Category: Meat

10
Nov
2017

REPOST – Recipe Revamp – SS’s Stuffed Onions

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Onions, Recipe Revamp, Retro Cookbooks, Sausage

The story for these Stuffed Onions starts WAAAAAAYYYY back to my first Pieathalon in 2015. My pie was a Belgian Onion Pie chosen for me by the wonderful S.S. from A Book Of Cookrye. If you are ever in need of a chuckle, giggle or even a downright belly laugh, you must check this blog out. S.S. has a wit drier than the Sahara. You know, I try really hard to be funny. I feel with S.S. that it is just effortless. A Book of Cookrye is always just so, so good!

Below the recipe for the Belgian Onion Pie that S.S sent me there was a picture of some little balls of delight (STOP IT. NOW! ) which I mistakenly took for a picture of the finished Belgian Onion Pies. I assumed that the recipe was going to be some wacky Belgian reverso situation where the onion was the “pastry” and the filling was…I have no idea…crumbly pastry?

Sadly this was not the case. But I hold out hope for the Belgians They invented Smurfs, they can invent a reverso onion pie if they really put their mind to it…maybe after Brexit is over they’ll have some time on their hands for pie shenanigans.

Anyhow, after probably eye-rolling and face-palming at my inability to understand the difference between a PIE and a STUFFED VEGETABLE, S.S then v kindly sent me the recipe for the stuffed onions. Which I promptly printed and lost. Then about six months later I found it again and made them. They were….flawed but had potential. I started thinking about how to improve the recipe. After a while I made them again. And again. Then, earlier this year I was getting ready to post the improved version when my laptop died and I lost all my photos and my improvement notes.

However, cursed as this recipe may be, it was also like a ghost haunting me. So, recently, despite history indicating that the Stuffed Onions post would never see the light o’ day, I made them again. With what I could remember of the improvements.

And they were fabby! So tasty!

I am still waiting for the world to implode when I post this though…

Let’s have a look at the original recipe and then have a chat about how I changed it.

Sausage meat is almost invariably going to have a high fat content. Adding cream to something that is already fatty made the mixture far too greasy. Believe me, your mouth will be coated in it and it almost feels like your whole face is smothered in a layer of grease. Mrs Dan Sartor may have been a fan of the feeling like she had been dragged backwards through a pork chop but I do not. So the cream is gone. As is the butter.
The wine does not have to be white. I used a beef sausage and felt a red was a better match for the robust onion and beef flavours.
Next…I don’t really understand inches but Google tells me that a 1/4 inch is 6mm which I feel is too much onion. I took mine back to 2- 3 layers of onion. Which is more than enough.
Depending on what kind of sausages you have you can also add in flavourings like chilli, garlic, a teaspoon of tomato paste, or even a couple of finely chopped mushrooms (Sorry Jenny) to the mix.
Finally save some of those breadcrumbs for a little sprinkle of the top to add a little bit of crunch. If you happen to have some dukkah to add to that sprinkle so much the better!
I served mine on a toasted piece of baguette. The main ingredients – sausage, onion, bread are reminiscent of a hot dog so you could use whatever you like on your hot dogs. I had some aioli and rocket but swap in whatever condiments you like! Or replace the aioli with a slice of cheese. Maybe if you are using a spicy sausage like a chorizo add some guacamole. And throw some black beans into your sausage mix….
You could pretty much style this baby up into anything you wanted just by changing the type of sausage and the condiments / veggies.

Here’s the updated recipe.

