Cooking Class – Family

Golabki – Minced Cabbage Rolls – Cooking Class 14

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

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When I heard we were having “Gwomkes” or “Gwonkys” I was intrigued, as I had no idea what it was. I tried searching for it on the internet, although it’s not spelled the way it’s pronounced. It was actually Golabki (pronounced ga-WUMP-kee), a traditional Polish minced cabbage roll made from meat wrapped in lightly boiled cabbage leaves.

I was very happy to hear we would be making Polish food, as I haven’t tried much at all, even with it being a part of my heritage (if you have any Polish recipes or cookbooks you’d recommend, please send them through to me, as I’d love to explore Polish food more).

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Overall, everyone loved the golabki’s. They tasted great, no complaints on that front. They did mess up a lot of dishes, but a lot of good food does. I’d love to make them again, this time boiling the cabbage whole, as we took off the leaves individually and they tore a bit. Also, making it for fewer people would lower the hassle of this dish. Another cooking class done… we’ve stopped them for quite a while now, with New Years, holidays and everything getting in the way. Maybe we can pick them back up again…

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Golabki – Minced Cabbage Rolls

also spelled: Golumkies and Golumpkis
Recipe by my Dad with inspiration from my Babcia’s recipe.

Serves: 10 or more

2 kg finely minced beef
0.25 kg sausage mince
1 cup of cooked white rice
2 eggs
1 mid-size white onion finely chopped
White cooking cotton and/or tooth picks
12 to 14 cabbage leaves (possibly double depending upon size – we used a full cabbage)
Salt & Pepper
1 tablespoon butter
2 tins of tomato puree
80g butter
500ml full cream milk
½ cup plain flour

Cook the rice using the absorption method (Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a saucepan on high. Add 1 cup rice and stir. Add 1.5 cups boiling water. Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes).

As the rice is cooking, boil at least 3 litres of water.

Mix both meats together with the onion and egg. Add salt & pepper to taste. When the rice is cooked, add it to the meat mixture and mix it through.

Take 12 cabbage leaves and remove the core from each leaf. (Depending upon the size of the leaf then double the amount of leaves may be required and then they would be doubled up in the making of the rolls). We found out afterwards, it would be much easier to cut the core from the cabbage and boil the entire thing. This will make the leaves come away a lot easier, as our ones broke quite easily.

When the water is boiling, add a teaspoon of salt to the water. Place each of the cabbage leaves in the 3 litres of boiling water to blanch them. After approximately 3 minutes, take each leaf out of the boiling water. Shake off the excess water and place the cabbage leaf on a cutting board.

Take the meat mixture and spoon an adequate amount (a tablespoon or two) onto the cabbage leaf.

Fold the cabbage leaf onto itself, forming a tight roll. Use the cooking cotton to tie-up the roll so it won’t unravel.
Note: To secure the roll, the cotton tie may have to be tied around the ends as well as the sides of each roll. (If one wishes, a toothpick can be used to secure the roll.)

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Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 180C.

Add a tablespoon of butter (or more) to a frying pan on medium heat and melt the butter. Place each roll into the frying pan, turning so that all sides are lightly browned.

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To prepare the sauce, melt 80g butter over medium heat, add the flour and cook for a few minutes, add the milk and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the tomato puree.

As each roll is browned place it into a casserole dish. Pour the sauce over the rolls.

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Place the casserole dish into a moderate oven (180C) and cook for 40 minutes. After approximately 20 minutes, take out the casserole dish and turn each roll over. Continue cooking for the remainder of the 40 minutes.

Prepare a side dish of mashed potatoes, carrots and peas/beans to suit.

After the second 20 minutes, remove casserole dish and take each roll and place it on a plate. Add the side dishes. Spoon out the sauce from the casserole dish, covering the rolls and side dishes to taste.

Serve it and enjoy it.

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Pork and Fennel Sausage Pasta and Chocolate Fudge Cakes with Coffee Syrup – Cooking Class 13

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

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Trying new dishes is one of the best parts with our family cooking classes. I don’t think either of these recipes would have been at the very top of my list of dishes to make. Although after trying them I feel like making it again – and I will. (It’s been quite a while since this class – so I’m definitely craving the pasta right now…)

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There wasn’t much hassle with either of these meals and both resulted in a great taste. I have been wondering if there is another way to get the same flavours, without having to buy so many pork and fennel sausages (as this gets a bit expensive if cooking for a large number of people).

