reminds me of my beef and red wine casserole :-D

Raw Meat.

Take one fresh steak.

Cut into bite sized pieces.

Eat.

Et voila.

ooh this is it ha? printing...

I've been making sveltey's pie, but I like to do it with lamb, with lots of thyme and rosemary, and cook the meat for longer to make it nice and soft. Delish!

oooh, jetgirl... that sounds devine.

you can get that meat pre-chopped at the butcher right? or do i need to touch it with my hands?

lamb and tomato stew

cubed lamb (i used a whole backstrap cos I had it in the freezer, but as it's a stew, absolutely anything will do, you're gonna cook this sucker for hours)
tin of diced tomatoes
olive oil
one onion finely diced
couple of garlic cloves crushed or sliced
some honey
pearl barley
olives (optional)
bay leaf
salt & pepper
ground cumin seeds
any other vegies you have laying around.

in a plastic bag, put some salt, pepper, flour and cumin, add the lamb and shake around til coated.

preheat oven to 'slow' (about as low as you can and still get heat)

in a stew pot (that will go in the oven and on the stove) over low heat, add the oil (you can use butter instead), the onion and the garlic. cook until browned, add a teeny bit of honey so that it caremelises, continue cooking til it just smells really good.

add the coated lamb and keep everything moving until all the bits are browned.

add the tomatoes, a couple of handfuls of pearl barley, and a tomato tin full of water, cover, and put in the oven. (this is where you'd add the optional other vegies).

keep cooking in slow oven for at least two hours, longer if possible. if it looks too runny, add a little bit of flour and stir through to thicken up.

about 15 minutes before serving, move back onto low heat on the stovetop, and stir continually. add salt, pepper and more cumin to taste. add olives 5 mins before serving.

can be served on rice, or with crusty bread.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

(You will need a pot with a lid & an oven preheated 180 degrees C)

1 chicken (about 1.8 - 2kg)
4-5 heads of Garlic
few sprigs Rosemary
salt & pepper
2 tbs masala - not the sweet one (or any other alcohol really)
flour + water

Clean chicken, cover with however much salt & pepper you like, put it into the pot.
Separate & peel cloves of 2 heads of garlic put those in with the chicken.
Take the outer peel off the remaining heads of garlic, put those in as well.
Add the rosemary and pour in the masala.

Add potatoes & things if they fit.

Make a dough out of the flour & water, use this to seal the lid to the pot.
Bake for about an hour and a half.

Make sure you eat the Garlic.

wear some disposable ansell gloves tgwcd... i can't cut up chicken... it's so foul.

time for num-nums.

Oooh... hang on... missed a bit.

Fry the chicken all over until a bit brown for about 15 minutes before you put it into the pot!!!

(sorry it's not more precise, i threw it together when i felt like cooking)

can i please marry all of you?

pea and ham soup.

You need:
Ham Hocks
Split Peas
Bay Leaves
Onion
Carrot

can soak the peas overnight, but not important.

put everything in a pot with enough water and, cook for ages. take out the hock from the soup, strip all the meat from it and put back in the pot, cook some more.

anon would you like me to cook this red wine pie thing for you?

Ha! Poor Vegetarians.....

Snert! Anon! Snert!

Awesome.

Red Lentil Soup

A packet of Red Lentils.
Garlic - few cloves, crushed.
A Red Onion
Water
Salt & Pepper
Lemon Juice
Sumac

Fry the Onion & Garlic, add the lentils, cover with water + an inch or so above lentil level.
Cook over low heat for anywhere between half an hour to an hour - until thick.
Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serve with about half tablespoon of lemon juice per bowl, and sprinkled with Sumac.

It sounds like there's not many ingredients, but it's great.

fuck, you guys are rad.

can we throw some pastas in here as well?

