Best Ever Beef Marinade

There are ten of us kids in the family. Well, not kids anymore, but we were kids when I was of the opinion that meat was disgusting. Twiggy little me thought it was like to hunting and killing the beast itself to get the knife through those rubbery, sinewy steaks. I felt like I was sawing away at it for hours on end just to get a bite. Okay, so there were a stack of us, and my parents couldn't give us prime steak every night. I didn't even know there was such a thing as tender, succulent meat until I had my first blissful meat experience on my dinner break when catering for Peter Rowland. My goodness! Safe to say I almost fell off my chair.
I had a brief and idiotic spell there for a while at university when I almost went vegetarian. Don't tell my husband. He will be scandalized. Honey, if youre reading this, forgive me! I momentarily lost my head trying to please everyone.
But the memory of that juicy steak woke me out of my reverie, and I decided not to follow that path after all.  It would only have been to please someone I was trying to impress, and wasn't worth impressing after all. I could have married into malnutrition and meatlessness for life. (Don't worry, I know all you vegans and vegetarians aren't horribly malnourished. What are you doing reading about steak? Get out of here!)
MEAT. It called me! I left that veggie man and took myself to the closest kitchen.
But...I had no idea how to handle the stuff, or get that juicy, tender quality I had once tasted in the back kitchen at Ripponlea Estate. How did they get that flavour?
I still don't know exactly how they got that steak so good. I figure it's probably a lot to do with a really great cut of meat, tenderizing and a the perfect chef.
But since finding out I'm super low in iron, I decided to get myself some awesome steak and get marinating. I found this wonderful recipe and got all excited over it. My husband is the king of meat, sauces and marinades, and I finally made something on his level in the savory department-I was pretty proud of myself and couldn't wait to share the recipe. It's now my go-to recipe when cooking up kebabs or beef steak. So. Delicious.

BEST EVER BEEF MARINADE (adapted from Allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp french mustard (or Dijon if preferred)
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk until combined. Add the raw steaks and marinate for 24 to 48 hours (I only had time to let it sit for 4 hours and it was still awesome). Remove from the marinade and cook until desired doneness. Serve.


NOTES: This recipe serves 4. I also used some of the left over marinate to concoct a gravy, adding a little corn flour to thicken and some gravy powder. Combine and cook until thick, and use over your veggies. Yum!

Oven Baked Fried-Style Chicken

I've never really been into eating fast food like McDonalds and KFC. But I have on occasion reveled in the idea of easting a KFC twister wrap, and have indulged myself in buying one. The salad in it makes it okay, right? That's what I try to convince myself.
I'm sure it's not as unhealthy as some of the other options, but I'm also sure that chicken can't be great for you. I have no idea how they cook it however and maybe it is baked? (I highly doubt that given the name of the store, but lets give them the benefit of the doubt for a second.)
Anyway I found this great recipe for oven baked fried-style chicken, and just had to try it. I'm in love!
They are delicious portions of chicken breast covered in a layer of Dijon mustard mayonnaise, dipped in golden, crispy crumbed deliciousness on a par with KFC chicken, and healthier for certain! So if you want a recipe for KFC style chicken, this is it! I've altered it from the original recipe as I didn't have all the ingredients such as crushed bagels and melba toast--my version is very easy to make and quite irresistible. Can't wait to try it Twister-style in a wrap with some lettuce, tomato and peppered mayo!

OVEN BAKED FRIED-STYLE CHICKEN (adapted from Food Network)

1 1/3 cup crushed wheatbix
150g Shapes savory biscuits (I used pizza flavour, Chicken Drumstick biscuits worked great last time too)
1 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
800g chicken breast cut into portions

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line and grease an oven tray and set aside. Place crushed wheatbix and savory biscuits in a food processor and blend until finely crushed and ground. Place this mixture in a  large plastic bag along with the oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. Mix until thoroughly combined.
In a shallow dish, place the mayonnaise and the mustard together. Stir to combine. Dip the cut strips of chicken breast into the mayonnaise mixture and thoroughly coat. Add these chicken pieces to the bag of cereal. Shake the bag until all the pieces are well covered in the dry mixture.
Lay the chicken pieces out on the greased and lined tray. Spray each piece evenly with oil and place the tray in the preheated oven. Bake until the chicken is cooked through and moist and tender, and the outer layer is crisp and golden (about 30-40 minutes depending on the size of the pieces of chicken.) This time will depend upon the size of your chicken portions, so keep a good eye on them after the 30 minute mark.

