I have a confession to make.

I’m a gadget junkie. I love pretty shiny new things, especially when I think they’re a worthwhile purchase (and even when they’re not…I’m STILL regretting the purchase of my blue suede stiletto boots).

However, buying anything new for our kitchen these days usually descends into a battle of epic proportions between my mother and myself. You see, my tendency to purchase the shiny new pretty things has resulted in our kitchen quite literally bursting at the seams with pots and pans and gizmos and gadgets of all sorts. Only last week, I opened one of the kitchen cupboards to have a baking tin tumble onto my foot. You’d think that a baking tray is fairly light so wouldn’t cause my pain, right? NOT SO.

*cue nursing of injured foot and pride*

Anyway, when the wonderful Pip contacted me on behalf of Bessemer and offered me a free product to test, I literally did a dance for joy – after all, my mother could hardly say no to something that was being offered for free, right? I was standing in a car dealership at the time so I got some rather funny looks from the salespeople, but what did I care? And I knew exactly what I wanted – my current non-stick wok (I just don’t like the look of the traditional ones) was dying a slow and painful death and needed replacing, so the timing was absolutely perfect!

Then came the agonizing days of waiting, till I finally arrived home from work to be confronted by a GIGANTIC box! I tore it open and there it was – a wok big enough to bathe a baby in (not that I recommend it be used for this purpose). Quite literally salivating, I read the instruction manual, seasoned it up and set about thinking about how I would break it in.

You see, a wok is a multipurpose tool. Traditionally, they’re used to fry, stir fry, even boil and deep fry, so a proper wok should be able to withstand all of these vastly different cooking procedures. In the end, I decided that the best way to go about it would be to create a symphony of stir-fried dishes as that would be what I’d use it most for.

The question was, what would I stir fry? Having just done a post on my stir frying method, I certainly couldn’t use my usual stand by recipe, so I needed something different. After poring over my cookbooks and talking to a variety of friends, I finally managed to decide on the three recipes I’d use to christen my newest addition to the kitchen – sweet & sour green beans, carrot & snow pea stir fry, and peanut butter beef & cabbage stir fry.

HOWZAT?

Not only did all three recipes prove to be absolute WINNERS, but the Bessemer wok dealt with the cooking without breaking out in even the mildest sweat. A common problem with stirfrying is that it is difficult to reach and maintain the high temperature required to cook the food and evaporate any liquid that forms, but even on a low flame, it was laughing it’s way to the finale.

Now, the three recipes for this post are listed below, but that’s not all! You see, the wonderful Pip and generous folks at Bessemer Australia have also provided me with a Country Kitchen 28cm Deep Fry Pan for one of my lucky readers!

I don’t know whether the one that you’ll receive will actually be this adorable green, but it’s a nifty little bit of kitchenware anyway! To find out how to enter the draw, read through to the bottom of the post

Peanut butter beef & cabbage stir fry

Ingredients
400 beef (sirloin or flank), cut into thin strips across the grain
2-3 large pak choi, cleaned and seperated into leaves
6-7 large Napa cabbage leaves, cleaned
2 onions, peeled and trimmed and cut into eighths
7-8 mushrooms (button or oyster), brushed clean and chopped into thick strips
1-3 Thai birdseye chillies (depending on your tolerance)
1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/3 cup kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
Rice and finely chopped spring onion, to serve

1. Mix together the peanut butter, kecap manis and chillis in a small bowl, then use half of it to marinate the beef. Make sure that you massage the marinade in well, it’s a sticky sauce so it will need to be thoroughly mixed in by hand. Once the marinade is thoroughly mixed in, heat up the wok with a dash of oil, then stir fry the beef till cooked. Once cooked, transfer it to a plate.

