becks beer garden at piaf

mmm fun

also liking the greenhouse on st georges tce

Beefy Beef Satays with Bry

Cooking with bry. Very hot day. Asian spice appealed to me. Vaguely remembering an amazing satay sauce we made a few years ago. Cannot find the recipe. Instead combine a couple of other recipes - one from Maggie Beer and another from Gourmet Traveller. The result - exceptionally good! Please make this. There was enough sauce and food for four of us. It is so delicious I would recommend increasing the ingredients proportionally if you are expecting more people. Believe me - you wont want to share your sauce with someone else. We served it with a simple carrot salad and a cucumber/pineapple salad. It would be nice with rice, but in this weather it is unnecessary.

Serves 4

800g rump steak

Marinade

2 sticks lemongrass, chopped into 3cm lengths and bashed with a knife

1 shallot, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp tamarind pulp (made by mixing tamarind paste with boiling water and straining through a plastic sieve)

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp soy suace

Juice 1 large lime

Combine all ingredients in a flat dish large enough to fit the beef. Cut the beef into cubes ~1-2cm square. Mix well with the marinade (use your hands). Leave in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

Thread the beef onto bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water.

Grill for 2-5 mins on each side. The rump steak is so delicious it can be left slightly rare.

Serve with satay sauce, rice, cucumber salad and carrot salad.

Satay Sauce

1 tbsp peanut/sunflower oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 long red chilli, chopped

1 tbsp ginger, grated

250g roasted, then ground unsalted peanuts (we roasted them in a dry frying pan and then ground in the food processor until quite fine)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce

3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded

270mL cocnut milk

2 tbsp tamarind pulp

Fry the garlic until golden. Reduce the heat and add the shallots, chilli and ginger. Fry gently for 2-5 minutes or until softened. Add the peanuts and fry for 1 minute before adding remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until warmed through. Season to taste with salt. At this stage it can be cooled down and refrigerated until needed. Reheat in a saucepan, it may need extra coconut milk to thin it if it gets too thick on cooling.

Cucumber Salad

1 continental Cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped

Red Onion, finely chopped

1 can pineapple slices in juice, chopped

Lime juice

Slice the onion finely and then soak in iced water with a dash of vinegar to take out the biteyness. Mix with chopped pineapple and cucumber. Dress with salt, pepper and lime juice.

Carrot Salad

2 Carrots, juliened (I used the mandolin to save time - and almost lost my fingers in the process)

Handful chopped mint

Olive oil

Lime juice

Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients well.

Tamarind pulp - if you cannot find this, replace with lime juice and fish sauce, to taste

remember the old eggplant stack?

Mum used to make this ages ago. I remembered it yesterday and so we dug up the old recipe and made it again. Just as delicious as I remember (maybe even more yummy if possible)

Eggplant Stack

1 batch of sauce provencale

1 medium sized eggplant, cut into thick slices

Danish feta cheese

Parmesan cheese

1 red capsicum

Rocket, lightly dressed with olive oil and vinegar, to serve

Cover the eggplant slices with salt and leave for 30 mins to draw out bitter juices. Wash thoroughly and pat dry. Brush with oil and grill until golden brown and soft.

Place the capsicum in a brown paper bag in a 200C oven. Cook until the skin is charred and the flesh is soft. Leave to cool slightly in bag, then de-seed and finely slice.

Place a slice of eggplant on a tray. Top with sauce and both cheeses, then another slice of eggplant. Repeat. Finish with a dollop of sauce and a layer of cheese. Place under the grill and cook until golden and bubbly. Top with red capsicum slices and serve with a simple rocket salad.

Sauce Provencale

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

~1/2 cup white wine

2 cans chopped tomatoes, juice drained and reserved (we used my favourite tomatoes which are the canned cherry tomatoes)

1/2 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives

Big handful of fresh basil, finely sliced

Salt and pepper, to taste

Soften the onion in olive oil. Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the wine, then the tomatoes. Cook for 10-20 minutes or until nice and thick. If too thick add some of the reserved juice. Season with olives, salt and pepper. Add the basil at the last second.

Visiting Edwina, baby Sam and Max

Choc Chip Biscuits

According to Smitten Kitchen's Deb - these are her favourite choc chip cookies. Although I must admit, as usual my complete lack of ability to follow a recipe has made these a bit different to the original. Despite these changes they are lovely! I had no vanilla essence so put in cinnamon instead - a very nice change. I also had only 1/2 cup worth of a mixture of roasted hazelnuts, and pepitas, pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. I made this mixture up to a cup with rolled oats. The result was delicious. The hazelnut flavour was fantastic with the chocolate.

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

115g butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

230g pack of dark choc chips

1 cup nuts, roasted and then finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 150C. Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the vanilla, egg and baking soda. Gradually mix in the remaining ingredients.

Place large teaspoonfuls of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Put in the oven and bake for 15-18 mins or until very lightly golden.

I made about 50 small biscuits.

Slice and Bake Love

The kitchen at the nurse's quarters is smaller than a matchbox. The oven is less powerful than an easy-bake oven. There are only 2 teaspoons, no mixing bowls, one tiny baking tray and no measuring cups. I wanted to cook something nice to give to the doctors that have been really helpful whilst I have been in Albany.

These biscuits are easy to make with limited resources (visualise mixing the dough in a saucepan due to lack of bowls).

230g butter

2/3 cup icing sugar

2 egg yolks

pinch salt

2 cups plain flour

Finely grated zest of 2 oranges

1/4 cup poppyseeds

Cream together the butter and icing sugar (I did this in a saucepan with a dessert spoon). Mix in the egg yolks until well combined then add the remaining ingredients. Mix gently until it can be formed into a lump of dough. (This could all be done in a food processor - but it was actually really easy to do by hand).

Divide the dough into two and shape into sausages with the aid of gladwrap. Make them have a diameter of about 3-4cm (or smaller or larger depending on how big you want the finished product). I ended up with two rather long sausages so if you are making them skinnier you might want to make three or four sausages instead. Seal them well and then pop into the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

At this stage the logs can be frozen and stored for a few months, or refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Remove the dough from the fridge and slice into 1cm rounds (or squares as mine ended up!).

Place onto a baking sheet. They can be quite close together as they do not spread much at all. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until very lightly golden on the bottom and set.

I made about 60 small biscuits and they are delicious

my first successful loaf (loaves) of bread

An insatiable desire to make bread struck me at 12pm today. You can always trust a Jamie Oliver recipe. Delicious (and not too difficult). The yeast that had expired 2 months ago even managed to make the cut. Next time I would add more whole nuts and fruit.

500g plain flour

500g wholemeal flour

200g roasted blanched almonds, finely ground

625mL tepid water

3x 7g sachets dried yeast

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp salt

250g walnuts, roughly chopped

180g dried figs, roughly chopped

1 tbsp fennel seeds

extra flour, for dusting

Mix together the flours. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast, sugar, salt and half the water. Mix to form a gloopy consistency. Add the remaining ingredients to the edges of the flour and gradually bring it all together to form a dough.

Knead for 5-10 minutes, until silky and elastic.

Place in an oiled bowl and seal with glad wrap. Put the bowl in a warm, draught free place and allow the dough to rise until doubled in size - about 30 minutes.

Punch the dough down for 30 seconds by bashing and squashing it. Shape it into desired shapes. I made two logs. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and again cover with glad wrap to seal. Place the tray back in the warm place and leave until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Slash the tops of the loaves (to prevent them bursting) and dust liberally with flour. Place gently into the oven and do not slam the door. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the base sounds hollow when tapped.

Enjoy