf of bread in the freezer, I don't eat enough to warrant always having a fresh loaf in the house, let alone rolls! (Honestly, though, I live within walking distance of at least three shops so its no big deal to run out and get some, which means this recipe is a-ok with me)

The burgers are really juicy without cooking them in oil, because the salt layer helps the juices to congeal and form a 'crust' on the burger. Is this common knowledge? It should be. I am so impressed with these burgers, you don't even know.

Just a disclaimer on the "quick" tag - the burgers are incredibly quick, the onions not so much - although I came home from work on Tuesday night and had made burgers and 2 onions' worth of caramelised onions in half an hour, so maybe I have unreasonable standards of what quick means. I've split the recipe into the two sections - burgers and onions - in case you're only making one part. Apparently the onions can be kept for about a month in the fridge, but I haven't tried storing them yet.

SALT-CRUSTED BURGERS
Serves 4 in a burger bun - if you're serving them without bread I would add a little extra meat per person, the original recipe called for 400g to serve two people
Total time commitment: 10 minutes
Recipe from Stonesoup

400g minced beef
salt

1. Heat a frypan on really high heat for three minutes. Shape the beef into the desired number of patties.

2. Sprinkle a fine layer of salt over the frypan and place the burgers on top. Cook for 4 minutes then flip, sprinkling more salt on the pan. Cook until they are done to your liking.



CARAMELISED ONION
Makes a lot
Total time commitment: Depends on how much onion you have, but this took me 20-25 minutes and I only waited until a few of the onions had browned.
Recipe from Stonesoup

2 onions, thinly sliced
Balsamic vinegar

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Add onions and cook, covered, until the onions are dark brown, stirring every 5 minutes or so. As I mentioned in the time commitment spot, I didn't brown all of the onions because I am both hungry and impatient.

2. Add a few splashes of balsamic vinegar and cook, uncovered, until the onion is soft. I added vinegar until it looked about the right colour, so do whatever works for you.

Rosemary and Honey Pecans

I found (and made) this recipe through a delightfully serendipitous turn of events. I was cruising Facebook instead of studying and Papermash linked to Sweet Paul magazine, which I had never heard of. I moseyed on over to have a look and this recipe came up. I had leftover pecans from the salted caramel pecans and was at Levi's house, which meant I had access to fresh rosemary to make it. Also, I was really bored of studying. In my defence, I did have an exam this morning so my brain wasn't functioning very well anyway.

I used a very scant cup of pecans, and ended up with a lot of honey/butter mixture sitting in the bottom of the dish. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and I ended up drizzling it over the top, but I suspect if I used a full cup of pecans they would get crispier from not sitting in a puddle of delicious. Just a hunch, though, because the salted caramel pecans weren't necessarily crispy.

And did I mention how dishes-friendly this is? The original recipe said to melt the butter in a saucepan and then put it in a bowl with the other ingredients but bro, I have a microwave, I might as well just use one bowl. Next time I'm going to skip the bowl entirely and make it in the ovenproof dish from the get-go. One dish recipes are the GREATEST.

ROSEMARY AND HONEY PECANS
Serves 4, maybe? Are you serving them with cheese? I think thats a good idea. I should have done that.
Total time commitment: 15-20 minutes
Recipe adapted from Kate LeSueur in Sweet Paul magazine

30g butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 cup pecans
2 stems rosemary
2 tbsp honey

1. Preheat oven to 165C. Melt butter in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and mix to coat pecans.
2. Put in an ovenproof dish and cook until toasty. 

Secret Recipe Club: Pesto Potatoes

I know, how predictable that I chose another potato recipe :P I've been so swamped with uni and the panto rehearsals/performances that I haven't had time to cook anything of note lately. It was a welcome challenge to fit the SRC into this month! (Also, please do click the link and visit our webpage, it looks pretty rad).

The blog I was assigned was Savouring the Thyme. Jennifer's blog is great! I bookmarked so many things to make this month but it turned out that this was the only thing I could fit into my uni work haze. As soon as I hit summer holidays, the bookmarks are coming out!