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BTW – I’ve been very busy intently reading through the Twilight series. I’ve just started “eclipse” (the 3rd) and am enjoying them thoroughly. If you’ve read them – did you enjoy them? (obviously without giving away any info 🙂 )

Pasta with Pork and Fennel Sausages

Serves: 4

6 Italian pork and fennel sausages (about 550g/1 lb 4 oz)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp chilli flakes
300g (10 ½ oz) field or button mushrooms, thinly sliced
800g (1lb 12 oz) tinned diced tomatoes
1 tbsp finely chopped thyme
500g (1lb 2 oz) penne rigate
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

Split the sausages open, remove and crumble the filling and discard the skins.

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Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and cook the onion for 3-4 minutes, or until fragrant and transparent. Add the garlic, chilli flakes, mushrooms and crumbled sausage meat. Cook over high heat, stirring gently to mash the sausage meat, for 4-5 minutes, or until the meat is evenly browned. If necessary, use a tablespoon to remove any excess fat from the pan, leaving about a tablespoon of oil. Continue to cook, stirring once or twice, for 10 minutes.

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Stir in the tomato and thyme, then bring the sauce to the boil. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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Meanwhile, cook the penne rigate in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain well, then add to the sauce, stirring to combine. Serve with parmesan.

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Chocolate Fudge Cakes with Coffee Syrup

Makes: 12

½ cup of cocoa powder
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup boiling water
85g dark cooking chocolate, finely chopped
2 egg yolks
¼ cup almond meal
1/3 cup wholemeal plain flour (we used plain flour)
4 egg whites

Pre-heat oven to 170°C, lightly grease 12-hole muffin pan (use 1/3 cup muffin pan).

Combine sugar and sifted cocoa, blend in water, then chocolate, and stir until smooth. Stir in egg yolks, almond meal, and flour.

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Beat egg-whites until soft peaks form.

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Fold into chocolate mixture in 2 batches. Divide mixture among pan-holes. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes. Make syrup.

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Stand cakes in pan for 5 minutes before serving with coffee syrup.

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Coffee Syrup:
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¾ cup water
1 tbsp coffee powder

Stir sugar and water in small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered without stirring for 15 minutes or until syrup thickens. Stir in coffee, strain into small heat-proof jug and serve.

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Baked Tomato Meatballs with Fresh Homemade Parpadelle Pasta – Cooking Class 12

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Please disregard the following code, it is so I can claim my blog on Technorati
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I reckon these meatballs are pretty great – especially that you just need to mix the ingredients together, roll in a ball then place in the oven and when they’re browned pour on some diced tomatoes.

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The pasta on the other hand was a bit of a handful… To be exact, we had a few problems with my pasta machine – catching the pasta and delaying the already time consuming activity. The other problem was the fact we were making fresh pasta for more than 12 people (including lunches).

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Apart from the ordeal with the pasta, this cooking class went extremely well and everyone was pleased with the result.

Homemade Pasta

Served 12-14 in this dish

700 – 750g plain flour
7 -8 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 pinches salt
a few glugs of olive oil

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until it is crumbly. (With this quantity it was quite difficult and the bottom ingredients clumped quite a bit). Turn out onto a lightly floured clean bench and knead with the palm of your hand until it’s come together. Cover in plastic and refrigerate for 30mins to 1 hour.

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Remove from fridge and divide into 8 portions. Keep unused portions covered in plastic. Using one portion at a time, roll out with rolling pin until thin enough to go through thickest setting on pasta machine. Make sure you flour both the pasta and the rollers in the machine. Once rolled, fold over and roll with rolling pin again, continue to roll through the pasta machine for a few times. Then reduce the thickness setting on the pasta machine and pass though. Continue to reduce the setting by one each time and once the pasta is as thin as you’d like (one of the last few settings), dust in flour, slice into thick strips and continue with other pasta portions.

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Once all the pasta is almost finished being prepared, boil a very large pot of water. Add some salt to the boiling water and cook the pasta (in batches if need be) until al dente (this won’t take very long with fresh made pasta).

