Pan Fried Veal Roast with Garlic, Rosemary and White Wine (GF)

from Marcella Hazan's "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking", I made this for dinner last night - it was VERY good and sooooooooo easy!

Basically I took a rolled veal roast, cut deep slashes into it and filled each with a peeled garlic clove (i halved some of the bigger ones and used about 6-7 in total for a fairly small roast - probably about 5-600g).

heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry roast on all sides to brown.

add white wine - around a cup - and stir, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

i didn't have fresh rosemary so just used a small amount of dried, around 1-1.5 tspns, also put a bit of salt and pepper on.

put the lid on and keep it on, taking off only to turn the veal a few times. if the wine evaporates add a bit more, and / or some boiling water.

when the veal is cooked (took around an hour or just over i think) and tender, remove it and leave the lid off and let the juices simmer into a nice glaze / gravy.

we had ours with smashed potatoes roasted pumpkin, and steamed broccolini and corn on the cob - YUM!

Asian Soup with GF wontons (GF, TMX)

this is not so much a recipe as it is a reminder for me of what i did tonight :) it needs some refinement ;)

wontons:
500g veal mince (or use pork or mix of pork & veal, pork & prawn)
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves
2 small carrots
1" ginger
1 egg
2-3 shallots, cut into 1" lengths
coriander

chop on speed 6 & mix well

soak rice paper wrappers in hot water, fold four sides into the centre, put tspnful in centre and bring in as for wontons. place in base of varoma (don't line with baking paper or if you do poke holes in bottom - mine stewed in the collected steam :()

no need to wash out tmx bowl, any leftover mince adds flavour to broth

broth:
in basket place:
some celery leaves
1 small carrot, chopped diagonally
star anise (i used 3, was not enough)
4 garlic cloves
1" ginger sliced
black peppercorns if desired

in bowl of tmx place 800g water, splash of tamari and good splosh of sesame oil. i also added some chicken stock powder as i was out of homemade stock concentrate.

place basket in

cook for 10 minutes on varoma speed 3/4

asian veg:
use any leafy green veg, slice very finely and place in top of varoma

put varoma on top for 10 minutes on varoma speed 3

** i'm not really sure about cooking times ATM as i totally overcooked the wontons.

serve with rice noodles (soaked) and some of the broth, wontons and greens.

would be lovely with some chilli in it too

~*Rae*~'s failsafe version

Nem Nuong (GF, TMX)

Last night's dinner was a big (italian style lol) salad with Nem Nuong

i didn't have any pork - i though the recipe needed pork and veal mince but spaced it and bought double amounts of veal and no pork lol. it made them a little dry but they were still yum. I made a double batch and there was not one left after feeding 3 adults and 3 kids (SIL was here for dinner).

i won't worry about C&P this recipe across as the one i have in my vietnamese recipe book is almost identical :) this recipe was a CINCH in the thermomix though - i just roasted then ground the rice in it first, then chopped the garlic and chives (i'd run out of shallots / green onions) and then added in everything else (i actually had a coarse ground mince so didn't need to make my own)

i love these made quite small and put in the rice paper rolls, or served with rice vermicelli and salad, and nuoc mam.

and still more...

yes i had a very busy afternoon.

reduced fat and healthier sausage rolls (i dont' think they can ever be really low fat lol)

i made a HUGE batch of meat mix, so will halve it here, but it will still make a lot, just put them in your freezer and warm through when needed :)

4 sheets reduced fat puff pastry

250g pork and veal mince
350g premium beef mince
oatmeal, maybe about 1 cup
mixed or italian herbs, or any fresh herbs finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped or grated
1 zucchini finely chopped or grated
1 large onion finely chopped or grated
1 egg

mix very very well until the meat starts to get a bit lighter in colour (i did mine in my thermomix but pre-thermo days i did it by taking handfuls and squeezing them through my fingers)

take handfuls and form into a sausage on a sheet of puff pastry - you want it to be around 1.5-2" high. roll pastry up and gently cut through into 6-8 pieces. stab the top of each roll a few times

put on baking tray lined with baking paper. if you aren't lazy like me brush the tops with milk or beaten egg.

bake at around 200' until golden brown and meat cooked through (this will take longer if they are thicker)

serve with tomato sauce

meat at last and dinner tonight...

$200 later and i have meat to last for a while LOL i will probably need to buy more next month, but not too much. i do need to get chicken as that is the most popular meat in teh house and it wasn't particularly cheap today so i only got 2 breasts. i did get a whole scotch fillet as well as a few whole fillets of beef, which is where the biggest cost came from, as well as a roast of every version (except chicken, i always buy the aldi marinated ones. not because i don't think i could marinate my own but because as a teenage i was caught too many times with the giblets etc left in the chicken and i'm too scared to chance it again LOL i hate handling chicken and have no intention of sticking my hands inside a chicken!)

so anyway, dinner tonight was mostly a success. i pounded out some veal steaks i bought and made my own crumbs in the thermomix. $10 of veal seemed excessive (not that we won't spend $10 on a meal's worth of meat every so often) but after pounding it will go far enough for 2 meals :) unfortunately g slightly burned it during cooking :( ryan and emelia didn't like it but rory loved it .

geoff did the sides - mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, carrot and surprisingly the little pale green zucchinis i bought went down a treat. rory ate not only her whole entire plateful but half of g's and then the leftovers in teh kitchen LOL she is an eating machine!!

the kids want strawberry custard for dessert (the thermomix means all natural custard consisting of a little sugar, flour, eggs, milk and fresh strawberries) but i'm too lazy LOL maybe they'll nag g enough to make it instead! mwahahahahhaha