Australia Day Meat Pies

Today, the 26th January is Australia Day. For those of you in the US it would be the equivalent of July 4th. Here is an explanation of Australia Day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_day 

So for this special day I decided to make Meat Pies. Meat Pies to Australians are what Hot Dogs are to Americans...a must have at the footy. Here's another link about Aussie Meat Pies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_meat_pie

This recipe I put together from one or two other recipes and a program TV (the channel escapes me) that had a transplanted Aussie in Portland that owns a bakery. Here's my version.

Aussie meat pies

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

1 large brown onion, finely chopped

1kg or 2lbs ground 80/20 beef

1-cup beef stock

¼ cup ketchup

4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp Vegemite

salt

pepper

2 tsp or more arrowroot 

Short crust and flaky pastry

1 egg, beaten with a little milk

Method:

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook until partly browned. 

Add onion. Cook for 3 minutes or until soft.

Add stock, ketchup, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and Vegemite to beef. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add enough arrowroot until the mixture is as thin or thick as you want. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat and let the mixture cool. 

Now, I have to say that the pastry I use is the same as my Chicken and Leek Pie here: http://mattcancook.blogspot.com/2011/12/you-want-some-of-my-pie.html

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place a baking tray into oven. Grease 4” base pie pans.

Cut circles from flaky pastry.

Note: You can actually roll the pastry out and line the tins, then turn them upside down and trim the excess. 

Line base and sides of pans and trim pastry.

Fill with beef. Brush rims with egg wash.

Cut circles from short-crust pastry.

Place over meat. Press to seal with a fork. Brush with egg. Make a cut in the centre for steam to escape.

Place pies onto hot tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

These are traditionally served with Tomato Sauce (a blander version of Ketchup) on top. 


These are great any time particularly now in the winter months here.


As always,


Enjoy


Matt

Up-market Appetisers

Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

I thought I'd make a couple of appetisers for the holidays.

For Christmas I made pate. Even if you don't like livers, I think you'll like pate. In fact some of the people that tried it said they liked it but don't like livers.

This recipe I got from my trusty Margaret Fulton Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery.

Ingredients:

8oz (250g) chicken livers
1 1/4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2oz (45g) butter
2 hard boiled eggs
salt and pepper
(more) butter, melted, to seal

First things first. Rinse off the livers then simmer in the stock for 10 minutes.

Drain, reserving the stock. Then remove the veins from the livers. There is a big one that is in the middle of the joined livers that is a must to get out.

Puree the livers with a little of the stock in a blender.

 Brown the onion lightly in the butter and blend with the liver puree and eggs to make a paste.

 Put in a small dish or 4 individual ramekins.

 

 Pour melted butter over surface to seal pate and refrigerate for several hours.

Next up are Jalapeno Poppers.

I got this recipe from one of the guy's I used to work with.

So, in honour of him, I call these Peterson's Poppers.

Ingredients:

1lb (600g) Italian pork sausage
20 jalapenos
1 block of cream cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the sausage in a saucepan until browned and crumble as much as you can.

Allow the sausage to cool for a few minutes, then add the cream cheese and stir until combined and melted. I cut the cream cheese up a bit to make things easier.

Allow the mixture to cool, then add the cheddar cheese and mix to combine.

Prepare your jalapenos by cutting off the stalk end and then cut them in half. Remove the seeds and veins using a teaspoon. Then, using your fingers, stuff the sausage mixture into/onto the halved jalapenos.

Cook the jalapenos in a pre-heated 350F (180C) oven for 15 minutes or until the peppers are soft.

These are really, really good. Even people that don't like hot food love these...someone even compared them to crack, they just couldn't stop eating them.

So, there you have it. The preparation for these is a bit time consuming, but very worth the effort.

Enjoy!

Matt

Anzac Biscuits

The other day, Chanin asked me to make Anzac biscuits (cookies for those of you in the US). Well, I made them today and thought I'd put it here because they are the quintessential Australian biscuit.

