Simplicity and Rick Stein's beef in white wine

Simplicity in life and simplicity in cooking is always the best in my books

With a world moving faster and faster, information just one click away, food already picked or slaughtered for us, billboards of wants flashing up everywhere our eyes will and can travel to…it’s no wonder stress is such a prominent condition amongst us.

For this reason I like to STOP and revel in the sound of rain pattering on the roof, take delight in the almost uncontainable squeals of my nieces laughing and snuggle in close to my dear little dachshund, Pipsqueak. These are the things that make me happy. So simple.

Today I want to share with you a wonderfully simple and incredibly flavoursome dish from one of my favourite celebrity chefs, Rick Stein. I cooked this a few days ago for my parents and we were amazed be the depth of flavour. I think the trick with this recipe is to make sure you very gently cook those onions for the 30 minutes Rick suggests. It makes them incredibly sweet and helps make this stew rich and comforting, perfect for these winter months. Impatience will not do this recipe justice, so please find your Zen self prior to the commencement of chopping.

Enjoy! 

Rick Stein's beef in white wine Oviedo style

Beef in white wine Oviedo style (Spanish)

from Spain by Rick Stein

Serves 6

Ingredients
1.5kg chuck or blade steak (I used chuck)
7 tbsp olive oil (who measures oil?)
600g onions, chopped into 1 cm pieces
10 garlic cloves, crushed
6 fresh bay leaves (I couldn’t find fresh so just used dried instead)
300ml dry white wine
300g small carrots cut into 5cm lengths
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method
Trim the meat of any fat and gristle and cut it into 3cm chunks. Season well with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large flameproof casserole and fry the beef in batches until nicely browned. Set aside on a plate.

Add the remaining olive oil and the onions, garlic, bay leaves and ½ teaspoon of salt to the pan and cook very gently over a low heat for 30 minutes until the onions are soft and sweet and golden.

Return the beef to the pan, add the wine, bring to the boil and season with another ½ teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Cover and leave to simmer gently for 2 hours, stirring now and then.

Uncover, add the carrots, re-cover and cook for a further 30 minutes until the wine and meat juices have combined with the onions to make a thick sauce and the meat is meltingly tender. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

I served this with mash potato because I was in a real comfort mood. Rick suggests serving it with fried potatoes or patatas fritas.

Winter warmers - Beef Cheeks Ragu

I love Twitter and the little community of friends I have made. Although I'm not a die hard twitterer, I still like to pop on and see the latest news my new mates are up to, follow a few organisations that I love and shout out for advice if needed.

My beloved and I were hosting his family for dinner last night. It was going to be a cold night (yes, even for Brisbane for those of you sniggering that we don't know anything about the cold) and a cold night for us in our little Queenslander equates to a bloody cold night. Similar to living in a tent, but safer if it rained…just.

To compensate for the ice-box living quarters, I wanted my in-laws to fill there bellies with tasty warm food. I felt a tasty ragu would do the trick.

Enter Twitter.

I sent out a tweet asking if anyone had a tasty ragu recipe. The lovely @melkettle came back promptly with a yes, followed by a photo of a recipe from the OzHarvest book (a fantastic organisation that distributes excess food to charities):

Ragu recipe from the OzHarvest cook book.

As I have a love of slow cooked beef cheeks - you can find my other recipe here - and I needed to make it for 8 people, a little ingredient substituting was in order.

This recipe was so tasty and easy to have bubbling away until my guests arrived. All I need to do was cook the pasta on their arrival.

