Pressure Cooker- Red Wine Lamb Shanks

I don't shy away from my meat. One of my favourite things to have during winter is a lamb shank. Given that we have a pressure cooker now, I tend to use it to cook lamb shanks rather than a slow cooker- somehow, I never get to prepare everything in the morning to make a nice melt in your mouth lamb shank!

There is a butcher near where we are that does a french lamb shank really well. He said 1 per person is plenty and so true that was. It had plenty of meat and I couldn't even finished mine. The magic of lamb shanks comes from using an acid to soften the meat and long and slow cooking time.

I like to serve mine with a big batch of vegetables. The best thing is that I pressure cooked it before I went to the gym. Switched the fire off, and away I went. When I returned, I turned it back on again for the last 30 minutes or so and it was just perfect.

This does make me think- do you use your slow cooker or pressure cooker more at home?

Melt in Your Mouth Red Wine Lamb Shanks (Serves 4)
4 Lamb Shanks
1 red onion diced
1 tablespoon of garlic
1 tinned of diced tomatoes
1 tsp of dried chill flakes
1 capsicum diced
1 carrot diced
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of beef stock

Brown lamb shanks first. Remove from heat and set aside. Saute garlic and onion till soft and add in all other ingredients. Simmer for a few minutes before adding shanks back on again. Place cover of pressure cooker on and cook for a good 1-1.5 hours. If you can, cook for another 30 minutes to make it really melt in your mouth. I turned it off at that point, went to the gym, came back, turned it back on and had a shower!

Then dinner was done!

Cheat's Version Vietnamese Beef Pho

I'm very appreciative of Vietnamese eateries- especially a small one near where we live. It offers convenient and reasonable priced healthy food. My favourites of course are the Pho and paper rolls.


While this is not the real deal, it provides a quick and tasty alternative. The real deal says that the stock has to be simmered for hours with the right blend of fish sauce, onions, ginger and cinnamon. I cheated by purchasing beef stock. Where I cheated, I saved time by simmering the stock with the above ingredients for 20 minutes or so.

The rest of it is really quick and easy, just blanching the beef with the stock and then it's ready to serve. I thought I was lucky enough to get my hands on some Vietnamese beef balls from our local oriental shop-but I found them a little too tough with small bits of sinew. Not a good match at all. I spotted another brand- frozen though, and might give that a go another time.

Hubby gave me credit for trying to match the "atmosphere" of Vietnamese eateries, seriving my soup with a dish of bean sprouts, basil leaves, lemon and chopped chili. Hey, that's the least I could do with my cheat's version!

Cheat's Version Vietnamese Beef Pho (Serves 2-3)
100 grams of lean beef fillet sliced really thinly
100 grams of Vietnamese beef balls
1 ltre of beef stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 small piece of ginger peeled
1 red onion sliced
2 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1/4 lemon juice

1/4 pack of rice sticks- soaked in warm water for 5 minutes.

Serve with bean sprouts, basil leaves, lemon quarters and chopped fresh chili.

Fry onions till soft. Simmer stock, spices and sauces for 20 mins. Meanwhile cook noodles and set aside in bowls. Taste and season if needed. Cook beef balls in it till done. Then, quickly blanched sliced beef. Ladle the soup on the noodles straight away. Serve hot with all the condiments.

Chicken and Pistachio Korma

At the beginning of the year, I said that one of my goals would be to make curry from scratch. I spotted this recipe from Poh's Kitchen and thought it looks really interesting. Korma is an Indian style curry- often served thick like stew.

I love the use of pistachios in this. The nutty flavour of this is a sure winner. I didn't add cream but pour in some coconut cream instead which added another layer of creaminess to it. The other thing I did was to use a mixture of green and red chilis in this. No other reason but to fulfill my cravings for hot and spicy curry on a cold night.

Surprisingly, the curry paste was soo easy to do. Did I mention my food processor? A few blitz and the sauce was done!

Chicken and Pistachio Korma (serves 4) 
2 onions sliced
1/2 cup pistachio kernels
4 green chillies
2 red chili padi 
1-2 tablespoons of ginger minced + garlic mince
1 tablespoon of coriander powder
dash of white pepper
500 grams of chicken thigh chopped
100 grams of coconut cream
1 cup of water
1 tsp of garam masala powder

Boil onions in one cup of water, drain, cool and puree. Puree pistachios and green chilli, keeping a few nuts aside for garnish.

