Category: World Cooking

REPOST Dublin Coddle – For St Patrick’s Day

Isn’t Dublin Coddle the most adorable name for anything ever?

It sounds like a cuddle and that is exactly what you are going to get from this hearty and warming mix of sausages, cabbage, bacon and potatoes.

Dublin Coddle

I don’t seem to have the best of luck with Irish recipes (remember the corned beef potato salad?)

I had planned to make a totally safe homemade Irish Cream because hot damn do I love a little bit of Bailey’s!Β  However what they don’t tell you in most recipes for it is that, because it contains fresh cream, homemade Irish cream has a fairly limited lifespan.Β  As I am trying to moderate my diet and alcohol intake at the moment drinking a whole bottle of whiskey and a shit ton of cream over the space of about 5 five days did not seem like a viable option.

Fun…just not a viable diet option!

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So Dublin Coddle it was.Β  And whilst this was nowhere near as awful as the debacle that was the potato salad,Β  the recipe I used for Dublin Coddle (sorry I cannot remember from whence it came) was not without problems.

It asked that you layer thinly sliced potatoes into the bottom of a baking dish then piled your sauteed cabbage, onion and bacon on top and topped that with sausages.Β  Then you added stockΒ to the dish.Dublin Coddle 2

And therein lay the problem.Β  Even though I cooked this for absolutely AGES, the potatoes at the bottom didn’t cook at that well and were totally soggy.Β  And, as viewers of the British Bake Off know all too well, no one likes a soggy bottom!

 

Dublin Coddle 3

This was good but I wonder how much better it would have been if the potatoes had gone on the top and gone all crispy and delicious?

Dublin Coddle 4

I will actually make it that way next time and update you on how it turns out!Β  The good thing about this recipe is that it was traditionally made from leftovers so you can play around with ingredients and cooking techniques as much as you like!

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Here’s the recipe!

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Dublin Coddle

A delicious hearty meal, perfect for St Patrick’s Day

Ingredients

Scale
  • 8 sausages – the recipe said pork, I used beef
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 2 rashers of bacon, sliced
  • 2 cups of cabbage, sliced
  • stock or water (I used vegetable stock)
  • Oil
  • salt and pepper
  • parsley
  • Dijon mustard

Instructions

  1. Heat a little oil in a large pan and brown the sausages. You may have to do this in two lots.
  2. Remove the sausages from the pan and set aside.
  3. Add a little more oil if required and brown the bacon and onions.
  4. Toss the cabbage through the bacon and onion mix and cook for a few minutes.
  5. Layer the potatoes in a lightly oiled casserole or baking dish.
  6. Top with the cabbage and bacon mix. Season well and almost cover with the stock.
  7. Top with the sausages.
  8. Bake at 190C until the potatoes are tender.
  9. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with mustard.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 4

Meantime, enjoy your St Patrick’s Day!!!!

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Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad – Repost from October 2018

Regular readers will know what a fan I am of the serendipitousΒ find.Β  So, imagine my joy when, in the middle of writing the post on Johnny Cash’s Chili, sorting through a huge pile of recipes I had collected over the last year or so, I found a recipe from hisΒ daughterΒ Rosanne Cash for Potato Salad.

I felt that finding it was either a sign from the universe to make some potato salad or that the Cash family were stalking me in a really weird way.

I decided to make potato salad.

Rosanne Cash Potato Salad

Have I ever told you how much I love potato salad?

Like LOVE it.  😍

I have CRIED when I have tasted a potato salad that looked gorgeous onlyΒ to find the potato was half raw.Β  Or the dressing was watery

That’s how much I love potato salad.

And I have incredibly high standards.Β  So far in my life, the only ‘tatie salad that even comes close to my mum’s is my best friendΒ Monica’s.Β  It’s one of the reasons I adore her.

Maybe THAT’s how much I love potato salad…

Good potato salad?Β Β Friend.Β  For. Life.

Bad potato salad?Β Never darken my door again!