Baked meatballs and tomato sauce

Recipe from the Donna Hay section in the Sunday Magazine

Serves: 8

4 slices white bread
¾ cup milk
500g pork mince
500g beef mince
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 x 400g cans diced tomatoes

finely grated parmesan cheese, extra, to serve

Preheat oven to 220C. Place the bread in a bowl and pour over milk. Stand for 5 minutes to allow the milk to be absorbed. Tear the bread into pieces. Place bread in a large bowl with the pork mince, beef mince, eggs, parmesan, half the parsley and 3 garlic cloves. Mix well to combine.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls, place in two baking dishes and drizzle with oil.

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Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned. Add 2 cans of tomatoes and 1 garlic clove to each dish and stir to combine.

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Bake for a further 5-8 minutes or until the sauce in warmed through. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and parmesan to serve.

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Feta and Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes and Asparagus, Bacon and Parmesan Pasta – Cooking Class 11

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

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Another cooking class, another new recipe (or two, possibly three – in this case).

Trying to fit quite a number of people in a small kitchen, all trying to find something to help with and space to actually do it, is quite a spectacle. Luckily the dessert for this cooking class was not too involved, as you will find out later…

Not being a fan of asparagus or raw tomatoes, I was a bit concerned when I saw what we were making. Fortunately, both these dishes were great and most of us are looking forward to eating them again, either as separate dishes or together.

The pasta bake was lovely and flavoursome with the bacon, cheese and even the asparagus (I guess I do like asparagus). The stuffed tomatoes had a great combination of olives, pinenuts and herbs and of course the feta and ricotta.

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Dessert was described as a Jamie Oliver tried and tested, fantastic recipe. We were told it may take a while and could be quite involved… I was so intrigued as to what it could be and could not help but laugh when I saw the so-called “recipe”.

On the page was something I have made and eaten plenty of times before. At one stage I was eating it almost every night… it was…

Maltesers on Ice cream!

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I kid you not. It was in Jamie’s book, with an understandably short recipe. Something like:
Ingredients: Ice cream and a bag of maltesers
Method: Crush maltesers, place on ice cream and serve.

Feta and Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes

Recipes from Party & Snack Perfection

Serves: 6

6 large firm tomatoes
105g feta cheese, crumbled
150g ricotta cheese
60g pine nuts, chopped
10 black olives, pitted and chopped
1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
3 tablespoons wholemeal breadcrumbs
freshly ground black pepper
6 block olives to garnish
extra oregano leaves to garnish

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cut a lid off the top of each tomatoes and set aside. Carefully scoop the centre of each tomatoes into and large bowl. Combine half the tomato mixture with the feta, ricotta, pine nuts, olives, oregano, breadcrumbs and pepper. Beat mixture together and spoon back into the cases (piling the tops high). Discard left over tomato flesh.

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Place in a lightly greased shallow oven-proof dish and bake 20-25 minutes.

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Garnish with an olive and oregano (we left this bit out) and serve.

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Asparagus, Bacon and Parmesan Tortiglioni

Recipe from The Australian Women’s Weekly Eating in

Serves: 4

500g tortiglioni pasta (or another tube-pasta, if you can’t find this)
500g asparagus, chopped coarsely
2 teaspoons olive oil
5 bacon rashers, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g butter, chopped
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup (40g) grated parmesan cheese
½ cup (50g) grates mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling water, uncovered, until just tender. Drain and return to pan.

Meanwhile, boil, steam or microwave asparagus until just tender, drain.

Heat oil in large frying pan, add bacon, cook, stirring, until crisp. Add garlic, cook until fragrant.

Add bacon mixture to drained pasta with butter, asparagus, parsley and a quarter of the combined cheeses, toss gently

Preheat grill to hot. Transfer pasta mixture to shallow 2.5 litre ovenproof dish. Sprinkle top of pasta with remaining cheese. Place under grill until cheese has browned. (Alternatively place the dish in a moderate oven [180C] for 10-20 minutes until the cheese has browned)

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Chicken and Chorizo Paella (Risotto) and Churros – Cooking Class 10

Monday, October 5th, 2009

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I have wanted to try churros for so long. I have only once tried them at a Spanish restaurant and was absolutely disappointed. The churros were very soggy and the dipping sauce tasted like a bottle of cheap chocolate sauce used for ice cream.