2. Roughly chop your pak choi and Napa cabbage, seperating the leafy green bits from the crunchy stalks. Heat the wok up with another dash of oil, then add the crunchy stalks and the onion and stir fry till just cooked (you want them to be softened, but still retain their CRUNCH!). Add the rest of the marinade and stir fry till well coated, then turn off the heat and add the leafy greens from your Asian cabbages as well as the beef and stir through till everything is well combined!

This dish is perfect to be served with a bowl of steamed rice, but there’s no reason you couldn’t serve it atop of noodles instead!

Carrot & Snow Pea Stir Fry

Ingredients
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and trimmed
300g snow peas, trimmed and strings removed
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 small knob of ginger, roughly chopped

1. Peel your carrots and chop them into halves, then cut lengthwise into thin strips. Heat your wok with a dash of oil, then add the garlic and ginger and fry till softened.

2. Add the carrot and fry while vigorously stirring/tossing to ensure that it all cooks evenly. Once the carrot is just cooked (softened but still crunchy), add the snow peas and cook for another 2-3 minutes or till the snow peas are slightly softened and have turned bright green.

You might think that just plain garlic and ginger aren’t enough to flavour this dish, but you’d be wrong. Both carrots and snow peas are traditionally ’sweet’ vegetables when they’re fresh, and this is what this dish relies on. Make this with fresh produce (and resist from adding salt or any other flavourings) and you may find yourself surprised by how sweet and tasty these veggies are!

Sweet & Sour Green Beans

Ingredients
300g green beans, trimmed (any super long ones should be cut in half)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1. Top and tail your beans, removing any strings if they have them, then bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Once the water is rapidly boiling, tip in the beans and blanch for 2-3 minutes or till just beginning to go soft.

2. Prepare a bowl with ice water and a pinch of salt, then tip the blanched beans into the ice water to halt the cooking process. Once they’ve completely cooled down, pour them into a colander to drain as much as possible.

3. Mix together the soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar and pour into the wok. Once the mixture starts to simmer, add the beans and stir fry, making sure the beans are cooking evenly. Once the marinade has reduced and begins to thicken and coat the beans, add in the toasted sesame seeds and toss to combine!

This trio of dishes work together marvellously, and are amazingly quick and easy to put together – in fact, you should be able to go from start to finish in about 30 minutes. Not bad for such a variety of dishes, if I do say so myself

Now, to the bit you’re all waiting for!

HOW TO WIN THE BESSEMER FRYING PAN!
(Please note that this competition is only open to readers living in Australia)

In order to enter the draw to win this adorable frying pan, just leave a comment detailing what recipe you’d use to christen the frying pan with if you win it! The draw will be open for 1 week, and will close at midnight on Wednesday 17th March, to be drawn randomly the next day!

The winner will also be offered the opportunity to write a guest post on my blog showing off the recipe that they’ve used in their new frying pan…or at least send through a picture of them with their new goodie!

Technorati Tags: stir fry, peant butter, beef, rice, Asian, Bessemer

It’s only been a few months since Christmas, with its roasts and turkeys (did you know you could get them deep-fried? SHUDDER!), eggnog, cookies and cakes and a hundred other things which make the tastebuds orgasm and the thighs quietly weep.

So, did you make a new year’s resolution to be healthier? To eat more leafy greens, drink less and exercise more?

If so, I apologize in advance – this post isn’t going to make those resolutions any easier to achieve.

I was approached by Bakers Delight to come up with a few recipes that involved hot cross buns. Well hell, I love a good challenge as much as anyone, so I thought why the hell not.

You see, the real challenge is that I’m just not a hot cross bun fan. Never have been. Never will be. So for me, the challenge was to see whether I could use hot cross buns in a recipe that would tempt even the most hardline anti-bun freak (and I wholeheartedly recognize myself as a freak as almost everyone else in the world appears to adore these things) to give them a whirl.

First of all, I should probably admit that I had a little help – thankfully my food-loving friends and colleagues were more than happy to assist as a sounding board for me to bounce ideas off, but I found myself in one particular discussion where the imagined dishes were just becoming more and more involved…and quite frankly ridiculous. No, what I needed was something quick, easy and beautifully simple.