Beef Cheeks Ragu
Adapted from the OzHarvest cook book
serves 10 (easily)

Beef cheeks and porcini mushroom ragu

Ingredients
50g butter
olive oil
100g speck, cut into small batons
2 onions, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
300g swiss brown mushrooms, finely chopped
60g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in water for about 10 mins then chopped
1 to 1.2 kg beef cheeks, cut each cheek into about 3 or 4 pieces
8 vine-ripend tomatoes, roughly chopped, juices saved
1litre of beef stock
3 bay leaves
leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
2 x 500g packets of linguini (or your pasta of choice)

Method
Melt the butter with a good couple of glugs of olive oil in a deep frying pan - I used my dutch oven - and cook speck for a few minutes. Add the onion and garlic and fry gently until soft. Add the mushrooms and porcini and cook for about 5 minutes, or until they have released their juices and these have been reabsorbed. Remove from pan.

Without washing the pan, return it to the heat and add another good glug of olive oil. When it starts to shimmer (just before smoking point) add the beef cheeks. You might need to do this in a few lots for this portion sizing. I had to do it in 3 lots. Fry them until they are brown. Add all beef cheeks back into pan and add the mushroom mix, stir. Then add the tomatoes with their juices, stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then gently simmer for 4 hours with no lid on.

After 4 hours - or until the cheeks are very easy to pull apart - remove the beef cheeks form the pan and shred the meat by using a fork. No need to be perfect here, just get in and shred away. Return shredded meat to pan. At this point taste the dish and season. I cooked for another 2 hours with the lid on. This isn't necessary, but my guests weren't coming for a while so I thought I would just leave everything to bubble away on the lowest my stove could go until they arrived. Also, if you prefer and less 'saucy' sauce, keep the lid off so you can steam off the liquid.

I served this with some rustic country style bread from my local bakery and a simple salad of rocket, pear, parmesan, a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a little salt and pepper.

I will certainly be making it again.

Beef cheeks ragu, served with a rocket salad
and rustic country style bread

SRKitchen on tour - French onion soup, beef cheeks and strawberry mousse

Join me while I give you my account of how I prepare to take The Self-Raising Kitchen 'on tour' and cook for a party of seven.

A work colleague turned awesome friend Tracy (@gadgetgirltracy) and her rockin' partner Angela (@nerfenstein), saw my previous SRKitchen 'on tour' post and wanted to know how to get in on the action. You see the rules are simple, you pay for the ingredients, I cook for you and a group friends/family/other(?) of your choosing in your house. Easy!

Once a date was set (or a second date in our case) planning started and I was looking forward to a cooking tour to the Gold Coast.

Wednesday, 22 August
I complete menu discussions with Tracy and we decide on:

Entree

French onion soup with gruyère bread

Mains

Slow cooked beef cheeks with soft polenta and greens

Dessert

Strawberry mousse with Persian fairy floss (ok, she didn't know about the fairy floss)

Friday, 24 August
5.00pm: The official work week has finished so it's time to get my cook's hat on. I'm off to search for Persian fairy floss and ingredients for the strawberry mousse so I can make it first think in the morning.

Thanks to the awesome world of twitter (@TIFFINbitesized @nataschamirosch @Fridayology @digellabakes @thewordonfood @trisharoe1) I found lots of places in Brisbane selling Persian Fairy Floss. I purchased mine at Greenslopes IGA. The other suggestions were: Rosalie markets, Black Pearl Epicure, Zone Fresh at Windsor, Delicatezza at Michelton and Sourced Grocer at Teneriffe. I'm sure there are plenty more.

THE DAY Saturday, 25 August
8.45am: Coffee is made. Thanks, beloved. An essential element to the day.

9.00am: Strawberries being pureed and the mousse making has started.

Strawberries, lemon juice and sugar blitzed in the food processor

9.30am: Mousse completed and in the fridge to set.

Strawberry mousse ready to set in the fridge. If you are looking
for this recipe I used this one from the Easy French Food blog.
Would I use it again? I most certainly would.

9.50am: Time to make my shopping list.

You see this was one of my more calmer and saner meal plans so I was pretty relaxed about getting everything done, even though I had to drive to the Gold Coast (although it is only 40 mins from my house). 

10.20am: I'm in the car and off to my local fruit shop, butcher and supermarket.