Such high expectations and such a horrible dish – and what’s worse is one of the staff said it was their favourite dish – and she was Spanish!!! I am waiting patiently to try some at another Spanish restaurant, hopefully this time I will have a better experience.

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So for my second cooking class I chose a non-seafood paella and churros! I had a few problems with both dishes… The first was the quantity of paella we made. It is difficult to cook something properly when you are cooking for 12 or more people (we take lunches to work). One very large stockpot doesn’t really allow the amount of water evaporate as it should. None-the-less it turned out a lovely risotto. 🙂

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Then came the churros. These were quite nice and I would love to try them again. Our biggest problem was controlling the temperature of the oil, too hot or too cold and the churros didn’t cook properly. I also think they were a little thick – I used the biggest star nozzle that came in the piping pack I bought. This seemed to be the perfect size until they doubled (or maybe tripled) in size whilst cooking – although while cooling they did reduce in size a little. All-in-all it was fun and I would definitely make these again.

Chicken and Chorizo Paella (Risotto)

Serves: 8

2 chorizos, halved lengthways and sliced
8 large chicken breast or thighs, cut into large chunks
Olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
600g paella or risotto rice
2-2.2 litres hot chicken stock
2 red capsicums, de-seeded and sliced or cut into chunks
1 green capsicum, de-seeded and sliced or cut into chunks
1 cup peas, frozen peas should be thawed in some boiling water while preparing
6 large, ripe plum tomatoes, cut into chunky pieces
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
Lemon wedges, to serve

Heat a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add chorizos and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes, until turning golden and the oil has been released. Remove and set aside.

Add the chicken in a few sets and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring, until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, then add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and paprika to the pan and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice, stir to coat in the oil and then add 2 litres hot stock. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Return the chicken to the pan and add the capsicum, peas and tomatoes. Stir and cook for 5 minutes, adding a little more stock or hot water if necessary. Season and stir the chorizo and parsley into the pan.

Continue to cook for 5 minutes or until the rice is just tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Serve with lemon wedges.

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Churros and hot chocolate

Recipe from Karen Martini on Better Homes and Gardens (I watched the video and wrote down the instructions)

100ml milk
100ml water
80g butter
1½ tablespoons caster sugar
Pinch salt
120g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly whisked

Vegetable Oil, for frying

Hot chocolate
250g dark chocolate
800ml milk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa

Icing sugar mixed with cinnamon, to dust on top of churros

Place vegetable oil in a large pot and start it heating up on medium/hot heat (eventually to 180ºC).

Bring milk, water, butter, caster sugar and salt to the boil in a medium saucepan. Add flour and stir to combine. Once combined, stir hard to form a thick dough and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes to cook the flour and remove lumps.

Put mixture into a food processor while still hot and turn food processor on. Add whisked eggs and process for 30 seconds until a smooth sticky paste is formed. Scoop out and put into a piping bag with a star nozzle ready for frying.

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For the hot chocolate, place a large metal bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Place 250g dark chocolate in the bowl. In a separate saucepan, place milk, caster sugar and cocoa and whisk together, bring to a simmer, then pour over the melted chocolate, whisk until smooth. Keep chocolate mixture over water to keep hot, until ready to serve.

To fry the churros, either pipe a figure 8 on a oiled spatula and slide carefully into the hot oil (180C), or pipe a line and cut with a knife and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden, they will double in size. Remove from oil and place on paper towel for a bit, then heavily dust with cinnamon icing sugar mix and serve with hot chocolate.

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Chicken and Leek Risotto – Cooking Class 9

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

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Trying to guess what we were having for this cooking class was difficult. The host for this evening isn’t known for being adventurous. Most vegetables are normally off the list and fruits too.

That’s why we were all pleasantly surprised finding out we were making a risotto, with both leek and lemon. This is one of the reasons these cooking classes are so good (like the Daring Bakers Challenges I do). It forces us to try dishes we never thought of making plus finally making those that we have wanted to make for a while and never got around to it.

This risotto is very flavoursome, easy to prepare and heats up well for lunch. So this will go on the list of easy risottos to make.

Chicken and Leek Risotto

(I will update the recipe source when I get a chance to ask the host)

Serves: 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
600g chicken breast, roughly chopped
2 leeks, sliced
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 cups arborio/carnaroli rice
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups peas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup parmesan, finely grated
2 tablespoons mint, chopped
salt and cracked pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan forced oven).

