Weekend Away - Skamp's New Car

Late last year, my husband was involved in a car accident. Beyond a little whiplash, he was fine. His car, however, was not. It was deemed ‘uneconomical to repair’, and promptly taken away for scrap. Which given all of the experiences we’ve had in that car, was more than a little sad. Now, I’m not a car person. And Lance is not a car person. We don’t even have a his car/her car set-up. We need two cars, but both cars are ‘ours’. So when it came to buying a vehicle, practicality is the only thing that entered our reasoning. The last time either of us had bought a car was over 10 years ago, so we didn’t really even know what was out there, let alone what we wanted to buy! So we went to car yards. Dozens of them. And looked at cars. Hundreds of them.

We already own a small car, which is perfect for driving to work, and around the place. Our new car had to be a big car, like the recently departed old Fairmont. We needed boot space. Lots of it. For grocery shopping (boxes and boxes of fresh produce from The Nanna Shop. For trips down south. For crabbing and fishing and kayaking. And we needed a decently sized back-seat. We frequently ferry around 5 adults and we’re nice enough to want those adults squished in the backseat to be comfortable. Honestly, those were the two main factors we considered. Then we looked at the more serious things like fuel economy. We eventually settled on the Mistubishi Outlander (or the Mitsubishi Zoolander as we have been calling it). And I am so stoked with it! One of the things that sold us on the Outlander being the car for us was the salesman, Jayke at Southside Mitsubishi. Every car we looked at, we immediately opened the boot, before looking at anything else. It actually seemed to freak out a lot of car salesmen! Jayke asked what sort of things we’d be transporting, that the boot was such a concern. My husband joked, ‘Bodies’. Without missing a beat, Jayke climbed in to show how many people would fit! Now, that is service!

Taken from the back row, with the middle seats folded down

It's not often your kilometres match how hot the day is!

We decided to take the car down for a trip to Molloy Island very soon after buying it. We bought the 7 seat option, which means that we can have less designated drivers in the Margaret River Wine Region. Perfect, right? Especially when I don’t have to be the designated driver!

Our trip consisted of driving down after work on Friday night. 5 people, 5 people's luggage. We wanted to make sure there was enough space to bring home wine! The next morning we stopped for a coffee at Yahava and browsed through the Vasse Virgin store. I absolutely love their Chamomile and Lavender balm. My skin has a tendency towards dryness and irritation with a lot of products, but this moisturiser made from olive oil is beautiful. 

From there, we drove on to Woody Nook for wine tasting and lunch. I'm quite a fan of the Nookery Cafe. Their meals are sort of more "old-fashioned" than a lot of restaurants. The dishes are well made, with lots of fresh local produce, but they haven't bothered jumping on the whatever's trendy bandwagon. They provide classic dishes, at very reasonable prices. The location is lovely too, but I would recommend sitting outside in this weather. It was quite stuffy inside when you order. One of the wines I always find myself buying here is their Velvet Rose. The label is quite fun, as the rose changes colour from white to red, to show that the wine is cold enough to drink! But it's not just a gimmick, the rose is actually a lovely lightly sweet wine that paired well with my ginger duck, Lance's salmon and Justin's ricotta cannelloni.




Velvet Rose

Fish of the Day - Salmon with Baby Chat Potatoes and Asparagus

Duck with Plum and Ginger Sauce with Polenta Cake and Sauteed Vegetables

Garlic Prawns and Steamed Calamari stuffed with Salmon Mousse on Couscous

Pasta of the Day - Vegetarian Cannelloni with salad and fries

The five of us then drove on to Cape Naturaliste Winery. I don't think I need to remind you of how much I love the wines here. We brought along some cheese, venison chorizo, crackers and bought a few wines by the glass to sit on the verandah and watch the sun set. We were mainly drinking the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc - a zesty, passionfruity and very summery wine, before switching to 2011 Torpedo Rocks Shiraz - full-flavoured but still light enough to enjoy on a summer's afternoon. By the time we finished drinking and chatting, our dinner options were severely limited. So we hit Dunsborough for fish and chips, then watched a bride-to-be wrestle her friends to the floor at a Hen's Party at the Dunsborough tavern.