Here's the Wiki page for them, so you'll know the history of these great tasting biscuits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_biscuit

Ingredients:

125g (4oz or 1 stick) butter
1 tbsp golden syrup (If you can't get golden syrup, use light Karo syrup)
2 tbsp boiling water
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda (baking soda)
1 cup oats
3/4 cup desiccated coconut (macaroon or unsweetened coconut in the US)
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar

Pre-heat your oven to 300F (150C)

In a bowl, mix oats, coconut, flour and sugar.

Melt butter and golden syrup over a low heat. Add boiling water mixed with bicarbonate soda.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to a greased or baking paper lined baking tray, leaving enough room for spreading and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Once done, cool on the tray for a couple of minutes, then move to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Store them in an airtight container.

These biscuits are great with coffee!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas!!

Enjoy.

Matt

You want some of my pie!?

With winter well on the way here in NE Ohio I thought it was time to bust out a winter recipe. So last night we had Chicken and Leek Pie.

I can't really remember where I got this recipe from, but it's one that I know by heart.

Here's the skinny.

Ingredients:

1kg (2lbs) boneless skinless chicken thighs

3 leek

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 can cream of chicken soup

olive oil

1 egg, well beaten for egg wash

shortcrust pastry

flaky pastry

Cut the chicken into bite sized chunks

Thinly slice the leeks, including most of the green tops. Then rinse well in a colander to get all the dirt out.

In a large frying pan over medium/high heat, cook the chicken in a splash of olive oil until brown and set aside. Cook the chicken in batches, so the pan doesn't get overcrowded.

Next, saute the leeks and garlic in another splash of olice oil. You want the leeks soft, but not browned.

After the leeks are done, drain off any moisture from the chicken and add to the fry pan, then stir to combine. Add the 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and mix, on a low heat, until thoroughly combined. Then set aside until it cools to room temperature.

Next is the pastry. I use a short crust pastry for the bottom and the pastry from the sausage rolls for the top. Both of these can be made in the food processor and it's a lot cheaper than buying puff pastry.

Shortcrust Pastry

2 cups plain flour

4oz (125g) frozen butter, diced

¼ tsp salt

2 eggs

1 tbsp cold water

squeeze of lemon juice

Place flour, butter and salt in the food processor. Process, using pulse, until butter is cut into the flour and the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Mix eggs, water and lemon juice.

With food processor running, pour liquid quickly through feed tube. Do use it all unless it’s necessary – stop pouring as soon as a ball of dough forms around the blade.

Wrap dough in alfoil and chill for 1 hour before using.

Flaky Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour (plain flour) plus extra for dusting

Pinch of salt

½ tsp mustard powder

½ cup butter, diced

6 tbsp ice water

Sift the flour into the bowl of a food processor with the salt and mustard powder.

Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

With the processor running at the slowest speed, add water, a bit at a time, until a dough ball forms. Do not add too much or the dough will be sticky. You want the dough soft.

Form into a ball, wrap in foil and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Both of the pastry recipes will make enough for 2 pies, I don't know how well the pastry freezes, so what you do with it is up to you.

When you are ready, pre-heat your oven to 400F (200C).

Roll out the shortcrust pastry making sure you dust your surface with flour to prevent it from sticking.

Lay the pastry into your pie dish and trim off the excess. I used a glass pie dish, but I would recommend a metal one so that the bottom of the crust browns better.

Prick the pie crust with a fork all over the surface.

Add the pie filling to the pie making sure there are no gaps.

Roll out the flaky pastry, the same as the shortcrust pastry, coat the edges of the shortcrust pastry with some egg wash and lay the flaky pastry over the top.

Trim the edges, press to seal, cut some steam vents in the top and brush with the egg wash.

Bung it in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.

I must admit, I didn't use egg wash around the edge of the pie and the crust lifted.

Let the pie rest for about 5 minutes and then dig in!

The hardest part of this is making the filling before hand, other than that, it's probably the easiest savoury pie you'll ever make.

As always,

Enjoy.

Matt

Bring in the Pud!

G'day! I haven't put anything on for a while and I appologise for that. I just haven't cooked anything interesting lately. But, with winter on it's way, I'll be busy doing stews, casseroles and other good stuff.

