home...harvest...cook: August 2011

Stephanie Alexander's Sticky Toffee Pudding - a favorite in our house:

pudding
170g dates, stoned and chopped
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
300 ml boiling water
60 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (or castor)
2 eggs
170g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla

sauce
400g brown sugar
1 cup thick cream
250g unsalted butter
1 vanilla bean, split

Preheat oven to 180 celcius and butter an 18cm square cake tin. Mix dates and bicarb. Pour over water and leave to stand.

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Fold flour in gently, then stir in date mixture and vanilla (I used vanilla bean instead) and pour into prepared tin. Bake in centre of oven for 30-40 minutes until cooked when tested with skewer.

We always do these in individual ramekins, they cook in about 20 minutes and are fun to eat.

To make the sauce, bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove vanilla bean. Pour a little sauce over warm pudding(s) and return to oven for 2-3 minutes so sauce can soak in. Serve with extra sauce to pass around.

Hope you enjoy as much as we do.

P394 Cook's Companion 2nd edition.

I love weekends at home! Slept til nearly mid day today - must have needed it.

Today I'm cooking one of my hubby's favorite meals, to celebrate his birthday yesterday. Thought I'd share the recipes and some photos of the cooking.

Main - Lamb Shanks, crunchy smashed spuds and greens
Dessert - Home made vanilla bean icecream and sticky date pudding

Apparently lamb shanks used to be dirt cheap - they were considered unclassy, and butchers could hardly give them away. Yesterday I paid $4.50 each! They are about half that at the Vic Market, but unfortunately in a regional town, we pay a premium. Slave to food fashion.

Lamb Shanks
Cant remember where this recipe originated from, but I have bastardised it anyway, so here's the adaption i used today for 10 shanks. Would normally do about 4-6, depending on their size, but we're feeding a crowd tonight. I have put in [brackets] the standard recipe.

1. Rub freshly cracked pepper and sea salt into 10 shanks [4 shanks];
2. Smash 3 dried chillies and 2 heaped teaspoons of whole coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle or other 'smasher' of choice [1 dried chilli, 1 teaspoon whole coriander];
3. Finely chop 1-2 twigs of rosemary (minus the twigs) and mix into the chilli and coriander mix [1 twig], along with a teaspoon or two of dried marjoram.
4. Rub that all over the shanks, press it in really well and don't forget the ends of the shanks.
5. Dust shanks with plain flour.
6. Heat oil in a thick bottomed casserole dish (I used two, because I did 10 shanks - suggest you make sure the shanks will fit comfortably in a dish before you start, so you don't have any mid-cooking crises and wind up flapping your arms around your kitchen while the contents of your cooking dish cupboard pours onto the floor... not that this happened to me, i'm far too organised and well prepared...)
7. Brown the shanks on all sides (I did two at a time in each pan), remove from pan and set aside. There will be some black bits on the pan, don't worry, its all part of the taste sensation.
8. Quarter and slice a bunch of celery, 3 or 4 carrots, 3 onions, 5 garlic cloves and add to the pans, dividing equally or in proportion to the number of shanks you're going to fit in each. [If you're doing a normal sized batch of 4 shanks, use 6 sticks of celery, 1 carrot, 1 onion and 1-2 garlic cloves].
9. Once vegetables are soft, add 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and cook until syrupy. This doesn't take long. I used two pans, so 2 tablespoons in each for those playing at home. [2 tablespoons balsamic]
10. Add 2 wineglasses of dry white wine [about 170ml if you're doing standard size batch]. Cook for a couple of minutes.
11. Add 12 anchovy fillets [6 anchovy fillets for standard], and 4 tins of whole peeled tomatoes [2 x 400g tins for standard].
12. Let it cook and mix it up good.
13. Return shanks to the pan, try to get them as low in the dish as possible with the juice and veges, bring to the boil, put the lid on.
14. Put into oven 180 degrees for 1.5 hours, then lid off for another 30 minutes. I started mine in the oven at about 12.30pm, and have it on about 140-150. They should be perfect by dinner time.
15. Check every half hour or so, moving the shanks around so they all get the same amount of time submerged.

You can serve these with mash and veges, or whatever you like. I'm doing smashed baked potato - to do this, peel (optional) and chop your spuds, bake on a sturdy tray with olive oil. when soft enough to squash them, use a masher to push them down. add more oil, and salt, and bake some more. Smoosh them around again after 5-10 minutes. When they're done they'll be all crispy and chunky. Will try to post a photo later so you get the gist.

Here's some photos: