Lasagna Recipe

When I was growing up, I never really had a good dish of lasagna. Well I did but on rare occasions and when I did, it was a delicious treat. I've always wanted to learn how to make them but it all seemed too complicated for a younger 'I don't really care for cooking' me. While I was dating hubby, I discovered an unknown passion for cooking and to my mothers delight, she shared her secrets and recipes with me to cook for hubby, who fell in love with our local dishes. I think hubs was more excited about the food than the fact that he would be marrying a wife who was soon to be addicted to cooking!

So after the wedding, before I was leaving to Sydney to be with hubs, mom took me out to shop and she came upon recipe books half price! Score, mom! So she bought me 3 The Australian Women's Weekly recipe books and to my giddy delight, there was a recipe for lasagna! Can't wait to try that!

So I left (cue the tears) and went off to start a new chapter in my life. Took me a while to gather up some courage to try and cook this dish. As I was fresh of the block, hubs was there with me the whole way, guiding me. It turned out pretty good and I started cooking it with more confidence, cooking it for friends and family. One friend, who I affectionately call my 'son', was skeptical when I cooked for him and his 2 precious daughters this dish for dinner. He had bad experiences with lasagna. It was either pub or frozen lasagna. Well I changed his mind alright! He had 4 servings!

This recipe has been tweaked a little according to the mince that you are using. I use beef mince so some ingredients is halved. I will put in the original recipe with notes of my tweaked recipe alongside the ingredients stated. I also used the white sauce recipe in the my Cheesy Potato Bake Recipe.


Main ingredients :

• 1 tbs oilve oil
• 1 med brown onion, chopped coarsely
• 3 stalks celery, trimmed, chopped coarsely
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon ( pork and veal mince ), 1 tsp ground cinnamon ( beef mince )
• 800g pork and veal mince ( I prefer to use beef mince )
• 1 tbs plain flour
• 2 tbs red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp brown sugar ( pork and veal mince ), 1 tsp brown sugar ( beef mince )
• 700ml bottled tomato pasta sauce/passata
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh sage

White sauce ingredients :

• 40g butter
• 2 tbs plain flour, extra
• 2 1/2 cups ( 625ml ) hot milk
• 1 1/2 cups ( 120g ) finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 1/2 cups ( 250g ) coarsely grated mozzarella cheese

Extra ingredients :

• 250g fresh lasagne sheets
• 12 fresh sage leaves ( I find this optional. There's no difference in the taste if you decide to not put it in. The chopped sage is enough for me )

1. Heat oil in large saucepan; cook onion and celery, stirring; until soft. Add garlic and cinnamon; cook, stirring, until fragrant.
2. Add mince; cook, stirring, until meat changes color. Add flour; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in vinegar, sugar, pasta sauce and undrained tomatoes; bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes or until sauce thickens. Stir in chopped sage.
3. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. ( I do this before I start cooking to make sure the oven is nice and hot! )
4. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan. ( Don't burn it like I did the first time I made this! ) Add extra flour; cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and bubbles. ( To be safe, do this on low heat first ) Gradually stir in milk; stir until mixture boils and thickens. ( Increase heat to medium while stirring mixture ) Remove sauce from heat; stir in one-third of the Parmesan. ( Sauce should be creamy and thick. If your sauce is still water-like, before stirring in Parmesan, put back on heat and keep stirring until thick )
5. Spread quarter of the meat sauce into shallow 20cm x 31 cm oven proof dish. Cover with one-third of the trimmed lasagne sheets, then one-third of the remaining meat sauce, half the white sauce and half the mozzarella. Make two more layers with the remaining lasagna and meat sauce; top with remaining white sauce then sprinkle with combined remaining cheeses. Sprinkle with sage leaves. ( If you decide to add this ) Cook, uncovered, in oven, about 50 minutes ( Keep checking on it because usually by 30 minutes, its ready ) or until browned lightly. Stand 15 minutes ( Or in the case of my home, 2 minutes. Boys usually have their hungry hands cutting it up by the time I take it out! )

Tips :

• The great thing about lasagne is you can either make both sauces a day ahead, then assemble the lasagne when you're ready, or completely finish the lasagne a day ahead, put it in the refrigerator and reheat it in the oven ( 180C/160C fan-forced ), covered, for a bout 30 minutes. or, if you like, freeze the finished lasagne, as a whole, or in serving-sized portions. The whole lasagne will take about 24 hours to thaw in the refrigerator. Individual portions can be thawed in a microwave oven - follow the manufacturers directions.
• Pizza cheese ( 375g ) is a good substitute for the Parmesan and mozzarella in this recipe.

So there it is. I hope you, the fresh of the block cooks out there, find the courage to cook this dish like I did. Practice makes perfect! Took me a while to perfect this dish and the white sauce. Especially the white sauce! So do try this dish and if you have any more tips or if you cooked it with an extra ingredient, let me know. Would love to try it! Also let me know if you need any advice on this dish. More than happy to help out a fellow lasagne lover!

xoxo

Veal Osso Bucco with Cannellini Beans Recipe

Yesterday was the day that I tried cooking a dish I never thought I would ever cook in my life! The Osso Bucco. hubs and I watched an episode of Masterchef Australia and Gary Mehigan was cooking his version of osso bucco. Now for those of you who don't know what osso bucco means, it means 'bone with a hole'. Osso = bone, Bucco = hole. So as we watched Gary cook the dish, we knew this was one dish we had to try or actually, more like a dish I had to try cook. We were salivating by the time Gary took it out from the oven.

We already did our shopping last week so all I had to do was just prep and cook and shove the pot in the oven. One problem. I did not understand the recipe. There were cooking methods missing and ingredients stated but was not stated in the methods. It has been a long day today for us and there is nothing more I would love to do than to link you to the recipe but since the recipe is not complete, I feel it is my duty to state the right methods to cooking this beautiful dish. So here it is :



Ingredients :

• 1.5kg bobby veal shin, cut 2.5cm thick (about 12 pieces)
• 1 cup plain flour
• 100ml olive oil
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and diced
• ¼ bunch parsley stalks, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks reserved
• 4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 3 cups white wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 sprigs thyme, leaves picked out
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 400g tin crushed tomato
• 3 cups veal stock ( alternatively you can use chicken stock, which is neutral to bring out the taste of the veal )
• 100g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight ( if you choose to use beans from a can, make sure you wash the starch away )

To finish :

• Freshly cracked white pepper and sea salt
• ½ bunch parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 loaf crusty bread, thickly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C.
2. Season meat with salt and white/black pepper, coat with flour then shake off excess.Heat oil in a frying pan, add meat, keep adding olive oil so not to burn the veal and panfry until caramelized. Put aside on plate.
3. In the same pot, add celery, onion, carrot, reserved parsley stalks, garlic. Add more pepper (optional), thyme and bay leaf. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes and deglaze with wine. Scrape the bottom and cook for 1-2 minutes or till alcohol is evaporated.
5. Add crushed tomatoes, thyme, parsley, lemon zest, stir then add the stock.
6. Stir to mix then add in the veal and cannellini beans.
7. Cover with lid, put in oven and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.
8. Remove lid, check if sauce is to your liking. ( I like mine a little watery than thick ) If you prefer it thick and its watery, cook with lid removed for another 45 minutes in oven or until sauce has thickened.
9. Remove from oven. Spoon the veal and you know its perfectly cooked when the meat falls from the bone.
10. Sprinkle with cracked pepper, sea salt, chopped parsley and lemon zest.
11. Serve with crusty bread.

The ingredients isn't exactly like Gary's but the method is. I cooked it according to the recipe and although it turned out very nice, the sauce was a little thick. So I added another cup to the white wine and stock to make it a little more saucier. So there it is. A traditional, delicious osso bucco fit for a warm night in winter. I hope to hear from you if you decide to cook this dish.

Oh, I forgot to mention that with this dish, it is a must that you be VERY VERY VERY careful when handling the VERY hot pot. I can't stress enough how dangerous cooking this dish can get. I would know since I burnt myself twice, on the same hand, while making this dish! Hubs called me the clumsy chef because I just to happen to either cut or burn myself while cooking...somehow. It is also advisable to have your children attended to when handling this dish.

I would love to hear your comments on this dish and if there are any other way you have cooked this dish or added an extra ingredient, let me know. Would love to try it!

xoxo

Shepherds Pie Recipe

When I was younger, my aunt use to cook this massive dish of shepherds pie for me and it was the highlight of my week every time she came over to drop it off. I would just sit in front of the TV with a big plate of steaming shepherds pie, big grin on my face and scoff it all down. Usually I would try to span out the massive dish in a week but I always end up finishing it off within days! It was THAT good!

This week, one of our dishes was shepherds pie which I cooked for dinner tonight. Hubs knew which recipe he wanted me to cook which was Gordon Ramsay's (my fav chef!) shepherds pie served with pan roasted carrot. Gulp! Gordon Ramsay's recipe?! This man is famous for screaming "Get back in there and cook it, you useless donkey!" to those who would cook his famous dishes wrong! I know he's not here to scream that at me but I cant help but feel that if I do cook it wrong, he's going to appear from nowhere and just start screaming at me! LOL!!! So hubs found his recipe and forwarded it to me. As I was reading it, it was actually quite easy! All this time, I thought just cooking a normal shepherds pie was hard let alone cook a world famous chef's recipe but it was straightforward and lots of flavor! YUUUMMM!

|| not a picture of my cooking ||

As promised to my dearest friend Naomi from liebe.love I would post pictures of what I cook and recipes along with it buuuuut feeding 2 very hungry men in the house proves that sometimes its just a little hard to take a picture once you've taken out the dish from the oven. Yes that's right! They made a beeline for the dish the second I took it out before I had the chance to say "Let is rest." So anyways, here is the link to the recipe. Let me know how it goes if you decide to cook this dish. Would love to hear from you! I know I enjoyed it and I know the boys DEFINITELY enjoyed it!

xoxo

Cheesy Potato Bake Recipe

Today, hubby and I cooked BBQ and cheesy potato baked for dinner. So hubby being the man that he is, he did the BBQ and I went on cooking the cheesy potato bake. I've cooked this dish before but it did take me a while to perfect the bechamel sauce or some people might call it white sauce but I just love saying bechamel! Now I know bechamel sauce is usually used for lasagne or sformati but I thought why not use it with a potato bake. Plus it would have been a good compliment to the meat and lamb hubby was cooking up. So here is the recipe for the meat marinate, lamb marinate and the cheesy potato bake.

Beef marinate :

• Garlic salt
• Pepper

Yes I know. It's as simple as that! Make sure that you coat the meat and marinate for about 2 hours before you cook it. Its better if you marinate it the night before so that the flavors will be infused with the meat.


Lamb marinate :

• Honey
• Rosemary

Again, its that simple! And again, marinate for about 2 hours or marinate the night before.


Cheesy Potato Bake :
Ingredients :

• 60g butter
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2 1/3 cups milk
• 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
• 2 cups parmesan cheese
• 1.2kg Sebago potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 180"C. Grease 6cm deep, 24 cm square baking dish.
2. Cook sliced potatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes or until potatoes are a little soft. Drain potatoes.
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan. Add extra flour; cook, stirring, until mixture thickens and bubbles. ( To be safe, do this on low heat first ) Gradually stir in milk; stir until mixture boils and thickens. ( Increase heat to medium while stirring mixture ) Remove sauce from heat; stir in one-third of the Parmesan. ( Sauce should be creamy and thick. If your sauce is still water-like, before stirring in Parmesan, put back on heat and keep stirring until thick )
4. Arrange one-third of potatoes, overlapping slightly, over base of baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spoon one-third of the cheese sauce over potatoes. Repeat twice. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese on top. Put in oven at bottom grill. Bake for 30 minutes to an hour, or until top is golden. If top begins to brown too much, cover with foil.

Just follow these tips in making this dish and making the béchamel sauce/white sauce and you will NOT fail in impressing your guests, family or your loved ones. It has taken me a while to perfect this sauce and not to toot my own horn, but I am quite proud of this sauce. Once you have gotten the method down to pat, you will be able to use this sauce for your lasagne, potato bake, sformati or to compliment your meat dish. I hope you enjoy this dish and good luck! Don't forget, have fun, enjoy cooking, enjoy food and spread the love! I hope to hear from you soon!

xoxo

Minestrone Recipe

Today, hubby and I woke up to a very affectionate Moe who just had to sneak in our morning snuggle. He was VERY keen! So we got up and went on with our morning routine and as I walked out to the living room and opened the blinds, I realized, its quite a cold muggy day! Hmmm if autumn is going to be this bad, I better prepare myself for a very cold winter. My sinus doesn't do well in cold weather. Love it!...but my nose doesn't.

So as hubby and I sat down and watched the news, I decided, on this cold day why not pick ourselves and our bodies up with a little homemade, hot minestrone soup. No doubt hubby cracked a huge smile and agreed so off we go to the supermarket to get ingredients. Of course before that, I did my research for recipes and found a great one! The soup is simmering so I thought why not share the recipes for all minestrone lovers out there.

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients :

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 celery sticks, trimmed, finely chopped Compose
• 2 carrots, peeled, finely chopped
• 1.5L (6 cups) chicken stock
• 700ml btl passata (tomato pasta sauce)
• 150g green round beans, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces
• 400g can borlotti beans, rinsed, drained
• 2 zucchini, quartered lengthways,cut into 5mm pieces
• 115g (1 cup) small pasta shells
• Shaved parmesan, to serve

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook the onion and garlic, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft.
2. Add the celery and carrot. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the stock and passata. Increase heat to medium and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add the green beans, borlotti beans and zucchini, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the pasta and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. Season with pepper. (To freeze, see note)
4. Ladle the minestrone among serving bowls and top with parmesan.

Notes :

To freeze: At the end of step 3, set the soup aside for 30 minutes to cool. Transfer to a large airtight container or divide among 6 airtight containers. Place in the fridge to chill. Label, date and freeze for up to 3 months.To thaw: Thaw overnight in the fridge.To reheat: Reheat the soup in a large saucepan over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Continue from step 4.

So enjoy this beautiful recipe. I know hubby and I will! And don't forget, have fun, share the love and enjoy everything around you.

xoxo

Amatriciana Recipe

Amatriciana Dish

A pasta dish is always an easy and fast dish to serve up for your family. Me and hubby cooked this one night but with our own little twist. Here is the recipe if you feel like making Amatriciana dish without the complications of having too many ingredients.


Ingredients :

• 1 medium brown onion (diced).
• 3 cloves of garlic (diced).
• 400 gram mince meat (the usual recipe calls for bacon but the halal version you can put in mince meat).
• 1 red chilli (diced).
• 1 can of crushed tomatoes (810 grams) or to your liking.
• 500 grams;pasta of your choice.

1. Boil water to cook the pasta. Cook according to the instructions on the packet.
2. While waiting for the water to boil,heat up pan with oil. Once heated up,cook the onions till they soften.
3. Then add the mince meat and cook till brown. Once brown,add the chilli and garlic. Cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes and stir. Add more crushed tomatoes if you like it saucier. Leave to boil and reduce.
5. Cook the pasta in the boiling water and once done, add the pasta to the sauce and stir.

Serves: 4

This is a dish that you can dish up for your family that is no fuss and not time consuming. Again, you can add ingredients that you think will go good with this dish. I am enjoying this dish and I hope you do to when you decide to cook this dish! So good luck and have fun!

xoxo