Tag Archives: feeding family

Mum’s Lasagne

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Well it finally happened. The stars aligned and I happened to be at mum’s house when she made lasagne, with a camera in my bag.

Yes, I did invite myself over.

Yes, I did suggest we have lasagne for dinner.

And yes, I bought my camera with the intention of blogging about the entire experience.

So, I guess it wasn’t so much fate, rather more like imposition.

I know it doesn’t look the way most people would expect lasagne to look, and yes, it was a particularly runny batch.

However, I actually think it is the abundance of fluid in my mum’s lasagne that makes it the delight that it is.

It’s not really about the sheets of pasta that lay in between, it’s about the bond of love formed when bolognaise and bechamel mingle on the plate. True love.

There is always a splendiferous amount of this meat and sauce swimming around on the plate after the last mouthful and it makes for great dipping with a crusty bit of bread or even just for eating; with or without utensils.

This is definitely a plate-licker-meal.

I will use this opportunity to include our family’s idea of bolognaise. I think me, mum and VC all make it more or less the same.

I won’t include the details of bechamel, just a guide. You know how fond of them I am.

But I will include the layering technique that makes mum’s lasagne truly the best in the land.

Mama C’s Lasagne Recipe

Ingredients:

500g Beef Mince (probably 1kg for a big one).

1 onion, diced

2/3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tin of tomatoes

Handful of chopped parsley

A sprinkle of thyme, oregano and even basil if you like

Bechamel sauce (milk, butter, flour, cheddar cheese – you know the drill)

Fresh Lasagne Sheets

Oven 180C

Method:

To make the bolognaise;

Saute onion and garlic in a pan.

Add mince and brown.

Add tomatoes and herbs and season to taste.

Cover with water and bring to boil, then simmer for an hour or longer.

Thicken with a paste of flour and water.

Make sure there is plenty of fluid in the bolognaise, a nice gravy-like consistency.

Pasta;

Pour a full kettle of boiled water into a baking dish and soak the lasagne sheets in there for a few minutes.

Then take them out and lay them out, for ease.

Assembly;

Spray or brush baking dish wish some oil and lay the first layer of lasagne.

Put a layer of meat.

Then another layer of lasagne sheets.

Then a layer of bechamel.

Then another layer of lasagne sheets.

Then meat, then pasta, then sauce. Until you run out or the dish is full.

Make sure your top layer is bechamel. Sprinkle with some parmesan or cheddar cheese.

Bake in the oven for about an hour, or until golden brown on top.

Notes on the Recipe

Some might think the bolognaise recipe is simple, and yes, it is. But it always works, and tastes good. It doesn’t have an overpowering tomato acidity as I find is a problem with many lasagnes.

But if you want to ramp up the flavour you can always simmer it with beef stock or add spices like celery salt when sauteing the onions, or adding a bay leaf while simmering.

In regards to the bechamel, again, it’s a simple recipe, and again, it works. The simplicity of flavours results in a dish that is not over powering or overly rich.

But, if you like you can add a dash of nutmeg and a bay leaf to your sauce, or you can use a mixture of cheddar and Parmesan.

Ideally, you should use fresh lasagne sheets, but if you can’t get any, then make sure you boil your pasta sheets until they are cooked. This is important.

It is also important to layer as I specified. It makes a difference.

The longer you let the dish sit, the better it will set. If you serve up straight away it will be quite runny. But like I said, that is not a bad thing. On the contrary, I feel that is exactly what makes this recipe work.

Thanks mum for letting me share this recipe with my friends, some of whom may have had the good fortune to sample in the past.

And thanks for dinner last night.

Love you. xoxo

Fish Balls

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For those of us who can eat vegetables in their natural state, without the use of various sauces and threats, then this recipe is not aimed directly at you. Rather, your children.

You know, those little people that wander around the house. Tottering around with their disproportionately large heads covered in wispy hair and who generally have their fingers either in their mouth or down their pants?

I do think hiding veges in food is a good idea, sometimes. I don’t see it as a long term solution when trying to teach your children healthy eating, they’re going to have to come to terms with eating their veges at some point in their lives. So I go with a little from column A and a little from column B.

Well, my fabulous Fish balls are of the ‘hidden vege’ variety.  It’s one of those recipes where the main ingredient isn’t really discernible. I know, you think it’s fish right? Well, you’d be wrong.  The way I make them they end up as vege balls with a little tinned tuna or salmon mixed up in between.

The story goes….

I was in the market for a fish recipe for the boys, and I had been burnt in the past. Badly.

I remember they were about one and three and so naturally I was not sound of mind or body. My brain was addled and tired and I was foolishly thinking they might eat salmon cakes or patties. I was wrong.

