Blondie's Recipes | Finding Feasts

Bangers and Mash w/ Onion Gravy (aka Sausages and Mashed Potato)

Finding Feasts - Bangers and Mash — Click image for recipe

Bangers and Mash w/ Onion Gravy (aka Sausages and Mashed Potato)…This is a classic English meal and one that sits close to my heart. Anything resembling a sausage casserole on top of a soft, cloud-like pillow of mashed potato is my ultimate comfort food. If it’s on the menu at a restaurant I will order it over anything else that is there – I have passed up (maybe foolishly) some amazing meals just to try that particular restaurant’s Bangers and Mash.

There are only three elements to this dish – three perfect elements, and if one fails it will pull the other two down leaving you with nothing more than an English Private School canteen lunch (right up there with their Mushy Pea’s… Blah! That taste will forever be etched on my taste buds!)

To start with, you need to get the best sausages you know of. Here I have chosen the thick beef sausages from Hudson Meats. They are a ‘paddock to plate’ butcher and pride themselves on using regional farms to source their produce.

The potatoes for the mash should be the floury kind, such as a Coliban or King Edward but there are some fantastic multi purpose ones like Sebago, Pontiac or Desiree. My favourite would be the Royal Blue. It has purple skin and a yellow flesh and is great for mashing and baking.

Lastly is the brown onion gravy. A high quality beef stock is all important. You can buy it but if you are so inclined then make your own highly nutrient rich bone broth with high quality bones from animals that have lived the good life… Pasture fed from go to whoa is what you want. If you are going to the effort to make it then make it worth it.

Place the bones in a pot, top with cold water and leave to soak for about an hour with 1/4 cup of vinegar. This process is vital to drawing out the nutrients within the bones. Remove the bones, pat them dry and then brown them in a hot oven with some vegetables. Throw all the browned bones and vegetables into a pot with enough water to cover them (you can use the soaking liquid if you choose) and leave to simmer away for as long as 36-48 hours if you can.

Tip: The longer the bones are left to simmer the greater amount of nutrients you will draw out of them, but if you can’t wait that long for some stock then you can strain what you have and then top up with water again and begin the process over – easy! The bones will keep leaching their goodies – and a benefit is that the second stock will be less intense in flavour so you have two options for your cooking needs, just throw in a few browned chicken wings for the gelatin.

You can add herbs to the stock but I like to keep my stocks quite ‘nude’ so I can alter them as I need to.

To cook this dish I like to brown the sausages, then make the gravy. Place both in a baking dish and finish off the sausages cooking time in the oven, herein lies the ‘casserole’ style that I’m particularly fond of! I haven’t come across anyone else who does it this way, so let me know if it’s converted you?

Comfort food at it’s most sublime… Blondie

BlondieLeave a comment

Ridiculously Rich Dark Chocolate Sorbet

FF - Dark Chocolate Sorbet — Click image for recipe

Ridiculously Rich Dark Chocolate Sorbet, the title is no joke, It truly is ridiculously rich!

If I were to choose my favourite flavour combination for dessert it would have to be strawberries and chocolate… strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberry filled chocolates etc. Actually, no, Chocolate and mint would be my favourite, wait, no… coffee and lemon. Damn! I’ve got alot of sorbets to make 🙂

Anyway, this is a great start to my sorbet odyssey as they are very simple to prepare and great to have on hand. You could make this a little more adult by adding your favourite liquor – there is already vodka in it to stop it from setting rock hard but also add cointreau for a choc orange flavoured sorbet or add a hazelnut liquor.

Divide the pre frozen sorbet into small batches and you could make an endless flavour combinations to tease your friends with… the flavour combinations are truly endless.

Bowl licking good! Blondie

Dark Chocolate Sorbet

BlondieLeave a comment

Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms

Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad w/ Seared Salmon and Wild Mushrooms is the very first dish I made with this years first haul from the forest… although not really a haul as I came out with only 13 prized funghi specimens but pair them with a stunning salmon fillet and it’s a feast of a dinner.

It’s still a little too warm for the mushrooms at this point but the rains we have been having in NSW makes for a very promising season. There were lots of very little baby mushrooms poking their heads out, they will be just ripe for picking the following week.

As you can see from my basket there wasn’t too much around, a very small haul indeed but still a feast worthy of a delicious dinner.

FinSkis 2014 mushrooming trip — A small haul but still worthy of a dinner

This is a high nutrient rich meal with just a little indulgent use of butter and a sweet hit from the vino cotto.

Enjoy the forage and savour the feast – Blondie 🙂

BlondieLeave a comment

Zucchini Koftas in Creamy Tomato Sauce

Zucchini Koftas in Creamy Tomato Sauce is an insanely moresih kofta recipe – it really is hard to stop eating these deep fried zucchini balls. The recipe does call for the zucchini koftas to warm in the sauce but when I do it again I will serve the sauce on the side (or underneath) the kofta balls so I keep the texture of the balls, which soften when sitting in the sauce.

