Yesterday I was under the pump ... we were having our beautiful neighbours in for dinner after they had been away for the past four months ... to celebrate their return I had planned a special dinner with all the bells and whistles ... needless to say, by 12 noon all of those plans went out the window! Due to some unexpected family and home commitments I had to go to Plan B! Dont you love those Plan Bs!!!! Plan B consisted of a couple of dips (instead of entrée), meatloaf with Bryan’s homegrown baked potatoes and salad (instead of stuffed chicken breasts), and custard with fresh fruit (instead of lemon tart as Des LOVES lemon tart). The meal was lovely, and reminded me of how plain and simple home cooked food is also so special, when it comes from the “heart” which is what really makes the difference. I decided to share our meal with you, to perhaps inspire you to keep things simple when you just don’t have the time to do more than you can do, especially as we head into the “silly” (but wonderful) festive season that is “Christmas”. The two dips were: 1. Herb and Garlic Dip from the Everyday Cookbook (EDC); and 2. Beetroot, Parmesan and Cashew Dip from the Festive Flavour Cookbook. The Herb and Garlic dip is terrific as it keeps well in the fridge, leftovers can be used as the butter substitute when making mash potatoes (divine), as stuffing for chicken breasts (add some sundried tomatoes if you like … yum!), great when it is added to a white sauce when making a veggie or pasta bake, or simply put into little containers for the kids lunch boxes so that they can dip carrot or celery sticks into it (add a little milk to the dip if doing this to keep it softer). The Beetroot dip uses tinned beetroots so I replaced that with fresh, and I prefer to use my own sea salt and toast my own nuts instead of using salted roasted cashews, so have adjusted the recipe accordingly and that is in the “notes” section of this post. When making any dip, if using garlic, ALWAYS chop the garlic for 3 seconds / Speed 7 before adding it to the other ingredients as no-one likes to get a mouthful of raw garlic. I served the dips with Tenina’s Parmesan Puff Pastry Twists … I had made some a couple of weeks ago and put them into the freezer for Christmas as they freeze well, but we used them last night. Take them out of the freezer the day you wish to use them, and lightly refresh in the oven (180 degrees) for 3-4 minutes … totally divine with the dips! Mains was the meatloaf from the EDC … I had forgotten how yummy this meal is, until last week when I was in Adelaide and my youngest sister, Fiona, made it for us … you can put whatever you wish in the middle of the meatloaf … until I saw this dish made at one of our cooking classes I had never attempted it because I felt it was too hard … but it is so simple. • I alter the recipe by using 600gms of beef instead of 500gms, and always get the best quality mince I can find … yesterday I was able to get Macro (from Woolies) grass-fed mince which I hadn’t seen before • I use my own sourdough breadcrumbs, and use 100gms instead of 50gms (do your breadcrumbs BEFORE milling the parmesan and parsley … I often have breadcrumbs already in the freezer which I make with leftover ends of bread … they don’t go solid and you can just take out what you need). • I used Gouda cheese in the middle, along with ham, spinach and sundried tomatoes • I had it all set up in the fridge ready to go, but took it out 30 minutes before cooking to allow the chill to come off it • I always cook my meatloaf for 40 minutes, and then let rest for 10 minutes before cutting Dessert was simple … I am almost too embarrassed to tell you as my guests loved it, but I made the Crème Patissere custard from the EDC, but I: • always use 50gms plain spelt flour to 600gms of full cream milk • use 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste and no lemon rind • use 80gms of golden caster sugar for the 600gms of milk • cook the custard for 9 minutes / 90 degrees / Speed 4 to ensure that the flour as been “cooked out” I poured the custard straight from the TM bowl into four containers (I used 120gms per serve so as not to overfeed everyone), let it cool a little and then refrigerated them. I washed and quartered some strawberries, drizzled a little maple syrup over them and put them in the fridge. I also washed some blueberries to add to the strawberries when I was ready to serve. I lightly toasted some pistachios to put on top of the “parfaits” … well, that is what I called them … he he! And put them into the fridge too. As this is my first post in this PB page I am not 100% sure if my photos will come up properly, or if I will need to do them in a separate post ... but as far as I can see my photos from last nights dinner are below so hopefully you can see them too ... I will not upload the recipe of the beetroot dip so that you can print that off if you wish to ... xo
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 02:43:03 +0000
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