Bubble and Squeak

Haven't heard about the "Bubble and Squeak" before - but as we live now in former British imperium, we have to get familiar with Queen's favorites!

Usually, this dish is made from leftovers the next day after the party and used mash, cabbage, meat, sausages, bacon, onions, lard etc. BUT I didn't have them (party neither) so I had to go shopping in the New World. They have an unbelievably wide variety of  "Sauerkraut". Well known cabbage product from Germany and the surrounding region. I think every German person knows what is sauerkraut and most of them have it even in the fridge as a snack!

  

What you need for the Main (B&S):

Cast iron skillet

10 slices of bacon

4 large potatoes

2 large carrots

2 raw chorizo sausages (take meat out)

1 onion (chopped)

1 garlic clove (chopped)
100g sauerkraut

salt

freshly ground black pepper

1 tbs of butter

1/2 cup of milk

oil for frying

1 tsp of English mustard 

To make this dish juicier, I made also one side dish to it. 

You need for a side dish the following:

1/4 of beef heart 

1 onion (sliced)

1 garlic clove (chopped)

1 tomato (chopped)

1 slice of lemon

dry herbs for seasoning

salt

freshly ground black pepper

lard for frying

Cooking:
Peel potatoes and carrots and boil them in salty water until ready, then drain. Mash when still warm and add milk and butter. Season with salt, pepper, and mustard. Same time you can fry meat from chorizo sausages, chopped onion, and garlic - when ready add sauerkraur and mix in. Now you can mix them together. Cover cast iron skillet with thin slices of the bacon and put the mash in. Cook in middle of the oven at 200C at abt. 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool down about one hour. After that, you can flip it on a wooden cutting board, cut and serve.

For side dish:

Slice and fry beef heart, add sliced onion and garlic, mix it all together. When ready add tomato, lemon, seasoning and simmer about 10 minutes until ready. Use as a side for B&S.

Bon Appetite

Soup of the week "Red October"

At least once a week I try to make soup - it's good to have something liquid between all this grilling and meat eating! To make soup is good also for your fridge - you can use different veggies and leftover meat from previous week grilling. If you see that you will not eat all the meat you grilled during a couple of days - I suggest to wrap it to foil or plastic bag and freeze it. Then you can re-use this meat (ribs, steak, lamb chops, sausages, burgers etc) same or next week and it will make the process of your soup cooking also faster (because meat is already cooked).

I call this soup "Red Soup" or why not to make it more interesting and call it "Red October" - because it reminds me of a soup "Seljanka" from Russian kitchen. 

To make this soup you need the following:

3 potatoes

3 carrots

3 branches of cellary

3 slices of bacon

3 tbs of olive oil

meat from the previous week grill

handful of olives

1 onion

1 garlic glove

1 bell pepper

1 jar of tomato sauce

4-5 pickled cucumbers

1 slice of lemon

1 bay leaf

salt

freshly ground black pepper

dry herbs

fresh herbs (dill, parsley, sage, spring onion, basil)

Cooking:

Put at least 5L pot on medium heat, add olive oil. Cut bacon and put into a pot, add chopped onion and garlic, stir. Now cut potatoes to about 1x1cm pieces and carrots to a little smaller pieces and add to pot. Stir the mix time to time. Boil about 1,5L of water and add it to pot (later you can add some more - just look for consistency). Chopp bell pepper, cellary, pickles and meat and add to pot. let it get boiling and then add tomato sauce, bay leaf, olives, a slice of lemon, dry herbs (Italian mix), salt and freshly ground pepper. When boiling, turn heat to low and cook about 45 minutes. Serve with fresh chopped herbs and some sour cream.

Bon Appetit!

Crete (Greek) salad

We have been traveling in different Greek islands (Crete, Rhodos, Corfu) and people living there, have one common issue - they like to EAT WELL! Once we rented the car and went up to the mountains, but as it was lunchtime we stopped in a local small family owned a tavern. We ordered Crete salad and fried calamari - that lunch I remember my whole life - the taste of tomatoes and cheese and this calamari - unbelievable... So, just a few days ago I decided to make this great salad again and write down the recipe for you.