Rosanne Cash Potato Salad

And Rosanne Cash’s had all the hallmarks of being a GOOD potato salad.Β  Or the one.Β  Which is the inclusion .Β of hard-boiled eggs.Β Seriously.Β  Mum’s potato salad has them.Β  Monica’s potatoΒ salad has them.Β  And this one has them.Β  And, spoiler alert. We are now talking my top-three potato salads.

Because Rosanne Cash’s potato salad is AWESOME.

https://www.retrofoodformoderntimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Rosanne-Cash-Potato-Salad-7.jpg

The only problem with the Rosanne Cash Potato Salad?

There was not enough of it!

Basic user error.Β  Before makingΒ anything check your ingredients.Β  ALWAYS check your ingredients.Β  All of them.Β  Even the ones where you think “Oh I always have plenty of that / those / them”

Especially those ones. Otherwise, you will go to the shops to buy celery and pickles.Β  And come home to discover you only have three tiny potatoes.Β  But it’s getting late and if you want to be eating this delicious sounding potato salad any time before midnight then you don’t have time to go all the way back to the store to buy more potatoes.

So…a tiny potato salad it was…

Tiny Potato

You can also do the thing….cos here’s the recipe.Β  Just make sure you have potatoes a plenty!

Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad

And here is he of the chilli and she of the potato salad way back in 1956!

johnny_rosanne_cash01-280x336

Have a great week!

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REPOST: All The Z’s – Part 5 – Zurich Mushroom Tartlets

Hello, and welcome to the fifth and final post of the Food that starts with Z mini-series…We’re heading to Switzerland for some Zurich Mushroom Tartlets.Β  And I have a new book to cook from!Β  Pack your passports friends, we are taking a trip around the world via Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery from 1972.

The book promises

  • 222 illustrations, 48 inΒ  full colour
  • 672 pages
  • 2316 recipes from all over the world

Good Housekeeping World Cookery 1972

The World in 1972

So what was this world of 1972 that we are about to enter into? What was the zeitgeist that spawned this tome?

www.thepeoplehistory.com tells us that

1972Β This year is marked as a black year in history due to the use of terrorism entering sport with the massacre of 11 Israel Athletes by Arab Gunman. Also this is the beginning of the biggest political scandal in modern times and the start of the Watergate Scandal. On the other side of the Atlantic a worsening of the problems between the IRA and the British government see wrongs from both sides and innocent lives are lost.Β 

Hmm…cheerful.

But who knew years were colour-coded?Β  Who has that job?Β  And can I have it when you’re done?

On a happierΒ note, in 1972 you could buy these awesome shoes for just $9.97.

And this wig was a bargain at $20. The resting bitch face is possibly a sign of the troubled times…

1972 wig

Or maybe she was just worried about getting her wig wet.Β  Problem solved by this umbrella for a mere fiver.Β Look how much happier thisΒ woman is now she doesn’t have to worry about wet hair.

1972 umbrella

 

Switzerland 1972

So in the midst of all this trial and trib, what was going on in the notoriously neutral country of Switzerland?Β  Well,Β hold onto your hats because while chaos and panic were overtaking the rest of the world?Β  The Swiss wereΒ creating an International Convention on Safe Containers.

The Swiss are an orderly, well-mannered, and meticulous people.Β  This is why you could probably take your safe container and join a group of Swiss people mushroom foraging around Zurich without fear of dying from some fungi-induced poisoning.

Which brings us back to do…oh…oh..ohΒ  (If ANY of you thought we were going to get through a post on SwitzerlandΒ WITHOUT a Sound Of Music reference, then you don’t know me at all do you?).

ZURICH MUSHROOM TARTLETS

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets1

Let’s start with the recipe. It’s a very good place to start…(Refer paragraph above re The Sound of Music) And let’s hope that it isn’t an omen of things to come…

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets - Recipe

Hmmmm….make the pastry it saysΒ  Without actually telling you how to do that.Β  So, If they’re not going to tell you?

I will.Β  Here’s what you do.

Put your flour back in the cupboard, your egg and butter back in the fridge and tip your salted water down the sink.Β  Then you get in your car and drive to the nearest supermarket and by some ready-made pastry shells.

