Abby Can Cook

and so

2009-10-08T11:51:15Z

Sure it's been a very long time since I actually put anything in this thing. However! Only yesterday did I get a copy of a certain recipe book that has sparked my interest again, so it's not a lost cause after all. Not sure when I'll do anything with this though... some day... one day...

Beef With Creamy Leek And Beans

2007-03-23T13:37:48Z

You're going to eat for the rest of your life, so you might as well eat well. It's been said a million times before and with this meal, I couldn't agree more. I was a bit hesitant at first because I don't get into beans and pulses all that much and usually steer clear of them, but when I ate this meal I saw the light and realised that beans actually do have the ability to be awesome.

This is from a recipe in a Jamie Oliver cook book, even though I changed it slightly it's still the same thing. Although it did occurr to me that the recipe was to serve four and seeing as I always cook for one, I never write up a recipe for any more than myself. Remember that all of my recipes are for one and even though I may work from something bigger, whatever I write up here is whatever I did for myself - unless of course I do state otherwise, like how my Steak Nachos could easily serve two or three.

Need:
1 leek - finely chopped
300g decent tinned or jarred butter beans
olive oil
butter (real butter)
thyme + whatever other herbs you want
1 wine glass of white wine
1 tbspn sour cream (Jamie Oliver has creme fraiche, but we don't get that in Australia)
1 marbled beef steak (I used two smaller sirloin steaks, but just go with however much you want to eat)
a lemon or lemon juice
freshly ground salt and pepper

Do:
1. Put a drizzle of olive oil and the knob of butter in a large saucepan with a heavy bottom, add the finely chopped leek along with the thyme and any other herbs you like.
2. Sweat out the leeks on a low heat for about twenty minutes - leave the lid on - they're done when they are soft and sweet to taste/smell..

3. Add the wine and turn up the heat a bit to bring it to the boil.
4. Add the beans with a bit of water (if need be) to make sure that they are just covered and simmer for about five to ten minutes - until the beans are soft and creamy.
5. Add the cream and a good drizzle of olive oil, stir it all up and leave it to simmer on a very low heat. Here you can add in some ground salt and pepper if you like, but have a taste and go with what feels good.

I cook with an electric stove so I turned the hot plate completely off at this point because the heat would be enough to simmer while I did the next part. If you're using a gas oven I would turn it right down and place a heat mat under the pot so that it doesn't get too cool and to make sure that everything gets that creamy texture.

6. Time for the beef. Heat a bit of olive oil in a fry pan or some sort of grill if you have one. You want it super hot so the steaks won't take too long. Season the meat with a bit of salt and pepper and some of those herbs used in the saucepan.
7. Cook the steak for three or four minutes to get a nice medium rare, turn it over half way so that it cooks evenly and you don't end up burning one side like I ended up doing. Of course, if you don't like it medium rare, just cook it longer - I prefer rare so only cooked my steaks for about a minute and a half a side, but as you can see below, I did it too long anyway. Go with whatever your stove does, when you think it's done, it's done.
8. Place the cooked steak aside and drizzle a bit of olive oil and some lemon juice over them before carving into thick slices. My steaks were fine as they were so I just cut them in half and went with that.
9. Serve the creamy beans onto a place and place the steak on top, drizzle over some of the resting juices and add a bit of fresh parsley for looks if you like.

Jamie Oliver's recipe suggested an Italian red to go with this meal, but I just drank the white that I used in the cooking and it went quite well. Tonight I chose a 2006 Four Sisters Sauvignon Blanc Samillon white wine and I am still drinking it so I figure it must get the thumbs up.

This is definitely a meal for exciting textures because everything is so creamy and juicy. The leeks are soft and tasty, the beans are creamy like there's no tomorrow and the sauce with them together is unreal. Add that to a soft and juicy piece of beef and it all explodes with a very satisfying and incredibly mouth watering flavour. I definitely recommend giving this one a go.

Abby's Steak Nachos

2007-03-17T09:08:50Z

I had this idea a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to making and wouldn't you know, it turned out to be awesome. The biggest surprise was just how easy and quick it was to prepare and make - all up I think it was about ten minutes, plus another ten minutes baking, but anyway here it is.

