Slow-Cooked Colonial Goose (No Goose Required)

Why, I can hear you asking, am I posting a mid-winter recipe in the middle of summer? Well, for one, a lot of my lovely northern hemisphere readers have been ogling at pictures of sunshine and gardens in full bloom, so I thought you deserved something more comforting while its freezing cold up there. Also, the weather here is so screwy right now that some days it might as well be winter over here too. Days of rain, and nights so cool we've seriously thuoght about lighting the fire.

In February.

That's nuts.

But moving on...

Also known as a Rolled Forequarter Hogget Roast, there are few things you can do better in a crockpot than a Colonial Goose. Wiki has a great description here, although I must admit I'd never read a recipe for it quite like theirs. The things you learn. Next time, I'll give it a go.

My version, on the other hand, is far more prosaic, lacking the honey, apricots, and red wine. On the other hand, it's done in the slow cooker, and that has to count for something.

Slow-Cooked Colonial Goose

(Serves 4)

Your rolled forequarter should be stuffed with onions and breadcrumbs at the very least. Toss the roast in freshly ground salt and pepper, some rice bran oil, and a splash of worcester sauce and some balsamic vinegar, then roll in semolina flour.

Rest in the fridge in the crockpot dish on a raised tray for about 5 hours. (Did I mention you need to start this one early in the morning?)

Cut an onion into 6ths and place around the meat. Place in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.
Remove the meat and rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, take a hand blender and blitz the onion and the juices in the crockpot dish to make the gravy. Season to taste. Slice the meat and the stuffing against the grain.
Serve with boiled potatoes and fresh veges, and lots of that lovely gravy.

If you have leftovers, use them up the following morning by making hash-cakes, with grated cooked potatoes, cheese and eggs. I'd post a photo but I'm guessing they disappeared too quickly for the camera to get a look in.

Just like your Tuck Shop used to make, only better.

Righto, back to the food.

Like any red-blooded kiwi lad, I like a nice pie. Especially when you can pull some leftovers out of the freezer , grate some cheese and roll out some pastry and away you go.

Ok, I'll be honest. Dessert Chef C made this one, and the filling was actually from Liz E. Bear's Bolognaise. I even think that the cheese was pre-grated! So given all those conditions, I'll try to represent as accurately as I can how to whip up a luverly Mince 'n' Cheese Pie from scratch. Of course, if you too have Liz E. Bear's leftovers in the freezer then you can just use them!

Mince and Cheese Pie

(Serves 4)

For the filling, fry up an onion and some garlic, then add 400g of Beef Mince. Brown and cook well. Add a handful of chopped mushrooms and courgettes towards the end. Add about 400g of pasta sauce, preferably a thick one. Heat through and reduce until the sauce is nice and thick. In other words, make up a Bolognaise sauce and thicken it. Put aside to cool.

Grease a 30cm pie dish, then sprinkle it with flour. On a floured bench, roll out a sheet of flaky puff pastry. Drape the pastry over the dish and ease into the corners of the dish without tearing it. Roll out a second sheet and stand by.
Spoon in the filling. Grate 1 1/2C of cheddar cheese and a 1/4C of parmesan cheese over the mince, followed by a few twists of freshly ground pepper. Place the top sheet of pastry on the pie and press the edges into the base firmly with a fork. Brush lightly with milk. Trim away the excess pastry and poke the top with a few airholes to let the steam escape.
Place in the oven at 200C on the centre rack for about 40-45 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to stand for at least 5 mins.
Dish with care. Filling will be hot and delicious.

Isaac doesn't seem to do too well with mince, so Dessert Chef C made him little bacon and egg pies instead. Lucky Boy!

Breakfast Dinner

What better way to wake up on a Sunday morning than to the smell of frying bacon and onion and hot toast, with fresh coffee? Fixing up a huge feed for breakfast on the weekend is all good and well, but what really bites is then having to do all the dishes. What a way to drag down your Sunday morning. So here's the solution. Instead of going to all that effort when you should just be sleeping in, whip it up for dinner on a Thursday or Friday night instead. Somehow that way, the dishes don't seem like such a burden. Of course none of this applies if you have one of those new-fangled dishwashers, but we're certainly not that flash (despite the Dessert Chef's insistence that we move into the 20th Century and cram one into our rather undersized kitchen). Either way, here's what I reckon is right royal Breakfast-Dinner nosh-up, complete with hot coffee in the morning or followed up with a hot milo at night. Yes, we really do have a milo at night. And with your Sunday morning, cook porridge and don't waste all that time doing dishes.

The Ultimate All-Day All-Night Cooked Breakfast

Bacon, fried.
Onions & Capsicum, fried.
Hot Baked Beans.
Buttered Toast.
Scrambled Eggs.
Tomatoes, halved and fried, then covered in grated parmesan & freshly ground pepper before being finished under the grill.

Sunday Scones

There's nothing nicer than waking up on a Sunday morning and enjoying freshly baked scones in the sun with jam and whipped cream. It makes getting up the morning before and going out to the market in the cold and the rain worthwhile. This was a little treat from my resident Dessert Chef, C. Thanks, Honey.


Yummy Scones

Recipe is courtesy of Alison Holst's Dollars & Sense Cookbook. Full credit, Alison.

2 Cups of Self Raising Flour
1/4t Salt
1 T Sugar
25g Melted Butter
1/2 C Milk
1/4 - 1/2 C Water

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Heat butter until it melts, tip all the milk and 1/4C of water into the flour. Mix until blended, adding extra water as necessary to make a soft dough. Turn on to a floured bench and roll out lightly into a square. Cut into triangular sections, place 1cm apart on an oven tray . Bake at 220c in the middle of the oven for 12-14mins, until the tops of the scones are lightly browned.

Break open with your hands, butter and serve with jam and whipped cream. Then enjoy the rest of the day, because after all, it's Sunday. (Disclaimer - May not actually be Sunday)

Hot Diggity Dog

You can't always be good.

This has to be the ultimate in naughty comfort food, but I do put a tiny healthy spin on it. Hot Dogs are a good mid-week food, so long as you remember to get what you need at the supermarket on shopping day. The other good thing about them is that its easy to add whatever you like to them. Which may or may not make them good for you. But we all deserve a treat now and then, and if its one that only takes 15 minutes to prepare, then I'm happy with that.

American Hot Dogs

Boil a pot of water, and place 6 Frankfurters in to cook.

Slice 6 long rolls lengthwise across the top. Butter lightly, and place under the grill for a minute if you're sure you won't forget about them.

Grate some cheese and a carrot or two. Chop up half a red onion and some capsicum.

Stand by your favourite sauces: Tomato, BBQ, Sweet Thai Chilli, Mustard, Aoili or what have you.

When the franks are just starting to split, pull them from the heat and drain.
This is one of those meals that you just put everything on the bench and let everyone make their own. Better than anything you'll get from a street vendor, even in NY itself.

Warning - Reading This Post May Raise Your Cholesterol

Most of the time, what we cook is pretty much healthy and nutritious, light on the bad stuff and loaded with lashings of veges and other goodness. Sometimes we praise the vices of naughty things like pork crackling.

But ever so occasionally we cook a dinner so bad that we have to duck the Health Department choppers that can detect the sudden surge in the levels of saturated fat in the area by satellite. This is one of those nights.

I blame America.

Last year we had a three day stopover in San Francisco, where we tried our first Philadelphia CheeseSteaks. It was a Californian takeout serving a Pennsylvania specialty in a New York style, but IT WAS GOOD.

When we got back, we made several attempts at replicating this delicious and decadent delicacy, and while they may lack that "our-special-flavour-comes-from-not-scraping-down-the-grill-between-orders" aura, they're still pretty darn good.
Start by thinly slicing 600g of frying steak (stir-fry beef is ideal), and mix up in a bowl with olive oil, freshly ground salt and pepper and 2T of worcester sauce. For the rolls, home-made sourdough would be most authentic, but we tend to go with ones from the shop which do just fine.

Finely chop an onion and 4 garlic cloves. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the garlic until just browning.
Add the meat and mix up with the garlic. Keep cooking on a high heat until the meat is browned.
Add the onions and mix through the meat and garlic. Keep on a high heat so that the meat doesn't simmer, or it will go tough.
As the onion cooks, grate up a cup of cheese. We use Edam and a bit of extra Parmesan. Slice the rolls down the middle and butter.
When the onion is soft, add the cheese to the pan, turn the heat right down and keep stirring to melt it into the meat and onion. As soon as the cheese is melted, and you have a gooey meaty pan full of CheeseSteak, scoop it out and insert into the rolls. Serve immediately. If you have the foresight, you can do a little salad on the side to allay some of the awful bad fat you're about to consume.
Enjoy, and try not to feel too guilty. When it comes to winter comfort food, the Philly CheeseSteak A-la Dan is just what you need. Tomorrow, go for a run.

Or three.