Feijoada Brasileira (Brazilian Black Bean Stew)
Serves 8

Ingredients

+225 g dried pork meat
+225 g salted pork meat
+450 g black beans
+220 g chunk of prosciutto or pancetta
+450 g Portuguese pork sausages*
+3 tablespoons sunflower oil
+3 large onions, chopped
+150 g streaky bacon, diced
+5 garlic cloves, chopped
+5 bay leaves
+225 g smoked pork ribs*
+5 tomatoes, chopped
+1 green capsicum, chopped
+1 red capsicum, chopped
+½ cup chopped fresh parsley
+3 tablespoons vegetable oil
+1 teaspoon black pepper
+1 tablespoon red or white vinegar

*Portuguese sausages and smoked pork ribs are available at Italian delicatessens.

Method

1. The evening before cooking, soak the dried meat and salted meat together, changing the water at least once.

2. Soak the beans overnight, too.

3. The next day, rinse the soaked meats and rinse and drain the beans.

4. Cut the dried and salted meats and the prosciutto into large chunks.

5. Cut a few slices from the sausage and then heat the oil and fry the slices to give flavour to the oil. Remove the slices and set aside to throw in at the end.

6. Add half each of the quantities of onion, bacon, garlic and the bay leaves, then add the beans. Fry for 1 minute, stirring.

7. Add enough cold water to cover the beans.

8. Cut up the remaining sausage into chunks about 3 cm long.

9. Add the sausage chunks and other meats, and then add more water to cover the meat and beans. Simmer for two hours, stirring from time to time.

10. It is important to watch the water level and check that the beans don't cause the mixture to become too thickened. If this happens, add a little more water.

11. When the beans are soft and the meats cooked, fry in a separate saucepan the remaining onions, bacon and garlic, plus the tomatoes, capsicums and parsley in some fresh oil. Add ground black pepper and simmer for 5 minutes or until soft.

12. Add the vinegar and 2 ladlefuls of the sauce from the cooked beans and stir through.

13. Transfer the vegetable and bacon mixture to the large saucepan and mix with the remaining beans and meats.

14. Cook for a further 15 minutes or until the beans and the mixture are cooked right through.

15. Serve with white rice, farofa (this link will open in a new window), Chinese broccoli (this link will open in a new window) and sliced oranges.

It's pretty good. Costs about $10, gives you six or seven servings, freezes well.

making this tonight: Lamb Shoulder With Anchovies And Rosemary

Thankgod for my housemates Le Creuset pot (definitely requesting one next birthday)

Needs more garlic!

I cooked beef short ribs on the weekend - in veal stock and red wine with a mirepoix + pancetta. Took about 2.5 hours, was brilliant.

1KG of beef short ribs at the vic market: $4!

poprocks - i have a garland of mum's homegrown garlic and you better believe I'm putting a shit tonne in.

FINALLY!

Have found a local-ish butcher that dry ages the meat.....mmmmm, dry aged meat.

cool - which butcher?

Amazingly, it is a Gold Coast butcher called....(groan) Rare.

Big fucking sides of cow hanging up and DRY AGEING!!
I almost felt like I was back in Sydney or Melbourne ;)

Checked this butcher out and bought a couple of LARGE rumps cut an inch and half thick.

Absofuckinglutely sensational taste and texture.

This weekend: 1 whole beef cheek, sealed over high heat, then placed in a small covered pot with some sauteed onions and half a bottle of Coopers 2011 Vintage Strong Ale.

Cook for 3hrs at about 160deg. Drink the rest of the bottle and a few more while waiting, then eat the beef (along with the gorgeous, beery gravy) with a celeriac mash and a bottle of nice red. Blissimo.