Heat the oil and add the onions and sauté for four minutes, do not brown. Add ginger and garlic paste. Fry for one minute and stir in coriander and pepper powders. Add pistachio and green chilli paste and cook for about a minute.
Put in the chicken with the salt and mix well. Add a little water (quarter of a cup) and cook gently until done. Add coconut and garam masala. Garnish with pistachio nuts and serve hot.

Slow Cooked Red Wine Beef Casserole

There is something about slow cooked food that warms the heart. The meat in your mouth meat combined with the rich taste just seem to fulfill you. There are two big reasons why I love slow cooking 1) it's usually low fat and 2) It could serve as a one pot dish.

One could even argue that this is very similar to my Red Wine Beef and Onion Pies that I posted recently. This slow cooked casserole has more liquid (ie wine) and veges. The pies are thicker and richer in its gravy and certainly not as many ingredients to it.  I love having mash potato to this dish- especially with a good squash of garlic to it.

winter love....

Slow Cooked Red Wine Beef Casserole (serves 4)
450 grams of lean beef chunks
2 onions sliced
1.5 cups of red wine (cabernet sauvignon)
3-4 carrots diced roughly
2 cups of button mushrooms stems removed
1 tablespoon of flour
500 ml beef stock 

Brown beef in batches. Remove from pot. Cook sliced onions till soft. Add in a tablespoon of flour with the beef. Throw in  wine and beef stock. Simmer for 1 hour. Add vegetables and simmer for another 30 minutes. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes.

Potato and Leek Soup

Ok, So I hate to admit.. that I have perhaps gone overboard with my weekly soup obsession. Like seriously overboard. How do I know? Out of my 10 outstanding posts, there are only 3 that are NOT soup related.

I'm not sure if that will stop me though. The more I make soups, the more I like it. Maybe.. just maybe, it's my Cantonese heritage mixed up with my years of being in Australia. You know, the nightly clear vege/slow cooked soup paired with main meals turned into weekly thick comforting western style soups?

Am I even making sense?

In 2007, I made a similar soup- it was a much simpler version. This version of potato and leek consists of more vegetables- mainly celery and spring onions. I find that the addition of more veges gave a rounder and richer soup base than just potato and leek.  It also  has a bit of chunk into it-since I rarely blend my soups to a fine mixture. Usually, I leave out the "end bits" in the pot while I blitz the rest up with my gorgeous blender.

Isn't it always fun to look back at past entries of similar recipes? I started this blog on the 14th of September 2004 and a blink of an eye, it is nearly 7 years. It was a space for me to vent my frustration when I was completing my thesis, and I turned it into food related instead. Over the years, I had the encouragement of bloggers around the world to cook better. Well, I hope I have cooked better ;)

Well,  I know it's only June but I can't help but think... my blog will be turning 7 this September. ahh..

Back to the soup. It tasted even better the next day.

Potato and Leek Soup (Serves 4) 
1 onion diced
1 tsp of garlic
4-5 medium size potatoes diced
2 leeks sliced
1 small bunch of spring onions
1 small bunch of celery diced
1 ltre of chicken or vegetable stock
200 grams lean bacon diced

Saute bacon first till brown. Remove from pot. Cook onions till soft. Add potatoes. Again, cook till it has this lovely looking crust. Add all the other veges. Cook it down. Add stock and simmer for 20 mins or so till tender. Cool. Blitz everything up. Return to pot. Add most of the bacon bits, leaving some for garnishing. Dish up with cracked pepper.

Red Wine Beef Onion Pies

There is nothing like winter that screams comfort food. Perhaps it's because Perth's winter isn't that harsh. Or maybe I have just grown to appreciate the sound of rain. I certainly prefer cold than hot weather.

The sound of the rain, warmness from a hot chocolate drinks reminds me how simple things in life can bring warmth to the heart.

I really like making pies at home. I'm a texture girl-crispy pastry and hot filling on the inside just hit a good spot in me. This time round, I decided to stew some beef, red wine and onion to make a hearty filling. Oh who could have thought the blend of red wine, beef and onion could make such magic?

I stewed the filling slowly, cooling it down completely before using my ancient pie maker. My pie maker toaster was handed to me when someone I knew left the country. Goodness know how old it is, my guess would be at least 8 to 10 years.

Age does not matter when it comes to wine.. ..and a good pie maker!

Red Wine Beef Onion Pies (Makes around 10)
5 sheets of puff pastry
1 red onion diced
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of flour
1/2 cup of red wine
1/2 cup of beef stock
2-3 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
400 grams of beef chunks

Melt butter/margarine into a pot. Cook onions till very soft. Brown beef. Sprinkle flour over it. Add both red wine and stock into the mixture. Stir to combine. Add Worcestershire sauce. Simmer for around 15 minutes or so. Check, adding liquid if needed. Continue to stew for around 1 hr more, adding mushrooms at the 30 mins mark.

