dish 7) MEAT PIES... from scratch

Keep Rollin Rollin Rollin Rollin (what) keep rollin rollin rollin rollin (c'mon!) Shut up Fred Durst, I have to tell everyone about the pies i made!!

Well! I am getting more and more ambitious in my cooking, so I decided to make meat pies from scratch. Ive made pies before with frozen pastry in a pie machine... but i knew i'd at least once in my life have to do it from scratch. So last week i went and bought some pie tins and collected some recipes and planned to set aside some time on saturday to make them. Little did i know that it would engulf my whole day and drive me slightly crazy. So i started off with a new ingredient in my shopping basket...

correct. that is lard. It was for the puff pastry. And it is really weird and gross. I still have 190g of it if anyone needs it. I'll post it to you :) Oh and of course i had to pick up some MEAT for the meat pies. My friend's dad owns a butcher near where i live so i went and visited him. He is lovely - he cut some fresh blade steak off and diced it up by hand for me :) what a guy! He is Maltese so i will need to consult him for my Maltese Rabbit Stew recipe!! Woo! Here's the meatz:

So i made the filling first... in the Dutch oven (of course!) and slow cooked it for about 3 hours. I started off by caramelising some onions and then added my portabella mushrooms, spices, garlic, carrot, celery, red wine and meat! Then i stocked the shit out of it and also put in a tin of tomatoes. mmmm

While that cooked away i started on the pastry(s)! I had to make a shortcrust for the bottoms and a puff for the top.

Here is the shortcrust... I didnt take photos of the process haha

Then i had to make the puff pastry. Do you have any idea how puff pastry is made? Well I know that the people at the party i was at on Saturday night certainly know all about it haha. But seriously. it is nuts. Here are some pictures of how it is made. I read the instructions and was like "uhhhhhhh...wtf" so i had to youtube it. I watched 2 idiot girls who studied at the cordon bleu school in France make it and they thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. If you can't make it to master chef, i don't wanna hear about it ladies. Anyway. You rub a tiny bit of lard into flour, and add salt and chilled water. Then knead it, then fridge it. Then.... place butter on it...

fold two flaps over the butter...

then the other two..

then beat down on it with your rolling pin and release all that tension...

now you have a butter filled pastry parcel. Now you have to fold it in thirds like so...

then roll it flat. Then repeat. Then fridge it. then repeat that double roll thing, then fridge it. then repeat it another 2 times - so thats a total of 6 folds. Then put it in the fridge again until you're ready to use it. So thats a total of like 2.5 hours just for the puff. its just the refridgeration time that drags it out, its actually quite quick.

Check the meat mixture... perfect:

Then I got lazy and didnt take a picture of assembling them... but here are the finished product:

They were quite yummy! Now that i've made my very own puff pastry, i'll probably never do it again. Well i say that now... but it seriosuly took it out of me! I was explaining to my dad about how i made it and half way through i remembered that he was a pastry chef for 9 years when he was younger and he knew exactly what i was talking about. He doesnt really bake anymore because after 9 years he became allergic to airborne flour... haha. poor dad.

OMG I have to write a poem today for AUGUST!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxx

my new blue room

ahoyyy noah!!! I got bizzay lately and painted my room! It used to be all cream. Now it's blue and all my white furniture is really popping :) Likey?

i painted the whole room - not just a 'feature' wall. I love it, it is now my little sanctuary :) Can't wait until I pick up my tv/dvd player. Wall mount the shit out of it :D

BOOYAH BITCHES!

item 2... complete.

Well helllooooo! I know that doesn't sound like a hard task BUT i have been talking about eating at an African restaurant for like...years. I used to go to Uni in Footscray which is this crazy (and dodgy) multicultural hub. When you get off the train in Footscray it's not until you bypass the homeless beggars and screaming junkies, and dodge a flying spitball aimed at your feet by a gang of African teens that you can really appreciate its charm. If you can learn not to look anyone in the eye then you'll be ok. There are so many cultures in Footscray and you can find the most interesting shops, foods, nicknacks and restaurants. I went to uni there every day for 3 years, and with only 2 verbal threats on my life and one spit attack I came out in one piece. Contrary to its reputation, i was never offered drugs in Footscray. A few guys i know have been, but maybe i don't look like the usual suspect. My trick to avoid people was to turn my ipod UP and look DOWN and walk super fast until i got to uni puffing my lungs out and my legs aching with shin splints. I did like the big Savers store there, and the asian bakeries which sold my favourite red bean cakes - still warm! Oh and of course the Donut van next to the station fills the air with the smell of cinnamon and grease - unforgetable!

