Aussie Farmers Direct Challenge

Corned Beef

I make my corned beef in the crock pot / slow cooker.

1.5kg Silverside (that is the uncooked corned beef)

1 stick of celery – broken into about 4 pieces

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 bay leaves

1 onion roughly chopped

1 cup brown vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

Put everything into the crock pot – my silverside was still frozen solid so it was an interesting task trying to unwrap it.

Fill the crock pot with water.

Remember to turn the crock pot on (I forgot) and cook on low for about 6-8 hours.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Gratin

I wasn’t sure what to do with the Broccoli in this weeks box but when I saw that I had some Cauliflower Gratin mix in the cupboard I decided to pick up a little Cauliflower at Safeway and cook the two together.  It was delicious.  I used a Maggi packet mix for the sauce but instead of mixing it with milk I used half milk and half cream.  Sinful but very yummy.  Knew it would be alright to use dairy products as there was no way Heidi would touch it anyway.

Sweet Potato

I saw the Roasted Sweet Potato in Dinner with Julies blog a while back, when this weeks box arrived with a sweet potato in it I knew what I wanted to do with it.

I scrubbed my sweet potato clean, poked some holes in it and then wrapped it in foil and put into a 200C oven for 3 hours.  It was only going to be 2 hours but Heidi had a meltdown at Kinder and I raced out the door to rescue her and forgot about the oven being on.  No damage was done.

Julie was right the sweet potato skin just lifts away after it has been roasted.  I mashed it up with some butter and mmmmm heaven.

There was enough food to make dinner for myself and both girls, plus fill two Tupperware lunch containers for my husband.

Even better I still had half the corned beef left and so we can make one of my fav. sandwiches for lunch tomorrow – corned beef and mustard. Which I think will be really nice with some of that freebie chive and onion philly cheese from Coles Online. Mmm.

The Verdict – A very successful dinner and super easy to prepare.  Sadly there was a fair bit of washing up afterwards but that is somewhat mitigated by the fact I got a couple of lunches for hubby and sandwiches for the girls and I out of it.  Corned beef is always a hit at our house but the mashed roasted sweet potatoes was a huge improvement on mashed pumpkin which I usually find too watery.