Cooking Eating Storytelling
Avocado & Miso Dressing w/ Chicken Quesadillas – This is a multi use dressing as it will depend on the consistency you make it as to its use. Here I have used it as a dip so have left it quite thick. If you want to have it as a dressing for a chicken salad then add some water till you get to a more fluid type consistency.
The flavours in this dressing pair so well with chicken that I know you will come up with a multitude of menu ideas to use it with.
Happy lunching! Blondie
I have said it before, I am a huge fan of Annabel Langbein, her recipes are homey, simple yet they packed full yummy flavour.
This Chermoula Marinade / Dipping Sauce features in her book, The Free Range Cook. I had something similar a few years back during my first trip to New Zealand when my husband’s aunt Cheryl made the most amazing tasting chicken skewers I have tasted in a very long time.
This marinade can be used on all sorts of meat and it can also be made into a delicious Chermoula Dipping Sauce.
The recipe called for preserved lemons, I didn’t have any so I omitted them.
The Chermoula Dipping Sauce is to die for and makes a fantastic salad dressing for a quick and easy Creamy Moroccan Cucumber Salad.
What is your favourite marinade for meat?
Bella 
PS…you can use it to make these fantastic Spicy Chicken Skewers!
Wild Mushroom Ketchup…You’re probably as surprised as we were when we first came across Mushroom Ketchup. Mushrooms as ketchup? Not possible!
Well, during our mushroom trip to Oberon, Bella stumbled upon such a condiment. With intrigue she purchased it and with intrigue I made it.
After looking into the history of ketchup I discovered that the tomato version originated about 100 years after the original version, prior to that it was made from any number of foods, for example nuts, fruit, or mushrooms… It originally began it’s life being made from fish and was called ke-tsiap.
In this recipe I have used the saffron milk caps and slippery jacks that I picked at Oberon but you could use any mushroom or combination of mushrooms with equally fabulous results. Also, the fresh mushrooms will need to be left to sit in salt for 24 hours, so this isn’t a spontaneous recipe. It’s also a recipe that gets better with age, so be sure to have some sterilised jars ready.
This photo of my lunch is of my Four’n Twenty pie and I have to say that I will now, and forever be having my pies with Mushroom Ketchup, truly outstanding!!
Enjoy,
Blondie
Bolognese w/ Beef Liver is a fantastic way to get liver into your diet. If you haven’t had it since you were a kid then now’s the time to try it again!
With two beef livers taking up valuable real estate in my freezer I needed some recipes. My most favourite recipe for liver is the one I had at La Grande Bouffe, which is Sautéed Calves Liver w/ Pomme Puree, Balsamic Jus and Caramelised Onion … Just soooo GOOD!
Then there is the ever so popular Liver with Caramelised Onions and Bacon. Looking for inspiration online didn’t really result in anything fantastic so here is my bolognese with the addition of finely chopped liver. Surprisingly I didn’t find one recipe that uses beef liver in bolognese, they all used chicken liver… it would certainly be a milder flavour, but I feel it can handle the more robust flavour of beef liver.
Again, if it’s been forever since you’ve had liver then give this one a go. Start with just 250g of liver and build yourself up, You’ll love it!
Enjoy, Blondie
I can’t believe I hadn’t put this recipe up yet, so here it is, short and sweet… This is my mum’s marinade for leg of lamb; it’s sweet with a slight hit of mustard heat and makes the most delicious gravy afterwards.
I was raised on this and whenever I make it myself I get a nostalgic whiff of childhood. The aroma that hits you when you walk in the door is divine, hence the title, Mum’s Divine Lamb Roast Marinade 🙂
Get yourself a large leg of lamb so you can enjoy several meals out of it with your family.
Food memories… Blondie
Simple Small Batch Aioli – Mayonnaise is one of those amazing condiments that is used in countries all around the world to add flavour or smoothness to their dishes. Aioli is basically garlic mayonnaise (although the true way of making this is to pound the oil and garlic in a mortar and pestle – no egg is added) but you can use any number of different ingredients to make your own flavoured mayonnaise.
The reason I like this small batch recipe is because I will never get through a cup or more of homemade aioli within a week. This is just the right amount to use on some sandwiches or on toast with poached eggs on the weekend.
