Baked pork chops with caramelised apple

I did this one the other day. I looked in the freezer, saw some rather large pork chops, and had an Idea (intentional capitalisation). It worked well, because I used the same sauce I baked the pork chops in for the spare ribs the kids had, and it was snazzy enough for the guest we had for dinner, too (I found out she'd be eating with us at 430 in the afternoon)

• 1 large pork chop per adult
• 2 pork spare ribs per child
• 2 potatoes per person
• 6 rashers bacon
• Ginger (grated)
• cinnamon (ground)
• bourbon (eyeball this bit)
• Brown sugar (around 1 cup, not firmly packed)
• 4 large green apples, peeled and diced roughly
• 2oz (60g) butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger

1. Mix bourbon, a good measure of cinnamon and a good measure of grated ginger with the brown sugar. Add some water if you think it needs it.
2. Pour over the pork chops (and spare ribs) and turn them a few times while you're chopping up the potatoes.
3. Cook the potatoes for smashing in plenty of boiling, salted water.
4. AT THE SAME TIME put the pork into a moderate (180C) oven to cook while you're doing everything else.
5. Melt butter in heavy based frying pan, add in the apples, and start the caramelise them. Add in the brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Coat the apples well in the resulting caramel sauce, and reduce heat as much as you can.
6. TURN THE MEAT NOW
7. Cook bacon your preferred way (oven, under the grill in the oven, microwave - just make sure it's crunchy)
8. Smash the potatoes with a good helping of butter, and season sparingly. Add in the crumbled bacon, and a good handful of cheese.

Serve it all up on a plate, with plenty of Wet Ones nearby

Destri's Zesty Refrigerator Pickles

I've copied this recipe exactly from my friend, Destri.

Just so we're all on the same page, Destri is a mate that I chat to online - ex-Navy, and an all round Good Bloke.

I'd give you his real name, but we're all kind of private about stuffs like that :)

1 large cucumber, cleaned and sliced into half-chips. (makes 2 -12 oz jars)

baby carrots

Onion optional

Rice wine vinegar

Hot water

1 Jalapeno

1 jar of banana peppers (you want pepper-infused vinegar)

2 (or more) clean jars with sealing lids.

Dried basil (or fresh)

Hot sauce (your fave, I used Frank's redhot sauce this week)

First off you want a jar that is just jalapeno peppers and/or hot banana peppers. You can refill this over and over with the rice vinegar and make more pepper-infused vinegar. You can add some of these pickled peppers to your pickle jars, and keep refilling your pepper-vinegar jar with fresh sliced peppers.

For refrigerator pickles, you want a mixture of 3/4 vinegar to 1/4 water for your brine. I'm on a low-sodium diet, so I'm not using any salt.

Fill your jars with the sliced cucumbers and carrots (if wanted). Pour hot brine over the pickles in the jar and then seal them. Shake it a lot and put it in the fridge. They will be awesome in 3 days and last a total of 2 weeks.

Brine this week.

2 parts Pepper-infused rice vinegar

1/4 cup of Frank's red hot sauce

1 part plain rice vinegar

1 part hot water. (1/3 of the vinegar amount)

Dried basil, 1 tsp

Garlic powder 1 tbsp.

-I stirred this all together in a large cup, letting the spices rehydrate. Try the brine it should be really zesty and have a serious twang. The pickles will be about 1/2 of this twang. The cucumbers have their own water that will mix with this. I added a few of the pickled Jalapeño slices to the jar.

These pickles seem to get better the spicier they are. You can reuse the brine I'd say 1 more time within the 2 week period. After that, start fresh with a new brine. I'd say that these are "Medium spicy", which for me is spicy enough. Lower-spicy threshold will say "Those are spicy!" but keep eating them. People who regularly eat Thai and Indian food will think they are good and just keep eating them. I haven't been able to make them /too/ spicy yet. This may be a challenge for somebody. Probably putting sliced jalapeños in the jar with the pickles should kick them up, and make the pickled jalapeños tasty as well. Adding onion slices makes tasty pickled onions. It's a pretty tolerant recipe for changes. These are dynamite out of the jar as a snack or on a sandwich. We pretty much just eat them out of the jar at game night. Interspersed with chips, bread, cheese etc.

Cinnamon donut muffins

I've been craving donuts for a few days, so I figured I better either buy some, or cook some.
I opted for the latter, and got my favourite cookbook out - Google.
I came up with this recipe, which aren't quite donuts, but are quite delicious.
If you don't feel like link clicking, here's the recipe:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
2. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil
3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color
4. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg
5. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine
6. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract
7. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full
8. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean

1. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl
2. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar
3. Cool on a wire rack.

So, the verdict.

Next time, I make it with butter instead of vegetable oil. It requires that richness that butter gives, and the vegetable oil, while giving it moisture, didn't give it the richness it needs.

Also, I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg, which made them gorgeous. Bast and I discussed it earlier, and I have to agree, there is no such thing as too much cinnamon.

