Irish Stew

Now my question yesterday "what to do with 6 lamb chops" these had been defrosted on Sunday because Mr CLI had decided that's what he wanted for tea, but when we got to tea he changed his mind. So they were left in the fridge.

Yesterday morning I told him as he was leaving for work that is what we would be having for tea, his reply "ahhh mmmm" now that is Mr CLI for "I don't want to eat that".

So I put my thinking cap on, what could I do with the chops that was easy but still tasty. Mmmmmm.

As the weather had changed and it was much cooler something cooked in the oven seemed appropriate. Light bulb moment Irish Stew, it is warming, filling and hopefully MR CLI approved.

Did it get the Mr CLI tick of approval, it most certainly did.

A sign of the times instead of recipe books, the ipad in action.










Irish Stew
6 large lamb chops = 1.5 kgs , I used BBQ chops, remove the edge fat and cut in half lengthwise, 1/4 cup plain flour. salt and pepper, 1/2 onion chopped,  2 tbsps tomato paste, 2 beef stock cubes, 1 tbsp chopped parsley, 2 tbsps cold water + 3 cups boiling water, 1 kg potatoes peeled and sliced into 1/4" slices. 2 small or 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into rounds.

For serving 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven 180.c

In a plastic bag place flour and season with salt & pepper. Place the chops in and shake, to give them a light coating.

You could even place flour on a large plate the dredge each chop. KEEP LEFTOVER FLOUR, you will need this to add to the sauce.

Layer 1/3 potato. 1/3 carrot, 1/3 onion 1/2 the chops, repeat once more, for final layer place the potatoes last. Season with salt and pepper on each layer.

Sprinkle with parsley.

 In a large jug whisk together leftover flour, cold water and tomato paste. Add stock cubes and boiling water. whisk together, then pour over stew.

Place on lid and cook for 2 - 3 hours, depending on your oven. For the last half hour remove lid this will crisp up top layer of potatoes and reduce the sauce.

Serve sprinkled with some chopped mint.

Caramel Pinwheels

Well I hope everybody managed to stay cool over the weekend, we certainly had our airconditioning running to keep us cool, because of thil I was able to use the oven and make these yesterday for afternoon tea.

Now I have been making these for many years. It is a recipe I invented by using a soft scone dough and adding butter and brown sugar to create the caramel.

When my girls were young they thought - and actually still do - that these are pretty special to eat straight from the oven.

Now the amount of pinwheels you make depends only on how much dough you make, the amounts given will give you about 20 pinwheels plus 2 that ended up in Miss Fishes tummy.

Don't do what I did yesterday and use patty cake cups use muffin cups which will contain most of the overflow when the butter and sugar bubble and make caramel.

Also these are cooked on quite a high heat so that the scone dough puffs up and cooks and the butter and sugar create a caramel.

Caramel Pinwheels
2 cups SR flour, 1 egg, 2 tbsps butter, melted, 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk

For filling - butter spread or softened butter  and brown sugar

Preheat oven 220.c Place muffin cups onto a tray.

Put the flour into a large bowl add egg and butter, using a metal butter knife stir in add 1/4 milk. Stir just enough to see if the dough is going to come together, if it isn't add more milk.

You want the dough to come together but still to be a bit sticky. This will give you a really light pinwheel.

Now tip onto a floured surface using your hands, you will probably need to flour them, flatten the dough into along oblong with the longest side facing you, about 10cm (3") wide and 1 cm (1/2") thick and as long as the dough will spread.

This is best done with yours hands as using a rolling pin will toughen the dough.

Now spread the butter thickly over the entire length of the dough, then sprinkle liberally with brown sugar  (about 1/4" thick) .

Now roll into a pinwheel by taking the long edge furthest away from you and rolling it out towards yourself. You should get about 3 or 4 rolls.

Using a knife cut into 2 cm slices place into muffin cups cut side up.

On the tray ready to go into the oven.












Bake in the oven 10 - 15 minutes. This all depends on your oven, I bake these in my smaller oven so they only take 10 minutes.

You will know when they are cooked as the will have puffed up and be browned on the top slightly and the caramel will be bubbling in the pinwheel.

Remove from the oven and eat. These really are the best when eaten straight from the oven and I must admit I pull them into halves and spread on a little butter not necessary but enjoyable all the same.

Just out of the oven with the caramel still bubbling.

Cooks treats the overflowed caramel I let it set for a second them scraped it off. Yum !

The First Bakers Challenge for 2012 - January Scones

Well I hope everyone had a good Australia Day yesterday.

We took Miss Fish, fishing we didn't catch anything but she was happy with the couple of nibbles she got and the fact that she got to go fishing.

Afterwards we got fish and chips for lunch and Mr CLI suggested that we go to the Botanical Gardens to eat it. What we didn't realise is that there was Australia Day celebrations on there.

It didn't matter we found a car park and ate our lunch under a very large tree. As the weather was beautiful not too hot with a nice breeze it was a very pleasant experience.

Now for the first daring Bakers Challenge I made to batchs one plain which we had with jam and cream, as you should and also a cheese batch.

To the basic recipe I add 1 cup grated tasty cheese, 1/2 tsp dried english mustard and 1/2 tsp paprika.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Basic Scones (a.k.a. Basic Biscuits)
Servings: about eight 2-inch (5 cm) scones or five 3-inch (7½ cm) scones
Recipe can be doubled

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen grated butter (or a combination of lard and butter)
approximately ½ cup (120 ml) cold milk
optional 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C/gas mark 9.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)
6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

Honey and Soy Chicken - not using honey

Now if I didn't use honey what did I use, well I used rice syrup.

I had bought this a while ago to use in cooking instead of sugar, and as you do sometimes things go to the back of the cupboard and my mind for that matter.

On the weekend because it was so hot Mr CLI cooked some meals on the BBQ ,one of the marinades he wanted was honey soy.

Now this is a good thing to cook on the BBQ because you don't have a messy tray to clean.

Instead of honey, which I didn't have anyway I used the rice syrup. Did it make any difference ? Not that I could taste it made a very good marinade.

Honey/Rice Syrup Marinade
Enough for 3 chicken breasts cut into tenderloins
2 tbsps honey/ rice syrup, 2 cloves garlic grated, 2 tbsps olive oil, 3 tbsps dark soy sauce.

Place all marinade ingredients into a non metal bowl, mix together then add the chicken.

Leave to marinate for at least 20 minutes.

Cook on your pre heated BBQ plate. Griddle pan or frypan. They will only need 2 1/2 minutes on the first side then 2 minutes on the second side. This should give you very moist and tender pieces of chicken.




http://www.aussiehealthproducts.com.au/sweeteners.php?id=66810&Pure-Harvest-Organic-Rice-Syrup-500gm---Australian