D D - Delicious Dishes

Easter 2016.
An exciting time for us this time, the children and their family were home for Easter.
We had Jane's family from the Netherlands, Susan and her fiance Tristan from Melbourne Australia, a lot of things had to be done, from gardening, tidy up the rooms, shopping and cooking, but it was all right.  We missed Melanie's family as they were spending their Easter in Tasmania.

A week before the Easter cooking was prepared from the cake to savoury, so the dishes can be camping in the freezer.  I will share recipes.

Other dishes which cooked on the day were fish-salmon roulade and Ocean trout, they were delicious.  

Pan-Fried Trout and Salmon Roulade Garnished with a Salad and Creamy Mustard Sauce.

The salmon roulade is easily prepared and freezes well too.

The sweet brioche was for our Easter Crown, but we had a unique Easter Bun this year, it was not the traditional ones, they were brioche buns with a special filling.

Our Easter Crown

Our Easter Buns
Brioche Buns Filled with Chocolate Patisserie

My chunky meatballs for the feast were successfully cooked, and the family loved them.
Recipes

Susy Chunky Meatballs

Ingredients:

700 g diced leg of pork

500 g minced chicken breast

100 chopped bacon

100 g fresh breadcrumbs
2 eggs

2 tablespoons oil

1 chopped red onion

2 chopped celery stalks

2 chopped cloves garlic

¼ teaspoon white pepper

 1 teaspoon salt

½ tablespoon roasted fennel seeds.

Mix all ingredients together, until they are combined.

Make 16 meatballs,  about 99 gr each ball approx.

Prepare the tomato sauce:  Chopped fresh tomato about one-kilogram and cook in a deep saucepan with ½ cup olive oil, stir and toss, let it cook until soft.  Add in a bottle-600 mill tomato puree, and continue cooking over low heat for one hour.  Add in herbs and spices: oregano, basil, garlic, and salt and paper to taste.  Continue braising for 30 Minutes.  This tomato is ready for braising the meatballs.

To cook the meatballs

Pan-fry the meatballs until brown all over.
To braise:
2 cups of meat stock
The tomato sauce
Use a heavy-based saucepan for cooking - braise the meatballs.

Place the meatballs in tomato sauce which had been braised well, and bring to simmer, add in the stock, and a cup red wine, and braise the meatballs for two hours over low heat.

During braising maintain the same low heat until the meatballs are cooked and tender.

To serve:

Serve with pasta and leafy salad aside.
Or Serve pasta with the sauce garnished with Parmesan Cheese and followed by the meatballs garnished with a fresh leafy salad.

The preparations
Chunky Meatballs

The Easter Crown

Boiled Eggs with Herbs

Gulai Kambing

The Gulai Sauce

Gulai Kambing-Slow Roasted

Gulai Kambing is a lamb curry based on Javanese cooking.  Goat meat is used instead of Lamb.
We enjoyed this dish, even my grandson Milo had a try, he loved the flavour.

This cooking method is a slow-roasted instead of braised over a stove.

Spices paste and preparation for the Lamb - Gulai Kambing.
For 3 kg leg of lamb.
- Garlic, ginger, lemon juice and salt.  Cooking oil.
Slit the meat of the leg of lamb ( make three ) and insert garlic and ginger on them,  rub with lemon juice and some salt.
Place in a large pan, add 1 cup water, drizzle the lamb with cooking oil and roast it in a low heat oven at 145 degrees for the first hour.  Add the liquid from time to time and make sure that the meat is not burnt. Turn it over every 30 minutes twice. Add in more liquid again, and continue braising in a lower heat at 135 degrees C for two hours, and cover with a lid/or a piece of foil. When it is cooked, let the meat stay on the baking dish until serving time. The cooking time is approximately three hours.

Spice Paste
The spices for the sauce.
1 tablespoon full turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander seeds-crushed finely
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon white paper powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
5 cloves garlic crushed
5 fresh shallots, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons tamarind juice or lemon/lime juice.
(Place these nine ingredients in a blender or mortar and pestle to make spice paste)
Other herbs-seasoning.
2 slices galangal, 1 lemongrass, 6 kaffir lime leaves and salam leaves.
1 tablespoon salt and 2 tablespoons grated palm sugar


750 g meat stock and cooking oil to fry the spice paste.
1 tin - 400 mil coconut milk
Crispy Fried Shallot for the Garnish



To prepare the gulai sauce

Fry the spices paste with oil until they are releasing the fragrance and keep on stirring for 2 minutes. Add in the galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and salam, salt and the sugar.
Stir in the stock, bring to a simmer, and cook for 25 minutes.  Add in the coconut milk bring to a gentle simmer, (don't over boil) and taste the seasoning.  Take it off the stove, keep aside until serving time.
Garnish with fried shallots

Fried Shallots

To Serve
Carve the leg of lamb, slice thinly and place on a serving dish, add in the gulai sauce over the meat and sprinkle with the fried shallots.
Serve the gulai with steamed white rice, acar ( pickled cucumber) and chopped fresh lettuce.


The Sweets
We had a lot of sweets, from chocolate eggs to cakes.  No Easter egg hunts this year, but the Easter was celebrated well.

Chocolate, Honey and Coffee Cake

Chocolate Easter eggs, chocolate cakes were enjoyed, and Milo sandwich cake which was prepared by Susan was so good.

No recipes for the sweets, but hopefully you are happy enough to try the savouries.  The chunky meatball is very easy to prepare, but indeed it needs time to cook, but it freezes well.

Serving the meatballs my way:
I use the sauce to dress the pasta.  Serve the pasta first and sprinkled with cheese, either Grana Padano, or Parmesan Cheese, and followed by the meatballs garnished with a salad.


Easter's Sharing.  
It is time to share.  Sharing with not just our family but our friends as well.

Sweet brioche dressed in white chocolate
icing and decorated with chocolate Easter eggs
 and glace shredded orange peel.

Savoury brioche stuffed with Masdam Cheese
Garnished with mixed herbs

Beautiful Brioche with Easter Chocolate Eggs, and Savoury Brioche with delicate mixed herbs. A giant Easter Cake with Mini Chocolate Eggs was shared with our sports club (no picture).


Easy cooking for Easter 2016.

Until Next Post
Susy