Bolognese sauce

Bolognese Sauce

Spaghetti Bolognese is one of Australia's comfort food.  Anything that resembles noodles entices my salivary glands.  This recipe from Ferran Adria's (from the legendary elBulli restaurant)  'The Family Meal' is my favourite.  It has a great depth of flavours.  Absolutely triple yum!  Howevever, I forgot to take a photo of the finished product. 

Ingredients
225 g butter
1.2 kg minced beef
350 g pork sausage meat
500 g onions
150 g celery
400 g carrots
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
12 g tomato puree
1.6 g chopped tomatoes
1 pinch sugar


Method:

Put a large pan over a medium high heat, then add the butter and let it melt.  Add the beef mince, fry until it has changed colour, then add the sausage meat.

Cook for a few more minutes, season with salt and pepper, then cook for 15 minutes longer, stirring frequently, until dark golden brown.

In the meanwhile, finely chop the onions and celery.  Finely chop the carrots.  Or if you have a thermomix, throw them together on speed 8, 30 seconds.

I had a big harvest of yellow bell tomatoes, so I processed them in the thermomix speed 8, 30 seconds.

Put another pan over a low heat, then pour in the olive oil.  Fry the vegetables gently until softened, about 12 minutes.

Add the meat to the vegetables and mix everything together well.

Add the chopped tomatoes with the tomato puree.  Season with salt, pepper and sugar.  Simmer the sauce for 1 1/2 hours until the meat is very tender.

This bolognese sauce will go well with spaghetti or lasagna.

Do try this.  It is very delicious!

Spaghetti with steak and baby spinach

Spaghetti with steak and baby spinach

 I had left over steak, so how was I going to reinvent a meal with it? Spaghetti! Our favourite! We are Chinese, so we love anything that looks like noodles!

Ingredients

 1 packet Spaghetti

1 teaspoon garlic, diced

1 brown onion, diced

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 handfuls of baby spinach

100 g left over steak, sliced

salt and pepper to taste

oil 

Method

 Cook spaghetti.

While spaghetti is cooking, start on the sauce.  

Heat oil in a frypan, brown garlic and onions.

Add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste.  Simmer over very low heat.

When spaghetti is cooked to al dente, place it into the sauce, adding some of the water that the spaghetti is cooked in, if you think that there is not enough sauce/liquid.  Stir in baby spinach and slices of steak.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Easy Tomato Salad ala Sophia

 

 

 

 

Easy Tomato Salad ala Sophia Brown

 

2 punnets cherry tomatoes

1/2 Spanish onions

Salt, pepper

Balsamic Vinegar

 

 

Halve cherry tomatoes and place on a plate.

Chop Spanish onion and scatter on top of the tomatoes.

Sprinkle freshly ground salt and pepper on top, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Tamarind Curry of Seafood

Tamarind Curry of Seafood

My daughter, Sophia gave me a treat to Urban Graze cooking class, with Alvin Quah, one of the contestants from Masterchef 2010.  This is my favorite recipe from that class.

Tamarind Curry of Seafood
Recipe by Alvin Quah


Ingredients:

15       each bulb shallots, peeled
3         each candlenuts, soaked in hot water for 10 mins
1         each 3cm piece galangal, peeled and roughly chopped
7         each garlic cloves, peeled
3         each stalks lemongrass, white part sliced and reserved
2         teaspoons tumeric powder
10-20 dried chillies (soaked in hot water for 15 minutes and drained)
16 g    shrimp paste (belacan)

1/2      cup vegetable or canola oil
3         tablespoon tamarind pulp
21/2    cups water
250     ml fish stock
1/2      tablespoon palm sugar
2         each truss tomatoes, each cut into 6 equal pieces
           salt to taste

250     g barramundi fillet, cut into 10 pieces
10       each mussels
10       each green prawns, head and shells removed and deveined
10       each okra, cut into thirds

Method:

• In a food processor, process bulb shallots, candlenuts, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, tumeric owder, chillies and shrimp paste to a smooth paste.
• Mix the tamarind pulp with water and strain the water to get the tamarind juice.  Set aside.
• In a wok, heat the oil over low heat and fry the ground spice past until the oil and paste separates and is fragrant.  (About 15 minutes)
• Add the tamarind ulp and sugar into the spice paste and bring it to a boil on low heat.  Add fish stock, half the tomatoes and allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  Add okra and the rest of the tomatoes and alow to simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile, steam the fish, prawns and mussels in a bamboo steamer until just cooked.  They should all take the same amount of time to cook.  About 4-5 minutes.

To Serve:

• Add a piece of fish, a mussel and a prawn into a bowl.  Repeat with the other 9 bowls.
• Ladle the curry into each bowl and serve with rice or crusty bread.