Hot cross buns have a reputation for being one of the fastest sweet breads to go stale. Of course, most of my friends argued that they rarely last long enough to actually GO stale, but when they did have more than they could cope with, the stale state was reached pretty quickly. So my head jumped to the most common uses for stale bread.

Three ideas came to mind – breadcrumbs, bread and butter pudding, and French toast. I did consider the breadcrumbs for a moment, but dismissed the idea pretty quickly as the additions of raisins and chocolate chips to these hot cross buns would not have made this an easy feat. That, and I didn’t fancy the idea of having to wait for the buns to actually BECOME stale enough to crumbify. Wait, is that an actual word? Meh, I’m gonna let that one slide for now…

So the two remaining ideas of French toast and bread & butter pudding were left. I hmmed and hawwed for a little bit, but as I couldn’t decide between the two, I gave up and tried them both, resigning myself to decide on the winning result purely based on outcome.

And do we have a winner.

You bet your sweet shiny ass, we do!

Read the next two sentences slowly, taking in every word as you do:

Mocha hot cross buns, layered with dark chocolate chips, pressed and coated in a rich eggy batter and fried till crisp and caramelized on the outside and soft and oozing with chocolate on the inside. All this, topped with a generous dollop of lightly whipped cream flecked with dark chocolate shavings.

Whew. Give me a second to spark one. Oh baby, was that as good for you as it was for me?

Okay, so I admit that your heart palpitations are probably more likely to be from the estimated calorie count of this dish rather than actual love, but if you have any stale hot cross buns, I guarantee that this is the way to use them. I’ve included a recipe for the bread & butter pudding too for anyone who is interested…but hey, if you’re gonna be bad, why do it half-arsed?

Chocolate-Stuffed Easter French toast

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 hot cross buns (preferably mocha-flavoured)
2 medium-sized eggs
1/4 cup milk (or if you really want to sin, you could absolutely use cream!)
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract (please – AVOID vanilla essence. It is a pale, pale imitation)
Approx. 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup thickened or double cream, chilled
Approx. 4 tbsp shaved dark chocolate

To make your own chocolate shavings easily, stick a few squares of chocolate in a parmesan grater and wind away. It’s by far the quickest and easiest way of getting small shavings, so long as you don’t mind the clean up afterwards!

1. Firstly, slice your buns horizontally into about 4-5 layers. I went for 6, but that was probably overkill. 4 should be fine! The buns are easier to slice if you leave them to get a little stale first.

2. Press a few chocolate chips in between each layer (I went with 5), then when you’re finished layering it, use your hand to squish the bun together firmly.

3. Lightly beat together the egg, milk, sugar and vanilla, then dip each hot cross bin in the mixture. Remember to flip it at least once but not to let it soak – you want the egg to coat it, not turn it into a soggy mess. Once you’ve done that, heat up a little oil in a non-stick frying pan over a low flame, then fry the buns one at a time.

Leave each bun to cook for about 4-5 minutes on each side, only flipping once the side that has been cooking is crispy and the sugars have caramelized nicely.

4. Just before serving, whip the cream till it holds soft peaks, then use a metal spoon to gently fold in the chocolate flakes. Whack a dollop of this on top of each bun as it’s being served, and watch the cream and the chocolate melt together and drip everywhere into a gorgeously calorific MESS!

I take no responsibility for any guilt you may encounter for having tried this recipe, but I will say that I warned you – about both the effect on your conscious and your tastebuds Enjoy it with a few mates, because nothing says ‘I love you’ like a shared calorie overkill session!

For those who would prefer something that is baked and not fried, and not quite so conducive to a cardiac arrest, I’ve also included my recipe for a bread and butter pudding.

