Mozzarella stuffed meatballs

Firstly, apologies about the delay with this post. Life has been a little crazy, with more downs than ups lately, but one thing has kept me going ... Food! I don't know about you, but to me food is all about comfort and feeling like you are getting a big warm hug.

One of my favourite comfort foods is pasta. I know carbs are evil (yada, yada, yada), but I love them and I'd rather be happy than hungry. Over the years I've made many different types of meatballs – sometimes with a simple tomato sauce, sometimes baked, sometimes fried. I also love stuffing them with cheese from time to time. 

Today I want to share my mozzarella stuffed meatballs, with gooey cheese in the middle and a yummy tomato sauce with semi-dried tomatoes. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Mozzarella stuffed meatballs

Makes 10 large meatballs

500g beef mince

10 cubes of mozzarella or cheddar cheese

1/4 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 can of tomato condensed soup (420g)

1 can of crushed tomatoes (approx. 410g)
2 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 can of water*

100g semi-dried tomatoes (optional)

1. Add the mince, onion, oregano, egg and breadcrumbs into a large bowl along with some salt and pepper and two dessertspoons of crushed tomatoes. Combine the ingredients using a fork or your hands until everything is mixed through well.

2. Divide the mince into ten portions and place on a chopping board. Take a portion of the meat and flatten into an rough circle shape. Place a piece of cheese into the middle of the meat and pinch in the sides to cover the cheese. Roll the mince in your hands to form a rounded meatball. Continue with the rest of the meat portions until you have ten meatballs.

3. In a large frying pan (with a lid), brown the meatballs in a little bit of oil until each side has a little colour. This is to simply make sure the meatballs keep their shape and have a little bit of colour on the plate. Remove meatballs from the pan and set aside.

4. In the same pan, add the tomato soup, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, garlic and basil. Cook over a medium heat until the sauce begins to bubble. Stir through the semi-dried tomatoes and return the meatballs to the pan, covering each one with a little bit of sauce.

5. Bring the sauce to the boil before adding on the pan's lid and turning the sauce down to a simmer. Simmer the meatballs and sauce for 40 minutes.

6. Remove the meatballs from the sauce and mix in your favourite cooked pasta or spaghetti (I often use large shells or penne). If you feel the sauce isn't thick enough, allow the sauce to simmer for 5-10 minutes (uncovered) before adding in the pasta.

To serve, simply add the meatballs back on top of the pasta and top with a good amount of Parmesan cheese.

You can also add salami chunks to the sauce. Simply add it in with the semi-dried tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Steph xo

* Take the empty can from the tomatoes or soup and fill it half way with water. I often do this instead of measuring out the additional liquid and then trying to work out what the ratio is to the liquid from the can.

Dinner sausage rolls

No matter how old you are, sausage rolls are always enjoyable. Well, good ones anyway! What makes a good sausage roll is the filling. These sausage rolls are made with your everyday beef mince, not fatty sausage meat, and uses lots of yummy additions to add great flavour. 

My favourite addition is fruit chutney. I use a great homemade mango chutney my Mum makes, but I use a good quality store bought chutney when I'm out - which works just as well. 

I serve these large sausage rolls for dinner, with the normal sides of mash and vege or salad. This makes them a great recipe to have up your sleeve when you have beef mince to use up. 

Dinner sausage rolls

Makes 4 large sausage rolls / 6 medium sausage rolls

500g beef mince

1 egg, whisked

2 Tbsp your choice of fruit chutney (my favourite is mango)

1/2 brown onion, grated

1/2 medium carrot, finely grated (using the small grater side of your cheese grater)

1 tsp/1 clove minced garlic

1/2 cup bread crumbs

salt and pepper to season

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Grab your puff pastry sheets out of the freezer and leave on the bench to defrost. If you live in a warm climate, be careful not too leave your pastry out too long or it will be hard to use. If it's a really hot day it may be better to grab it out after you've done your filling. 

