what do you mean... we have no eggs?

I woke up on Saturday morning dreaming of poached eggs, on crusty, toasted sourdough bread (from infinity bakery in Kings Cross, soo good). Instead I found out that we had no eggs in the fridge. My first thought was, ' how is that possible, we always have eggs?', my next thought, after a thorough search of the kitchen myself was, 'what do I eat now that my dream of poached eggs has been smashed?'

Solution = Mushroom Duxelles, grace á Monsieur Damien Pignolet's cook book ' French'.
Mushrooms duxelles id usually cooked and brought to room temperature to be used as a stuffing, most often pushed into the cavity between the skin and meat of chicken breast when roasting.

However, I decided to cook my secret stash of exotic mushrooms, that I picked up for a very reasonable price from Orange Grove markets in Leichhardt, a la Pignolet.

To start, I sweat some diced eschallots in a little bit of salted butter and duck fat.
I then added some vertically sliced king oyster mushrooms, golden enoki, chenterelles and portebello's until golden brown and translucent
.

I then added some grated garlic,salt & pepper, a few passes of the micro plane of nutmeg (this adds a sweet and nutty dimension to the mushrooms, a revelation really), and some chopped parsley.


And so my breakfast dilemma was a thing of the past,
crusty sourdough toast, topped with Latvian liverwürst, polski ogorki , pickled cocktail onions and mushroom duxelles.

C'est magnifique.

new and improved shepherd's pie

So this is the story, I have been craving a traditional, ubër tasty, Aussie meat pie for ages. I finally broke down and bought one at the orange grove markets, it was alright, maybe 2 and a half stars. I was disappointed, really I thought to myself, how hard is it to make a tasty pie. So I set myself the challenge of devising a taste sensation using only the food in my freezer and leftovers from my fridge.

I bought a cut of beef traditionally used for silver side/corned beef, Using about 500g, I cubed them and tossed them in seasoned plain flour, then browned them in the pot of a pressure cooker.

Once the beef was browned, I added 1cm thick slices of pork belly, a diced onion (large), 2 carrots and 2 sticks of celery diced. I also added some garlic shoots which I chopped into 3mm slices.
I added the veggies and pork to the pot with the beef, topped it with beef stock and a few tablespoons of tomato sauce (no frills, better flavour when cooked).

All the ingredients went into the pressure cooker for 25 minutes and came out as a rich gravy with succulent, unctuous pieces of pork belly and shreds tender beef.

All the ingredients went into a shallow baking dish and when slightly cooled were topped with potato and celeriac mash. the concoction was bushed with a beaten egg for colour and put in a moderate oven (180 degrees) for 10 to 20 minutes depending on preference.

I served the pie hot, unaccompanied. Absolutely delicious, and definitely satisfying my craving for an ubër tasty meat pie.

Broad bean and zucchini pasta

My broad bean and zucchini pasta is a great creation that satisfies my need for
the stodge of pasta whilst also being packed full of green veggies and a lovely creamy, cheesy sauce as opposed to the creaminess of a carbonara.

First of all, boil some frozen broad beans in salted water for the recommended time.
once cooked, cool under running tap water and shell the beans. this is an important step as most broad beans are packaged still in their skins, which are tough and unpleasant to eat.

Once you've completed this step, grate 2 zucchini's,
finely chop 2 eschallots, some red chilli, 1 - 2 cloves of garlic depending on taste preference, and 2 or 3 anchovy fillets.

Heat some olive oil in a deep fry pan and fry off the onion (escallots), chilli, garlic and anchovies.
then, add some lean bacon, finely sliced, until fragrant and browned. then add the zucchini and broad beans and cook off the liquid.

Meanwhile, you will have cooked some pasta (such as bavette) in salted water. add the strained pasta to the fry pan and toss with the beans and zucchini well.

To make the sauce, beat 2 eggs in a bowl, add some torn bocconcini, salt and pepper and beat the ingredients together.


Add the egg mixture to the pasta, turn off the heat under the pasta and allow the residual heat to cook the sauce, continue stirring the sauce through so that the egg does not clump.

And voila, the perfect pasta, with balance between healthy and carbs.