If you are feeling adventurous you can add some fresh herbs or throw in some hot smoked paprika or any other spice to complement your meal, maybe add a mustard. Use lemon instead of vinegar, or use a different vinegar, maybe a fruit vinegar… the combinations are endless.
Let your creativity out! – Blondie 🙂
Broth, Stock or Bone Broth… What is the difference between the three? Is there a difference between the three?
There’s no mistaking what a stock is or a bone broth is but it can become a little unclear as to where a broth stands, here is my interpretation of the three…
Broth -Think of a broth as the finished product, a soup in a sense… Chicken Soup or Won Ton Noodle Soup all use a broth. It is a gently flavoured liquid that is made by flavouring water with meat, or very meaty bones, carrots, celery, light herbs, onion and most importantly seasoned with salt. It is lighter in flavour compared to the stock and bone broths and is always clear and thin, which is an absolute necessity in asian cuisine.
The cooking time is much shorter compare with the other two methods, around 40 minutes (unless you are poaching a whole chicken). There are no added health benefits to an extended cooking time for broths, and it will even negatively affect the flavour of your broth, especially if you are making a fish broth, which will turn bitter if cooked longer than 30-40 minutes. All the flavour and nutrients you want will be leached out into the liquid during this short cooking time.
My favourite broth is a chicken one. By poaching a whole chicken in water with the addition of carrots, onion, celery and seasoned well with peppercorns and salt, you end up with beautifully moist meat and a broth that is delicious and effortless – this method takes about 1 hour 20 minutes as it’s the whole chicken. The benefit of this method is you have a lot of meat leftover that can then be made into pies or a salad through the week along with plenty of chicken broth. As a bonus, the chicken carcass can be incorporated into a bone broth, just freeze till required.
Broths will remain quite fluid as opposed to the stocks and bone broth, which with their naturally high gelatin content, will turn to jelly once refrigerated.
Vegetable and fish broths do not benefit from long cooks.
Stock – Is a component of cooking, it’s used to add body and flavour to a dish, generally not to have on it’s own, think of risotto, stews or gravy. It is made with well roasted bones – ideally with quite a bit of meat still left on them for the extra flavour, and vegetables. Roasting the meaty bones is necessary to a good quality stock as you want rich, well developed flavours in a stock, which the roasting of the bones and vegetables will do. Un-roasted bones will leave a slightly odd, unpleasant flavour to the liquid.
Stocks are generally cooked for 6 -12 hours.
As I make quite big batches of stock at one time (10-12 cups worth) I personally choose to keep the added flavours of vegetables and herbs to a minimum, this way I can alter it to lean toward a particular cuisine when I want to. It’s still a very rich stock just not heavily loaded with flavours outside of the roasted meaty flavours.
Remember to keep all your bones from the roasts you make, in the freezer till you are ready to make your stock. My favourite stock combines the meaty bones of various beasts with the addition of a rabbit carcass – the flavour is magical!
Bone broth – Think of bone broth as homemade medicine. Made to be drunk straight, especially the first ‘pressing’, it is the holy grail of the stewing liquids. Used for speeding the healing, repair and recuperation time from illness, reduce joint pain, reduce inflammation, prevent bone loss and build healthy skin, hair, and nails. Certain amino acids that come mostly from the bones can assist with a healthy gut and digestion, a balanced nervous system and strong immune system – just as chicken soup (using the whole chicken) has been proven to aide in healing, bone broth takes it that next step further. Made using mainly the bones – as that is where the amino acids and minerals will be coming from, it’s the very long stewing time, combined with a vinegar solution to draw out certain minerals, that makes the bone broth highly regarded for it’s health benefits. If you are making bone broth you are making it because of it’s centuries known health benefits, otherwise you would stick to stocks.
To get the most out of the bones do your best to source organic or biodynamic animals and birds,100% grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens… basically any animal or bird that has been raised well and healthily as you are making this bone broth for it’s health benefits so the bones need to be from the healthiest animals possible… and keep them all! As you come across them, bag and freeze them; accumulate them so you have a nice mound of bones, raw chicken carcasses etc to make your broth or stock. Continue reading “How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth”