Mushroom Miso Soup

Is miso an acquired taste? I remember not liking it the first time I had it - I think I was twelve. But these days it's something I really look forward to if we get Japanese. I made this miso soup for a friend last week, and she didn't like it. She'd never had miso before, and it just didn't appeal. Both Ryan and I enjoyed it, and we managed to finish the lot.
I first saw the recipe on cuisine.com.au, but I couldn't find any enoki mushrooms, and didn't want to use bok choi. So I made it with swiss brown and bean sprouts instead. It was a good, quick beginning to our meal.Mushroom Miso Soup
3 sachets of instant shiro miso soup (why did the packet have 3 sachets, I wonder?)
2 big handfuls of mung bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
100g swiss brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Arrange all the veggies between three small soup bowls. Add the packet miso. Top each bowl with a cup of boiling water, and allow to sit for two minutes. Season with soy sauce.
Serves 3.

Share a recipe with me!

Ryan and I are going on a VERY BIG TRIP. We will be away for 6 whole weeks, and I'm worried that my blog will wither and die without me here to feed it all the time. A clever blogger would have stockpiled lots of great food pictures, with awesome recipes, to fill it up while I'm away. But I'm not that clever...
So here's your chance to get your name up in lights, or at least score some linky love for your blog. Send me a recipe, with or without pictures, at kazari dot recipe at gmail dot com
Send it before May 1.
Include a link to your blog (or another site you like).
Sometime during May or June it will appear on this blog.
If you don't have a blog, you can still play(Mum?), and instead of linking I will say nice things about you.
Hopefully, with your help, my blog will not be totally anaemic by the time we return. I'm going to post about our travels, especially about food shopping in strange counties, but I don't think we'll be doing much cooking.
Thanks in advance!
k

Menuplan Monday - April 21

Today was never going to be a good day. I left work with a security pass that wouldn't let me into the building, a lunchbox with no lunch, and a contract in a language can't understand. So of course, when I got home, I went to blog for an event that finished yesterday.
Bah Humbug.
I shall save my mushroom miso recipe for another day.
Anyway, I somehow managed to cook dinner without any further drama. I hope your week has started well, and your dinner is yummy. Here's what we're having this week:
Fish Pie
Veggie Stirfry
Baked eggs and veggies
Kangaroo steaks and veggies
Pumpkin soup
Happy Monday!
(or not)

A taste of yellow: Oven-Baked Frittata

A taste of yellow is a food blog event to publicise LiveStrong Day and Lance Armstrong's Foundation. Last year there were 149 entries, including mine. This year I've been inspired by the eggs we've been getting from the farmers market - they've got the most yellow yolks I've ever seen.
It's a simple mid-week dinner for us, one we were lucky to share with a friend this week. I hope you like it.
Oven Baked Frittata with bacon and vegetables
2 rashers of middle bacon, chopped fine
1 brown onion, thinly sliced
150g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 green capsicum, thinly sliced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
8 eggs, whisked
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup finely grated cheese (any sort will do, the stronger the flavour the better.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease and line a 4cm deep slab pan. Heat a small frying pan and saute the bacon and vegetables (except the tomato) until the vegetables are tender. Spread the vegetable mix on the bottom of the pan. Whisk the eggs with the milk and cheese, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the vegetable mix. Arrange the tomato slices on top, and push down gently to make sure everything is submerged.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until the egg is set. Let it sit for another 20 minutes before serving.

Menu Plan Monday - April 14

The leaves have turned. This morning our street is a dusty, dull red, with shocks of yellow and orange. I can't decide if autumn has taken it's time this year, or it just seems later because of Easter was so early. Anyway, we are starting to pull out the comfort food recipes...
Beef stew
Oven-baked frittata
Meatballs and couscous
Prawn Stirfry
Fish Pie

Happy Monday!

Spicy Mixed Dhal

Over at Limes and Lycopene, Kathryn's been discussing the benefits of having dhal in your freezer. I can completely relate to that. Our dhal recipe goes in the slow cooker, and we make it a lot. I haven't posted it before, because it's a bit more complicated than most of my other recipes. It came out of the manual that came with our slow cooker, and it's never failed yet. We make a double batch probably once a month, not least because Ryan loves taking it to work for lunch. We eat it with rice, or on flat bread, or serve with another curry. It reheats really well.
Spicy Mixed Dhal
1/2 Cup yellow split peas
1/2 Cup red lentils
1/2 Cup brown lentils
2 Cups vegetable stock
20g ghee
3 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbs fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 small red chillies, chopped
400g canned tomatoes, chopped
1 cup tomato puree
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1/3 cup cream
2 Tbs fresh coriander, finely chopped
1. Place peas and lentils and stock in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for an hour, or until just tender.
2. Melt ghee in a BIG pan. Cook mustard seeds until they start to pop, then add onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until onion is starting to brown.
3. Stir in spices. Add tomatoes, puree and pepper, and cook until heated through.4. Pour tomato mixture over lentils in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for around 3 hours (the book says 4-5, but it never takes that long).
5. Half an hour before required, stir in cream. Replace cover and continue cooking. Serve topped with coriander.

Menu Plan Monday - April 7

This week is going to be crazy-busy. Ryan is celebrating some great work news, we are having a curry night, and I did a lead-climbing course tonight. So food is going to be of utmost importance:

Tonight: Spuds with chili con carne (from the freezer)
Tuesday: Chops and veggies
Wednesday: Curry night!
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Hamburgers

Happy Monday!

Hot Cross Bun Pudding

If you scroll down a bit, you might see some lovely, fresh, freshly glazed Hot Cross Buns. Aren't they beautiful? I'm not bragging, because Ryan made the buns AND took the picture. I just ate one. And was terribly supportive, of course. I was making the yoghurt cake.

Anyway, there's only so many sticky buns you can eat, before they start getting stale. I contemplated my options for a while, thinking about french toast, and bread and butter pudding. But in the end, PossumChops beat me too it. She blogged her pudding recipe here, without a photo.

I have followed her recipe, and it was good, but next time I need more buns or less custard. But I'm offering up a picture.

Menu Plan Monday - March 31

I can't believe it's nearly April. We've been really, really busy lately. And you're probably beginning to think we only eat cake. As evidence for the defence, I hearby list this week's menu plan:
Chilli con carne, on brown rice with salad (and left over yoghurt sauce)
Lamb chops, with carrots and beans
Veggie Lasagne
Eggs Florentine
Chicken Soup
Curry Puffs with Creamed Indian Spinach

Happy Monday!

Easter Cake Bake: Greek Yoghurt Cake

For me, Easter is a time for traditional cakes. Cakes where you can taste the eggs and butter - all the things that we once would have gone without for Lent. Not that I'm particularly religious, I just like tradition. This is an Australian take on a traditional Greek yoghurt cake, brought you to by the lovely ladies at the Women's Weekly Test Kitchen. You can find the recipe in the 'Foods we love' book. It came out all golden and fluffy, but it's very moist too. I thought about icing it, remembering all the extravagant cakes from last year's Easter Cake Bake. But I decided simple suited me (and this cake) best. We ate it with home-made hot cross buns, on Easter Sunday, with friends. It's my entry to this year's Easter Cake Bake.

Greek Yoghurt Cake

125g butter, softened

1 Cup caster sugar

3 eggs, separated

2 Cups Self Raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarb soda

1/4 Cup finely chopped bloanched almonds

1 Cup yoghurt

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease 20cm x 30cm lamington pan; line base and sides with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, beat well.

Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in sifted flour and soda in two batches, then nuts and yoghurt.

Beat egg whites in small bwol with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into yoghurt mixture in two batches. Spread mixture into pan. Bake about 35 minutes. Turn cake onto wire rack to cool; dust with icing sugar if desired.

Waiter, there's something in my fritters!

I love chickpeas. I put them in couscous and curries, I roast them by themselves, I turn them into burgers, I even put them in eggs. So when the theme for this months' "Waiter, there's something in my..." was Pulses, I decided I had to join in.
It was hard to decide what to blog. I haven't blogged my chickpea burgers, or my dhal recipe yet. But in the end I was rushed, and the answer presented itself - chickpea fritters. I hope you enjoy them! Spicy Chickpea Fritters with yoghurt sauce
1/2 Cup Self Raising flour
1 eggs
10g butter, melted
1/3 Cup milk
1 tsp mild paprika
1 tsp carraway seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and roughly mashed
5 spring onions, finely chopped
1/2 a bunch of coriander, finely chopped
Wisk the first four ingredients to make a batter - it should be the consistency of pancake batter. Add the rest of the ingredients. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, then drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan, turning after 2 minutes, or when that side is golden. Keep warm while cooking the rest. Serve with yoghurt sauce.
Yoghurt Sauce
1 Cup plain yoghurt
1/2 Bunch coriander, finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons (or so) Lemon Juice
Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate and let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Thanks to Cook Sister for hosting this!

Hot Cross Buns - redux

I love Easter. I love autumn, and I love the four-day weekend. We managed to fit in a lot of socialising, heaps of climbing, heaps of baking - and get four loads of laundry done! Why can't every weekend be this long?

Anyway, we made Hot Cross Buns. They turned out dense and fruity and good. I used the same Donna Hay recipe as last year, but used golden syrup for the glaze instead of gelatine. Here they are.

Hot Cross Buns

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk

4 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted

2 teaspoons mixed spice

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

50g butter, melted

1 egg

1 3/4 cup mixed dried fruit (Donna used sultanas and candied mixed peel)

1/2 cup plain flour, extra

1/3 cup water

golden syrup, to glaze

Place the yeast, 2 teaspoons of sugar and all the milk in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. If it doesn't start to foam, you might need new yeast.

Add all remaining ingredients (except extra flour and water) to the yeast mixture. Stir with a butter knife until a sticky dough forms. Knead on a floured surface for 8 minutes, or until it feels elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and stand for an hour in a warm place, or until it's doubled in size. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll into balls.

Grease a square cake tin and line with baking paper. Place the balls in the tin, cover with a clean tea towel and set aside for another half an hour, or until they've risen. Preheat the oven to 200C.

Combine the extra flour and water, place in a plastic bag with one corner snipped off, and pipe crosses on the buns. Bake for 35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch. Brush with golden syrup while still warm.

Menu Plan Tuesday (oops!)

I have to admit my menu planning has been languishing a bit lately. I've been focusing on baking and other sweet stuff, so the plans have lacked detail and inspiration. This week I'm back on track!
Tuesday: Dinner out with friends
Wednesday: Lamb Chops with green beans and stuffed squash
Thursday: Butter chicken soup and flatbread
Friday: Spicy baked pork fillet, with brown rice and stirfry broccoli.
Saturday: Warm veggie salad

I hope you enjoyed your Easter break!

Novel Food: Red Rice with Maya

One Christmas I was wandering around Melbourne with Ryan, and we found a beautiful bookshop. No glossy best-sellers here, but the quirkiest collection I'd seen anywhere. I lusted over a beautiful old atlas, and ogled some beautiful cookbooks. Then I lingered in the biographies, torn between heart-tugging stories. One title jumped out at me, "hallelujah! the welcome table". It was subtitled a lifetime of memories with recipes. The author was Maya Angelou. How could I go past?

I have to admit that although I knew her name, and vaguely her story, I hadn't read any of Maya's stories. These ones jumped out at me - and I read the first two chapters before I even left the store. The recipes are a bit intimidating - as well as the Southern food from her childhood, there is cassoulet, beef wellington and souffle. Clearly Ms Angelou is not a cook to mess with. So although I've read through the book several times, I've only cooked one recipe, a simple one for red rice.

The stories are evocative and beautiful. And so are the recipes. One day I am going to attempt the double layer caramel cake. But I thought I'd start with something easy. This is my entry for Novel Food. It's cheating a bit, because it's a memoir, not a novel. But I thought I'd add it anyway.

Red Rice

225g thick back bacon rashers

2 medium onions, chopped

1 small red capsicum, seeded and chopped

475 ml canned diced tomatoes

175g tomato paste

ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

450g cooked white rice

475ml water

Fry bacon in a large skillet on medium heat until brown, stirring with fork. Add onions and capsicum. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove lid and add remaining ingredients; mix well. Bring to boil, about 3 minutes. Stir vigorously, cover again, and cook over a very low heat for about 15 minutes until rice and liquid are totally mixed.

Menu Plan Monday - March 17

I love this time of year. All the public holidays and the beautiful weather - plus the feeling that the summer is nearly over - mean we spend a lot of time outside. Consequently, I haven't been cooking all that much. This week we're going back to firm favourites:
Bangers and Mash
Curried Fish
Chicken Pie
Chicken Salad
Veggie Lasagne

Happy Monday!

Standby Supper: Baked Eggs Recipe

My photo's have disappeared again! Just when I have some awesome ones to share. We'll have to wait til Pete sorts out his server, but in the meantime, I may have to switch to flickr....
Anyway, this dinner turned out awesomely, with about 2 minutes prep work. The inspiration was here, but you have to scroll down to the bottom to find it. Here's my take. I promise to add the photos when they're working. Baked Eggs with Chickpeas and Vegetable
1 1/2 Cups assorted veggies, chopped small
(I used half a small zucchini, a carrot and some green beans)
3/4 Cup tinned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
4 eggs
50g butter
parmesan cheese
dried thyme
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Arrange the vegetables and chickpeas around the edge of two ramekins. Drizzle with melted butter. Gently crack two eggs into the middle of each one, and sprinkle with parmesan and time. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until eggs are set. How easy is that?

The Food Porn Meme

For those of you that don't know Rosie, she is a writer of Southern Gothic fiction and erstwhile keeper of goats. I'm laying the blame for the following nonsense squarely at her feet! Food Porn she has requested, and food porn she shall get.

1. What food do you consider the best “date” food? In other words, what meal or food item do you think is sexiest to eat in the company of someone you would like to look sexy around?

I always think the best date food is morsels you eat with your fingers, and anything you can share. So a picnic of good wine, cheese, ham and grapes will always work. You have to remember a blanket to snuggle on. And stay out late enough to watch for shooting stars.

But if you mean sexy-glamorous, a picnic just won't do. You can't do high-heels and short skirts on a blanket on the grass. And there's no restroom near by to fix your makeup! If you're planning on taking me out on that sort of dinner, it had better be sushi, somewhere up-market with low tables and an exotic selection. But I don't know - sex should be messy and adventurous, so maybe teppanyaki would be a better start to the night. And there's a new Teppanyaki place around the corner (Ryan are you taking note?).

2. What well-known person would you like to share a meal with—with or without clothing. (saying whether or not clothes are involved is optional).

Do I have to just pick one? For the scenery, there's some great AFL players this season. But it's preseason, so they are all on diets, and not drinking.

For the conversation and the food, I think I'd pick Rosie - I'd love to eat at some meals and stories at one of her local haunts. (I think we'd best keep our clothes on, so I don't end up in a story like Porn and Donuts!!)

And finally, I do have a soft spot for Lindsay McDougall. If nothing else, I'd love to find out what vegan rock-stars eat on a romantic date : )

3. What does your perfect breakfast-in-bed look like? (Food AND the details, please. Candles? Music? Flowers? Hot tub? Dancing girls?

Mangos and stawberries and champagne. In the bath (a deep one with feet). With lots and lots of bubbles and fluffy towels and good coffee for when we get out of the tub. And no where to be until dinner. Oh boy, I wish we still lived in a house with a bath...

4. What do you consider the best application of whipped cream to be?

Chocolate dessert cakes. Sorry Rosie, nothing comes close.

5. Oh-God-No, Biff, the yacht is sinking! You are sent to the galley to retrieve the food. What luxury food items do you snatch first? The champagne? The caviar? Smoked Salmon? Truffles? Chocolate? Or something else?

Blue cheese! Brie! All the cheese! I'd make a terrible vegan. (Sorry, Lindsay)

So there you have it folks. More than you ever wished to know about me and food. Now the fun begins. I'm supposed to dob in 5 more bloggers to share the love. All you need to do is answer the questions, link to Rosie's original post, and link to the evil person that dobbed you in. Here we go:

1. Lucy, at Nourish Me. I just found her blog and I love it.

2. Red Dirt Mummy.

3. Beck at Frog and Toad are Still Friends.

4. Anna at Morsels and Musings.

5. Silvermoon Dragon at Dragon Musings.

Menu Plan Monday - March 11

I am sitting in my house with every single window open, listening to thunder bounce around. I love storms! This one hasn't rained much yet. I told my boss it won't rain much because I haven't got any clothes on the line. But I think I can smell it coming.
Anyway, I hope the weather is all good at your house, whatever that means for you. I'm trying out some new-to-me vegetarian recipes this week. I'll keep you posted!

Hamburgers
Chickpeas with macaroni, and green beans
Baked Eggs on vegetables
Sweet and sour fish on rice
Chicken and chilli pasta

Happy Monday!
(ok, so i know it's tuesday already, but we went bush on Monday and didn't cook a thing. i took a blog holiday with my work holiday)

Tupperware Biscuits

Not actually, you know, made of tupperware. I found this recipe lurking down the back of a tupperware brochure called 'Healthy Lunch Choices'. I admit it. I had a tupperware party. My second! Nobody every asked me to host one, or even invited me to one before I got married. I'm beginning to think of tupperware as a late symptom of a wedding. You know, somewhere between the honeymoon and the children.
Anyhoo... the recipe is actually pretty good. Reminiscent of Anzac biscuits, but a lot more interesting.
Nutty Oat Biscuits
1 Cup plain wholemeal flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 Cups rolled oats
1/3 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup chopped walnuts
2 1/2 Tbsp pepitas
2 Tbsp sunflower seed kernels
4 tsp sesame seeds
100g olive oil
1/4 Cup golden syrup
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Preheat the oven to 160 C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper.
Sift the flour and cinnamon together, returning any husks to the flour. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients.
Combine the margarine, golden syrup and water in a small saucepan. Warm gently over a medium heat until the margarine melts. Remove from the heat and stir in the bicarb. Add immediately to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
With damp hands, roll into walnut sized balls and place about 5cm apart on the trays. Flatten each ball and bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Keep on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Duck Laksa: A one-dish dinner

What's for Lunch Honey is hosting the monthly mingle - and the theme is one-dish dinners. I had a couple of things I thought about contributing, but I settled on Duck Laksa.

According to wikipedia, a laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore. I didn't know that, but for me a duck laksa from Dickson Noodle house is the best cheap feed in Canberra. For around $10, you get a bowl of noodles, tofu, veggies, soup and the protein of your choice. It's fresh and spicy and huge! It really is the ultimate one-dish dinner. It's not short on calories, but you can tailor it to just about any dietary requirement. Here's my take on the Dickson classic.

Duck Laksa

2 Tbsp laksa paste (but any curry paste will do)

2 cups chopped vegetables (beans, bok choy, beansprouts and carrot are all good)

1 can coconut milk (if you're watching your calories, you can limit this to 1/4 cup)

2 Cups chicken stock

2 serves of vermicelli noodles, soaked for 2 minutes in boiling water

1/2 the meat from a peking duck, off the bone and shredded

Heat the laksa paste in a pan until fragrant. Add any hard vegetables and stirfry until coated. Add the stock and coconut milk, and bring to the boil. Add any leafy vegetables and bean sprouts, and cook only until wilted. Drain the noodles and add them to the wok. Add the duck and heat through.

Serve with sliced fresh chilli, coriander and more fresh beansprouts.

Menu Plan Monday - March 4

Is it really today already?
I was working all weekend. And when I was finally finished, I made cake. So I want to blog about that, and the stew we had for dinner, and salads with eggs - but I haven't really been blogging that much lately.
Anyway, here's the list for this week. I'll try and be a bit more proactive. Especially with cake.

Crunchy salad with eggs
Sweet and sour fish
Chorizo and garbanzo hot pot (Ryan's choice)
Red rice
Braised beef with red wine, and herby dumplings

Happy Monday!

Menu Plan Monday - February 26

It may be Tuesday already. But never mind, the food looks good this week.

Chicken and pumpkin risotto
Lasagne (from the freezer)
Chicken couscous salad
Thai steamed fish
Beef curry and dhal
Chicken noodle soup

Have a good week!

Peking Duck Salad. Sort of.

Even really good blokes occasionally have shopping glitches. It's something to do with how boys are programmed, I think. But this may not be entirely Ryan's fault:
Act 1:

Setting - Chinese Barbecue Place
Ryan (pointing at hanging Duck): Can I get a barbecue duck, please.

Counter person: A duck?

Ryan: Yes, a duck.

Counter person stuffs something in a bag. Ryan pays, takes bag and leaves.

Act 2:

Setting - kazari's tiny orange kitchen

Ryan(handing over shopping bag): Here's the duck.

Kazari opens bag and starts dismembering.

Kazari: This doesn't look very duck-like. The meat isn't very dark, and it's kind of the wrong shape...

Ryan: Let me look at that. Oh. I think it's a chicken.

Anyway, this was a great looking recipe in 'the seasonal produce diary', for a duck salad. I made it with chicken, and it was awesome. But next time I hope to make it with duck.

salad of peking duck with chilli, coriander and mint

1/2 Chinese cabbage, shredded

a handful of bean sprouts

4 spring onions, sliced

1/2 cup roasted cashews

2 small red chillies, sliced

1 cup corander leaves

1/2 cup Vietnamese mint

all the meat removed from 1 Peking duck.

Dressing

2 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp lime juice.

Does this really need instructions? Mix everything together in a big bowl, and share.

Many thanks to the lovely J, who gave me the diary for Christmas.

Valentines Day Cheesecake

I was having a grumpy Valentine's Day, because my Valentine was away all week. So I planned a great dinner for us for Friday night. Some nice nibbles, lamb shanks with lemon and thyme and green beans, followed by individual berry cheese cakes for dessert.

The berry cheese cakes were inspired by some leftover berry syrup in the freezer. I wanted to make something pink for Valentine's Day, and this seemed perfect. It also seemed like a good fit for this week's romantic Leftover Tuesday!

Your basic mini-cheesecake recipe goes like this:

Cream 1 packet cream cheese with two eggs and some sugar. . Make a base out of biscuit crumbs and butter (or slices of cake, or vanilla wafers). Put base on the bottom of your greased patty tins, and top with cheesy stuff. Bake in oven at 170 for 10 minutes, then allow to cool before removing from pans. Easy.

I creamed all the first stuff, and then decided to split the mix. In the first half I added a good slosh of Baileys and a quarter cup of brown sugar. In the second, I added two tablespoons of icing sugar and half a cup of the berry syrup. I think it was a bit too much syrup, because the mix was very runny, and pieces of the biscuit base floated to the top.

In the end, they weren't very pretty, but they tasted very, very good. And to top it off, just as I pulled them out of the oven - Ryan arrived! A whole day early!

I hope you had a good Valentine's day too.

Menu Plan Monday - February 18

I've got lots of great recipes to cook this week. I'm trying to stock the freezer with more lunches, so that requires some bigger batch cooking. Here's the list:
- roast chicken and veggies
- mini-quiches - picnic at tropfest
- home-made pizza (chicken and ham and pineapple, probably)
- veggie lasagne (i have to post this recipe, it's awesome)
- chicken and sweet potato salad
- beef curry and dhal
- laksa


Hope you have a great week ahead of you : )

Roast Pumpkin Soup Redux

I've posted this basic recipe before, but it's the kind of week where I desperately need comfort food. It's also a great recipe to mess with, so this version it has less pumpkin and lots of carrots.

I apologise for the photo - the resident photographer is in Darwin. After I took the photo, I remembered about Lisa's No Croutons Required event. I thought it fit quite nicely.

Roast Pumpkin Soup with Garlic and Rosemary

Half a butternut pumpkin

4 carrots

2 cloves of garlic

1 brown onion

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 litre vegetable stock

Chop and peel everything but the stock. Combine on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, and bake in a hot oven for 45 minutes. The vegetables have to be really soft. Put everything in a saucepan, whizz with the hand blender, and heat through. I like serving this with a big dollop of sour cream.

Menu Plan Monday - February 4

After lots of experiments last week, we are sticking to tried and true:

Aussie Meat Pie
Veggie Couscous
Fish Parcels
Vegetarian Curries

And my brother is coming to visit, so we are going out for dinner!

Happy Monday : )

Fish Pie

It turns out that my friend's photo server is moving house. So this blog will be without illustrations for a while. Maybe this is a good excuse for some of those really un-photogenic recipes...
I thought Fish Pie was brilliant comfort food, and so does Jamie Oliver, but going from the weird looks I got at work, maybe not everyone agrees. I'm going to post my simple recipe, but feel free to go all Jamie if you'd like something fancier. I'd happily eat this every week.
Fish Pie
Poach, steam or microwave some firm, white fish - I used left-over barbecued snapper, but anything will do. Then make a white sauce (with skim milk, if you're being good). Finely chop some colourful veggies (carrot, red capsicum and peas, are a good combination). Flake the fish with a fork, and stir all the fish and veggies into the white sauce. Divide the sauce between oven proof ramekins, and top with puff pastry. Cook in a 180 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, or until the pastry is properly puffed.
Serve with green beans.

Technologically Challenged

I have spent the last week cursing and grumbling at my photo uploading software - only to realise that it's the website that HOSTS my photos that is broken. Doh!
So there are no pretty pictures on my blog. And I've been a bit distracted from posting anything else...
Anyway, I should have it figured out soon.
Just thought I'd let you know : )

Menu Plan Monday - January 28

I hope your weekend has been fun. Ryan and I did the best sort of Australia Day things - a big barbecue with friends, and a trip down the coast. I'm branching out with the food this week, and trying a couple of new things, so here's the list:
Quiche
Duck Laksa
Fish parcels on the barbecue
Asian Duck Salad
Roast chicken with veggies
Fish Pie

Happy Monday!

Blogging Weirdness

I love google analytics. If you blog, you really need to play with this. It tells you fun stuff like, 53 people visited my blog yesterday, 61% for the first time. It has a neat map so you can tell, generally, where in the world they came from. And, if you found my blog via google, it will tell me what you searched for. Thats how I know that somebody, yesterday, searched for:
porridge microwave lumpy gooey mess
and my blog was the first thing on the list.

I love google analytics.

Food for thought: Chilli Mussels

This is a bit different. I've written it for the skinny gourmet, and her food for thought event. I'd like to cook these and take a picture to show you, but I'm missing a few key ingredients. Mostly, I'm missing a sunny Sunday afternoon, the great brown Swan River estuary, and a bunch of Freo drinking buddies. They are all still around - just far, far away.

First you need a hot, dry Fremantle afternoon. A salty sea breeze would help, but the tang of a sheep ship in harbour is strictly optional. The best way to get the mussels is to jump off the jetty at East Fremantle Scout hall with a snorkel and a diving bag. Oh, and a heap of friends. The water is around three metres deep, tannic and briny. The depth is helpful - you don't want to pull any mussels off the top third, in case they've been left high and dry by the tide. And the bottom third are also unadvisable, because any persistent pollutants will linger in the mud below. The mussels grow thick on the pylons, and it isn't hard to gather enough for a feed.
The next step requires a friend with a backyard and a barbecue. Sit in the backyard and pick over the booty. It doesn't require a lot of concentration - just discard any tiny mussels, or broken ones, and trim off their beards. Beer helps this process, and it goes quicker when there's a few willing hands. The beer of course, is Little Creatures.
Finally, you need to turn on the barbecue and find a stockpot. You could cook this in the kitchen, but it would stink out the whole house. Also, this is boy food. The barbecue is better. Maybe a third of a bottle of white wine goes in the stockpot, along with some chilli and ginger. Always a lot of chilli. When it's nearly boiling, the mussels go in and the lid goes on - you only need to steam them for two or three minutes. Tip them out in huge bowls and pour over hot tomato puree and fresh parsley. There might be chips, if anyone can be convinced to drive to the fish and chip shop. But otherwise, eat with crusty bread, much mess, and more beer.
The afternoon slides into evening - maybe it's cooler. Either way, there's more to drink, and too many mussels to finish. Whoever manned the barbecue will be telling the rest to eat up - half annoyed that his labour is going to waste. But everybody is full and lazy, and the mussels will still be good for sandwiches tomorrow.
And nobody is in any hurry.

Menu Plan Monday - January 21

Monday has rolled around again, and this time it's a bit on the chilly side. We are using up leftovers from our big entertaining weekend, so here's the list:
- baby octopus marinara pasta
- white bean stew
- chilli on spuds
- vegetarian minestrone (from the freezer)
- a big chunky salad
- a curry night with friends
And I've bought a heap of salad veggies to keep up with my good-health-a-thon goals.

Happy Monday!

Vegetarian Chilli Recipe

This is another Destitute Gourmet recipe. I made it yesterday (for nachos) and we had the leftovers in wraps today - and both times it disappeared too quick for photos!
Sophie Gray calls it "smart chilli", and I think she's right. It's spicy, rich, heart-healthy, vegan, quick, cheap, full of vegetable-goodness...
The original recipe is only dinner for two - to stretch it, add some mince with the onions, or another can of beans (or both).
Smart Chilli
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chilli powder
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 Cup tomato paste
2 tsp sugar or 1 tsp molasses
1/2 C hot water
squeeze of lemon juic
pepper
1 can of kidney beans (or 1 1/2 Cups cooked beans)

Saute the onions and garlic in oil until soft, then stir in the spices. Mix together the soy sauce, hot water, sugar or molasses and tomato paste. Add to the onion and spices, squeeze in the lemon juice and season with black pepper. Process half the beans to a puree (I just mashed with a fork) and mix all beans into the other ingredients. Serve as nachos, on baked potatoes or toast, or with rice.

Menu Plan Monday - January 14

Still trying to keep the menu high on salad, and low on fat. Bring on the vegetables! I wanted to buy a barbecued chicken at the supermarket, but they were all gone. I had to settle for some discount mince instead. Here's the list:

Turkey chops with salad and potatoes
Nachos (ok, we can't be healthy all the time)
Wraps with left over nacho sauce
Chunky salad with ham and eggs
Laksa
People over for a barbecue! There will be sangria and salad and garlic bread - and a big fish! Maybe.

Happy Monday

Frugal Food Tip: Fish in the Freezer

As part of my healthy new year, I'd like to be eating more fish. We're all supposed to, aren't we? Except, you should try not to buy big predator fish, because of the mercury. And you should avoid farmed fish, because it's fattier, and unsustainable. Beware of contributing to fishery collapse by following the Green Peace 'sustainable fisheries' guide. Make sure you choose 'Dolphin Safe' tuna, but then, Ryan doesn't like any fish in tins anyway...
It's all too freakin' hard!
Even if you find the perfect, mercury and dolphin free salmon steaks, from wild Alaskan salmon... there's my food budget for the week!