These potatoes are ridiculously simple and I can't believe I never thought of combining potatoes and pesto before. If you can commit to the hour for roasting the potatoes, and I suggest you do, this is entirely worth it.

PESTO POTATOES

Serves 1
Total time commitment: 1 hour 20 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes cooking, 5 minutes actually working)
Recipe from Savouring the Thyme


1 potato
1 tsp pesto

1. Coat the potato with olive oil and roast for 50-60 minutes until tender. Leave to cool until you can handle them.

2. Cut off the top third of the potato and set aside (or eat - I ate and it was one of the best decisions I've made). Scoop out the innards of the potato, leaving a little wall around the skin so it doesn't collapse in on itself.

3. Mash the potato insides and pesto together and scoop back into the potato.

4. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Click here to look at all of the other members' recipes!

Friend Zone Food: Cheeseburgers

I'm so sorry about the lack of posting! I've been absolutely swamped with uni work and panto and work, and to be completely honest I've been living on things like baked beans, jacket potatoes, and microwaveable Indian meals. Its the same story as last month though, I've been eating a lot of meals at the "Friend Zone", the nickname we've given the house that Levi and Chris and Briony moved into down the road, so I thought I should add another category for meals I have at their place that someone else has cooked with me (or cooked entirely :P).

Chris and I made these burgers last night when Levi and Briony were still away on a uni trip. If Levi is away it seems remiss to not take advantage of the opportunity to cook something that isn't vegetarian! And when I say Chris and I made them, I mean Chris made them and I picked up hamburger buns on my way there from work. The burgers are from the cookbook What to Cook and How to Cook It by Jane Hornby, which I would absolutely recommend. There are step-by-step photos, and all of the ingredients are set out in a delightfully organised photo at the beginning of each recipe. This is the third or fourth dish we've eaten from that cookbook and everything has been simple to make and really delicious.

These burgers were SO GOOD. I'm going to make them again soon, because they were really great. Before we started I was lamenting that we didn't have any chips with them (because I obviously have attachment issues with not having potato in my meals) but it was so filling that I wouldn't have been able to fit them in anyway!

Also happy birthday shout outs to Tara, who turned 22 on Wednesday, and my cousin Clare whose birthday is today :D

Serves 2
Total time commitment: 30 minutes
Recipe adapted from What to Cook and How to Cook It

1/2 onion
3 small gherkins
250g minced beef
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to season
2 large burger buns
4 slices cheese, to cover patties
Lettuce and tomato, to serve

1. Preheat the grill to high. While its preheating, finely chop the onion and gherkins and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, mustard, mince and salt and pepper, and mix together.

2. Roughly divide the meat in half and shape into two burgers, about 2cm thick. Our burgers were HUGE but delicious, and they looked silly in the tiny buns, so I would recommend this for the comedic value.

3. Place the burgers onto the grill and cook for ten minutes, flipping halfway through. If they need a little longer, then do that. Whatever floats your burger-loving boat!

4. While the burgers are cooking, slice the tomato and wash the lettuce so you can go for your life when the burgers are ready. Halve the buns as well.

6. Burgers are looking good? Excellent. Put some cheese on top of them, and place the halved buns face up (the face being the cut side) on the grill. Whack everything back in there for another minute or so, just to melt the cheese and brown the buns.

7. Assemble the buns and serve.

Secret Recipe Club: Oven Stuffed Potatoes

So I mentioned that I had been on a microwaved potatoes kick just before uni started. My laziness aside, I just really like potatoes because they're easy, so I was pretty overjoyed when I found this recipe for stuffed potatoes on my SRC assignment this month! I was assigned to Gloria's blog, Canela Kitchen, and I fell in love with most of the recipes she has posted.

