Exclusive - Testing recipes for A Table for Two - Billy Law !!!

I have been chosen as a recipe tester for Billy Law - A Table for Two. http://www.atablefortwo.com.au/ I have four recipes to test, I have already tested two and am really impressed. Cant wait to try out the other two.. Watch this space.

Pork Schnitzel with Salad

I had a couple of pork chops in the fridge and I was trying to figure out what to do with them. I didnt want to fry them or bake them so decided to try a schnitzel.

• 4 boneless pork loin chops (about 5 to 6 ounces each)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 cups plain dried bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 sprig thyme 
• other herbs - Chopped e.g parsley, chives whatever you like. 
• Lemon wedges

Begin by placing each chop between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and gently pounding them out with the flat side of a meat tenderizer until they are an even 1/4-inch thick.

Put the flour in a shallow dish and season with salt and pepper. Whisk the eggs and milk in another shallow dish and season with salt and pepper. Put the bread crumbs in a third dish with herbs and again season with salt and pepper. Lightly dredge each piece of pork in flour, then in the egg and finally into the bread crumbs, pressing the bread crumbs onto the pork gently so they have a nice even coating.

Lay the breaded pork cutlets in a single layer on a plate lined with parchment and refrigerate, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes to allow the coating to dry out a little and adhere to the pork. If you don't have that much time stick in

the freezer for 5 min while preparing your salads. 

Heat oil and butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the thyme sprig and let it fry for about 1 minute to infuse the oil. Remove the thyme sprig and reserve. Gently lay the cutlets into the pan and cook until golden brown and crispy, about 3 minutes per side. Remove to paper towels to drain. Season with salt and transfer to a serving platter while still hot. Garnish with lemon wedges and the fried thyme sprig before serving.

Baked Eggs with Sausage and Mushroom

Great Breakfast alternative / addition to brunch. Amazingly good. I didnt have fennel sausages so I used some of the Tesco's finest range. Your local butcher probably have their own gourmet sausages. Pork goes well with fennel so even plain pork sausages would do.

Ingredients

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pound fennel sausage, casings removed
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• Kosher salt
• 4 sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 8 eggs
• 6 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated

Directions

Special equipment: 8 (6-ounce) ramekins

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil, add the garlic cloves and the crushed red pepper and bring to a medium heat. When the garlic has become golden brown and very aromatic, remove it and discard, it has fulfilled its garlic destiny. Add the sausage and brown.

Once, nicely browned, add the mushrooms and season with kosher salt. When the mushrooms have softened, add in the sage and white wine. Cook until the wine has almost been absorbed. Turn off the heat and reserve.

Brush 8 individual ramekins with olive oil. Divide the sausage mixture equally among the ramekins and press gently into the bottom. Top each with an egg. Sprinkle each egg with a couple drops of olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Sprinkle each egg lightly with Gruyere cheese and bake until the cheese is brown and bubbly and the egg whites are cooked and the yolks are still runny, about 5 minutes

Serve with grilled bread rubbed with garlic, if desired.

Now thats an egg!

Beef & Guinness Stew

My other St. Patricks Day Meal. adapted this recipe from Donal Skehan's Beef and Guinness Pie.


Ingredients

• 
  
• 1–2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 1kg (2lb 3oz) beef shoulder, cut into 2.5cm (1in) chunks

• 1 onion, peeled and chopped

• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

• 2 celery stalks, trimmed and roughly chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced

• 150ml (5fl oz) beef stock

• 500ml (18fl oz) Guinness

• 1 bay leaf

• sea salt and ground black pepper

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large cooking pot and brown the meat in two batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Remove and set aside on a plate.

Add another tablespoon of oil if you need it and fry the onion, carrots and celery for 6 minutes, until the onion is soft. Return the meat to the pot, along with the garlic. Pour in the stock and Guinness, add the bay leaf and season with sea salt and black pepper to taste. Simmer gently for about 1 1⁄2 hours until the liquid has reduced, stirring occasionally to make sure that it doesn’t stick. If not thick enough you can strain the liquid and add 1 tsp of flour to water to make a paste and add to the liquid and heat till thickened then return the meat. 

I served this with baked potato and green beans with toasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan. 

St. Patrick's Day - Bacon and Cabbage

This St.Patricks Day I decided to make two traditional Irish meals - Bacon and Cabbage and Beef and Guinness Stew.

This recipe I got from Darina Allen - Traditional Irish Cooking.

Ingredients

For the cabbage

• 1/2 large Savoy cabbage
• 15 g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 100 g brown mushrooms, finely chopped

For the bacon

• 1x900 g quick-cookjoint of bacon
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1/2 onion, studded with 6 cloves
• 1 carrot, quartered

For the honey glaze

• 1 tbsp clear honey
• 1 tbsp demerara sugar
• 15 g butter

For the parsley sauce

• 50 g butter
• 50 g plain flour
• 600 ml milk
• 4 tbsp chopped parsley

For the carrots

• 1 large carrot, cut into batons
• 1 tsp sugar
• 8 chives, blanched and cooled

For the champ

• 75 ml single cream
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and quartered

Method

1. For the bacon: place the bacon joint in a large pan with the bouquet garni, onion and carrot. Cover with boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the water and set aside. Reserve the water.

2. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7.

3. For the honey glaze: combine all the glaze ingredients and brush over the joint. Place in a roasting tin or baking dish and bake in for 10 minutes until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Slice the joint and cover the slices with foil. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes to finish cooking.

4. For the cabbage: butter 4 ramekin dishes.

5. Bring the bacon joint liquid to the boil. Remove the ribs from the green cabbage leaves (leaving 2 halves of the cabbage leaf) and blanch in the boiling bacon water for 1 minute. Remove, cool and pat dry with kitchen paper. Line the ramekins with the cabbage leaves, making sure you leave a good overhang.

6. Finely shred the white part of the cabbage, blanch in the boiling bacon water, strain and keep warm.

7. Melt the butter in a heavy-based frying pan. Add the onions and mushrooms and fry for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned. Season with a little freshly ground black pepper - but no salt. Add the white cabbage and cook for 1-2 minutes.

8. Spoon the mixture into the cabbage-lined ramekins. Fold over the overhanging cabbage leaves. Place the ramekins in a roasting tin filled with boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins to warm them through.

9. For the parsley sauce: melt the butter in a heavy-based pan. Add the flour then cook over a low heat, stirring, for a few minutes. Add the milk and whisk until boiling. Whisk in the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

10. For the carrots: cook the carrot batons with the sugar in boiling water for 6-7 minutes. Strain and tie up in neat bundles using the chives and keep warm.

11. For the champ: bring the cream to the boill with the spring onions and simmer for a few minutes. Set aside.

12. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft. Strain the potatoes and dry out over a gentle heat before mashing. Add the spring onion mixture and beat well.

13. To serve: place the ham slices down the centre of an oval platter. Turn out the ramekins (seam side down) on one side and place the carrots on the other side. Place two large spoonfuls of champ at each end and pour the parsley sauce down the middle of the ham. 

No fuss Baked Butternut Sage Risotto

This recipe is just too good to be true. Risotto without all the laddling of stock and constant stirring. Delish too. Thank you Donna Hay. The more recipes I try from this book, the more I just love it...

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 12 sage leaves
• 400 g risotto rice, preferably arborio
• 800 g pumpkin, pelled and chopped into small pieces
• 1.25 litres chicken stock
• 30 g butter
• 40 g parmesan, finely grated
• finely grated parmesan and fried sage leaves, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

2. Heat a large ovenproof saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the oil and onion and cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add the sage and cook for 1 minute. Add the rice, pumpkin and stock and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Bake for 30 minutes.

3. The risotto will be quite liquid. Season with salt and pepper, then stir through the butter and parmesan for 2 minutes until the risotto thickens slightly. Sprinkle with extra parmesan and fried sage leaves to serve.

 

Braised Red Cabbage with Apple and Bacon

Wanted to try something different with red cabbage other than coleslaw so i turned to the worldwide web for some inspiration, after looking at a number of recipes I discovered this one and was intrigued by the addition of bacon and balsamic vinegar. As promised it was tastylicious..

ingredients

• olive oil
• 250g smoked streaky bacon, finely sliced
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, bashed
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 2 good eating apples, peeled and chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch pieces
• 1 red cabbage, outer leaves and core removed, chopped into irregular chunks
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 150ml balsamic vinegar
• a knob of butter
• a handful of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

method

Pour a good lug of olive oil into a saucepan, get it hot and add the bacon and fennel seeds. Cook until golden then add the onion and continue to cook, with the lid on, for a few more minutes until golden and sticky. Add the apple, followed by the cabbage chunks, salt and pepper and the vinegar, and stir everything together well. Put the lid back on and continue to cook on a low heat for an hour, checking and stirring every so often. You will end up with a gorgeously sticky-sweet cabbage dish that you’ll want to eat immediately, straight out of the pan! Or, if you can wait long enough, scoop it into a serving dish, pop the butter on top and sprinkle over the parsley.

Easy Lemon Ginger Marmalade

My husbands favourite. So I decided to give it a bash. Buying the Jam sugar with the pectin already added makes jam making quick and easy.

Easy Lemon Ginger Marmalade

Ingredients

• 6 small lemons
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 cup coarsely grated gingerroot (about 12 oz.)
• 1kg Jam sugar

Directions

1. Prepare canner, jars, and lids. I usually either wash in dishwasher or wash and then dry in a warm oven.
2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the zest (the yellow part of the peel) from the lemons in strips. Cut strips into thin slices.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut the white pith from lemons, exposing the juicy parts of the segments. Working over a large bowl to catch juice, cut the lemon segments from membrane. Place segments in bowl and squeeze membrane to remove as much juice as possible, collecting in bowl. Fish out any seeds that fell into the bowl and discard them along with the membrane.
4. Peel and grate the ginger if you haven’t done so already.
5. In a large deep stainless steel saucepan, combine lemon peel, baking soda, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes until peel is softened. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. Measure 1 cup lemon segments and juice. Add to the pan with the lemon peel along with the ginger. 
7. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar all at once and return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil hard, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam.
8. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust head space if necessary by adding hot marmalade. Wipe rim. Seal and enjoy.

