Today's recipe

[vickihb2]

Baked Potatoes and Red Onions with Thyme and Balsamic vinegar


Serves 4


TURN THE OVEN ON NOW! 200 C 400 F


1 Kilo waxy yellow potatoes (2lbs)

1/2 kilo red onions (1lb)

150 g Balsamic (5 oz)

bunch FRESH thyme (learn to recognise it, it grows in lots of suburban gardens. Go and nick some or grow your own in a pot on your balcony like I do.)

decent sea salt and fresh black pepper

200 grams butter (4 oz)






Slice the potatoes long ways about 1cm thick.

Peel dry skin off red onions, cut into half, then quarters then 1/8ths. If they are really big cut them again.

Melt the butter GENTLY in an ovenproof dish . Add onions and potatoes (if you are the kind of person who burns butter, use olive oil or 50/50).

Saute gently, stirring with wooden spoon, from time to time, the potatoes/onions become coated with the butter/oil.

Add salt and pepper to taste

Add HALF the balsamic vinegar and the thyme*.

Cover the dish with foil.

Bake in the preheated oven** for 20 minutes.

Remove dish from oven, remove foil, Add rest of vinegar gently stir though

place back in the oven without the foil.

bake for another 20 minutes.


Should be crispy and sweet and melt in your mouth.



* If you can't fresh thyme dried is ok but it won't be as nice.


How to handle Thyme.

Don't need to chop it!

Hold the bunch over the pan and rub the twigs with your fingers, the tiny leaves will drop off. You can also just put in whole, twigs too and remove them before serving or leave them, depends on you. This is jazz cooking after all.


** Why do you have to preheat your oven?

This is very important in the chemistry of cooking. If your oven is not hot enough then the process will be different. You'll get steamed food instead of roasted.

If a recipe says preheat your oven that is as important as the ingredients. I always preheat mine for at least 20 minutes.

[isaacs]

This sounds great Vicki! I hope you are archiving these, you too Kenny (we can always dig back through the threads).

[bemoody]

i miss dinner at vickies.
yum yum

[johnk]

Hey woman a man needs some meat with his potatoes LOL I might even cook tonite now

[vickihb2]

Omelettes/Tortilla/Fritatta

Never spend good CD money on take-out food when you have a few decent eggs and some good oil in the house.

Here is a method for delicious omelettes that will impress and are quicker to make than buying take-out.


Invest in a decent heavy fry pan.

Buy some organic eggs, decent cheese and EVOO


Turn the grill on.


Put your heavy fry pan on the stove on a medium gas flame.

Then take some leftover ROAST VEGETABLES* and slice them to a reasonable size.

Grate/chop or crush a clove of GARLIC.

Take two EGGS per person. Beat them with a small pinch of SEA SALT.

Put some EVOO in the warmed pan (more than you think) and then add the cooked vegetables and garlic.

When vegies are heated through, remove from pan but leave some of the oil in the pan.

Put pan back on flame

Working quickly, tip the beaten eggs in the pan and place the vegies in the egg mixture in a style of your choosing (roast carrots and parsnip are great for this).

At this stage you can add some cheese, chopped parsley and black pepper if you like.

Egg mixture should be bubbling around vegies. Take pan off the flame and place under grill for a few minutes (if the pan's handle isn’t flame proof make sure you don’t burn it).

Slide on to a plate. Eat the whole thing at once, with decent bread and green salad or nothing at all.

You can eat this at room temperature too when you get home from the gig. Don’t eat it from the fridge, you deserve better than that!

*If you don’t have left over roast vegies saute (fry) some onions and frozen peas or chop some zuchinni, or mushrooms, or pumpkin etc whatever and cook them in the microwave for a few minutes 'til done.

[Kenny]

Today's recipe from Kenny:

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out;
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out;
You put your left foot in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your right hand in,
You put your right hand out;
You put your right hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left hand in,
You put your left hand out;
You put your left hand in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your right side in,
You put your right side out;
You put your right side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your left side in,
You put your left side out;
You put your left side in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your nose in,
You put your nose out;
You put your nose in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your backside in,
You put your backside out;
You put your backside in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your head in,
You put your head out;
You put your head in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

You put your whole self in,
You put your whole self out;
You put your whole self in,
And you shake it all about.
You do the Hokey-Pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about

[really impressed]

Wow KW remind me not to come to your place for dinner DO you give dinner parties?

[johnk]

i tried the potatos they were ace thanx for the recipe. Dont think i'll be cooking any left or right K9 feet or humans

Weir what have u been drinking tonite?

[vickihb2]

Kenny Weir are you being mean to me?

Yes I know my recipes sound a bit pedantic but honestly some people need that much instruction. Not everyone else can cook as well as you can.

Go transcribe your Wayne Shorter interview in longhand as punishment you bad man! Or I'll tell your Aunty.

[Kenny]

VickiHB said:

Kenny Weir are you being mean to me?

Nup, just havin' me sum fun.

I'm with you most of the way with recipes and so on. I follow the recipe precisely the first time through, but after that - except for baking - I deviate, as I find many could do with helluva lot less oil/fat and more veges. Plus deviating just seems to come naturally to me. ;D

[emma s]

are you a devil in the kitchen, sweetheart?


purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[johnk]

whats cookin tonite guys

[Kenny]

old socks pizza for me

[me]

Vicki..where do you put Allan Browne in your recipe....?

[Kenny]

I've just cleaned up the frozen leftovers of a Malaysian style chicken curry I made last Sunday from a receipe I saw in the Herald Sun. Yum. It's the first time I've ever attained that real Malaysian texture.

I used three jointed marylands and upped all the ingreients a bit. It's pretty oily and rich, but I'm not sure there's any other way of doing it.

It wasn't hot at all, so a few more chillies would be cool, so to speak ...

* Chop, and then mince to a paste in a blender, 1 large onion, one stick lemon grass (white only), 2 cloves garlic, 2.5cm galangal, 2 seeded, dried chillies.

* Next, grind together 3 cardamom pods, 5 cloves and 1tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds. This can be done in a pestle and mortar or in an electric spice (coffee) grinder.

* In a sturdy pot, fry the fresh, blended paste in 3tbs vegetable oil until it is caramelised. Add the ground ingredients, as well as 1tbs sweet paprika, 1tsp turmeric, 10 curry leaves and cook for two minutes. Add cup coconut milk and continue to cook until this separates.

* Add 1kg chicken pieces - ideally, marylands, on the bone, jointed into two pieces each, because they are more likely to remain moist than plain breast meat. Add 2tbs soy sauce and cook until meat is sealed. Add 1 more cup coconut milk and simmer for 1 hour. Season and serve.

The caramelising of the paste is crucial!