I adapted this recipe to make it vegetarian, and omitted the parmesan cheese coating (although will definitely make them again with the parmesan!). I really loved the end product, and making them almost bite-sized meant I could just pop them in my mouth while marathoning Mad Men. (I know, I'm four years behind everyone else, but goodness it is a good show)

OVEN STUFFED POTATOES
Serves 6
Recipe from Canela Kitchen

1 kilo potatoes, peeled
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp flour
Spinach and feta, to fill

1. Boil and mash the potatoes. Add the egg yolks and flour, and mix to form a dough. Preheat oven to 190C.

2. Wilt the spinach by rinsing it under cold water and then place it into a medium-hot frying pan with only the water that is still on the leaves for a couple of minutes.

3. Cut the feta into small cubes.

4. Form the potato dough into evenly-sized balls. Now that you have checked they're all even, squish down each ball and place a spinach leaf then a cube of feta (or more, depending on size) in each and re-shape into balls.

5. Place the balls on a baking tray and cook until browned (this will vary depending on size).

Check out the other members' recipes here!

Lentil and Tomato Soup

Last week, I didn't do a meal plan. It was the last week of holidays and psssh, people have been surviving and not making meal plans for years, right? It turns out I am not one of those people that can survive without a meal plan. I think the disaster wasn't helped by shopping day moving from Monday to Thursday, so I had ten days between grocery shops, but I did end up eating essentially nothing but microwaved potatoes for two days.

I swear to goodness, if I didn't have friends living down the road to cook for me and let me eat their biscuits, I probably would have faded away to nothing.

So on Monday, once I had run out of potatoes, I decided to finally cook this soup. I got the recipe from one of the free Coles magazines, and actually had everything on hand to make it (its okay, I also wonder why I didn't make it earlier in the week). I have a five hour break on Mondays which gives me more than enough time to come home for lunch and whip something up. Also, I'd only eaten an apple before I went to uni and apparently they do not fill you up for four hours. Who knew? :P

I added some carrot to the soup to bulk it out a bit, and next time I think I will also add some green vegetables (peas and broccoli and the like) for colour and deliciousness. In the various incarnations of this soup (it makes four to six servings), I've had it with spinach, pine nuts, and bacon, and I'm sure there are a million other toppings you could try.

LENTIL AND TOMATO SOUP
Serves four to six
Total time commitment: 30 minutes
Recipe adapted from Coles Magazine
Cost: 68c per serve (if recipe makes 4 serves)


1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cup red lentils
1 carrot, diced
400 g diced tomatoes
3 cups vegetable stock

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and cook until soft. Stir in cumin and coriander and cook, stirring, for one minute.

2. Add lentils, carrot, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, and simmer until lentils and carrot are soft (about 10 - 15 minutes).

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

So pineapples were $2 each a few weeks ago, and in my "Grocery shopping is FUN!" haze (that's not even sarcastic, I really do enjoy it. I recommend having a grocery shopping date as your weekly get-together with a friend, I don't think I'd be able to function without it) I bought one with some vague hopes of making a juice in my smoothie maker.

About a week later, Meryl came over and asked why I had a pineapple ("I dunno") and what I was going to do with it ("I dunno"), then decided we would make a pineapple upside down cake, and that was that. Meryl is my friend's girlfriend who lives in America but came over for visiting and we got to spend a crazy amount of time on my couch watching trashy TV while her boyfriend was at work. It was as awesome as it sounds, trust me.

Apparently this is more dense than they normally are, but I didn't have any complaints! Anything that can be thrown together reasonably simply with ingredients I already have is fine by me.

Non-inverted Second Cake and inverted First Cake (we doubled the recipe to use up all of the pineapple)

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Serves 8
Total time commitment: 40 minutes - 1 hour, most of which is baking
Recipe from Taste.com.au


1/2 a pineapple, cut into rings; or 440g can pineapple rings
1/3 cup brown sugar
90g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a round cake pan with butter and sprinkle brown sugar over the base of the pan.

2. Arrange pineapple over the brown sugar. If you need to cut the rings in half to get them to fit, please do, it is better to have halved pineapple on your slice than no pineapple! You could even halve all of the pieces if you are concerned about the aesthetic value.

