Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 - Montenegro

Good evening Europe and good morning Australia....

The Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 will now continue semi final two with Montenegro.

There has been a little bit of a gap (ok a big gap) between our last country San Marino which I posted while in Vienna and now.... I was a little bit busy having the most amazing time of my life.

Did he only pack one shirt??

 

In my research for the dish to represent Montenegro I read about one dish that was a whole lamb that was stuffed with 6 chickens!

The prospect of a lamb and 6 chickens rotating over red hot coals is enough to get me inappropriately excited but the reality of it happening as a mid week meal just isn't practical.

So as my tweet suggests, I had to scale it down which really means I just made it up.

I do love a recipe that says, stuff 1 lamb or kid with 6 chickens! I might scale it down.....

— dontboilthesauce (@dbtsauce) April 17, 2015

I had the opportunity to chat with Knez who represented Montenegro this year so naturally I had to find out if he knew about this lamb and chicken dish.

He really likes that shirt....

 

Montenegrin Lamb stuffed with chicken AKA Lambkin
Ingredients

• 700g lamb rump roast (what was in the freezer)
• 300g chicken mince
• 1 small brown onion
• Handful of parsley
• Salt & pepper

Method

• In a food processor add chicken mince, onion, parsley, pinch of salt and pepper
• Pulse till combined
• Cut a pocket along the centre of the lamb
• Stuff with chicken mixture
• Brown the lamb in a hot fry pan
• Cover with aluminium foil and bake at 160°C for 1 hour
• let rest and slice

Surely what ever meat needs is more meat right??

Two meats and one veg?

 

It's a strange adventure but not completely unenjoyable, cold on warm buttery toast heaven.

 

 

Bringing the Baltic flavour to Eurovision 2015 Knez performed the crowd pleasing Adio.

Placing 9th in semi final two was enough to secure a place in the final where Montenegro ended the night 13th.
 

Knez delivers the expected professional performance given his experience and the water nymphs backing  are the perfect support.
 

A bit of trivia Knez's daughter Xenia is one the backing singers.

Past Montenegro Chow Down to Eurovision:

 





2014 Squid Ink Risotto with Calamari

 

2013 Sesame Chicken Soup

To market to market....

I had always hated farmers markets, the hipster havens where you can boast you've paid a ridiculous amount of money for 100g of someone else's hobby.

Traipsing through a muddy school playground to score some old weeds foraged from someone's front lawn, that is if you are lucky enough to get one of the three available car spaces and not walk three kilometres.

Well that was before I educated myself and "got" farmers markets.

Over the past 5 weeks I have been doing 90% of my shopping at farmers markets and thought I'd share how my hatred become love.

I don't want to sound too POOH (Preachy Obnoxious Organic Hipster), this is just my experience and is written with the Don't Boil The Sauce philosophy of as long as it's legal go with what's right for you.

I had always wanted to use farmers markets as an alternative to the supermarkets as I'm not a fan of the producers not getting a fair deal and wanted to shop more locally. I know I had bought gallons of $1 milk to make cheese till I understood its impact and now if poor AB picks up a cheap milk by mistake he hears about how he is personally killing farmers....am I being over dramatic?

So while I wanted them to be my farmers "supermarket" of choice it took me a long time to realise they are an alternative to a supermarket but they aren't a supermarket.  It's BYO trolley for a start.

One of the major side effects of changing the way I shopped has been a reduction in food waste.

I'm sure it wasn't just my fridge that would have the relics of a vegetable bargain from days gone by.  The bargain element though does lose its shine when you throw it away, unused and really should have just thrown the money in the bin.

So with this in mind, I don't believe farmers markets are more expensive over all. Surely it is better to spend $5 on a bunch of carrots and use every one of them, than throw out $1 bags?

My theory (and there is no data or science here just my own opinion)  is really around quality vs. quantity when it comes to cost.

Is it not better to have a smaller amount of the best quality?

When food can be sold ridiculously cheap what impact does that have on the taste, the life of the animal, and the amount we over consume?

I remember my grandparents talking about how it was a really special occasion if you had a roast chicken for dinner. Now we can get a chicken* for the cost of 2 cups of coffee? *$5.99 1.6kg Woolworths online 17/7/14

(I'm not sure why everything is measured against the price of a cup of coffee but just work with me...)

