Corned beef with cabbage, horseradish mash and mustard sauce

Corned beef and mash has got to be an all-time family favourite. I adapted this from numerous recipes and what I had on hand. Paired with horseradish mashed potato, mustard sauce and cabbage with bacon it was the perfect Sunday dinner.



Corned Beef1.5 kg corned silverside
1 1/2 brown onions, quartered
6 whole cloves
4 Tbs brown sugar
3 Tbs apple cider vinegar
8 whole black peppercorns
2 dried bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 carrot, roughly chopped

Push a clove into each onion quarter. Place all ingredients in slow cooker and top with just enough water to cover. Cook on High for 6 hours.



TIP: To keep corned beef submerged during cooking, weigh it down with a small lid or plate.

Mustard Sauce50g butter
2 Tbsp plain flour
1 cup milk
1 cup strained cooking liquid
2 tsp mustard

Heat butter in a pan over low-medium heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, until it bubbles. Remove from heat. Gradually stir in strained cooking liquid milk. Return to heat and stir until mixture thickens. Stir in mustard.

Horseradish Mashed Potato3 medium brushed potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
milk
butter
2 tsp horseradish
freshly cracked black pepper
strained corned beef cooking liquid or water

Strain a third of the cooking liquid into a clean saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain potatoes and mash or put through a potato ricer. Add milk and butter and mix gently with a fork. Add horseradish and freshly cracked black pepper.

Fried Cabbage with Bacon2 tsp olive oil
100g bacon, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 large cabbage, shredded
freshly cracked black pepper



Heat oil in a large deep frypan or wok and fry the bacon for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 2 minute.

Stir in the shredded cabbage and season with freshly cracked black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Cabbage will retain it's crispness, if you prefer it softer you can cover it and let it steam until it is coked to your liking.

Remove meat from cooking liquid and slice against the grain.

Serve with steamed broccoli & cauliflower, horseradish mashed potato, cabbage with bacon and mustard sauce.

Jam Drops

Not the prettiest jam drop but tasty nonetheless...



3/4 cup caster sugar
2 cups self-raising flour
2 eggs
125 g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Jam of your choice

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract with electric beaters until pale and creamy
Add eggs one at a time and beat in.
Add flour and vanilla and mix into a stiff dough.

Break dough into small pieces, press hole in centre with a cork or the end of a wooden spoon, and fill with jam.

I also decided to test out some chocolate peanut butter ad dark chocolate chips. They were ok but the jam provides much needed moisture so I'll stick to the classic filling..

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Stand on the baking tray for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining biscuit dough and jam. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

The first batch was a bit of a disaster - if you have a fan-forced oven make sure you don't switch on the fan or they will cook far too quickly and dry out.

The urban legend $250 cookies

The recipe:
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet..Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Makes 112 cookies..Recipe may be halved

The urban legend:
My daughter and I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas & decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie". It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown "I'm afraid not." Well" I said, "would you let me buy the recipe?"

With a cute smile, she said YES". I asked how much and she responded, "Only two fifty, it's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab".. Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.00. I looked again and remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250.00". That's outrageous!!!

I called Neiman's Accounting Dept. and told them that the waitress said it was "two-fifty," which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any POSSIBLE interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.. They would not refund my money, because according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to her the criminal statutes which govern fraud in Texas. I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want, we dont give a damn, and we're not refunding your money." I waited a moment, thinking of how I could get even,or even try to get any of my money back. I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250.00, and now I'm going to have $250.00 worth of fun."

I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250.00 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free..She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this" I said, "Well you should have thought of that before you ripped me off", and slammed down the phone on her.. So, here it is!!! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250.00 dollars for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever get another penny off of this recipe....

Comments:
Here is a "true story" almost everyone has heard by now, generically known as "The $250 Cookie Recipe" and most recently associated with the Neiman Marcus company, though during the 1980s it was the bane of cookie diva Mrs. Fields.

If you hadn't figured it out already, it is not true, by the way. It's a classic urban legend -- a variant of a popular tale traced by folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand as far back as 1948, when the ridiculously expensive recipe yielded a red velvet fudge cake belonging to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the asking price for which was $25.

The current adjusted-for-inflation version (reproduced above) is still making the email rounds and its popularity shows no signs of waning, even though it has been debunked repeatedly over the past two decades. To paraphrase the ancient Klingon proverb, "Revenge is a dish best served warm out of the oven."

As to the recipe itself, I haven't tried the cookies, but by most accounts it yields damn good ones (and plenty of them). No one knows whose kitchen it came from, but we do know it wasn't Neiman Marcus, whose restaurant didn't even sell chocolate chip cookies when this legend first began circulating. The company chefs did create a chocolate chip cookie recipe after the fact, however, which Neiman Marcus now distributes free of charge as an antidote, if you will, to the defamatory urban legend. Bon appetit!

The real thing:
NM Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-3/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, slightly crushed
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions
Cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy.
Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract.
Combine the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop by large spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or 10 to 12 minutes for a crispier cookie.
Makes 12 to 15 large cookies.

Golden Syrup Biscuits

1 egg
125g butter
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1 1/2 cups self raising flour

Beat butter and sugar, add egg and syrup then flour.
Place teaspoon sized portions on greased tray and bake at 180C for approx 180C

Rum Balls

You can make this with any type of rum for these delicious treats. I prefer Bacardi Rum but have also used Bundaberg Rum.

1 packet Marie biscuits
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 can condensed milk
2 tablespoons Rum
extra desiccated coconut for coating

Place biscuits into a food processor and blend into fine crumbs.
Pour into a large bowl with the coconut and cocoa and stir to combine.
Add the condensed milk and rum and mix well.
NOTE: You may not need the whole can of condensed milk, the consistency of the mixture should be slightly wet and sticky but still hold it's shape.
Roll the mixture into balls and coat with coconut. Refrigerate overnight.

Hedgehog

The secret to this delicious Hedgehog is not to break up the biscuits too small. About 1cm pieces seem to work best.

1 packet Marie Biscuits
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 Eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
250g chocolate

Break up Marie biscuits (not too small).
Melt margarine and caster sugar slowly until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat.
Beat eggs into cocoa with a whisk then add to sugar and margarine while still whisking.
Mix with Marie biscuits and pour into square tray.
Press up one end, about 2.5cm high. Refrigerate while melting chocolate.
Melt chocolate in a bowl over boiled water or in the microwave and pour on top.
Refrigerate overnight and then cut into 2 1/2 cm squares.