The basic difference between classic Greek salad and Crete salad was, as I understand, that in Crete salad they added slices of boiled potatoes as a first layer and on a top, they added slices of boiled eggs. It will make this salad richer and you can have dinner just with this salad and protein of your choice, don't need to worry about some other carbs on the table.

Again, it's easy to make, it's quick and it's difficult to screw it up!

You need the following:

3 tomatoes

1 bell pepper

1 cucumber

3 boiled and chilled potatoes (boil with skin)

3 boiled and chilled eggs

1 small red onion

handful of olives

abt. 100gr Feta cheese

olive oil

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper

dry herbs for seasoning if you wish (oregano)

How to make:

I made this salad as layers. At first peal potatoes, cut them to half and then to abt. 1cm slices. Make a layer on the bottom of the large bowl. Now make layers from tomatoes, onion (onion cut into thinner layers), cucumber, bell pepper. On the top put cubes of Feta cheese, olives, and eggs (cut them into 4 pieces). Pour over with olive oil and add salt and black pepper. 

Serve with the wine of your choice!

Bon Appetite!

Burger, HungerBurger...

I have been mastered my skills making burgers on the charcoal grill now already a couple of times. Yesterday I heard on a table at dinner only the sound of chewing and I understand - it's time!

Burgers are easy to make and anyone can handle this pressure - especially if you have few cold-ones in the fridge to help you out!

So you need the following:

abt 1,5 kg of minced beef

2 tbs of beef rub

1 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of fresh grounded black pepper

1/4 tsp of dry herbs (Italian mix)

1 tbs of grill sauce

2 tbs of tomato sauce

1 small onion or 1/2 of a medium onion (chopped nicely)

1 garlic glove (chopped nicely)

1 egg

a handful of fresh parsley (chopped nicely)

For the classical burger, you need as additionally: bred, bacon, red onion, pickled cucumber, fresh tomato, some salad, sauce.

Put all your spices and other ingredients into a large bowl and mix nicely - you can use your clean hands for this mixing job. I use one big plastic bowl for this type of mixing - better it is a little big than a little too small! After mixing it all well cover with plastic film and let it season a couple of hours. BTW - freshly chopped parsley gives a really nice touch to your burgers - try this for sure!

Prepare your grill and use direct and secondary heat as needed and cover your grill with a lid when burgers are on secondary heat - so that they can cook also from inside. If you like you can add some cheese now and make some slices of bacon. 

On the same grill, you can heat/grill your bread for burgers or if you want to go more healthy go with salad ONLY on a side. 

The last burger I had with Greek salad and some really nice Chipotle sauce from Barker's - that sauce you have to try - very nice job guys at Barker's! Plate on the last pick will say it all...

Easy going Bruschetta

One day shopping at "New World" I found myself standing in front of the shelf with all the different goodies and read on some jars "Bruschetta". I couldn't control myself and took on of them and next, I was putting nice thick Ciabatta loaf in my trolly.

Of course, this is not "The Real Deal" recipe of - how to make bruschetta topping but it was quite good for a quick snack.

You need:
1 Chiabbata
1 jar Bruschetta mix - you need abt 4 tbs of it.
1 garlic clove
4 tbs of cooking oil
2 tsp of butter
4 tbs of olive oil
salt
freshly grounded black pepper

Preparation and making ones:
Heat your pan to medium heat, add some cooking oil and butter and some thin slices of garlic, (for taste) cut ciabatta into 2cm thick slices and fry on the pan from both sides. Put slices to cool and add some little salt and fresh pepper. Same time mix in a bowl together olive oil and bruschetta mix. Now pure some of this mixed mix on each ciabatta slice and enjoy.

New Zealand Snapper - grilled and chilled!

When we traveled in Europe and having a vacation on Tenerife, we cooked a lot of Dorada. It's a beautiful fish with a lot of meat and not so much of bones!