Stuffed Onions

Print Recipe

A modern take on a vintage stuffed onion recipe!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

8 medium onions
2 tbsp olive oil
2 sausages, your choice of flavour,
2 tbsp plus more for sprinkling over the top, breadcrumbs
1 handful of chopped parsley
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1 cup beef or chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry white or red wine (your preference)
1 tbsp dukkah to garnish (optional)
8 small sprigs of thyme to ganish (optional)

Serving Suggestion

8 slices of baguette
Aioli
Rocket Leaves

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Instructions

Peel the onions and cut the top and bottom off so they sit flat.
Scoop out the insides so 2/3 layers of onion are left.
Finely chop half of the scooped out onion. (Save the rest for another recipe).
Blanch the cases for 5 minutes then leave to dry.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet then add the chopped onions. Allow them to soften and colour slightly – about 5 minutes.
Remove the sausage meat from the skins and crumble into the onion mix. Cook for around 5 minutes.
Drain off the excess fat and add half of the wine and the breadcrumbs..
Cook for a few minutes then add the herbs, salt and pepper.
Fill the shells with the stuffing mix.
Sprinkle with the remaining breadcrumbs and the dukkah if using.
Garnish with a ting sprig of thyme.
Arrange the onions in serving dish. Pour in the stock and the remaining wine.
Bake in a 180C / 350F oven for 45 minutes, basting occasionally.
Meantime, toast the baguette slices.
Spread with the aioli and the rocket.
Top with the cooked onions.

Notes

Stuffing ingredients and serving suggestions can be modified based on the type of sausages you use and your favourite condiments.

A huge thanks to S.S for the recipe! Sorry it has taken so long! Thanks also to Mrs Dan Sartor for the original recipe. And thanks also to my sadly deceased stepfather who, when ever anyone mentioned anything stuffed vis a vis “Hey I made stuffed onions today” would respond by saying something along the lines of “Oh…I”m sure they weren’t that bad” or “What’s important is that you tried”. Those jokes were running rampant through my head for entire length of this post!

Dad jokes are the worst!

Until you don’t have them anymore…

Huh…Way to finish on a downer.

Ummm….looks around frantically for something to lighten the tone….

Okay, here are some rather unappetizing vintage ideas for stuffed onions!

Here’s a thrifty way to “Satisfy your Inner Man”

I’m not sure. I feel like my inner man would prefer a steak…

And as for this next one all I’m going to say is creamed diced carrots.

You can fill in the blanks on that one….

Have a great week!

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21
Jul
2017

Cattle Country Salad for Cowboy Day

categories: 1970's food, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Meat, Salad, Salads For All Season

Go west they said. I took their advice and not only went west but a whole heap north as well to end up in the UK for this year’s Cowboy Day. I will be spending the actual day in the most haunted town in Britain! Maybe a ghost cowboy just like this one will appear on the day….

Spooky huh?

Something that is not at all spooky is the Cattle Country Beef Salad Salad l made to celebrate Cowboy day. But first, this is the first time I am writing, editing, and posting entirely via phone so let’s put any weirdness in this post, beyond the regular weirdness down to that and I will re-edit, format as required once I get home!

We don’t have cowboys in Australia. We have cattlemen. Who live in cattle country which is where this salad comes from. Actually, it comes from Rosemary Mayne-Wilson’s Salads for All Seasons but you know what I mean.

So what all goes into a Cattle Country Beef Salad?

Beef of course. I suspect originally this would have been leftovers from the Sunday roast but I just bought from slices of roast beef from the supermarket.
Then there’s apples. Because we all know one a day keeps the doctor away and you don’t want to get sick while you’re out riding the range.
There’s celery because…I dunno. What use is celery? I like the taste of it but….oh that’s right. Celery keeps the cattlemen skinny. Because no one likes a tubby cowboy. Specially the horses they ride around on all day.
Spring onions. To put a spring in their step.

That was about it for the original ingredients. I also added some mixed leaves because I had to use them before I left for the UK the following morning. I also added some chunks of a lovely vintage cheddar. Which also had to be used but cheese also makes anything taste better and this was no exception.

RMW suggests using a French dressing for this. Make it really punchy by being HEAVY on the mustard. The flavours in here are strong enough to deal with it.

This was yummy!!!! Quick simple delicious. That’s an all round winner for me!

Here’s the original recipe:

Okay, I’m trying to keep this short and sweet because posting off the phone is doing my head in.

