Fried tomatoes

It's fun to write about family history and days gone by, but even better to connect with real live family.
We've just spent a couple of days with Betty and Shirley, two of our Niewand cousins who travelled over from Minyip to visit.
My sister and I played tourist guide - our landscape is very different from the flat Wimmera country - and showed off the Art Gallery, Buda Historic Home & Garden, and the Aladdin's cave that is the Restorer's Barn. Three of my daughters lunched with us at Skydancers Cafe & Nursery, also making connections with rellies we don't see so often. A lovely couple of days!

Now it's Friday, so time to interrupt the family saga with a recipe -

In one of the Little House on the Prairie books (can't remember which one) Laura Ingalls Wilder described the early settlers serving tomatoes for dessert, with cream and sugar. I've never tried it myself, and it sounds a bit odd, but I have had tomato salad with a creamy dressing, and that definitely works.

This serves to remind us that tomatoes, like many of our 'vegies' are indeed fruit - think capsicum, zucchini, or pumpkin - and sometimes they are improved by adding a little sugar to the seasonings. Tomato sandwiches are definitely more 'tomatoey' with a sprinkle of sugar, ditto grilled tomatoes.

This is worth remembering now that the weather is warming up,and the tomatoes are ripening - lots of tomatoes!

Maybe you plan to make sauce, and tomato salad is nice these warm nights, but here's another idea - you could make Fried Tomatoes.

This couldn't be simpler, and makes a good Sunday night supper dish.

You'll need a large, high-sided frying pan (or a big pot). Slice a large brown onion, and soften it in a little oil. Then add chopped tomatoes, lots and lots of them - they will cook down considerably. Season with salt and pepper, a pinch of mixed dried herbs and a spoonful of sugar.
Simmer until reduced by at least half, and beginning to caramelise. This takes a while, and requires regular stirring so they don't burn. When you reckon they're done, taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve on toast.

You could fry some bacon with the onion, and add some crushed garlic, and basil or other fresh herbs, and maybe some chopped capsicum if you have some, but it's delicious with just the tomatoes and onion.

Katie's broccoli salad

For a variety of reasons, I haven't had time to blog lately, so I'm playing catchup today.  Here's your Friday recipe -

photo from Wikipedia

We are constantly told that broccoli is Good For Us, and we should eat it often. I do my best - we probably have it once a week or so - but it can be teeny bit boring.
My daughter Katie has a solution; she makes this broccoli salad, and it's always popular at family gatherings.

You will need:

2 big heads of broccoli, cut into very small florets and the stem cut up into tiny pieces
¼ purple onion, chopped fine
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup sultanas
3 rashers of bacon, cut finely and fried until crunchy

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise (real egg mayonnaise, not sweetened)
Apple cider vinegar to taste (start with 1 tab)
Sugar to taste (start with 1 tspn)
Mix well until sugar is dissolved

Mix all together and add dressing.

Thanks for sharing, Katie!

Update: Katie says - "I must give credit where it's due, to Hugh's sister-in-law Melissa, who made it for us when they visited a few years ago. It's travelled far and wide, this recipe (because it's so yummy)."

Rabbit stew

As a child, I ate a lot of rabbit stew. The meat was free, and properly cooked, it's delicious. Rabbit meat is virtually fat-free, and therefore a healthy source of protein.
Any chicken casserole recipe can be adapted to use rabbit instead, if you're lucky enough to find a source.
Before cooking your rabbit, there's a couple of things you need to understand.
Rabits are muscular little creatures, and the meat needs long slow cooking to tenderise it. And it can be a bit gamey, so soaking it first is a good idea.
This is how Mum prepared rabbit stew.

Cut the rabbit into portions, and soak in cold, salted water, for at least an hour.
Dry the meat, and brown it in a frying pan. Remove and place in a heavy pot.