11.20am: DISASTER has struck! My butcher has 12 beef cheeks (which is enough for about 3 'on tour' meals) but they are FROZEN. I will not use the microwave to defrost as it ruins the quality and taste of the meat, in my opinion. So it is time for a luke warm bath for my cheeky bits of beef.

Got frozen meat and don't want to use the microwave?
Leave the meat in a luke warm tub of water. Keep checking
the water and replacing it if it turns cold.

12.00pm: still waiting, waiting, waiting for my cheeks.

12.14pm: another coffee is made.

12.30pm: Preparing to slice onions in food processor to save my eyes.

There is something about me and onions. We are not friends. I love eating them and using them in my cooking, but when is comes to cutting them I cry like a five year old who just had her ice cream full off the cone and onto the footpath. I can even be sitting in another room of someone cutting onions, crying.

12.50pm: time to pack the car. Beef cheeks have defrosted enough. Woo hoo!

The load heading to the Gold Coast. Please take special note of
the casserole dish in the right corner of this photo and read on.

1.16pm: I'm on the road and hoping like crazy that everything makes it in one piece.

1.59pm: Made it! Now it's time to give hugs and kisses to my two beautiful hosts, get unpacked and get started.

But first, check out my view from the kitchen.

Tracy and Angela have a spectacular house on a canal, Gold Coast.

And my office for the afternoon. Bliss!

Tracy and Angela's beautiful kitchen that I've already managed to mess up.

2.30pm: Cooking needs to start. The beef cheeks need at least 3 hours to cook. I'm planning on entree to be served at 6.30, and mains about 7pm. Therefore I want the beef cheeks in the oven by 4pm at the latest to give me 30 mins gap.

2.55pm: Chopping of onion, garlic, herbs etc done, now to brown meat. CRAP I've left my casserole dish at home. Do you remember in the photo the red dish in the corner of the photo? Yes, well it hasn't moved from that location. Oh well, I have another pot that can go in the oven that will have to do.

3.25pm: beef cheeks are ready for the oven. Perfect timing and I've given myself some great wriggle room if the cheeks aren't tender enough by 6pm.

If you are looking for the beef cheeks recipe I used please go here.

Beef cheeks in stock, red wine and herbs ready for a 3 hour stint in the oven.

Time to start the soup.

There's nothing better than the smell of butter and onions cooking. With this recipe you get to fill your house with this smell for a good 30 minutes while you caramelise the onions for the soup.

Caramelising onions for the delicious French onion soup.

I discovered later in the evening, somewhere around dessert, that one of our guests hates onions. Excellent, and here I am offering onion soup! I was assured that she loved the soup, however.

See below for the recipe to this one by the iconic Delia Smith.

4.00pm: I have enough time to gossip with my hosts.

5.30pm: Time to get serious as the first guest, Tracy's mum, arrives. I need to start prepping the beans and broccoli. I want to get these part cooked in boiling water and then place them in ice water so later on all I need to do is fry them with a little butter to heat them up before serving. I'm also getting the french stick sliced and gruyere cheese grated ready for grilling. These will go in the bowls for the soup.

6.15pm: I check the cheeks and I'm very excited as they are just falling apart, as planned, of course. At this point I leave the pot out of the oven until I serve as it will stay hot for a while. Time to free up the oven so I can grill the cheesy bread for the soup.

6:40pm: All guests have arrived. It's time to plate up the entree.

I pour the soup in a terrine that sits in the middle of the table for people
to help themselves. If they like, they can then easily dig in for seconds.

I give each person a bowl with a grilled gruyere cheese
crouton on top. The soup is then ladled on top ready for devouring.

6.50pm: My guests seem to be happily consuming the soup so I focus my efforts on making the polenta with grated parmesan and butter, and frying off the beans and broccoli.

7:30pm: Mains are ready.