3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Add flour and stir to combine.

4. Spread cake mixture over the pineapple and bake 30 - 40 minutes, or until a skewer/chopstick/knife/other implement you have on hand inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool, invert onto a plate, and serve.

Sunday night side-dishes

On Sunday, I really couldn't be bothered to cook, and occasionally I leave Sundays off my meal planner because I lose steam when I'm planning or assume I'll have leftovers. This week was one of those weeks, and there was really nothing in the house except the better part of a 3kg bag of potatoes and some assorted vegetables. This started out as an attempt to make a variation on jacket potatoes that Mum used to cook us, where you scoop out the inside of the potato but leave a kind of potato-bowl-perimeter, mash it with some vegetables and cheese, and put it back into the potato. It didn't work out that way, so it ended up being a combination mashed potato. The honey carrots were there as a request from Levi, who had them at a friend's place last week and is obsessed with them now. Let's be honest, though, they're a favourite of mine as well. I haven't included the recipe because I'm still perfecting it!

The beauty of this mashed potato is that aside from the standard one-potato-per-person, the quantities and varieties of vegetable or cheese are entirely up to you and what's left in the pantry.

COMBINATION MASHED POTATO

Serves 2

Total time commitment: Varies depending on potato size, but roughly 30 minutes

Recipe adapted from Mama's jacket potatoes

2 medium-to-large potatoes

Frozen peas and beans

1 carrot, diced

A couple of florets of broccoli, chopped

Butter

Cheese

Tomato, diced

1. Steam the potatoes and vegetables (excluding tomato) in whatever way you prefer - microwave or stove top. If you have an hour spare, you can roast the potatoes, but for this I don't bother. Grate some cheese while you wait.

2. When they are done, cut the potatoes into small cubes (don't burn yourself, please) and put into a bowl with some butter. Mash until they are suitably mashed to your taste. Add the steamed vegetables, diced tomatoes, and grated cheese, and combine. The cheese should melt into the potato and be all delicious. Best eaten while sitting on the couch watching some trashy television. 

Penne alla Vodka

My friend Sian, who is one of the most delightful people ever, posted this on her blog a year ago and its taken me this long to get around to making it. I'd had it once before from a restaurant, and I remember enjoying it, so I figured it couldn't go too badly.
SPOILER: I WAS RIGHT.
Aside from not mixing it very well, so I occasionally had a big vodka-y bit of pasta that made me choke a little, it was really delicious and I will make it again, vodka permitting. Although I wouldn't put it past me to buy vodka specifically for cooking this. Pasta + cream + parmesan = the best. Siany's recipe was vegetarian, but I googled around a bit and people seem to like putting bacon in it, so I settled for chorizo because it was on special and I was not disappointed.

The second time I ate it (leftovers for lunch the next day) I used regular cheese instead of parmesan, and it was delightful.

PENNE ALLA VODKA
Serves four
Total time commitment: 30 minutes
Recipe from Monster Girl Writes

1 onion
400g can diced tomatoes
Herbs (Sian recommends oregano and basil)
200g penne
Olive oil
Garlic
2 Tbsp thickened cream
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup vodka
Parmesan or another form of cheese
Chorizo (optional)

1. Put water for the pasta on to boil. Heat the oil and garlic in a pan, finely dice the onion and cook until golden.

2. Add pasta to boiling water. Meanwhile, add the can of diced tomatoes and herbs to the onion mixture, and cook until heated through. This should take about ten minutes, roughly the same time it will take for your pasta to be al dente (fancy way to say cooked but chewy).

3. If you're using chorizo, start cutting this up and frying it now while you drain the pasta, because the part of the stove you just cooked the pasta on is still hot so you won't waste time heating a third thingy. We're all about technical terms in this kitchen.

4. Return the drained pasta to the pan and stir through the butter so the pasta is coated. Add the vodka to the pasta and mix, then add the tomatoey, creamy sauce. Combine everything, serve into bowls, and top with parmesan or other cheese and chorizo, if you're being that kind of awesome.

