admin – Craig Cooks

Grand Final Sausage Rolls

September 26, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Today should be the Australian Rules Football Grand Final – it is always the last Saturday in September. Thanks to COVID-19 and a late start to a shortened competition, the Final is going to be a month late.

Nevertheless, why not still make Grand Final Sausage Rolls. Eat some today and freeze some for next month! It’s a Win-win (unlike the actual game)!

Here’s the recipe that I made up today. It’s pretty good.

750g pork mince
2 eshallots (or 1/2 onion) diced finely and sauteed
1 grated carrot
4 tsp garlic
1 tbsp + 1 tsp freshly, coarsely ground fennel seeds (measure after you grind them)
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 – 1 cup fresh bread crumbled

4 sheets puff pastry
1 egg for brushing
Sesame seeds

Feta and Lamb Gozleme

July 18, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Tonight I made gozleme for the first time, and it turned out really well. I hunted my cookbooks and online for recipes, and they were all varied. Some had yeast and some didn’t. Some were flour and oil. Some included yoghurt. In the end I based it on this recipe from Gourmet Traveller.

I made half the dough recipe for the two of us.

100g wholemeal flour
200g plain flour
130ml water
75ml plain yoghurt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

I mixed these in the bread machine for 10 minutes.

Read the recipe to see how to roll it out. I think I added too much oil in the rolling process, as it was a little greasy.

Once rolled and folded, the dough rested for about half an hour and that was fine, as it absorbed the oil more and softened.

For the filling I combined
shredded silverbeet leaves (raw)
spring onions
finely chopped roast lamb
minced garlic
home-made feta
mozarella
2 tsp Turkish spice mix from Herbie’s Spices
juice of 1/4 lemon
black pepper and sea salt

Assemble and cook as in the recipe.

It’s a bit of work to roll out the dough. I was really happy with the finished thickness and texture.

BBQ Whiting with Tarragon Butter Sauce

July 4, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s my first attempt at a dish from Josh Niland’s remarkable and scary cookbook “The Whole Fish”. Josh is renowned for using the whole fish. THE WHOLE FISH.

I surprised the person at the local fish market (a favourite haunt) when I said that I wanted to scale and gut the whiting myself. Having done that, I lost the will to attempt to cook the scales or guts.

I then laboriously reverse-butterflied and pinboned 4 whiting. I took AGES, but I improved. I kept the bones and heads and made some fish stock to go into the sauce. c

The sweet potato, sliced fennel bulb and fish were cooked on the BBQ.

I must admit that I tweaked Josh’s sauce recipe.

300ml of the fish stock that I’d made
1/2 cup of white wine (the recipe said verjuice and we were out of it)
A piece of orange peel
Some fennel seeds
Fresh tarragon from the garden

Reduce it all down and add 80g butter. The sauce was fantastic. The peas go realy well.

A great meal.

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi

May 4, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s a different way to make ricotta gnocchi from my previous Ricotta Gnocchi with Scampi Tails. This comes from the brilliant Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. The book is packed with great descriptions of method. Whereas the previous recipe mixed the ricotta with flour, this one simply rolls the cheese mixture in flour.

Ingredients
500g ricotta, well drained. I used local Blue Bay Cheese which was smooth and dry – perfect.
2-3 handfuls spinach leaves
2 large eggs, cold – gently beaten
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives (not in recipe)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan or grana padano

00 flour

Sauce
Butter
Sage leaves
Option chopped bacon…