Slow cooked beef cheeks with polenta

Looking back, I would have thickened the gravy the cheeks cooked in. Last time I made this dish I was working with a crap oven that used to suck the life (ie juices) out of everything so was left with very little gravy. However, with Tracy and Angela's awesome oven the cheeks quite happily cooked in plenty of juices. It would have been nice to have this thickened a little with some cornflour. I know for next time.

About 8.30pm: Sorry, I started loosing track of time around this point. Time for dessert.

Strawberry mousse topped with Persian vanilla fairy floss.

The evening for me drew to a close just before 9.30pm. I had the car repacked and had even scored a special gift from Tracy and Angela. They very generously bought me a voucher for an Indian cooking class and a strawberry plant. No doubt you will be hearing about the cooking class soon and getting a few recipes as well.

I had such a wonderful night with my hosts and their family. I love cooking for my own loved ones, but it felt extra special being invited into Tracy and Angela's home to cook for their family when I had never met any of them before.

My seven beautiful guests that allowed me to cook for them.

So to the seven wonderful guests who humoured me on Saturday evening, and sat down to eat a meal from a self-trained cook and person they had never met, I thank you so very much. We had a laugh, some very good belly laughs actually, and that is exactly what family and food should be about.

I love this shot. Great family fun!

French onion soup
By Delia Smith

Ingredients

700g onions, thinly sliced

2 tbls olive oil

50g butter

2 cloves garlic,crushed

½ level teaspoongranulated sugar

1.2 litres good beefstock

275 ml dry white wine

2 tbls Brandy

salt and pepper

To serve:

French bread or baguette, cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Gruyère, grated

  

Method

In a large thick-based saucepan heat the butter and oiltogether. Add the onions, garlic and sugar, and cook over a low heat, stirringoccasionally, for about 30 minutes or until the bottom of the pan is coveredwith nutty brown, caramelised film. (This browning process improves both thecolour and flavour.)

Next add the stock and white wine, bring to the boil andsimmer, covered, over a low heat for about 1 hour. Season to taste and, if youfeel in need of something extra warming, add 1-2 tablespoons of brandy.

SRKitchen version: When I’m ready to serve I grill the breadwith the grated gruyère in the oven. If you prefer crunchier (and proper)croutons, drizzle olive oil over the bread and bake in a high oven for about 10mins, or until brown.

Place the croutons in each bowl and either you ladle the soupinto each bowl or put it in a lovely terrine and let your guests dig in and serve themselves.

Cooking for a crowd and chocolate mousse

I get a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach when I can provide loved ones with a tasty meal. You see, I'm slack most of the time. I'm terrible at keeping in touch with friends, my housekeeping skills are appalling, my organisational skills are 'interesting', my financial prowess is non-existant, but, I can cook. And, I think most importantly, I love it!

So when a dear friend of mine and my beloved invited us to a little soiree at his apartment for his birthday, I jumped at the chance to cook for his guests.

Dupree, as he likes to call himself and which I blogged about here, or as he is more widely known, Jamie, provides a great deal of support and friendship to my beloved, so the way I know how to show gratitude for this friendship is to cook.

And cook I did. For 25 people in fact. Arghhhhhh! This was honestly the most challenging cooking experience I've had to date. But I took the bull by the horns, got my organisational skills polished, got my head focused and did it.

The menu consisted of:

Asian style pork meatballs (GF)

Beef Rendang (GF)

Chilli con carne (GF)

Chicken and prawn wontons

Chocolate mousse shots with a blueberry flower on top (GF)

A number of the guests at the party were gluten intolerant, so after a little recipe tweaking, they were easy to accommodate and able to partake in all that I made, apart from the wontons.

As you can see from the food it was a carnivore's paradise. 