I give up. I've been buying my fish in the freezer section of Aldi and Supabarn. There's a couple of different brands, but basically, I can buy a 1kg bag of firm white fish fillets for around $10. Easy, cheap, versatile and (heavy metal poisoning aside) I'm doing the right thing for my health.

Tonight we had chilli and basil stirfry, with steamed fish. It was good.

We all scream...

for icecream! Well, orange sorbet. Last night was our first experiment. We pulled the bowl out out of the freezer, attached the lid and set it going. We watched with anticipation as Ryan poured in the mix. I got a bit distracted and forgot about it, while it went around and around and around...
Then it beeped! It was done!
With much excitement, we removed the lid - only to find it was all just sludge. We attempted to re-start the machine, to no avail. We ate some sludge, which was too sweet and very disappointing. Finally, we put it back in the freezer. But it turns out that was the secret. Tonight, we have honest-to-goodness orange sorbet!
Stay tuned for many more icrecream experiments to come : )

Menu Plan Monday - January 7

Happy Monday! Well, actually, not so happy for me. I went to a funeral for a work friend, it was shockingly untimely and very, very sad. Between that and the heat, I don't feel much like eating, although I'm sure I'll make room for icecream.
But this is a new year, and with good health, and healthy living very much on my mind, here's the plan for the week:
Salad and left over tempeh
Smart (vegetarian) chilli, on sweet potato
Fish and more salad and couscous
Sweet potato pasta with spinach and feta
Basil Chilli Chicken stirfry. (actually, we already ate the chicken, so it might have to be broccoli stirfry. sorry ryan)
Whatever the last frozen veggie meal is lurking at the back of the freezer.

Hope your week started better than mine.

Shiny new Christmas toy!

My parents have decided to sponsor a new toy in our house. An icecream maker!

We have never had one before. It is already preparing itself for Orange Sorbet, and I'm very excited about it. I have decided to avoid thinking about potential effect on my waistline, and concentrate on the idea of having an Icecream Sundae Party. All in capitals, just like that.

This is not a diet!

Tis the season for resolutions, weightloss plans and left over ham. I had a great holiday with snorkelling, sand, small cousins, champagne and very good fruit cake. One day I am going to beg Melva for her award-winning recipe, but right now my heart is set on lighter things.
It's not about the extra kilo's that snuck up in December. It may be about the absurdity of plum pudding and roast meats on a 40 degree day. It's mostly that after a month of chaotic good cheer, I am home, and my heart is craving routine and my tummy just wants salad.

I am joining the BlogHer 2008 Good Health-a-thon!
I have two big goals:
- I will be in my healthy weight range by the end of April (this means losing 6 kg)
- I will catch up on all the check-ups that have fallen by the way side, by July

For January I have some baby-steps:
- avoid all the sweet stuff hiding in the office kitchen (it's all junk I don't really like anyway)
- make body appropriate meals. This means Ryan the crazy cyclists gets carbs on the side with every meal, and I get enough vegetables on my plate so I don't want the carbs
- make an appointment to get my eyes checked. thankyou, little sister, for helping me discover that my eyesight is not what it was.

Don't worry! The dessert recipes won't disappear, and I won't start harping on about Atkins. But I'm going to turn up to a few more cardio classes at the gym. And maybe (no promises) get out my pushbike...

Simple Pasta Recipe

Merry Christmas everybody!

We have been hiking in New Zealand for the two weeks, so I am tanned and strong. A little pudgy perhaps, from being fed by Ryans' relatives, and our wonderful hiking guides.
Anyway, VeggieLove put a comment on my last post about simple pasta recipes. Thanks for the comment! I appreciate them all, but I especially enjoy the ones that lead to conversation.

For me, simple pasta goes something like this:
Put the water on to boil.
Get out the small frying pan, add a tablespoon of olive oil and let it heat gently.
Chop up some onion and garlic.
Throw it all in the frying pan, and stir until the onion is soft.
Add a tin of diced tomatoes, and a tablespoon of tomato paste.
Add a teaspoon of stock powder, and about a third of a cup of water.
If I'm adding dried herbs, I'd add them now. (basil and oregano, usually)
Let it simmer for a bit. (Usually the water has boiled by now, and the pasta is cooking)
If I'm adding fresh basil, I'd stir it through once I've taken the sauce off the heat.
When the pasta is cooked and drained, serve with the sauce, and fresh grated parmesan.

That's it, but the options are pretty open. You could add any chopped vegetables with the onion. Ham, bacon or salami can also go in then. For more depth of flavour for vegetarians, you could rehydrate some shitake mushrooms, and add both the water and the mushrooms (finely chopped). You can play with different herbs (coriander or rosemary are nice for a change) or different sorts of stock. If you have cooked chicken, you can shred it, and add it while the sauce is simmering. And toasted pine nuts are a fancy kick if you have some.

I think most good pasta recipes are simple. One or two strong flavours, plus some nice cheese, and everyone's happy.
Bon Apetite!

Menu Plan Monday - November 26

Only 3 meals to plan this week! Actually, after a big weekend, I'm kinda glad..

Clear the fridge pizza
Fish parcels and roast veggies
Simple pasta

Happy Monday! Hope the election (or at least Australian Idol) went your way.

I Pod! Cooking Broad Beans

OK, the title was a gratuitous pun. But I really did pod half a kilo of broad beans. In my new tradition of trying weird and wonderful veggies from the farmers market, I bought a whole heap of the lumpy pods. I'd never tried cooking them before, and I've probably only eaten them once or twice.

After some brief internet research, I discovered that they needed to be podded, blanched and then possibly shelled. Which was a soothing activity to do in the early evening.

I ended up with surprisingly small pile of beans. I only peeled the big ones - partly because that was what the instructions said, and partly because I am lazy. Limes and Lycopene had some useful info. In the end, I blanched some flat beans, and steamed some asparagus, and called the whole thing salad. Dressed with extra virgin olive oil, cracked pepper and lemon juice, it was a nice dish that said 'Yay for summer!'

Raclette: Fun with cheese

I bet you don't know what raclette is! I think of myself as a confirmed foodie, but when a BIG package arrived from the post office, I had no idea what it was. It looked a little bit like a tiny barbecue, and in fact, Ryan was excited at the idea of barbecue accessories. (boys are weird. who knew barbecues could have accessories??)
For an official definition, with explanatory pictures, look here. Ours came from Raclette Australia, and was a wedding present from my sisters. Thanks ladies!

I think our friend Aaron described it best. He said 'You mean a cross between fondue and teppanyaki?"

It's an electric grill that sits in the middle of the table, and everybody can cook things on top. Meanwhile, there are individual pans underneath, in which you can melt cheese and other goodies.

We didn't wait long to try it out, with a little help from our friends. This is the before picture, with all the yummy things we wanted to grill and melt.

It's traditional to pour your melted cheesy goodness onto roasted potatoes.
We ate a lot of potatoes.

Menu Plan Monday - November 19

After a slight hiatus caused by too many dinners out, and too many trips for work, Menu Plan Monday is back! So with no further ado:
- Stuffed Capsicums
- Veggie Tofu Curry
- Quiche
- Spicy salami pasta
- Broad Bean soup

Happy Monday!

Butter Chicken Soup

This is my entry for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. It's hosted by $40 a week this time, which also makes a great theme. I haven't been cooking much lately, but I knew immediately which cookbook I needed to dust off.

Ryan gave me Everyday Smart Food for the Family for my birthday last year. Like all the Destitute Gourmet books, it's about really clever food that's affordable. It doesn't have as many pictures as I like, so I don't turn to it often for inspiration. However, every single recipe I've tried has been a winner. This challenge had me trying a few new ones, like veggie samosas - but this soup was the winner. It's spectacularly good, has a very authentic flavour, and is rich without being heavy. I may have been over-generous with the chilli though. Our chilli powder is very hot.

