Food Art!

Archer loves to cook up a storm.

Finn gets down with a bit of food art..

Corned Beef.

The Gulden Drak. King of brews .....

It's an English invasion. (Of food).

Wow two English meals in a row. Whats happening? Corned beef is a prefect whinging pom meal. It's very simple and very boring. (Thats the pommy part). The whinging bit is where they keep asking. "Is it ready yet? How much longer?". Thats because it takes about four hours to cook. So there you have it. A perfect whinging pom meal. Feeds a perfectly boring family of four.

Ingredents:

1kg of corned beef.

1 large brown onion.

10 cloves.

2 carrots.

2 bay leaves.

15 peper corns.

1 kg of potatoes suited to mashing.

100g of butter.

Raux to garnish.

Method.

Wash the beef very well to remove as much of the brine as possible. Place into a pot of water along with the onion, cloves, carrots, bay leaves, and pepper corns. The amount of water added along with all other ingredents should just cover the beef. Bring to a very slow boil and simmer for about 3 & 1/2 hours. As serving time approaches, prepare the mashed potatoes with the butter, use extra milk if it's a little dry. On a bed of mash place slices of beef drizzled with the raux. As this is a peasant style of meal I would strongly suggest beer over wine. Something rich and dark. (Like Gulden Drak).

Earlier I described corned beef as boring. Far from true. I would compare this meal to many Japanese dishes, in that it's flavor is very clean and simple, and the texture is delicate, the combination of which is subtle yet profound.

Crispy Skined Blue Grenadier, Minted Potatoes.

Beer made by farmer in back of barn!

Salt & pepper crispy skin fillet of Blue Grenadier.

It's right back to the mother land for this one. Blue Grenadier is a delicately flavored fish with a flakey texture. Some say it's a bitch to cook on the barbie. I say Poms can't cook. As for the spuds. I used the Nicola variety. They retain there shape when cooked, yet have a buttery texture... Perfect!
Well blogger me! Square rigging for two buccaneers.

Ingredents:

2X 250g fillets of Blue Grenadier. Skin on.

500g of Niccola potatoes. Peeled, and cut in bite sized peices.

6 rashers of middle bacon.

1/2 a cup of mint leaves. Roughly choped.

1/2 cup spring onion. Finley sliced.

100g of butter.

Salt & pepper.

Olive oil.

Method:

Half boil the spuds, then transfer to a pan with the butter and gently fry. As the potatoes become golden brown add the bacon. When the bacon is fully cooked add the mint and spring onion. Stir through, remove from heat. Be carful not to break up the potatoes as you stir.

Drizzle olive oil over the fish, season well, place skin side down on a verry hot, hot plate. After 2 minutes flip the fillets, give em another minute, serve on top of the spuds skin up.

Remember it's allways better to under cook fish than to over cook it.

I included a pic of a to pommy beer with this meal as i felt it was a perfect match.....

The Sorry Sausage Of Erin!

Poor Erin.

She's like. "Wow, these sausages look great, I'll take eight".

I'm like. "If you want, I'll look after your sausages while you look in shops".

So Erin looks in shops, chats, has a fine time. Gets back to my place, says her good byes, jumps in her car, drives home to Melbourne. See ya later Erin!

Some hours later... I'm getting abit peckish. I go to the fridge, have a look, and there lies the sorry sausage of Erin.

On a lighter note (For me that is). I cooked up the sausages; and they were bloody beautiful mate.

Check out my beefy balls!

Welcome back bloggers. Sorry for the short break. I've been ball bustingly busily. So rather than go on busting my balls, I cooked them for all to see.

Ingredents:

500g Minced beef.

800g Tin of crushed roma tomatoes.

1 large brown onion. Diced.

Few fresh spriggs of Rosemarry, Tyme, and Sage. Choped.
8 Cloves of garlic. Finley diced.

2 Table spoons of bread crumbs.
1/2 table spoon of salt flakes.

10 good crackes of pepper.

Olive oil.

Dash of red wine.

Method:

Combine the beef, herbs, garlic, bread crumbs, salt, and peper in a mixing bowl. Heat some olive oil in a large heavy based pot. Roll the mixture into balls alittle smaller than a golf ball. Gently fry them on all sides untill just cooked. Remove from pot and add the onions. Stir often untill the onion becomes well softened and cooked. Add the tomatoes and a bit extra salt and peper, plus a little splash of wine. Simmer the sauce for about 15 or so minutes, or untill it has reduced and thickened. Replace the meat balls and simmer for a further 20 minutes. add water if it starts to look a bit dry. Serve on a bed of fresh pasta....

Beefy Perfecto

Wonder Beef!

I should have cut this one open so all could have shared in the succulant, tender, beefy goodness.
The featured cut 'Sir Loin' has a name steeped in history. The richest cut the 'Fillet', was reserved for the nobility of English culture, whilest the loin, of slightly less esteem was eaten by the next highest class the 'Kights of the relm', holding the title of 'Sir'.
In posts gone by I have dicsussed how to cook a great steak. Also the finger thumb method to test for doneness.
If you've got your self a really top notch peice of beef. Don't even think about spoiling it with some sort of garnish. Mustards, horseradish, chutneys, sauces, or rues, should only be used to augment the flavor of substandard meat. Another way to put it would be: One would be crazy to mix a fine scotch with coke, it would totally ruin the flavor. At most a few ice blocks could be used to enhance the flavor a little with out changeing the overall taste. It's a simmilar story with MSA, (Export grade or higher) beef. At most a little seasoning (Salt flakes and Cracked peper) can be used. Salt and peper are boath flavor enhances, neither will adversely affect the overall taste. But use just alittle. To much ice in your scotch will water it down. To much seasoning on your beef will overpower the taste.
Now if you don't mind, I'm off to enjoy a nice 25yo single malt. Neat!

Pork & Potatoes.

Same Same, But Different!

This is monster dad with monster kids...

I loved this pork belly. But I didn't feel that it suited a green salad. So it was cooked again, this time with 'Dutch Cream' potato mash, fresh sage, and rosemarry....