I used 3kg beef mince, 3kg chuck steak, 1.5kg chicken,
1kg pork mince, 8 chorizos, and 200g prawns

If you would like to cook up your own party storm here are some links:

• Asian pork meatballs - I used this recipe from taste.com.au. To make it GF substitute the plain flour for GF breadcrumbs (in a food processor finely chop stale GF bread to make this), and ensure you use GF soy and oyster sauce (both are easily available in supermarkets).
• Beef rendang - I used this recipe from Gourmet Traveller. I substituted the beef oyster blade with chuck steak (just make sure you give it plenty of time to cook so it is tender) and if you can't find galangal, replace it with ginger.
• Chilli con carne - I used this fabulous recipe from an awesome site called The Self-Raising Kitchen. 
• Chicken and prawn wontons - I'm afraid you will have to wait for another post on this one, as it is a secret recipe from my brother-in-law.
• Chocolate mousse - I am going to share the recipe with you below. It is from the Edmonds Cookery Book. If you are from New Zealand you will recognise the name. Basically, every Kiwi household owns this fabulous book, which was first published in 1908 and gives you simple, everyday recipes and cooking tips. My dad is a Kiwi, hence why my whole family are proud owners of this great book. In fact my mum's Edmonds book would be about 40 years old now and is well loved. I hope you enjoy this very simple and very yummy chocolate mousse recipe.

Chocolate Mousse

by Edmonds Cookery Book

serves 4-6

Deliciously light and fluffy chocolate mousse

Ingredients

150g cooking chocolate (I use dark)

4 eggs, separated

300ml cream

2tbls sugar

grated chocolate

blueberries

Method
Break chocolate into the top of a double boiler, Stir over hot water (not too hot or you will ruin your chocolate) until chocolate has melted. Allow to cool slightly. Stir yolks into chocolate. Beat until thick and smooth.

Beat cream until think. Quickly fold chocolate mixture into cream.

Whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add sugar, whisking until think and glossy.

Fold half egg white mixture into chocolate mixture until well mixed. Repeat with remaining egg white mixture. Pour into your individual ramekins or one large one or shot glasses as I used for a cocktail dinner. Decorate with grated chocolate and some extra whipped cream, or simply cut a blueberry into quarters, but not to the very bottom, and open it out to look like a flower like I've done.

*Tip - I used my food processor, blender and hand blender to do all the different steps so you can get it done quickly and don't have to waste time washing in between steps. Whatever you do, if you choose to only use one blender, don't leave your egg whites sitting around. They will separate and you will have watery stuff left at the bottom. Also, when you are folding the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, be gentle, as you want your mousse to be lovely and light so don't knock the good work you put into it when whisking.

Enjoy!

Tranquility & simple fare: beef with caramelised onion jus

How to eat like royalty when only a few ingredients are at hand.

I was sitting in the passenger seat. I had packed for all occasions. I had prepared a little food. The puppies were being looked after. There was no more I could do. Patience was needed.

He was sitting in the driver seat. He had packed the coffee machine. He had a grin on his face. He remained silent, at least about where we were going. It's a surprise, he kept saying.

We drove north. Ah ha, I thought, we are going to Noosaville, I'm sure. My beloved loves the water, you see - well, who doesn't? - so I decided to humour him and pretend I still had no idea where we were going.

We were winding our way through the Noosa Hinterlands; what an exquisite area it is. I figured my beloved was taking the scenic route before heading out to the coast. But after a few stops and some muttering under his breath of not being about to find 'something' around a village called Pomona, I realised we must be close. Are we staying in the country?

Finally, we turned onto a dirt driveway, the sign read Noosa Avalon Farm Cottages.

I caught my breath and looked at my beloved, are we staying here? On a farm?. He nodded and I squealed like a little girl having just woken up in the middle of Willy Wonka's edible forest (a constant dream I had as a child, and a story best left for another day).

Owned and run by Linda Lee since 1986, Noosa Avalon Farm is 30 hectares of breathtaking bush and forest, tenderly rejuvenated by Linda herself after the area had been demolished for grazing land.

