Shepherd's Pie

With the drop in temperature, the march of the comfort food begins. I normally use a David Herbert recipe but I was far away from my beloved bookshelf so I whipped out my iPhone and logged onto Taste.com.au to locate a recipe. Though this one is pretty similar to my tried and true recipe, I found it a little watery and I had to make a couple of alterations e.g I need to have peas. However the thing I did like about this recipe is that it included carrots and celery, which I will include in my future Shepherd's Pies. So what are you looking at in the picture above? 1 chopped brown onion, 1 carrot peeled and chopped, 2 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped, cooked until soft. Then I added 700g lamb mince, browned, broke up any lumps before combining 2 tablespoons of plain flour. After this had cooked, I added two cups of beef stock, 1 dried bay lead, 1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon tomato paste. I brought the mixture to the boil before simmering for 30 minutes.

While the mixture was simmering I peeled, diced five large Cream Delight Potatoes, boiled them until soft and mashed them with butter and milk. I don't know what it is in these potatoes but they are fantastic, I found myself digging into a couple of spoonfuls of mash. Nom nom nom! Anyhow this the dish, with the lamb mixture, a scattering of peas, mash and a dusting of cayenne pepper.

If you leave this Shepherd's Pie it does eventually set. But I prefer to my pie to be ready to rock the moment it comes out of the oven. Back to David Herbert with some minor modifications. :)

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni

A bare freezer signals the need to make a big batch of work lunches and it's been a while since I made a delicious Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni. My recipe comes from David Herbet's The Really Useful Cookbook. The first step is to make a simple sauce from 800g of tinned chopped tomatoes, two cloves of garlic and a couple of springs of thyme and to reduce the mixture for 20 minutes.

While the sauce is reducing, I chopped 150g of spinach, two tablespoons of fresh basil and a clove of garlic. I then mixed the fresh ingredients with 500g of ricotta, salt, pepper and 1/4 of nutmeg. Prepare a baking dish and spread half of the sauce on the base.

After the mixture is combined, take a handful and spread it on half a lasagna sheet and roll the sheet into a tube. Lay the tube on top of the sauce with the cut side down. Continue this process until you have filled the tray.

Spread the remaining sauce on the top of the cannelloni and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan. Pop the cannelloni into the 200°c oven for 20 minutes or until the pasta is tender and the cheese is golden.

When the pasta is warm, cut the tray down the center and either serve or wait for it cool and the pop into the freezer. I've made this dish a number of times for work and it freezes and reheats extremely well.

Custard Tart Again

One of my dear friends, Amy is dropping by this afternoon and I've promised her a slice of Custard Tart. I was thinking this morning about Careme's Vanilla Bean Sweet Shortcrust Pastry. It's one my preferred pastry short cuts as works well and fills the house with the most divine vanilla scent. So feeling inspired I decided to shake up David Herbert's Shortcrust Pastry recipe a little, I've added some Vanilla Bean Paste, reduced the amount of water, chilled the shell again after rolling out the pastry and egg washed the shell after the initial blind bake. I'm pretty happy with the result and look forward to tucking into it. There goes my diet for another day!

Custard Tart and Decorating with Toffee

In 2009, David Herbert released 'The Really Useful Cookbook' as a follow up to 'Complete Perfect Recipes. It costs almost twice as much as his first book, contains a number of drool-worth colour photos encased in a hard cover. It is worth it? I can't say I have used it as much as 'Complete Perfect Recipes' but if you are a fan of David Herbert's non fuss food, it's a must.

My dear friend Mellie and her lovely fiancee Aaron are back in Brisbane for Christmas. So when Mel text me today to see if I had time to hang out, I just jumped at the chance and said I would bake a Custard Tart. Slightly selfish on my part as I love Custard Tarts and wanted to try out my brand new tart tin.

I've only made mini tarts from this David Herbert's Custard Tart recipe so I was keen to try out a 25cm tart. Here is a photo of the filled blind baked shell.

2 large eggs, 3 egg large egg yolks, 100g caster sugar beaten until thick. Combine with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon of brandy. Heat 500ml of cream until small bubbles appear around the edge of the saucepan and pour into the egg mixture.

Because I was expecting guests I decided to present the tart with some toffee. I placed 250g of caster sugar and a tablespoon of water in a saucepan, stirred until all the sugar was dissolved and then left the mixture to become golden. Once it was golden I then grabbed a spoon and drizzled the mixture on oiled paper to create gorgeous webbing. Here is result, served with vanilla ice cream. Mmmm.

P.S. To clean your toffee coated saucepan, add some cold water to the pan and pop it back onto the stove to dissolve. So easy!

Shortbread: Biscuits wrapped in Lies

One of the first cook books I ever purchased was David Herbert's Complete Perfect Recipes. This cook book is indeed what the title proclaims it to be, 250 simple, solid recipes that work, enclosed in a small, no fuss, square, soft cover publication with black and white photography. I've made a number of recipes from this book including his Shortbread recipe.

For the majority of my life, I have believed that Shortbread are buttery biscuits wrapped in lies. It isn't bread, it's a delicious biscuit. Why would the Scottish People lie to us? So after a little research I discovered Shortbread originated from a medieval biscuit bread which was a twice baked bread roll, rolled in sugar and spices. I'm gathering it was as unappetising as it sounds as the yeast was eventually replaced with butter, resulting in the lovely buttery biscuits we know and love today. Let us now embark on a visual field trip into the world of Shortbread.

250g of butter combined with 1/2 cup caster sugar, 2 cups plain flour and 1/2 cup of rice flour.

After resting the dough for 20 minutes, I rolled it out on a floured bench, cut out my shapes and gently placed them on a lightly oiled baking tray.

Three trays in a preheated oven set at 150°C for 15-20 minutes.



The result? Delicious buttery Shortbread. Still wrapped in lies, but ignore this issue. I suggest you make your own and enjoy.