Many thanks to Greg from Recipes for Rebels for inviting me to participate in the cookalong again this year. It is always a so much fun to be a part of something like this. Plus, he”s one of the most awesome people on the internet so should just be thanked in general

I dont have my regular sign off this week but just look what can happen when bloggers get together. For an explanation of why Battenberg Belle, Jenny Hammerton and I are wearing cowboy hats and clutching a meat cleaver, a melon baller and a hammer respectively, you’ll need to head over to Silver Screen Suppers but in the meantime, have a great Cowboy Day everyone!

26
Dec
2016

Consider The Mutton Curry

categories: Curry, England, Lamb

Today we are taking a huge step back in time and heading back to the time of gas lamps, hansom cabs and thick London fogs. How nice then in this cold inhospitable atmosphere to pop into the Oriental Club for a spicy mutton curry to warm your cockles on a cold winter’s night! Just think, Arthur Conan Doyle could have tucked into this curry as he pondered the intricacies of the first Sherlock Holmes story.

And now you can too!

Our mutton curry comes from 1861 from The Oriental Club’s chef, Richard Terry who made use of the ingredients from the first Asian grocery warehouse in London to recreate a curry recipe he had learned from Indian cooks. It is also indicative of Britain’s and Briton’s long-lasting love of curry!

This is certainly not a curry in a hurry! There are several parts to making this, which is time-consuming but if you have the patience, it is well worth the effort. Also, whilst the original recipe called for mutton, I used lamb. I could not find mutton anywhere – not even dressed as lamb. Funnily enough though, my mum says that in Sri Lanka when any recipe called for lamb or mutton, what they actually used was goat so use what you can get.

First up, you need to roast up some spices to make a curry powder. This will make more than you need for one curry so you will have supplies if you want to make this again or you can use it in other curries.

One thing that is strange about this curry is that you not only need a curry powder but also a curry paste.

Whilst we’re roasting and grinding those spices, let’s talk Sherlock! I am a HUGE fan of the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott because who doesn’t love a bad boy right? And I am over the moon excited to see Series 4. Tom Hiddleston! Colin Farrell! This series is going to be AWESOME!

Now, a very weird thing about this curry paste is that it contains lentils which you grind up. I have never heard of this technique before but…hey, if it’s good enough for the The Duke of Wellington, who was the President of the Oriental Club back in the day, it’s good enough for me! The genius stroke is that they help to make the gravy lovely and thick.

Mutton curry (maybe even one based on this recipe!) features as a clue in a Sherlock Holmes story. In The Adventure of Silver Blaze, which not only contains the phrase”Consider the mutton curry,” the title of this post but also “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, a mutton curry is doused with powdered opium, putting the stable boy meant to be guarding the race horse Silver Blaze into a stupor and hence rendering him unable to do his job.

The paste mix will also make more than you need for one curry but will keep in the fridge for months.

Sadly, Sherlock Holmes may not have been a fan of curry. At least not according to the 1946 film, Terror by Night. This however is not based on a Conan Doyle story so this is open for debate. Terror By Night is also available for free download here. Personally, I think Sherlock would have been a fan of this mutton curry…with or without a garnish of powdered opium.

The 19th Century Mutton Curry was delicious, dark and spicy, thanks to those lentils, the gravy was lovely and thick and the meat was tender. This was a winner! And hey, I’ve got paste and powder left so I’ll definitely be making it again!

Best served with an ice-cold beer! Whilst watching Series 4 of Sherlock!

Any leftovers? A curry jaffle is THE best hangover food known to man. Just sayin’. Tis the season after all!

Oh and by the way, the Oriental Club still exists and curries still feature on the menu. I am adding to the list for a trip to London next year!