2. Add all filling ingredients into a large bowl. Using your hands or a large spoon, mix until well combined and the mince no longer looks grainy but more like sausage mince (usually a couple of minutes). The more combined the mince is the better your sausage rolls will taste.

3. Divide the filling into two and add into the middle of each pastry sheet, shaping into a long log shape  about the width of your thumb.

4. Fold one side of the pastry over the filling, brush with a little bit of water and then fold over the other side. Flip over the large sausage rolls so the "fold" is on the bottom. Cut into two or three large sausage rolls, depending how big you'd like your sausage rolls to be. You can also cut them into six if you'd like to use them for nibbles.

5. Add sausage rolls to a large baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Brush each sausage roll with water and bake in the oven for 35 - 45 mins until golden brown.

Enjoy

Steph xo

Glazed meatloaf

Funny enough, even though I came from a more English cooking background, I didn't grow up with meatloaf on the menu. I always thought it was just a boring slab of meat with no flavour. And to be honest I continued to think this until I stumbled across a glazed meatloaf in a cooking magazine.

Inspired at how amazing it looked, I started playing around with my own recipe. Over time it has adapted into a more Asian inspired glazed meatloaf, using kechup manis for the sticky part of the glaze along with a little bit of chilli powder for a little bit of a heat (don't worry, it's not much!).

Glazed meatloaf

Serves 6

1 kg beef mince
2 tsp minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp kechup manis
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 large onion, peeled and grated
Salt and pepper

Glaze

2 Tbsp kechup manis
1 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
1 Tbsp water
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp hot chilli powder / cayenne pepper / paprika
2 tsp white vinegar


1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 C / 350 F

2. Add all your meatloaf ingredients into a large bowl. Using your hands, combine all the ingredients and roughly mix the meat until the mince becomes a little smooth instead of it's "wormy" look you started with. Doing this uses the fat in the mince as an extra binding ingredient and the meatloaf won't be as grainy once cooked.

3. On a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, shape the meat into a long log - around 30cm in length.

4. Combine all the ingredients for the glaze and drizzle two teaspoons over your meatloaf.

5. Pop the meatloaf into the oven for 25 minutes before added half of the left over glaze. I use a teaspoon measurement and drizzle it over the top and sides to ensure I get as much of the meatloaf as possible.

6. Cook for a further 15 minutes and add the remainder of the glaze in the same way. Then, cook for a final 10 minutes until the glaze is nice and sticky on top.

7. Serve with your choice of side (we love salad and chunky mash!). We like to drizzle a little bit of the glaze from in the tray over the top before serving, but you don't have to.

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Beef and onion fried dumplings

With Chinese new year fast approaching, I want to share with you a Friday night favourite in our house: Fried beef and onion dumplings.

I didn't try dumplings until I moved to Melbourne, where Mr Steph soon introduced me to a little place we have no idea the name of in China town. It is simply known as "the dumpling place with the red door". This is no joke. We honestly walk down the alleyway looking for the red door we know and love!

Every now and then we'd be at home and would have a hankering for dumplings but we didn't want to drive into the city to have them. The area we've recently moved to is great, but not so great for Asian cuisine. It's all just Indian and Italian. We did find one place a suburb over which was OK, however it just wasn't the same.

I started off with an Indonesian dumpling recipe, carting one of my work friends off with me into an Asian grocer to help me find the ingredients and make sure I was translating the recipe correctly. I soon became a little more brave and started visiting on my own, hoping I was picking the right things off the shelves.

Over time I created my own dumpling recipe. This recipe uses your everyday beef mince - so don't stress about having to mince your own. It also uses ingredients that you can find in most supermarkets. However, I would check out your local Asian grocer as they have a much wider range to choose from. I use gyoza dumpling wrappers as I found they work much better than wonton wrappers. But if you have the nack for them, you can simply use wonton wrappers instead. I haven't found a grocery store that sells gyoza dumpling wrappers yet, so you may have to visit the Asian grocer for it.