The next morning, we slept in and had a leisurely pack and drive home. We stopped in at the Blackwood Meadery. I particularly like their lemon mead - perfect for afternoon sipping over ice. And then we hit Cheeky Monkey Brewery for lunch. The vibe of this brewery is so laidback and chill. It's always a relaxing experience. The food can be a little hit and miss for me. It goes from incredible to just good. I've never had a bad meal here, but sometimes it's been not as good as it should be. This trip, it was good, though. Lance's ribs were covered in lovely sticky BBQ sauce (nothing irks me more than sauce-less ribs), although the switch from normal chips to corn chips is a little disappointing. Wiping up all the sauce with chips is part of the rib experience! And my Char Sui Pork Salad was overflowing with delicious saucy pork and the crispy shallots topped it off perfectly. The live music was cherry on the top experience. We stopped in to Ferngrove/Killerby Wines on our way out and ended up with another carton of wine.

Pork Ribs in Cheeky Monkey BBQ sauce with Coleslaw and Corn Chips

Char Sui Pork Salad with egg noodles, mixed leaves, crispy shallots and sweet soy dressing

At this point, we had put our new car's space to the test. We started off with 5 people and 5 people's luggage. We now had 5 people, 5 people's luggage and 7 cartons of wine. How did it fit? Very, very well. Lance is a bit of an expert at packing Tetris, but he packed the car such that we had all that gear and STILL had 6 seats available. We didn't need 6 seats, but we had them! So the drive home had one in the back, two in the middle with the arm rest/drink holder down and two in the front. No complaints about being squished at all.

The Zoolander definitely passed our Molloy test. Lance and I are both so stoked with our decision!




Our car even knew it was on the ferry!

Ugly but Delicious - Corn, Almond and Roast Garlic Stuffed Silverbeet (Chard)

This recipe was inspired by two other recipes that are on my blog. It’s a combination of the Cuban Chicken and Corn Pie (remember the one with the awesome crust made from corn?) and my Stuffed Silverbeet Rolls. I was really craving the Cuban Pie in particular, but I just couldn’t be bothered with getting out food processors and whatnot that is required to make the pie. Given I had a lovely bunch of fresh silverbeet from the markets, I decided to use those flavours and make stuffed silverbeet rolls instead.

To roast the garlic cloves, put a whole head of garlic into the oven on a baking tray while the oven is pre-heating. After 15 minutes or so (for me, it’s ready by the time it is required to be added), the garlic will be squishy and the cloves will easily slide out of their skins. Doing this really sweetens the garlic and completely takes away the harshness that garlic can sometimes have. Then use half the cloves for this dish, and save the other half for another dish.

Photos prove this isn't the prettiest meal - but it sure was delicious!

 

Corn, Almond and Roast Garlic Stuffed Silverbeet (Chard)

3 cups corn kernels

1 brown onion
6 cloves roast garlic
½ tsp salt
6 caperberries, sliced
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
1 bunch silverbeet, ribs removed
¾ cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp Monty’s Muscat
 

Heat the oven to 170C

Dice the onion, and fry in a splash of olive oil and the salt over medium heat until translucent. Add the corn kernels and cook for 10 minutes, stirring here and there, until just barely starting to brown. Remove from the heat. In a mortar and pestle, crush the roast garlic cloves into a paste. Stir through the corn mixture, then add the almond meal and lightly beaten eggs and capeberries, making sure the mixture is completely combined.

Take each silverbeet leaf and add a few tablespoons of mixture to the top of the leaf. Fold the ‘leg parts’ together to make it a solid sheet, roll the edges in, and the whole thing down lengthwise, like you are rolling a spring roll, or burrito. Place seam side down in a casserole dish. Continue until all of the leaves and filling is used up.

Mix the water with the lime juice and Muscat, pour over the completed rolls. Cover loosely with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then gently turn over the rolls. Leave the foil off and bake for a further 10 minutes.

 
Remove the rolls and reduce the liquid in a pan (I save on dishes just by using the first pan) until it’s syrupy and pour over the top

Using Leftovers - Smokey Duck and Lentil Empanadas

If you are lucky enough to have some leftover bourbon molasses braised duck, then this is the perfect way of utilising some of that delicious saucy meat. If you do not have any left, never fear – any leftover meat could be shredded to be added to the lentils. Or even some refried beans and a little grated cheese. Or the sweet potato and bacon filling from my bagel bombs. The recipe here is more for the dough than anything. The dough itself is flavoured in such a way that it lends itself to the smokey, BBQy flavours of the duck dish, so I would recommend using a little good quality BBQ sauce to coat the meat and lentils before forming the empanadas. Alternately, make sure you have a good dipping sauce if you have a plainer filling.