I remember one day back at uni, Maki (my housemate) and I were on a lunch break from class and went for a little walk planning to grab lunch at an African cafe. As we slowed our pace down approaching the place, we met eyes with about 15 burly African dudes sitting inside smoking cigars with foreboding looks on their faces. We picked up the pace and continued on to Hungry Jacks or something. So needless to say i felt a kind of hesitation in trying to return for lunch any time soon. About 1-2 years ago i made a list of African restaurants in Footscray i wanted to try but never got around to organising it. Slack... yes - that's why it went on the list. To make sure i do it. SO last week I suggested to my friend Trav that we should make it happen, and it was as simple as that. Here are some shots from Cafe Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant in Footscray...

Derek Tibs (aka "Crunchy") - a top top top yummo dish

i have no idea what these were... but they were amazing.

These were: (clockwise from top) Doro Wat, Tibs, (Something) Special, and a vegetarian selection of lentils etc.

this is the bread "injera" that you use to eat the meat with. It lines the platter so you just tear pieces off and scoop up some meat!

this was our finished platter - between 3 of us. looks a bit like poo... but it tasted just amazing. So many spices i'd never had before!! My friend Renee has the 'special' dish and i just couldnt work out the flavours. I loved it! So now i want to cook Tibs or Derek Tibs at home so I'll have to go spice shopping in Footscray soon! HOORRRAHHHH!!!!! I still feel like i am about to burst from eating that food haha. Amazing times in little Ethiopia...

dish 6) poached eggs

Sounds simple huh? Well the first time Josh and I tried it, it was a mess. I followed the instructions to the T this time, and it worked out quite well imo. Now I know i can make my dad's favourite dish (Caeser Salad) for fathers day without a hitch! Check out some cool piczzz of my successful poached eggs:

mmmm! suddenly i feel like eating them again! They were a little flat, so next time i will experiment with swirling the boiling water to see if they become a little more round!

Before the eggs on Saturday, I had a national duty to fulfill. It was Election Day. I got up fairly early and went for a walk to the local High School where i could vote. I started my walk OK, but then after the first 10 steps I realised my cat Chester was following me and wanted to come along on the journey. I was trying to tell him to go home without much luck, and then he followed me into the parklands at the end of the street and started to meow in a distressed manner because he realised he was lost. I had to go back to him and walk him back to my house and put him inside, then turn around and go back. After that embarrassing episode I walked through the park and climbed through a fence to walk along the little... i don't know whether to call it a river, a stream, a canal, or a junkyard. Welcome to the West...

On the way back i even saw this grave...

R.I.P Mosh... I can only hope it was a pet and not some crazy punk dude buried in some dodgy walkway. Anyway that was creepy. Think about better things... like the eggs :) mmmm

dish 5) ratatouille

OH MY GOD! Possibly a new favourite dish here folks! So this all started when I was watching my new favourite DVD - the Gourmet Farmer. For those who don't know, Sydnet food critic Matthew Evans decided to persue his life long dream of sustainable living and farming etc so he moved to Tasmania and bought a farm. Then the film crew tag along to watch his progress. It is so amazing. I learnt from his friend Nick Haddow (aka gourmet cheesemaker and all-round genius at life) how to make cheese in the kitchen :O Not that i would attempt it... but i learned so much, and suddenly all i want are pigs and chooks and a huge vegie patch. So yeah, I was watching some special features which were just him cooking recipes, and he made Ratatouille in his Dutch oven. I suddenly remembered that Hayden had a Dutch Oven - never been used - in the cupboard. I had my mind made up and bought the ingredients and made it at around 5pm... basically i used the following basic ingredients:

- 2 brown onions, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 eggplants, cubed
- 1 red capsicum, diced
- 3 medium zucchini, cubed
- 3 portabella mushrooms (just cos matthew evans used some hehe)
- 2 tins good quality chopped tomatoes

Chop it all up and cook it off in some oil, then add the tomatoes.

