Pasta Sauce

Well I've finally made another batch of pasta sauce, and have taken the time to take a couple of shots to blog it. This is how I make it, which is very similar to how my mum makes it. Of course we use mum's home made tomato sauce where we (or she, depending on who can help), takes a day or two out in January to make anywhere from 100 - 150 bottles of the stuff.



You can buy 'pasata' in most shops to make a reasonable sauce yourself (although I do find it slightly runnier, so needs more simmering time). This recipe uses 2 bottles, but that's because I make a large batch and then freeze it in smaller batches for when I need something fast.

You need:

2 bottles of sauce
garlic
onion
chuck steak (or something similar)
chilli
basil
olive oil

Generously coat the bottom of a large saucepan with olive oil and add the chopped onion. Soften the onion then add your meat.





Seal the meat before adding the tomato sauce. Add basil, garlic (whole), chilli and of course salt to flavour.



Cook at med/high heat until it comes to the boil, but keep it boiling for a good 10 or 15 mins before reducing the heat to simmer it. Stop cooking when you feel you have a good consistency and flavour (could be up to 2 hours). You want the meat to be falling off the bone by the end of it.



Add to your pasta and serve (with parmesan cheese of course).

Enjoy!

Garden pickings

I got all of these lovely items out of my garden today.



I couldn't be more proud of these few measly items. I just wish the rest of my garden wasn't dead, and that I had more time and nous to grow more things.

It's all in the genes

The more I read about human behaviours and traits, the more I believe that it's all in the genes...

Recently I posted a music video by Luke Steele who had teamed up with Nick Littlemore from PNAU to form Empire of the Sun, and I raved about how much I loved the song. I first heard about Luke from his band the Sleepy Jacksons whose albums I have and love. Luke has a sister, Katy Steele, who is in another great Ausie band, "Little Birdy", whose albums I also own and love. Little Birdy has just realeased a new song (and will release a new album soon I presume) called 'Brother'. I can't tell you how much I adore this song, and it features the one and only Paul Kelly too.



This video was filmed on a DIY video camera one day in Katy's bedroom.

So much talent in one family - it's all in the genes I tell you!

New York Brownie Cheesecake

I have never made a cheesecake before yesterday, but I was in the mood for trying something new, so cheesecake it was! I found this recipe in Janelle Bloom's "fast fresh & fabulous". I don't know how fast it was, and given I made a batch of biscuits in between layers, it took a fair while. But it is pretty fabulous.

You will need:

100gm dark chocolate, chopped
100gm butter, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup of plain flour
2 tablespoons SR flour

Filling:
750gm cream cheese, at room temp, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, at room temp
2 tablespoons plain flour
300gm sour cream

To serve:
300 ml double cream
2 tablespoons limoncello liqueur
cocoa powder

Preheat over to 180c no fan. Grease and line 23cm springform pan.

Combine chocolate and butter - now Janelle says to microwave on high for 2 mins, then stir til smooth. But I think I prefer to do this the old-fashioned way in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Stir in sugar, egg and flours. Spread mixture over base of prepared pan. Bake brownie base 15 mins. Set aside and reduce over to 160c no fan.

For the filling, use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until just combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the flour and sour cream until just combined. Pour over warm base and place on a baking tray.

Bake cheesecake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (the centre should still wobble slightly). Turn oven off, leave the door ajar, and allow to cool completely in the oven. Refrigerate until chilled.

Place the cream and limoncello in a bowl, whisk gently until combined. Cut the cheesecake into wedges with a warm knife, dust with cocoa powder and serve with the cream.



Enjoy!

The King of Fruit

The king of fruit for me, would have to be the fig. There is nothing more luscious. And today I picked the last of the peaches on my peach tree and picked the first half dozen figs from my fig tree. How divine. And I don't want to share them with anyone.