19th Century British Mutton Curry

Print Recipe

A delicious mutton curry from the days of The Raj, Queen Victoria and Sherlock Holmes!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

19th Century British Curry Powder

2 tbsp ground turmeric
5 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cardamom seeds
1/2 tsp ground cloves

19th Century British Curry Paste

4 tbsp whole coriander seeds
2 tbsp yellow split peas
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 whole cumin seeds
1 tbsp whole brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
120ml cider vinegar
6 tbsp corn, peanut or olive oil

Curry

675g bones lamb, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 tbsp 19th Century British Curry Powder
1 tbsp 19th Century British Curry Paste
200g onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 tbsp corn, peanut oil or ghee
3/4 – 1tsp salt

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Instructions

For The 19th Century British Curry Powder

Combine all the ingredients in a jar. Mix. Cover with a tight lid.
Store away from heat and sunlight.
Makes 7 tablespoons.

For The 19th Century British Curry Powder

Put the coriander seeds, split peas, peppercorns and cumin into a medium cast iron frypan and set on medium heat. Stir and roast until the split peas are reddish, the coriander has turned a shade darker and all the spices begin to give off a roasted aroma.
Empty them into a bowl and allow to cool.
Put the roasted spices and the mustard seeds into a spice grinder or food processor and grind as finely as possible. Place in a bowl.
Add thee turmeric, cayenne pepper, ginger, salt, sugar, garlic and vinegar.
Stir to mix.
Pour the oil into a small non-stick frying pan and set over a medium heat.
Add the spice paste.
Stir and fry for around 5 minutes or until it browns slightly.
Cool, then empty into a jar.
Cover tightly and refrigerate until needed.

For The Curry

Put the oil or ghee in a heavy, wide, lidded pan. Set it over a medium high heat.
When the oil is hot, stir in the onions and fry them until they are lightly browned.
Add the curry powder and curry paste.
Stir a few times then add the meat and half the salt.
Stir and fry for a few minutes until the meat is coated in the spice mix.
Cover and reduce the heat to low.
Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add 600ml water and increase the heat/ Bring to the boil.
Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for an hour until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick.
Season to taste and serve.

Notes

If the sauce is not thick enough, remove the lid and let it boil down.

Have a great week! Enjoy your holidays if you are on them, enjoy Sherlock S4 if you are watching. Let me know if you are, we can compare notes after!

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23
May
2016

Devilled Burgers. Taste Heavenly!

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Burger, Margaret Fulton Cookbook

Like rock and roll and dancing in that town in Footloose, burgers must be the work of the devil. There is no other explanation for something so simple tasting so good! And that’s just normal burgers. Once you have tried Margaret Fulton’s Devilled Burgers you will be ready to sell your soul for the recipe!

Not that you have to of course. The recipe is at the end of the post. No soul selling involved!

So what makes the Devilled Burger so special?

Oh and warning ahead…I am going to drop the dreaded M word. You know, the one that rhymes with foist. Haters beware!

One thing I have noticed about a couple of old hamburger recipes is that they use bread soaked in evaporated milk. This may both look and sound pretty gross but I think this combo really helps to keep the burgers moist. There. I’ve said it.

This mixture turns into something that resembles either wallpaper paste or the gruel from Oliver but I think it does the job. I had these two nights running and I was expecting that reheating them on the second night would make them dry but no, they were as juicy as ever! Possibly even better than the first night.

Other ingredients are finely chopped mushrooms (sorry Jenny), mustard, tomato ketchup, green Habanero sauce, horseradish and Worcestershire Sauce! No wonder these are tasty little demons!

These are so good. Who could believe ground beef could be so tasty? These have rocked straight in at number two on my best burgers ever (right behind my spicy feta burgers)! Hmmm..,.now what would happen if you added some feta and cumin to this recipe? The burger to end all burgers? Burgergeddon? I now so want to try it out!

Top these burgers with your favourite toppings, mine are in the recipe below and enjoy!!!!

If serving at your own devil theme party, why not lay out your salad ingredients and condiments and any other trimmings you like and let your guests create their own version of the Devilled Burger?

