sweet-potato-delight

s w e e t - p o t a t o - d e l i g h t

I've recently moved to the other side of the world! I'm in Australia for two years so I've had a bit of change going on in my life!

Moving for 2 years is tricky....partly because I had to say goodbye to all my kitchen stuff at the beginning of July as it got shipped over here so I'm without cake tins, my magic scales, my electric mixer, and everything else that makes me feel at home! (Yeah, these things make me feel at home, even if it is just for the plug sockets and Lakeland labels on things!)

As I get used to the new country and wait for my old faithful kitchen appliances to arrive I wanted to cook something pretty simple....and having just got some great sausages from South Melbourne market I really wanted to eat them! So in an attempt to cook something homely I checked the blog I read the most and was instantly sucked in with the sentence, "I wanted to try another new way to enjoy the best orange vegetable there is". I haven't built up a stock of herbs and spices yet (I'm almost certain I will have accumulated a few more in the coming weeks) but I had the basics so have altered it to go with what I had!!

So for the recipe:
3 sweet potatoes; 2 large sausages; 1/2 red onion; 4 mushrooms; Worcestershire sauce; 2 cloves garlic; 2 eggs; dried chillies; salt and pepper.

Dice the sweet potatoes and boil for 5 minutes then spread onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for around 20-30 minutes. Cook the sausages in the oven with some red onion, mushrooms and a glug of Worcestershire sauce. When the sausages are cooked cut them into slices and mix them in an oven-proof dish with the cooked sweet potato and some finely chopped garlic, dried chilli and salt and pepper.Drizzle some olive oil on top and return to the oven for another 15 minutes. Create two small wells in the sausage and sweet potato and crack an egg in each well. 
Bake until the egg is cooked and then serve (it should take another 10 minutes or so).

It absolutely hit the spot in terms of something homely when I really needed it!! I've not tried to make any Aussie food so far but given how big the Parma is over here I'm sure I'll try it pretty soon...

chinese-sticky-pork

c h i n e s e - s t i c k y - p o r k

Last night I had taken some pork steaks out of the freezer in an attempt to use up the vast quantities of frozen meat which reside there. As my day at work wore on I couldn't really think what to do with the pork steak...partly because I didn't really know what I was looking for and partly because I couldn't think what I had in my cupboards, I really struggled to find a good recipe for pork on the internet (I'm absolutely sure they exist though). 
So I decided to have a go at putting some of my favourite flavours in the same bowl and seeing what I could produce!!
The results were surprisingly delicious (and really, really simple)... I give you Chinese-style sticky pork with paprika and coconut rice.

So for the recipe:

2 pork steaks; 2 tablespoons honey; 1 'glug' (technical term!) soy sauce; 1 tablespoon sesame oil; 1 teaspoon chilli flakes; 2 chopped spring onions; 2 teaspoons paprika.
1 red onion; large handful baby corn; 2 chopped spring onions; 1 tablespoon honey;  half a tin chopped tomatoes; 1 handful coriander;
Brown rice; sesame oil; 2 tablespoons dessicated coconut; 1 tablespoon paprika
Mix all of the ingredients together to form a sticky paste, add a little more soy sauce or sesame oil to form a marinade and cover the pork steaks in it and leave for a while (overnight would be great but I only had half an hour!) Meanwhile cook your rice, drain and leave to the side.
Once your steaks have marinaded heat up your frying/gridle pan, brown the onion and, whilst the pan is very hot, place your steaks in the pan. Cook for around 5 minutes on one side, pour the rest of the marinade in and turn the steaks over to cook through. Place your steaks on a chopping board, cut into slices and return to the pan with the baby corn, spring onions, honey, coriander and chopped tomatoes. Cook until most of the liquid has been cooked off and the honey is turning everything sticky and delicious.
In the same pan (once the content has been moved into a bowl) heat some more sesame oil. Add the rice, paprika and coconut and continue to stir this until everything has been mixed together, the coconut is starting to smell delicious and the rice is cooked through (if you're finding the rice is starting to dry a little you can add some coconut milk or a bit more oil to keep it moving).

