Bella's Recipes | Finding Feasts

Chocolate Brownies – the packet kind!

FinSki's Chocolate Brownies 1 — Click on image for full recipe

Come on, admit it, these chocolate brownies look good huh! Firm on the outside, rich, dark and gooey on the inside, a devilish treat if you ask me.

Did I slave over the oven with these? Definitely not.

A few weeks ago Imogen was in her ‘mum let’s bake some cup cakes mood’. This goes something like this…we head out to the shops, buy the packet mix and additional ingredients, get home and prepare everything and she suddenly disappears but some how reappears again when it is time to lick the spoon!

Having baked the same old velvet cup cakes over and over again I jumped at the opportunity to try something totally new. You won’t believe this but I have never made chocolate brownies before! Yup…never! I know…deprived childhood huh.

It was a Sunday, I was not the least bit interested in baking anything but Imogen found this mix at Thomas Dux…

The packet came with choc chips and all that I needed to add was 2 eggs and some melted butter, too easy!

I’m no expert at making chocolate brownies but these were pretty good! For $4.99, I highly recommend keeping a packet in your pantry for the ‘just in case’.

Bella 🙂

BellaLeave a comment

Chocolate Sachertort

Finding Feasts - Sachertort — Click image for recipe

Have you got your mother’s day gift and day sorted yet? Better hurry! It’s mother’s day this Sunday 11th May.

I love mother’s day, not because of the gifts (they do help tho…wink…wink…nudge…nudge hubby if you are reading this!) but because I love seeing my daughter’s face the night before when she schemes up complicated breakfasts for my husband and her to cook in the morning. I generally wake up to clatter and bang noises in the kitchen and then have an amazing breakfast waiting for me down stairs. Post breakfast there is no time to rest though because it’s time to get cooking for the family mother’s day lunch which has been hosted at our place for the last few years.

Mum always brings dessert however two years ago I surprised her with this fantastic dessert – a chocolate sachertort.

I attempted my first sachertort about 3 years ago when my husbands mum, Heather bought me a baking book. It’s fair to say that I don’t particularly have a sweet tooth but this recipe is divine!

I am proud to say that I can now make it with my eyes closed; well almost!
It’s the perfect after dinner dessert, rich, gooey and yummy!

PS…HAPPY ‘late’ MOTHERS DAY to all the mums!
xox Bella

BellaLeave a comment

Bigos | Hunter’s Stew

Bigos or Hunter’s Stew… I am not afraid of letting the world know that I would love to go on one of those cooking shows and wow the judging panel with the national dish of Poland! What frightens the heck out of me is presenting this dish on a plate!I can see the comments now…”Bella you have created a warm and hearty stew, full of flavour and intensity, however what has really let you down is your presentation”.
The Italian’s have Pasta, the English have Fish & Chips (as I have just recently learned from Blondie!) the Hungarian’s have Goulash and the Poles have, Hunter’s Stew a.k.a Bigos.

Let’s face it, this isn’t the most appealing dish to photograph. I have countless hours this week surfing the net for presentation ideas to ensure that it does not look like slop on a plate, however where presentation fails somewhat, taste sensation sets in! And let me tell you that this dish will warm the heart on a cold winter’s day!

Bigos has been eaten by the Poles for many centuries, it is approximately 700 years old. When speaking to dad about its meaning he said the word bigos signified a combination or mixture of ingredients similar to a mess… success! I have created a mess.
As a child I have fond memories of family gatherings where bigos was one of the feature dishes. I would eagerly await for my bowl and dip mum’s rye bread into the rich and flavoursome sauce.

Whilst there are basic components like sauerkraut, onion, mushrooms and meat, there is no right way of making bigos and you will see that it varies from family to family. My mum’s bigos has evolved over the last 30 years from adding tomato paste to not adding it, from making it a runny stew to making it a dry stew and the changes go on.

When I got mum’s new recipe I thought to myself…I will just make enough for the blog / photos… mission impossible! The dish is best made to a large consistency, after all it taste so much better with time. Yes you can eat it within 3 hours of cooking it however the taste develops as it stands. I would normally give it 1-2 days, although it never lasts that long!

chochla-miesiaca-wiosna-400 — This recipe got Ladle of the month!!

My tips for making this dish:
1) use good quality sauerkraut and to me nothing beats Krakus Sauerkraut! I tried making my own a few months back – failed miserably but that is a story for another day!
2) don’t over liquid the cooking process. Remember that this is a dry stew so its not meant to be covered in water.
3) best eaten on the 2nd day!
4) eat it over rye or sourdough bread with a bottle of Zywiec!
Smacznego!

