Sauce so good, it must be bad!

This is my lemon/butter/garlic/cream sauce.  It is very very good.  It was created to be used on seafood, but I have come to learn that it goes on ‘everything’.  Its use should be ‘limited’!

It is very easy to make.

Ing.

50gms butter

The juice of one fresh lemon

3 cloves garlic, finely diced/chopped

100ml thickened cream

a pinch of finely chopped Continental Parsley

Murray River Pink Salt to taste

Melt the butter over low heat.  When melted, add the lemon juice and then the garlic.  Stir it about and let it heat up for about a minute.  Add a pinch of salt.  Add the cream and stir it all together.  Let the cream warm and rise, then turn off the heat.  Now add your very small pinch of parsley.

Now pour it over whatever you like!

BTW, I added a picture of my sliced avocado.  Drizzled with Olive Oil and freshly coarse ground pepper.  

Many decades ago, I discovered the fabulous blend of avocado and cracked pepper.  For some reason it works very well.  

Avocados are naked without pepper!

Enjoy please.

How to make a simple meal with what you find in the fridge

Hey Foodies, not every meal has to be epic!  On Sunday night I opened the fridge to see what I had available to make for dinner.  I saw some leftover chicken drumsticks and I thought, “I can do this!”  So, this is what I did:

In a bowl I crumbed the drumsticks with breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and plain flour over a base of olive oil.  In a saucepan over low heat I browned half a Spanish onion and two chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil.  When browned I added the drumsticks and cooked them on low heat for about seven minutes, turning them over now and then.

As the chicken was browning I added about a cup of tomato passata (puree), a handful of sliced mushrooms and a handful of chopped parsley.  I also sprinkled in a teaspoon of Massel powdered chicken stock, cracked pepper and Murray River pink salt.  

I covered with a lid and let it cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, turning the drumsticks very five minutes and ensuring nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan for longer than it needed to.

Nothing was planned, everything was what I saw in the refrigerator.

The result… you guessed it again…excellent!

If you wanted to make this the ingredients are:

5 chicken drumsticks

1 Spanish (red) onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon plain flour

½ cup sliced mushrooms

1 handful of chopped Continental parsley

1 teaspoon of Massel powdered chicken stock

Murray River Pink salt

Cracked or coarse freshly ground pepper

Enjoy.

Fresh Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar

Until you try this you will not understand how good it is!

Ing

Strawberries

Balsamic Vinegar from Modena, Italy ($3.45 for a 250ml btl at Maxi Castlemaine/Ballarat)

A sprinkle of icing sugar

Cut the tops off your washed strawberries and chop them in half. In a bowl, splash them with balsamic vinegar at the rate of one generous tablespoon per punnet. Sprinkle on some icing sugar and let them rest on the bench for 20-30 minutes. Turn them gently with a slotted spoon every five minutes to ensure they all receive a good glazed covering.

Serve with whipped thickened cream with a drop or two of Vanilla Essence. If you can get the real Vanilla Essence, as opposed to the imitation Vanilla Essence, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Let me know how you find this!

What is Mace?

I recently discovered the spice ‘Mace’ when I made the Traditional Plum Puddings.  Mace is a traditional plum pudding ingredient. 

Mace is the lacey outer layer of the nutmeg seed.  It has a similar flavour to the nutmeg seed, which we commonly buy ground, but it is less intense.  It is a regular spice added to Indian curries.

We stock it at Maxi Foods Ballarat in the gourmet herbs and spice section.  It will soon be available in Castlemaine as well.    I provide some images which I sourced from Google images and Pinterest.  The nutmeg seed (black) and the mace (red), in situ, is particularly beautiful.

Broccoli Forest - beware...

Broccoli

Steam your broccoli in 2 cms of boiling water for 3 minutes.

Add salt, olive oil.

Done.

Eat!

Burn your beans, burn your zucchini

‘Control burn’ your veggies.  It brings out delicious flavours.

Char Grilled barbequed Zucchini:

Ing.

Zucchini

Olive Oil

Murray River Pink salt

Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Slice the zucchini, add olive oil, salt and pepper and add to hot grill barbeque, one minute each side.  Done.

So simple!  So good!

Blistered beans and ginger:

Ing.

Any quantity of beans (the lager quantity the better because they will all be consumed)

10 very fine slices of fresh ginger or grate fresh ginger instead

3 sprigs of spring onion

Sesame oil

Mirin

Sake (if you have some, otherwise don’t worry about it)

Soy Sauce

Murray River Pink salt

Cracked or freshly ground pepper

Trim the ends from the beans, place into a hot skillet with sesame oil.  Add sliced spring onion, sliced ginger, a splash of mirin, a splash of soy, a splash of sake, a sprinkle of Murray River pink salt, freshly ground pepper.   Toss frequently.

 Keep on high heat until ‘control burnt’.  Blistered beans are what you are looking for.

Now eat!  Delicious!

How to cook Brussels Sprouts

Cut the sprouts in half (long ways) heat up your fry pan and place a slab of butter and a good pour of olive oil, for Vegan, hold the butter (if you have some!). Pan fry hot and quick until the sprouts a slightly charred, but retain their bright green colour. Add some cracked paper and Murray River Pink salt.

They are ready to eat. They are hot and crunchy and delicious!

Bull Horn Peppers

They only look like bull horns. They are genuine vegetables.

Place them straight onto a high naked flame on the stove or barbecue. Using tongs, turn them over every couple of minutes. They will blister and then turn black. Once they are black remove them from the flame, place them on a board and remove the charred skin with a butter knife. The skin will peel or scrape off easily.

You can add salt and pepper or olive oil, but without any other additions, they are good to go as they are.

How do you cook Asparagus?

If you want to cook asparagus like a super star, this is what you do:

Preheat the oven to 150c.

Chop about 2.5cms of 'wood' off the thick end of each spear and discard. Guinea pigs do not like it!

Finely chop three cloves of fresh garlic.

Place your asparagus spears in a bowl, toss in your chopped garlic, liberally splash with olive oil, crack some fresh pepper on top and sprinkle your Murray River Pink salt. Toss it all about so the spears are covered in oil.

Place your spears onto a baking tray. If you use baking paper, like I do, there is nothing to clean up. Just toss the paper in the bin. The asparagus won't stick to the paper. Make sure all the garlic and oil leave the bowl. Grind a little extra pepper and add a sprinkle more salt.

Bake in the oven for 10 mins. No longer. 10 mins is all it requires.

This is best made when you are using the oven for something else. 10 mins before you take out whatever you are cooking, add the asparagus to the oven so it will be timed perfectly.

Now eat.