I had spent at least 45 minutes preparing and cooking these delicious little morsels only to have them spat out and rejected.

I felt as if I were the one who was spat out and rejected, so delicate was my emotional state at the time. Mothers, I know we have all been at that point where our efforts can only go unnoticed and unappreciated for so long.  We become irrational and over sensitive.

I swore never to make salmon patties again. Ever.

But the good mother in me won over the bad one and eventually I tried again. I knew fish was one of those foods that made a rare appearance on my children’s menu and so I persisted with tinned salmon (or tuna), but this time I tried something different.

Balls.

Crumbed, fried and dipped in tomato sauce. How could I go wrong?

I used the salmon patties in the recipe books for a guide and have ended up with something that goes like this…

Fish Balls Recipe

Ingredients:

1 potato, boiled and mashed

3-5 tblspn (or more) puree vegetables

small tin of tuna or salmon (not too much or it tastes too fishy)

handful of cheese (grated Parmesan or cheddar)

handful of bread crumbs and some egg.

Stuff for crumbing (you’ve all done that before, I don’t need to explain).

Method:

Mix the puree veg, tuna or salmon and cheese into the mashed potato in the pan.

Season a little. Throw in some bread crumbs and use a little of the whisked up egg you have ready for the crumbing (you only need the tiniest bit).

Roll into balls, the smaller the better. Mine have the diameter of a 20c piece….approximately. If I am feeling lazy, then they’re the size of golf balls.

Crumb.

Shallow fry in some canola oil.

Serve with tomato sauce or whatever else you want, maybe some mayo…

Notes on the Recipe

This is obviously a very plain recipe. My kids are so slow on the ‘try new things’ bandwagon. They have an aversion to onion, so I don’t put it in their food. But I think a little diced, sauted onion and even some garlic would go a long way in these little balls of goodness.

You could definitely make them vegetarian…you might just need a little more egg/breadcrumbs to bind.

You could run all day on this crumb and fry theme. I think kids would eat just about anything as long as it was crumbed and fried. You could make little arancini, which I did once – only to have them spat out. So I never did that again. Granted it was about 2 yrs ago now, but the incident scarred my well meaning heart, and I swore I would never go to such trouble again for toddlers.

I think it’s the size and shape that make them so appealing, so if you’re going to try it out on little ones, keep it in ball form and you should be right.

Savoury Nuts

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My mum makes these savoury roasted nuts every Christmas. And they are insanely addictive.

I must pass on my thanks and a kick in the shin to Nigella Lawson for coming up with this recipe. I’m sure they are responsible for at least 1kg of the obligatory 3 kg I put on over Christmas time.

Spiced Nuts Recipe

Ingredients:

500g raw mixed nuts
1½tsp garam masala
1tsp celery salt
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp brown sugar
3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped to make about 3tsp

Oven 180C

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, dump it on a tray and shove it in the oven until golden and roasted. (Not sure how long this is…probably ten minutes. I probably should have paid attention when making these things).

Tip onto a lined baking try and season with some salt.

Can be served warm or cooled.

And tell me these aren’t good.

Shortbread Rosettes

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I have a dead line.

I need to find the best shortbread recipe in time for Christmas. Want to give pre-school teachers a little bag of thank you and I thought home made rosettes of butter, flour and sugar might do the trick.

I tried a few recipes.

I failed a few times.

But moving on, it seemed I would never find that elusive blend of texture and flavour. Just the right amount of crumble and crisp. Must look good.

I tried Martha Stewart and I tried the internet, but in the end I went for the Woman’s Weekly Butterscotch Shortbread recipe.

Not the first time the ol’ WW has bailed me out of a tight spot.

Butterscotch Shortbread Recipe

Ingredients:

250g softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 cups plain flour

Oven at 180C

Method:

Beat butter, vanilla and sugar until light and creamy.

Stir in flour and mix to a soft dough.

Spoon mixture into piping bag and pipe rosettes about 3cm apart on a lined baking tray.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool on the tray.

Makes about 35

Notes on the recipe

I made another version (more traditional flavour) of these biscuits using caster sugar instead of the brown sugar. No problems there. Can be done.

Here’s the thing – let the mixture warm up a bit in the piping bag before you try to pipe the mixture, otherwise you – like me – will end up with RSI in your piping hand. It is really difficult to squeeze the mixture out straight away, but as the butter melts it gets easier.

These last for ages…I think I had them lying around for about a week when I made them.

You could decorate them by popping a little cachou or mini m&m on the top.

I popped them in a cello bag and tied with some ribbon.