In New Zealand, I heard a lot of people talking about snapper - and it reminded me this bony little fish we have in Estonia (a lot of fishermen like to catch it but I personally don't like this little bastardo's - because of bones and lack of meat). And one day digging on the internet and looking up what kind of fish I can catch here in NZ I found out that this bloody snapper is the same fish we used to eat on Tenerife!!! The same Dorada!!! Nonetheless, a plan was made and a couple of them purchased. Pak'nSave shop was very nice and they cleaned the fishes as well - so less work for me :)

It's easy to make, you need these few ingredients:
2 Snappers - cleaned and peachy
4 tbs olive oil
salt
white pepper
1 lemon
dill

Preparation:
Put some salt and white pepper inside and over the fishes. Chop dill and throw inside and over the fishes. Pure olive oil on fishes and lay lemon slices over fishes.

You can cook in an oven at 200C for about 20-25 minutes or on the grill on medium heat for about 20 minutes. If fish will flake then its ready to serve.

Serve with some fresh salad and chilled white wine. It was really delicious!

Bon Appetit!

Marinating the meat how and why?!

The marinade will make your meat tender and add flavor to it.

At first, you need to marinate a meat lets say at least 2-5 hours or overnight if possible (depending on cut and game). Be careful, some meats are more tender and don't need as much of flavor nor long time to marinade (chicken and fish), otherwise, you will kill the taste of the meat. 

For marinade, you need usually 3-4 types of ingredients: 

• salty 
• sour 
• spicy
• sweet

You have to mix these together and make the blend of your own but be careful with sweet part of it (sugar, honey, ready-made BBQ sauces) - because it can start burning on the grill very easy! Also be careful with over-salting, it will ruin the taste and drain the liquid out from meat. Sometimes it's better to NOT put sweet ingredients to your marinade but add it by mopping meat on the grill or add as a sauce to the ready dish. Sourness you need to tender your meat (it helps also spices and taste get into the meat) and I am using for this purpose usually natural yogurt, vinegar, wine, lemon juice or tomato (pasta) sauce. For the flavor, you can add to marinade also mustard, mayonnaise, chopped herbs, onion, and garlic. There are no limits - really! Also, its good to add some olive oil to your marinade - it helps protect meat on the grill, gets easier browned and also it will not stick to your grill so badly. I made a picture of spices and ingredients I have at home for everyday cooking.  

You don't need them all - there are some basic ingredients with what you can cook a lot of different meals. These are salt, black pepper, garlic, onion, "Italian herb mix", thyme, rosemary, meat rub for BBQ, tomato sauce, olive oil, natural yogurt, BBQ sauce.  

Try to use natural tastes and if possible avoid ready mixed spices, but of course, sometimes it makes life much easier :)

The easiest way to make a marinade for pork or lamb or veil:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (there are salt and spices already mixed)

2 tbs of tomato sauce or 1/2 of lemon juice

2 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of mustard or horseradish

1 tsp of BBQ sauce

1/4 of onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

The easiest way to make a marinade for chicken:

2 tbs of Mixed spice rub (for example "Peri Peri")

2 tbs of natural yogurt

1 tbs of mayonnaise

2 tbs of olive oil

The easiest way to make a marinade for fish:

1/2 of lemon juice

a handful of chopped dill

4 tbs of olive oil

1 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of freshly grounded pepper

Marinating and Grilling Lamb Shoulder

We like eating lamb meat!

In Estonia, we had a very poor choice of lamb meat in shops and generally, if you wanted something special or good piece or good price then you had to buy meat from the farmer - we did it also a couple of times and purchased half of the lamb at a time. We made it to portions and packed and freeze for next time to use.

When we came to New Zealand then many of people said that "Sorry we don't have here the good choice of lamb meat because all is going to export". But the next day shopping at "New World" we saw this very meat counter - and it all was a lamb! I even heard angels singing quietly!