Now, a bit of a disclaimer to start with. These are by no means traditional, so if you have a traditional or family recipe I'm apologising a head of time.

Beef and onion fried dumplings

Serves 4 (approx. 35 dumplings)

Gyoza dumpling wrappers
500g beef mince
1 heaped Tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp kecap manis
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 onion, finely diced and fried until golden brown.

1. Add all your ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix the mixture for a couple of minutes until well combined. The reason I mix for so long - and with my hands - is that it starts to bring out the fat in the mince, creating more like a sausage mince than mince. This gives the dumpling a smoother texture, and ensures it won't be too "mincy" and turn out more like a rissole. The longer you can work the mince the better. You are looking for a smooth, sausage meat looking mixture.

2. Now onto putting the dumplings together. I've had a look a several YouTube videos for this, but I couldn't work out what they were doing. Anyway, this is my imperfect (most likely lazy) way of doing it.

Add in a teaspoon of mixture into the middle of the gyoza wrapper. Dip your finger into some water and run it around the edge of the wrapper, making sure you go all the way round and right to the edge. Bring up both sides of the wrapper and press together. The water will help them stick. If they are not quite sticking, dab a little more water on the edges. Using your fingers, pin the edges of the dough together until it looks almost like crinkle cut. I like to use three fingers for this: Two on one side of the dumpling and one on the other. I then pinch the dough together to give it that wavy, crinkle look. I usually do this once on each side and in the middle.

3. Continue until you have no more dumpling mixture.

4. Now, onto steaming the dumplings. If you don't have a bamboo steamer like me, simply use a steel colander over a large pot of water.

Fill up the pot at least half way (making sure the colander sits out of the water), and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat slightly so that it'll gently bubble away while you're cooking your dumplings.

The dumpling production line!

Sprinkle a little bit of water into the bottom of the colander (just to stop the dumplings from sticking to the bottom), and place in as many dumplings as you can - making sure they aren't touching each other. If they are too close you'll have a group of dumplings instead.

Cook the dumplings until the dough starts to go slightly transparent and you can see the brown of the mince showing through. Remove from the "steamer" and place on a plate with some baking paper on the bottom. Again, this is going to stop those naughty little dumplings from sticking to your plate.

Depending how good you are at multiple tasking, you can start to fry up your dumplings while still steaming. But it's ready up to you and also how many dumplings you can steam at a time. I can steam six dumplings at a time in my colander, and usually wait until I have about twelve before I start frying them up.

5. Next, we are going to pan fry our dumplings until they have some gorgeous dumplings. If you prefer steamed dumplings simply skip this step.

Drizzle in a generous amount of vegetable oil, making sure it coats the bottom of your pan by at least a millimetre. Heat up the pan and then place your dumplings in side down. Fry until golden, then turn to fry the other side.

6. Eat your dumplings!

My little cutie Bunny trying to make me share ...

My favourite dipping sauce is a mix of kecap manis and soy sauce. Mr Steph loves chilli oil, which you can get from your local Asian grocer.

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Moroccan inspired beef mince with mini tortillas

It's funny when you look back at how you started cooking. I always helped Mum in the kitchen, even from a very young age, but when I was nine things quickly changed from helping to doing.

My Mum had a really tough pregnancy with my little sister. I was only nine at the time, but I could see my Mum was struggling. In her last trimester she continued to try and do everything as normal but she just couldn't. My Dad worked a lot to support us, so it was just Mum and us kids (three under the age of nine) at home before dinner-time. After Mum was trying to vacuum the house one day she had to lay down on the couch and just couldn't move she was so exhausted.

Being the eldest and seeing my Mum needed help I just stepped in. I got everyone in the bath, putting my younger sister Cakie (her nickname, of course) no more than seven years old in charge while I set off to find out from Mum what she wanted me to do for dinner with whatever she had out.

