FoodHax

Quiche is one of those amazing foods where as long as you have a fridge full of dairy (eggs, cheese, milk), you can probably put it together using absolutely any perishable food you may have lying around. I guess how difficult it becomes is dependent on your ingredients, but usually it is fairly easy if not quick to do.

My most recent attempt at quiche was a victim of poor time management, however you don’t really need to go making up a base from scratch like I was hell bent on doing. If you’ve got a few sheets of short crust pastry in the fridge, awesome. If you don’t, plan a few hours ahead and make some because it really isn’t that difficult. If forethought isn’t your forte, ditch the pastry all together and make a fritatta.

To make the short crust pastry:

1 2/3 cups plain flour
125g unsalted butter, chilled, finely chopped
1 egg, chilled

(I bastardized taste.com.au’s recipe for this)

You’ll need some kind of mixer/food processor for this. If you have one, you can just cut the rubbing out all together, chuck your flour and butter in and process! Then add the egg until it comes together in a dough! But I didn’t so, I started off with the good old “Rubbing it in” method. I learnt this in Home Economics and I remember it making the joints of my thumbs hurt, but it works. So, start of with rubbing the butter into the flour between your thumbs and fingers.
Then, when the mixture looks yellow and NOT like coarse breadcrumbs (Man I always thought this description was a crock of shit). You’ll know it’s done when it gets solid if you compress it.

Then, attach your bowl to a mixer and add the egg. Mix ’til it all comes together. Then knead for a bit. Then roll it into a ball, wrap it in glad wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least two hours.

Now is the fun part! There was bacon and sweet potato and a bunch of cheese and some onion in this quiche. I beat up about 6 eggs with a little bit of milk. I chopped up the sweet potato into cubes and boiled them for five minutes then let them sit until I needed them. I fried up the bacon and onion and garlic until it was all crispy (but not the garlic, no one likes burnt garlic).

The pastry is completely unworkable when it is cold, so it needs to get back to room temperature in order for you to roll it out. Roll it out to about 1cm thick. Press it into a springform cake tin, make sure there aren’t any cracks for holes with the pastry that falls over the sides.

Then tip all of your cooked ingredients onto the pastry and spread them out evenly and pour the egg over the top. It should take about 45 minutes to an hour to cook at 180 degrees.

Enjoy! Even at 11pm!

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I’m not sorry about the pun!

This weekend I made POACHED EGGS. This is important because a) I haven’t attempted them since I was an apprentice a good 7 years ago, and b) up until a few weeks ago, I haven’t eaten runny eggs for a very, very long time. I’m talking over twenty years.

It all started when I was making a salad and I didn’t quite boil an egg for long enough, so it was still a bit runny inside. But, I ate it; and to my amazement there was no upset stomach, nor overwhelming “eggy” taste that usually turns me off! Then there were no holds barred! The next day there were soft boiled eggs, mushrooms, bacon and spinach for breakfast. A week later there were fried eggs, sunny side up (is there a better term for fried eggs not flipped? I don’t particularly like that phrase). Then, this weekend just past I attempted the poached eggs. I failed at my first two, the recipe I was using as a reference on Taste.com.au suggested to crack the eggs onto a plate first but I found that it completely destroyed the egg white as it entered the water. It could have been the eggs that I was using (it recommends to use the freshest eggs that you can) but I found cracking the eggs into rapid simmering water helped the egg whites to set better.

So, here’s what I did:

Bring a deep frypan full of water to a fast simmer.
Add a pinch of sea salt flakes and two teaspoons of lemon juice.
Slowly and carefully crack your eggs straight into the water. I did two at a time.
Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Remove eggs from the water with a slotted spoon, hold over a sink or other surface to drain slightly.
Serve with hot buttered toast (Rye! It’s good!) and bacon. Enjoy!

See, you don’t need a Sunbeam Eggo after all!

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Spaghetti is probably my all time favourite pasta. I love how it swirls around on a plate, I love twirling it around on my fork and slurping it into my mouth. I love it plain with just some Parmesan, cracked pepper, garlic and butter. I love it with tomato based sauces. I love it with creamy sauces. I love it with Pesto. I LOVE IT.