Butter Chicken Soup

Marinade

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed

Soup

1 large, boneless chicken breast (or equivalent weight of boneless thigh meat) marinated

1 Tbsp butter

1 finely chopped onion

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 Can tomatoes, chopped without losing the juice

3 Cups chicken stock

1/4 C basmati rice

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 Tbsp plain flour

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup cream

Natural yoghurt and fresh coriander to garnish

Combine the marinade ingredients in a glass bowl. Cut the meat into small pieces or slice thinly and mix into the marinade. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

To make the soup, melt the butter in a medium suacepan and add marinated chicken and chopped onion. Stir constantly until chicken is sealed and the onion is soft. Add the dried spices and ginger, then stir in the tomatoes and chicken stock.

When simmering pour in the basmati rice, stir, and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix together the tomato paste and flour and whisk this, a little at a time, into the soup. Add the brown sugar and cream, and season to taste. Serve in soup bowls with a dollop of natural yoghurt and some chopped fresh coriander. Provide torn-up naan bread for dunking.

Emergency Entertaining: Cous Cous Salad

We have reached barbecue season! And because we are those sort of people, Ryan asked a friend over for dinner with about half an hour's notice.

I wasn't fussed (Ryan cleaned up). I had a big pack of sausages, enough crispy things for a simple green salad, and everything I needed to make couscous salad. Ryan went to the shops for beer (and crusty bread). Lovely home made cake was brought by lovely friend. I think our entire dinner cost about $5 a head. And it was easy and happy and fun.

Potato salad would have been too slow. So here's my recipe for couscous salad.

Cous Cous Salad

Boil the kettle. Put 3/4 cup of couscous in a heat proof bowl, and start adding fun stuff. For me that was a couple of tablespoons each of sultanas and sunflower seeds, half a finely diced red onion and some minced parsley. Any sort of green onion would have done - and any sort of nut or seed (I like the crunch). Coriander would have been better than parsley, but any fresh herbs are nice. Then flavour (I used a teaspoon of vegeta stock and a good shake of harissa herbs). Mix it all together, and pour over about a cup of boiling water. Let sit. When it's cooled and the water is all absorbed, fluff with a fork.

Yum

Menuplan Monday - October 30

Oops! Not quite sure what happened to yesterday's post. But here it is anyway.

This week I'm taking inspiration from $40 a week, who is hosting November's Weekend Cookbook Challenge. I'll do my proper entry at the end of the week, but here's my menuplan for the week!

- spinach and tomato pasta (left over spinach)
- vegetarian chilli with pita chips
- home made pizza (ham and pineapple, and chicken barbecue)
- butter chicken soup (from Destitute Gourmet's Everyday smart food for the family)
- seared fish with sweet and sour glaze (also Destitute Gourmet)
- dhal and samosas (samosas from the same cookbook)

I'll try to keep track of what I spend - so far it's only been $15.
Happy Tuesday!

Freezer food: meals when you don't want to think

Life's been full of hiking and dancing and climbing lately. It's pesky trying to fit it all around work. And it's even more annoying when it cuts into my cooking time. For the nights when there simply is no time for cooking, I've been exploring other avenues.
One thing that looked really promising was the Mega Menu Mailers from savingdinner.com. I had bought the Vegetarian MegaMailer for my friend Special K (she had a new, very early, baby boy), but we never ended up cooking it. Now I dug it up and had a second look. I only have two shelves of freezer space, and the mailer makes 20 meals for 4. I decided to pick 10 - 4 serves would mean left overs for lunches.
The plan
First I had to choose my meals. Then I had to cut down the shopping list to the relevant ingredients.
Issue 1. Americans have some weird ingredients - I don't know what vegetarian sausage is, or peach preserves. And I've never seen frozen spinach.
Issue 2. Converting from imperial to metric is a major pain.
That took about an hour.
The Shop
It came to around $100, which isn't too bad for 10 dinners and 10 lunches. I did a lot of traipsing back and forth, looking for things I don't normally buy.
Issue 3. Processed soy products (like veggie patties and soy sausages) are not cheap!
Issue 4. I'm totally confused about ounces and liquid ounces, and shouldn't try to guess what those quantities could be in grams. The chop
Ryan left me on Saturday morning to prep all the ingredients. It took about 2 hours - a lot longer than I thought.
Issue 5. Chopping around 6 cups of onion is not fun.

Assembly
This was probably the easiest bit. The instructions were very clear, and there was no cooking involved.
Issue 6. Having to eat all the icecream to make room in the freezer.
The result
I ended up with:
Teriyaki Broccoli Mushrooms
Crock Bean and Veggie Soup
Veggie Italian Casserole *
Dijon Rosemary Patties *
Green Chili and Cheese frittata
Roast Vegetables and Beans
Veggie lasagna *
Barbecue Confetti Pasta *
Cashew Tempeh
Baked Dill Tofu on Rice

We've tried the ones with stars so far. They were pretty good! Especially the lasagna. I'll probably tweak them a bit in the future, but they are all great meals at the end of a long day.

I don't think I'll ever go completely 'Once a Month', but this has been a great fall back. And Saving Dinner was a great starting point - even if they do have weird ingredients.

Menu Plan Monday - October 22

This week's very simple - it's mostly just me at home:

Italian-style vegetarian casserole
Chicken Tikka
Beef and red wine stew
Creamy spinach pasta
Chunky salad
Sausage sizzle

Happy Monday!

Mushroom Quiche: or how to find calm on a week night

Every so often, life gets crazy and we stop enjoying making dinner. We still cook to eat, but it's the fast, uninspired stuff that gets you through the week. When cooking stops being fun, and starts being a chore, I know my life could use a little more balance.

I decided to make quiche. Not the fast, low-fat, freezer pastry version. The sort that requires blind baking and butter and - well, time. I skipped the gym. I got out my new flan pan - I hadn't even christened it since Ryan bought it for me. I put on the radio instead of the TV, and I didn't even look at my computer.

Pastry Making requires my Women's Weekly Basic Cooking book. I substituted wholemeal flour, but otherwise didn't mess with the experts. I rested the dough in the freezer. I chopped leeks and mushrooms and grated cheese. I rolled and blind baked the crust. I whisked eggs and sour cream.

I poured myself a glass of wine.

I assembled the quiche, and had to add another egg and some milk to completely cover the veggies. While it was cooking, I boiled some potatoes and zapped the beans. The whole thing was ready 10 minutes before Ryan walked in the door at quarter to ten.

He asked me what I'd done with my evening.

"Nothing," I said. "Just dinner."

Mushroom Quiche

1 Cup wholemeal flour (plain)

90g butter

3 eggs (one separated)

lemon juice (as needed)

60g grated parmesan cheese

1 green onion, finely chopped

3/4 Cup finely sliced leek

1 Cup finely sliced mushroom

1/2 Cup sour cream

Sift the flour and rub in the butter. Add 1 egg yolk, and enough lemon juice to make the dough cling together when pressed (I didn't need any juice)

Knead the pastry until smooth, then wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll the pastry thin enough to cover your flan tin. Carefully lift the pastry into the tin and push into the edges. Cover with greaseproof paper, place dried beans or rice on the paper, and bake at 180 degrees for 7 minutes. Remove the beans and bake for another 7 minutes. Let the pastry cool to room temperature.

Cover the pastry base with the cheese, then arrange onion, leek and mushooms on top. Combine eggs and cream including the leftover egg white; beat until combined. Pour over the veggies. Bake until set and browned lightly (about 20 minutes).

Food and environment: things you can do

I'm writing this post as part of Blog Action Day - I love the idea of mass action for a cause, even if the cause is as broad as 'the environment'. I hope you enjoy it!