Put it in a moderate oven (around 170) for as many hours as you can wait. We waited about.... 3 or so. Take it out and CHECK THIS SHIT OUT:

Serve it with some crusty grilled bread, and i swear on my life you will have a new favourite healthy dish! Seriously worth the wait - so smooth and soft with such punchy flavour - all natural flavours! It's funny that we used sourdough bread because on the Gourmet Farmer they explain how sourdough is made and we were all like "eeeeeew" haha. Forgot about that one pretty quickly though :)

I am seriously in love with this cast iron dish right now. Remember a while ago I made some chili con carne and it tasted really weak and watery? Well, with cast iron those are problems of the past!! I cooked off some onion, garlic, red capsicum, sweet paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin and coriander in the dish, and then added the defrosted container of chili to it. I put it in the oven for about 1-2 hours and it was ORGASMIC! It was not even the same dish anymore and i was able to tell myself that i am still amazing at life and my pride is re-established once more! HAZAAAAHHHHHHH

ich und meine kartoffelpuffer

Yeah i am so totally, like, german right now. Like, oh my god. Look. at. this...

hahaha yeah not photogenic. By the way, that twilight poster at work totally isn't mine. It's an "office poster" which was given to dragana for free at Borders. I swear. Anyway translation of the title: "Me and my kartoffelpuffer". Further translation: Me and my german potato fritters. I first learned about kartoffelpuffers at Adelaide's "Schutzenfest" beer festival. I think I even ate one... haha. The reason i can pronounce it so well is because i learnt how to say it when i was Schitzenfaced ... delayed lol.

So this works out to be Dish 4 of my 52 dish challenge :) Everyone at work was excited by my list, but my German co-worker was especially excited that i might spread the joy of german cuisine. So here is my first foray into german kviziiine. It was her idea for us to make them at work for everyone so it worked out well because she could teach me ze german vay! OMGGGGGG SLIDESHOW!!!!

MMMM! I don't think carrot is in the original recipe, thats something she likes to add. Basically it's grated potato, carrot, and onion mixed with some egg and flour until it reaches "the right consistency" then you shallow fry them. Easy. Oh and they MUST be served with apple sauce (apfel mus). I think they would also be delicious with salt and pepper instead! You can search a recipe for quantities cos i dont know them! All i can say is that they are yummo, and the thinner the better because it goes all crunchy!!

what a pig! I'm really excited now! I think perhaps attempting a foreign recipe is best if you make it with someone who knows the ropes! It isn't essential but it's kinda cool! I told my boss that his Pakistani wife should show me a thing or 2! I dont know if he will ask her or not. I contemplated asking my Vietnamese neighbours if they could show me something cool but i'm scared as i have never met them! Plus the guy sings creepy baritone opera when i'm in the bathroom and it freaks me out a bit. I'm starting to think of other people i could ask! My dad is friends with a lovely Slovenian lady, i should totally ask her - she effing LOVES cooking! Is it weird to do that?? hahaha eatern european cuisine, make me your BITCH

enema of the mind

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

it has been over a week since my last confession, so here and now i confess that i am slightly hyper... it all started with this surprising lyric: "....I'm a skat-man!" it popped into my head at work and then i started belting it out like "bee-ba-ba-bada-bop, ba-ba-bada-bop.." and Dragana got the giggles and then she told me that she made Dhal last night and her boyfriend said it tasted like eating B.O.... and then we were giggling again. Good times. So now i am in the mood to type my little fingers down to the bone!!!!!!!!!!

I feel like i should vomit all over the keyboard and let the shortcircuiting work its magic once again and create the best. post. ever. So let me start with this photo:

awesome, nyes? well i think i mentioned in my last post that Joshs' uni had a ball last thursday night and our table was masquerade theme. So we had to go mask shopping and i liked these masks sooo much that i wanted to wear one - but it would have been very freaky. i'm almost tempted to go get one of the clown ones and stick my head into hayden's room on an unnatural angle one night and breathe heavily until he wakes up and freaks the fuck out. while he's screaming i'll be testing out my creepy laugh which sounds a bit like a chain smoking tranny granny who is trying to catch her breath. ok, where was i. Oh yes the ball. so in order to attend i had to dress purdy-like. i have this dress which i really wanted to wear but it doesnt fit across my ginormous rack anymore. I have grown 2 cup sizes since buying the dress about 4 years back, so i decided i had to re-work the design so i could wear it. It didnt turn out as amazing as i had hoped but it did the job. here is a terrible photo (i'm so sorry) of the dress...