Need:
1 thick and decent rump steak
a bunch of corn chips (I had "nacho cheese" doritos)
1 jar of chunky salsa (get whatever spice level you want, I prefer mild)
½ red capsicum
½ very ripe avocado (or a whole one)
a handful of grated cheese
olive oil
fresh thyme
freshly ground salt and pepper

Do:
1. Preheat oven to about 180 degrees because it wants to be right up to temp when we get to using it.
2. Chop everything! Make the capsicum chunky and do the avocado however you like it. I prefer to have the avocado nice and chunky as well so that you get that nice cool pocket of flavour when you bite into it.
3. Cut the steak into decent size chunks so that it won't get overdone during the whole process. The steak is the only bit that needs attention, everything else is just along for the ride.
4. Pour a good amount of olive oil in a frypan on high heat and let it warm up. You want the oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan, but don't make it too deep or everything will end up greasy.
5. Throw in the chopped capsicum and break up some thyme and throw that in too. The amount of thyme is open to taste, but I got a small handful of stems and pulled the tiny leaves off and put them in. Nobody wants to bite down on a stem, no matter how tasty it is.

6. Stir the capsicum thoroughly and coat it in oil and thyme, then add a large pinch of both salt and pepper. Stir like mad until it begins to look like it's frying away nicely.
7. Add the steak chunks and do the same thing - stir like mad to coat the chunks in everything else and to ensure that it gets a good even colour all over. The frying time depends on how well done you like your steak, but I like mine rare so I tossed it around for only a couple of minutes to heat it. Remember that this is only a step before putting it all in the oven so the steak will cook more then anyway and we don't want to overdo it.

8. By the time the steak is ready in the pan, you want to have a baking dish lined with those corn chips as a base. Don't worry about making all too even or anything like that, I just chucked them in and stood some up around the edge as a border to make it look pretty. On top of that put a relatively even layer of the salsa, followed by the chopped avocado. Instead of avocado you could make a guacamole, but personally I couldn't be bothered and this took about thirty seconds to chop, which is still awesome.

9. Now tip everything in the fry pan into the baking dish on top of the salsa and avocado. Spread it out evenly enough and cover it in grated cheese to you liking. Everything up to now should take about ten minutes (maximum)... and that's the hardest part. It's pretty damn easy.
10. Put the dish into the oven, set the timer for ten minutes and go do something else until it's done. Remember to keep the heat at a low 180 degrees, 200 degrees at the most. Pull it out when the cheese has started to get that golden colour, or whenever you want to really, it doesn't matter.
11. Grab a fork and eat!

A good red with a lot of flavour would be nice with this one to go with the chunky steak, with all its juicy goodness in tact from being baked in the sauce and cheese. I got stuck into a very nice 2004 Church Block Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot blend.

This would feed a couple of people quite nicely, but I ate the whole thing because it turned out so well. So that's my own little concoction, which is something that I think everyone should do. My theory is that if a particular ingredient tastes really good, then it stands to reason that it will taste good with something just as good. Of course there are some things that should never go together, but as a general rule - throw it in a pot and see what comes out - if everything you put in is cool, chances are the result wiill be wicked.

Also, I probably would have put some garlic in at the beginning as well, but I ran out today so didn't use any. It tasted great without it, but I think it would have been nice with a couple of cloves.

Thrown Together Thing

2007-01-05T16:40:54Z

A friend and I were going to go to the market tonight and get some cool stuff to cook for dinner, but I was out of fuel and the weather was super hot so he came over and we made do with what I had around the house. This is kind of like another meal that I make fairly often, but there are a few differences that make it a whole lot different. For instance, I usually do a white sauce with the salmon, but we started drinking as we were cooking and I stupidly added some more cornflour to thicken it when I should have let it run its course. We had lumpy white sauce that is now in the sink, waiting to be thrown out. Nevertheless, this was an awesome meal and although it may not look like much in the photos (excuse my crappy crockery - upgrades soon), it really tasted awesome and that's the important part.

