Pane Tostato Tre Formaggi e Pomodori Secchi

NAME: _Pane Tostato Tre Formaggi e Pomodori Secchi
(Three cheeses and sundried tomato toasted sandwich)

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
Sliced bread
Provolone
Fetta
Grated parmesan
Oil-preserved sundried tomatoes
Olive oil
Garlic mashed with salt

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METHOD:
Put a small amount of the mashed garlic into a small dish of olive oil, allow to sit while you cut the Provolone and Fetta into slices about 2cm square and a few mm thick. Cut the sundried tomatoes into strips.

Brush one side of each slice of bread with the garlic-infused olive oil, then sprinkle quite liberally with Parmesan cheese. Turn one slice upside down on another so as to keep oil sides together, fill each sandwich with the other two cheeses and sundried tomato.

Whether toasting in a frypan or toasted sandwich press, lift the filled slice off the bottom one, place in pan or sandwich maker, cover with remaining slice. Toast both sides until the Parmesan is quite brown.

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SERVING: Serve immediately, with side salad if desired.

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NOTES: I used a herbed Fetta, good Provolone, and herbed semi-dried tomatoes in oil. I You could use plain fetta and SDT and add some finely shredded basil and a shake of ground black pepper. When you add the salt-mellowed garlic to the oil, you'll soon learn if you used too much - it's the merest hint of garlic you're aiming for. And use a robust olive oil with a bit of colour to it.

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Fowl Toastie

NAME: _Fowl Toastie

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
100g chicken or turkey mince
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp tomato paste
1 egg
2 tbsp grated cheese (good mozzarella is best, mild cheddar works too)
8 slices white bread
salt/pepper to taste
chilli flakes if desired

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METHOD:
Cold sweat the onion and garlic together with a sprinkling of salt, toss.  Meanwhile, put the mince, egg, cheese, and sauces into a bowl and stir lightly together.  Once the onion and garlic have lost their edge and sweated a bit, add them and mix through.

Spread mixture equally onto four slices of bread, cover with the other four, and slip into toasted sandwich maker and toast for at least five minutes.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD:
Make up the mince as above, in whatever quantity you think you may need, lay on a sheet of cling-wrap and roll out to 3 - 5 mm thick, cover with second sheet of cling-wrap, and using a sharp knife, cut into squares slightly smaller than sliced bread, freeze, and use as required straight from freezer to sandwich toaster.  This makes a handy snack that's ready in five minutes.

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SERVING:
It's a toasted sandwich.  Garnish it with a sprig of parsley that most people don't eat anyway, or just bang it on a plate and thrust it towards your intended victim.

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NOTES:
Surprisingly good, and there are dozens of variations of the recipe that work.  The secret is the quite thin layer of meat filling, it cooks in just a few minutes, even if using the frozen version.

I've also used pork mince (with no garlic, and nutmeg and small raisins of all things) in the recipe, and played with a range of fillings with assorted spices and cheeses.

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Potato Kugel Loaf TEd Style

NAME: _Potato Kugel Loaf TEd Style

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
300g bakers plain flour
4 eggs
2 tsp instant baking yeast
2 medium brown onions
5 medium waxy potatoes (about 700g)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp EVOO
(optional)
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar or whatever you like.

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METHOD:
Peel and grate potatoes, using coarse side of a standard box grater. Place grated potatoes into a teatowel or other clean strong cloth, and twist the end to wring out liquid.  Save the liquid in a bowl.  Squeeze and re-arrange the grated potato a few more times to ensure it is as dry as possible.  Leave wrapped in teatowel and set aside, in a cool place or the refrigerator.

Grate the onion or cut into thin strips about the same size as the grated potato or a bit thicker, place in a bowl, sprinkle over the teaspoonful of salt and toss through.  Set aside in a cool place or the refrigerator.

Put flour in mixer bowl, add the yeast, and stir through quickly with a spoon.  Start mixer on low speed and begin adding three lightly beaten eggs.  Pour off most of the clear liquid from the potato starch and add the starch, then add the last beaten egg slowly, you want a sticky paste not totally liquid but not dry either.

Once the mixer has kneaded this mixture for about three minutes, use half a tablespoon of olive oil to grease a bowl, place the douhg in it and cover with a teatowel.  Leave in a warm place for half an hour to an hour, until it's definitely risen.

Push a hollow into the dough ball, put the grated potato in.  Use the teatowel to similarly squeeze liquid from the onions, be gentle to avoid crushing the onion.  Discard the liquid, add the dried onion to the bowl.  Add a tablespoonful of olive oil, and mix together all with the dough.  The dough will have developed a strong gluten by now, be careful, try and mix the grated ingredients in with minimal disturbance to the cohesiveness of the dough.

Use the remaining half tablespoonful of EVOO to grease a loaf tin that the dough will fill to around 1/4 to 1/3, and put the dough mixture in and level it out.  Cover with a teatowel again and let rise a second time, half an hour to an hour.