Then fry a roughly chopped onion and several rashers of bacon in the frypan. Add these to the pot with the rabbit. Pour some hot water into the frypan, and scrape up all the brown bits. Pour this water over the rabbit in the pot, and add a pinch of mixed herbs and two or three thickly sliced carrots.
Cover and simmer gently for about 1 + 1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender - will depend on the age of the bunny.
Remove the meat to a plate, and thicken the gravy with flour, and a dash of Parisian essence if liked.
Serve with mashed potatoes and peas or beans.

Parisian essence was a browning agent, made, I think, from caramelized sugar. You probably can't buy it now. Today I would use Gravox as a thickener. Sliced celery would be a good addition, and a  slurp of red wine would also go well.


A bit of history (from Wikipedia)
Everyone blames Thomas Austin for the rabbit problem in Australia. He released 12 wild rabbits, specially imported from England, on his property, Barwon Park, near Winchelsea, Victoria, in October 1859 for hunting purposes. Many other farms released their rabbits into the wild after Austin. At the time he had stated, "The introduction of a few rabbits could do little harm and might provide a touch of home, in addition to a spot of hunting."^[5] 

Aussies have been hunting them ever since!

But rabbits were first introduced to Australia by the First Fleet in 1788. They were bred as food animals, probably in cages. In the first decades they do not appear to have been numerous, judging from their absence from archaeological collections of early colonial food remains.

However, by 1827 in Tasmania a newspaper article noted ‘…the common rabbit is becoming so numerous throughout the colony, that they are running about on some large estates by thousands. We understand, that there are no rabbits whatever in the elder colony' [i.e. New South Wales]^[2]. This clearly shows that a localised rabbit population explosion was underway in Tasmania in the early 19th century. At the same time in NSW Cunningham noted that '... rabbits are bred around houses, but we have yet no wild ones in enclosures...’ He noted that the scrubby, sandy soil between Sydney and Botany Bay would be ideal for farming rabbits^[3]. Enclosures appears to mean more extensive rabbit-farming warrens, rather than cages. The first of these, in Sydney at least, was one built by Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House,'a preserve or rabbit-warren, surrounded by a substantial stone wall, and well stocked with that choice game'^[4]. In the 1840s rabbit-keeping became even more common, with examples of the theft of rabbits from ordinary peoples' houses appearing in court records, and rabbits entering the diet of ordinary people.

So rabbit has been an integral part of Australian cuisine since the first white settlement. Many a farmer has cursed them, and they have caused untold damage to the environment and the economy. Still, they're damn good eating!

Homemade pizza

Yesterday I tried a new recipe, for The Easiest Pizza in the World, found at Everybody like Sandwiches.  A no-rise, no knead dough? I didn't think it would work, but to my amazement, and the delight of the Resident Grandson, it worked a treat!  Here's the recipe

the easiest pizza dough in the world
1 packet of yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 c warm water
2 1/2 c flour
1 t honey
1 t salt
2 T olive oil
2 T fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)
cornmeal
Preheat oven to 210C. In a large bowl, add in the yeast and warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, salt, honey, rosemary (if using), and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon vigorously until combined. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle cornmeal onto a walled baking sheet and press dough into it until thin. Add toppings of your choice and bake for 20-25 minutes until pizza crust is golden and cheese is bubbly.

Notes
I followed the recipe pretty much as written, but  left out the rosemary. I didn't have cornmeal, so just floured an ordinary baking tray and pressed (well actually, rolled) the dough out to cover it. Next time I'll divide the dough in half and make 2 smaller pizzas.
I used bread flour - cos I had some - and would again.

This is the yeast I used - it keeps for ages in the fridge. That's a lot of yeast for the amount of flour, but there was no yeasty taste. And it was cooked all the way through, the bottom was lightly browned, and it didn't stick to the tray.

It made a very large pizza (leftovers tonight) but it was delicious! Will definitely be doing this again!