Heat oil in frying pan over high heat, add chicken and cook until well browned. Remove chicken, set aside.

Put leeks and lemon zest into pan, cook until leeks soften.

Place leeks rice and stock in baking dish, cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

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Add chicken pieces and peas, re-cover and bake for a further 20 minutes.

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Risotto will still be liquid – add lemon juice, mint, parmean, salt and pepper, stir well for 2 minutes to thicken risotto. Serve immediately.

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Bi Bim Bap – Cooking Class 8

Friday, June 5th, 2009

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When Nick chose his next Cooking Class dish, no one had heard of it (and don’t ask me to say it, because I’m sure my Australian accent does it no justice, I’ve already spelt it wrong a couple of times).

It was described to me as a Korean stir-fry without the actual stir-fry. More of a combination of flavoured vegetables and some beef all cooked separately, then laid onto each person’s bowl of rice, with a fried egg with soft yolk placed on top. Break the yolk and eat different sections, or mix and match.

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It took a bit longer to make then we expected. We had to cook each part separately in the wok, although it was worth it, and the hot rice helped heat up anything that had cooled slightly. Nick was happy with it too, saying it was quite similar to what he had previously tried (even though he’s only tried it once or twice).

Bi Bim Bap
(Recipe adapted from Maangchi)
For 4- 6 servings

1 tablespoon butter
2 cups rice
3 cups boiling water
salt
a package of bean sprouts
a bunch of spinach, sliced in long strips
2 zucchinis, peeled and cut into long thin slices
8 Shiitake mushrooms (if they are dried, you need to soak them for 2 hours), sliced thinly
200 grams of ground beef (about half a pound), or diced beef
3 carrots, peeled and cut into long thin slices
4-6 eggs
soy sauce
6 cloves garlic
sugar
sesame seeds, sesame oil, and vegetable oil
A platter for vegetables

Green onion sauce
4 green onions
½ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Rinse bean sprouts 3 times and put them in a pot with a cup of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and cook for 20 minutes. Half way through add 1 clove of minced garlic, sesame oil and a pinch of salt. Drain and place on platter.

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Heat a medium saucepan on medium/high heat. Add butter and then stir in rice to coat. Add a few pinches of salt, stir, then add boiling water and stir. Once water has come back to the boil, turn down to as low as possible, place the lid on and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Put spinach in a pot of boiling water and stir it for a minute. Then rinse it in cold water a few times and squeeze it lightly. Mix it with a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic and sesame oil. Put it on the platter.

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Sprinkle zucchinis with a pinch of salt and mix together. A few minutes later, sauté zucchini in a wok over high heat. When it’s cooked, it will look a little translucent. Put it on the platter.

Sauté shitake mushrooms with 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in wok. Add 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar and stir it for 2 minutes. Add some sesame oil, and put it on the platter.

Add some oil to the wok and cook ground beef. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, ½ tablespoon of sugar, a little grounded black pepper, and sesame oil. Place on platter

Sauté carrots it for 30 seconds and put it on the platter.

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Add a little butter to a pan and cook eggs with sunny side up. (Crack into pan and cook until egg white cooked and yolk still runny).

For the sauce, add all ingredients together and mix.

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Spoon rice into bowls and attractively display all your vegetables and meat. Place the sunny side up egg on the centre. Serve it with green onion sauce, sesame oil and hot pepper paste. Lastly, mix it up and eat!

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Meatloaf with Hidden Boiled Egg – Cooking Class 7

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

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You may be surprised to hear that I can only remember maybe once eating meatloaf and I certainly can’t remember if it had egg in it. This dish was chosen with the special condition that there was whole boiled eggs hidden in the middle of the loaf, so when it was sliced when serving, a lovely slice of egg was evident.

This mix was very tasty, the only problem being that the meat mix fell apart a bit while slicing. Maybe we should push down on the mix more, compact the top? Possibly add a bit more beaten egg to combine the meat better? Either way, it was a lovely flavour combination and I would be more than happy to try and perfect this… maybe the host would too? 😉

Meatloaf with Hidden Eggs

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 large size brown onion, finely chopped
8 eggs (2 of these eggs, beaten lightly)
2 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
¼ cup of tomato sauce
1.5kg beef mince
500g sausage mince
1½ cups breadcrumbs
¼ tablespoon freshly ground pepper
1 medium carrot, finely grated
5 tablespoons of HP sauce

Hard boil 6 eggs and allow to cool before removing their shells. Heat a large saucepan to medium heat, add the oil and cook the onion for 5-10 minutes, until translucent.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Mix beef and sausage mince using a wooden spoon or by hand. Add the remaining ingredients, including the beaten eggs (excluding the boiled eggs) and mix until well blended.