A beautiful lake on the farm available for guests to treat themselves
to a swim on a warm summers day - which ours was not.
Both my beloved and I dreamt of our adventures here
if we had come as children.

When we drove up to our cottage, which happened to be the honeymoon cottage, I was giddy with excitement at the sight.

The honeymoon cottage - our home for three
incredibly relaxing evenings

Honeymoon cottage is one of two
1920s Queensland cottages on the property

Our incredible view from the balcony of our cottage

This was the sort of place that as soon as you drove through the gate your worries were left on the other side. From breathing fresh country air into my lungs and hearing the tender sound of birds in my ears, I felt complete calm wash over me.

If I hadn't already been completely captivated by the tranquility of this place, up walked a cow to welcome us to the farm:

One of the many Murray Grey cows that wander around the
farm 'mowing' in the afternoons

She even came right up to our balcony to start eating this palm tree.
She did let us pat her a little while after this photo was taken, too.

While walking around the farm we came across Avalon's resident horse Sassy. She was adorable and followed us, at a distance, right along a long dirt road. We would stop, and she would stop. We would start walking, she would start walking. It was hilarious.

Sassy the resident horse…and stalker.

On our walk around the farm we even found where the Murray Grey's have a little rest during the day.

Cows soaking up some winter rays at the
back of the property

The great thing about these cottages is that they are all self contained. So you can bring as much or as little food as you like. You can visit the local IGA store in Pomona to pick up supplies, but note there is no microwave only a gas stove and oven.

As I was completely unprepared for where we were staying I had only brought one meal along, leftover chilli con carne. But after a drive around the local area we came across one of those wonderful roadside stalls where I picked up some vegetables.

Driving through Kin Kin we came across this
roadside vegetable stall

We had some local porterhouse steaks back in our cottage so dinner plans were being hatched.

Please, let me share with you how to eat like royalty while on holidays with only a few ingredients at hand.

Steak with caramelised onion jus
by The Self-Raising Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 portions of steak (I used porterhouse)
1 orange*, juiced
Red wine (you could also use port)
Sugar (use brown if you have it, or any other sugar you can find)
Your choice of steamed vegetables.

I had an onion, but no garlic (the horror). I had picked an orange from the orange tree beside our cottage, we had plenty of red wine (it was cold and we had to stay warm some how) and we had raw sugar supplied by Linda for tea and coffee. Perfect!

*(optional)

Method
Finely slice the onion and put it in a small saucepan with a lid. Add a couple of glugs of red wine (no measuring is really required), the juice of the orange and about 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Cook on a medium heat with the lid on until your onion is deliciously soft and the liquid has been cooked down to a sticky caramelised consistency. If you added a little too much liquid, just cook with the lid off and allow it to steam out.

Leave your steak out of the fridge for about an hour so the meat isn't so cold when putting it in a hot pan.

Coat steak with olive oil and not the pan - I've been watching and reading many chefs who say this is a better way - and then generously season with salt and pepper.

Heat your pan, add your steaks and cook to your liking.

Once cooked either let the steaks rest in your pan (but ensure if you are using an electric stove, remove it from the hot element) or let it rest on a plate covered for about 5 to 10 mins. During the resting stage the steak will release some of its juices, you want to use this for the jus.

Place the juices (if you rested meat on a plate) in the pan you cooked your steak in. Add a glug of red wine and turn the heat on to high. Generously add some pepper and a little salt, add your caramelised onions. The caramelised onions will give the jus a little thickness so no thickener is required.

Serve with your choice of steamed vegetables. It's that easy and no gravox need be anywhere in sight.

Disclaimer - we received no payment or discount for this post. We did, however receive a completely rejuvenated soul and a love of our beautiful Noosa Hinterland. Thank you, Linda, Sassy and all the cows and birds.