Devilled Burgers

Print Recipe

Author: Taryn Fryer
Yield: 12 1x

Ingredients

Scale

4 slices bread
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 kilo minced (ground) beef
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 chopped onion
2 eggs
250g chopped mushrooms (optional)
1.5 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup tomato ketchup or mild chilli sauce (I used a combination of ketchup and green habanero sauce)
2 tsp prepared horseradish
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp green Habenero sauce
Lettuce leaves
Tomato Slices
Vintage Cheddar, thinly sliced
Red Onions, thinly sliced
Pickles

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Instructions

Remove the crusts from the read, cut into squares and soak in evaporated milk for 10 minutes, then beat with a fork.
Mix meat, bread, salt, pepper, onion, mushrooms, mustard, tomato ketchup and/or chilli sauce, horseradish and Worchestershire Sauce in large bowl. Mix in the eggs with a fork.
Shape into 10 even sized patties.
Heat some oil in a frying pan and gently fry the red onions .
Preheat the grill and grill the hamburgers on one side for 7-8 minutes on one side and ^ minutes on the other. Add a slice of cheese using and grill for a further minute or so until the cheese has melted.
Whilst the hamburger is cooking, toast your buns.
Mix the mayonnaise and the green habanero sauce together and spread over the buns.
Top with a lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato.
Place the burger on top of the tomato and top with the fried onions and the burger bun.
Pickles can be served on the side or in the burger or not at all!

Oh and look! Is that a bottle of Lychee Beer in the background? Yes indeed. Just doing a little taste testing for the margarita to come. Or should that be a lagerita?

Have a fab week! Next time, we’ll be wrapping up our devil themed party with an appropriately titled cake from the Domestic Goddess herself!

18
Feb
2016

The Dishiest Dish – Pizza Rustica Con Bietola

categories: Books, Chard, Dish of The Week, Dishiest Dish, Pastry, Podcasts, Prosciutto, Savoury Pies and Tarts, TV

“Hey mambo, mambo Italiano hey, hey mambo mambo Italiano
Go go go you mixed up Siciliano
All you Calabrese do the mambo like-a crazy”

This week’s dishiest dish has us going to Abruzzo for a Pizza Rustica con Bietola. AKA a savoury tart with chard . But Pizza Rustican con Bietola sounds so much more Italian and glamorous doesn’t it? And it will have you dancing the mambo because it is super tasty!

The recipe comes from Made in Italy by Silvia Colloca which was my choice when we did Italian in the Tasty Reads book club a few months ago.

Before I looked inside this book I had my hater face on. As if some B grade actress was going to have any cooking chops – and bear in mind the Claudia Roden book was one of the other selections. This was going to have to be pretty damn impressive to rival that!

Then I started flicking through and ye-es there were several pictures of Silvia looking both incredibly beautiful and impossibly thin. But it was also filled with what looked like some fabulous recipes and things that were not run of the mill. And everything I have made to date has been delicious.

This has included:

Calimari with Tomatoes and Wine
Woodsman’s Chicken
Herb Frittata with Goat’s Curd
Noodles with Zucchini Blossoms and Saffron Sauce
No Knead Spelt Pizza with Soppressata and Potatoes
Pasta Strips with Slow Cooked Goat Sauce

So, this is proving a pretty solid choice. Yay me! Well, really yay Silvia! But you know, I write a blog and it doesn’t get much more totally self obsessed than that so I guess yay me is valid.

Six Week Challenges – Update

I am still on my 6 weeks of no alcohol although I did take last weekend off! Saturday night we were having lobster – OH. MY. WORD. So good!!!! And there was no way on God’s green earth that I was not having a glass of sparkling with that! And Sunday we went out for a Valentine’s Day dinner to our favourite local Greek restaurant. And again – it would have been churlish not to have a glass of vino! But on the whole it is going well . I haven’t really missed it. I also haven’t felt many of the supposed benefits – weight loss, sleeping better, greater productivity etc.

