Another Tajine

This was forgotten in the oven and overcooked by about an hour. It was still delish.

Beef Curry, Lemon Pepper Rice.

This was good.

Baked Polenta With Italian Sausage

This dish is enough for Graham or a family of four.

You need these basic items:

Tomato sauce

1 large zucchini

3 large mushrooms

8 oz. Italian sausage

2-3 oz. Italian cheese/ mozzarella

I whole tomato

Chopped garlic, salt and pepper, polenta. Prepare everything and follow the video. You can put anything you like on top of the polenta . These are just suggestions.

Tomato Sauce

Slowly cook a little carrot, onion and celery in some olive oil. When the vegetables are cooked add a dash of white vinegar and reduce to dry. Then add a little white wine and reduce that to dry. Then add tomato paste and mix very well with the vegetables. Add a little flour to make a roux and finally add some chicken stock. Throw in a bulb of garlic cut in half sideways, a couple of bay leaves and a few sprigs of thyme. Add stock and cook to a sauce like consistency. Strain and put a aside for use.

You can also add a can of whole peeled tomatoes to this sauce while it is cooking then remove the whole tomatoes before you strain the finished sauce, chop them up and add them to the strained sauce to give it a chunkier consistency.

You should always add a pinch of white sugar to tomato sauce.

Hungarian Goulash, Creamy Polenta And Jalapenos

Creamy Polenta

This is how I make creamy polenta. It is very easy and it is a great substitute for potatoes or pasta. You can put anything you like into it or you can put nothing at all into it. I particularly like this with stews and the like. In this case I made it for the goulash and it was fantastic.
You also add a little Italian cheese to this to finish it off.


Diced Red Pepper
Diced Onion
Chopped Garlic
1 Cup Cornmeal
3 Cups Stock Or Water( or a mix of both)
1/2 Chopped Jalapeno
Salt And Pepper

Small Barbeque Smorgasbord Of Bacon And Chicken, Cold Ratatouille And Potato Salad.

Simple and tasty.

Braised Lamb Shank, Red Cabbage And Parslied Potatoes.

One Of My Favorite Midnight Snacks.

Baked beans in a soup plate with a couple of soft poached eggs and ground pepper and some bread.

Provencale Meatloaf, Spicy Tomato Sauce, Spinach And Mashed Pratais.

For this I used about 8 ozs of ground beef and 4 ozs of Italian sausage. I soaked a couple of slices of white bread in a little mile and then squeezed the milk out and added the bread to the mix. I rough cut some onion, zucchini and red and green pepper and cooked them slowly without coloring them in a little olive oil. When they were cooked and translucent I added a little thyme and a lot of chopped garlic. About six large cloves. I then added chopped parsley and a whole egg. Season and mix well but not too well and put in baking pan. Cook in a water bath for about an hour at medium temperature, allow to cool and slice. This was very good.

Labour Day Porterhouse Steak

Did a little traditional Labour Day fare today.

Sausage, Bacon And Savoy Cabbage Hotpot.

This is a great little winter's evening dish. I saw it on blogsite http://reciperifle.blogspot.com/ and decided to make it tonight on a whim. You will get the recipe there. I like cooking but I hate writing recipes. As you can see it is straightforward and it has all the ingredients of dishes all over the world from the Dublin Coddle to the french Potee. I added some salt pork and some potatoes to this one. Make sure you have plenty of dijon mustard or even Colmans.

Steak And Mushroom Pie With Almond Green Beans

Spaghetti, Garlic Cream Sauce And Spicy Shrimp

Hamburger With Bacon, Aioli And Home Made Fries

Provencal Estouffade Of Beef With Creamy Polenta

A Few Dishes

Meals from the past few days include, from the bottom, a nice shrimp and sweet pepper curry. A batch of ratatouille which was polished off in no time at all and a center cut pork chop with cauliflower and cheddar gratin.

Spaghetti With Bacon, Tomato And Shrimp

Loin Of Pork On Spinach Leaves With Roasted Apples.

Corned Beef Dinner

Haven't had corned beef in a while. I made this with a selection of potatoes, mashed and boiled, and a selection of vegetables including green beans. Ony gorgeous.

Fried Chicken, Brussels Sprouts And Mashed Potatoes

Garlic Roasted Lamb Shank And Ratatouille Nicoise

Beef Kabob With Sweet Peppers, Cous Cous And Stuffed Tomatoes

Simple Cous Cous

This is a simple way of making couscous as an accompaniement. Cous Cous is like a pasta really. Always check on the box as to how much liquid to grain as not all cous cous is equal. I put one and a half to this and it turned out to be too wet but it was good anyway. When the couscous is cooked fluff it up to get all the heat out of it so it doesn't continue to cook and get too soggy. Then fold in a knob of butter to stop the cooking process.
You can add anything to this grain. It is great with mint, raisins, sweet peppers etc etc.
Another way is to heat the stock, saute the onion and garlic in a seperate pan and then add all the components together and allow to cook in it's own heat. However for the housewife you end up with a lot of dirty untensils.
This is not to be confused with the couscous dish which is a completely different thing. You can use it as an accompaniement for fish, chicken and in my case here Beef Kabobs.

Mini Feijoida

Truly on of my favorite dishes from Brazil. This one was so good that I forgot to take a photo of the plate.

Pepper Steak, Sauteed Spinach And French Fries

Braised Lamb Shank With Barely Mashed Potoatoes And Parsnips.

Charred Half Chicken And Root Vegetables