This is the recipe to go with if you’re guilt is preventing you from indulging in a cellulite-celebrating free-for-all, but you still have a few hot cross buns rolling about the house which are crying for a second chance at life.

Don’t get me wrong – the recipe still tastes lovely and it’s not as bad for you as my recommended French toast recipe, but this still ain’t exactly what I’d call health spa food So consider yourself warned!

Hot Cross Bread & Butter Pudding

Ingredients (serves 4)
4-5 stale hot cross buns (a variety is good but whatever you have will work)
1/2 cup milk
A knob of butter (about 1 tbsp or so)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tbsp caster sugar
Icing sugar and cream, to serve

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C, then slice your hot cross buns. The more stale and firm they are, the better they will withstand this recipe.

2. Put the milk, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and butter into a pan and heat over a low flame till the butter is almost completely melted. Remove from the heat and stir till the butter has completely melted into the mixture.

3. Layer the sliced hot cross buns into a bowl or dish and slowly our the milk over, trying to saturate as much of the bread as possible. If your buns were still soft, move on immediately to the next step, but if they were quite firm, leave them to sit for a few minutes in the fridge.

4. Pour the lightly beaten egg over the top and very gently flip the pieces so that the egg becomes evenly distributed. The slices may fall apart a bit during this process, but don’t worry, it won’t affect the outcome much!

5. Lightly butter 4 1-cup ramekins, then layer the hot cross bun mixture in, sprinkling some walnuts in between each layer.Once you’ve reached the final layer, sprinkle some walnuts on top as well as about 1/2 tbsp caster sugar for each ramekin.

Place the filled ramekins into a baking tray filled with boiling water, then place in the oven to bake for 35-45 minutes, or till they have puffed up beautifully and the tops are hard and dark brown.

Once you’ve pulled these bad boys out of the oven, allow them to cool a little before dusting their tops with a little icing/powdered sugar and a dash of cream, then serve while still warm.

Oh, and if you really want to be bad, go for a scoop of good quality vanilla ice cream. I couldn’t actually bring myself to do it, but was told by a reliable source that this combination truly was an orgasmic one.

Technorati Tags: Hot Cross Buns, Easter, Bread, Recipes, French toast, Pudding, Bakers Delight

The concept is simple enough – you stir as you fry. Not quite brain surgery.

However, during my 27 years on this planet, I’ve come across quite a few people who seem to find this equation a little perplexing…

I’ve had more than a few friends partake in my stir-fries and the most common comment that I receive is that the dish is full of flavour and texture. The compliment regarding flavour I contribute partially to the stir-fry sauce that I like to use, but texture is something that comes down to one important factor:

All foods take different lengths of time to cook.

See, now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

I quizzed each friend that commented on my stir-fries and there appeared to be a common problem – they were all dumping all the ingredients into a wok at the same time and cooking till the final firm vegetable was cooked…at which point, half of the other ingredients were overcooked.

Anyone who has ever cooked vegetables should understand that capsicum cooks quicker than carrot but slower than snowpeas (as an example), and this is the rule which you should bear in mind when making this dish. The ‘difficult’ part of a stir-fry is the preparation – it might take 15-30 minutes to prepare all the bits and pieces that you want to use, but once they are ready to go, their progression into the wok should be quick and uniform.

From the photo above, you can see the components of today’s stir-fry:

broccoli
snow peas / mangetout
mushrooms
bok choi (you can see that I’ve actually separated the leafy tops from the stalks since they take different lengths of time to cook)
carrots
zucchini
cabbage
red & green capsicum
half a rump steak, trimmed of all fat and sinew and finely sliced
6 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
a brown onion, trimmed and cut into 8 segments (not actually in the photo)

I like to brown my main protein (whether beef, chicken, seafood or tofu) in a separate frying pan before adding to a stir-fry, but that really is a personal quirk. A high heat will help you to cook quickly without liquid seeping from the veg into the bottom of the stir-fry and making it ’soggy’, and veg that takes almost no time to cook (such as snow peas and bok choi) can actually be stirred through once everything else has cooked and the heat has been turned off – the residual heat of the dish will cook these veg during their trip from stove top to the kitchen bench.

