ETHIOPIAN CHICKEN CURRY | DORO WAT

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A rainy weekend means a curry for dinner and this Ethiopian chicken curry known as Doro Wat, definitely packs a punch. 

With slow cooked, fall off the bone chicken, coated in a rich and flavourful sauce made from a berbere spice mix, a red chilli-based spice mix,  I guarantee you this dish will blow your mind!

A traditional Doro Wat is made by using a whole chicken which is cut into 12 pieces spicy. It is very, very spicy so if you are making this for those that are not prone to liking heat you might want to pull back on the chilli when making your own berber spice mix. Like all good curries this tastes better the next day. 

Enjoy, Bella 

Braised Wild Rabbit w/ Smokey Bacon & Mushrooms

Braised Wild Rabbit w/ Smokey Bacon & Mushrooms
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Braised Wild Rabbit w/ Smokey Bacon & Mushrooms – I have a couple of favourite butchers I love to go to. Unfortunately my visits to them are limited to our annual and quarterly visits to family. This is why I go prepared with a big esky and lots of icepacks to bring my loot safely home.

Wagga Wagga is Knights Meats, an veritable candy store of meats. We always stock up on their Corned Hogget, enough to last a year as we only get there annually.

Canberra has Eco Meats in one of my favourite food markets, located right near my nana’s place, in Belconnen. If there is an animal you would like to try then here’s your place… among their cornucopia of meats are camel, ostrich, possum, crocodile, plus nitrite free bacon. This is where I stock up on bacon and wild rabbit before heading back to Sydney.

I love rabbit and have been eating it since I was young, even being the ‘lucky one’ and getting the bullet in one of my mouthfuls when eating a freshly shot one we had for dinner when we were in Finland.

There is a big difference between a farmed white rabbit and a wild rabbit. The flavour of a wild rabbit is definitely alot more flavoursome and as they may be older than the farmed ones, they can be tougher, which is why braising is the preferred method for wild rabbit. Having a stronger flavour also means you can be a bit bolder with the other ingredients you choose to put into it. The farmed rabbit has a more delicate flavour so softer flavours are needed so as to not overpower the rabbit.

If you aren’t sure if you would like wild rabbit or have yet to try rabbit then purchase a farmed one and then move up to the wild rabbit.

Happy hunting! Blondie

Tamarind Glazed Pork Ribs

Tamarind Glazed Fennel & Cumin Ribs
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Tamarind Glazed Pork Ribs – Who doesn’t love ribs? Especially when they have been slowly cooked so they just fall apart in your mouth. Team that with a sweet, tangy slightly salty glaze and you will be in pork rib heaven with this delicious recipe.

Along with the glaze, the spice rub has the two most perfect spices for pork and they are cumin and fennel. I love to keep them whole for this recipe as they are little bursts of flavour that complement the fattiness of the pork.

This is truely a finger licking-ly good rib recipe! Blondie

Potato & Caramelised Fennel Gratin

Finding Feasts - Potato Fennel Gratin
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Potato & Caramelised Fennel Gratin – This is a really simple dish that has so much flavour from just a few ingredients. It’s a side dish that can effortlessly outshine your hero ingredient. Comfort food made with love.

As my favourite part of the gratin is the golden, crunchy edges and top, so for this, I like to use a large dish, which means there is more surface area. This way everyone gets a perfect piece.

If you are rushed for time then a fantastic tip is to place the sliced potatoes into a saucepan and cover with seasoned milk. Bring up to a gentle simmer and cook till tender, about 15 minutes. While they are cooking, caramalise the fennel. Alternate pouring some potatoes and scattering on some fennel and grated cheese into a prepared baking dish till all the components are in the baking dish. Season well, top with the remainder of the cheese and place under a grill till the top is golden and bubbly. What normally takes about an hour to cook will take a quarter of the time. This method is also great if you don’t want to use too much cheese. Just top the gratin with a light covering. The end result is still amazing.

Happy eating! – Blondie

Spicy Cumin Lamb & Noodle Soup

Spicy Cumin Lamb Noodle Soup
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Spicy Cumin Lamb & Noodle Soup – Ever since Master S and myself came across Spicy Cumin Noodle Soup from Noodle Warriors in the new Hawkers Lane Chatswood, Sydney, I have been frantically trying to mimic the flavours. We fell head over heels in love with this soup; the best way to describe the flavour is as a taco flavoured soup. Amazing.

I’ve made so many versions of it to date and I think this one is the closest. It’s super spicy with a magnificent cumin and sichuan pepper hit (don’t you just love that tingly, mouth numbing effect you get from sichuan pepper!) The lamb is fall apart tender with the vegetables adding the sweetness that compliments the flavours of the cooking broth.

This soup is traditionally served with smashed noodles, which are handmade noodles torn into rough strips. They are quite thick and play an important part in this soup, so this will be next on the agenda.

