spork me

Red Wine Lamb, White Bean and Fennel Pie

Don’t judge, I actually find making pie an incredibly enjoyable way to spend a Sunday. I made two kinds, this one was really nice and for my first attempt at a rough puff pastry, it wasn’t too bad. Really though, just use store bought. It’s way easier.

Ingredients:

500g diced lamb
Juice of 2 lemons
1 red onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 cup plus a good splash of red wine
1/4 cup chopped rosemary and thyme
1 tsp cumin
1 fennel bulb, small, diced
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
1 can of white beans, drained
Salt, pepper and olive oil
Frozen puff pastry, thawed

If you want to speed this up, use a pressure cooker. If not, I’ll give you the slow cooking instructions.

Brown the lamb for 5 minutes in a splash of olive oil, then add the garlic, onion, fennel, and cumin, and saute for 5-10 minutes more, until the vegetables are soft. Mash together the butter and flour with a fork, and mix into the pan. Toss everything into the slow cooker with 1 cup of wine, juice of 1 lemon, fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Cook for about 6 hours, until the lamb is soft.

Next, add in the white beans, remaining lemon juice, and another hit of wine. Cook on a medium heat for about 20-30 minutes, until the sauce is thick. You may need to put it back into a pan for this (my slow cooker/pressure cooker has a saute setting, so it all just hangs out in there).

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper accordingly. Cool completely in the fridge. Once cool, fill into individual pie pans with pastry on the top and bottom, and freeze. To reheat, cook on 200C / 375F for about 45 minutes to an hour. Once the inside is bubbling out a bit and the pastry is brown, it’s done.

Chorizo and Caramelized Fennel Risotto

I made the beer braised osso bucco for dinner, but the “side” was this risotto, meant for leftovers for lunches, but ended up being a meal of its own. Food overload, once again.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups arborio rice
1 red onion, diced
2 tbsp sweet paprika
2 smoked chorizo, sliced
1 fennel bulb, diced
3 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp sugar
Butter, salt and pepper
500 ml milk
500 ml chicken stock
Water
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary, diced
1/2 cup ricotta
1 cup grated good quality cheddar
1 cup grated parmesan or similar

Saute the onions and fennel in a bit of butter for about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and fennel seeds, and cook for 5 minutes more until they turn golden brown. Add the chorizo and brown, then the spices (including salt and pepper). Add the rice and 2 cups of liquid, simmering and stirring occasionally until it’s absorbed. Add 2 more cups of liquid and repeat. Once the milk and stock is cooked in, add hot water (or more stock if you have it). Taste it now and then to see if the rice is cooked through, and with the last round of liquid stir in the cheeses. Serve warm or freeze for lunches or leftovers dinners.

Master Stock Beef Cheeks with Spicy Rhubarb Sauce, Orange Salt, and Braised Fennel

Oh. My. God. This had to have been one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. After taking the master stock class at the Urban Food Market, I was keen to try out a few of the recipes I came home with, as well as cook up some crazy good looking beef cheeks I picked up while I was there.

Firstly, I found out how wrong I’ve been about chicken stock. Make your own, and make it with uncooked bones or chicken, and not your post-roast leftovers. I grabbed a kilo of chicken bones to replace the whole chicken in this recipe, and it was really easy and so much better than store bought stock.

With that, I put together the first round of master stock with some lamb ribs. Urban Food Market has graciously put their recipe online so you can try it at home, although I’d highly recommend the class.

The rhubarb sauce is from the Jamie Oliver App I was raving about, but with a bit of chili to spice it up. The orange salt was made by drying some orange peel in the oven and smashing it with some sea salt. And on the bottom there’s some spaghetti with olive oil, chili and garlic, to soak up all the sauces.

Ingredients (beef cheek):

2 pieces of beef cheek
Salt, pepper, olive oil
Enough master stock to cover it

Season the cheeks and brown very well in olive oil. This will keep it from falling apart in the stock.

Bring the stock to a boil, add the cheeks, and simmer on low for 5 hours (I did mine at the same time as the lamb ribs, which I pressed for the next night).

