Mushroom Soup

This is soooo good. It is a recipe for Swiss Brown Mushroom Soup from April's SFI magazine. But try getting swiss brown mushies here! I used some on special regular mushies, $2 a kilo use today or else mushies. Otherwise they are $12 a kilo and thats too dear for soup. Enjoy. 2 tablespoons oil 20g butter 1 large onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 400 g mushrooms, sliced 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 1/2 cups chicken stock 300ml pure cream Heat the oil and butter in large saucepan or My Precious over a medium heat. Cook onion, stirring for 5 to 6 minutes until softened and just starting to leave yummy caramel bits on the bottom. Add garlic and mushrooms. Cook and stir for 5 to 7 minutes until mushrooms are just tender. Add wine. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until wine is almost gone, then add stock. Cover, bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then blend till smooth with a stick blender. Add the cream, and stirring occasionally, cook till heated through but not boiling. Ladle into bowls and slurp away!

Chorizo and Spinach Macaroni Cheese

This recipe was in March 11 Recipes+ magazine. Was a big hit and is great for the lunch box stash in the freezer. Where most of the extra serves from these recipes end up! 2 cups spiral pasta (the recipe says 375g elbow macaroni but I don't like too much pasta. You may feel differently) 2 teaspoons oil 1 small onion, chopped 1 clove garlic (Yeah right! at least 3) 2 chorizo sausages, sliced up (we only had one left - these have a powerful flavour so one is ok too) 250g packet frozen chopped spinach, thawed. 340g tub fresh bechemal sauce (or you could make your own about 2 cups worth) 3/4 cup cream 2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard 1 cup grated pizza cheese (or regular, don't make a special trip unless you want too) Cook pasta till tender, drain and return to pan. Heat oil in medium fry pan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic cook stirring for 3 minutes or so till softened. Add chorizo, cook 2 to 3 minutes till crisping up. Add spinach, stir till liquid evaporates. Add sauce, cream and mustard, bring to boil, simmer 1 minute. Add haldf the cheese and the sauce mixture to the pasta. Spoon into a pyrex dish, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Pop under a preheated grill till bubbly. Stand 5 minutes then serve with a nice leafy salad.

Caramel Pecan Slice

A few weeks ago, I bought a tray of slice from a cake stall raising money for Relay For Life. It was so good, that I went searching online for a similar recipe. This is pretty close. 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed in. 1 1/2 cups plain flour 1 cup dessicated coconut 125g butter, melted 395g can sweetened condensed milk 1/4 cup golden syrup 20g butter, melted 3/4 cup chopped pecan nuts 200g dark chocolate Combine sugar, coconut and flour in a bowl. Add the melted butter and stir till well combined. Press the mixture into a greased and papered slice pan. Mix the condensed milk, golden syrup and melted butter in a bowl then pour over the base. Cook in a moderate (180 C) oven for 20 to 30 minutes till top is golden and starting to bubble. Easy to over cook be careful. Let it cool in the pan a little. Sprinkle the nuts over the top and press gently into caramel. Leave till cold. Melt chocolate in the microwave for a minute or two, stir gently then spread over the top. Pop in the fridge till set. Rich but good.

Blogger formatting issues

Apologies, I have typed up 4 recipes to post over the next few days and I assure you I have formatted them like I usually do. Then once I post them, blogger just mooshes them into one big paragraph. I go back and edit them.. then once I hit publish, it does it again. Very frustrating. I am hoping they fix it before the next recipe is scheduled to post tomorrow. Meanwhile bear with me and I will get it fixed..eventually!

Garlic Prawn Pasta

This is adapted from a recipe from Thats Life reader recipes sent in by a Kellie Merritt in the ACT. WAs a big hit with the man, who loves garlic prawns in any format. 600g raw green prawns, peeled and the shells reserved (heads too). 1 cup white wine 50g butter 4 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 300ml cooking cream 2 tablespoon fresh chives (I used parsley as it grows outside) 400g pasta, cooked and drained. (Kelli says spagettini, I use whatever is in the cupboard) Place the prawn shells, the wine and a cup of water into a saucepan over a medium high heat and cook till liquid reduces by half. Strain and resrve the liquid. Chuck the shells, I don't expect you do eat them. Or the heads. Melt the butter in a large frying pan, over medium high heat. Add garlic and prawn meat and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add mustard, cream and the reserved prawn liquid and cook 2 minutes. Stir through hebs and pasta and toss to combine. Serve in bowls with fresh parmesan. Too easy and so quick. Thanks Kelli!

French Onion Soup

The other day we went to the local markets and picked up a big bag of onions for 2 dollars. KISA thought French Onion Soup would be a good idea, I so I found this recipe at Taste.com.au. It looked simple enough, just needed time. So I got out My Precious and the mandolin and got started. It was sublime. It takes ages to do the onions but worth every second for the flavour. No wonder onions are my favourite vegetable. Yes, they truly are.

Here Tis,

Serves 6. (Yeah right!) Try 4

60g butter

2 tablespoons oil

1kg brown onions, thinly sliced (I used a mandolin, saves time and tears and fingertips)

2 teaspoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons plain flour

4 cups beef stock (I used a 1 litre tetra pak of beef stock, continental I think)

Heat butter and oil in a heavy based saucepan or dutch oven over a medium low heat till sizzling. Add onions and 1 teaspoon salt.

Cook uncovered, stirring often for 45 to 50 minutes until onions are very soft. Don't let them catch. This is the PIA bit. But they taste bloody fantastic just as is by the time they are done.

Stir in the sugar and cook, stirring a lot for 10 minutes until onions caramelise. Again watch they don't catch, they will be a lovely brown colour by now.

Add flour and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.

Add stock and 2 cups of water. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes to combine flavours.

This is supposed to be served with slices of baguette with melted swiss cheese on top. I just made a toasted cheese sandwich and we had it on the side.

SO. SO. GOOD!

Nigella's Salad dressing

I saw this on Nigella the other week. This is very yummy, I tried it out and we both liked it. I used Tasmanian Leatherwood honey which has a strong flavour, I would suggest a milder one though.

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt
125 ml oil
Shake up in a bottle to emulsify, spoon onto salad.

Would like to try this with pure maple syrup too, let me know if you do!