Once you have ordered your veg in order of those which take the longest time to cook to those which cook in a heartbeat, you’ll need to actually go ahead with it. Heat up the wok with 1-2 tbsp of oil till it begins to smoke, then add the veg in progression – starting with one and adding the next as soon as the veg in the wok begins to soften.

Beef Stir-fry

Ingredients
Whatever you have in the fridge or pantry!

I generally make a stir-fry when I have bits of veg in the fridge…the odd bit of cabbage, a handful of snowpeas, half a capsicum, a few lonely bunches of bok choi. There is no rule and there’s generally no limit – but I’d suggest sticking with vegetables that cook relatively quickly (so root vegetables are generally not great, except for lotus root!)

The other rule with preparing vegetables for a stir-fry is that you want to cut them into similar sized pieces. This is because a stir-fry should be cooked quickly, and ensuring uniform size means they cook quickly and evenly.

Stir-Fry Sauce

Most people flavour their stir-fry with a simple drizzle of oyster sauce, however my preferred is sweet, salty, spicy sauce that can be boiled and bottled up and stored in the fridge for up to a month, ready to flavour any dish which needs a little boost.

Ingredients
1/2 cup kecap manis (sweet Indonesian soy sauce)
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1-3 thai birdseye chillis, finely sliced (depending on how spicy you like your food)
1/4 cup cold water

Combine these into a small saucepan over a low heat and bring to a simmer, allowing to cook until the mixture is reduced by 1/3. Pour into a clean container and store in the fridge for up to a month.

Technorati Tags: stirfry, Asian, noodles, beef

So, am I the most lax food blogger, or what?

Happy belated new year, dear readers. I hope you’re all having a fabulous 2010 that has so far been full of delicious food and amusing escapades, whether they be in or out of the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the reason for my rather extended hiatus from blogging is an ongoing family situation which will most likely mean that my blogging continues to be somewhat haphazard this year, but I promise that I will try my best to entice you with as many delightful dishes as possible!

Forgive me? *insert prettily cajoling smile here*

To start off with, how about this absolutely stunning recipe for stuffed squid served with a tomato sambal?

This is actually a dish that I’ve been wanting to try for a very long time, but unfortunately baby squid have been a little…well, to be completely honest – nonexistent at my local fishmongers (BAD Mr fishmonger! Tsk tsk tsk!). However, on my weekend trip to the Springvale markets, I happened to come across some at a small fishmongers that I hadn’t visited before, so I thanked my lucky stars and nabbed the whole 2 kg.

I kinda think this was one of those cases of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. But in this case, my shopping trolley…

At any rate, I eventually traipsed home with my glorious squiddy purchase, then decided to roll up my sleeves and set about cleaning and prepping the squid so that I wouldn’t lose my motivation and could jump straight into cooking.

Here’s a note – I doubt any of you are as daft as I am, but when prepping for a recipe that you haven’t read in, say, about a year or so, it’s a good idea to actually OPEN the cookbook in question and refresh your memory. I mean, I have an absolutely lousy memory at the best of times (I’m the only person I know who has actually managed to once forget THEIR OWN BIRTHDAY. That was one helluva confusing day, I tell you), so I don’t know what possessed me to think that I could actually rely on my grey matter to know what was going on.

Okay, so why the ranting about my memory?

Because in my desire to quickly prep the squid – I tossed out all the tentacles, which are actually needed for the filling. I did briefly contemplate digging them out of the bin to clean and use, but at that stage they were buried under a considerable pile of fish scales, guts, trimmed beef fat and chicken skin (grossed out yet?) so I thought better of it.

