Roasted Green Beans

We love our vegies and try to eat as many and as varied as possible.  I am always on the lookout for a new way to cook vegetables and I recently stumbled across this tasty way to present green beans.  Roasting the beans creates an intense flavour and you can play around with the seasonings if required.  This one was a big winner…

 

They look very pretty presented in a glass…

Crispy roasted green beans with crunchy parmesan

Ingredients:

½ kilo fresh green beans, topped & tailed

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

½ teaspoon paprika

Method:

Preheat fan-forced oven to 180c

In a large bowl, toss the green beans with the olive oil

Add the parmesan, salt & pepper and paprika

Pour onto a baking sheet lined with paper and bake in a single layer until crisp for around 15-20 minutes

 

Bon Appetit!    🙂

Sensational Sarma (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

The Balkan name is Sarma – we call them Cabbage Rolls…  There is something so wonderful about this combination of cabbage, meat and rice – it’s so simple yet so damned delicious.  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t salivate over the thought of Sarma and mashed potatoes….  Heaven on a plate…

We have several friends with kind Mothers who have guided us over the years  – Macedonian, Serbian, Polish – they all recommend the same trick – you must use whole sauerkraut leaves!  You can buy these as a whole head in some Continental Deli’s but the smell is quite daunting.  Luckily you can also buy the whole leaves rolled and packed into the massive jars I recently stumbled across at my local fruit shop/deli.  There are 12 big leaves stuffed in the jar.  Some are bigger than others and can be halved.  We got 16 rolls out of the one jar.

Vegeta is a Croatian mixture of salt and spices.  It also has a little MSG in it but didn’t leave us with any after effects as we didn’t use much.  It takes the place of salt in this dish and is very strong so use it sparingly…

Some recipes call for the addition of Speck which is an Italian smoked fatty meat from the pork belly.   I substituted with Kaiserfleisch which is basically the same thing but with much less fat.  It gives the rich smoky bacon taste to the meat filling..

My husband has a good mate at work who supplies us with authentic Hungarian paprika – his parents regularly bring back kilograms of the stuff when they visit the old country. It is vital to use a really good quality paprika as the authentic taste of this dish is in the spices…

My only tip is keep an eye on them while baking in the oven – the rolls absorb most of the stock and I found I basted the top layer a couple of times to keep them moist.  You can add additional stock if needed…  What is left at the bottom of the dutch oven is a gloriously tasty liquid – don’t waste it  – spoon it over the rolls and enjoy…

All packed in and ready for the oven

Two hours later – delicious Cabbage Rolls are ready to serve

Served with creamy mashed potato and a dollop of sour cream… A sprinkling of paprika adds some colour

Ingredients: 

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

150 g kaiserfleisch, finely diced

1 large red capsicum, finely diced

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

500 g minced beef

500 g minced veal

1 generous tablespoon tomato paste

1 teaspoon Vegeta (or a vegetable stock cube, crumbled)

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup arborio rice

1 egg, beaten

½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

pickled cabbage leaves (large leaves can be cut in half to make 2 leaves)

2-3 cups of chicken stock

additional paprika to sprinkle over top

shredded sauerkraut for the oven dish

Method:

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions, garlic, red peppers and speck for a few minutes

Stir in the paprika and tomato paste and mix well

Remove from the heat and leave to cool

Combine with the minced meats, Vegeta, mustard powder and pepper

Stir in the rice, egg and parsley.

Combine well using your hands

Place the cabbage leaves on a board and add a generous handful of the mixture to each one

Shape the stuffing into a sausage and roll up inside the leaves, tucking the ends of the leaves back into the rolls.

Lay the sauerkraut over the base of a large Dutch oven

Pack in the rolls so there are few gaps

There will be 2–3 layers in the pot

Top with another layer of sauerkraut

Pour over the chicken stock and sprinkle with additional paprika

Bake in a 170c-180c oven for around 2 hours

Check on the rolls occasionally and baste with the stock – if there is too little, add in additional stock to prevent the rolls drying out.

