Beans Means Heinz

Listen up people of America (or as Alex's says Ameri-car-ra). For the past six years I have tried to like your baked beans, I have tried every brand available and still I come to the same conclusion- too sweet! 

You can put as much sausage, beef or pork into your baked beans but the only way they will ever taste any good is if you remove at least half of the brown sugar that is added for this little Australian. There are only a select few stores across this country (Jewel Osco being one of them) that actually have the cream of the crop when it comes to tinned beans- HEINZ. They are a perfect balance of bean versus tomato sauce and most importantly, they are NOT sweet. If you have not yet tried Heinz beans
 give them a go.

Looking in the fridge this morning after having one to many cocktails at a friends house last night and craving a satisfying fry up- I fell short in the egg department. Lucky I had a tin of beans, half a packet of bacon in the fridge and a juicy ripe tomato sitting on the window sill. It did the trick, my craving of fatty bacon and beans was met and the kids were ecstatic to have beans and bacon for brekky. I'm telling you America- Beans Means Heinz (can you tell Heinz did a great ad campaign when I was a kid?)

Bread and butter pudding

During my pregnancy with Alex I was the pastry chef at Campagnola restaurant in Evanston, Il. Before that I was known as the 'grill bitch' in the main kitchen. I guess you can't be to nice when working in a male dominated work place AND get what you want! I absolutely LOVE working the line and my favorite position is in fact the grill. The thrill of seeing all the tickets lining up, meat searing on the wood fired grill and servers screaming in pre-orders for the last three tables they just picked up- makes me feel alive. The adrenalin is frightening at times, yet totally intoxicating, especially when you get through the service and no one has sent food back or you've lost a ticket on the line (which we all know happens!). 

I didn't give up the grill willingly I have to say and I also didn't give it up to reduce my stress levels (although all good arguments). I had to give it up in the end due to being way to big for the space. Doing a 360 turn from the grill to plating the food when you have a very large baby growing in your tummy doesn't leave a lot of room to move. I'd have to back up to let the other guys out- it was time to change jobs.

For the good part of my 15 years in cooking I have managed to avoid two areas of a professional kitchen I loathed. The pantry (salads) and pastry. I always felt my hands were much to clumsy for the delicate works of a pastry kitchen and I also wasn't happy about being so accurate around food. When the head chef, Vince suggested I try the pastry section I thought he was deranged and told him it properly wasn't a good idea but I'll give it a go because clearly I was not going to fit on the line for much longer!

 To cut a long story short I took up the post and was happy to be cooking yet feeling totally out of my depth. I was actually glad to finally pop Alex out. I didn't really learn to LOVE the pastry section until we went to live in Florence Italy for ten months (Alex was 6 weeks old when we left). Being surrounded by delicious cakes and pastries, being able to walk around the corner and buy fresh bread and sweet rolls from our house slowly changed my perspective on the dessert station. In the end I was dying to get back to the kitchen and reproduce the wonderful desserts and cakes we bought in Italy.

After being back at Campagola, full of ideas and recipes I'd picked up from friends in Florance I was raring to go and create. I found with the right passion and enthusiasm I wasn't to bad at the pastry thang and I even got a bit of a following. One of the dishes I made for the Fall/winter menu was bread and butter pudding. Restaurants always seem to have an abundance of stale bread and I thought it a waste to use it all for bread crumbs or throw it out. This recipe is very adaptable. When I made it for the restaurant I wanted it to be creamy and rich without making patrons wish they hadn't had it (for obvious reasons!) so I made it with half & half and a little cream. 

I didn't think my family and I needed that much fat in our diet so I made this one with full cream milk and a little cream. Play around and use what you feel most comfortable.

In the restaurant I also served it with a caramel sauce but I wasn't about to make the sauce at home because I had used up all my brownie points with Alex making the pudding, so I served it with Breyers praline ice- cream and I have to say it worked a treat! 

Seriously give it a go and change it around a bit. Instead of using banana, throw in some white chocolate and fig (that was another combo I did at work) or raspberry jam and chocolate- the combinations are endless!

Banana Bread and Butter Pudding

Preheat oven to 350-degree and have two ovenproof dishes ready for baking (you need a water bath to cook in so you don't make scramble eggs!)

1 loaf of stale bread (about 9 oz in weight)- crust removed, diced and browned in 350-degree oven until golden in color

Meanwhile in a medium saucepan heat

1-2 tsp. vanilla essence or 1 scraped vanilla pod

700ml  Whole milk

300ml heavy whipping cream

Heat but DO NOT BOIL.