Because if they can’t be bothered, why should you?

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets3

I used a mix of mushrooms for my tartlets and added some herbs from the garden into the mix.

Zurich Mushroom Tarts4IΒ  pan-fried the small fancy mushrooms in so they could be artfully strewn over the top of the tarts whilst I cooked the regular ones as per the recipe.

Zurich Mushroom Tartlets5

IWhile the mushrooms were cooking, I warmed the shells in the oven, then tipped the filling into them.

A sprinkle of parsley and some smoked paprika and these were good to go!

And they were delicious!Β  Creamy and earthy with a lovely crisp and light pastry.

Despite the initial setback with the pastry, the Zurich Mushroom Tartlets were a good start to this book.Β  Easy to make, quick, and tasty!Β  Best eaten in front of the telly watching The Sound of Music,Β  Or wearing your best curtains.Β  Or both.

 

Have a great week!

 

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Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougères

Today, January 26,Β  many Australians will be celebrating Australia Day.Β  On the good side – it’s summer, it’s a great time to get outside and have a bbq and, if you are not in the midst of a dry January, have a few drinks with some friends.Β  On the downside, the day itself is becoming increasingly fraught for all manner of reasons.

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres

But we are not here to get political.Β  We are here to eat, drink and be merry.Β  Because it’s a long weekend.Β  And we’re going to celebrate with some Australian food.Β  If by Australian food we mean something that we have totallyΒ  (mis)appropriated from another culture.Β  Β So let’s get to it shall we?

 

GougΓ¨res are the French version of what we in Australia would call a cheese puff.Β  And they are delicious!Β  Feather-lightΒ pastry flavoured with cheese makes for a perfect snack.Β  Particularly ifΒ you happen to be imbibing something of an alcoholic persuasion.Β  Making it a perfect start to this weekend’s round of bbq’s.

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres4

But we’re not celebrating Bastille Day…we’re celebrating Australia Day…so how to “Strayanise” these delicious French delicacies?Β  Well, first we’re going to throw a little Vegemite into the mix.Β  Now, I’ll be the first person to admit that I…ahem…”borrowed” the idea of the Vegemite GougΓ¨res from Rosie Birkett’s recipe for Marmite GougΓ¨res.

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres3

And then, to make it even more Australian, I substituted the water in the recipe for beer.Β  I used the Gage Roads Little Dove Pale Ale as the beer for this because it is my absolute favourite and I had some in theΒ houseΒ but you couldΒ sub in your own favourite.

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres2

The gougères are delightfully light.  The combination of vegemite, cheese, cayenne and the very slight hint of beer go so well together that it would be a real shame to only save these for one day of the year!

Print

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres

A tasty snack based on a classic French recipe

Ingredients

Scale
  • 120g unsalted butter
  • 150ml whole milk
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Vegemite
  • 75ml Pale Ale
  • 150g plain flour, sifted
  • 4 eggs
  • 100g cheddar, grated, plus 1 tablespoon extra, for scattering
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • big pinch freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoonfreshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200Β°C and line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment.
  2. Put the butter, milk and Vegemite and ale into pan over medium heat and bring to the boil.
  3. Add the flour and beat very quickly with a wooden spoon, over the heat, until the mixture is smooth and pulls away from the side of the pan (about 2-3 minutes).
  4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a minute.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the mixture is thick and smooth and glossy.
  6. Stir in the grated cheese, peppers and nutmeg.
  7. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag fitted with a nozzle. Pipe little rounds (about the size of a chestnut) onto the trays, leaving space between each mound to allow for rising.
  8. Alternatively, just spoon small spoons of the mixture onto the tray.
  9. Scatter over the remaining cheese.
  10. Bake for 20–25 minutes, until puffed and golden.
  11. Serve warm. Or cool on a wire rack and reheat in a 180Β°C oven for a few minutes until they crisp up.

Notes

  • The gougΓ¨res can be made in advance and frozen once cool.

If you’re celebrating, have a wonderful day and enjoy the long weekend!

