steak and kidney

Cooking time in the Dream-Pot: 2 hours

Ingredients:

700g diced steak and kidney (prepacked tray)

2 brown onions, sliced thinly

black pepper - approx. ¼ tsp

oxo beef stock cube

Worcestershire sauce (couple of shakes)

mixed herbs (couple of shakes)

1 cup hot water

3 tblsp flour

salt to taste

Method:

1.Fill the large inner pot with 2 litres hot water and bring to the boil on the stove, then place into the Dream-Pot®. I put in veggies...spuds, carrots, sweet potatoes. ( I like to make the most of it)

2.Trim all sinew and fat off the steak and kidney and place with the onions and pepper into the small inner pot.

3.Dissolve the stock cube in the hot water add sauce and herbs, and pour over the meat mixture. Place on the stove and bring to the boil, stirring intermittently.

4.Once boiling, lower the heat, cover with the stainless steel lid and maintain a gentle boil for 20 minutes. Continue to stir intermittently and also check to ensure that the gentle boil is maintained.

5.Transfer into the Dream-Pot® over the boiling water for the required minimum cooking time.

6.Prior to serving, place the inner pot back on the stove and stir in the flour (mixed into cold water, no more than ½ cup).

7.Bring back to the boil to thicken, stirring. Add salt to taste if desired.

Note: Instead of only boiling water in the large inner pot, potatoes could be cooking to be served as mashed potatoes with the steak and kidney. Refer to recipe book for boiled potatoes.

sorry no photo. this is a nice and tasty recipe.

Creamy Pumpkin soup

1/2 cup plain Flour
1/2 cup powered milk
Teaspoon mustard
Teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper
mix all ingredients together with water till smooth.
add to big pan,
add water just under half way up pan, stir, gently bring to boil while peeling and cutting Pumpkin.
I used butternut pumpkin. about 2 kg.
3 small/medium sized onions. chopped. add onions and pumpkin to water. boil. gently boil 5 mins.
put into Dream Pot.
make use of small pot.
I made my Fav...Creamy Rice Pudding again.
placed on top of large pot., in Dream Pot.
a couple of hours later Rice pud was done,
I took the small pot out of big pot and using my Bamix (stick mixer) with the chopping blade placed into the large pot and pureed down the pumpkin to make a lovely creamy soup.
lid back on and left a bit longer until we were ready for it.
sorry no pics this time...it looked like a pan of pumpkin soup...lol.

Spicey Ginger Cake,...flop

My first real Flop...LOL.
I know I have made a ginger cake in the dream pot before and that was very tasty this time I tried a different recipe. mixed ...boiled and in the DP by 5pm.
on going to bed about 9pm I checked on the cake....no...not done in the middle so back on the stove to boil... back in the DP and off I go to bed.
5 am before heading off to work I check it again...looked good...but no....the middle was not done I put it on a plate and covered it with alfoil until I got home from work.
I scooped out the center and put it in a pudding bowl and in the microwave...4 mins...nope....another 2mins. yep done I had some tonight with custard it was a little bit rubbery but tasted good.
My next plan of attack is to check all the boil/steady boil times for every food type and list those here so I can find them easily..
i've been a bit slack posting this week. too much food to get through that I have cooked in the DP.
Tomorrow I plan to try Steak and Kidney......stay posted...

BBQ chicken soup

Bought a 2 BBQ chickens for dinner and lunches what I do is break the chicken up take all the bones out of it and place in the Dream Pot, some of the skin too cover with water and boil on the stove. Keep a steady boil about 15 mins then into the DP.

Took out of DP after about 4 hours, cooled then put the pot in the fridge until the next day.

Today I took the pot from the fridge put it on the stove just to warm up a little so the chicken juices are juices again and not a block of jelly then strain into a colander over a large bowl.

I also have two jugs with a plastic bag in each. 1 is for the bones for the rubbish bin and the other for the bits of fat, skin and bits of dark meat I don’t want in the soup these are for the dog.

The juice goes back in the Big pan with meat from the bones /carcasses

Add 3 carrots,

1 bunch of Chinese veggie,

3 small onions,

celery about 2 storks (from freezer)

Stuffing from the BBQ chicken

1 chicken oxo

Boiling water added to chicken stock to cover.

Boil, steady boil about 12 mins.

While this was boiling guess what else I prepared…yes…rice pud..lol

I have never made so many rice puddings, they never go to waste I even took some to work in a small container and heated it up in the microwave and had it after my pork sandwiches.

This soup is in the pot right now.

It is for the dinner today, I will let you know tomorrow how it turns out.

Okay today Sunday reporting back on the BBQ chicken soup... it was a success. turned out nice and tasty. recommended.

Roast Pork

Roast Pork...ohhh now this will be a challenge for me, now I like Roast pork well done I couldn't see the Dream Pot doing this...well guess what...it did.whoo hooo.
Our Butcher had legs of Pork on special for $2.99 kg but they were big legs so I asked the butcher to cut a piece off so I had a hock size plus the thicker part of the leg.
The thicker part has gone in the freezer till later the hock went in the Dream Pot.
It only just fitted in, I put it in an oven bag sprinkled with flour to prevent the bag from bursting then covered the bag with boiling water and boiled, then a steady boil maybe 15 mins I just take a guess at it. into the DP it went and I went to bed.
next morning I checked on the hock.....awww...nooo it wasn't done when I pricked it with the fork a little trickle of blood juice ran out, so back on the stove to boil while I got myself ready for work, I had time to peel some carrots and potatoes and put them in the water with the bag of pork... now boiling steadily again maybe 15 mins and into the DP off I went to work. now 5.45 am.
Home from work 3.15 pm open DP check pork...hmmm perfect nicely done.
I am very surprised.
On the plate it goes covered with the colander while it cools enough to cut.
The juice goes into a jug and into the freezer, (the fat sets faster that way) I left the veggies to sit in the water in the DP until I was ready for them. after the juice had cooled I skimmed off the fat and made gravy with the juice. then served pork, spuds, carrots and gravy.
I just had some sliced of pork it was very nice.
I sliced more pork and placed it in a container for lunches and chopped up the rest of the pork
to make a soup using the water the veggies had cooked in and the last of the meat juice, added some Italian bean mix, carrots, onion, celery (straight from the freezer), potatoes and a sausage casserole mix (packet) ( I don't follow receipes I make up my own). add some boiling water to cover, boil, steady boil, maybe 5 mins, into the DP. checked it before going to bed.
yes all done into a container, cool then pop into the fridge for the next day.
Yes it passed the test Mum and Hubby both liked it.
I only used the sausage casserole mix as it had been sitting in the cupboard for a while, it is very rare that we have sausages so I thought I would throw it in the soup to give a different flavor it blended in great.
I will have to check the Dream Pot video again to get the correct timing for roast meats.
So far I think I am doing well with my experiments seeing as I don't have a recipe book as a guide.
Yes I have made a few mistakes and they are not letting the pot boil for long enough.,
BUT I will learn from my mistakes. For me this is the best way to learn.
I think my Hubby and Mum now get excited when they see me preparing stuff for the Dream Pot. I have never been a very good cook plus after work I couldn't be bothered making a meal it is normally a help yourself to what ever is there but now the fridge is full of cooked meals just need popping into the microwave unless I make things early in the day then it is ready for dinner time with more for another day. If the Dog is lucky he gets some too LOL.
While the soup was in the large pot I had room to use the small too so rather then let the space go to waste I made another rice pud only this time I didn't have any evaporated milk left so I used condensed milk but only put in 1 teaspoon of sugar as I did not know just how sweet it would turn out, that was the only difference to my normal recipe, hmmm noo I don't like it too sweet but after it was cooked I added more milk, not too bad.