Once filling is done. Taste and season. Cool.

Cut pastry into size. Line pastry onto pie maker. Spoon mixture, pop the pastry top on and cook. Serve with a side salad.

If you do not have a pie maker, try using muffin tins. Preheat Oven to 200C. Bake pies for 15-20 minutes.

Sunshine Chorizo Lentil Soup

What I love about winter:

1) I get to wear boots
2) I love scarfs
3) Lovely warm jackets
3) Hot chocolate
4) Nice warm throw and heated wheat bags
5) Listening to the rain
6) If you have a gas fire heater or wood heater, the warmth from it!
7) Hot comforting food like stews, casseroles and soups!

Soups certainly bring abit of sunshine in rainy cold wet weather. This soup was inspired by our trip to Denmark, Western Australia. I have always found it funny that there is a "denmark" in down under Aus. It's nothing like Copenhagen Denmark of course. Denmark WA is filled with hikes and scenic views. We are so in love with the serenity of the place.

On our first night there, we went to this "funky" new restaurant and lo and behold, they have soup. All I recall was heaps of veges, lentils and shavings of parmesan on it. At home, I added generous amount of chilis and heaps of veges. It was slowed cooked for around 2 hours so the flavours really did seeped in.

The other thing we discovered was "vinofood". Jams and chutneys made with wine! My favourite is the fig, chardonnay and apply chutney. I paired it with some goats cheese. yum!

I guess this soup brought back abit of the holiday with us to home as well!

Sunshine Chorizo Lentil Soup
250 grams of soup mix lentils (Soaked for 30 minutes)
500 ml of beef stock
500 ml of chicken stock
2 carrots chopped
1 small sweet potato chopped
1 small bunch of celery chopped
1 red onion chopped
1 chorzo chopped
5 chili padis chopped
1 heaped tablespoon of garlic

Heat soup pot. Add chorizo. Fry till it is done. Remove some. Add onions and garlic. Cook till soft. Add lentils and toss for around 2-3 minutes. Add stock. Simmer for 1 hour. Stir. Add veges. Cook for another 30-40 minutes, longer if needed. Season. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Country Women's Association Cookbook- Seafood Cornflake Bake

 My colleagues and I-we are obsessed about food. There is something about food that brings different cultures together. It is also a stress-relief. It is a talking point of what to bring for our weekly morning tea (to sweeten our long meetings and calm our hungry tummies), or to discuss where can we find good value and fresh sushi (I can have it for lunch and dinner every day I think). Strangely, most of us are not even born in Australia.

I noticed a Country Women's Association Cookbook lying around and asked my colleague what is this about? She replied that Country Women in Australia often needs to be creative in their cooking- given the time and lack of resources sometimes. Not to mention, good value for money. I like the sound of it already. I quickly flipped the pages and this recipe caught my attention-really, it's the cornflake crust. I don't have the "proper" recipe and chose to recreate it from memory. I think it is even called something else! But I can assure you that it features tuna in it and cornflakes. Doesn't that combination sounds yucky?I can assure you that it turned out delicious!

Having a better understanding of the Country Women's Association, I appreciate their recipes even more. For the past few weeks, I have been struggling with meals and time. You may have probably even read what I mentioned before- cooking a few meals in one setting to make sure we have something warm and fairly nutritious when I return home late at night. It's starting to show and I even went through a period of time where I actually thought I lost my mojo in cooking and baking! Horror of all horrors!

I started to re-create some earlier recipes that I have blogged prior and reminded myself to be kind... to myself. That was why I started the blog, to show that meals can be quick and most of the time, healthy and low in fat and calories. It is OK not to have home cooked meals every day. It is OK not to re create something new every few days.

It is ok to be kind to myself ;)

Seafood Cornflake Bake (Serves 4-6) 

2 cans of tuna in spring water
150 grams of prawns shelled (I happened to have some prawns in the fridge)

2 tablespoon of spread
1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of soy milk (I might have put around 1.5 cups)
1/2 of low fat cheese
around half a cup of corn flakes crumbs (u can buy them in a box!)
2 cups of frozen veges (I used peas and corn)


Melt spread. Add flour and cook till golden. Add milk and whisk till it thickens. Add cheese. Season. Add tuna, prawns and frozen veges. Spoon into a casserole dish. Top with corn flake crumbs. You can spray it with some oil to make it more crispy. Bake in a pre heated 200 C oven for 25 mins.