How we choose to eat has a big impact on the environment. If you find a nifty online calculator, and find your ecological footprint, food makes up a big component. Growing, processing and transporting food uses land, energy, water and often nasty chemicals. It produces landfill, water polution and carbon emmissions, and can contribute to shrinking biodiversity. Not that I'm a saint. I calculated my ecological footprint today, and depending which calculator I used, we would need between 2.2 and 5.6 earths to support the whole world living like me.
For an example of how to live within our global means, check out Linda Cockburn and family, here. I think they are awesome. But until my landlord lets me keep a goat, or installs a composting toilet, here are some greener eating habits we can all attempt:

Buy less processed food. Seriously, the less energy that goes into creating your snack, the better. And probably the better for you, too.
Buy less packaged food. I'm not sure about you, but most of what goes in our rubbish bin is the packaging for things we bought at the grocery store. We paid for our rubbish? That bites. And it cost energy, water and pollution to create.
Buy organic. Meh. This is my least favourite tip. The jury is still out on whether organic is better for you, even if it means it's been grown sustainably. Plus, if you bought it at the supermarket, it probably had more packaging, and travelled further, than the non-organic stuff sitting next to it. But still - certified organic means grown according to sustainable best practice. That counts. Just don't buy organic beef from the other side of the world to clear your concience.
Buy local. The less it travels, the less emissions. The less it changes hands, the better for your pocket. If you've got access to farmer's markets, like we do, you can get nearly organic and very local, with no packaging - an environmental bonanza! Besides, it's fun and tastes good.
Grow your own. All you need is a half a balcony, and you can grow your own tomatoes. Can it get more local? Generally, growing your own vegetable uses much less water than the market garden equivalent. In these drought-stricken times, that's a plus.
Eat less animal products. This is the biggie. If you're already a vegetarian, you are doing more than your fair share for the planet. The difference in resources used to create a kilogram of beef and a kilogram of beans is astronomical. Just try adding one meat free meal to your week. It's better for you, better for your pocket, and better for the planet.

Menu Plan Monday - October 8

Ryan is cooking pizza for dinner as we speak. We shall be away from Friday, so the menu plan is very short this week:
Homemade Pizza
Quiche
Barbecue Confetti Pasta (courtesy of Leanne Ely, but I'll write about that later)

Happy Monday!

Favourite Foodie Friends

This list fluctuates, of course, but here are some of the blogs I turn to for inspiration. So much yummy food, so little time!

Ali-K at Melbourne Food Tales makes me jealous of restaurants I'll never get to.
Ellie at Kitchen Wench makes yummy biscuits and yummy photos.
Frugal Cuisine always has flashy things to do with one or two fresh ingredients. Now sharing street food adventures in China.
Cookie Crumb has a garden in San Francisco and has been bragging about eating local all Northern Summer. Which is fine because we are now about to get OUR summer, so I can steal all their recipes : )
Matt at Abstract Gourmet is fanatical about coffee, and takes beautiful photos, and lives in Perth. Best yet, he went to university with me, but I used to be shy so I'm sure he has no idea who I am.
JenJen at Milk and Cookies is one of the first Australian food bloggers I've found. She makes beautiful sweet things. And has beautiful, sweet photos to match.
Finally, Neil at At My Table, shares thoughts on food and wine and family. And occasionally mushrooms.

There's the Australian Food Bloggers Ring for further local inspiration.
And there's always Food Porn Watch!

Experimental Vegetables - okra

If I'm around (and out of bed) on Sunday mornings I like to go to the farmers market. But if I can't make it, I have the fresh food wholesaler's market in the next suburb. I am spoilt for choice when it comes to fruit and vegetables, but have you noticed that it's hard to past the tried and true?

Spring has sprung, and in both markets there are heaps of new and interesting things. There are jack fruit and custard apples and jerusalem artichokes, but I keep coming back to my regulars. Recently I have been challenging myself to get a new and different veggie every week. I have bought celeriac (boy, that's one ugly food), fresh tumeric (stains fingernails) and funny sorts of lettuce. This week, I chose okra.

I couldn't take a decent photo of them, so I've included Cyndi's.

I'd like to try her recipe one day, but this time I went for something a little less obtrusive, but still southern. I made gumbo!

My version was loosely based on this one on Epicure. But I messed with it a bit so here's my version. Authenticity be hanged.

Chicken and okra gumbo

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons plain flour

1 cup fresh okra, trimmed and sliced

1 1/2 cup chicken stock

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 skinless chicken breast, sliced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Stir the vegetable oil and flour in a large saucepan over high heat. When it's bubbly and dark brown, add the okra, stock and tomatoes. After 3 minutes, add the chicken and thyme, and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked.

How easy is that?

Menu Plan Monday - October 1!

Oh. It appears to be Monday again.
I'm feeling a bit blah about blogging at the moment. And cooking. I've been moody all morning, and sulked because I'm doing all the cooking and cleaning around here. I kinda forgot I like the cooking bit.
Part of the problem is walking. We are going tramping in New Zealand in December, so I have 8 weeks to get my walking fitness up, to actually enjoy it. That means a 5 mile walk, every other day. It really puts a dent in my cooking time, and blogging time. But I'm so scared of being the slowest, wheeziest person in our group. I have images of being overtaken by 90yr old grandmas with walking frames.
This weekend we did an overnight hike around the Orroral Valley. It's beautiful, sub-alpine bush, still regenerating from the 2003 bushfires. Bush-bashing up to Cotter Rocks made me realise I need more hills in my training walks. But we got there.
I am ashamed to add that Ryan was carrying 20 kg (tent, stove, food, most water), and my pack only weighed 8kg. I'm a wuss. And clearly an ungrateful wuss, because this is the same Ryan that put up with my narkiness this morning.
Anyway. The list:
A lamb roast cooked on our baby weber.
Chicken Soup
Burritos
Sort-of Salad Nicoise
Veggie Burgers
Frittata

Happy Monday everybody! I hope your's finds you with less blisters than I have : )

Menu Plan Monday - September 24

Every week lately, I look at the date and think "When did that happen?"
I'm enjoying the change of seasons, just not the feeling that the end of the year is looming.
This week's menu is full of easy things, because we seem to be busy, busy people:
Hamburgers
Beef curry and potato curry
Chunky salad with eggs and bacon
Smokey fish mornay
Veggie burgers (who says you can't have burgers twice in one week?)
Sweet potato salad with pine nuts.

Happy Monday!

A very foodie Sunday...

This morning I woke up too-early for a Sunday, and Ryan and I headed to the farmers market. The salad has arrived! We had a choice of several sorts of chemical-free lettuce, and some 'French Wild Rocket', which I bought. We also got broccolini, tomatoes, sweet potato... I'm not sure what else, but my bags were all full. Ryan bought some more eggs, too.
I spent the rest of the morning baking. I made banana bread, apricot bars and oaty muffins. I would have done Anzac Biscuits as well, but Ryan came home and we wanted to go bushwalking.
We didn't have quite the right map for the walk we wanted to do.
Instead, we stopped for an impromptu picnic.
On returning home early, we decided to see a movie - Ratatouille!
Then we had hamburgers for dinner, with banana bread for desert.

Sometimes, I wonder why I blog about food.
I think I just figured it out.

Simple, spicy, sweet potato soup

This recipe is great. It's quick, tasty, and you can substitute pumpkin or carrot for the sweet potato. You can also vary the flavour by experimenting with different stocks, different curry pastes or replacing the coconut milk.
It freezes well, too.
Spicy sweet potato soup
2 Tablespoons Curry paste of your choice (I used green this week)
1 kg sweet potato (or carrots, or pumpkin - parsnip maybe?)
1 L stock
1 can coconut milk (optional, or easily replaced by evaporated milk, normal milk or cream)

Heat the currypaste until fragrant, in a large saucepan. Add the stock and the sweet potato, and boil until the sweet potato is tender. Take the soup off the heat, and blenderise it until smooth (I use a hand blender in the pot, but whatever works). Add the coconut milk and heat through.
Yum.