Smacznego! Bella

BellaLeave a comment

Burmese Beef Cheek Curry by Chef Pete Evans

Finding Feasts - Burmese-Beef-Cheek-Curry — Click image for recipe

When Chef Pete Evans new cook book ‘Healthy Everyday’ landed on my lap a few weeks ago I was like a kid in a candy store. I couldn’t wait to leave the office, get home and read it cover to cover. This book is fantastic and it’s no wonder that as of two weeks ago it was officially the No.1 book in Australia! There are 120 recipes and I will be test driving all of them!

With Imogen away at nan and pops house and a rainy weekend on the door step there was nothing else to do but get in the kitchen and cook up a storm!

Choosing my first recipe was dead easy! I picked up some beef cheeks from my local butcher the week before so Burmese beef cheek curry it was. The recipe is a small labour of love so I wouldn’t recommend attempting this on a week night after work. Whilst I was very tempted to take a short cut and pop the beef cheek curry into the pressure cooker I am proud to say that stuck to the recipe and 3 hours later I had gelatinous, melt in the mouth, slow cooked goodness that sent me to heaven and back! There is definitely something very satisfying about eating slow cooked food on a miserable autumn night and as hubby and I settled in to watch our Vikings marathon, the sweet smell of the Burmese beef cheek curry permeated throughout the house for the rest of the night.

Special message of thanks:

This post is dedicated to my good friends at Macmillan Publishers, in particular Siv Toigo who has been kind enough to feed my cook book collecting habit over the past year, and to my boss, Mario Isaias, who has been lugging the books back to our office on each occasion – thank you to the both of you!

Finding Feasts - Burmese-Beef-Cheek-Curry2

Happiness is…Healthy Every Day!

Finding Feasts - Burmese-Beef-Cheek-Curry

Ps…yup…that’s me…in bed with Peter Evans! LOL!

Bella 🙂

BellaLeave a comment

Tomato Salsa

FinSki's_Salsa 1 — Click on image for full recipe

I don’t have an fantastic story behind this tomato salsa recipe. I made tacos the other night for dinner (chicken and beef) and I wanted to make my own salsa. I’ve made fresh salsa before from ripe tomatoes but I couldn’t find any in the supermarket so making it from canned organic tomatoes was the next best option.

Like majority of recipes there are plenty of variations of this on other cooking sites and blogs so chances are you will have come across something very similar. Best of all it takes about 15 minutes to prepare and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist either to guess the basic ingredients that will go in, you’ll most likely have these sitting in the pantry.

This basic recipe asks for canned tomatoes, coriander, salt, pepper, sweet paprika, chilli, cumin and lime juice. I love my limes and I love my tomato salsa to pack a ‘zinggy’ punch so I used the juice of one full lime. This makes the tomato salsa come out a little runny but it worked a treat on my soft tacos with gooey cheese.

One of two things happened when I made this…either I was very,very hungry or it was extremely delicious, because it’s almost gone!

How do you make your tomato salsa?

BellaLeave a comment

Gołąbki – Polish cabbage rolls

Gołąbki or Polish cabbage rolls is definitely an autumn comfort food dish and although autumn has just started here in Australia and it is still relatively warm I do crave a good hearty dish every few nights.

Mum mostly made gołąbki on a Sunday for obiad (lunch). I still remember how beautiful the kitchen would smell with the rich tomato sauce bubbling away slowly and warming up the whole house. My favourite bit would be soaking up the tomato sauce at the bottom of the bowl with a piece of rye bread, ensuring that I scraped every last bit!

Gołąbki, pronounced ‘go-wump-kie’ translates to little pigeons. I’ve absolutely no idea why this dish is called that. I have heard stories that back in the day the Poles would actually make the dish from real pigeons so maybe it’s because the rolled cabbage leaf resembles a pigeons body? Regardless of the story behind the name they are delicious and very versatile.

There are plenty of other Eastern European nations that have a variation of this dish and they all look equally yummy! The Finns for example call it kaalikääryleet, now try pronouncing that!

Gołąbki is a humble dish which is traditionally made from mince meat such as pork, beef or veal but you can alter the ingredients to suit your own taste. Last mother’s day I made two versions of this, one with meat and the other with rice, grains and mushrooms. I also made a miso stock to go with the veggie option! Both were equally good however nothing beats an original gołąbki recipe!

A scrumptious dish that will hit the spot on a cool autumn evening that is best enjoyed with a good Polish beer! Would love to know if you have ever tasted these?

Smacznego!

BellaLeave a comment

How to make Christmas turkey gravy

Jamie Oliver’s make ahead Christmas turkey gravy is simply the best! This will be my second year making it and as a gravy lover I have to say that it’s probably one of the best sauces I have tasted.

With only 10 days till Christmas, making this gravy now will save you loads of time and take the stress out of Christmas day. It’s dead easy to make and tastes delish!

Come Christmas day all you’ll need to do is take it out of the freezer, defrost it and warm it up!

Merry Christmas!

BellaLeave a comment