So, here is a little how to on cooking the “Best Spaghetti Ever”:

Boiling spaghetti isn’t rocket science, but I implore you not to overcook it. Test it from time to time. You still want it to have “give” in the middle when you bite into it. To give you an idea, it should take about 8 minutes, depending on what pasta you’re using. It should have a recommended cooking time on the packet so use that as a guide. Always check how your spaghetti is going by tasting it.

Melt some butter in a fry pan over a low heat. When the butter has melted (make sure it’s not too hot) add some garlic that has been sliced into thin rounds. It’s really important that the heat isn’t up too high so that the garlic doesn’t burn and start to taste bitter. Now this is the best part. YOU CAN ADD ANYTHING FROM HERE. Some diced tomato, olives, anchovies, chili flakes… ANYTHING. Once your spaghetti is done, drain it and toss it in the fry pan. Use a pair of tongs to make sure the spaghetti is coated in the butter and everything else you’ve put in there. Serve with some cracked pepper and a big sprinkle of Parmesan. ENJOY.

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Lasagne has been one of my favourites since I was a kid. When I left the Parental Nest, it quickly became one of my staples. I haven’t made it for quite a while, so I thought I’d give it a go since I’ve have quite a bit of time on my hands lately. It also helps to have an appreciative audience. This will serve about 6 people.

MEAT SAUCE
1kg Kangaroo mince (I highly recommend this, but experiment! Beef is fine, but a combination of minces works really well too.)
Diced Carrot, Zucchini, Celery, Onion, Garlic (finely minced), 100g brown mushrooms (duxelle/finely diced)
100g brown mushrooms quartered
1L Beef Stock
1 cup Red Wine
1 Bay Leaf
Salt & Pepper
800g Tinned Tomatoes
1 Teaspoon Tomato paste
Balsamic vinegar
Anchovy fillets (to taste! Otherwise it’s optional!)
1 Tablespoon of Pesto
Lasagne Sheets (I use Barilla purely for convenience.)

BECHAMEL SAUCE
Milk
Flour
Butter
Cheese (Tasty/Parmesan)

Fry the carrot, onion, celery, zucchini, mushroom duxelle and garlic in a large pot. While you are waiting for the vegetables to soften, fry batches of the kangaroo mince in a separate frypan on high heat.

Once the vegetables have softened, add the mince and stir through. Add salt and pepper.
Add wine and simmer rapidly for 20 mins until the wine has evaporated.

Add the rest of the ingredients for the meat sauce and cook for 1-2 hours.

To make the Bechamel, melt the butter in a saucepan and combine with equal amount of flour. Stirring constantly, gradually add the warm milk to make a smooth paste. Once you have reached your desired quantity/consistency, add cheese to taste.

To assemble the lasagne, smooth a layer of bechamel at the bottom of a rectangular baking dish. Layer your lasagne sheets next, followed by a layer of meat sauce. I follow this by another layer of lasagne sheets, then bechamel, then meat sauce. Finish with a layer of bechamel and cover with cheese.

Put on the top level of a preheated oven at 220˚C for at least 20 mins or until the cheese has melted and formed a golden crust.

I served this with Potato salad, made with some chives, mayonnaise mixed with a bit of pesto, crispy bacon and boiled baby potatoes (please excuse my photo of reheated day old lasagne, I have an atrocious habit of forgetting to take photos of my cooking). ENJOY!

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Barkday Cake!
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup smooth low fat peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated carrot (1 medium sized carrot should be enough)
1/3 cup honey (and a bit extra for the icing)
1 egg
Reduced fat cottage cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spoon Mixture into cupcake or muffin tins. Bake for 25-30 mins.
Mix some honey with three tablespoons of cottage cheese to top the cakes. Serve! Make sure you give a command first! :D Good dog!

Barkday Cake recipe taken from this website Found via the googlenets. Photos courtesy of The Poladroid Project

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