Simplicity

I have been rather busy and run down lately, so our meals have been rather simple. But sometimes the most simple meals are the tastiest.
Frosty often enjoys just a bowl of sausages and chili onions -  We buy a great curry flavoured sausages from our local butcher, fry them up with some sliced onion and a few sliced chilies, and towards the end of cooking I remove the snags from the pan, slice them up and return to finish cooking off.

Scrambled eggs, tomato and bacon on fresh breadrolls - who says bacon and eggs is a "breakfast only food" ? :)
4 eggs, a splash of cream or milk, a few sliced shallots, some pepper, whisked together and poured into a small pot with melted butter. Set it to medium with the lid on, checking every 5 minutes or so with a small stir until cooked. Fry some bacon and sliced tomato in the mean time and serve on fresh rolls.

Chicken nuggets and wedges - Chicken breast fillet (or thigh if you prefer) cut into chunks, coated in a mixture of either bread crumbs or Southern Chicken Coasting with spices mixed in, I use Piri-Piri because we like it spicy :) Potatoes - cut into wedges, lightly sprayed with olive oil and generously sprinkled with Lemon Pepper Seasoning. Pop the wedges on a tray into the oven and bake at 180c - Once the potatoes are half way cooked, put the chicken in on a separate tray.. OR squash them all in with the potatoes if you're feeling extra lazy ;)


Sausage Rolls - Squeeze out sausage meat from your favorite flavoured sausage. I like to use our local butchers own recipe of a cheesy Spanish chorizo, very spicy.  Or if you like you can use the prepacked roll of Sausage Mince found in the meat section of the supermarket, just add some finely diced onion, garlic, pepper, parsley and whatever else you want. Grab some thawed puff pastry and cut it in half. Place some handfuls of meat on each half of pastry in the middle, not too much though, kinda like a sausage shape I guess, and roll up, sealing the ends. Brush each roll with a lightly beaten egg. Bake at around 180c for oh.. half an hour or so I guess? Until cooked, lightly brown etc.

A new favourite of Frostys is  Stuffed chicken fillets wrapped in bacon or prosciutto. - Butterfly some breast fillets and pound them flat. On one half of the fillet lay some sliced tomato, pineapple pieces, onion and mozzarella cheese, fold over the other half of fillet and wrap in bacon or prosciutto. Bake at 180c until cooked, around 20-30 minutes.  Another tasty stuffing is Ricotta cheese and baby spinach, but instead of flattening the chicken fillet, leave it hole but cut a small pocket on the side to stuff tasties into.

Meat Pie

Everyone loves a decent meat pie.. This can be made with either beef mince or diced chunky beef.

 500g beef mince or diced beef steak, diced into small chunks

1 large onion diced

1 clove garlic crushed

1 cup beef or vegie stock

half cup water with 3 tablespoons gravy powder.. Roast Meat is a good flavoured one.

few splashes of Worcestershire sauce

few tablespoons of good tomato sauce

cracked black pepper to taste

1 sheet puff pastry and 1 sheet shortcrust pastry. (shortcrust on the bottom, puff on the top)

In a large pot cook onion and garlic until translucent then add the beef, cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Add the gravy mixture and stock, stir. Add a few good splashes of Worcestershire sauce, and same with the tomato sauce and mix well. Bring to the boil then reduce to a low simmer, add pepper to taste. Simmer for an hour or 2, or until (if you're using beef steak) the meat is very soft. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a bit before putting it in the fridge. Cool it right down for an hour or so. 

Grease a large pie dish.. I dunno what size mine is.. "family size" apparently.. Put the shortcrust pastry sheet on the bottom, and leave the puff pastry aside, to thaw. Once thawed, press the pastry into the dish so it's all nice and snug, trim the corners with a knife and use the offcuts to fill any sides of the dish.. try to get the pastry to sit on the lip of the dish. 

Using a slotted spoon (because you don't want too much liquid) spoon the meat mixture into the dish, add a small amount of liquid at the end. Carefully place the puff pastry over the top, and crimp down the sides with a fork. Trim the edges and cut a V into the top. Brush with a lightly beaten egg or spray olive oil over the top. 

Bake at around 180c for an hour-hour and a half or until golden brown.

Serve with a decent mash and tuck in!

Buttery soft roast potatoes

Okay so these alone are definatly heart attack on a plate.. But oh so tasty. Quick, delicous and easy.

Peel and chop some spuds. I cut mine up smaller so they cook quicker. Into the roasting pan, lightly drizzel or spray some olive oil over, and generously sprinkle over some Tuscan Seasoning and some chunks of butter. Bake at around 180c for around an hour, checking and mixing/turning the potatoes around in between that time. Give or take time until they are soft.

Garlic chilli prawn pasta

So I made this for Frosty, who demanded I make it again, and again.. and again. :)

About 20 prawns, peeled, deveined (tails removed, or if you like them on for presentation, whatever. :) )
Tablespoon of butter
Half cup of vegie stock (or white wine if you want to be fancy)
Half cup of pouring cream
4 or more (or less!) birds eye chillies, sliced
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped

Cooked pasta, drained and set aside. Fettuccine, Linguine, Orecchiette or Shells are all good.

In a frying pan, melt the butter, add the chillies and garlic, stirring. Add the prawns, cook for about 5 minutes or so, stirring every now and again.
Pour in the stock or wine and cream, cook off for about 2 minutes. Stir through the parsley and add the pasta. Mix well to coat pasta, serve.

(Sorry I didn't get a photo.. it was awesome though. :D