I forgot to take pics of the finished gift bagies, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Recipe Alert! - Roast Pig

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I made the Roast Pork Nipples, I mean, Belly with Sage and breadcrumb stuffing last night and may I say I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

With so little ingredients, this cheap cut of meat was transformed into an impressive roast meal. Because the belly cut is so fatty, the meat did not become dry and it was full of flavour and crispy in all the right places.

The sage stuffing was too easy. I was skeptical about how good it would be. It didn’t have any butter or onions (all it contains is sage, bread and Worcestershire sauce) but it roasted up so nicely and was very tasty. I think the fat must have been soaked up by the stuffing because it ended up so crispy and tasty and the pork itself ended up free from any fatty deposits.

Quite remarkable. I ‘ve eaten pork belly before and nearly passed out from fat over load, but this left no trace of unwanted lipid layers.

So, thanks to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall for sharing your River Cottage recipe with us.

Here is the link to the recipe: River Cottage

All you need is a pork belly, sage, breadcrumbs, worster sauce and twine.

DON’T FORGET THE TWINE!!!! (like I did).

I was all ready to roast when I realised I’d forgotten to by twine at my last shopping outing. All I had was some plastic string in the drawer…which I was certain would melt and possibly poison us…so I considered using shoe laces to tie up my pig belly. I had some…white too…But I thought it might add some strange flavours to the dish.

So my darling sister – who happened to be at my place when I realised I had no twice – was kind enough to mind the boys and I popped up to the local butcher and bought some twine from him for $1.

I had never done anything like tying up a piece of meat before, and I was a little nervous about the outcome but it worked brilliantly.

Only thing is you need about 2 hrs to get it ready and cook it. It cooks for like 1 1/2 hours.  And you only need half of the amount of stuffing he suggests. I through out most of mine.

Oh, and try not pick a day where temps reach 30C. I had to put the air conditioner on to keep our house from becoming one giant roasting oven.

I served mine with some steamed cabbage and roast potats.

I forgot to photograph the meal, so I’ll leave you with this:

apple and cran and pork plate 005

Fried vs. Fresh

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Here’s something to consider.

Prawns nov 09 002

Prawns nov 09 003

For the same price as fish and chips to feed the family – about $25 – you can buy 1kg of fresh prawns, avocado and some bread.

Squeeze some lemon juice and season the avocado.

Spread it on slice of crusty bread from a good bakery.

A good dollop of seafood sauce, then complete the meal with some peeled prawns.

Prawns nov 09 001

OK, so maybe 2yr old doesn’t get into the prawns. He prefers to play around with them. We sacrifice one prawn for him.

But 4yr old really enjoys our little floor picnics on prawn night an it has become a regular treat.

When you think of the nutritional value of the prawn meal versus the fried meal I think it becomes clear that it’s not only for taste reasons that fresher choice wins out.

Unless of course you don’t like prawns. Sadly I know too many who do…in which case, go ahead and have fish and chips.

I’ve always thought the cost of take away food is far outweighing it’s usefulness, outside of giving mum the night off. It has become so expensive to eat take away that I think it’s usually cheaper to buy the food fresh and make it yourself.

PS: I’m not pretending I don’t LOVE indulging in the greasy, crispy, salty pleasures of fried food, but when we’re talking about making better choices for our health and our family’s health,  I thought this little comparison illustrates the point nicely.

PPS: This post becomes irrelevant in the weeks surrounding Christmas. As we all know, prices escalate beyond all reason.

Apple Cake

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This recipe is almost fool proof.  I actually don’t think it is possible to mess this one up.

It tastes so good. Buttery, sweet, moist. And it smells amazingly wholesome and comforting.

Apple Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

125g butter (softened)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup flour

3/4 self raising flour

apples (I use a whole 495g tin)

Oven at 180C

Method:

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy

Beat in egg

Mix in flours, until just combined and resembles a dough like mixture

Divide the dough in half

Press out one half into a paper lined cake tin.

Put apples on top

Press other half on top of apples.

Bake for about 35 minutes.

THAT IS IT!!!!!

Notes on the recipe:

Feel free to use fresh apples, about two should do it.

Also, I like to sprinkle cinnamon sugar onto the apples.

I have been known to break up the second half of the dough and place bits over the apple, for a kind of holey result, but lately I just put a piece of baking paper onto the bench, and press it onto there, and then place it upside down on the apples, and peel off the paper. Easy.

You could use a rolling pin. If you really wanted to. But why bother right?

I’m sure this recipe would lend itself to many other fruits…should you care to experiment – I would LOVE to hear about it!!!!

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.