From this point forward I learnt how to cook by myself quickly and in a very unorthodox way. My Mum never used recipes for things she cooked for dinner; it was all in her head. I would tell Mum what I wanted to make and she would tell me what I needed, giving me a quick run down about what to do. As I didn't have Mum with me she would give me details about what it was suppose to look or smell like as she told me what to do. If I got stuck I would call out to Mum or bring her a taste so she could tell me if I'd missed anything. Most of the time I just tried to do it myself, using whatever knowledge I had to adapt into new things, as I didn't want to bother her while she was resting.

I still cook like this today - paying more attention to how something should look, smell or taste more than anything else.

Coming from a big family as well all of us now "grown up" kids have learnt to make dinner with as little as possible to keep the costs down. An ingredient my Mum always had was beef mince as it was so affordable. Today it is also a regular ingredient for me because it's just so quick and easy. I know a lot of you are the same, so here's another mince recipe for you, so it isn't just rissoles or spaghetti each time.

I know it's not a traditional Moroccan recipe, but it's my spin on Moroccan flavours. There are four main Moroccan spices: Coriander, cumin, garlic and ginger. I'm not a massive ginger fan so I replaced it with a little bit of chilli as I love the combination of chilli and cumin in other dishes. Another addition is bacon, which I know shouldn't be in a traditional Moroccan dish but I just love how the bacon gets that little bit crispy and adds another texture into the meat.

Mini Moroccan tortillas

with Moroccan inspired beef mince and mini home-made tortillas

Serves 4

For the Moroccan mince

300g beef mince (you can use lamb as well)

1/2 large onion, diced

2 heaped tsps minced garlic / 2 large cloves of garlic, finely diced

1 long red chilli, finely diced / 2 heaped tsps crushed chilli

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 Tbsp ground cumin

4 shortcut / British style bacon

1 Tbsp BBQ / brown sauce

1 Tbsp oil (I use rice oil, but you can use olive or vegetable oil also)

To tortilla filling: 180g goat's milk feta cheese (crumbled) and 120g shredded lettuce. You can also simply use your family's favourite salads and normal grated cheese.

For the mini tortillas

Makes 18 mini tortillas. 

Four per person is usually plenty, but this way you have two extra for those hungry people. If you don't want to make your own simply buy tortillas. You can also use pita or pocket bread

2 cups plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp oil (olive, vegetable or rice oil)

3/4 cup warm water

Extra flour for kneading and rolling

It's best to get your tortillas all rolled out first so that you just have to fry them off later. I usually start cooking them while I'm making my mince, but if you don't like doing things at once cook them before you get started on your mince.

In a large bowl add in your flour, baking powder and salt. Mix these through and create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Next add your oil and water, stirring with a wooden spoon (or whatever spoon you are comfortable with) until it comes together into a dough. I usually mix until it starts to turn into a ball, then use my hands to knead all the strangler bits of dough together with the rest.

Sprinkle some flour onto your bench or a cutting board and knead the dough for a few minutes until it feels smooth. What I mean by this is you don't want the dough to feel grainy or lumpy when you are kneading it. Once you're happy with your dough divide it into 18 small balls. You want the dough ball to fit nicely in the small of your hand.

Now you can start rolling. Flour your bench again, flattening a ball slightly on the bench before you start to roll it out with a rolling pin. Don't stress about them not being round; they don't have to be perfect. If it makes you feel any better mine never are! You want to roll each one out until it is no more than 2mm thick. Once you are happy with your tortilla, sprinkle each one with some flour before putting them aside and moving onto your next one. The flour stops them from sticking together but you also need a little bit of flour on the outside for when you cook them.

As I said, I usually cook mine off as I make the mince. For the purpose of this recipe we will make things a little less chaotic for those that already are multi-tasking with kids around them and cook these off first. (You go Mums!) The best thing about these tortillas is you can make them up early (even the day before) and simply zap them in the microwave quickly so they are just warm before serving.

