Anyone who knows me knows that I love food :) I have been known to ask people the first time I meet them "if you were facing execution and allowed your last meal consisting of entree, main, dessert and a drink.. what would you have?" (morbid I know!). It's amazing how much you can tell about a person from the food they eat ;) (Incidentally, if you want to know what people on the real death row request for a last meal, click here.)
Without further ado.. here's the list of "absolutely must have cannot live without food".
Dolmades
Homemade veal schnitzel
Deep fried cheese kransky with homemade cheese sauce
Potato bake
Stuffed potatoes
Fried rice with no fucking peas
If all this seems too much, you might want to check out the Art of Laze Cookbook - perfect for the lazy cook!
Greek Dolmades (Dolma) - Hopefully to be eaten as the "real thing" later this year..
3 Cups. Rice (try basmati, its pretty good), soaked in boiling water and salt for 1hr.
1/2 Cup olive oil (Extra virgin if you got it)
Juice of one large lemon
1 bunch shallots, chopped
1 bunch parsley, minced
1 large, firm tomato, chopped
1 tsp. dried mint (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
(Dolmades picture ripped off from www.turknet.net/eng)
Thoroughly rinse rice and drain well. Mix the rice and all the above ingredients in a bowl. If you are using fresh grape leaves blanch in boiling water for a minute. Stuff and cook. You could use torn grape leaves or slices of tomato to line the bottom of the pan so that the bottom layer of stuffed grape leaves won't scorch.
Deep fried cheese kransky with homemade cheese sauce
Cheese sauce
- 1 tbs butter
- 1 tbs flour
- Milk
- Grated cheese (lots)
Very important: Don’t stop stirring!
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix in the flour until you get the consistency of paste. (Use more or less flour if needed). Pour in about half a cup of milk, continually stirring. (The French call this a "roux".)
When milk mixture gets thicker, you can keep putting in more if you need to make a bigger quantity. Be careful not to put too much or it will go thin – just add about ¼ cup each time.
When milk mixture boils, is the amount and consistency you want, add the cheese. I usually put in tonnes because I like it really cheesy, but add some and taste along the way.
When ready, set aside. Do not leave it on the stove, take it off the heat. It helps if you have someone else to help so they can stir continuously while you’re doing the kransky thing. (You were stirring, right?)
Cheese kransky
- 1 cheese or plain kranksy per person (you can get these from the deli at Woolies or Coles or something)
- 1 big pot of oil (or if you don’t have one, make a temporary one. Get an old saucepan (as big as you can) and melt 2 cubes of solidifed oil in it. (Available from Coles, Woolies etc in the butter section) This saucepan will also come in handy if you make chips – they’re heaps better!)
(Kransky image ripped from http://russians.tne.net.au/)
This part is easy.
Heat the pan til the oil is all melted and a bit hot (don’t walk away from the kitchen whilst this is going on – I’ve done it and had several black saucepans as a result). When the oil is hot enough (just take a guess, it doesn’t really matter) stick your kranky/kranskies in the oil.
Deep fry for about 5 minutes. If it looks like they might shrivel up, take em out.
Drain excess oil on some kitchen paper. Serve with mashed potatoes and smother in cheese sauce. You’ll be glad you did.
Potato Bake - this one is hit when you got a group of friends with the
munchies!
- 4 medium sized potatoes
- 3 bacon rashers (cut thin strips), or a handful of bacon bits
- 2 tbs Butter
- Garlic (tonnes), minced or chopped if you’re brave
- Grated cheese (even more)
Preheat oven to about 200 degrees. (Slicing potatoes image ripped from http://www.cuisinemagazine.com)
In a microwave safe jug, chuck in the butter and garlic. Zap it for about a minute, enough for the butter to melt.
Peel and cut up the potatoes, slicing them into thin pieces.
In a baking dish, put one layer of the sliced potatoes. Use a cooking brush (or a clean paintbrush) to spread some of the butter/garlic mixture over the potatoes.
Sprinkle some of the bacon over the potatoes and butter, top with some grated cheese.
Add another layer of potatoes and repeat above until all out of potatoes. The last thing on the heap should be cheese and bacon (and lots of it).
Put in the oven, bake til you can put a knife through it and the potatoes are cooked (usually about an hour or so).
Enjoy! (and don’t let the smell of it cooking bother you :))
Annie's World-Wide Famous Stuffed Potatoes - This one is a total effort – it takes ages but the rewards are super-sweet!
(NB: all quantities are PER PERSON)
(Baked potato image ripped from http://www.tahoejoes.com/)
- 1 medium sized potato for each person (don’t be fooled into getting big ones – you won’t eat them)
- 1 tbs butter
- Olive oil
- ½ cup cheese
- Guacamole (see below)
- Handful of bacon bits
- 2 tbs sour cream
Optional extras:
- Fried onions
- Lemon & Pepper seasoning (worth buying a bottle just for this!)
Rub potatoes with olive oil, wrap in aluminum foil and stick in the oven about 200 degrees for like hours. (Like maybe 2).
When you can stick a knife through it, its done. If you don’t want to wait this long, nuke the potato in the microwave (without the oil and foil) to get it that soft and proceed to next step. (It just doesn’t taste as good).
Take off the foil, rub potatoes again in oil if you can handle it. Put back in the oven for another hour or so to make the skins toughen up (well worth the time). Before you put them back in, put a tray underneath to catch the oil which will drip.
When done, cut potatoe/s in half and mush insides with butter. This is very important because of its not mashed together, a person may take a bite of plain potato (not that yummy). Turn down the oven and put the potatoe/s back in to keep warm.
Fry bacon and optional onions. Chuck in some garlic too, the more the merrier ;) Take potatoes out of the oven and sprinkle liberally with grated cheese. Top with bacon, a big dollop of sour cream and a shitload of guacamole on top.
Sprinkle with lemon & pepper seasoning if ya have it. Eat.
Guacamole:
- Some really really ripe avocados (generally 1 avocado per 2 ppl)
- Tiny bit of chili sauce
- Lemon pepper seasoning
- Lemon juice
Chuck everything together in a bowl, mash with a fork until massacred.
Annie's Fried rice with no fucking peas
Peas should not be allowed in fried rice – no, make that ANY dish. Foul.
- 1 cup rice (Basmati works best)
- 1 cup bacon bits
- 1 cup shopped shallots
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 small tin prawns
- 1 tin water chestnuts
- Soy sauce
- Oil for frying
The secret to this recipe is in the way you cook the rice. I experimented with different ways to be sure the rice wasn’t too "soft" and I think I’ve got it.
(Rice image ripped from www.bitesofasia.com)
In a big saucepan, boil some water. Put the rice in (water should be about a fingernail higher than the rice). Put the lid on and cook rice for about 10/15 minutes. (If you make this dish often and use the same pan, you can get a good guage as to how long to cook. Even better still get a pan with a glass lid).
Once rice is cooked (should be firm but not soft), spread out on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Put in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
In a wok (or a frypan if you havent got one), heat the oil. Fry the water chestnuts first, because they are the hardest. Fry for about 5 minutes. Fry the shallots and bacon until you think its done. Whack in tonnes of soy sauce.
In a small frypan off to the side, fry the eggs scrambled style making sure to scramble in little bits. (I usually use a wooden spoon and pound it til its like big breadcrumbs).
Put the scrambled egg and prawns into the wok with the bacon shallots and chestnuts. Mix about for a bit (more soy sauce). Bring the rice out of the freezer and chuck that in to.
Mix up for a while, to get the rice warm again.. be careful not to do it too much or it will go mushy.
Eat.
