Archive for October, 2009

Dee Why Deli

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

It looks like an ordinary takeaway shop from the outside, but this deli is now one of our favourite stores in Dee Why.  We’ve lived here for over 2 years, but it’s only recently we randomly decided to buy a coffee at this café/deli.  Living on the northern beaches is great, but it’s not exactly a foodie paradise.  So this deli was a welcome find!

There’s an array of cheeses, hams, salamis & sausages on offer here.  The price is comparable to Woolies and the owner slices the cheese/ham for you on the spot.  Our favourite is the ham off the bone.  We also bought some St Claire cheese here to take to a party and it was demolished on the cheese platter.

Croatian Pork Liver Pate.

Croatian Pork Liver Pate.

They also stock a range of Eastern European groceries.  Spice mixes, dry foods, confectionery and tins of exciting pates.  You can choose from several different cans of pates, they’re all like $1.50 or something.

We’ve noticed over the past month or so there’s been more and more people at this deli, sitting outside with their coffees.  It’s probably just any old Easter European deli to people who live anywhere else in Sydney, but if you’re a foodie on the northern beaches, this place is worth a visit.

Check it out for yourself.

Shop 2
11-13 Oaks Avenue
Dee Why
Sydney

http://www.deewhydeli.com

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Bolognese Sauce

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

This is the Bolognese sauce recipe my Mum taught me. I distinctly remember her serving it on wholemeal spaghetti when I was young. I loved it so much that she went so far as to send this recipe to me when I was living in London.

I tend to whip this sauce up on a Sunday afternoon for freezing, but, of course, it’s best eaten straight away on the pasta of your choice, in a lasagne or for the more open-minded, on rice. Yum!

In the photos above I used extra onion as they were about to turn. Like all recipes on this site, please adjust the quantity of the listed ingredients to your taste and available ingredients.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil.
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
3 rashers un-smoked bacon
A couple celery stalks, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1.5 cups chopped mushrooms
300g beef mince (more or less to taste)
4 tbsp tomato paste
~1 glass of red wine
Tinned or skinned and chopped tomatoes
~1 cup beef stock
2 tbps brown sugar
ground nutmeg

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a largish saucepan and add the Onion, garlinc, chopped bacon, celery, carrot and mushrooms.
  2. Fry till onion is brown.
  3. Add the beef and stir with a fork to ensure it’s all properly broken up.
  4. Whack in everything else and bring it all to the boil whilst gently stirring.
  5. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

I tend to leave the lid on the pot for a while and, depending on what saucy consistency I want, remove it to allow excess water to evaporate.

This sauce freezes really well, however be sure to get it out the morning of the day it’s required as it takes ages to defrost.

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Cheap Quiche with Homemade Base

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Cheap Quiche with Homemade Base
(serves 6-8)

You can use up the scrap vegies left in the back of the fridge at the end of the week in a quiche.  This is so simple and freezes really well, so just bake a massive quiche and enjoy it throughout the week for an easy work lunch.

We don’t even own a quiche dish.  I just use an oven safe 28cm non stick frying pan and it gives us 8 very generous servings.

Ingredients

Crust
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup cold water
approx. 200g self raising flour
salt

Filling
Leftover vegies – I used mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, kumara and onions.  Microwave the kumara covered with water for 3-4 minutes before putting into quiche.
Leftover meats – bacon is great.  You can also do mince and chopped up steak just make sure you cook it first.
5-6 eggs
Grated cheese

Method

  1. Pre heat oven to 200°C.
  2. Mix olive oil and water to make a cloudy liquid.  Slowly add to flour in a bowl and knead to make a dry dough.  Add more liquid or flour as you go to adjust the moisture of dough. Dough should stay together but be a bit flaky.  It should be dry enough that it doesn’t stick to the kitchen bench.
  3. Season with some salt.
  4. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin. My pan is non-stick, so I don’t grease it.  You might want to grease your baking dish with butter if you’re using that. Place dough into quiche dish or frying pan to from the crust.
  5. Chop up your vegies and place on the crust.
  6. Add the meat.
  7. Mix the eggs in a separate bowl and pour into the baking dish, covering the vegies and meat.  Add more eggs if the fillings are not covered.
  8. Sprinkle some cheese on top.
  9. Bake in oven for about 35 minutes.
  10. Remove from oven and allow to settle before serving.

I love tomato sauce on quiche, that’s why I usually don’t season the filling.  Don’t season the filling if you’re using bacon or ham because they’re already quite salty.

To store, once cooled, just cut the quiche into single servings and wrap with cling wrap and pop it in the freezer.

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Chicken Schnitzel

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Chicken Schnitzel
(makes 4)

We don’t usually buy chicken breasts, because we find them too dry and chewy.  We like chicken thighs for their juicier, fatty texture and flavour.  Schnitzel though, is a nice way to enjoy chicken breasts.  Who knew this pub favourite was so easy to make!  This recipe is made extra yummy and simple by using breadcrumbs intended for tempura. Suitable to freeze, so a bit of your time and some crumbly mess, you can pull out a schnitzel from the freezer anytime; how good is that.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
2 eggs
100g (approx) Panko breadcrumbs
Plain flour
Oil for frying

  1. Beat the chicken breasts with a rolling pin to get to about 8mm thickness.
  2. Ligtly season with salt and pepper.
  3. Beat eggs in a bowl.  Add a bit of water (1 – 2 tbsp) to make it runny.
  4. Set up 3 trays.  Left should have flour, middle tray with egg and tray on the right should have the breadcrumbs.
  5. A note on the breadcrumbs, we actually ran out of Panko the first time we did this.  So we simply put some stale brown bread through the food processor.  It turned out fine, but Panko is definitely worth getting to get a guaranteed crispy result.
  6. Take the breasts and dip in flour.  Make sure you dust off any excess.
  7. Dip in egg, followed by breadcrumbs.  Cover generously with breadcrumbs.  You can wrap in plastic and store in the freezer at this stage.
  8. Shallow fry in oil.  Oil should be on a medium heat.  Throw some breadcrumbs into the oil and if it sizzles straightaway, the oil is ready for your chicken.
  9. Cook until crispy.  This take a lot longer than you would think.  Be patient, the chicken has to cook remember, and wait for schnitzel to be golden brown.
  10. Drain on some paper towels.

We served it with some mashed potatoes with broad beans and green peas through it.

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