Heat up an an electric pan or large frying pan over a medium heat. Once you can hold your hand over the top of the pan and feel the warmth, spray with a little bit of oil and add in your tortillas. You can add as many as you want, just make sure they are not over-lapping in any way. Cook the tortilla until you can see little bubbles appear on top, then flip them. They only need to cook a minute on the other side and they are done. All you really want to do is make sure they have a tiny bit of colour in places. If you cook them too long they won't be soft but rather crunchy.

Continue cooking your tortillas, spraying with a little oil each time you add in new ones. Once cooked place them aside and get started on your mince.

Add your oil into a large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Once hot enough add in your onion. If you are using fresh chilli add it in with the onion. Saute your onion (until it appears transparent) before adding in your bacon and beef mince. Once you've browned the mince add in your spices, garlic and crushed chilli. Stir the mince for a couple of minutes until you can smell the spices and garlic cooking off. Lastly, mix through the BBQ sauce and you're done.

Simply serve the mince, cheese and lettuce in their own bowls on the table and let everyone make their own tortillas; kids love being able to "construct" there own dinner. If your family don't goat's cheese people simply use normal grated cheese or feta, and add whatever salads your family will actually enjoy.

Enjoy!

Steph xo

Easy beef burgers

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love burgers. They always tempt me when I go out, and I'm a sucker for a whopper from Hungry Jacks. Even though I get really sick later, I still do it.

I started my hunt to create a beef patty that tasted just like the ones I get when I eat out. I've always grown up the Aussie way with rissoles or beef patties on the BBQ, but it always had the chunks of onion and a different flavour to the patties I would enjoy out.

I first started simply grabbing store bought patties from the deli when I felt like a burger. I knew these were pretty close to the sort of patties on your usually take-out grill. Looking at how they were made and how they cooked I worked out that the reason why mine always taste different is all the binding ingredients I need to use, and the consistency is different because of the onion I add for flavour.

One day I thought 'Why not use my food processor for all my herbs like I do for my chicken stuffing?'

So I threw the onion and all my herbs in and blended it until the onion was finely chopped, then I added it to my mince. Doing this still didn't give me the exact flavour I wanted because I still had to add my breadcrumbs and egg to bind it all together.

I then had a light-bulb moment. Why not simply use the fat in the mince to bind everything together? So the next time I added mince into the food-processor with the blended herbs, followed by just a little bit of the usually binding ingredients I use. And it worked out exactly how I wanted. A smooth mince patty but with all the flavour I wanted from my traditional rissoles I make.

If you don't have a food processor, don't worry I have an option for you below also.

Beef patties for home-made beef burgers

Makes 6 medium sized patties, large enough for your average hamburger roll.

500g lean mince. You could use regular mince, but I don't like too much oil cooking out of them as I find them a little greasy.

2g fresh parsley (just the leaves)
2 tsps fruit chutney
1/2 medium onion, quartered
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg

If you don't have a food processor see my note below.

Grab your food processor and throw in your onion and parsley. Blend them together until the onion is finely diced. Next throw in your mince, breadcrumbs and crack in the egg - no need to whisk. To make sure you don't over-work the mince, which will make it grainy in texture once cooked, break up your mince into large chunks so that it is spread out around the processor and not just in one section. Now turn it onto the low setting and blend quickly until everything is combined - around 1 minute. Any longer then that and your mince will be grainy, and you don't want that. Trust me. If the onion hasn't blended into the mince very well simply grab it out and finish combining it together with your hands in a small bowl.

Divide the mince into six equal amounts, then roll each of them a ball and then flatten them to around 1 1/2 cms thick. I usually flatten each and then lay them on a plate or cutting board ready to go.

