Corned Beef Hash Cakes

Another yummy recipe I found on  Taste.

Last week I bought a slow cooker and the very first thing I cooked was corned beef. After 8 1/2 hours of cooking that baby, it was still not even remotely tender.  Rather than waste it, I searched for a recipe that I could use it in.  Taste came to the rescue with a recipe for Corned Beef Hash Cakes. I am being lazy today, so if you would like the recipe you will need to click on the link. I reduced the recipe accordingly, as it apparently serves 10. I seriously doubt that it serves 10, more like it makes 10 cakes. I also didn't add the mustard as somebody doesn't like it!

These were seriously yummy and it didn't matter one bit that the corned beef was not meltingly tender. I only remembered to take a photo when there were only two left, these were the leftovers.  So no lovely photo of the hash cakes (a little chuckle at that name) served with steamed vegetables and an absolutely fabulous  D'vine Smokey Tomato Relish made locally  here on the Sunshine Coast.

I picked some up at the Eumundi Markets on Saturday.  Sue who owns D'vine is lovely and everyting she makes is top notch. You can also find her moorish feta with traditional basil pesto and other tasty things under the label Sue's Natural Cuisine.

View from my window and a recipe

This is the view from my sewing machine, it is currently sitting next to the dining table, as I have nowhere else to put it.  At least I have a fabulous view to look out to when I look up. What looks like a couple of grotty patches on the window on the top photo to the left of the hill is actually bunches of leaves on the eucalyptus tree. The hammock is tempting sometimes!!

I made Gnocchi Florentine Bake for my girlfriend J for lunch last week. I found the recipe on Taste.com.au, it is here. I have a zillion cookbooks, and as I have so many I can't be bothered to search through them to find a recipe...go figure!!! I always end up looking on Taste.

I modified it a bit, as a number of people had commented that the yoghurt was too strong in it. I also halved the recipe which would have served 3 light eaters for lunch. So here is my version.

Gnocchi Florentine Bake       serves 8..........................  I think it would serve 6 

1 tblspn oil

1 large red onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed, ( I have taken to using Gourmet Garden garlic in a tube, as I am sick of getting crappy imported garlic from the supermarket, or the Russian garlic from the farmers market This seems to be pretty good to use when you are cooking as it doesn't have that yucky vinegary flavour that a lot of processed garlic has, and it's made locally here.)

200g (7oz) prosciutto, chopped

1 bunch spinach, (I used frozen and it was fine but normally I would use fresh)

1kg  (2.2lbs) potato gnocchi

1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt

1 1/2 cups smooth ricotta

125g  (4.5oz)  cheese ( it is supposed to have bocconcini but I didn't have any, either way it would be great)

50g (2oz) parmesan cheese, finely grated

Preheat oven to 220C (430F)

Heat oil in large non stick pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 mins or until tender. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add prosciutto and cook for 3 mins. Remove from heat.

Place spinach in a freezer bag and twist top to seal, microwave on high for 1 to 2 mins or until just wilted, add to the prosciutto and onion mixture.  Or you could just chop finely and add to the pan after you have cooked the onion and prosciutto, and cook until wilted.  Combine yoghurt and ricotta in bowl.

Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for 3 minutes or until gnocchi floats to the surface. Drain. Spoon half the gnocchi into an 8 cup capacity baking dish. Top with half the spinach mixture and half the yoghurt and ricotta mixture. Repeat layers. Top with combined cheeses or bocconcini and then parmesan. Bake uncovered for 15 to 20 mins or until golden.  Serve with a salad.

Note: I had some left over and tried it the next day, the gnocchi had hardened and were like bullets, so I don't recommend saving it for later.

I made it again tonight.

Panang Pork Curry (Panang muu)

I have finally decided that buying hundreds of cookbooks and lovingly reading them from cover to cover, bookmarking fabulous recipes and cutting out hundreds of recipes from magazines has to have a purpose. So I am now.............ta dahhhh............................going to try and aim to cook at least one recipe from each cookbook I have, and also start using some of the recipes I have cut out or printed out and stashed in my recipe folder. It's the old 80/20 principle, 80% of the time I cook 20% of my recipes, or in my case it's more like 99% of the time I cook 1% of my recipes.

Tonight I just produced the most wonderful Penang Curry. I found the recipe, Panang Pork Curry on the Taste website you can find it here . It was amazing, now I never have to go to a restaurant to have Penang Curry again. The only change I made to the recipe, I substituted Valcom Penang Curry Paste, for the red curry paste. It was absolutely fabulous.

Once I get my camera working again, I hope I will be able to start taking photos, but in the meantime, at least you can see what it looks like on the Taste website