Ricotta-stuffed Tomatoes

We love cheese. No really. On any given day, you'll find six or seven types of cheese in my fridge. Normal 'block' cheese, parmesan, cheese for crackers, cheese for cooking, cheese for raclette... you name it, we buy it. A little while ago, the lovely people at Perfect Italiano sent me more cheese to play with - parmesan, pizza cheese and LOTS of ricotta. I don't normally use ricotta, so this was the first recipe I tried. We ate them for dinner with green beans and kangaroo steaks. They were great!Ricotta-stuffed tomatoes
3 roma tomatoes, halved
6 tablespoons ricotta
3 tablespoons fresh coriander, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
6 cheesy crackers (I used jatz)
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Scoop all the seeds out of the tomatoes, salt the insides and let them rest upside down (to get as much moisture out as possible). Combine the ricotta, herbs and garlic. Crush the crackers to crumbs. Stuff the tomato halves with ricotta mixture, dip face down in the crackers and arrange on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and back for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
This recipe is easily expanded - just include a tablespoon of ricotta for each tomato half.

It's all his fault

He left town in a hurry and emptied out the contents of his kitchen onto our kitchen floor. Stuff I'd never cooked with, like miso paste and small dried fish. But also 5 containers of sorbet, and a selection of frozen proteins including salmon and a lamb roast. My cupboards got completely overwhelmed, and they weren't exactly empty to begin with.
Oh, and did I mention I haven't been cooking much lately? And the fridge had an odd smell to it? It was time to go through everything and figure out what the heck I had.
And then the Kitchn Cure appeared.
So I'm a bit late, but I've decided to take part any way.
The freezer! I have 6 sorts of icecream/sorbet! Please ignore the party pies. I believe there's some chicken nuggets in there, too... moving right along..

The fridge. It's pretty empty because it's the end of the week. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. And I only just noticed all the alcohol...
This cupboard is the worst one. I have no idea what's at the back. And yes, that is a jar of sesame seeds labelled 'Dried Pineapple'. The odd contraption on the left is actually our doorbell.

I didn't throw out as much food as I thought I would. There was a couple of bags of dried fruit, some molasses and tamarind paste... but most of the food was still edible (thank goodness!). I found three open containers of bicarb soda. I still have four types of sorbet and icecream in the freezer. I'll post the after pictures tomorrow.

Fish & Chips

We spent Saturday climbing outside of Nowra, until it got too hot. Ryan had a hankering for fish and chips, so we decided to drive the long way home along the coast to Bateman's Bay. We didn't get very far. We found Currarong.

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It's a tiny beach town with a Post Office, a general store, and Zac's Place, all in a row. Zac's Place was pretty empty at 3pm, but the woman behind the counter was friendly. She talked us out of getting the snapper, suggesting instead a cheaper local fish, fresh that day. I hate stodgy batter so I chose barbecued, but Ryan had faith and got his fish battered.
We took our parcels of fishy goodness across to the beach. After a hot afternoon's climbing, we wanted shade, and there was a beautiful pavilion. Anything would have tasted good in that place, looking out across the bay, but our dinner was amazing. We each got two pieces of fish and more than enough chips. My fish was perfectly cooked, and the chips were fantastic. But I looked longingly at Ryan's dinner. The batter was lovely and brown, and not greasy at all. Salty but not too much. Crispy without being over cooked.
Hands down the best fish and chips ever.
We may have to go back next weekend.

French Onion Soup Recipe

I've found a new food blogger I really like. I add new food blogs to my reader all the time, and sometimes forget they are there. But then an individual recipe stands out, or I see an amazing picture, and I realise the last three things I cooked are inspired by the same blog. So go see the 99 Cent Chef because it's all easy and cheap and fun.
But maybe I lied a little. When it started to get cold last week, I saw a picture of French Onion Soup on a different food blog - but the recipe was pretty bland. So I took the 99 Cent Chef recipe and tweaked it and it was the best soup recipe in ages, and the best food to be eating as the acorns start to fall and the possums run rampant in the dark.
French Onion Soup
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs olive oil
6 big brown onions, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
4 or 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 C red wine
1 Tbs plain flour
1L beef stock
Thick slices of crusty bread
1/2 Cup grated cheese
Heat the olive oil and butter gently in a large soup pot. Add the onion, bay leaf and thyme, and stir occasionally, over a low heat, until the onion is caramelised (don't let it brown and stick! it's much better if it just slowly turns to goo). This should take about 30 minutes. Add the flour, cook for another 2 minutes, stirring, then add the wine. When it's gently simmering, add the beef stock and keep simmering for as long as you can wait - or until the soup is reduced by a third. I couldn't wait that long - it smelt too good.
Toast the bread. Pour the soup into bowls, top with toast and cheese and cook under the griller until the cheese is bubbly.
yum.

Menu Plan Monday and the Joy of Food Blogging

I love food blogging. I love drooling over other people's pictures, I love commenting, I love encountering new and interesting recipes. But every so often something comes along that is, well,
spectacular.

No jokes, go read Nabakov's story over at Progressive Dinner Party. I would like to go to dinner with this man. I think he would make a most awesome travelling companion.
But mostly I just wish I could have been there. I feel like I was.

Oops! the menu plan.
French Onion Soup
Flat bread Nachos
White Bean and Green Bean salad with eggs
Curries of a vegetarian persuasion.

Happy Monday!

Fun lists and foodie friends

I guess when I signed off in January, I thought the blogosphere would forget about me. It was gratifying to get a few comments while I was away, and lovely to see that people were still searching and finding my recipes. But today came something completely unexpected.
I'm on a list. And a list in good company! The Culinary School Guide had put me in a list of 100 blogs for the Frugal Gourmet. I am flattered. But I'm also looking forward to exploring the rest of the list. There are several familiar blogs, but many that are new to me. I hope you find it interesting to explore too!

Menu Plan Monday - March 2

Happy Monday! Happy March!

Now my life has settled down a bit, I'm thinking more about my tummy. It's flatter than it used to be, thanks to all that stress. So I'd like to keep it that way (the tummy, not the stress, thank you).

Here's what I'm eating this week:
Kangaroo steak with peas and broccoli
Roast vegetables with white beans
Stirfry veggies with noodles (more veggies than noodles)
Steak and salad

Good luck with your week!