Remove from the stock, and bake on super high heat for no more than 5 minutes, to create a crispy outside. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Ingredients (braised fennel):

1 fennel bulb, cut in half, then in half, then in half, so you have about 10-12 pieces held together by the core
1 tbsp fennel seeds
3 sprigs rosemary
2 cups white wine
A scoop of masterstock, if you have it
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Brown the fennel in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, in batches. It’s ok if it’s not cooked through, as long as it’s got some color on both sides. Add it all back to the pan with fennel seeds, rosemary, and the wine. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, flipping the fennel halfway through. Serve and season with orange salt.

Confit Duck Breast with Spiced Rhubarb Sauce and Braised Lentils

Sigh. So, I’ve been fairly vocal for my dislike of Jamie Oliver, but on a hot tip I downloaded his app, and hate to admit, it’s brilliant. I’ve been cooking quite a lot from it, and some of the recipes are just amazing. There’s one for Moroccan lamb shanks that makes it worth it, but this was just fantastic too. The duck and sauce are from the app, but the lentils I made from what I had around.

On a side note, I always thought dried lentils needed to cook for hours, so I bought tinned. They only need 30 minutes before they’re soft, I’m never making tinned again!

Ingredients:

300 grams green/brown lentils
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrot sticks, diced
1 cup diced fennel
1/2 cup diced spicy salami (or whatever cured meat you have)
3 bay leaves
5 thyme sprigs
1 leek, sliced
6 cups chicken stock
Salt, pepper, and olive oil

Saute the leeks for 3-4 minutes before adding the rest of the veggies. Cook about 5 minutes, and then add the rest. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you prefer a soup/stew, just quit cooking a bit early, and for something more solid cook all the liquid out.

Beef Rib Eye Roast with Ricotta, Fennel and Pomegranate Barley Salad, and Roasted Mushrooms

This salad is great leftover and pretty easy to make in big batches. I made a bunch of barley, and sadly didn’t photograph the lunch version I made, which had salmon, ricotta and dried fruit.

Ingredients (beef and mushrooms):

1kg (or a bit bigger) beef rib eye roast
2 rosemary sprigs
5-6 thyme sprigs
4 tbsp butter
2 cups of mushrooms
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Marinate the steak in olive oil, salt, pepper, and the herbs for as long as you can. Overnight if possible.

In a really, really hot oven proof pan, removing the herbs (but keeping them), sear the steak for about 3-4 minutes until browned. Flip the steak and add the mushrooms to the pan, mixing with the herbs and pan juices. Put 2 tbsp of butter on the steak, over a couple of herbs, and bake for 10 minutes at 200C / 375F. Flip and repeat with the remaining butter, and cook for 10 more minutes. Remove the steak from the pan and let rest on a plate for 10 minutes. Slice to serve. Mine I cooked for a bit longer and overcooked, so if you’re unsure, use a meat thermometer.

Ingredients (barley, serves 4):

3 cups cooked barley
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds
3/4 cup ricotta
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
Salt, pepper
1.5 cups chopped leftover caramelized fennel… or make some below

If you don’t have leftover fennel (why would you?), saute the chopped fennel with 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon of sugar, olive oil, salt and pepper, until golden. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.

Maggie Beer’s Slow Braised Beef Cheeks with Caramelized Fennel, Haloumi and Pomegranate

Either beef cheeks have become very trendy, or I’ve never noticed them before, but I see them out a lot and when I found some, thought it would be easy enough to make my own. It totally was, if you have the world’s sharpest knife to portion the cheeks. Tough does not begin to explain the texture of these things, but after some slow cooking they’ll fall apart.

I improvised Maggie’s Beef Cheeks recipe a bit since I was doing it all same-day. Essentially I slow cooked it with the marinade, and made some substitutions for the vino cotto (who has $20 for a small bottle of this stuff? Not me.). The combination of flavors was really nice and I’d definitely make it again.

The side was from that vegetarian cookbook I’ve been raving about called Plenty, which is starting to become a staple around my house.

Balsamic Grilled Pork Chop with Carmelized Fennel, Date, Almond and Borlotti Bean Warm Salad

Serves 2, but I made a stuffed mushroom as well so there was enough salad for 4 serves.