Luke's Spicy Meatballs with Plum Sauce

My neighbours have a herb garden. I know this because sometimes when I go out to hang my washing, the most divine aromas waft towards me from their yard. There's a small patch they have by the fence and often I can smell they have been freshly clipped, undoubtedly for an addition to some delicious meal. I admit to having thoughts of jealousy and being tempted to nick a bit. It conjured up some lovely memories I made with my brother Peter about 20 years ago. As little kids, 4 and 6, we would duck through the neighbour's fence and pilfer strawberries from the old woman's garden. She was too decrepit to tend to it, but a large crop of strawberries thrived there every year, surrounded by a dome of netting. They were safe from the birds and so grew big and luscious, but they were far from safe from ravenous thieving little mouths and grubby hands such as ours.
I thought about how awesome that memory made me feel and then decided it wouldn't have half the thrill at the age I am now. Sigh.
My husband and I attempted a patch of our own, but it seems we have everything but green thumbs. There is always some critter that beats us to the delicious herbs we plant, and never quite enough to go around. Is there anything quite like fresh herbs? Well, I would say that Gourmet Garden's herb pastes come pretty darn close, and are super handy to have sitting in the fridge for when the caterpillars have curled up to live in all your fresh basil leaves (Don't get me started).
As part of Gourmet Garden's Cook Off, I have created or adapted a series of recipes to blog about to showcase the versatility of their herb pastes, and hopefully to shed a little inspiration to my readers.
I held a five course Gourmet Garden Dinner Party to celebrate my quarter-of-a-century birthday that hit on the 19th of this month. I invited my board of delightful reviewers and taste testers (aka the guinea pigs/ In-laws) and we had a delightful feast. I hope you enjoy the visual banquet as we had it, and get the opportunity to try a few for yourself sometime.

Course 1:

LUKE'S SPICY MEATBALLS WITH PLUM SAUCE (A Luke Original)

700g beef mince
2 tsp. Gourmet Garden hot chilli paste
2 tsp. Gourmet Garden coriander paste
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. Gourmet Garden garlic paste
1 tsp. garam masala powder
salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly until well combined. Roll into walnut sized balls, and fry until cooked through. Serve alone or with plumb sauce.

Makes approximately 30 meatballs

PLUM CHILLI SAUCE

1 tsp. Gourmet Garden Hot Chilli paste
 1/2 cup plum sauce

Combine the chilli with the plum sauce in a small bowl.
Stir to combine. Serve with hot meatballs.

Beef and Red Wine Casserole

Wanting to appeal to the variety of different taste buds at our Gourmet Garden dinner party, I decided to go for two different main meals. One was the delicious Moroccan dish Aubergine Tagine, and the other was Beef and Red Wine Casserole for the meat-cravers among us. This is a Massey family favourite which I've adapted. I made it in the slow cooker and marinated the beef overnight to make the meat nice and tender. It was really delicious! The sauce is rich and hearty, thick with flavours of tomato and red wine, mushrooms and herbs.

Course 3:

 BEEF AND RED WINE CASSEROLE (An adapted Massey family favourite)

700g beef, diced
3/4 cup red wine (I used Merlot)
2 rashers bacon, diced (rind left on)
1 medium red onion, diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 tbsp. flour
30g butter
1 3/4 cup water
1 heaped tbsp. tomato paste
2 cubes of beef stock (I use OXO brand)
1 1/2 heaped tbsp. Gourmet Garden basil paste
1 1/2 tsp. Gourmet Garden Thyme paste
1 1/2 tsp. Gourmet Garden oregano paste
1 level tbsp. Gourmet Garden Garlic paste