Serve with creamy mashed potato and a dollop of sour cream

 

Bon Appetit!  🙂

Spicy Chilli Lamb Shanks

This is a slight variation on a Jamie Oliver recipe that Simon made last week.  The sauce was unbelievably tasty and the meat could be eaten with a spoon – so very tender.  The combination of sweet raisins and apple juice, the smokiness of the paprika and the heat of the chilli resulted in the most amazing sauce.  We cooked it down at the end as it was still quite thin and it worked a treat and became beautifully thick and rich.

Served with potato and pea mash and some garlic bread – this was a real treat and we will be eating this dish a lot throughout the winter…

The left over sauce was popped in the freezer for later.   Last night Simon defrosted it and added some plump poached, sliced and pan fried good quality sausages to the mixture and served it over penne noodles – awesome!

 

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon of chilli powder

Large handful of raisins

285ml apple juice

4 lamb shanks

Olive oil

3 medium red onions finely chopped

8 garlic cloves, finely sliced

2–3 fresh red chillies of your choice, halved and deseeded

1 heaped tsp smoked paprika

A few fresh bay leaves

3–4 rosemary sprigs

1 x 400g tin tomatoes

750ml chicken stock or water

A dash of red wine vinegar

 

Method: 

Preheat your oven to 250c

Put the raisins and apple juice in a bowl then set aside.

Put the lamb shanks in a roasting tray then rub all over with olive oil, sea salt and black pepper.

Bang them in the oven for 20 minutes and, as they’re browning, get a casserole pan that will fit the shanks quite snugly – about 24cm in diameter and 10cm deep.

Put it on a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil. Devote about 10 minutes to sweating off the onions, garlic, chilli powder, fresh chilli, smoked paprika, bay leaves and rosemary.

Once the onions have softened, put the rehydrated raisins into a food processor or Ninja, along with any leftover apple juice, then blitz until you’ve got a thicker liquid. Stir this into your onions.

Take your shanks out of the oven and turn the temperature down to 140C

Add them to the casserole pan along with your tinned tomatoes and water or stock to just cover.

Stir everything together, cover and put in the oven to slowly stew for about 2½–3 hours.

Once the meat is falling off the bone and the sauce is thick, take it out of the oven, have a taste and season with salt and pepper and a dash of vinegar

Take the meat out and if the sauce is too soupy, simmer briskly for about ½ an hour to cook down into a luscious sauce.

Put the meat back in to coat with the sauce and bring back up to temperature

Serve with mash or noodles

 

Bon Appetit!  🙂

Delicious Pierogi

Pierogi are a filled dumpling usually found in Poland or Russia and can now be readily brought frozen from any very good deli.  The brand I buy is called Pelmeni and they are filled with spinach and ricotta cheese.  They also come filled with beef or chicken which we are also eager to try.

The pasta only take minutes to prepare and you can have a lovely authentic plate of deliciousness in no time at all…

This is our favourite way of serving them…  If you omit the bacon it becomes a vegetarian meal – just add additional onions or mushrooms…  They can also be served without the sour cream – we were scoffing them straight out of the pan before we served them up!

Ingredients:

Frozen Pelmeni Traditional Russian Pasta

1 finely chopped onion

4 rashers bacon, finely sliced into batons

3 tablespoons of sour cream

1 teaspoon of paprika (or to taste)

1 tablespoon finely chopped dill plus some extra for garnish

Salt & pepper to taste

Olive oil for frying

Method:

Boil the dumplings according to the packet – around 4-5 minutes

In the meantime fry the bacon and onion together in a little olive oil until crisp

Heat a large frying pan with a little olive oil and when very hot tip in the drained dumplings

Fry over a high heat until a little browned and tip in the onions & bacon tossing them through

Mix the sour cream, paprika, dill , salt & pepper together in a bowl

Serve the pasta/onions & bacon  with the sour cream mix spooned over the top

Garnish with fresh dill

Bon Appetit!  🙂