Ingredients:

2 pork chops, bone in
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
Olive oil, salt and pepper
1 can of borlotti beans, rinsed and drained
1 fennel bulb, shaved
2 tbsp fennel seeds
1/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped oregano
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup almonds

Marinate the pork in the balsamic, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, for anywhere from an hour to overnight. To cook, grill (indoor grill pan is fine) for 3 minutes on each side, adding the remaining balsamic over the pork as you go. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Saute the fennel and fennel seeds in olive oil, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes. Add everything but the wine and beans, and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the wine and beans and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Serve warm with the pork (I also roasted a mushroom with rosemary and topped with cheese).

Caramelized Fennel, Grape, Goat’s Cheese and Mint Pizza

I’m finally getting the hang of how to make an awesome pizza with a crispy crust. I’ve frozen some pizza dough as well to see if I can uncomplicate the process and be able to make a quick pizza on a weeknight.

I made this pizza dough recipe, and after it rose, I split it into balls and wrapped it in oiled cling film and popped it in the freezer. To thaw, remove the cling film from the dough and pop it in a bowl covered with a damp towel or cling film. Leave it on the counter (not the fridge) for the day to thaw and rise. For breakfast pizza, do this overnight. You can also make bread or rolls out of this dough, it’s a really nice recipe, just make sure to use the Type 00 flour.

Ingredients:

1 portion of pizza dough
1 fennel bulb, shaved
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 cup of grapes, cut in half
1/4 cup crumbled goat’s cheese
1/2 cup mint leaves
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Turn on the oven as hot as it will go for at least 30 minutes to preheat. After 10 minutes, put your pizza stone in the oven to get it hot. This is very, very important to get crispy crust on the bottom.

In a warm pan with olive oil, saute the fennel until soft. Add the sugar, fennel seeds, and season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium low, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes to caramelize. It will turn a bit golden and get quite soft.

Flour a cutting board or the counter very well, and spread the pizza dough into a rough circle. Let rest for 10 minutes, and then spread it again to get a 15 inch pizza. Remove the pizza stone from the oven, and using a rolling pin or wine bottle, slip it under the dough (so it’s only touching the floured side) to help move it onto the stone. Layer on the fennel (depending on the size of your bulb, and your love of fennel, you may or may not use it all), a couple of the mint leaves, the grapes, and the goat’s cheese. Season with salt and pepper and bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is golden.

Sprinkle with mint leaves to finish, and here’s the other piece… leave it on the stone out of the oven for about 5 minutes before you go to cut or eat it. The stone will keep cooking the base, but you’re not burning the cheese by leaving it in the oven. Score.

Goat’s Cheese and Sage Stuffed Chicken with Caramelized Fennel, Roasted Mushrooms and Pomegranate

I’ve been making this style of chicken quite a lot, but am trying to mix up the stuffings. So what’s the #1 way to improve a recipe? Add cheese. It’s the American way.

Ingredients (chicken):

1 whole chicken, cut up the backbone and flattened
1/4 cup goats cheese
3 garlic cloves
1/2 bunch of sage, chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Juice of half a lemon
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Mash the ingredients, starting with the garlic, and add a few tablespoons of oil. Season with salt and pepper, add the rest of the ingredients, and mix well. Stuff under the skin of a flattened whole chicken, and the brown skin side down in a skillet for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for 5 minutes more before putting in the oven for about 30 minutes at 220C / 400F.

This side, on it’s own, is a lovely vegetarian dish and would have been very sufficient as dinner. The caramelized fennel I got from the book Plenty I’ve been raving about, and served with oven roasted mushrooms and fresh pomegranate. Buy this book.

Pear, Fennel, Mint and Feta Salad

Nice side salad, or dinner if you go a bit heavier on the veggies.

Ingredients:

A few cups of roquette
1 pear, sliced in circles (core and all), then sliced into matchsticks
1 small fennel bulb, shaved into thin slices
1/2 red onion, shaved into thin slices
1/2 cup chopped mint
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup nice feta cheese
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Mix and serve.