Melt in the Mouth Osso Buco

"There's something wrong with my meat. It falls apart when I touch it" - W.

This is slow cooked osso buco served with a side of Milanese risotto and gremolata. Osso buco is the cross section of a veal shank and the bone marrow is edible. The "internet" suggested polenta or saffron risotto was essential as the side to follow tradition. I decided white dinner rolls were more essential to mop up the yummy sauce and bone marrow! This is a great recipe and I think the secret ingredient (anchovies) really adds a lot to the sauce. Although it takes 4 hours in the oven, it's well worth it for the "melt in the mouth" meat on a cold Sunday night.

I was rather pleased with this meal as I have finally made an acceptable risotto! And this time it didn't take 40 minutes. I attribute my success to proper equipment; specifically, I used a wide shallow saute pan instead of a saucepan. I also put the lid on to let it steam in between additions of stock.

Another "first" of this meal is the use of home grown herbs! Yep, didn't have to buy a single herb. I even stole a lemon from the neighbour's invading tree for the gremolata. :)

Ultimate Brownie Recipe

Best brownie recipe to date. Too good not to share...

Melt 250 g of unsalted butter in a saucepan and add 400 g of sugar and 50 g of cocoa powder. Cool mixture. Beat in 5 extra large free range eggs, one at a time. Sift 150 g of plain flour mixed with 1/2 tsp of baking powder. Fold into wet mixture. Chop up 175 g of good quality dark chocolate and 75 g walnuts. Add to mix. Grease and line a square cake tin (about 25cm x 25cm). Bake at 160 C fan forced oven for 25 minutes. If you have a ridiculous Smeg oven like I do, drop the temp to 140 C or you wont get the rich gooey texture. Yields 24 squares.

Warning: Very Rich!!!!!!

Pan Haggerty

Pan Haggerty is an English potato dish. It's basically a cake made of fried then baked sliced potato with cheese and onion slices in between.

This is a cheese Kransky served with Pan Haggerty and broccolli.

Har Mein

Har Mein literally translates to Prawn Noodle. Har Mein is one of my favourite noodle soups. I love the intense prawn flavour of the broth. Beneath the broth lies egg noodles topped with prawn, slices of lean pork and sometimes egg. However I was short on ingredients so I substituted pork for fish balls.

Oldfashioned Cheesecake

This is my attempt at Nigella Lawson's "Old Fashioned Cheesecake" recipe. It's a tad fiddly if you ask me as you have to pre-bake a biscuit base then whip cream and egg whites to mix into the cream cheese. I guess that is what you'd do in days before powdered gelatine. I also found the quantities for the biscuit base were insufficient to properly cover the baking pan she specified. I might stick to Mum's cheesecake recipe which calls for crushed Scotch finger biscuits and powdered jelly mix.

The finished cake is quite nice, but not quite sweet nor lemony enough for my taste. The cheesecake has a lovely soft marshmallowy texture and the biscuit base is soft and chewy which is quite nice.

Edibles in the Garden

I love gardening. It's pretty amazing when you plonk something into the ground and return a month later to eat it. And with automatic reticulation and slow release fertiliser it's literally that easy. I've had a few failures such as my onions and lettuce. Perhaps they don't take kindly to being utterly ignored. But my chillis and spring onions have been lovely.

Asian Rice Pudding

1/4 cup black glutinous rice

1/4 cup glutinous rice

2 and a half cup of water

1/4 cup palm sugar

1-2 pandan leaves

1/4 cup coconut cream to serve

Put rice, water, pandan and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer on low heat for 40 minutes and serve warm with coconut cream.