Noosa Avalon Farm Cottages are located at 292 Pomona Kin Kin Rd , Pomona Noosa Hinterland, Qld, 4568. Please check out Linda's website for more information and how to book your next getaway here http://www.noosacottages.com/

Tasty comfort food - chilli con carne

There were recipes everywhere. In the kitchen, in the dining room, in the study. They were in the shape of computer printouts, recipe postcards, ripped out of magazines, ripped out of newspapers. I was drowning in recipes. Recipes for chilli con carne.

My beloved loves chilli con carne, very closely followed by the joy of collecting chilli con carne recipes.

I had finally reached my limit of finding Nick's various hordes of chilli recipes and decided, unlike my beloved, to actually cook one. It was for our housewarming. It was winter. How warming can you get than a big bowl full of steaming hot chilli goodness? Obviously not much because my guests chowed in to the chilli before it had even finished cooking. That was 12 months ago.

Dear friends, I now share this yummy recipe of heart stopping tastiness so you too can indulge your inner Mexican when your fancy takes you.

There is nothing like a bowl of steaming hot chilli con carne
to keep you warm in winter, or to enjoy by the pool with a
margarita in summer. It just works all year round.

Chilli Con Carne
SRKitchen adaption from Gourmet Traveller

400g canned kidney beans

olive oil

1kg minced beef

2 chorizo, cut into 1cm cubes

1 onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-2 fresh green jalapeños, thinly sliced (see note)

500 ml beef consommé (you can substitute for stock, but the consommé will add an extra richness)

400g canned tomatoes

50g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped

¼ cup worcestershire sauce

½ cup red wine

2 tbsp dried oregano

1 cinnamon quill

1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and finely ground

3 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and finely ground

1 tsp cayenne pepper

To taste: ground chilli powder

To serve: corn chips, sour cream, coriander leaves and lime wedges    

*Note: Jalapeños are a small, hot green chilli (which I’m lucking enough to be growing in my garden). If unavailable, substitute with other hot chillies.

Chilli con carne ingredients

Heat a splash of olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over medium heat and cook mince, breaking up with the back of a spoon, for 5 minutes or until brown, transfer to a plate.

Add chorizo to saucepan and cook for 2 minutes or until starting to brown, using a slotted spoon transfer to a plate.

There should be enough oil in the saucepan to cook the onions, garlic and jalapeños for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the freshly ground coriander and cumin seeds, and cayenne pepper until fragrant.

Return meat to pan with stock, tomatoes, beans, chocolate, cinnamon quill, Worcestershire sauce, red wine and oregano, season to taste with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and ground chilli.

How your chilli will look once all ingredients have been added

Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, or until sauce is thick. Adjust seasoning and chilli heat to taste.

How it should look before you are ready to serve

Scatter chilli con carne with coriander, and serve with corn chips, sour cream and lime wedges to the side.

Chilli con carne goodness.

Enjoy!

A cheeky piece of beef

My first beef cheek experience was at Spanish restaurant, Ole, at South Bank in Brisbane. It was the most tender, melt in your mouth piece of meat I'd eaten in a long time.

I already had this cut of meat in my freezer and I've been wanting to cook it up for a while now. I finally got my act together and found a recipe in my copy of the 2011 Collector's Edition of Gourmet Traveller.

What I liked about this recipe was its use of simple, yet tasty ingredients. The next best thing was the price of beef cheeks. They are cheap. I got mine (500g) for under AUD$3 just from a regular supermarket. I think that is a bit of a bargain, myself. However, you may not always find them, so it would be worth talking to your butcher and even ordering them, if need be.

Treat your cheek like chuck steak; you need to put the time into cooking them to reap the delicious reward of this tender, tasty bit of cheekiness.