20 things about me

20 things you probably never knew about me (and probably don't need to know):

1. I didn't speak a word of English until I went to school. Now I am disappointed in how little Italian I know.
2. Bad grammar and spelling really ticks me off. And yes, if I have it wrong I do want to know about it - correct me!
3. I dry reach at the smell of sambucca, because once in my younger day I drank way too much of the stuff.
4. I have this fear that my long term memory is permanently damaged because I started drinking at an age well below the legal age.
5. I have a chipped front tooth.
6. I am long-sighted in the left eye and short-sighted in the right. They balance each other out so I don't need glasses. I suspect this is my own fault because I used to read with one eye closed under the bed covers as a teenager.
7. I once dreamt that I married Bob Hawke and recently dreamt that I went out to dinner with Kevin Rudd. I've had dreams about wars like Iraq air bombing Australia. And dreams that I was a man driving down a road in Antigua. My weird dreams are really really weird.
8. I have a fear that I will never have children, but I don't even know (at my age) if I even want them. Maybe the fear is that I will never have the choice.
9. I have three sisters-in-law. They all share the same birthday. Do you know what the odds of that are?
10. The house I live in is house number 3 that settled on the 30th November on my 30th Birthday. There are also three 3s in my home phone number.
11. I once had a collie dog named Lester. Neil Finn wrote a song about his dog called Lester.
12. I hate the movie Forest Gump.
13. I've met Ben Harper. I never felt so privileged.
14. I really wish I could play guitar.
15. I don't like scary movies, I don't like disney movies and I don't like sci-fi or fantasy movies. I am over action movies for the sake of action movies. At the end of the day, I just like a good drama.
16. I don't read sci-fiction books or romance books.
17. Besides learning how to read and write, I now think that one of the best skills I learnt at school was typing.
18. I don't like dish washers and I don't want one in my house.
19. I really hate it when people assume that because I'm single and have no children that I have plenty of time on my hands and that I lead a quiet life. Yes I have the privilege of not needing to compromise, I can do what I want, when I want and how I want. Doesn't mean I'm not busy and struggle to fit everything that I want to do in a day, week or month just like anyone else. Actually, if I achieve a lot, it's just because I'm pretty good at getting shit done. And if I had kids, I would still be good at getting shit done, because that's what I do.
20. And finally a work foible... if you want me to do something, I need to understand why, because if it doesn't make sense to me then you are obviously wasting my time. So I will incessantly ask you 'why' until I get an acceptable answer (even if the answer is "it will just be easier if you do it"). I know I am annoying when I do this.

Pesto Sauce

My kitchen hasn't seen a lot of cooking going on in recent times, hence the lack of posts of late. And I might have mentioned before, but work really cripples the way I ultimately want to live my life. I don't feel I have time for anything between work, gym, household chores and the odd social occasion (ok lots of social events recently, but that is not the norm).

Anyway I do feel I have neglected the blog and today I actually had some time, so despite the heat I hit the kitchen. I made some chocolate mini muffins which were lovely, but it was a debacle getting them out of the tray and they look a mess so I might try them again some other time. I also have basil in my little herb garden so I thought I would make some pesto.

Pesto is not traditionally a sauce that mum ever made. In fact she made it herself for the first time only a week ago. I've always used a Jamie Oliver recipe and when mum told me how she made hers last week (relayed to her by a friend of hers), I think it is exactly the same. I do like Jamie because I think he has a good appreciation and understanding for the way Italians like to cook. Now Jamie's recipe talks about doing certain things in steps, but I have to admit I just chuck everything into the food processor and just add oil at the end until I have the right consistency. You need:

1/4 clove of garlic (I actually use a whole clove)
3 good handfuls of fresh basil
1 handful of lightly roasted pine nuts
1 good handful of grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper
small squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Like I said, chuck it all into the food processor and just drizzle extra olive oil into the mixture until you have a semi-wet but firm consistency.

I also have a confession to make, I forgot to take a photo before I ate my pasta with pesto sauce...oops...I even walked straight past the camera and tripod to sit down and eat it. (I blame the heat - I'm sure you've heard about it.)

Enjoy!