I used a slow cooker but you can certainly make this in the oven, just keep it to about 100°c/210°f. The original soup is time absorbing but make sure you freeze the leftover cooking broth from the lamb and you will have an amazing soup flavour base to use in other soup dishes.

Happy slurping! Blondie 🙂

Asian Slow Cooker Boneless Leg of Lamb

Asian Slow Cooker Boneless Leg of Lamb
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Asian Slow Cooker Boneless Leg of Lamb – This is a 6 hour on high or 8-10 hour on low slow cooker recipe for a simply stunning lamb recipe, which you will be able to use throughout the week in various meals, like a Lamb Rice Bowl, Lamb Tacos, Lamb Ramen Noodle Soup…endless possibilities.

This really is a no effort type of meal with amazing results that will give you melt in your mouth tender meat and a sauce that has a slight heat with sweet and sour flavours. Once the lamb is cooked and you are reducing the liquid you can add fresher flavours like coriander root, more chilli and some lime juice.

Genuinely mouth wateringly good. Blondie 🙂

How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth

Broth, Stock or Bone Broth… What is the difference between the three? Is there a difference between the three?

There’s no mistaking what a stock is or a bone broth is but it can become a little unclear as to where a broth stands, here is my interpretation of the three…

How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth

Broth -Think of a broth as the finished product, a soup in a sense… Chicken Soup or Won Ton Noodle Soup all use a broth. It is a gently flavoured liquid that is made by flavouring water with meat, or very meaty bones, carrots, celery, light herbs, onion and most importantly seasoned with salt. It is lighter in flavour compared to the stock and bone broths and is always clear and thin, which is an absolute necessity in asian cuisine. 

The cooking time is much shorter compare with the other two methods, around 40 minutes (unless you are poaching a whole chicken).  There are no added health benefits to an extended cooking time for broths, and it will even negatively affect the flavour of your broth, especially if you are making a fish broth, which will turn bitter if cooked longer than 30-40 minutes. All the flavour and nutrients you want will be leached out into the liquid during this short cooking time.

My favourite broth is a chicken one. By poaching a whole chicken in water with the addition of carrots, onion, celery and seasoned well with peppercorns and salt, you end up with beautifully moist meat and a broth that is delicious and effortless – this method takes about 1 hour 20 minutes as it’s the whole chicken. The benefit of this method is you have a lot of meat leftover that can then be made into pies or a salad through the week along with plenty of chicken broth. As a bonus, the chicken carcass can be incorporated into a bone broth, just freeze till required.

Broths will remain quite fluid as opposed to the stocks and bone broth, which with their naturally high gelatin content, will turn to jelly once refrigerated. 

Vegetable and fish broths do not benefit from long cooks.

How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth

Stock – Is a component of cooking, it’s used to add body and flavour to a dish, generally not to have on it’s own, think of risotto, stews or gravy. It is made with well roasted bones –  ideally with quite a bit of meat still left on them for the extra flavour, and vegetables. Roasting the meaty bones is necessary to a good quality stock as you want rich, well developed flavours in a stock, which the roasting of the bones and vegetables will do. Un-roasted bones will leave a slightly odd, unpleasant flavour to the liquid.

Stocks are generally cooked for 6 -12 hours.

As I make quite big batches of stock at one time (10-12 cups worth) I personally choose to keep the added flavours of vegetables and herbs to a minimum, this way I can alter it to lean toward a particular cuisine when I want to. It’s still a very rich stock just not heavily loaded with flavours outside of the roasted meaty flavours.

Remember to keep all your bones from the roasts you make, in the freezer till you are ready to make your stock. My favourite stock combines the meaty bones of various beasts with the addition of a rabbit carcass  – the flavour is magical!

How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth

Bone broth – Think of bone broth as homemade medicine. Made to be drunk straight, especially the first ‘pressing’, it is the holy grail of the stewing liquids. Used for speeding the healing, repair and recuperation time from illness, reduce joint pain, reduce inflammation, prevent bone loss and build healthy skin, hair, and nails. Certain amino acids that come mostly from the bones can assist with a healthy gut and digestion, a balanced nervous system and strong immune system – just as chicken soup (using the whole chicken) has been proven to aide in healing, bone broth takes it that next step further. Made using mainly the bones – as that is where the amino acids and minerals will be coming from, it’s the very long stewing time, combined with a vinegar solution to draw out certain minerals, that makes the bone broth highly regarded for it’s health benefits. If you are making bone broth you are making it because of it’s centuries known health benefits, otherwise you would stick to stocks.

To get the most out of the bones do your best to source organic or biodynamic animals and birds,100% grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens… basically any animal or bird that has been raised well and healthily as you are making this bone broth for it’s health benefits so the bones need to be from the healthiest animals possible… and keep them all! As you come across them, bag and freeze them; accumulate them so you have a nice mound of bones, raw chicken carcasses etc to make your broth or stock. Continue reading “How To Make A Broth, Stock or Bone Broth”