This meal is also kid friendly – there is chilli in it so just remove or reduce it if they aren’t a fan of heat, but they will most certainly love the zucchini balls.

TIP: since the koftas really need to be eaten immediately (they go a little soggy otherwise, but still tasty) turn the leftovers into sausage rolls – these are absolutely stunning! Mix the balls and remaining sauce together with some paneer or ricotta and roll up in puff pastry. This way you get the texture and the flavour just in a different form.

My household is still going strong with our 3-4 days worth of vegetarian days a week and it’s been really exciting coming up with recipes to excite and engage… this one is no exception as it has the naughtiness of deep fried food and the lushness of the creamy tomato curry sauce. I have also included a recipe for Paneer Parathas, which are an Indian stuffed bread, just perfect for dunking into the sauce.

Happy dunking!

Blondie 🙂

BlondieLeave a comment

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting… So the question of what to do with old bananas would pop into most peoples minds at some point while they look at their decaying fruit. A bright spark of an idea will envelope them as they remember that they love banana bread and surely it can’t be too difficult to make…

Bella and I are both guilty of leaving bananas too long on the bench and having them eventually end up in the garbage, but no longer! I will forever now be making banana bread because this recipe is so, so simple. You just bung all the ingredients into the food processor and blitz, spray your bread tin and throw it into the oven for one hour – and what an hour it is. The house fills with the aroma of freshly baked banana bread, scented with vanilla and cinnamon that lingers hours after the baking has finished.

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting is a moist, dense cake that has a fine crumb and holds it’s self well to toasting or eating fresh. It will keep in your fridge for ages, just lightly cover it and if you want the feeling of freshly baked banana bread then pop a thick slice into the microwave for 5-7 seconds and it bounces back to it’s old self – moist and slightly warm, yum!

Forever a classic – Blondie 🙂

BlondieLeave a comment

Kale and 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Rich Tomato and Mushroom Sauce

Kale 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Tomato Mushroom Sauce. My mum makes the best lasagna, it’s seriously good, and as with any great recipe that is made by all mum’s the world over, you can never make it as good as theirs. That’s why going back home is always so good.

This Kale 3 Cheese Lasagna w/ Tomato Mushroom Sauce is based on mum’s design and her cheese mixture, this is just the vegetarian version. It’s super delicious and soul warming.

I know, the words Blondie and vegetarianism are never seen together, but that was prior to doing Meat Free Week a couple of weeks ago. It was hubby’s decision to do it and as a family we embraced the idea. We had been talking about meat alot of late, not only about reducing our intake but being more conscious of where it was coming from. I had wanted to make meat the ‘special occasion’ meal, the dinner you saved up for and cooked with purpose and love, knowing the animal or fish had lived a good, rich and healthy life.

What surprised me most about that week was it actually took alot more effort and conscious thought to design meals for 7 full days of meat free living than it does to construct and meal with meat. The days were used to think of dinners and lunches that were full of flavour and filled the space left by meat. Sure, I could have done a week of salads and roasted veggies, but I really wanted to try try some other recipes. I don’t want to rely on rice and potatoes to fill the void.

What also surprised me or surprised us all was the fact we had planned to ‘celebrate’ day eight – the start of meat eating again – with my son’s favourite meal of burgers and chips from Grill’d. It was a very enjoyable dinner and a delicious way of re-starting our meat loving ways, but it wasn’t till the next Friday that meat was requested again… funny.

With several new recipes under my belt and with the need to buy quality, local meat our new life of conscious meat eating has begun – 3 to 4 days meat free and enjoying amazing places like Feather and Bone Providore here in Sydney to buy our meat from.

Happy eating, however you choose to do it – Blondie 🙂

BlondieLeave a comment

Wild Mushroom Tarte Tatin with Taleggio and Vino Cotto Drizzle

Wild Mushroom Tarte Tatin with Taleggio and Vino Cotto Drizzle… With Mother’s Day only a month away, I thought I would put up a recipe that would surely bowl her over, especially if you turn up with a bottle of bubbly to go along with it – it would certainly put a smile on my face!

I have used Pine Mushrooms aka Saffron mIlk Cap Mushrooms because the colour is so vibrant and they still retain a firm texture (and I have a ton from our last mushrooming venture!) but if you are having trouble getting a hold of them you could use a Swiss brown and button mushroom mix.

The Vino Cotto adds a gorgeous sweetness to the earthy mushrooms and the melted Taleggio is to die for. Each crispy bite is heaven!

This is such an adaptable dish for whatever the occasion is as you can make a large version to share around a table, or individual tarts that can be served with a little salad on the side as an entree or even as finger food, made in little muffin tins to pass around at parties – and everyone is going to love them!

Happy Mother’s Day! Blondie

Blondie4 Comments