STEAMED GINGER PUDDING

STEAMED GINGER PUDDING

The darkness on it is the Treacle.

1/3 cup treacle

125 grams softened butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 ¼ cup SR flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ cup sour cream (I used Yoghurt)

¼ cup of chopped crystallized ginger ( I used preserved ginger from a jar) only coz I had some.

Serve with ice cream or custard.

Use suitable sized cake pan/ dish

Drizzle half the treacle into the base.

Use electric mixer to beat the butter, sugar and remaining treacle until pale and creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.

Add the flour, all the spices, mix

Add sour cream/yoghurt and ginger. Stir to combine.

Spoon the mixture into prepared pan/dish smooth surface with back of spoon.

Use baking paper make pleats in the center place over pudding secure with kitchen string.

This is a normal steam pudding recipe that I used in the Dream pot.

The pan I used is the same one I used for other puddings it has a loose bottom which is not good so I place the pan into an oven bag to prevent the water getting into the pud until I find a more suitable dish/pan.

For a trivet I use the one from my pleasure cooker it is a perfect fit.

If cooking the normal way cooking steam time is about 1 ½ hours BUT I am trying this in the Dream Pot. Into the large pot with my pan in the oven bag pour on boiling water place on stove boil, keep a steady boil about 12 mins and into the DP, lid on close cover. Off I went to bed.

In the morning took out of the DP placed on cooling rack took out of oven bag, and out of loose bottom pan (that is where this pan is handy) take base off pudding place on plate cool enough to go in fridge.

Later that day I made custard, just in a pan on the stove, placed pud in dish, sapped in microwave to reheat it poured on custard….BEAUITFUL ..hmmm yum.

Ohh that ginger taste gorgeous…… still drooling at the thought of it. I will be making that one again.

So much better in the Dream pot then waiting for it to steam in a normal pan. No steam all over the house either…no noisy pan bubbling away.

Fried Fish with Cauliflower

For a change we decided to have deep sea cod, fried.
Now I don't think I could do this in the Dream Pot, I could use the small pan but no I'll use the fry pan on the stove.
I planned on doing the fish about 5pm but I knew I would be busy about that time so I prepared the veggies about 1pm to save time later this is where the Dream Pot came in very handy.
I cut and cleaned the cauliflower put it in the large pot covered it with boiling water then let it boil while I prepared the potatoes, I quarter them so I could get lots in the small pot I had the kettle boiled ready, place spuds in small pot cover with boiling water leave to boil. during this time the cauli is nicely boiled I know if I left it a bit longer it would be cooked enough but I'm not ready for it yet so in the DP it goes lid on close DP, spuds started to boil, leave them a bit longer read junk mail okay should be ready now open dream pot take off lid place on spuds move small pot on top of large pot close lid back to work on pc forget about dinner all is ok.
about 5pm open DP ..yes spuds are done, drain water add grated cheese (straight from freezer) a knob of butter some milk replace lid close pot.
In plastic bag place some flour, salt and pepper, in goes a piece of fish coat with flour mix into hot frypan same with next piece of fish I saved some small potatoes from small pan before I added the cheese these are now in the frypan with the fish. back to dream pot.
Take out small pot place on heat mat on bench, take out cauliflower, drain place back in pot to keep hot, mash potatoes till nice and creamy place back in dream pot.
turn over fish. set table. make cheese sauce (packet mix) I kept some of the cauli water to mix with sauce. then serve all ready.
The Mash is for the left over mince mix I made last time so I can make another cottage pie.
Think smart.... I like to fill the dream pot make the most of it.
When I'm home from work like at the weekends I find I might want a break from house work or pc but it is too early for the evening meal this is when I will prepare veggies or pudding and put it in the dream pot this saves me some time closer to the meal time it makes it all so much easier.
no pics this time you all know what a pan of boiled potatoes or cauliflower looks like...lol.