Beef and Mushroom Ragout

Beef and Mushroom Ragout with Steamed Broccoli and Crispy Potato Stacks

On Sunday, we had my brother-in-law and his partner over for dinner. I'd known all along what I wanted to cook, and planned to wow them with a beef and mushroom ragout. I hoped to knock their socks off with this dish!

I'd also planned to practice my presentation and make it look photo-worthy so that I had something decent to show you all (I'm still learning) but that wasn't meant to be.

On Friday night, I was feeling a bit sore. Couldn't sleep all night. I thought I was better Saturday, but Sunday things took a horrible turn for the worse. I managed to cook, regardless, and soldiered on to make a meal that had both of my guests and S (victims) gushing over it. I was told it was tender... succulent... the flavours were perfect... it just melted in your mouth.... And so on and so on. But I never actually got to really try this. I had a small piece of meat, and the broccoli before the pain just got too much and I had to lie down. Half an hour later, and I was in hospital.

Spent a couple of days there, hence the silence, and I'm only just now starting to feel a bit like myself again. As I won't be cooking tonight (I still have trouble standing up for any length of time) I thought I'd relax and give you the recipe for what may well have been the best meal I've ever cooked (and never eaten).

Sunday 24th of July 2011

Beef and Mushroom Ragout with Steamed Broccoli and Crispy Potato Stacks

Beef and Mushroom Ragout

Ingredients

• 1kg beef chuck steak, cut into 1cm cubes.
• Olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• Sweet paprika
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tub tomato paste
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat some of the olive oil in a large, deep pan over a medium-heat. Add one quarter of the beef and cook until browned (roughly 2-3 minutes). Remove from the pan and put aside, then repeat with another three batches until all of the meat has been browned. Be sure to add more oil to the pan in between each batch, and that the pan is hot before adding meat each time.
2. Heat remaining oil in pan and added the garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is clear and soft (too prevent burning, add a little salt). Add the paprika to the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until aromatic. Add the cooked beef, tinned tomato, beef stock, red wine and tomato paste. Leave the leaves on the thyme whole, but remove them from the sticks. Add the two bay leaves.
3. Bring the pan to the boil, and reduce the heat down to a gentle simmer. Cover the pan and cook for roughly 4 hours, or until the meat is very tender. Be sure to stir occasionally. For the last half an hour of cooking, remove the lid and turn the heat up a little so that the liquid thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Crispy Potato Stacks

Ingredients

• 30g of butter, melted
• 10 large potatoes (Golden Delight is good), thinly sliced
• 1 container of double cream
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Using the melted butter, grease a twelve hole muffin pan.
2. When you sliced the potatoes, be sure to leave the skin on. I can't abide peeled potatoes and it definitely helps this dish if they're unpeeled. Combine the leaves of the thyme, the cream and the salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix in enough of the potato slices to fill one muffin hole. Repeat until all twelve holes are filled, then pour the cream mixture over the potatoes.
3. Bake for around 40-45 minutes or until the potato stacks are golden brown and tender.

Vanilla cake with cream and spiced honey and apple syrup

So this evening, S decided at about 10pm he wanted cake. And not just any old cake, he wanted one of my vanilla cakes. He hasn't had one in awhile since I've been making a lot of butter cakes. And he requested I bake the apples that we have in the fridge. I generally like baked apples, but not with cake... and not without a stuffing. And as I had nothing to stuff them with, I had to think of something else.

I've never made a fruit syrup before, so we jumped online to have a quick look around and see just what I needed. I didn't want any surprises when it wasn't working! Thank goodness fruit syrup is as easy as pie (filling)! With no reason to say no other than "It's really late, and we really shouldn't be eating something so naughty" I dived right in!

Vanilla cake

I make my vanilla cake much smaller than most recipes call for, but here's the one that I use. I generally half it since there's only two of us.


Ingredients

• 2 cups (500 mL) sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (250 mL) milk
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) vegetable oil
• 2-1/4 teaspoons (11 mL) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line two 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans or one 9x13-inch (23 x 33 cm) rectangular baking pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper and the sides of the pan well.
2. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Add flour, milk, oil, baking powder, and vanilla and beat for another minute, just until the batter is smooth and creamy. Don't overbeat. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan(s).
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick poked into the center of the layer comes out clean. (A single rectangular pan will take longer to bake than two round ones.) Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with a thin knife, then turn out onto a rack and peel off the paper. Let cool completely before covering with frosting, if desired.

Spiced honey and apple syrup

 As I mentioned above, we went online to find a recipe or some kind of guide on how to make a fruit syrup. I was saddened (but not as much as S) to discover that they all said to strain the syrup from the pulpy goodness at the end. One site actually recommended "giving it to the kids" which made S very sad indeed. He also sulked when they said to peel the apples first.


So armed with a bunch of rules we didn't want to follow I said "well, what bits are probably the most important?" The water to fruit ratio was probably the only advice I took!


Ingredients

• 3 Granny Smith apples (enough to make four cups)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 clove
• 1 tbpsn of honey (generous)
• 2-3 tbspn apple port
• Cinnamon and Cardamom to personal taste.

Cooking Instructions

1. Roughly chop the apples, better to be roughly chopped rather than precision cutting so that some turn all mushy and others hold their shape. This isn't a runny syrup you'd find in a bottle!
2. Add the apples, water, clove, cinnamon and cardamom to a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the honey and apple port, as you turn the pot down to a gentle simmer. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. We're using honey instead of sugar since its much better for you, and honey loves apples.
3. Simmer gently while the vanilla cake is cooking in the oven and let it go syrupy and thick. When you're satisfied with the consistency (it's all a matter of personal taste) move it to a bowl to stop the cooking process.