Need:
2 salmon steaks
a good quality camembert (none of that "Australia’s Choice" crap)
3-4 cloves garlic
2 medium potatoes
1 red capsicum
1 decent zucchini
1 large onion
mixed herbs
salt/olive oil
water
butter (yeah, real butter)

Do:
1. Chop the shit out of the potato; you want it in small cubes so that it will cook with the other veg... chop that up as well... everything's gotta be chopped.
2. That includes the onion and the garlic, but do these last as they will be the first ones used.
3. Get out a large-ish fry pan that preferably has high enough sides to fit everything in without it all going everywhere and making more of a mess than I usually do. Bring a really good drizzle of olive oil up to a good temperature and sweat out the onion and garlic. It can get a bit dark because that will leave some tasty morsels for the end.
4. Add the chopped potato and stir like mad so that the garlic and onion cover it nicely and it all browns up a bit more.
5. Add the rest of the veg and do the same thing; you want to get all that good onion and garlic flavour through the whole pan.
6. When you're happy with the initial stirring, add enough water to fill about two thirds of the depth of the veg - this gives it all enough moisture to soften up the veg and let it cook without burning the hell out of your pan. You can add some more oil if you want, but I tend to try and cut back on the oil where I can, especially because of the butter coming later on.
7. Set it to bubble away nicely after the water is up to a boil. This is basically a high simmer to bring a lot of heat. Stir it every five minutes or so and let it do its thing uncovered, you don't want it to be moist at the end so that water's got to go eventually. Add some salt to taste as well - a few turns on the grinder should do it.

8. We're up to the longest part now, which is also the easiest as you just need to simmer the hell out of so that those heavy veg can cook well. Once the water has all but gone, stir in some mixed herbs and add enough water to fill about a quarter to a third of the depth. Do the same thing as the first time until the potato is all but done - it should be soft, but just hard enough to be annoying if you sat down and ate it right there.
9. Once the veg is all but done, it's time for the fish, but not before you add a good hunk of butter to the veg for a bit of extra flavour. I'd put in about 50g for this amount of veg and stir it through until it has melted away.
10. The salmon steaks are really simple... just pop them under a grill at about 220 degrees celsius and flip them over when each side starts to brown. You don't need to worry about the pink bits inside the fish because it won't hurt you to eat it a bit rare and the last thing you want is overcooked salmon that is dry like there's no tomorrow.
11. While you're waiting for everything to finish its business, cut the camembert. I prefer to use a full wheel so that I can cut it in half and then go from the centre out in order to get nice long strips of the cheese. This is going to be melted on the salmon in a sec so keep the strips down to about half a centimetre in width. If you want more I would use more strips rather than one big fat one - you can evenly spread it a bit easier with the thin ones.
12. By now the veg is basically done, you could eat it if you were starving, but chuck in some more mixed herbs and turn the heat off if it's about to burn.
13. When the salmon is a second away from browning too much (it's up to you how you like your fish - I like mine rare so it's only really under the grill for about five minutes) whip it out and put a nice long strip of camembert on top. Put it back under the heat to melt it enough and then it's ready to serve. NB: Keep an eye on the cheese because it won't take very long at all and camembert doesn't particularly melt all too well because it is really oily and will just run past your salmon and end up somewhere not so edible.
14. Serve it all up, put some other herbs or something on the veg if you like and get into it.

zero points for style =/

We drank Cooper's Lager while we were cooking, but switched to a Banrock Station 2005 Chardonnay while we were eating and it was a really nice compliment to the flavours of everything.

The photos are more so you can get an idea of some of the things that I may not have explained properly. Some people freak out whenever I mention cheese with fish, but I don't see what the problem is because it tastes fucking wild. Then again, I've never really cared about what is meant to taste good together, only what does taste good... everyone should just eat anything that tastes good, not things that are meant to taste good because a lot of the time they don't. I mean... Pine nuts? Okay, maybe I'm not a fan of nuts, but seriously... ?

Enjoy!