Place the diced meat in a zip lock bag. Add the wine and seal overnight in the refrigerator.
Drain the wine from the beef and set aside for the sauce.
Brown the beef and bacon lightly. Remove from heat and place in the slow cooker bowl. Cook the onion until softened and add to the beef. Brown the mushrooms and add to the beef.
Place the butter and flour in the hot saucepan. Cook, stirring, until well combined and golden. Take off the heat and gradually add the water and the reserved wine, stirring to form a smooth paste. Return to heat and add crushed stock cubes, tomato paste and herbs. Stir until thick and then pour over meat in slow cooker.
Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over pasta or cous cous, garnished with fresh basil, parsley or oregano if desired.

Serves 6

NOTES: You can cook this meal without a slow cooker. Place all prepared ingredients in a casserole dish instead of the slow cooker bowl. Cover and cook in the oven at 180C for 1 1/2 hours. Marinating the meat over night is also optional, but we found it made the meat more tender and infused the meat beautifully.

Bacon Rolled Sour Cream and Chive Chicken Bites

I'm pretty excited to add yet another savory to the blog this month. Is that a round of applause? I know, I know,  I am basically a "sweets maker", and I often don't even try my hand at it because my husband rocks in the kitchen with savories. But this month's Secret Recipe Club assignment popped up and directed me to New York City Eats and I fell in love. I feel I should apologise to Lacy from New York City Eats, because I used the idea of her recipe but just sort of winged it when I got into the kitchen. You know, when you forget to buy the specific ingredients, and have to substitute when you get to it? Well, I guess that's the true beauty of cooking, adapting a recipe due to pantry limitations, and arriving at something similar but with a twist. I have been wanting to try out a few different recipes that would serve as hors d'oeuvres for a party my husband and I will be holding in the coming months. So I made these babies in a few different sizes--some man-sized ones for my husband to taste test, and some smaller ones that would be a good size for party finger-food. Man, these morsels are delicious! And very easy to whip up. Lacy from New York City Eats used butterflied chicken tenderloins for this recipe, but I only had chicken breast. The local butcher sells the biggest chicken breasts around, two of them weigh over a kg! So as you can imagine they are rather fat, chunky things, so I had fun belting it flat with a rolling pin...one way to get out some frustration without hurting anyone! I mean, who doesn't have some sort of frustration in the kitchen?
 Speaking of frustration in the kitchen, Lacy I hold you responsible for an amusing incident that happened today! While photographing these delicious morsels, my daughter Vienna was close by on the floor. Yes, I have a lousy photographing system by the back door, its the only place in the house that gets good natural light. Well, here I was busily clicking away and I realised there was a funny panting sound coming from my baby. Before I knew it, there she was, hands reached out to those bacon wrapped, chive and sour creamed, balls of chicken-y goodness. She had crawled her way over! Mind you, there was a trail of drool along the way (saves me getting out the mop I suppose!) Did I mention she's not even 5 months? Now if that's not a good reference for these Chicken Chive and bacon rolls, I don't know what is!

 BACON ROLLED SOUR CREAM AND CHIVE CHICKEN BITES  (adapted from New York City Eats )

1 large chicken breast (about 500g)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp chopped chives
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp. dried french onion soup powder
4 rashers of bacon (or a little more depending upon the desired size of each piece of chicken)

Cut the chicken breast in half horizontally to achieve two pieces of thinned chicken breast.  Lay each piece on a board and cover generously with plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin, beat the chicken until thinned further, to a desired thickness. Cut into strips in any desired size.
Combine the sour cream, chives, garlic and onion powder together in a small bowl. Stir until well combined. Lather one side of each chicken strip with this sour cream mixture. Roll each from one end to the other to form a roll shape. Cut a piece of bacon the size to fit around each piece of chicken.
Lay on a lined tray and cook in the oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. To crisp up the chicken, place under the drill on high for a few minutes. Serve hot for optimum enjoyment!

NOTES: you can use cream cheese instead of sour cream and onion powder instead of french onion soup powder, if preferred.

Vienna Rose crawled to get a better look at the delicious morsels that were being photographed. She was only 4.5 months at the time! That's determination.