Tag: milk

Creamy Chicken and Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 500g chicken breast cut into 1″ pieces
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 tbsp dried basil
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • pepper
  • salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 250g spiral pasta
Directions:
  1. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
  2. Heat oil and sauté onion until tender, salt and pepper chicken pieces and add to the pan along with the garlic, cook until cooked through.
  3. Add can of diced tomatoes, including juice, to the onion and chicken an heat until bubbling. Add butter, milk, and cheese to the pan. After it has simmered for a while to reduce the sauce, add  the basil and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes.
  4. Add the cooked pasta to the chicken pan and stir to combine.
  5. Salt the dish just enough to bring out the flavour of the basil.

Classic Beer Aussie Damper Recipe

I’ve written a few other recipes for damper (here and here). My last one was from the Aussie Griller web site, and this one is too …

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain white flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 60g melted butter
  • 1/2 bottle of beer
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
  2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
  3. Kneed the dough to form a ball for about 4 – 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.
  4. Flatten the dough ball, brush on a bit of milk and dust it.
  5. Place in on a floured baking tray.
  6. Place it in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes.
This looks like another one that I’m going to enjoy trying out …

Classic Beer Damper Recipe

Cheese, Bacon and Chives Damper Recipe

Previously I have written up the damper recipe that I usually use. I’ve experimented a bit with that base recipe by adding different herbs to it, but this cheese, bacon and chives damper recipe by the Aussie Griller looks delicious.

Here is how to make it:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups plain white flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 60g melted butter
  • 200ml milk
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Handful diced bacon
  • Handful shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 tbs chopped chives

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 200C (400F)
  2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl
  3. Kneed the dough to form a ball for about 5 – 8 minutes until it’s nice and firm
  4. Flatten the dough ball, brush on a bit of milk and dust it.
  5. Place in on a floured baking tray.
  6. Place it in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes.
  7. Enjoy!

Cheese, Bacon and Chives Damper Recipe

I can’t wait to try this one and I have subscribed to the Aussie Griller YouTube channel as well so that I can try out more of their great recipes.

How to Make the Perfect Omlette

I am a bit embarrassed to say I have always had a hard time making omelettes. Most of the time they would turn out more like scrambled eggs than an omelette. Lately though I have finally been successful in making a good omelette thanks to watching this video by Jamie Oliver …

Since watching that I have finally been able to make a three egg omelette that actually looks and folds like an omelette. I add a bit of milk to my eggs, rather than doing straight eggs like Jamie Oliver does, and with the size of pan that I have three eggs seems to be the perfect amount for it to be easy to flip at the right moment.

My wife prefers the size of a a two egg omelette though, which is a bit trickier to flip as it is thinner by the time it is ready to flip, but so far they are turning out much better than they used to before I watched Jamie’s video.

Home Made Non-Alcoholic Eggnog Recipe

A few years ago I started to make my own Eggnog and haven’t been able to drink the store bought stuff since. Making it can be tricky as it is very easy to over cook it, and if you do you end up with scrambled eggnog, which is gross. We actually did that the first time we tried to make eggnog and it took us 5-years to work up the courage to try again, but we are glad we did…

Ingredients:

  • 6 2/3 cups of milk
  • 2/3 cup of white sugar
  • 8 x beaten egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • dash of nutmeg

You can also substitute in 2 x cups of cream for 2 x cups of milk if you prefer a thicker eggnog. I have also tried 3 cups of half & half cream in place of 3 cups of milk with good success.

If you want an alcoholic version of the eggnog recipe you can substitute 2/3 cup of rum in place of 2/3 cup of the milk.

Directions:

Stir together 4 cups of milk with the 2/3 cup of sugar and egg yolks over low heat. You will want to stir constantly so that none of the egg starts to cook on the bottom of the sauce pan (trust me, you don’t want this to happen). You want to warm the mix until it just adheres to the spoon. If it starts to boil or overcooks just throw it out, otherwise it will be like drinking scrambled eggs…

As soon as the eggnog is warmed transfer it to a sink full of icy cold water and cool it for at least 2-minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in the remaining 2 2/3 cups of milk and the vanilla (you can substitute the 2/3 rum in for 2/3 of milk at this point). Cool for at least another 4-hours before enjoying.

Serving:

I usually pour my eggnog on to a couple of cubes of ice and then drink sprinkle some nutmeg on top and you are set to have some eggnog that crushes anything I have ever bought from the store.

A Modern Aussie Damper Recipe

Since I arrived here in Canada I have definitely been missing some of the Australian food. A classic recipe that we’ve been having a lot is a modern variation on traditional Aussie Damper.

Cooking Aussie Damper on a Pizza Stone on the BBQOne problem that I have had with my old recipe from Australia is that one of the ingredients that we had in Australia is not available in Canada. I’ve turned three lots of damper into raw lumps of burnt, uncooked damper dough.

Here is a version of damper using ingredients that I can get here in Canada, so that I can finally stop wrecking damper and disappointing the family.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups of Flour
  • 4 tsp Baking Powder
  • 2 teaspoons Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 – 1.5 cups Milk
  • 1/4 Cup Butter

Preparation:

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt) together in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Using a pastry cutter cut the butter into the dry mixture. You use the pastry cutter so that you can get it to fine crumbs instead of creaming the butter.
  3. Slowly add the milk into the mixture so that it forms a soft dough.
  4. After it’s a soft dough then dust the dough with some extra flour and knead the dough until it is smooth and then form it into a round loaf.

Cooking:

BBQ  Cooking with a Pizza Stone (My usual method):

  1. Preheat your BBQ to about 375F
  2. Dust the pizza stone with flour
  3. Place the round damper loaf on the pizza stone and cook for 30 – 40 minutes, until the damper sounds hollow when tapped.

Oven Cooking (I do this when it’s raining)

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. Dust baking tray and place damper on the tray
  3. Cook for 30 – 40 minutes until the damper sounds hollow when tapped.

Campfire Cooking (I haven’t tried this method yet)

  1. Grease a Dutch / Camp oven and dust it with flour
  2. Add the round damper loaf and cover
  3. Place the camp / Dutch oven in the fire and cover with the coals and hot ashes and cook for about 30-minutes
  4. Take the oven out of the fire and test the damper by tapping on it to find the hollow sound

Eat It:

The damper is great for dipping into hardy soups or stews and I love it with home made chilli.

Our favourite way to eat it though is smothered in golden syrup. Because of the butter that is added when it’s being made we don’t have to add more butter to it.

Healthier Option:

Normally we use white flour, which gives the best flavour, but for a healthier option I sometimes use whole wheat flour instead. The whole wheat flour makes for a denser loaf of damper so I usually have to use a bit more milk when making the dough and increase the cooking time by 5 or 10 minutes. If you find that this burns the outside of the damper then you can try decreasing the temperature slightly.

Links:

Here is the original recipe that I used. It used self-rising flour, which they don’t have here in Canada and was causing me all the grief.