A Simple Pasta

2006-12-30T07:31:43Z

I've been working a whole lot over the lsat few weeks because of xmas so I haven't really been doing anything exciting in the kitchen (unless you count talking to numerous take-away shops on the phone), but after the new year rolls in I will have some more free time to go through some new cook books I have bought. Yesterday I got Jamie Oliver's Cook With Jaamie really cheap so there will probably be a few things coming from that vicinity sometime. I needed some new ideas for food combinations and getting a new book is usually the best way for getting the imagination going! Anyway, for now this is a really (really) simple pasta that is not even worth a recipe, but I eat it a lot whenever I couldn't be bothered and want something tasty and filling.

Need:
4 cloves garlic (or to taste)
olive oil
1 onion
small tin whole tomatoes
1 small tub tomato paste
dried mixed herbs
other fresh herbs e.g. basil, coriander
whatever vegetables you have lying around!
(usually for me this means: zucchini, mushroom, capsicum, egg plant)

Do:
1. Chop up the garlic, onion and the veg.
2. Drizzle a bit of olive oil in the pan and bring it up to a reasonable heat.
3. Brown the garlic and onion in the pan so that it begins to soften and has a good colour, but try not to burn it.
4. Add the chopped veg and combine it with the onion and the garlic, let it brown up as well so that it doesn't take forever on the next step.
5. Add the rest of the tomatoes and a bit of water if there doesn't seem to be enough liquid (you want it to be "saucy") and let that simmer away for a while so that the veg cook and get soft, pop some pasta in some boiling water about now.
6. When the pasta is nearly ready add a good pinch of the dried herbs to the sauce and a little bit of fresh towards the end (you don't want it to dissolve and go lifeless).
7. When the pasta is ready the sauce should be sufficiently cooked. Add some more fresh herbs once it's on the plate or in the bowl to give a fresh bit of flavour, along with any grated cheese that you may want to include.

See, it really doesn't need a recipe - just bung everything in a pot and let it cook, you can't go wrong, but the cool thing about this is that it takes maybe ten minutes and can be made with absolutely anything lying around in the kitchen. You can add some meat to it if you want (sometimes I add a tin of good quality tuna at the same time as the veg, which gives it another good lump of flavour.

It doesn't always have to be difficult or involved; I just wanted to post something because I have been meaning to since the first one. However, stay tuned for an awesome seafood pasta sauce and my own creation: Atlantic Salmon and Camembert in a delicious white sauce. Yum!

Indian Chicken Curry

2006-12-15T07:17:37Z

I've set up this journal as a place to fill with all the recipes and other bits and pieces that I come across in the wonderful world of food. I love food, sometimes too much, but eating is something we all do for our entire lives so we might as well do it well right? Anyway, this is my food journal, because food is awesome. First of all I thought I'd share a recipe that I have for an awesome chicken curry that my mother passed on to me. She got it from our Indian cook when we lived in Oman so I suppose you could say this is an authentic curry, but either way I love it and cook it often.

Need:
6 chicken thigh chops (or similar cut)
olive oil
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
1 large tin tomatoes
ground spices: cumin, coriander, tumeric

Do:
1. Chop up the onion and the garlic.
2. Put about a table spoon of olive oil into a large saucepan and stick it on the stove. A saucepan with a thick base is better so that at the end it will cook the meat really slowly and evenly.
3. When the oil is hot, add a teaspoon of each spice. Stir them in the oil to burn it off and get the spices all working like crazy (I like to add coriander seeds as well as the other ground spices).
4. Add the chopped onion and garlic and stir it constantly until the onion begins to soften and brown.
5. Add chicken and stir it into the spices, onion and garlic so that all the chops/fillets are coated. Let that cook for a couple of minutes to get the flavour into the meat.
6. Add the tomatoes, stir it in and bring to the boil.
7. Make sure that all the chicken pieces are submerged in the tomato juice, then simmer with a lid on to finish cooking the chicken. This should take about 20-30 minutes. You want the chicken to be really tender and just about to fall apart, but not actually falling apart. The key is to keep it simmering low and not to let it get too hot and cook too quickly.

This curry is awesome served with a bowl of steamed rice from the rice cooker. I prefer basmati rice, but don't get the "ezi-cook" kind because it's just not the same! You can add some frozen veg to the rice in the cooker if you want to get more than just protein and carbohydrates out of this meal, but I prefer it without.