Slow Cooked Yam and Chinese Cabbage Pork Stew

There is nothing nicer than a hot bowl of rice and stew when I come back from work. Best, if it has been slow cooked and all I needed to do is to heat my rice and stew up. This was one of the "3 meals" I make on a Sunday in preparation for the week ahead.

It makes me realised though, how small my freezer size is. I told AR that we are sooo going for a bigger freezer/fridge in our next home. Plus a dishwasher. 

It's funny how when it comes to chinese stew, I tend to cook by instinct. Or is it by my "stuff it, I need to get it done asap" thoughts? Nevertheless, it made a comfort meal. One that I can count on to make me feel more at home.

Slow Cooked Yam and Chinese Cabbage Pork Stew (serves 4)

400 grams of lean pork
200 grams of yam chopped
1/2 chinese cabbage 
1 tin of straw mushrooms-drained and rinsed
2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of soya sauce 
1/4 cup of hua tiao jiu
1 tablespoon of garlic 
150 grams of baby corn chopped 
2 red chili chopped
1 cup of water or stock 

Saute chili and garlic. Add pork and all the seasoning. Cook till nearly done. Add all the veges and yam. Add water and boil. Either place pot back in magic pot or continue to cook for around 1 hr or so. Season with white pepper! =)

Moroccan Style Lamb and Chickpea Stew

 So Spring is upon us.. but I still have a few hearty stews to post! LOL With my working hours recently, I have been cooking 3 or 4 meals during the weekend and freezing them away. Stews are great because I could use my "magic" or thermal pot cooker to stew it for hours. I added some chickpeas to bulk up the meal. This resulted in 3 meals for two of us and even have left overs for an additional lunch for AR.

I made some couscous to go with it- Simply follow packet instructions and add in some cut dried figs, cranberries, toasted almonds and cashews and toss through with some chili and cumin spices.



Moroccan Style Lamb and Chickpea Stew 
400 grams of heart smart lamb diced
1 can of chick peas-rinsed and rinsed to reduce salt content
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 carrot diced
1 capsicum diced
mushrooms
2 tomatoes diced
2 tablespoon of Moroccan spiced mix
1 tsp of chili powder
1 cup of beef stock
1 red onion chopped

Sauté onion in deep sauce pan.  Add in lamb and cook till brown. Add diced tomatoes and chickpeas + stock. Add in all spices. Add all veges Simmer for around 1-2 hours. Serve with couscous or bread.

Onion and Mince Pie

My goodness! This is certainly been a winter meals week hasn't it been? I was flipping through Jamie Oliver's Minstry of Food book and the delish looking mince pie caught my attention this time. It was easy to do too, so I decided to try making a classic English pie for dinner one evening.

I think I didn't put enough flour in because the gravy isn't as thick as what I thought it should be. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a hearty pie with the crisp crust and tasty mince. What surprised me was that Jamie Oliver used marmite in this dish! woohoo, so grandma is not the only one who do that for her stews. Wait a mind, maybe Jamie Oliver took the idea from Grandma? Or maybe Grandma was influenced by the British way of cooking in her days as working as a nanny in British households (the days when Singapore was governed by British)?

English Onion and Mince Pie 

2 red onions chopped 
500 grams beef or lamb mince
1 bunch of rosemary coarsely chopped
1 carrot diced
1 cup of beef stock
1 small bunch of celery chopped
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of marmite
seasoning. 

1 piece of puff pastry defrosted

Pre heat oven 180C.

Cook onion till translucent. Add mince and break it up as it cooks. Add all ingredients (just not flour). Simmer for 5-10 mins. Stir in marmite. Do a taste test and adjust taste accordingly. Stir in flour till mixture thickens. Cool slightly.


Spoon mixture in heat proof dish. Seal with puff pastry, slitting a cross in the middle and patching it up with some reminder of the puff pastry. Bake for 30 minutes till golden brown.

ps-one tip is to place the dish onto a baking tray so that it is easy to remove from the oven.

Spicy Bacon Lentil and Tomato Soup

I am still in my soup craze mode! I love to cook up a huge pot of soup and we can have it for a few meals-which makes evenings sooo much easier. This was made with my current cheap but sooo versatile ingredient... LENTILS! hahaa.. Are u guys over my lentil recipes yet?

ps-the soup looks thick because i took the photo after dinner instead of before! oops...I added in my stock for lunch next day.