I have been struggling with the daily meditation. I don’t think I have found the perfect time to do it. In the mornings I am usually too rushed and if i try to do it at night I fall asleep. Two places it did feel “right” were one day I did it as soon as I got home from work so it was a bit of a chance to decompress. The other was one morning when I had parked m car at the station, i just stayed in it and did my ten minutes there.

My new one, started February 15th is a flexibility challenge. Every day I will do a short workout designed to improve my flexibility. I am using the program from Fitivity. I have only done a couple so far and they have been fine but a bit boring. I’m sure they will get more challenging as I progress!

I have been thinking of more that I can do over the next few weeks /months:

No processed food
No sugar
Yoga everyday
No Candy crush
Journalling everyday

Are all on the list.

Reading

Room – Emma Donoghue

I have had this book on my To Be Read shelf for YEARS. And finally now I have taken the plunge and have started it – simply because I want to have read it before I see the film. I am probably 2/3 of the way through and I think it is very well written. There are certain parts that I have found quite confronting and other parts that have annoyed me but once I start reading it I find it difficult to put down. I am still having some problems with starting picking it up and starting it each day though…..

Room - Emma Donoghue

The Apologist – Jay Rayner

This is my current audiobook. Marc Bassett is a merciless restaurant critic. One day a chef commits suicide by roasting himself in his bread oven, leaving Bassett’s review taped to the outside. And so begins his career as the apologist.

I am not very far along with this but I am enjoying it so far.

Watching

My Kitchen Rules

I can’t help myself. I am utterly addicted to this. And the commentary on Flawless Vision.

Listening

I Know What You’ll Read This Summer Podcast.

I have only listened to one episode of this but they hated Girl on The Train almost as much as I did so it’s definitely worth another listen.

Room 101

From time to time I’ve decided to list a few pet peeves on here. Things that I would like to see banished to Room 101. Starting with:

Gluten Free Everything

When you label your bread, cakes and cookies gluten free you are doing a good service for those people who cannot tolerate gluten. When you label products that would never have contained gluten in a pink fit “Gluten Free” you are indulging in a cynical marketing ploy. STOP IT. I swear I saw water labelled gluten free recently. It made me want to break things.

Quinoa

Has no one else noticed how bad this smells as it is cooking. I made some the other day and the smell of it made me gag. I”m never cooking it again.

Cooked.com

I took out an annual subscription for cooked.com. This, for those of you who may not have heard of it is kind of like a netflix for cookbooks. Does anyone else have one of these? Do you find it useful? how long have you had it. Does it help you to choose which cookbooks to buy or do you not buy them anymore? I have not actually cooked anything from the site yet. I guess I’d better start! Stay tuned!

Kitchen Nightmares

I had one kitchen nightmare this week. I was all set to make Vitello Tonnato for bookclub only it was a new style “healthy” VT. So, instead of that gorgeous tuna mayonnaise, my tonnato was made out of tofu, anchovies and parmesan cheese. And it was rank! I have never been one to complain about the smell of parmesan cheese. I remember even in primary school when people would say “Yuck, it smells like sick”, I always thought they were nuts. This abomination of a tonnato not only smelt like but tasted like vomit. It was so bad I couldn’t even give it to the dogs.

Now though, I am craving a proper old school Italiano Vitello Tonnato. It’s a shame Silvia’s book does not have a recipe. However, The A-Z of Cooking does. There will be 1970’s Vitello Tonnato on here very soon. I just have to allow the memory of the horror that was that tofu tonnato to subside a little!

What Silvia’s book does have is this recipe for Pizza Rustica con Bietola. I am obsessed by those words. I keep repeating them in an increasingly bad Italian accent! If you would also like to become obsessed with this lovely tart here is the recipe:

This week I am looking forward to cooking…nothing. Because I have been really busy and not done a single bit of menu planning. However, we have a new Tasty Reads book so I might crack this open and give something a whirl.

Oh and this is is my new favourite you-tube. I have watched it about a million times since I found it.

What was the best thing you’ve made this week? What are you looking forward to cooking? Have you read anything interesting? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy cooking.

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