Recipes

Donna Hay’s Beef with Cannellini Beans

- Alex 2 Comments

Untitled

Another insanely easy, quick mid week dinner for you. This recipe comes from Donna Hay’s Fast, Fresh, Simple, via the Good Food Channel.

You may have noticed that I am a huge fan of cannellini beans. Indeed, I’m a big fan of beans in general and I’d urge everyone to have a good collection of tinned beans in their cupboards. They’re cheap, nutritious and can solve a variety of food related problems.

Anyway, while Andy was dealing with the barbecue and two generous porterhouse steaks (that’s sirloin if you’re reading from the UK) I was opening the tin of cannellini beans.

ALWAYS rinse (and drain) the beans when they come out of the tin. Firstly, they always smell horrible and secondly, often tinned things are very salty and a good rinse helps to reduce that.

In a small saucepan I had some olive oil heating up into which I put a some crushed, minced garlic and some finely chopped fresh rosemary. In went the beans to heat through along with a good squeeze of lemon juice.

At this point I decided to mash the beans coarsely with the back of a fork. This, I think, was a mistake. It would have been much nicer to have the beans whole.

I thought the mixture tasted good and was really tempted not to add the horseradish. Andy tasted it and thought it needed the horseradish, otherwise it was just like “that dip you make“. I think the horseradish is really up to you – you may prefer to serve it on the side so you can slather your beef in it.

Of course, steak and a few beans does not a whole meal make.  We served with salad and some roasted potato wedges.

Another big win for meal planning and quick, easy, midweek dinners.

Thai Style Fish and Noodle Salad Recipe

- Alex 2 Comments

Back at home, and recovered from jetlag (but still tired – if I manage to stay up until 10pm I’m impressed!), it’s time to get back in my own kitchen and do some cooking.

This Thai style recipe come originally from Taste, and I was impressed by how relatively few ingredients were involved. By the time I’d finished making it, I was also impressed by how quick it was to put together. I think this would definitely give Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute meals a run for their money!

I am a little sceptical about how far the recipe will go. Taste says it will serve 4 people but I think that would be four not very hungry people. If you have two people who need a good feed after a day at work – listen to me!

Begin by taking a packet of hokkien noodles (about 400g), putting them in a bowl and covering with boiling water. Leave them to sit while you finely chop some chilli (I used half a long green one) and coriander, and slice some spring onion.

Drain the noodles and toss through the chilli, coriander and spring onion.

Make a dressing consisting of approximately ¼ cup of sweet chilli sauce (trust me on this one – this is something that neither of us particularly like and had to get in especially for this recipe), approximately the same amount of lime juice and a good couple of teaspoons of fish sauce. Whisk this all together and use this to dress your noodles. The idea is that the noodles are served warm or room temperature, not boiling hot, so don’t worry about them cooling down.

Depending on how happy you are multitasking, you can cook your fish while you do all that or you can cook it now. The original recipe uses John Dory, I used flathead* – basically you are after a reasonably firm white fish. I just dusted the fillets with some seasoned flour and pan fried.

To serve, pile some of the noodle salad in a bowl, top with the fish, some chopped toasted cashews and some sprigs of coriander.

Too, too easy. Vaguely healthy (I’m still not sure about that sweet chilli sauce) and very tasty. What more can you want from a dinner that’s put together in minutes?

*Both are species of fish that Sustainable Seafood recommends you think about before using.

Asparagus Risotto with Salmon

- Alex 1 Comment

Spring Risotto

I think that one of the most essential go to recipes in someone’s culinary repertoire is risotto. To make a tasty risotto requires so few ingredients (if you’re pushing it, rice, onion, cheese and water is all you really need), and while it’s not quick to prepare, it’s not difficult.

And hey – who minds standing at the stove stirring a pot if you’ve got a glass of wine in hand?

I’d come home from the shops with quite a collection of goodies and, combined with what was in the fridge, offered Andy his choice of risotto fillings. Does risotto have a filling? Is it a topping? Flavouring? Whatever.

He chose asparagus and salmon. When we lived in England, the few precious weeks of summer where you could buy English asparagus (rather than the sad, thin specimens airfreighted in from Peru) were very exciting. Australian asparagus doesn’t seem to be as ephemeral but it’s still lovely to see it in the shops because it must mean summer is here.

For two people, warm some olive oil in a saucepan and add half a large leek, finely chopped, and one clove of garlic, crushed. Cook gently until soft (you most certainly don’t want brown bits!) and add 150g of risotto rice. This can be Arborio (probably the cheapest and most readily available), Carnaroli or Vialone Nano if you’re really pushing the boat out.

Stirring, cook the rice in the oil for a bit – it will start to go slightly transparent. Now, pour yourself that glass of wine and begin adding the stock. The stock should be on a very gentle simmer. I use those little pots of jellied stock that are available (and, after some very salty gravy the other week, I’ve just switched to REDUCED SALT – but sssh, don’t let my dad know!). Use what suits. At a push, you can use water.

Add the stock a ladleful at a time and stir until it’s fully absorbed. Then add another ladleful. I’m not too fussed about constant stirring but I do make sure that the rice gets a good move around the pan. Just don’t add more stock until the first lot is absorbed. If I start to run out of stock, I top it up with hot water. You could also add white wine.

I steamed the asparagus, cut into bite size pieces and I’d pan fried the salmon earlier in the day (rather a lot of salmon!). Once the rice was cooked – and I really can’t give you any guidelines here, you’re going to have to taste it and work it out for yourself – I added 2 generous tablespoons of pure cream (normally I used mascarpone but the shop didn’t have any) and a big pile of grated parmesan. If you like your risotto a little looser than it’s turned out, add more stock, a splash of white wine, or more cream.

Finish by stirring in the asparagus and the flaked, cooked salmon.

Serve topped with yet more grated cheese and plenty of pepper. See? You don’t even remember all that stirring, do you?

Want a more traditional risotto recipe? Try Risotto all’Isolana, which uses Italian sausages (or pork mince, if you’re in a pinch!).