Spicy Bacon Lentil and Tomato Soup  

200 grams of mixed lentils soaked overnight
1 packet of lean bacon from weight watchers
1 ltre of beef stock
another 1 ltre of water
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 carrot diced
1 red onion diced
2 cups of chopped mushrooms.
1/2 zucchini sliced.
1 red chili chopped
1 tsp of chili flakes

Fry onions, bacon and lentils. Add in stock and water and all veges. Simmer for 2 hours. Serve with crusty bread.

Italian Sausage Hot Pot

For a change, we decided to cook up a storm using chat potatoes. The "healthy" me says that's better for us because we can have the skin too. But really the "lazy" me just didnt want to peel the potatoes! After a good scrub, they go into a pot of salted boiling water.

I picked up a packet of lean italian sausages from Woolworths the other day. Being time tight, I made this one pot dish for some winter warmth. This tastes better the next day for sure! We even freeze some for a rainy day (pun intended). ;p

Italian Sausage Hot Pot (Serves 4-6) 
1 packet (around 6 small size sausages) lean Italian Sausages
1 onion diced
garlic
1 chopped chili
1 zucchini diced
1 cup of diced mushrooms
1 red capsicum diced
1 carrot sliced
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1 cup of water
2-3 tsp of red chili flakes


8 chat potatoes cooked, drained and set aside.

Saute onion, chili and garlic. Add sausages and cook till brown. Add tomatoes and all other veges. SImmer with some water. Add chili and other seasoning. Simmer for around 15-20 mins. Serve with potatoes.

Pea and Ham (bacon?) Soup

I am sooo into soups at the moment. Every week, I attempt to make a new type of soup. One of my recent one is a classic Pea and Ham soup. I think there is a version that uses fresh peas, but most pea and ham soup I tasted had green split peas or lentils in it. So in this soup, I used a packet of McKenzies mix soup pack which has barley and a mixture of split peas. Some recipes calls for the use of smoked pork hock but I didn't like the way it makes the soup oily, so I used smoked pork bones instead. Then, I chopped lean bacon into the mixture.

One thing about this soup is that it demands lots of patience. I started preparing the soup at 5pm, and it was properly done probably at around 7:30pm. I left it to simmer more (just taking out a portion for AR and myself) and then we went back for seconds at around 8ish 9pm. That was when the texture was perfect! I probably could have done myself a flavour by using the crock pot or just cooking straight for around 2-3 hours.

This soup freezes very well. I made a huge pot and we enjoyed the soup for at least another 2 more meals.

Pea and Ham (bacon?) Soup (Serves around 8-10) 
1 packet of Mckenzies soup mix (i think it's 250grams?)
2 smoked pork bones
2 ltre of beef stock
around 2 litre of water
lean bacon chopped (around 150 grams)
3-4 stalks of celery
2 red onions chopped
garlic chopped

Soak lentils night before.
Add pork bones for around 2 minutes till slightly brown.Saute onion and garlic till done.  Add lentils and celery. Stir for around 2 minutes. Add beef stock and 1 ltre of the water. Simmer for around 2 hours or so. Stir every 20 minutes. Top it up with water if needed. Add lean bacon bits towards the last 30 minutes. Serve with hot crusty bread.

Tender Lamb Chickpea Casserole

The good thing about winter weather is that we get to consume hearty comfort food. I guess back in the days when I was residing in Singapore, the thought of having casseroles and hearty stews often in the hot weather will be uncommon. A positive in staying in Australia (or anywhere with 4 seasons), food choices increase.

Come to think of it, I wouldn't have classify casseroles as "my kind of food" say 10 years ago. Certainly one thing I realized is that the palate change. And what I didn't like before may be what I enjoy having now.

I like this dish because it represents a different side of my cooking. It's not Asian, neither is it truly western. In fact, it's probably a mixture of what I read in various cookbooks! I dare say this is a combination of Jamie Oliver and The Australian Women Weekly! ;)

Tender Lamb Chickpea Casserole 
600 grams of lamb stir fry or lean cuts of meat-sliced (Season lightly with pepper and salt)
1 can of tomato diced
2 tsp of tomato paste
2-3 tsp of chili flakes
1 tsp of garlic 
2 stalks of celery diced
1 carrot diced  
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
3/4 zucchini diced
1 can of chickpea
1 cup of stock or water
optional -1/2 cup of red wine (Omitted) 


Saute garlic. Quickly fry up the lamb.  Add all veges and tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes or so, adding water when needed. Add tomato paste and chickpeas. Season. Cook for another 20 minutes or so. Serve with couscous.