Pasta with Peas

I've spent the last two days trying to post and blogger hasn't been loading. How awkward for blogger.

This recipe is one that, as the book says, could probably be whipped up in the depths of a nuclear winter. Considering how quick and easy it is, I was expecting it to taste a lot more bland than it did. I actually timed this to see exactly how long it took to cook - 22 minutes and 7 seconds - but most of that was waiting for the pasta to boil. It was very easy and didn't take a lot of effort, which is what you need on a Sunday night.

PASTA WITH PEAS
Serves three
Total time commitment: 22 minutes 7 seconds
From the second Leon cookbook

1 leek
1 onion
Olive oil
Bit of butter
Garlic
Peas
Parmesan
Pasta

1. Boil some water for your pasta. I think you can cook the pasta without much direction.

2. Heat a little bit of oil and butter in a pan. Don't have the heat too high or it will burn. While this is warming up, or beforehand if you are not speedy with your knife skills and worry about hot oil spitting at you out of the pan, cut up the leek (thinly) and onion (diced).

3. Chuck some garlic in the pan for extra flavour, and then add the leek and onion. Let them soften a bit.

4. Add some peas - I didn't measure, just added until it looked nice.

5. Hopefully your pasta is done - top the pasta with leek and pea mix, and top that with as much parmesan as you can handle.

Spicy Burmese Cabbage

So I mentioned my new cookbook, and I am so excited to own it. I was so excited to post it that I didn't even explain why I am so darn excited about it. Remember that whole England escapade in 2009? Levi's friend took us to this place with food and I was like "Eh, sweet potato falafel, looks a bit expensive but I'll get it." NOT EXPENSIVE FOR HOW MUCH YOU GET. OMG. I was so pleased I took a photo.

I actually pulled this picture from Facebook (I was sure I had one of the actual food, but nonetheless) and it is captioned "I will miss you, Leon, and your tasty sweet potato felafel."

So when I was walking past a new cafe near my place a couple of months ago and saw the spine of a Leon book in there, I ran in and opened it and was excited and then ran back out to text Levi a picture of it. Lois was there, she can verify. And now I own the book (albeit the second one, which doesn't have the sweet potato felafel recipe, but I DONT EVEN CARE)! Huzzah! 

HUZZAH, I SAY. 

I was kind of skeptical about this recipe, because I've never had cabbage outside of coleslaw. I'm not entirely sure why it was the first recipe I decided to cook from it, to be honest, but it ended up being delicious. I think it would be good with the little black seeds they have on turkish bread on it. We ate it with plain rice, and it was great and filling. The recipe is insanely easy, and I've pared it down even more because I hate peanuts (you heard me) and I didn't want to buy fresh ginger or garlic, and couldn't use fish sauce because I was cooking for Levi.

SPICY BURMESE CABBAGE

Serves 2 hungry people (eaten with rice) with leftovers for tomorrow, or 4 as a side dish

Total time commitment: 15 minutes

Adapted from the Leon Cookbook, numero 2!

400g green cabbage

Ginger

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp turmeric

Juice of half a lemon

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil
100ml hot water
Garnishes - chopped fresh coriander, peanuts, sesame seeds, whatever tickles your fancy.

1. Slice cabbage thinly. Heat oil in a pan, and chuck on the garlic with it (the recipe says to do this after the cabbage, but because I was using minced garlic/am a maverick I swapped it around). Put the cabbage in the pan and let it soften for a minute or two.

2. Meanwhile, add turmeric to the hot water, stir until smooth, and then add the lemon juice and soy sauce.

3. Back to your delicious cabbage - add the hot water concoction and watch it change colour.

4. Stir for a minute or so, add any garnishes you want, and serve however it pleases you.

Curried Lentil Dip: Gluten Free Friday

I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages. It looked so good when I found it in my reader, so I diligently bookmarked it, and then remembered that I very rarely eat dip.

However, I bought a weekly meal planner the other week (not that meal planning is new for me, but having a nice, pretty meal plan on the fridge door is) and while I was trawling through my recipes, I thought WHY ON EARTH NOT.

Result? Good. I forgot how amazing Tahini is, Mum and I used it a lot making my various vegetarian dishes but I haven't had any for ages. Sesame seeds are the bomb. My dip ended up looking a little less green than the original recipe, because I didn't have any fresh herbs on hand and I didn't think dried parsley and cilantro would have the same effect. It was also a bit too spicy for my weak-ass mouth, but I still ate a darn good lot of it.

CURRIED LENTIL DIP
Makes 1 cup
Total time commitment: 10 minutes
Recipe from Adrienneats

400g cooked lentils, drained
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp olive oil

Blend everything together. BAM, done.

Lasagne

This lasagne recipe has to be one of the easiest things ever.

And oh man, has this lasagne has got me through a tough week.

Like that time I didn't sleep enough and cried because I'd already eaten two servings and I still wanted more. Seriously, this is why I advocate going to bed early. But also why I advocate this lasagne, it is clearly delicious. I mean just look at all that cheese.

LASAGNE
Serves 6-8, you don't want to cry because you didn't eat enough
Total time commitment: 10 minutes actively doing things, 45 minutes cooking; not including actually making the bolognese and white sauce
Recipe from common sense/Mum's advice


2 quantities of bolognese sauce
1-2 quantities of white sauce, depending on your mood
Lasagne sheets
Extra cheese

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Get a large baking dish and layer it with half of the bolognese sauce.

2. Top with lasagne sheets so you're covering the top of it.

3. Add the rest of the bolognese.

4. Add more lasagne sheets.

5. Pour the white sauce over the top. Mmm, delicious.

6. Grate extra cheese on top. Even more delicious.

7. Pop it in the oven and cook until the cheese is golden and delicious and the lasagne sheets aren't chewy any more. It will probably collapse a bit as you serve it, embrace it as the joyful mess of lasagne.

DELICIOUS JOY.

Gluten Free Friday: Bolognese Sauce

This is one of my favourite staples, but somehow I managed to spend 14 months living out of home before making it. The recipe is amazingly straightforward, requires very little active cooking time, and is delicious.

Are you sold yet?

I know its a bit mean putting something you traditionally eat with spaghetti as a GFF post, but there are a bunch of other ways you could use this! I'm thinking of subbing tomatoes for salsa and basil and oregano for chilli flakes and having it on top of nachos, because that's how I roll.


BOLOGNESE SAUCE
Serves
Total time commitment: 15 minutes, plus simmering
From my mum's recipe


1 onion, diced
500g mince
1 carrot
50g tomato paste
400g can diced tomatoes
Basil and oregano, to taste

1. Heat some olive oil in a pan and cook the onion.

2. Add mince and cook until browned.

3. Peel and dice the carrot, and add to pan. I added broccoli stalk and zucchini for extra vegetable power, what of it.

4. Add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and basil and oregano, and simmer until everything is cooked, the carrot/vegetables is/are tender, and it isn't overly liquidy.

Gluten Free Friday: The Best Nachos This Side of the Continent

~Today's GFF meal was cooked by Levi, because I've been cooped up with a cold/hayfever all week and was too lazy ill to cook ~

I used to have nachos all the time, and then for some reason didn't have them for about a year. Then we went to England (oh 2009, I miss you, with your silly jobs and your overseas holidays). In 2007, I went on a school drama trip to Sydney and because it was around Tara's birthday, I got her a hurricane glass from the Hard Rock Cafe. So when I went to England and actually missed her birthday (its not my fault that the last day of Reading was her birthday!), part of her present was more hurricane glasses! 

One is from London. We walked everywhere around London that day, made lots of jokes about Tom being our Tom-Tom because he knew where everything was, and posed for some silly photos (see exhibit A)

Did I mention it was THIRTY TWO DEGREES that day? The actual temperature itself isn't shocking (um, hello, I'm from Australia) but the fact that I was in LONDON when it was 32C was a bit weird. It was in the papers the next day. And by the papers, I mean The Sun. Which is hardly a reputable news source. 