Despite my idiocy, I did actually manage to make the dish and it turned out quite fabulously, if I may say so myself. You absolutely want to serve this with the accompanying recipe for tomato sambal, as it is a perfect pairing of flavours to spoil your tastebuds with

Actually, let me interject with another note – the recipe will make about 12 stuffed baby squid which is plenty if they are served 3 per person, but you may want to consider making extra. I learnt this the hard way when I discovered that my mother and kid brother had snarfled almost the entire lot while I was looking for backdrops and the plate to use for my main photoshoot!

Stuffed squid with tomato sambal
(adapted from Blue Ginger by Les Huynh)

Stuffed squid ingredients
9 small-medium squid
25g bean thread vermicelli, soaked in cold water and cut into 1″/2.5cm lengths
200g lean minced pork
3 spring onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced OR crushed
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tbsp coriander leaves, finely sliced
1/8 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
Pinch of salt and pepper

Tomato sambal ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small brown onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 thai/birds eye chillis, finelysliced (reduce to one chilli if you’re not a heat person)
3 large tomatoes, diced
3 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 spring onions, finely sliced

Coriander sprigs, to serve

Stuffed squid instructions

1. Make sure your baby squid are thoroughly defrosted before starting the recipe – their small bodies can be a little (actually, more than a little) irritating to navigate if not properly defrosted, and it also means you may be more likely to leave innards behind when cleaning them as they won’t come out as cleanly!

2. Take each baby squid and chop its head off at the base of the hood. Insert your finger (any of you thinking impure thoughts here can just stop – there was no other way of writing this!) into the hood and scoop out any and all gunk that you come across, making sure that you get every last bit. Also pull off all of the skin and the fins.

Make sure you RESERVE the tentacles by chopping them off the body, and finely dice them. Add them to a bowl with the rest of the stuffing ingredients.

3. Use your hand to make sure that all the stuffing ingredients are evenly mixed together (we don’t want any clumps of mince), then stuff each squid hood, leaving about 1.5cm empty at the end. Carefully close the end with a toothpick and set aside.

Note: Make sure that when you’re stuffing the squid, you don’t leave any air bubbles in the hood, or this can result in bursting squid and misshappen hoods

4. Once you’ve filled all the squid hoods, heat some oil in a non-stick frying pan (a well-seasoned cast iron job will be marvellous here, but any non-stick pan will do), and cook the stuffed squid over a medium flame, making sure to turn to ensure that they are evenly browned all over.

5. Once your squid is completely cooked (this is pork mince we’re working with so this is a must – I found that 15-20 minutes was enough cooking time for me as you also don’t want to overcook the squid), remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

6. Once the squid has been drained, remove the toothpick from the open end and slice them in half diagonally before plating onto dishes and serve alongside some tomato sambal!

Tomato sambal recipe

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic till the onion and garlic are softened and the onion is translucent.

2. Add the chilli and cook for a minute or two, then add the tomato and cook over a low flame until the tomato is soft and begins to break up. At this stage, add the tomato sauce, spring onion and a pinch of salt and cook for another minute, before removing from the heat and allowing to cool.

When plating up, garnishing the tomato sambal with some finely sliced spring onion or chives provides a nice colour contrast, and decorate the dish with either torn or shredded coriander.

Technorati Tags: squid, seafood, pork, Vietnamese, Malaysian, savoury, Asian

Remember me?

That’s right, it’s your friendly (virtual) neighborhood Kitchen Wench, finally burrowing out of the ether to confirm that yes, I am in fact still alive.

I honestly can’t believe that I haven’t posted since the beginning of August – almost as much as I can’t believe that we’re nearing the end of October, and that I am very quickly bearing down on the 27th anniversary of the day that I was pushed out into the world, kicking and wailing to within an inch of my life (well, that’s what mother tells me, anyway).

So, what have I been up to all this time?