In a large frying pan or electric pan, heat up a couple of tablespoons of oil (I use rice oil, but you can use olive or vegetable oil also) on a medium heat until you can feel the heat radiating from the pan when you move your hand over the top. Once your oil is ready pop in as many of the patties as possible while still having space between them so that you can easily flip them.

Now, I don't time each side like I probably should because I'm always doing something else while things cook rather than waiting and looking at a clock. I'm pretty sure many of you are also like that. What I look for is when you can see the patty is slightly cooked around the very edge of the patty, then flip. If you flip and they aren't brown enough on that side simply leave it and then flip it again once the other side is cooked to get that little bit of extra colour. To work out if they are done I usually use my egg flip and press down on the patty. You want clear juice coming out. If you are still a little unsure, you want the patty to feel more firm then soft when you touch it.

Now your patties are ready to add it to your burger bun of choice with all the salads or extras you desire.

Some gourmet extras to make your burger extra awesome and a bit more gourmet

• Fry up some onion with a little butter and oil. Cook them until they are soft and start to have a golden colour.
• When you flip the burger the first time, allow the other side to get a little bit of colour and then add some cheese slices (and your onion if you are doing it) so that the cheese melts while the patty is cooking.
• Toast up your burger buns before serving by spreading a generous amount of butter on the open side and frying them off until they have a little bit of colour. 
• Cut the sides of a large red capsicum or pepper and then grill them in a pan or on the BBQ with a little bit of oil. Red peppers are sweeter than green, so it will turn a little sweet when grilled. Make sure you grill it until it has blackened in areas.
• If you are going for a mock-up of a Hungry Jacks or Burger King burger: add cheese to the top of your patty, zap it in the microwave for 25 seconds, add it to your burger bun followed by a little tomato sauce or ketchup, tomato, onion slices (use white or brown onion), and shredded lettuce. Top it off with whole egg mayo on the top side of your bun, and you're done. Zap it again for 20 seconds so that your bun is slightly warm.

Note: What to do without a food processor. Grate your onion and finely dice your parsley. Then mix that through the mince, massaging it into the mince so that the fat in the mince starts to bind things. Then add the breadcrumbs followed by the lightly whisked egg, using your hands to mix everything together until smooth. Divide, roll and flatten as per recipe above. Cook as normal.

Enjoy,
Steph xo

Chilli Mince - for burritos, tortillas, nachos or tacos

I've been making chilli mince for many years now, and it's slowly been adapting into what it is today. Even a year ago (when I first posted this recipe on my blog) it was slightly different. But the recipe I have now is spot on! It has to be the best chilli I have made over the years; even Mr Steph agreed.

I used to simply use a can of tomatoes and some tomato paste. The one day Mr Steph said "Why don't you use soup like you do in your bolognese?" as he just loves my spaghetti bolognese meat sauce. So I thought I'd give it a go, and it created the best mince that I ever made. And now I share this recipe with you, so that your family can love it just as much as mine.

The mince isn't a hot chilli that makes you run for milk, and if you are a chilli lover you'll be happy that it does still have a bit of bite that you'll be happy with. I know you might be thinking 'Oh, you are just saying that!', but Mr Steph is a MASSIVE chilli fan. He is the extra hot peri-peri guy at Nandos. So when I say Mr Steph doesn't say it's mild, then you know it has a bit of a bite.

As he is the chilli lover and not me I have also asked him to give it a chilli rating out of five.

Chilli Mince

Serves 6, or 5 Mr Steph hungry mouths

I get Mr Steph to give the rating for any chilli dishes as for me anything other than mild is "hot", and he thinks my rating isn't really accurate for chilli lovers.

Mr Steph's chilli rating: 2.5 / 5

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

3 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried basil

2 long red chillis

500-600g lean beef mince

1 medium onion

1 tsp garlic

1 can (410g) crushed tomatoes

1 can (420g) condensed tomato soup

2 Tbsp oil (I use rice oil, but olive or vegetable oil is just fine)

salt and pepper

Firstly measure out your herbs and spices into a little dish, and dice your onion and chilli. If the kids aren't a big fan of hot food I would only do one chilli and skip the cayenne pepper in the recipe.