I make my pastry doughs in the food processor because it’s so much simpler, but it can be done by hand.

Oh, and my New Year's Resolution last year to eat more cornbread was a huge success. This year, I think it might be to practice making prettier looking empanadas!
 

Smokey Empanadas with Duck and Lentils

2 cups plain flour (‘00’ if you have it)
½ cup cold butter, cubed
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ancho chilli powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
¼ cup bourbon
2 eggs
1 tbsp molasses
1 Egg + 1 tbsp cold water for the egg wash

Filling

400g tin lentils
Few twists of salt and pepper
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup shredded duck

Remove the duck from the fridge to take the chill off.

Sift the flour, salt, paprika and chilli powder together and put it in the food processor. Add the butter and pulse until it is combined and resembles breadcrumbs. In a bowl, lightly beat the bourbon, eggs and molasses to combine. Add to the flour mixture and pulse until it comes together into a ball. Don’t overwork it.

Remove the dough, flatten it into a disc, wrap it in plastic and pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill.

Take it out of the freezer, divide it into two pieces and roll each piece out into a rectangle about 5mm thick that you then cut into 4. So when both pieces have been rolled and cut, you’ll have 8 rectangles. Place on lined baking trays, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

Rinse the lentils well as they come out of the tin and drain. Place in a bowl, season and add 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar. Stir to combine, then drain the excess vinegar and measure out 1 cup of lentils. Reserve the rest for another use (I added to a salad). Mix the duck meat into the lentils.

Preheat the oven to 175C

Place around 1 ½ tablespoons of filling mixture along half of each piece of dough, leaving a 5mm-1cm rim around the edge. Brush the rim top and bottom with egg wash, fold the top over and crimp together with a fork. Poke a few air holes with the fork tines and brush the whole thing with egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Serve with greek yoghurt or sour cream

 

 

Starting the Year off Right - Bourbon Molasses Braised Duck

I have mentioned before that Lance has been experimenting a lot with smoking. Meat. He gets some funny looks when he tells people he’s really into smoking. He built a tray holder and bought a rotisserie and turned one of our garden sheds into a smoker. Last time he did a great big smoke, we had around 50 sausages, half a kilo of bacon, 6 chorizo links, a roast pork and a whole chicken. We now have a few piles of various woods drying out, ready for him to experiment with, things like macadamia and plum. As well as the traditional hickory blocks that we buy from the store. As an offshoot from that, he’s started experimenting more with roasting meats on the rotisserie in the BBQ. Or “rotisserating” them, as he likes to say.

This style of cooking is most suited to things with an outer layer of fat, so when it rotates, that layer of fat gets crunchy and delicious, whilst the interior meat is protected and stays gloriously moist. Even if you slightly overcook a roast, it stays moist inside. Lamb and pork legs and whole chickens have all had the rotisserated treatment to great effect. He’ll often throw some hickory and mesquite chips in to add an extra flavour boost. He did a whole baby pig for my sister-in-law's 30th!

This passion and experimentation has led him to the idea of rotisserating a whole beef fillet which is almost entirely devoid of fat, so he wants to encase it in a layer of duck fat and see how that changes the flavour profile and generate moistness in a roast that is notorious for drying out. He figures if duck fat roasted potatoes are the holy grail or roast potatoes, then surely the same will be true for duck fat roasted beef. Which led to a Sunday afternoon of kitchen prep side-by-side. Me making baked bean casserole and banana bread for the week ahead. Him skinning a duck. Yep. He skinned a whole duck. Which meant I needed to find a way to cook a skinless, fatless duck.

Obviously that rules out roasting it. The general consensus of all my cookbooks is that you can cook duck breasts quickly and to medium, and that duck legs you slow cook into confit style dishes and the rest of the duck is pretty useless for anything but stock. There isn’t a great deal of meat on ducks beyond the breasts and legs. My Peruvian cookbook had largely tomato based dishes, which didn’t really jump out at me. A Mexican cookbook had some slightly more inspired spice-based dishes. My Treme cookbook had slow roasted duck with bourbon molasses sauce and sweet potato fries. Bingo! I used the same base flavours, but changed the dish to suit my skinless duck. Opting to section it, brown it, then braise it.