Today I finished making our Christmas Pudding. For the unfortunate among you that haven't had a Christmas Pudding before, here's and explanation as to what it is: Christmas pudding 

My Grandpa (Dad's Dad) was the pudding maker in our family, so, even in the stinking hot Summer of an Australian Christmas, we'd have pudding and custard after our Christmas lunch. Dad never made the pudding, but he did give me Grandpa's recipe and when he died, I took up the pudding making and continued to do it ever since. Even when I moved to the US, I introduced it to Chanin's family...some like it, others don't, but that just means there more for me!

On to the recipe.

Ingredients:

½ lb butter (226g or in the US, 2 sticks)

10 eggs

6 cups fresh breadcrumbs (I buy a loaf of white bread and run it through the food processor)

1 tsp nutmeg

¾ lb brown sugar (340g)

12 g mixed spice (0.5 oz) (mixed spice is available on-line but you can make your own by combining 1 tbsp each of ground nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon)

1 cup plain flour

1 lb sultanas (golden raisins) (450g)

1 lb currants (450g)

1 lb raisins (450g)

½ lb mixed peel (226g or 1 pack of lemon peel and 1 pack of orange peel)

6 tbsp brandy

Method:

Combine all the fruit in a bowl, add the brandy and mix well. Cover with Glad wrap and let it sit overnight.

The next day....

Cream butter and sugar. Add well beaten eggs.

Combine fruit, mixed spice, nutmeg, egg sugar mix and mix.

Add breadcrumbs and mix well.

Add flour a little at a time and mix.

  

Have an extra large pot (pasta pot is best because of the insert) of water boiling vigorously. Wet 2 squares of muslin/calico (32 in x 32 in) in the water and lay flat one atop the other, after wringing out.

Sprinkle a little flour on the top cloth and place pudding mixture in the centre.

 

Bring the corners of the first cloth together, then the corners of the second cloth. Form the mixture in the cloth into a rough ball shape and tie the opening with cooking twine as close to the pudding as possible and as tight as you can, leaving some excess twine to hang the pudding. (There should be excess cloth that you can hold onto.)

 

Place pudding into pot and boil for 5 hours, keeping an eye on the water level and topping up when required. If you don’t have a pasta pot then you will need to suspend the pudding in the water, so it doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot. You can do this by winding the string around a wooden spoon and suspending it that way.

  

Once cooked, hang in a cool dry place for 2 or 3 weeks. (The longer it hangs, the better the flavour – I hang mine for 5 to 8 weeks.)

On day of use, again have water boiling vigorously and cook for 1 hour. When done, unwrap and place on a platter for serving. Having the water boiling is very important! If you put into cold water and bring it to the boil, you will ruin your pudding. This will keep for a long time in the fridge after you have it on Christmas Day. I'm usually still having a bit in late January. All you have to do is wrap it in foil and stick it in the fridge.

Onto the custard. This is my Mum's recipe, which I don't believe varies too much from any other recipe.

500mls milk (17oz.)

1 egg

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)

1 tsp vanilla

Put 400mls (13.5oz.) milk into a non-stick pot, add egg and whisk into milk. Add sugar and heat the milk mixture until hot, but not boiling.

Put cornflour into a small dish, add remaining milk and mix to combine.

Add to milk mixture and stir continuously until it comes to the boil.

DO NOT over-boil. As soon as the first bubbles appear, remove from the heat. Make sure that the custard does actually boil otherwise it will have a real uncooked taste from the cornflour.

Add the vanilla and stir to combine.

Place lid on saucepan and put aside to cool. (The lid prevents a think skin from forming on the custard.)

To prevent the custard from becoming lumpy, don’t have the heat up too high once the mixture starts to thicken. The time it goes lumpy is just as the mixture turns from thin to about the consistency of whipping cream.

If you want your custard “pouring” consistency, then add extra milk…but be careful as it can go runny.

It's really that easy to make the custard from scratch instead of using custard powder.

So there you go, I know what I'm having for Christmas this year, do you?

I'll update a couple of the photo's after Christmas to show a slice of the pudding with the custard on there.

Enjoy!

Matt