So the second hurricane glass was from Paris, where Levi and I spent exactly 48 hours, got lost a bit (we walked for the first two hours we got there trying to find a specific metro station), got free entry into The Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay, went all the way back to the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe for more banana and nutella crepes, and had Milka chocolate and pint cans of beer for dinner. The second day, we skipped breakfast and headed straight for the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had this esteemed table

That's totally Bob Dylan's harmonica. 

So this is where my nacho revival really kicked in - the nachos I had there were the BEST nachos I've ever eaten, and I've had many a nacho in my time. I don't know if it was because I was really hungry, or that they were using French cheese, but OMGA (oh my giddy aunt, get onto that phrase) they were amazing. And I've recreated them at least once a month since. 

NACHOOOOS

Serves two really hungry people who will then complain about being too full, or four reasonable people

Total time commitment: 20 minutes

*Apparently some corn chips aren't gluten free, so if you are intolerant I suppose you know what is happening with all that bizniz but check before you eat them*

1 bag corn chips

400g can red kidney beans

Lots of cheese

Salsa and avocado/guacamole, to serve

1. Empty the corn chips into a dish and preheat your oven to 180C. 

2. Drain the kidney beans and put them over the corn chips

3. Grate a buttload of cheese onto the top, and put the dish in the oven until the cheese melts

4. Serve with salsa and your chosen medium of avocado. 

Hotcakes

I'm starting to rather enjoy this whole "proper breakfast" ritual. Also, blueberries were inexplicably cheap this week and I didn't know what else to do with them (honestly, not much of a muffin person)/couldn't be bothered searching for recipes.

I'm starting to have mild freak outs every so often now that I'm not living with a family member for the first time in my life. When I went to make pumpkin scones, the Golden Wattle cookbook was gone because it's Tara's and she took it when she moved (luckily it was on the internet because damned if I ever use a different pumpkin scone recipe). When I went to make pancakes, the huge kids' cook book was gone as well, I presume Tara has that because her amazing choc-chip cookie recipe is from there. Luckily, I had this is a substitution, and I'm starting to think I prefer these to pancakes.

Also, homemade butter on hotcakes. Amazing.

HOTCAKES
Makes 8 large or 12 medium hotcakes
Total time commitment: About half an hour
Recipe from The Junior Cook

2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
50g butter, melted, plus extra for cooking

1. Combine eggs, milk and vanilla in a jug and beat until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder, and make a well in the centre. Add milk mixture and melted butter, and stir until just combined. Lumps are fine!

3. Melt a little butter in a pan over a high heat, and add 1/4 of a cup of mixture. Cook until small bubbles appear on the surface, then flip and cook the other side for a minute or so. Repeat for the rest of the mixture.

NOTES:
- Leftover mixture can be stored in the fridge for 1-3 days.
- You can mix fresh berries or fruit through the mixture just before cooking for a delicious alternative

Baking Basics: Homemade Butter

I've been wanting to make homemade butter since I read about it on a blog a while ago. It conjured up memories of Year 1 when we made our own butter, and then I found out that its even easier to do with an electric mixer. When you've made the sale, stop selling, internet! Everyone has also mentioned its a good source of entertainment for kids to make their own butter, and my memories of Year 1 can attest to that.

Keep watching for a scrumptious snack to go nicely with your homemade butter, I promise it was a little source of heaven all week for me. 

HOMEMADE BUTTER

150mL cream makes about 100g butter

Cream

Strong arms or a stand mixer

1. With stand mixer: Put the cream in the bowl.

With brute force: Put the cream in a jar or container, leaving some space at the top for expansion. 

*Want to add extra flavourings to make chilli butter? Garlic butter? Nutmeg, cinnamon, salted? Add them now!*

2. Make sure the lid is secure and shake away, or put the mixer on a medium-low heat. You want the butter to be yellow and separated from the buttermilk otherwise it will spoil very quickly! You can reserve the buttermilk for cooking if you like.