Well, one of the better things would be that I managed to take my mother away on a well-deserved holiday to a lovely place in Queensland called Brampton Island, where I successfully managed to p*ss off more than one wild kangaroo (and I would like to ask WHY nobody ever told me that kangaroos are scary as all hell?!), swam with fishes in crystal clear ocean waters, harassed more than my fair share of hermit crabs, witnessed some absolutely stunning sunsets and shared the most memorable time with my darling mother…

I tell you, when you see your mother bouncing excitedly up and down in a little boat because she thinks she’s caught a fish, then watch her reel up a rather small piece of coral, it takes almost all your self-control not to wet your pants laughing. Personally, I was laughing so hysterically that I almost fell overboard…though I did feel a little bad when I saw her disappointment. Thankfully that only lasted a moment as the next minute we saw a mother humpback whale teaching her calf to breach only a few hundred metres from where we were.

As for the rest of my absence? What can I say except that life needed my full attention. But I’m back, hopefully with a post that will entertain, amuse and tantalize…though that’s really for you to determine

One of the reasons for my absence has been freebies.

Wait, what?

Yeah, you read right.

Free bloody food.

(Though not literally bloody. Don’t forget that I’m Aussie-bred!)

You see, being a food blogger means occasionally being sent food samples to try and review. I will often think about an offer for a few days to a week before I reply, and will only accept if I think that it’s a worthwhile product that I may have genuine future interest in. Even then, after I accept the offer, I will often deliberate for weeks on what I think is the best way to test and also to showcase the product that I have been offered.

Which brings me to the case of the tinned tomatoes.

Tinned tomatoes – it’s one of those staples that you can keep in the pantry for aeons, and can use in a myriad of different dishes. I tend to keep a few tins of unflavored diced Italian (Roma) tomatoes in the pantry for this very reason, and have found that this has served me quite well – especially when I’ve needed to whip something up in a hurry.

My penchant for creating flavours of my own to suit my own tastebuds means that as a general rule, I tend to avoid any food which has been pre-flavoured – pasta sauces, ANY sort of frozen meal, jars of marinade…you get the drift. Therefore when I received an email asking me if I would like to try a few jars of Ardmona’s new range of flavoured tinned tomatoes, I deliberated a bit before deciding not to take up the offer.

So you can imagine my surprise when a very large cardboard box turned up on my doorstep, bearing SIX tins of the stuff. And my twisted sense of responsibility (hi mom!) resulted in my feeling obliged to give it a try.

(According to my kid brother, my swearing could be heard from the other end of our property)

Along with these 6 cans of flavoured tomatoes came a ‘handy’ recipe book, which held suggestions on how I should use these gifts. This book, titled ‘Italian Style Classics: 20 Italian recipes made simple with Ardmona Rich & Thick Italian Style Range”, was under the impression that a tin of flavoured tomatoes, carrot, potatoes, kidney beans and sausages constituted a minestrone.

At this point, I would like to interrupt myself with a very public letter to SPC Ardmona:

Dear Sirs/Madams:

I understand that you are under the impression that many people these days live busy lives and can’t be bothered making home-cooked meals. When I see the number of people at work who purchase and bring instant noodles / frozen lasagnas / tinned soup etc, I get a little of that impression myself.

However, please do not equate people being time-poor with being stupid.

While I have no real problem with your actual product (other than the sodium content on some of this stuff – WOWSERS), this recipe book that was so considerately provided is an insult to the intelligence of myself and every other person who knows something about their food.

Meaning that your minestrone recipe is missing the onion and celery. And that’s just for starters.

Kind regards,
Ellie the Kitchen Wench

Which brings me to my next point.

From the flavours of this range that I tasted, I can honestly say that none of them disgusted me (but bear in mind that I had looked at the sodium content of these products BEFORE seasoning the food and thus was able to avoid saltiness). But, on the other hand, none of them actually impressed me either.