Put in preheated oven (180C) and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.  If you are using the grated cheese, then sprinkle this in a thick layer over the risen dough just before placing in the oven.  At the end of baking time, the top should be golden to brown, and the loaf should have risen to the height of the bread pan. Slide a knife or spatula all the way around, and gently turn out onto a biscuit rack.

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SERVING:
Server hot or cold, sliced into 2cm slices.  Excellent as a side to dishes with gravy.  Can also be served by itself with a cheese sauce.

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NOTES:
Polish and Russian people in particular have "potato kugel" recipes.  Jewish people have a version of it.  The word "kugel" just means a ball, and that's how it's generally baked.  But.  Oh!.  All traditional recipes don't have a leavening agent and this comes out like a heavy dough and potato dumpling.  I've seen recipes where baking powder raising agent is added, but it was still not what I wanted.

The yeast transforms this from a dumpling to a loaf, with a dense but open crumb and a GREAT flavour combination of yeast dough, potato, and the salting of the onion changes the flavour of the onion from sharp to mellow and rounded.  I eat this by itself instead of bread, it just needs buttering and is a complete meal.  It's YUMMY.  'Nuff said.

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Find Restaurant Deliveries In Your Area

I don't normally.  No, really - I don't.  It's very rare that I plug a service on my blogs.  And it's even more rare for me to do it for free and gratis.  But in this case, I had to.  I've often wished I had the smarts to set up a variety of online services, and this was one of them.  I'm extremely pleased to see that not only has someone had the same idea and implemented it, but they've done so extremely well from what I've seen.
 
Menulog finds restaurants in your postcode that deliver, lets you order online and then pay on delivery.  It's brilliant.  If I say so myself.  And they are offering $10 off the first order to TEdAMENU Tuckertime readers!  Discount code and details are down the bottom, and I wish you a very enjoyable dinner out, (brought in,) in the future.
 
"Aha!" say you, "he does get something out of it!  A $10 discount voucher for himself!  Not free and gratis after all!  Foul!  Foul!"
 
But in actual fact, in my area code, 6244... - well, you check it out.  I'm 100km from the nearest larger population center...  However, I know quite a few of you are in cities and large towns, and you'll have no trouble finding some fine quality tucker out there.  Bon Appetit, folks!

Menulog Restaurant Delivery Guide

Order home delivery online, get instant confirmation.
 

1000 restaurants around Australia, 2000 specials, no markup.
 

Get $10 off your first order with this code at checkout: 25E47D
 

Details: Available for a customer’s first order only, at participating
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expires March 31, 2011, min order $20.

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Cheap-Ass Ham And Cheese Tortellini

NAME: _Cheap-Ass Ham And Cheese Tortellini
(See Notes)

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
TORTELLINI
30 - 40 Tortellini wrappers (or square wonton wrappers from the shop)
(200g flour, 2 eggs, a drop of olive oil, few drops of water, roll out to 9)
50g - 100g ham
50g - 100g cheap cheddar
5g - 10g blue cheese
cabbage or kale leaves
SAUCE
10g - 50g ham
500ml water
1/2 an onion
1 clove garlic
50g butter
1 - 2 tbsp olive oil
1 - 2 tbsp flour
250ml milk
chicken stock cube
salt, pepper
cabbage or kale leaves left over from above, or some fresh parsley.

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METHOD:
I'll assume you know how to make pasta dough, or got wonton wrappers.  Just make sure the pasta doesn't dry out while you're making this.

Wilt the green leaves in a steamer or a pot of boiling water, dry the leaves.  Chop 2/3 (about 100g) of the leaves into quite small shreds, the rest (about 50g) into larger strips.  Set both aside.

Grate the cheddar into a bowl, and either finely dice the ham or freeze it and grate it also, add to the bowl.  Add the finely chopped green leaves, and freeze the blue cheese and crumble it finely or grate it, add that to the bowl also.  Stir to mix the filling ingredients, leave to get warm, stir again.  The filling needs to have cohesion from the cheddar, which is why it needs to be room temperature.

Now finely chop the onion, garlic, and the remaining ham, put in a saucepan with the olive oil over medium heat, and cook to glassy onion stage.  Season with the pepper to taste.  Add the butter, and when it melts, add the flour, stirring constantly.  Now begin to add the water, stopping at the quite thick paste stage.  Add the milk, and then add water until the sauce is rich and creamy.   Add the crumbled chicken stock cube, then adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a few litres of salted water to the boil, drop in half the tortellini, and allow to come back up to the boil for about a minute, or until the required doneness is reached, drain. When all the pasta is cooked and drained,  warm the sauce through again, add the remaining shredded green leaves or parsley, and serve.

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SERVING:
You can either coat the pasta in the sauce and serve, or serve pasta on a bed of sauce, or pasta first sauce on top, I don't think this matters except from the presentation point of view.  I use the coat and serve method myself.

Top with a few crumbs of cheese and/or parsley.

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NOTES:Watching Master Chef a few weeks back - and specifically, an invention test to make something with household type ingredients, and a much fairer invention test suggested itself: Consequently, this dish was born.  The challenge?  Take whatever I actually really truly had in my kitchen, as a pensioner, and produce a tasty and quality dish from it.

