Meat and Sweet

Meat and Sweet

Meat and Sweet is a follow on to Dan & Steph's First book EAT@HOME it will show case Dan and Steph's easy going nature, and their love for easy homestyle cooking.

Dan has a deep passion for all things meat, which started at the age of 23 when he worked in his friend's butchery. So it was natural to Dan to put together a compilation of approximately 40 recipes involving meat featuring, of course, his famous sausages.

Steph on the other hand is all about all things sweet. In Steph's half of the book she shares her passion for baking – the thought of creating delicious, pretty desserts and sweets to complete a dinner party or dining experience excites her every time. In Steph's recipes she shows you how you can be creative in putting together that perfect sweet.

Uniquely divided into 2 sections – meat recipes and dessert recipes.
Recipes have been carefully selected to suit those on a household budget without compromising on ingredients.
Includes new sausage recipes – which Dan is well known for.
Easy to make dessert recipes that will look amazing when entertaining.

After winning the fourth series of My Kitchen Rules in 2013, Dan and Steph Mulheron love their footy, snags and beer. But make no mistake! This down-to-earth couple are serious foodies. Dan loves to slow cook meat and make his own sausages. Steph loves creating bold desserts.

Meat and Sweet
New Holland Publishers Australia
Authors: Dan and Steph Mulheron
ISBN: 9781742577210
RRP: $40.00

Interview with Steph Mulheron

Question: What inspired Meat and Sweet?

Steph Mulheron: Meat and Sweet is our second cookbook. We had accumulated many recipes that we wanted to share because we love to cook them at home. Our first cookbook was very much simple home cooking recipes and Meat and Sweet is slightly more advanced recipes for the home cook who wants to challenge themselves with different techniques.

The book contains 40 meat recipes and 40 sweet recipes; Dan is the meat-guy and I created the sweet dessert recipes; Dan is very passionate about meat and my passion is with baking which pairs us together very well.


Question: Which of the sweet recipes featured holds the most memories, for you?

Steph Mulheron: We cook the Flourless Chocolate Cake regularly as it's decadent and fudge-like; we find that it's a winner for everybody and we cook it anytime we have friends or family around. It's similar to the recipe we used on My Kitchen Rules but we've tweaked it a little bit for the cookbook. I also love creating the Pumpkin Pie recipe as it brings back memories from our America trip which actually turned into a food tour which inspired our own restaurant.


Question: You must be flat out! Can you tell us about your restaurant?

Steph Mulheron: We are very busy! Since winning MKR we've had a huge couple of years. We opened up our restaurant EAT @ Dan & Steph's in March 2013 it's been very well received in Hervey Bay, QLD. We had the opportunity to move away and open a restaurant but we wanted to support the community that supported us throughout the show. We're situation on the The Esplanade and open for breakfast and lunch; we serve between 200-400 meals, a day!

We've just had our little baby girl, who is 12 weeks old, her name is Emmy.

We've also opened an Espresso Bar in Hervey Bay as well, called School House Espresso. Yes, we've got two businesses, two cookbooks and a little baby – we wouldn't have it any other way! It's all we ever wanted and when Emmy smiles at us, we know why we have worked so hard.

Question: What advice do you have for Australians who want to feature on MKR?

Steph Mulheron: Just go for it! Put the application form, you never know what will happen!

Basically Dan and I were at a crossroads, in our lives; we'd just completed our very first IVF cycle and it was unsuccessful, we knew we had to save up another $15,000 to go again and we didn't know what to do… then the MKR advert came on TV and it said 'Have you go what it takes to win?" We knew we couldn't lose anything by filling in the application form and it changed our lives! It took us three hours to fill out the application form and it was a six month application process where we had to do many different things before we were accepted. We had no idea where it was going to lead us but we worked extremely hard in the six months it took to film the show. We knew we had a 1 in 12 chance of winning so the closer we got the harder we worked; we slept four hours a night because we went home to practice cooking – we knew the prize would allow us to start our family and the only way to do that was IVF; the prize money could give us endless cycles and now she's here!

Sausage and Lentil Simmer

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbs of olive oil
5 oz / 150 g of pancetta or bacon, diced
8–10 good quality pork sausages
2 onions, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced / minced
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
14 oz / 400 g of green Puy lentils
1¾ pt / 900 ml of salt reduced
chicken stock
1 tbs of vinegar
1 x 15½ oz / 440 g tinned tomatoes
¼ bunch of parsley, roughly chopped

Method
Heat oil in a large casserole or very large pot.
Add the pancetta and sausages and allow to cook and sizzle for 10 minutes, stirring and turning the sausages occasionally until nicely browned and sticky. Take out the sausages.
Add a little more olive oil and add the onions, carrots and garlic to the pancetta. Cook for 4 minutes until all softened.
Return the sausages to the pan.
Add the rosemary, lentils, stock, vinegar, tomatoes and then stir. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.
Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly for 5 minutes, then lower heat and simmer slowly for 50 minutes. Be sure to stir every now and then. Check the lentils to make sure they are soft to squeeze but still have a little bite to them.
Serve with fresh parsley sprinkled over the top.

Roasted Peaches with Mascarpone

Serves 4

Ingredients
Peaches
4 peaches, halved & stones removed
5 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
2 tbs of honey

Mascarpone
9 oz / 250 g of mascarpone
1 tbs of icing sugar
1 tsp of vanilla paste
4 slices of brioche, toasted at time of serving

Method
PEACHES – Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F and line a flat tray with baking paper.
Place the peaches on the tray and top with honey and thyme. Roast in oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

MASCARPONE – Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
Toast brioche.
Spread the vanilla mascarpone over the brioche, top with roasted peach half, drizzle with a little more honey and thyme.
Serve immediately.

Interview by Brooke Hunter