The meat I have been eating since starting my farmers market "journey" has been some on the best meat I've ever had. This may be due to the way the animals are raised, happy animals make a happy dinner, well possibly more happy for me than them.

So while it might seem $25 is a tad pricy for a chicken let me tell you, the quality of this chicken had 2 grown men totally absorbed in conversation about the virtues of a chook?!?!Plump, juicy, and so enormous that I broke it down and it feed AB and I for almost 8 meals.

I am loving the range of vegetables available at the markets because they are in season, taste like veggies once did and aren't imported. I flat out refuse to buy imported fruit and vegetables, and have learnt the hard way with frozen berries, always read the fine print, packets lie!

There are also much more interesting vegetables available, so a salad of just dressed carrot is pretty darn exciting when those carrots come in multiple colours. You know purple will always win!





These are some of the things I've learnt about how to "get" and love farmers markets

• Be early, you'll have an easier time parking and you'll get first dibs on the produce

• Take your time, there is no checkout queue to beat so relax and see it all, you'll even be able to have breakfast there, I mentioned it's early right!

• A trolley is a must, or a strong helper as it won't be much fun lugging your shopping around

• Be virtually social as social media is a great way to see what specials the stall holders have and  can give a bit a planning time for what else you'll need for the weeks meals.

• Be personally social, this is the one I struggled with the most in the past. I was always worried the stall holders would be offended if I didn't buy from them, I know I'm a complex over thinker. The reality has been a very welcoming experience, and the mornings have become quite a community event. By getting to know the stall holders they also get to know you and what type of products you'd like. You might even meet your neighbours.

• Try new things, who doesn't love a free sample? This can extend to products you wouldn't normally buy, I'm wasn't really a mussel fan as I just remembered those cold, tough, flavourless morsels I've had from buffets. So when I saw mussels at the market for $6/kg I thought I'd give them another go and wow were they delicious in a chilli cream sauce. I will be making sure I get another kg next time I see them.

• You also don't need to be the next Maggie Beer to benefit from the markets as not only is there fresh produce there are also stalls of ready to eat sweets, cakes, pastas and sauces if opening is more your style of cooking

• Do your research, check out the websites to see which market has what you need. The stall holders do move between the markets so each week may be different. There are 5 different market locations that are close to me so I can see exactly what I need and can decide which one to go to or if it will be a 2 market day. That sounds like a lot of time but it was really only a couple of hours and a lot of that's just chatting! http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/ http://farmersmarkets.org.au/markets

• The practical food safety nerd in me also takes an ice brick to keep everything cool, though possibly not necessary in winter...

Are you a regular market goer? What other tips do you have? 

Share your market experiences, I'd love to know the good, the bad or the ugly!

mmmmmm bacon.........

 

The milk  has cream under the cap, it's like a flash back to staying at Grandma when they had bottles with the little silver foils.
I'm really not that old I think she was the last one to not have a milk man, we had plastic bottles at our home.

The best part of market shopping is that sometimes you get a little extra bonus, which the chickens are very grateful for!



Sausage and Egg Crumpin

We all have our little food dirty secrets that we don't want the foodie paparazzi to snap us eating, mine was the drive-thru breakfast but after such a public declaration of my self imposed ban I'm even too scared to drive past said establishment.

Yes with my ever increasing twitter following I am lame enough to believe the paparazzi would be interested in me. (Sad isn't it)
I now even wear 2 pairs of underpants just in case they try and snap me getting out of the car, although I should think wearing jeans should see me safe there.

I do miss a meat patty and egg muffin though in all it's peppery glory, it had the staying power to be with you all day. The Italians even do fast food better and I remember their breakfast meat patty flavoured with fennel. So in lieu of a 27 hour flight I have put my Crumpins to good use.