Prices were not the cheapest - but we found a good product for us - lamb shoulder chops! They are easy to make, meat is great and it's difficult to screw it up on a grill :)

So, I used for marinade the following:
2 tbs of spice mix for lamb (my own made)
2 tbs of tomato (pasta) sauce
1 tsp of horseradish
1 tsp of English mustard
1 garlic clove chopped
1/4 of onion chopped
1/2 of lemon (juice from it)
1 tbs of BBQ sauce
1/8 cup of olive oil


After mixing it all together I rubbed it into meat, put the meat on the tray, cover with plastic film and let it season in fridge 3-4 hours.

For grilling use direct heat at first - it will close the pores of the meat and make a nice brown look after that put pieces on un-direct heat - cover your grill with lid and cook until ready. Bon Appetit!

Making your own Spice Mix for lamb

Yesterday I had the plan to grill some lamb shoulder but discovered that my spice mix container for lamb was EMPTY.

So I went shopping at "PAK'nSAVE" and got some of the different spices and I made from them my own rub for the lamb.

The recipe is the following:
2 tbs of Himalayan pink salt
1 tbs of rosemary
1 tbs of smoked paprika
1 tbs of paprika
1 tbs of minced onion
1 tbs of garlic powder
1/2 tbs of chilli powder
1 tbs of basil
1 tbs of sage

Put them all together to some container (chose the one you can close with lid) and enjoy your next lamb cooking :)

NB: You can always save some money and buy ready-made rub or spice mix, but if you use different spices for cooking anyway, then better take different ones and make mixes of your owns.

Portobello mushroom's with blue cheese

This one is good to offer at the beginning of the party!

They are very easy to make and no special skills nor time needed.

You need the following ingredients:
4-5 portobello mushrooms - depending on size (if big ones - then two is enough)
Blue cheese (Danish Blue)
Olive oil
salt/fresh black pepper

Preparation and cooking:
You can remove mushroom leg if you want and use it for next morning frittata if you like :). So, put some salt (you can avoid salt because cheese is quite salty as is) and freshly ground black pepper on each mushroom, add crumbled blue cheese and stir over with some olive oil. Now you can cook them in the oven or on the grill. If cooking in the oven then put mushrooms on some baking form.

If you use grill then avoid putting them straight on the coals/flame - it will burn the skin on mushrooms and it will taste bad! If you use gas grill then you can put them on a piece of foil. You need "secondary heat" like on the picture - you need to cover grill with lead (don't open it too often because heat will escape and you have to start all process from the beginning). Probably you will need 10 + 5 minutes.

Mushrooms are ready to serve and eat when cheese is melted and you see the mushrooms are cooked and there is "juice" on the top of the mushroom. Use plate under as it can be runny and cut to pieces as shown. Eat until warm - these are the best and wash them down with nicely chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

Bon Appetit!

Hungry Kiwi Frittata

As the hungry Kiwi doesn't have time to waist - I came up with "the quick one"!

The last couple of days I made a frittata for a quick lunch after some jogging. The recipe itself is very easy and you don't need any special skills in the kitchen (timing, measuring, cutting etc). Also, one positive thing is that you need only eggs and some leftovers from your fridge :)

Like yesterday I was grilling some chorizo sausages and there was one left in the fridge - so, I sacrificed this bad boy for the better cause and the final result was just beautiful.

So basically I collected the following:

3 eggs
1 grilled chorizo sausage
some frozen green beans (put to the bowl and cover with hot water, prior usage)
2 slices of bacon
1/4 of the onion
1/4 of the tomato
a little drop of cooking oil
salt/pepper
fresh: parsley, dill, green onion, basil, etc

Preparation and cooking:

Put a pan on medium heat and add some cooking oil. Cut onion, chorizo, bacon to small pieces and pour on heated pan and stir occasionally until cooked, now cut tomato and strain off the green beans and add them to pan, stir. Same time you can hit the eggs in the bowl and whisk them, add some salt and freshly ground pepper and pour mixture on the pan over the previous mix. Cover pan with the lid and turn heat to low. Cook abt 5 - 7 minutes and then turn the cooker off. Wait for another 2-3 minutes, add some freshly chopped herbs if you like and you are ready to GO.

Bon Appetit!

NB: For Frittata you can use a really wide variety of veggies and meat products and make it as "your own" as you like!