 I used the toppings requested by TRG, and they were expensive - Leggo's pizza sauce, red onion, some capsicum, hot salami, and Mozzarella cheese. But I could make a much cheaper version, I'm sure.
Next time I'll add the honey and oil to the liquid, and then stir in the flour, sifted with the salt.
The dough was a bit sticky when mixed, I had to work in a bit of extra flour. And I did knead it, just a little...

Now I'm wondering, what else could I do with this dough? Top it with bacon, pineapple and cheese, maybe?
And if I baked it without any topping, and maybe left it a trifle thicker, would I have Turkish bread? Then I could make some Anybean Hummus! (see below)

Or, what if I rolled the dough out, spread it with say, pesto, rolled it into a sausage, and sliced it - pesto rolls?
And then there are sweet possibilities - cinnamon scrolls, perhaps? If you experiment with this, let me know!

This handy little idea comes from Grill a Chef, the blog of chef Joshua Stokes

Anybean Hummus
1 can of beans
1 splash of an acid (citrus or vinegar)
a handful of nuts
some salt
some pepper
a pinch of a spice or an herb
a glug of oil

Spin the ingredients you have chosen in a food processor until smooth. Taste. Adjust. Taste again. Adjust until satisfied. Serve as you would any other hummus that you have purchased at the market... but would not feel as rewarded eating.

Oh, and if you like recipe-surfing, try this - Food Gawker

Friday favourites

Egg and bacon tarts.

I love this recipe, so easy, and no pastry involved - a version of Impossible Quiche.

Preheat oven to 220C/400F. Thoroughly grease a large 12 cup muffin pan (or two 6 cup pans)

Ingredients
4 large eggs,     1 1/4 cups milk ,    2/3 cup SR flour,
150g bacon pieces,     50g grated tasty cheese,
4 spring onions, finely chopped     a sprinkle of (dried) mixed herbs      salt to taste (remember the bacon and cheese are salty)

Beat eggs, add milk, stir in flour until reasonably smooth, then add bacon pieces (no need to cook them first) cheese, onions and herbs.
3/4 fill muffin pans with the mixture. They will puff up when cooked, but flatten out again as they cool.
Bake for 20 mins, turning after 15 mins.  Allow to cool slightly and run a knife round the edges to remove - they are inclined to stick. Makes about 16-18.
You can vary this by leaving out the cheese, and adding other goodies like mushrooms, asparagus, or red capsicum.
You can also bake this in one large pan, which will take longer. In that case, grease and line the container with baking parchment.
This recipe works best in metal containers, as the bottom doesn’t brown well otherwise. Bon appetit!

Friday favourites

On Tuesday night my daughter Janet joined us for dinner, and by request, I made scalloped potatoes. This is almost embarrassingly easy, and adaptable to any quantities. Here's how I made them - quantities will depend on the number of people you're feeding, and the size of your dish. I use an 8" square Pyrex dish - it needs to be at least 2" deep.

Scalloped potatoes
You will need - scrubbed potatoes
a large onion
2-3 rashers of bacon
tasty cheese
milk (full-cream is best, but skim is OK too) 

Method
Preheat oven to 200C, and lightly grease your dish. 
Chop the onion and bacon, slice the potatoes thinly. Arrange a layer of potatoes on base of the dish, scatter with chopped onion and bacon.
(I don't add salt, the bacon and cheese are salty enough, but you could add pepper.)

Repeat, then add a third layer of potatoes. Three layers are enough - you want a good ratio of potato and crusty cheese topping. If you need a larger quantity, make a second dish. Leftovers are delish!
Top with a thick layer of grated cheese. Pour in milk a little at a time, enough to come about half-way up the sides of the dish.
To reduce cooking time, I microwave it for about 5 minutes on High, but you don't have to.
Bake for approx 45 minutes, until potatoes are cooked through.
Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.
A green salad goes well with this.

Troubleshooting - if the cheese topping is browning too much before the spuds are done, move it down a rung in the oven, and place a baking tray on the shelf above. Don't be tempted to protect it with foil - it sticks to the cheese!