In a large pot or frying pan heat up your oil over a medium to high heat. Add in your onion and chilli, cooking until the onion becomes transparent. Next brown your mince, making sure it gets a little bit of colour before you add in your herbs and garlic. Allow them to cook off for a couple of minutes before adding in the tomatoes and soup.

Now this part really depends on how long you want to cook the mince for. If you have the time to cook the mince for the full time (1 1/2 - 2 hours) then grab one of your empty cans and fill it up with water half way, adding this into your mince. If you don't have that time available see my notes below for the quick, cheat's version.

Turn your mince down to a simmer and cook it for:

• 1 - 1 1/2 hours for nachos
• 1 1/2 - 2 hours for burritos, tortillas or tacos

You cook the mince just that little bit longer for burritos, tortillas and tacos as you want it to be thick so that it isn't too "soupy". I find it being a little more like a bolognese is good for nachos.

Serve with corn chips, tortillas (or try my easy home made tortillas) or tacos, along with your favourite trimmings. For us it's sour cream and cheese for nachos; tomato, cheese, pineapple, lettuce and onion for tortillas.

Enjoy!

Steph xo

Note: If you need the chilli on the table as quick as possible, simply add in half of the soup and cook it for 30-40 mins as normal. It might not have the full flavour, but it tastes just as good. I often do the quick version during the week as I just don't have the time to cook it for longer.

Revised 9/3/2014

Beef pasties

I only have mince left, and I've already made rissoles this week - HELP!

We have all been in this scenario - We open the freezer looking for something to hit us for inspiration, and the only thing staring back at us is mince. Usually by this stage rissoles has already made an appearance to the family for the week, or it has at least appeared very recently.

Now here's another option: Pasties.

Now straight away you might be thinking of the ones filled with veggies like your Mum used to make. These ones however are veggie free, and has been adapted over the years from my Mum's recipe.



Beef Pasties

Makes 8 small - for 3-4 people (depending how hungry the men in the family are!)

250g beef mince

1/4 onion, diced

1 1/2 tsps of roughly chopped fresh herb of your choice or 1 tsp of dried herbs - oregano, basil or parsley. I use parsley for fresh, but love oregano if I'm using dried. I think it's personal preference though

1 heaps dessert spoon of fruit chutney - any kind you would like

2 sheets of frozen puff (or shortcrust) pastry

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Start defrosting your pastry on the bench while you start putting together your mince mixture. In a bowl add in the mince, onion, herbs and chutney, and mix to combine. To make smaller pasties, cut your pastry diagonally to create four small triangles. Place a heaped dessert spoon of mince on one side of each triangle, shaping it slightly into a small triangle.

Using a pastry brush (or if you don't have one, just use your finger) run a little bit of water along the edges of the pastry triangle. Fold the pastry to cover the mince, and using a fork press the edges down until it is closed completely. If there is a little too much meat, and the pastry seems to be pulling to much to close, simply take out a little bit of the meat and try again. Continue for the rest of the pastry, and place on a baking tray / dish sprayed with cooking oil. Before placing them in the oven brush the tops of the pastry with water. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown.

Serve with gravy or your choice of sauce. Enjoy!

Note: If you would like larger ones, simply cut the pastry diagonally the once to make two large triangles. My Mum used to make the larger ones for my Dad and herself, and smaller ones for the kids so that everyone could have one each. These are also great for lunches, so I would recommend making a little bit extra if you can for the next day. Mum used to even pack them for us kids, cutting a little into the pastry so that she could squeeze in a little bit of sauce inside without it going all through the cling-wrap in our lunch boxes.

If you don't keep pastry in the freezer, simple make your own shortcrust - it's easy:
Basic Shortcrust Pastry Recipe

Enjoy!
Steph xo