Spoon half of the mixture into the bottom of 2 or 3 greased loaf tins. Form small indentations for the hard boiled eggs and place eggs into mixture. Smooth the remainder of the mixture into the tin over the eggs.

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Bake in oven for 30 minutes, then remove from oven. Remove from the loaf tin and place on a baking tray. Cover loosely with foil to prevent over-browning. Bake in oven for a further 20 minutes.

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Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Slice and serve with vegetables.

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Phad Thai – Cooking Class 6

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

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For the latest family cooking class there was a desire to find the perfect home-made Phad Thai. Although this was a lovely mix (I especially loved the sugar content 🙂 – although this was one of the downfalls for most others), the host of this weeks cooking class was not satisfied with the overall flavours and textures of this dish.

We would certainly try to combine some aspects of this recipe with some other recipes and try to improve on the overall dish.

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Any suggestions on things we are missing or how things could be improved would be most welcomed. 🙂 But I’ll give you the recipe in case anyone likes a sweet Phad Thai.

Phad Thai Noodles

Serves: 4-6

375g packet rice stick dried noodles, soaked in cold water for 2 hours or overnight to soften, drain
vegetable oil
½ onion, sliced
500g chicken, cut into small strips
2 tablespoon pickled white radish (optional)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 eggs
2 spring onions, sliced
½ can baby corn pieces
1 carrot, sliced
half bunch Chinese chives, cut into 2.5cm pieces
1 cup bean sprouts
3-4 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts

Sauce
2 tablespoon tamrind concentrate
1 cup sugar
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
½ cup water

Make sauce by mixing ingredients in a saucepan and heating on medium heat, boil for around 15 minutes while preparing the rest of the meal and keep warm.

Heat oil in wok on medium heat and cook onion until transparent and browning slightly. Remove from wok. Cook chicken in batches in the wok and set aside.

Add eggs and stir-fry until scrambled and slightly dry. Remove from pan.

Add some oil and cook spring onions for 1-2 minutes, then add corn, carrot, cooked chicken and onion. Add sauce and noodles and mix. Add chives and bean sprouts and serve with lime wedges, chopped peanuts and ground chilli, if desired.

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Swedish Meatballs – Cooking Class 5

Friday, May 8th, 2009

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I’m not sure of the reasons behind Swedish meatballs being chosen for the fifth cooking class… but I’m glad it was! Having never had Swedish meatballs before, I can’t comment on the authenticity of the flavours, but I was very happy with these flavoursome, slightly creamy, very more-ish meatballs. So much so that I did… lick the plate 🙂 .

This is a definite dish to try and can be modified to what you’ve got in the fridge or freezer, the original recipe was modified to include both pork and beef mince as I was told many of the Swedish meatball recipes on the internet varied between different minces and different ingredients. Our meatballs were served with mashed potato and honeyed caramelised onions in kumara (sweet potato) mash, although serve with what you desire, salad, rice or steamed vegetables.

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Swedish Meatballs
Recipe from Taste.com.au

Serves: 4

1/2 cup (45g) breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (60ml) cream
500g Heart Smart beef mince (or 350g beef mince + 150g pork mice)
1 small onion, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
3/4 cup (185ml) beef stock
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 cup (125ml) cream, extra
Mixed salad leaves and crusty bread, to serve

Soak breadcrumbs in the cream. Add the mince, onion, garlic, allspice, egg and salt. Season with pepper. With wetted hands, shape mixture into small balls.

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Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. In batches, cook meatballs until brown. Drain excess oil.

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Return all meatballs to the pan and add the stock. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs and cover with foil to keep warm.

Combine the cornflour with a little water and stir into the stock mixture. Heat through until boiling. Reduce heat to low. Add extra cream and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Pour sauce over meatballs and serve with salad leaves and crusty bread – or serve with mashed potato and veggies, as we did.

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