I thought if i cut the zip off and made a corsette back i could wear it! It was a good theory, and it was a bit more work than i had thought. The first and easiest part was cutting out the zip...

then i got these "eyelet packs" from spotlight which came with lots of eyelets and some little tools to cut the fabric and hammer in the eyelets. You needed to use a hammer on these and it was noisy work...

and painful. This is after the 4th or 5th time i hit my thumb. i cracked the nailpolish and the blood blister is still with me 1.5 weeks later. sort of... its more like a black bruise under my nail- gross.

so these are the eyelets...

then i threaded ribbon through...

it turns out you need much longer ribbon than you think, because you have to loosen the corsette in order to get into the dress, then you have to tie it up and then you have TOO MUCH ribbon. Let's just say that Josh was not a fan of the dress... well the actual tightening and tying part. He had to help me in and out of it. It is actually great foreplay haha, shame it takes so long to get out of the dress. did i just say that? oh my lord, i have no shame! off with my head. so here is another terrible picture of the dress...

Josh did an OK job (thanks heehee) but lost his patience and didn't want to fix it up or take photos. When i said i didnt like the photos he looked so exhausted haha poor guy. that picture reminds me that i should get my freckles checked by the doctor before summer! also i look like a swimmer with those shoulders!!! haha wow. anyway here are josh and jim looking rather.... um...

a few notes about josh's room:

1) Yes that is a Barack Obama flag. Josh's sister went to Africa when they were super high on Barack fever and she bought this flag for Josh. She also told us about this african rap song called "barack obama" which was played everywhere!

2) That skull in the bottom right corner was painted by josh's older brother when he was little. He tried to write his name under it but was still too young to manage and the teacher had t finish it off. It's so cute! I think that is an amazing painting for a kid that age. One criticism though... skulls don't have eyebrows Bradd...get some perspective, gosh!

Anyway we set off from Josh's place and missed our train so we went to this cute little wine bar called "pepper" across from the station. There was some smooth Jazz playing and they lit us a candle and we all had a drink. It was so nice! One day I'll have a place like this :)

After getting the train and tram to Toorak, we headed for this girl's apartment for some pre-drinks. She is a full time student...and rents in toorak by herself in a gorgeous apartment. I'm guessing she doesn't pay the rent cos that is just bonkers. In the street outside I was amazed by this perfect tree.

LOOK HOW PERFECT IT IS!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL, MAN!? It's like a lego tree or something! Anyway after a few drinks and mingling with some interesting characters we got to the ball (it was only across the street - how convenient!) albeit a little late. We missed the roving canopes and cocktails!! When we got to our table, the rest of Josh's friends were trashed and telling us to 'catch up'... i knew this was not going to be a fun day at work on Friday. So with all of these functions there is a never-ending supply of booze and food... so i had a few too many white wines and grabbed a few too many passing vodka rasberrys. Somehow i was the 2nd most sober on the table, next to Jess who doesnt drink haha. So with everyone going off, i took a few shots of their excitement...

i think they were "smoking"

Sarah on the left (she is japanese how awesome) was so crazy that night, i have never seen her like that - it was amazing! there are about 5 other pics like this where she is posing crazily haha

oh yeah the sorbet! There was delicious little sorbet cups going around, and i had 2 mango and 2 berry!! Jess and i were in love with them! Could be the reason why i had alcers all down the sides of my tongue the next day... yeowwww! So yes, i ended up going back to Josh's alone while he kept partying with his uni crew and i dont remember much after getting inside. I somehow got out of my dress and had a hot shower and somehow apparently opened the front door at 2am to let josh and jim back in. I dont remember - how terrible! The next thing i remember was this:

creepy old man cat was watching me sleep. I was allowed to start work at 11am instead of the usual 8.30am which was amazing, but it was still the shittest day of work ever. I was so annoyed an everything! I put on this scarfe thing with all little lacey dangley bits and i got so annoyed i tore it off and put it with my bags. Everyone was like :O

So anyway thats what i did last week, and look at that- it's 11am - i would have been just starting right about now!! eew. I need to make my new dish for the week, and it may be happening TODAY! My german co-worker has given me recipes for a few things and today she wants to make KARTOFFELPUFFER for everyone with my help. SO i could count this as my new dish i suppose. I ate a kartoffelpuffer a few years ago at Schutzenfest - the german beer festival in adelaide! Its like a potato fritter with apple sauce mmmm i'll show you how i go!

ALSO i have now got enough money for a pergola so SOOOOOOOOOOOOON i will be ticking another thing off my list! I left a few list items kind of open ended hey? like "do up the garden"... when will i know it is done?? haha. did not think this through.

stay tuned diggers!!!!!!