Fabulously Fast Fruit Tart

I was watching the good food channel and I saw Nigella Lawson making this dessert. Its just my kind of recipe. Fast and Fabulous. Very little input for a great output. This can be rustled up pretty quickly for last minute guests or even a last minute treat.

Ingredients

• 375g/13oz digestive biscuits
• 75g/3oz softened unsalted butter
• 400g/14oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 240g/8½oz ready-made lemon curd, at room temperature
• 125g/4oz fresh blueberries
• 125g/4oz fresh blackberries
• 125g/4oz fresh raspberries
• 125g/4oz fresh redcurrants or pomegranate seeds
• 125g/4oz fresh small strawberries, half hulled, half stalks intact

Preparation method

1. Process the biscuits and the butter to a sandy rubble in a food processor, then press the mixture into the sides and bottom of the tart tin. Place in the freezer (or fridge if that is not possible) for about 10–15 minutes.
2. Clean the bowl of the food processor, then process the cream cheese and lemon curd and spread it into the bottom of the chilled tart tin, covering the base of the tart evenly. (Alternatively, just mix the cream cheese and lemon curd together by hand.)
3. Arrange all of the fruit gently (so that it doesn’t sink into the filling too much) on top of the lemony cream cheese in a decorative manner.
4. Place the tart in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight. It does need to get properly cold in order to set enough for the tart to be unsprung and sliced easily.
   
   
   TIP: If you do not have a food processor place digestives into a ziplock or plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. 

Curried Chicken Noodle Soup

I had some left over chicken from the Sunday Roast. I also did not have egg noodles so used what noodles I had in my store cupboard. This recipe was quick, tasty, easy and very comforting.

you will need

Vegetable oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 tbsps curry powder

800ml-1 litre chicken stock

1 x 400ml tin unsweetened coconut milk

100ml water

6 thin slices fresh ginger

1 stalk lemongrass, the woody top section discarded and the remainder minced

½ tsp whole black peppercorns

2 chicken breasts

130g medium Asian egg noodles

3 tbsps lime juice (about 1½ limes)

3 tbsps Thai fish sauce (nam pla)

1 sprig of fresh coriander, chopped

Method

Heat a saucepan over a moderately low heat. Add some oil and the garlic and stir for one minute, until it's fragrant. Add the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds.

Stir in the stock, coconut milk, water, ginger root, lemongrass and peppercorns. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the chicken and poach it for about 20 minutes, or until it's cooked through.

Transfer the chicken to a plate. Using two forks, shred the chicken and stir it back into the broth.

Add the noodles to the soup, stir to soften and simmer for about three minutes, taking care not to overcook.

Add the lime juice and the Thai fish sauce. Taste for seasoning, adding more Thai fish sauce or lime juice as required.

Using tongs, divide the noodles among the bowls and ladle the soup over them. Sprinkle with coriander and serve.

Tip: If freezing this soup, omit the noodles, as these can be added in when reheating. They only take a few minutes to cook in the broth.

Recipe from

Porcini Salt Steak with Rosemary Potato Rosti

Another quick meal that takes less than 20 minutes to cook. Thank you Donna Hay,

Ingredients

• 
  
• 15 g dried porcini, mushrooms
• 4 x 90 g thin-cut beef fillet or sirloin steaks
• olive oil, for brushing rösti
• 1 large (around 380g) potato, peeled and grated
• 1 tbsp rosemary leaves
• 50 g butter, melted
• vegetable oil, for frying

Method

1. Place the porcini and 1 tbsp salt in the bowl of a small food processor and process until mixture is a fine powder. Set aside.

2. To make the rösti: place the potato, rosemary, butter and salt in a bowl and mix to combine. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a little oil and a quarter of the potato mixture. Spread the mixture to a thin pancake. Cook for 3–4 minutes each side or until crisp. Repeat with remaining mixture and keep warm.

3. To make the steaks: brush the steaks with oil and sprinkle with porcini salt. Heat a frying pan over high heat. Add the steaks and cook for 1 minute each side. Serve with extra porcini salt and rösti. 

Nigella's Chorizo Chicken

A quick and easy no mess no fuss dinner, all you have to do is put it in the tray then bake and dinner is served.

INGREDIENTS

• 
  2 x 15ml tablespoons regular olive oil
• 12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)
• 750g chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 4cm chunks if regular-sized
• 1kg new potatoes, halved
• 2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• grated zest 1 orange

• METHOD

  Serves: 6
  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting tins, 1 tablespoon in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin-side up, 6 pieces in each tin.
  2. Divide the chorizo sausages and the new potatoes between the 2 tins. Sprinkle the onion and the oregano over, then grate the orange zest over the contents of the 2 tins.
  3. Cook for 1 hour, but after 30 minutes, swap the top tray with the bottom tray in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-coloured juices.