Gluten Free Friday: Alycake

Alycake (and Aly, the Vigilante) was the main inspiration behind GFF. I thought that it would suck to not be able to eat gluten, so originally I was going to do gluten-free week to challenge myself to make things that were tasty and quick and non-glutenous. Then I was like, OR I can do something every week. In retrospect, a lot more (continuous) work, but it's fun! Also now that the Uber-Blonde is GF as well, its nice to know that I can always steal recipes from her blog to replicate if I have an uninspired week. Heh.

So guys, this is Aly, eating her Alycakes at Tim Minchin last weekend.

Actually, before I introduce you, can I just take a second to say OH MY GOD TIM MINCHIN WITH AN ORCHESTRA BLEW MY MIND. And that here is a photo of me and Miss Italia dancing (he hadn't even started by this point, we just decided to get our groove on).

Ok, carry on.

ALYCAKES
Makes 12 small cakes
Total time commitment: 40 minutes
Adapted from recipe on the Xylitol website

2 eggs
75g almond meal
75g sugar
Pinch of baking powder
Vanilla essence (see note below)

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Beat eggs and add other ingredients. Mix until smooth, pour into cake tin and bake 15-20 minutes.

TADA.

But seriously, flavour these however you want. I tried orange, as in the original recipe, but it didn't really do it for me. I've done them with no flavouring in the mixture but lemon zest grated on top. Its a pretty stock-standard gluten free recipe, which just means you can keep adapting it to your (or your lucky gluten-free buddy's) tastes! Bravo, recipe. Bravo.

Gluten Free Friday: Leek and Parmesan Risotto

I don't want to constantly "resort" to rice as a staple of my GFF meals, so I'm trying to avoid it entirely, but this was too good to pass up. I bought a bunch of leek on a whim at the farmers' market (goodness knows why, because its a winter vegetable and we're in the middle of a darn heatwave, so it was expensive) and had to find a way to use it all up once it was cooked. This ticked all the boxes for a weekend meal - quick, easy, not too many ingredients, delicious, and I didn't have to think too much to cook it. Perfect, no?

If you've read my previous risotto recipe, I found a rather ingenious way to cook risotto on Not Quite Nigella that doesn't involve slaving away over a hot stove for 40 minutes. Just for funsies, I actually made risotto the *proper* way for the Vigilante one night, and it didn't taste markedly different. Actually, I hated that risotto, but thats another story for another day.

LEEK AND PARMESAN RISOTTO
Serves 4
Total time commitment: 45 minutes (including 20-30 minutes cooking time)


2 leeks
Parmesan
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups stock, heated

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place rice and stock into a large baking dish, cover with alfoil and bake for 30-40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, wash the leeks carefully and cut into discs, discarding the root and dark green leaves.

4. Cover the leeks with water in a large pot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Combine leek and rice, serve and top with cracked pepper and parmesan to taste.

Cooking Basics: Rissoles

Get all of the ingredients together. You'll need an onion, a carrot, breadcrumbs, tomato sauce, salt and pepper, basil, oregano, and mince. 

Dice the onion and put it in a bowl with the mince

Grate the carrot into the bowl

Don't forget a dollop of tomato sauce for sweetness and that extra tang

(Name that song!)

(...)

(... anyone?)

Season with salt, pepper and herbs as you see fit. 

Add breadcrumbs. These help to absorb some of the fat in the meat. So it follows that the fattier the mince, the more breadcrumbs you use.

Fry them in a little oil, and try not to cringe at the blurriness of this photo...

And serve!

You can add an egg to help bind them together a little better, if you so wish. 

RISSOLES

1kg mince

1 onion, finely diced

1 carrot, grated

Tomato sauce

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

Salt, pepper, basil and oregano, to taste

1 egg

1. Combine mince, onion and carrot in a bowl.

2. Add salt, pepper and herbs to taste, a dash of tomato sauce, egg and breadcrumbs. Combine. 

3. Shape into patties and fry in a little oil until cooked through.