There is no science behind the ingredients in the patty it was just what was in the fridge.
Sausage patty
Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. fennel seeds
• 1 tsp. salt
• 200g pork mince
• 100g beef stir fry strips (optional but adds more body)
• 100g streaky bacon
• 4 spring onions chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped parsley
• 2 tbsp. tomato sauce
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Method

• Toast fennel seeds for 30 seconds in a hot fry pan
• Grind seeds and salt in a mortar and pestle
• Add all ingredients to a food processer and blend, not too smooth.
• Shape into 1-2cm thick patties, I cheat and use the cake tin I use for the Crumpin to help with sizing
• In a fry pan on medium seal one side of the patty then flip.
• Don't squeeze the patty as that pushes out the moisture.
• They should take about 7-8 minutes to cook and makes about 6
• For the egg I also used the cake tin as a mould but also added some left over eggs whites, and just fried as normal
• Assemble as pictured or whatever combination you like, bacon, no bacon, no egg, double patty......
• A slice of cheese or two is a must but I don't add sauce due mainly to memories of sauce dripping onto my tie before work, always carry a spare!

This one I call Eileen...

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 -Estonia

Firstly a warning, some readers may find some pictures disturbing.

Today we have had landed in Estonia and our most adventurise recipe of the Chow Down to Eurovision 2013, cue the pig head or Kyle as I have come to know him. It was a bit of a challenge at first having Kyle look at me as I was about to chop him in two, but we made friends and got through it. That was the secret really, give him a name and thank him for his contributition to the blog and eurovision, talk about how he would be a celebrity and just never look him in the eye. I discovered this recipe on an Estonian website that has a series of how to videos, and thought sometimes an entrant just needs that special wow shock factor, thank you Kyle.

Poor Kyle, one eye looking at you, one eye looking for you

Doing much better after a trip to the spa, well clearly not that much better.

 

I'm really happy I went through with it but the flavour of the end result wasn't that great, there may be something lost in translation, or my missing celeriac. I love brawn but the stock was lacking some punch. I have included the recipe as written but I still have half of Kyle in the frezzer so will try again one day and update the recipe with any changes I make.

Estonia won eurovision in 2001 with "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL but todays musical treat comes from Tanel's sister Gerri in 2007. This is dedicated to Kyle as for this meat jelly experience we were true parnters in crime.

This is the original ingredient list but I needed to vary the meat as they must have really small pig heads in Estonia as Kyle was 4 kg.






Jellied Meat
Ingredients

• 1/2 pig head about 2kg
• 1 pork hock
• 1 pork trotter
• 500g veal shin osso bucco
• 1 brown onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 small celerac/turnip
• 8 pepper corns
• Spice mix (1 cinnamon stick, 1 nutmeg, 6 cloves, 1/4 teaspoon all spice)
• 4 bay leaves
• Salt to taste

Method

• Put the meats into a large boiler
• Soak the meat in cold water for 12 hours, change the water and soak for a further 12 hours
• Drain the meat and replace with fresh cold water.
• Bring to the boil and then drain the water from the meat again
• Cover with fresh cold water bring to the boil again
• Drain off rinse meat in cold water
• Cover with cold water and simmer for 2 hours.
• While it simmers scoop off any scum that forms on the top
• After 2 hours of simmering.
• Cut the carrots legthways in half
• Peel the celeriac and cut into 2 cm slices
• Remove the outerlayers of skin from the onion, leaving the inner layers.
• Cut the onion in half around it's middle
• In a very hot dry fry pan, fry off the vegetable.
• Let the vegetables develop a good brown colour.
• Add to the meat and simmer for a further 1 hour.
• Continue to skim off the fat and scum while it simmers.
• When the meat has simmered for 3 hours add the spices and simmer for further 15 minutes
• The meat is ready when it is falling off the bone, remove the meat from the boiler.
• Let it cool and then remove the meat from the bones.
• Chopped the meat into small cubes/shred.
• Strain the broth
• Add the meat back into the boiler and bring it to the boil.
• Season to taste, remembering that the seasoning will become milder as the jelly cools.
• Rinse the moulds in cold water
• Ladel the meat and broth into the molds and cool.
• Place the molds in the fridge and let set over night or about 8 hours.
• To unmould the jelly for serving gently pull the jelly away from the sides of the mould.
• Place serving plate on top of the mould and flip over.
• Give and gentle tap and remove the mould.

 

 

Et Uus Saaks Alguse will be sung by Birgit for Estonia this year.

Õnne!