To make life easier, you can get an already segmented duck and either pull the skin off yourself which will be a lot easier than skinning it whole. Or, you can still brown each piece leaving the skin and fat on, but you’ll need to brown it for longer on the skin side, and removed the majority of the fat from the pan before adding the liquids.

This resulting dish is rich and sweet and sticky and moreish just all kinds of perfect. I deep-fried some sage leaves in duck fat for garnish, and instead of making fries, I made a sweet potato mash with orange and cinnamon that complimented the sweetness just so. Although that as a dish by itself makes a fantastic side. I lazily made it in the microwave and it takes less than 10 minutes. Couldn’t be simpler!

And as a side note, molasses can be hard to find, but I really suggest you seek it out. The flavour profile is so much richer than any other sweetener you would try using as a substitute and it really makes the dish. In the end, I found it in a Woolworths, but I had gone to the Nanna Shop, a Coles and an IGA before I found some.

Bourbon Molasses Braised Duck

(adapted from the Treme Cookbook)

1 duck, approx. 2.2 kg, sectioned into about 8 pieces and skinned

2 tbsp reserved duck fat (from skinning the duck)
1 brown onion, sliced into half moons
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 shallots, diced
8 large sage leaves, plus 1 tbsp chopped sage leaves
1 tbsp thyme leaves
2 tsp black pepper
1 cup chicken stock
½ cup molasses, divided in two
½ cup bourbon, divided in two
¾ cup apple cider vinegar (plus a splash)
330mL bottle apple cider
Salt and pepper

Place the duck fat in a large lidded pan (I used my tagine) and bring up to a medium high heat. When the majority of the fat has rendered out, remove the little bits that remain and discard. Carefully drop the whole sage leaves into the hot oil, they will sizzle and crisp up in about 30 seconds. Remove to paper towel and set aside.

Season the duck pieces with salt and pepper and in batches, brown on each side in the duck fat. Around 3-5 minutes per side should do it. Set aside on a plate.

Add the onion to the pan and cook until golden, stirring here and there so it doesn’t catch too much. Around 10 minutes. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar to deglaze the pan if necessary, then add the shallots and garlic cloves. Cook until translucent, around 3 minutes.

Add the sage, thyme, pepper, chicken stock, ¼ cup of molasses, ¼ cup of bourbon, apple cider vinegar and apple cider to the pan. Stir well to combine, then add the duck pieces back into braising liquid. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, turn the duck over, re-cover and cook for a further 20-30 minutes or until the meat is falling off the bone.

When cooked, remove the duck from the pan and add the remaining ¼ cup of molasses and ¼ cup bourbon and leave simmering with the lid off to reduce.

Shred the duck meat from off the bone, discarding the bones.

When the sauce is a thick, syrupy consistency, check for seasoning, then stir the duck back through the sauce.

Serve with Orange Cinnamon Sweet Potato Smash and crispy fried sage leaves

Simplest of Sides - Orange Cinnamon Sweet Potato Smash

This is the easiest side in the whole world. Ok, maybe not. But it is brilliant for those nights that you just want something quick to go with a grilled meat. Especially now the weather is warming up (41C/106F the other day) and you don’t want to put the oven on and heat up the whole house. All you need is a glass/pyrex bowl, a microwave, a fork and 6 minutes. The result is crazy flavoursome. I served this for the first time with Bourbon Molasses Braised Duck and it couldn’t have been a more perfect match. I will post that recipe very soon. But it’ll pretty much go with any meat except maybe seafood.

Because it is so easy, and not really something I've considered worth posting...I haven't been great at taking photos of said side. Sorry.

To make this vegan, substitute the butter with olive oil. Also, adding a few tablespoons of Greek Yoghurt instead of the butter makes a delightfully creamier version!

Orange Cinnamon Sweet Potato Smash

3 small sweet potatoes

3 tbsp orange juice
Salt and pepper
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp butter

Scrub the sweet potatoes and cut into 3-4cm chunks. Place in a large glass bowl and add the orange juice and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cover the bowl with a piece of paper towel and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Check with a fork, if not quite tender, zap for another minute.

When done, add the butter and cinnamon and smash it all together with a fork to make a mash. Rough is fine, but you want to make sure the orange juice, butter and cinnamon are mixed through. Check for seasoning and serve.