I had some friends round to test some recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty and they were all sensational. We had parsnip & potato dumplings in broth, stuffed cabbage rolls with ricotta and pine nuts, baked eggplant with buttermilk and pomegranate dressing, and an orgasmic lasagne made with four kinds of mushrooms and five kinds of cheese. All killer, no filler. Some pretentious food pics on Instagram @mindychops.

had some friends round to test some recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty and they were all sensational

Snap! Apart from the beef cheeks above, that was what I was cooking from. Specifically the Vine Leaf and Yoghurt Pie. I was looking at doing that Eggplant too, chickenchops, but dodn't. How do you rate it, taste and effort/reward wise?

an orgasmic lasagne made with four kinds of mushrooms and five kinds of cheese

Yup, that cookbook really gets me hot for vegetables.

chickenchops, that eggplant looks f'ing delish

Just made a Japanese simmering tofu and veg last night.
I made my own mushroom seaweed dashi, add shit load of tamari and mirin and sugar.
Cut up japanese mushroom, carrot, pumpkin, tofu and whatever you like, bring to boil and simmer for 15mins to 30mins. Delish!

I won't lie, the eggplant was terrific. But more of a spring/summer dish, I must say. I'd prefer to eat it outdoors at a barbecue than at a wintery dinner party. The winner on the day was the mushroom lasagne, for mine.

One thing I will say about *Plenty * - everything is delicious but frankly a bit of a root-around, with long lists of ingredients and lengthy prep times. It's definitely not for weeknights after work, I reckon. But hugely enjoyable if you have an afternoon to potter around.

true that, chickenchops. The root-around IS worth the effort, ultimately. I love how there is a whole chapter in praise of eggplant, and what a voluptuous, giving beast it is.

chopsy, I was at a friends place looking at that book yesterday. I WANT IT.

Also I added you to instagram because I love food porn.

With winter on its way, here is a good cassoulet recipe - we had our first one for the year on the weekend. Like bouillabaisse there are numerous versions but this one works for me. You need to start it two days beforehand and best shared with good friends and quality red one (don't skimp on either!)

500g x dried cannellini beans
4-6 x confit duck legs
600g x Toulouse sausages
500g x pork belly (deboned)
1 x onion, finely chopped
3 x onions, coarsely chopped
2 x carrots, coarsely chopped
2 x celery sticks, coarsely chopped
2 x cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 x tablespoons tomato puree
1 x bouquet garni
2 x bay leaves

1. Soak beans in water overnight.
2. Drain beans, add to saucepan with 3 litres cold water, bring to boil and blanch for 5 mins. Drain and set aside.
3. Remove duck from fat (reserve the fat) and pull meat from bones. Set meat and bones aside separately.
4. Put duck bones, coarsely chopped onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves and 200g of pork belly in a saucepan with 3 x litres water. Bring to boil, skim and then simmer for 2 hours. Strain stock into saucepan.
5. Add beans to stock with tomato puree and bouquet garni. Bring to boil and simmer for approx 1 hour until beans are soft (but not disintegrating). Strain and set stock and beans aside.
6. Preheat oven to 150deg.
7. Heat a little duck fat in 5 litre casserole dish to medium heat. Add pulled duck meat and warm. Remove and set aside.
8. Cut remaining pork belly in 3-4 cm dice. Increase heat and brown in duck fat. Remove and set aside.
9. Brown Toulouse sausages in duck fat. Remove, set aside and cut each sausage in half.
10. Reduce heat to medium and gently sauté finely chopped onion and garlic.
11. Remove pan from heat and add half the beans and mix through the onion and garlic.
12. Layer the duck and pork belly over the beans.
13. Spoon remainder of beans over the meat.
14. Add Toulouse sausages the top of the mixture. Press them down a bit but not so they are submerged.
15. Pour stock over so it just covers the mixture.
16. Cook uncovered in the oven for 3 hours. Check regularly and press down any crust that forms back into the mixture. You may need to add more stock or water. The end result should be moist but not runny (ooeer Missus).
17. Remove from oven, cover and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight.
18. Reheat for approx 1.5 to 2 hours at 150deg..you may need to add some more water or stock during this process.

Serve with a simple green salad and bread.

Where the hell are you voidster?

I'm here..in Queensland. That cassoulet is getting another run this weekend. The one above fed 6 people and there was heaps left over.