When we cook and create in our kitchens, there are a number of things that are happening. Primarily, we are cooking to sate hunger. But what we are also doing is learning, refining and developing our own tastes and palates. When you discover that a recipe does not have to be followed religiously and begin to tweak it slightly to suit your tastes, that is when you start to learn. What happens if you omit an ingredient, or replace it with something else? What elements can be substituted for others, which elements need to remain to keep the true flavour of the dish?

When we eat food which has been flavoured / seasoned / created by a manufacturer, what we are actually doing is allowing this manufacturer to tell us the way that THEY believe a certain dish should taste.

Have you ever made minestrone soup from scratch? Or are you only familiar with the kind that comes from a can?

If it’s the latter, I ask that you try making it yourself. Trust me, the taste is more than worth the effort – plus you can count it as another step on the journey to become a kitchen god or goddess

Minestrone Soup
(adapted from a recipe by chef Shaun Hill in The Cook’s Book)

A minestrone should be quite thick and rich rather than watery with a few garnishes swimming in translucent broth. The vegetables and herbs used aren’t strict either – feel free to substitute the parsley with sweet basil, add asparagus, zucchini (courgettes), peas, beans…its up to you!

Ingredients
1 onion, finely diced
1 small leek, finely sliced
1 celery stick, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 rashers of bacon, diced
1/2 a small Savoy cabbage, coarsely chopped (makes about 1 1/2 – 2 cups)
1 small potato, peeled and finely diced
1 cup cooked or tinned chickpeas
3-4 tbsp tinned diced tomato / tomato passata
1.5L chicken stock
20g small pasta (I used risoni purely because I had it in my pantry)

Optional: Parsley & sliced / grated Parmesan cheese to serve

1. Prepare your ingredients by chopping everything into a fine dice and set them aside for now.

The basis of this dish is formed by a mirepoix (a combination of onion, celery and carrot in a traditional ratio of 2:1:1 – though I also like to add leek to replace one ratio of onion), so please try and make sure that these vegetables are diced quite neatly.

2. You also need about 3-4 tbsp of tinned diced tomatoes, so make sure that this is ready on hand. Heat up a little oil in a large pot, then add the onion, leek, celery, carrot and bacon and saute till the onions are translucent and cooked (but before they begin to turn golden and take on colour). At this stage, you should also add any additional leafy vegetables you would like to add to the dish – I find that diced silverbeet (chard) or savoy cabbage makes a very nice addition.

3. Once the carrot has begun to soften, add the tinned tomatoes, diced potato and chickpeas to the pot.

4. Make sure to stir well to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed together, season with salt and pepper, then pour in your chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the pasta, then bring it to a boil once again, then reduce the heat and gently simmer for 10-15 minutes.

At this point you should have a delightfully rich and hearty soup, which can be garnished with chopped parsley/basil and Parmesan, and should definitely be served with some crusty bread!

A few notes about this dish:

1. You can make a vegetarian version of this dish by either replacing the bacon with Facon (soy ‘bacon’) or omitting it altogether, and replacing the chicken stock with vegetable stock (preferable) or water.
2. This soup actually freezes quite well if you omit the pasta. Measure out individual serves into ziploc bags, then carefully seal up (make sure you get rid of as much air from inside the bag as possible. When you think you want to have some, either pull a bag out of the freezer and place it into the fridge the night before to thaw out, or just place the whole bag into a pot of simmering water – which will take it straight from frozen to reheated!
3. Crusty bread for this dish is a must! When I have a hearty soup such as this, one of my favourite accompaniments is one or two slices of baguette which are then toasted, rubbed with a RAW garlic clove then spread with a little salted butter. You’ll definitely want to have some gum handy for the intense garlic breath, but if you’re a garlic fiend like myself, you’ll be in sweet sweet stinky-breath heaven!

How do you like to make your minestrone soup? Do you have a recipe which has been passed on through generations and is time-tested, or have you got one that you’ve just made up as you go along? Please share your thoughts on this post in the comments below and let me know what you think

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