3 Dinners

3 Dinners: Cold Weather

5/23/2009 01:11:00 PM


It's freezing outside. Half my family have colds (including me *cough cough*). Time for proper comfort food.

First up we have a reprise of Nigella's baked veal and ham pasta, first made over 3 years ago as my 300th recipe for my How to Eat project. Cooked penne, white sauce, cooked carrot/onion/celery/minced veal/pancetta. All mixed together, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and baked. Oh Yum!

Earlier this week I made a sausage and bean casserole, from the Comfort chapter of Joanna Weinberg's How to Feed your Friends with Relish.

You start by boiling some large cabbage leaves until floppy (interesting fact: I really like the smell of boiled cabbage!), then drain them, and wrap them around "excellent pork sausages", which will need to be skinned first. I used hot Italian pork sausages from my local organic/biodynamic butcher.

I love the way they look like the creature from the black lagoon...

Then you cook some onion/carrot/celery in a pan - the recipe calls for pancetta but I'd already blown the budget on the organic sausages - add the parcels, stock and tinned tomatoes, and simmer for 25 minutes. You add some beans at the end and let them heat through.
This was gorgeous. It's very different from what we'd normally eat at home, and delicious. I served it with buttery mashed potatoes (again, incidentally, organic ones from Vic Market). The flavour relies totally on the quality of the sausages, so it makes sense to get good quality, spicy ones.


Wiener Schnitzel with Bratkartoffeln and Coleslaw

I previously mentioned how much I enjoyed the April 09 edition of Gourmet Traveller. One of the reasons for this was a small feature on Wiener Schnitzel, which inspired me to make some for dinner last week. I did a mish-mash of the Gourmet Traveller recipe and the one from Neil Perry's Good Food.

I also made my own mayo to go with, and served it as a condiment, rather than mixing it through the coleslaw, as I thought it might make the whole meal a bit too rich. After much swearing and getting half the equipment in my kitchen greasy and feral, I realised the easiest way to make mayonnaise is the old fashioned way - a bowl and a whisk.

Coleslaw, simply dressed with red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Bratkartoffel
n. This is something I learned how to make in Germany. You boil some potatoes, then peel and slice them, and cook them in a pan with onions and speck until crispy. There is nothing about it I don't like.

And the schnitzel! Not nearly as good as Figelmüller's iconic schnitzel, but still good enough to make us happy on a cold night.

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3 comments

  1. Where to start. This food makes me feel excited about all this freezing weather.

    That bratkartoffeln looks amazing - would you need waxy or floury potatoes to make it?

    :)

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  2. Hehe thanks Laura!

    I used waxy potatoes for the bratkartoffeln - I assumed it was supposed to be sorta like a fried potato salad?

    Lol one thing I hate about the cold weather is the flu! I've got the flu and am feeling very rotten. It's 5pm and all I've managed to eat so far today are a couple of pieces of toast and a bowl of porridge. Boo.

    xox Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  3. These meals looks perfect for the freezing Sydney weather today. Your cabbage rolls look so much better than the things you get in shops - so very vivid green!

    ReplyDelete

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