Slow cooked beef cheeks
by 2011 Collector's Edition, Gourmet Traveller
Serves 4

Slow cooked beef cheeks on
cauliflower puree and beans.
(no food photography award will be handed to me anytime soon)

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
4 beef cheeks (about 250g each) - (I was only cooking for two and had a 500g cheek)
3 onions, halved, thinly sliced lengthways
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 fresh bay leaves
3 thyme sprigs (I also added a sprig of rosemary)
375 ml good quality red wine
125 ml (half cup) beef stock (I used beef consomme to give it a richer flavour)

Please note: I ended up using 500ml of stock -- and I was only cooking half the amount of meat -- due to my very uncooperative oven. I suggest you have more liquid on hand (even just water would do) and keep checking the beef during the 3 hour cooking process. If the dish is drying out (as mine kept doing) add more liquid.

The deliciously simple ingredients
that go into this dish

Method
Preheat oven to 150C. Heat oil in a flameproof casserole dish large enough to fit beef cheeks in. Add cheeks, cook over high heat until browned (3-5 minutes each side), then transfer to a plate.

My sealed beef cheek

Add onion and garlic to casserole dish and stir occasionally over a low heat until starting to caramelise (8-10 minutes). Return cheeks to casserole dish, add herbs, red wine and stock, season to taste, then bring to the simmer.

The beef cheek in the boiling braising
liquid before its transfer to the oven. 

Cover and transfer the dish to the oven. Cook until beef cheeks are tender (3-3.5 hours).

I served mine with pureed cauliflower and green beans.

-recipe end-

I have fallen in love with beef cheeks and will certainly be cooking them again.

Easy meals - Rump steak with balsamic & tomato salad

I like nothing better than going to farmers markets. I love slowly walking around, observing, smelling and focusing on nothing but the food and what I can make with it.

However, I have one little tiny problem with many farmers markets, and that is getting up early on a weekend to go to them. Well actually I have a problem getting up early anytime, let alone on a weekend, which is sacred. But lucky for me the wonderful Jan Power's Farmers Markets are on in Brisbane CBD every Wednesday…ALL day. Perfect!

Fresh produce from the Jan Power's Farmers Markets,
Brisbane CBD

Today at the markets I found a great little stall selling beautiful looking red and yellow grape tomatoes along with a variety I've never seen before, plum tomatoes.

The larger tomatoes are plum tomatoes.
They have a very subtle but sweet taste.

When you have beautiful tomatoes like these, they must become a feature of the meal. And what goes better with tomatoes than basil. I managed to buy this bunch for $2.

My $2 bunch of fresh basil

I was also very happy to support some of our local farmers and picked up this delicious looking rump steak from Rangeland Quality Meats who have farms in southern and central Queensland.

Rump steak from Rangeland Quality Meats
after a good bit of seasoning

With all this fresh produce a quick and easy meal can be made.

This meal would be great if you had mid-week guests, or you just want to enjoy a healthy, scrumptious meal with your roomy.

Rump steak with balsamic & tomato salad 

by The Self-Raising Kitchen

Rump Steak with balsamic & tomato salad

Ingredients
2 x 200g rump steaks
1 handful of snow peas
2 cups mixed tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup basil leaves, torn
4 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp heaped, wholegrain mustard
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Method
Generously season your steak.

Blanch snow peas: bring a small saucepan of salted water to the boil. While waiting prepare a bowl of water with ice. Once water has boiled place snow peas in saucepan and cook for 1 minute. Pull snow peas out and place directly into iced water for another 1 minute. Drain.

Halve tomatoes and place in a bowl with torn basil leaves. Add extra virgin olive oil and season to taste. Mix with your hands (washed, of course).

Heat oil in a pan. Cook steak to your liking. Try to limit the turning of your steak as all you will do is ensure the outside is cooked and not allow the heat to go far inside; which is fine if you prefer your steak rare. Once cooked, remove from heat and let the meat rest. This will relax your meat and make it juicy and tender.

While your meat is resting, place snow peas and tomato salad on a plate.

Mix together the wholegrain mustard and balsamic vinegar.

Slice your steak and place on the plate with your snow peas and tomato salad. Drizzle the balsamic and mustard dressing over the steak.

Rump Steak with balsamic & tomato salad