If not, make these anyway, they’re awesome!

But remember…Vegemite

BackΒ with more Z Food next time!Β  Have a fabulous week!

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Moules Marinieres

Today we are heading back into The A-Z of Cooking to the chapter called Wine For a Change.Β  And on the menu is the classic French dish of Moules Marinieres.Β  This is one of my favourite dishes.Β  I probably make this around once a month – it ticks all my boxes – it’s healthy, it’s quick and it’s cheap and so, so, tasty!Β  Over the years my recipe has evolved so now I have my favourite version of Moules Marinieres which I will list below alongside a more pared back version from The A-Z.Β Β 
Moules Marinieres
Before we get into the Moules lets talk about this chapter.Β  Wine for a Change.Β  Not around here it isn’t. Around here it’s a basic food group.Β  So there goes that title.Β  There are some good recipes in this section.Β  The Moules, Coq au vin, Peaches in Wine….oh and veal kidneys with Marsala.

You can’t win ’em all. (Sigh)

If the thought of veal kidneys with anything isn’t off-putting enough on its own, the picture is truly unsettling (It’s also at the very bottom of this post if you are brave enough).

Moules Marinieres loosely translates as Sailor’s Mussels.Β  Be careful of your spelling if googling this.Β  You could end up with this:

Hot damn! Ladies (and possibly gentlemen), don’t ever say I don’t give you anything.Β  Merry Christmas.Β  Happy Birthday and Goodnight Irene!

Where were we?Β  I seem to have lost my entire train of thought.

Oh yeah, mussels.Β  The thing that takes the longest with the Moules Marinieres is all your prep work.Β  First you have to debeard and scrub all of your mussels.

Then cut up your veggies for your mirepoixΒ  I use carrot, celery, fennel and onion in mine.Β  And for seasoning salt (I used the Port infused salt I bought in Portugal) peppercorns, a pinch of chilli flakes and a smashed garlic clove.

Mirepoix2

 

Cook these down then add some white wine and a splash of Pernod (optional but goes really well with the fennel and the mussels).Β  Cook these down a bit – the longer the better! Then add wine, Pernod if using and stock and bring to the boil.Β  Add the mussels.Β  Add a lid.Β  Shake the pan occasionally and in all of about 5 minutes you will have a piping hot bowl of mussels with a deliciously tasty broth.

Moules Marinieres are great with bread to soak up all that broth.Β  And if that bread happens to be a tasty warm loaf of crusty garlic bread?Β  Heaven…I”m in heaven….

This time though I made mussels other best friend…frites.Β  With aioli.Β  Hard to tell from the pictures but there were three types of frites – potato, sweet potato and parsnip.

Frites

 

The great thing about this recipe is that it is amenable to all sorts of changes.Β  Don’t like cream?Β  Don’t add it.Β  I quite often will throw in a can of tinned tomatoes.Β  Also, (and this is where i am sure I will have the purists tutting at me) if you can’t be arsed debearding and scrubbing the mussels, most supermarkets now sell frozen mussel meat.Β  IΒ  always have a pack of this in my freezer so can whip this up at any time.Β  One codicil on that though.Β  The shells on fresh mussels do seem to add some extra flavour.Β  If using mussel meat alone be sure to use a really good fish stock in your broth!

Here is the original recipe from The A-Z of Cooking and the original picture.Β  I cannot tell you how much IΒ  love and covet that terracotta mussel pot.Β  Straight to the top of my list of kitchen must haves!!!

Moules Recipe

Moules A-Z

And here is my slightly fancier version:

[yumprint-recipe id=’107′]So, there is only ONE Chapter left in The A-Z!Β  Will I be able to get it out before Christmas?

Absolutely not because one of the key ingredients will be a Christmas leftover.Β  And yes, I will be slapping people’s hands away from the plate if there is even the remotest chance of there not being enough leftovers to make it!

Will there be another post of any sort before the big day?

Almost definitely!

See you in a couple of days!

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Oh and for the bravest o the brave?Β  Β Here are those veal kidneys: