Category: In the Den Kitchen

In the Den Kitchen series. All our foodie posts live here.

12 Recipes in 2020: January

One of the things I’ve had on my list of 100 things for the last few year has been make a new recipe each month and blog it. Going to give it a go.
January’s recipe is Ham Mashed Potato Cakes from The Recipe Critic.

It’s a great way to use up leftover ham for Christmas and leftover mashed potato. It’s not unusual for me to have left over mash as I ALWAYS make extra so I can make Scottish potato scones the next day.

Stretchy cheesy shot of ham mashed potato cakes to show texture

These are super cheesy and rather yum. One thing I will do different next time is make my mash with less liquid as our potato cakes fell apart a bit. Kids weren’t overly keen but hubby & I enjoyed them.

Grab the recipe here.

In the Den Kitchen–Pancake Edition

Today is Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day so I’m sharing a couple of my favourite pancake recipes with you.

When I’m in the mood for a snack pancake (or out at a show or market) I’ll have Dutch Pancakes or poffertjes. They are so delicious with lemon, icing sugar and a side or whipped butter or cream.

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My favourite recipe is made in the Thermomix and can be found here. If you don’t have a thermo try this recipe.

Word of warning though, don’t pour the batter into a small container – you will end up with a batter fountain as the yeast does it’s thing, especially when it’s warm.

I’m a thin pancake girl, much prefer them to the thicker pancakes. Much easier to roll up with yummy fillings like nutella, or strawberries, or chunks of chocolate……

anyways here’s my recipe I’ve been using for years. I can’t remember where it came from originally, no doubt one of mum’s cookbooks.

800px-PalatschinkeThin pancakes

  • 250g plain flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 500ml milk
  • butter, for frying
  1. Chuck the flour and salt into a mixing bowl
  2. Break the eggs into a bowl and then add to flour
  3. Add half of milk and whisk
  4. Add the rest of the milk. Whisk until smooth
  5. Heat a fry pan over a low heat.
  6. Add butter, allow to melt and start to bubble.
  7. Using a soup ladle spoon some batter into the pan and swirl the pan to cover the bottom.
  8. Cook til loose and golden on the bottom then flip (about 30 seconds)
  9. Cook on the other side for about 30 seconds.

Serving suggestions – lemon and sugar, chocolate chunks, chocolate sauce, cream, nutella, strawberries


In the Den Kitchen–Pork medallions in a creamy garlic sauce

It’s been awhile since I blogged a recipe and one of the things on my list this year is to share more recipes with you all. Today’s recipe was found at What’s In The Pan and modified to suit our family and what ingredients I had on hand in the pantry.

This recipes serves 2 adults and one 7yo (The 3yo is too fussy for her own good and just ate the salad and potatoes)

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Take your pork from the fridge at least 20 minutes before you season them and make sure they are fully defrosted if they have been frozen. Warm (room temperature) meat cooks more evenly than cold.

Ingredients

Pork Chops

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • boneless pork chops (we used 2 pork medallions and a larger pork steak
  • 1/4 cup plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon GIG Tuscan Capsicum dip (or mixed herbs or Italian seasoning)
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Creamy Garlic Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tablespoon flour (or use leftover flour from pork chops dredging) – I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons for a slightly thicker sauce
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1 teaspoon GIG Tuscan Capsicum dip (or mixed herbs or Italian seasoning) – I left this out as I used the seasoned flour

Instructions

  1. Mix the flour and seasoning in a large bowl or zip lock bag. Chuck your chops in the floor and coat well.

  2. Heat your butter in a large heavy based pan over a medium high heat. I like to add a dash of olive oil so the butter doesn’t brown as quickly.

  3. Add your pork chops and sear for about 4-5 minutes each side. Remove pork from the heat and transfer to a plate. Cover to keep warm

Creamy Garlic Sauce

  1. Return your pan to the heat, add butter and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes over a medium heat. Add flour to the butter mixture and stir well.
  2. Slowly add the wine, stirring as you add and scrap any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Lots of flavour there!
  3. Add your lemon juice, stock and cream. Stir.
  4. Add seasoning. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Taste your sauce and add more if needed.
  5. Reduce your heat and return your pork (& any accumulated juices) back to the pan.
  6. Reheat on low for 2-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pork – thicker pieces will take a bit longer.

We served this with salad (mostly fresh from our garden) and homemade potato wedges.

In the Den Kitchen–Bread

I love bread and I love making bread. I have a bread maker but it’s gathering dust since we got our Thermomix.

I’ve just signed up to do a free 7 day course with Sophia at Thermomix Baking Blogger to learn how to make 7 different types of bread. I’m really looking forward to it and sharing the results with you all.

It doesn’t start until August so you have plenty of time to join if you wish to bake along too.

Check it out here

In the Den Kitchen – update

I have realised, going back through my blog that a lot of the recipes I published using a recipe plugin are no longer there *insert sad face here* so what’s a girl to do?
Slowly go through all my foodie posts and check that they are all ok and actually have a recipe listed!
Once they are all happy again they will be listed in the master index which you can find under the Recipes tab. Don’t click on the word Recipes as it will take you to my Pinterest page.

Thanks for understanding and before you go, check out my last recipe – Pork stir fry

In the Den Kitchen – pork stir fry

This week we decided to have a stir fry but weren’t sure what meat we wanted so off to the butcher’s to get our meat for the fortnight and pick out something to be the star of our stir fry.
I ended up picking a super yummy pork fillet (it’s my favourite cut of pork and I use it in so many recipes) and made this super delicious pork stir fry.

In the Den Kitchen – Coconut Biscuits

It’s been a while since I shared any recipes with you all so I thought I’d share something that has become a new family favourite – so much so that I find myself cooking it at least once a week! You can change them up a bit to by adding smarties or M&Ms into them as soon as you take them out of the oven, before cooling.

Seriously, you need to try these. Pop on over to Kidspot and grab the recipe. Let me know what you think if you cook them

In other news I’ll slowly be moving all my Your Inspiration at Home recipes over to this blog.

In the Den Kitchen

Today’s prompt for the Blogtember challenge is “A family recipe (if grandma allows, of course!).”

Even with the weather starting to warm up here in Australia we’re still having cooler days so soup is still on the menu. This recipe is super simple and it is a reminder of meals with my dad’s mum.

Tomato Rice Soup

1 large can crushed tomatoes                                           
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup uncooked rice                                                                                       
1 onion, diced
4 cups chicken stock                                                   

Put stock in a pan. Add tomatoes, rice & onion.
Simmer until onion & rice are cooked.
Add tomato soup. Heat through & serve.

Super simple and really yummy. Spice it up a bit with some black pepper to taste

In the Den Kitchen – Homemade takeaway chicken

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared a recipe here as most of my recipes I’ve been sharing over at Caroline’s YIAH Adventures but hubby recently decided to do a little experimenting in the kitchen. Hopefully this will kick start us to try a new recipe (or 2) each month.

Anywho, KFC is a firm favourite in our house so when I saw this video on Facebook we decided we had to give it a go.

OMG the chicken is sooo close to actual KFC. It’s delicious, and it reheats the next day really well too. Bonus!!

The gravy, not so much. Don’t know why but I have another KFC style gravy to try so I’ll report back with my thoughts on that one.

I even found a recipe here for KFC style chip seasoning and it’s not the same but pretty yum.

If you like KFC I’d suggest you give this a try. Word of advice – make sure you don’t skip the eggwhite wash and it has to be fried. We tried it backed and it’s not as nice.