Food, glorious Food

[Jovial Monk]

Yeah, have a nice soup on the go for tomorrow—tho may be on my way elsewhere by then! A nice pork slab, skin and some of the fat plus the usual veg/herb/spice etc on the go to make a great stock! Have lamb mince for meatballs, multicolored pulses for veges also some fresh out the garden veges. Will be great!

[lisa jones]

Hmmm .. that sounds nice Mr Monk.

I'm cooking up a large dish of spaghetti bolognese tomorrow. I add heaps of veges to the sauce though. I also use my own home grown herbs and spices and a couple of Mum's bottles of home made sauce (which she makes using her organic home grown tomatoes).

The result?? The food always looks and tastes great .. and my family never leave anything behind

[Jovial Monk]

I just make a great tomato sauce and don’t worry about veges etc.

[lisa jones]

I see.

Mr Monk .. when you have little kids of your own you quickly learn to add veges into everything you cook (esp for dinner). I've been doing this ever since my twins were just toddlers and we would play this little dinner game of seeing who could identify the different colours and veges on their dinner plate.

So in effect .. I've taught my kids to look for and expect colour and variety in their dinner. Needless to say .. they love their veges to this day. And that's gotta be a good thing.

[Jovial Monk]

Sure, circumstances alter cases. Have had spaghetti bog with all sorts of things. I forget all that, just concentrate on making a GREAT tomato sauce. Then have it it with farfelle, not spaghetti.

[Jovial Monk]

Back from Stirling Market. Really notice that Stirling is in the Adelaide Hills, much colder then down on the Plains. Had a nice hot smoked salmon and potato pie there, warmed me up good! Demi ate every crumb I dropped

Stirling market is really good for cheap plants. Bought a couple foxgloves—I love the look of them but rarely manage to get great results myself. Still, picked out a nice sheltered spot and will lavish pig poo around them and see how the go!

Now relaxing with a cup of coffee and some lemon myrtle biscuits. Will walk to local bottleshop see if they have any cider—making lambshanks with apple and cider, should be good! Got 7Kg of granny smiths, 4Kg for a batch of apple butter and 3Kg for cooking—a breadcrumb, polenta and apple pudding (from the Alive and Cooking website, “Italian Calfouti”) plus the lambshanks. Also got red cabbage—a granny will go in there to provide that hint of acidity needed to get the best out of red cabbage.

[Jovial Monk]

You know, there are a lot of cooking programs on lately.

Two long running series with amateur chefs vying for top spot: My Kitchen Rules (MKR) and MasterChef (MC)

Of those two, I find MKR far the better tho do enjoy the MC “masterclasses.”

The trouble with MC is they over dramatise it, it is like MC mixed with Biggest Loser and what is lost is time spent concentrating on the actual food. Same with some other shows, Jamie Oliver say, the personality gets in the way.

One cooking show I try and catch when I can is Alive and Cooking, 11.30am weekdays. A half hour program with the emphasis on how to cook the food. You will spend 6 months hating James Reeson’s sense of humor then it will click and make the program even better.

http://www.aliveandcooking.com.au/

[lisa jones]

A nice Sunday night lamb and vege roast dinner is presently slow cooking at a low/medium temp.

It's an easy to prepare yet also tasty dinner option for all the family .. and the oven is on so it's warming up the house too (which is great).

>> she says as she glances across at the current electricity bill of $1200 and thinks WTF??? <<

[Jovial Monk]

Lambshanks with apples and cider simmering!

[Jovial Monk]

Lamb shanks were great, melt in the mouth tender, no need for a knife to cut the meat.

Just watched todays Alive and Cooking. Something there I will definitely do this weekend.

Take a nice little whole camembert cheese. Wrap with 3 rashers streaky bacon, bung into 200°C oven, leave there 20 minutes. While cheese/bacon is cooking cook finely sliced capsicums and chilis. Oh yeah! Crispy bacon, molten cheese hmmmmm!

not 100% correct:

Bacon Baked Camembert with Hot Chilli Chutney

1x 200g Camembert
4 rashers of streaky bacon
1 long red chill, chopped
1 yellow capsicum, chopped
1 green sweet chilli, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 finely chopped onion
2 tbsp brown sugar
50ml white wine vinegar

Method


Wrap the Camembert with the bacon and place into a non-stick ovenproof fry pan and bake @ 2000C for 10-12 minutes.

Heat a separate fry pan, add a splash of olive oil and fry the chillies, peppers, onions and garlic until just starting to brown then pour in the sugar and vinegar and allow to boil.

Turn down to a simmer until the liquid has thickened to a syrupy consistency and serve hot with the baked Camembert.

http://www.aliveandcooking.com.au/index ... li_chutney