Once milk is scorched cut off the heat.

In a separate large bowl combine

4 eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Whisk until well combined and thick (approx 30 seconds)

Gradually pour in your scorched milk mixture with eggs until you have a custard.

Add your toasted diced bread and leave to soak for 30 minutes.

After you have soaked the bread make your banana mix so the flavors can meld.

In a medium bowl ADD

2 bananas- mashed, the older and blacker the better

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. brandy or Bourbon

Mix until combined then leave until your ready to form pudding

Meanwhile in a small oven proof dish go around it with butter giving it a good coating, leaving chunks of butter in for added flavor. Personally I like to use a salted butter (kerrygold being my fave) the salted butter gives it a distinct flavor of salty sweet adding another flavor layer to the dish.

OK, so you have your bead soaking and it is spongy and ready to go, your container is buttered up and the banana mix is all ready to go.

Pull out half the bread and cover the bottom of your dish- don't worry about the custard mix it all ends up in the dish.

Once you have the bottom layer in- pour over the banana mix and finish with covering the banana mix with the remaining bread. Pour remaining custard over bread until all gone or dish is full.

Place dish in a larger dish (water bath) and fill it with water until is comes up about an inch on the sides. Place in 350-degree oven for about an hour. 

When all custard is set remove from oven an let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Leftovers + pasta

As I wrote on my last entry the skordalia was a success and dinner was wolfed down by all (not including the celery of course!). Having worked the past two evenings I thought I'd better clean out the 'leftovers' in the fridge. Seeing how the boys (Nic included) got the veal and pork lasagna for dinner last night there wasn't much in the way of left overs until I spied the white bowl sitting at the back covered in plastic and parsley- doesn't everyone have parsley running wild in the deep dark corners of their fridge??

 Knowing I couldn't top the lasagna I decided to put it to the test- did the boys really, like the skordalia? Because it was a couple of days old the oil had leached out a bit and intensified so I decided to pare it with fettuccine the random green beans I found and fresh cherry tomatoes. The results were

1) Over all 'look'- great, bright and eye catching

2) Flavor- rich, garlicky and very tasty

3)Speed- AWESOME!!! seriously dinner was on the table in 10 minutes and the fresh tomatoes really cut through the heavy flavor of the almond, bread and oil.

Next time I make the lamb and skordalia I will defiantly save a bit of the skordalia for a dinner later in the week.

  Max is sitting here eating ice cream, he demolished his dinner. Alex has only the lone cherry tomato to eat- the ice cream may or may not be hitting his lips- come on Alex you can do it!

Guinea Pigs

I have been writing down recipes, ideas and memories of recipes for my (hopefully ) up and coming book on family meals. Last year the boys were very patient with me asking them to 'taste this with that', 'make sure you eat it all together' or 'just taste it and tell me...pleeassseeee!' 

When we were heading back up to Chicago at the beginning of summer and I was wrapping up some recipe testing yet again- the boys gave a sigh and said, 'Does this mean we can just eat?' I got the message and have laid off.....until now. Deadlines looming and my urge for retesting and retesting again has lead me to tonight's dinner. Lamb chops with skordalia and something??? I really wanted to see what the boys thought of my version of skordalia and if I wasn't to off track. My version is a combination of flavors starting with a poached egg, lots of garlic, almonds, bread crumbs, parsley and a splash of oil and lemon juice then blended together in a food processor. Wondering if the garlic was just to much I thought I'd serve it with a salad of apples, raisins, celery and blanched broccoli - A few of their favorites just in case it fell flat and left them with just lamb and couscous.

Of course they were saying 'what is the green stuff, what's in the salad?' Alex's first words were 'I don't like it' and then proceeds to eat. I put the skordalia on the side of the boys plate (and served ours on top of the lamb) so they saw the lamb and recognized it as 'friendly food'. I of course hold my breath and Max butts in with 'Hmm this is really yummy' Alex then adds 'Oh yeah, I like it'. Just when I think all is well Alex pipes up in his loudest three year old voice and says 'OH this isn't apple......this is CELERY- I DON"T LIKE IT' Here I was worrying about the garlic being to intense and I should of been more worried about the celery!

From an adults point of view the skordalia was delicious, a very soft texture with a huge bite that compliments lamb beautifully. Having said that I kept on thinking how nice it would be with eggplant- next time.