And the last thing. I used mini muffin pans. Perfect size for kids, or a mini muffin or two (donut hole?) with a mug of coffee.

Lamb casserole

It's getting a little cooler down here in AU (and especially in Sydney), so I figured a warm winter meal was in order.
I also wanted something that was cheap, but delicious, so lamb casserole it is.
I'm doing it in the slow cooker tonight, but I'd normally do it in a casserole dish, in the oven, for around 2 hours, total.

• Garlic (I'm using around 4 cloves), crushed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped mint
• 1 teaspoon hot chili (seeds in)
• 1 cup tomato paste
• 1 large (2 medium) cans tomatoes
• 1 kilogram lamb chops (the cheaper the better, in my opinion)
• 2 large onions, sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Layer the meat and onions.
2. Combine the mint, garlic, chili, rosemary and tomato paste.
3. Place the tomato paste mix and the tinned tomatoes on top of the lamb in the slow cooker.
4. Cook on high for approximately 3 hours, then turn down to low. Allow to cook for as long as you want - the longer the better.

Serve with steamed green vegies and either polenta or mashed potatoes.

Russian friendship tea

You may not know this, but Bast and I are sisters. Twins, in fact. Lucky Bast, right? ;)

Anyways, Bast is getting married soonish (okay, more like in around 12 months). This means thinking about Stuffs, like Wedding Favours, and food ideas.

The other day, we were discussing tea cup and saucer style favours with teas in them, like my Chai tea recipe.

And we came across this - Russian Friendship Tea.

We haven't tried it yet (at around 1200km apart, we don't exactly get together for a cup of coffee or tea, yanno?), but I suspect some of my friends will be getting gifts soon. I just need to buy the ingredients and actually make it. I'm sure I can find a jar for it.

So, how to make it:

Russian Friendship Tea Mix Recipe

2-1/2 cups Instant Orange Drink Mix
(like Tang)
1-1/2 cups Instant Lemonade Mix
(like Country Time)
1-1/2 cups Instant Unsweetened Tea
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
(all spices are the dried, ground kind- not whole!)

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients until thoroughly combined. (That’s pretty much it, folks!)

I'm not so sure you can buy dried lemonade mix here, but I have a feeling it's a dried sugar lemon flavoured powder.

I asked an online associate today, and she informs me that the instant lemonade mix is indeed sugar, lemon flavour, and nasty-sounding-chemical. I wonder if I can make up some lemon sugar and make it that way...

To serve, add 1 tablespoon to a cup, add boiling water, and enjoy

Chai tea

This is one of my favourite ways to drink tea, and my girls love it, too. I acquired this recipe from a Sikh family I once worked with. They did catering, I did bar, waitressing, food service, staffing, and dishes for them. This recipe was a bonus one night, and only because I asked for it.
I use sugar because I prefer the taste to that of honey, or any other sweetened syrup.
This recipe is made per person, so you need to multiply it out for more.
Do not boil this, as it will make the tea bitter.

• 1 teaspoon loose leaf tea and one extra
• 2 cloves
• 2 cm cinnamon scroll
• 3 cardamom pods, cracked open
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander (round)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Add all ingredients except milk to saucepan, and bring to boil.
2. Reduce heat, and simmer while stirring for 3 minutes.
3. Add milk, and bring back to boil, simmering for a further 3 minutes.

Strain into cups and enjoy

Beef Goulash

Beef goulash is one of my all time favourite winter foods. Not that I've had it all my life. My mother is the reason I learned to cook (that is, she can't cook...). So, this recipe is allegedly a traditional Hungarian goulash. I can't remember where I got the recipe from, but it's so damned easy that you don't even really need a recipe for it.

1 tablespoon canola or other flavourless oil
3 large onions, finely diced
2-3 heaped tablespoons paprika (smoked is the one to use in this recipe... its also knows as Hungarian paprika)
1 kg round steak (that's 3 generous steaks)
1 good, home grown, sun ripened tomato (I don't grow my own. I refuse to add a watery tomato to this recipe. So, I substitute a tablespoon of tomato paste)

• Heat up a heavy based saucepan. Add the oil when the saucepan is hot. Add the onions, and gently saute until transparent. Take the saucepan off the heat.
• This is very important. If the saucepan is left on the heat, this next step will make the goulash bitter
• Add the paprika, and stir through. Add the meat, and coat it well with the paprika and onion mix. Put the saucepan back on the heat, and cover the meat with boiling water. Do not over cover it. The meat should be only just covered
• Bring the meat to a simmer, add the tomato (or tomato paste). Simmer this away for a few hours, until the meat falls apart, and the water has almost evaporated.
• Serve with buttered noodles, or creamy mash.

Note: I'm making the goulash in a slow cooker right now... I'll tell you how it turns out, 'kay?

Edit: It worked, thou it was slightly wetter than I like.

Next time, oven top+patience