Now I'd just paid $5 for a 7 kilo ham, so that was obviously a "quality" start to the dish.  That's almost 30c a pound, in the old measurements, and that has to represent the budgetest budget cut, right?  I also had some Coles medium cheddar, local dairy milk, local eggs, a kilo of plain flour, and (jewel of my collection) about 10g of the last of a piece of supermarket Danish Blue cheese.  The challenge was on!  I have to say that for the ingredients, I managed to make something that had a lot of complex flavouring, was of reasonable quality, and which, I'm sad to say, was actually better than many similar meals I've had at restaurants...

The Danish Blue adds a very slight tang to the cheddar and lifts it from ordinary to something a bit harder to define by taste.  As the cheap ham is quite salty, that adds all the seasoning the tortellini need, and the steamed kale modifies the saltiness and smooths flavours out again.

So on to the tips and tricks: Tortellini is the easiest shaped filled pasta to make, start with a square, add a dollop of filling, form a triangle, seal the edges, take the two opposite corners and form into a ring, seal, done.  Bonus: more pasta to filling ratio, so you can make an economy portion of filling go a long way.

Crumbling slightly moist blue cheese is always easier if you drop it into the deep freezer for an hour beforehand, then you can grate it or finely chop it without it sticking back together.  Actually, with "high quality" ham like I had, that would probably have been good advice for that, as well.

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Sweet Potato and Turmeric Cannelloni

NAME: _Sweet Potato and Turmeric Cannelloni

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:
8 - 12 canneloni tubes, the hard store bought pasta kind
250g minced meat (beef)
100g sweet potato
100g sweet pumpkin such as butternut
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp tinned diced tomato
one small onion
2 - 3 cloves garlic
1 level tsp turmeric
1 level tsp paprika
1 medium carrot
2 stalks celery
bunch parsley
approx 100g cheese for grating
chicken stock powder
beef stock powder

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METHOD:
Seperate the meat into two lots, one approximately 100g, the other 150g. Place in two small saucepans, place over very low heat to start.  Grate the carrot, finely dice the celery stalks.  Divide the piles in half.  Finely dice the onion, and crush the garlic.  Finely chop the parsley.  Peel and small dice the sweet potato and pumpkin, place in a third small saucepan, also over low heat.

The 100g of mince will become the filling for half the cannelloni - add one half each of the carrot and celery to this saucepan, add the paprika, add two tbsp of the diced tomato.  Add approximately one quarter of the chopped parsley.  Bring to a simmer, season salt to taste, and then set aside to cool.  Add the turmeric and 1/3 of the crushed garlic to the sweet potato and pumpkin, add the remaining 2 tbsp diced tomato and a level teaspoon of chicken stock powder.  Simmer until potato and pumpkin are soft, and roughly mash together with a wooden spoon. Salt to taste and set aside to cool.  (Both fillings use as little water as possible, just the bare minimum to prevent burning.)

Add remaining carrot and celery, chopped onion, and crushed garlic to the 150g of meat.  Add the 2 tbsp of tomato paste, 2/3 of the remaining chopped parsley, and some water to produce a bolognese sauce consistency, leave simmering while you prepare the cannelloni.  The water content of this sauce will be absorbed by the cannelloni tubes, softening them.

Fill half the tubes with the now cool meat mixture.  Grate approximately one third of the cheese onto the sweet potato filling and fold in.  Fill the other tubes with this mixture. Lay the tubes in a baking dish, I cut thin slices of pumpkin to layer the bottom of the dish so the pasta doesn't stick, your call - you could also use thinly sliced onion for extra flavour.  Pour the hot sauce over making sure it gets in all the spaces between tubes and slightly covers the tubes.

Grate the remaining cheese over the top and place in a 350 degree oven for around 45 minutes.  The cheese should start getting a tinge of colour and be well melted.

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SERVING:
Serve with a crispy tart side salad, serve up one of each kind of cannelloni per plate.  Sprinkle the remaining chopped parsley over each serving.

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NOTES:
I could have made the tubes myself but then they'd be soft and hard to fill, especially with a filling I left deliberately rough textured.  The flavours are all slightly tied together by key ingredients, but widely varied.  The cannelloni tubes serve to keep those flavours separate until you plate up, which is why they need to be packed close side by side and end to end in the baking dish.

Using powdered stock is a decision made because you don't want either filling to be sloppy, and if you wait for normal stock to reduce you'll overcook the fillings.  Also, normal stock won't pack enough flavour punch. Unless you make your own stocks and reduce them to almost pan glazes.

The flavour of the sweet potato filling is quite heavy on turmeric and tomato and garlic, because I find that vegetarian type food (yes I know chicken stock isn't vegetarian, but use one of the meatless ones if you like) is always a little bit bland.  With the added flavours, it's strong.  The beef filling is also quite heavy on paprika and the parsley which gives that it's flavour. And the sauce has garlic, onion, and tomato paste to keep it flavoursome.

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