Serve with some extra coriander and a few more chopped spring onions.

Paprika and coconut rice

sausage-hotpot

s a u s a g e - h o t p o t
I bought a brilliant turquoise casserole dish with a lid last year which looks perfectly at home in my kitchen. It usually sits on a shelf surrounded by my cute little, charity shop bought, cups & saucers and my mum's old milk jug... but that's not really the point of it I suppose! After deciding I should do more cooking with it (and mostly because I realised I had sausages needing used up), a sausage hotpot seemed like an obvious choice!

So for the recipe:
6 sausages of your choosing (I used pork & red onion sausages but it definitely works with Quorn sausages too); 2 carrots; 1 leek; 1 courgette; 4 chestnut mushrooms; red wine (some for cooking, the rest for drinking); chutney; red onion; Worcestershire sauce; tin of baked beans.
Cook the sausages in the casserole dish with a chopped red onion, 200ml (ish) of red wine, a 'glug' of Worcestershire sauce and 2 tablespoons of chutney. Whilst the sausages are cooking, parboil the carrots and have a glass of wine. After about 20 mins of the sausages cooking, cut them into smaller chunks and add the remaining ingredients (chopped leek, parboiled carrots, chopped courgette, sliced mushrooms, baked beans). At this point I added a little water and another tablespoon of chutney - because it's just so tasty. Cook on a lower heat (about 120) for a further 30 minutes until everything is bubbling away in the casserole dish.


I served it with mashed potatoes (which I mash with olive oil & a tiny bit of paprika to give them a deep, nutty taste with a bit more colour) and I'll admit the portions were slightly out of control...the recipe would comfortably serve 4 but it seemed to be finished by the two of us!!

plenty more fish...

p l e n t y - m o r e - f i s h . . .
I was told by a former colleague that salmon is too common and, in many ways, I think I agree; Every restaurant you go to now has at least one salmon dish but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. I am aware there are plenty more fish in the sea, metaphorically and literally I suppose, but I really do love salmon (particularly a giant bit of smoked salmon if anyone is thinking about a good Christmas present).
 

My Dad is brilliant when it comes to flavour combinations; He has great taste in wine and is my kindred spirit when it comes to sharing a giant pot of raw garlic in oil and polishing off a kilo of Roquefort in 20 minutes! And as much as garlic, wine and French blue cheese feature heavily in his (and my own) life he also creates some other amazing concoctions in the kitchen - one incredible salmon recipe in particular which he has shared with a few people, and it now comes recommended by their local fish man (someone who, I imagine, is not like this...)!

Salmon in marinade

So for the recipe:
For the marinade – 1 ‘glug’ soy sauce; 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar; 1 ‘glug’ white wine; 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced; 4 chopped spring onions; ½ inch ginger, finely sliced; ½ chilli, finely sliced.
For cooking – 1 ‘glug’ white wine; 1 tbsp olive oil; 2 tsps honey; 1 tsp dried tarragon

Cover the bottom of a dish with the soy sauce then add the other marinade ingredients. Place the Salmon steaks on the marinade with the skin side up, cover and place in fridge for at least 6 hours.
Cover the bottom of a dish with olive oil, remove the salmon from the marinade and place skin side up in the dish and rub some olive oil on the skin. Cover with tin foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 180C.
Pour the left-over marinade into a pan, add another glug of white wine, some olive oil & slowly heat the mixture. When hot add 2 tsps of honey and keep stirring until the honey is dissolved. Add a teaspoon of dried tarragon and let mixture simmer until reduced slightly.
When the salmon is cooked, serve with the cooked marinade mixture poured over the top. I usually serve it with spring onion & crème fraiche mash and a glass of the remaining white wine which seems to compliment it pretty well!

Eat Mair Pie is a lovely recipe blog which has my dad’s salmon recipe on it too.
And Vince – maybe have a go with this salmon recipe...it’s not that common and "Hugh’ll" probably be impressed!!

Baked salmon with 'nomathon' mash