Vanilla cake with cream and spiced honey and apple syrup

Assembled! I sprinkled the top of the cake with a mix of cinnamon sugar I keep stored especially for this particular cake. I bake it a lot. You could use whipped cream, but S and I adore double cream (soooo naughty!). For my first ever spiced honey and apple syrup was DEE-LISH-US! I mean, oh my God, for something I wouldn't let myself taste test as I went this turned out better than I could ever have dreamed.


Its now midnight, and S has gone for seconds already. Anticipating seeing him sneak past for thirds any minute now.


Good eating!
Annean
xx

Brunch at Cafe Delight

My brunch - Eggs Florentine (with mushrooms instead of ham)

B's Brunch - Delight Breakfast

Went and had brunch with my sister and her son this morning, down at the Mandurah Marina. It was quiet, which was nice, probably because its overcast and been raining lately. But I love this weather so I enjoyed walking along the dock. We wandered the markets for a bit, but didn't find anything very interesting so we decided to have food and coffee.

We went to Cafe Delight a few months ago before my nephew was born, and I'd been disappointed to learn then that I couldn't swap ham for baby spinach. I mean, it's cheaper! I debated not bothering to try again, but was pleasantly surprised when the man at the counter not only said it was fine, but didn't try to charge me an extra $4 for the swap.

Working in hospitality at a cafe myself, I know how hard it is trying to explain to customers that some things cost more than others so they have to pay more, but when its less? In this case its more like... take out the ham and put the garnish on the food!

Mine was scrumptious, although it was obvious that the poached eggs were the pre-packed and snap frozen sort. Too perfect in shape, too uniform... and very firm. I wouldn't consider poaching eggs to be particularly difficult so I don't understand why some places don't do their own. The mushrooms were soft and buttery, the hollandaise sauce creamy and rich. Yum!

B on the other hand was rather disappointed in hers. The bacon seemed to be cooked in a barrel of salted grease, as was the tomato. They ran out of hash browns, the sausage was too salty and the poached eggs hard.

Some places you just can't seem to win completely.

Eggs on Toast and a Steaming Mug of Milo

No photo today, since it was your basic, everyday eggs on toast. Visiting my sister and her son tonight, so I went for the easiest dinner I could throw together.

Eggs on toast is probably my all-time favourite go to dinner when I can't be bothered going to any real effort. I prefer poached eggs, but that's more trouble than I'm willing to go to if I'm having a lazy cooking day.

Boring tonight, I know, but I'm not gonna let things lapse this early on in the endeavour :)

Annean
xx

Chicken Parmigiana with Sweet Potato Fries and Mixed Salad

Chicken Parmigiana with Sweet Potato Fries and Mixed Salad

Let it be noted here and now that I am prone to cheating in my kitchen. A goddess never needs to answer to anyone, for we can do as we please. I'll often by pre-prepared components and put them together. I could perhaps take longer, and invest more time and energy into my cooking, and in fact I do enjoy doing this! (I should do it more) I am passionate about food, but when you come home from a long day of serving food and coffee to other people the easiest options sound best!


So onto tonight's meal.

Thursday 21st of July

Chicken Parmigiana with Sweet Potato Fries and Mixed Salad

S loves Chicken Parmigiana. I think its an Australian male thing (although I know many women who love it too). Because I know many men who will always order the "Parmie" at every restaurant, or pub that they go to for a meal. I'm certainly not against that! But as someone who can't eat tomato, it's not what I'd order. 


With that in mind, I still enjoy a good chicken schnitzel with melted, gooey mozzarella and parmesan for bite on top. I can have mine, and he can have his. The tomato sauce today was actually a tomato and herby garlic pesto, thick and unguent. You could see the oil on top, all naughty and delicious. S enjoyed it anyway.


I baked some sweet potato fries to go with it, alongside a garlic aioli (with a swirl of tomato pesto for S) and a fresh salad of mixed salad leaves. The greens were mostly there to help break up the rich flavours of the other components. But S didn't see it quite the same way, and managed to get all of his greens onto one fork right at the start, and with a "get rid of the green stuff!" prompty ate the whole lot in one go.


So much for trying to create a gastronomical delight, huh? That's S for you though. :)


All in all, my first dinner on Kitchen Goddess in Training was a success. The fries weren't as crispy as they could have been, but the chicken was succulent, and the aioli as good as ever. If you enjoy a decent aioli, Maille's aioli is pretty tasty. I have noticed it's hard to find though, not many supermarkets seem to stock it.


Annean
xx

And so it begins

It's been a long time since I last kept a proper blog, and that was mostly for my own inane ramblings and amusement. I'd often thought about doing it again, because it was enjoyable. I could never think of where to go with it though... what's in my head is not that interesting!

But, I've been told that what's in my kitchen definitely is!

After talking to my sister on a number of occasions about favourite food blogs, it finally occurred to me. That's what I should do, I'm hardly qualified to be a food blogger since my attempts are humble and nowhere near as gourmet as some of the offerings out there. But it will be nice to keep a journal of what my husband and I eat on a regular basis. And some of the fancier (hardly, lol) meals I do for family and friends.

And if I go off on tangents, don't mind me.

Annean
xx