Menu Plan Monday - September 17

This week is a bit haphazard, but there was lots of spring veggies at the market:
salad with feta and bacon
salad with asparagus and tuna
roast veggie extravaganza
sweet potato soup
beans on toast

happy monday!

Simple Rhubarb Tart

Ryan's been away for work, and the trip's been extended. So I have been sad, and mopey and sulking, and neglected both cooking and blogging. Tonight I got a little bit inspired again, and made this tart from Donna Hay's Instant Cook. I even made custard to go with it!
Ryan ran off with the camera, so I can't give you pictures. Sorry
Simple Rhubarb Tart
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Sprinkle 8 thin stalks of rhubarb with sugar, then roast on baking paper in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow them to cool.
Place a piece of frozen puff pastry on a baking-paper lined tray. Top with a mixture of 1 cup ricotta, 2 tablespoons icing sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Leave a border of about 1 cm.
Top with rhubarb and cook in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the filling is set.
Homemade Custard
2 eggs
3 tsp cornflour
3 C milk
3 tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
Whisk together the eggs, milk and cornflour in a saucepan. Put it over a low heat, and keep whisking until thick and creamy. Then add the sugar and vanilla and whisk through (if you add the sugar on the heat, it will stick to the bottom of the pan.
This makes a lot of custard. I'm not complaining or anything.

Menu Plan Monday - September 10

I think I'm gonna have to rename this blog '98 things to do with beetroot', since Ryan bought another bunch home this week. We did some experimenting over the weekend, so stay tuned for more beety goodness.
Chicken and celery casserole
Canneloni
Pasta with feta and beetroot (I wasn't kidding!!)
Sausages and stuff
Shepherds Pie

Happy Monday!

Purple Goodness - Beetroot Pizza

You may have noticed I have a thing for beetroot. When I see beautiful bunches of baby beetroot in the farmers' market, I can't help but buy. (I have a thing for alliteration, too.)

I thought I'd exhausted all beetroot possibilities (roasted, souped, dipped, burgered) before it occurred to me that I'd never put beets on a pizza.

It worked out really, really well.

Beetroot Pizza

Put four baby beetroots in the oven to roast for half an hour, or until they are tender. Make a batch of the best-ever pizza base. Roll out a quarter of it to make the beetroot pizza (I made salami and tomato with the others). Spread with natural yoghurt and sprink with harissa spice mix. Slice the beetroot, and top the pizza with beetroot, cheese and fresh coriander. Cook as normal.

(and don't tell ryan you used yoghurt for the sauce - not until after he's eaten it)

Menu Plan Monday - September 3

September? When did that happen?

This week's dinners:
Potato and Leek Soup
Lamb Chops and Celeriac Gratin
Roast Veggies
Burritos
Stirfry with broccoli and carrots
Baked Risotto
Arancini

Happy Monday!

Bircher Muesli - my easy-healthy breakfast

When I have yoghurt, I like to make bircher muesli.

Weekday breakfasts can be frantic around here. Bircher muesli is great because I prepare it the night before, and it's disgustingly healthy. Oats and yoghurt are both considered 'super foods', with more than their fair share of nutritional goodness. Cinnamon is thought to moderate blood-sugar levels, and sultanas have fibre and (I think) anti-oxidants. We'll just ignore the massive amount of honey that Ryan likes to add...

Kazari's Bircher Muesli
The night before: Grate an apple. Add about a cup of quick-oats, twice as much thick plain yoghurt, a handful of raisins or sultanas and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. Stir until all the oats are wet, and everything is well combined. Store in the fridge overnight, in a covered container. Try to choose a container with as little air as possible (I used glad wrap over a bowl, squished down to get the air out). It doesn't really matter, but it helps keep the apple from discolouring.
In the morning: Scoop out some muesli, slather with honey, and enjoy as much as you can before leaving for work.

Of course, the proportions in this are pretty arbitrary. As are the ingredients - any dried fruit works well, and you can substitue orange juice for the yoghurt if you really want to.

Chocolate Velvet Pie

Sometimes the old school recipes can't be beaten. I don't know where this one came from, except I saw it on Simple Savings. It is decadent and reminiscent of all those good things like chocolate self-saucing pudding.

I hope you like it.

Chocolate Velvet Pie

1/2 Cup plain flour

3 Tbs Cocoa

1 Cup shredded coconut

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Cream (I didn't say it was healthy!)

1 Cup Milk

4 eggs, lightly beaten

100g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and pour into a greased 25 cm pie dish. Bake for 1 hour, and let stand for at least 10 minutes before eating. Serve with cream or icecream.

Menu Plan Monday - August 27

Wow - last week was a busy blog week for me. Not that there's much to show for it! Evil, template-eating internet. Anyway, this week we are trying a couple of new recipes and a couple of old favourites.

Spaghetti and meatballs
Indian Mince and rice, with Tandoori Cauliflower
Chicken and veggies (beans and carrot)
Home made Pizza
Quiche
Gozleme
Vegan Mac & Cheese Florentine

Happy Monday!

Oops! Updated

I inadvertently updated my template - please bear with me while I tinker!

Edited to say:

While I tinker, you can check out Smokey Mountain Breakdown, where I've guest posted about Ryan's latest cookie discovery. Rosie posts about wildlife, goats and local culture as well as food. And her short-story posts are breathtaking.

The Fantastic Four - a meme

I have been neglecting this blog recently. But because I am a vain person (and nosy to boot) I still check my stats on technorati to see who is linking to me. And guess what? I got tagged with a meme! This is doubly exciting because I wasn't familiar with Something Yum, and now I have links to a whole heap of new UK bloggers. Yum : )
I don't know where it came from, but I thought I'd play along anyway. You will have to wait until tomorrow for my post about Chocolate Velvet Pie.
4 jobs I've had
Purveyor of Christmas trees
Front counter at an upmarket veggie shop called Epinards
Nanny
Marine Conservation Officer
4 places I've lived
Winnepeg, Canada
Grand Cayman
Perth, Western Australia
Canberra
That's pretty much the whole list...
4 places I've holidayed
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Tours, France
Margaret River, Western Australia
Budawang Ranges, New South Wales
4 favourite foods
Only four?
Cheese - blue, sharp, crumbly, soft and gooey - I don't care
Bircher muesli - I still remember being surprised by my first taste of this. It looked so boring!
Mussels - specifically, chilli mussels from Kailis in Fremantle. But I'm not fussy.
Dessert - whatever Ryan has decided to make.
4 places I'd rather be
Near the beach. Anywhere.
In the UK with my sisters
Villandry
Somewhere like Rosies farm, where there is goats and wilderness and running water
4 bloggers to tag
Well, I decided to pick 4 bloggers that I'd like to know more about. Kat was right, this is a bit nerve wracking!
Neil at At My Table
Traceyleigh at TLSC
Rosie at Smokey Mountain Breakdown
Mummy at Red Dirt Mummy

Anyway, I hope somebody finds this interesting, or at least click through to some of the other blogs. I always find them interesting!

Menu Plan Monday - August 20

This week I did the grocery shopping on Friday (how's that for organised!) but I completely forgot to plan a couple extra meals. So we have a few pantry meals as well.
Curry Night with friends (Spiced Green Beans and baby corn)
Roast Beef with veggies (I'm doing this in the slow-cooker - I hope it turns out!)
Chicken Nacho's (the last of the leftover Red Rooster chicken from the freezer)
Spaghetti with beef ragu (from the roast)
Enchiladas
Tandoori Chicken
Satay Meatballs
Gnocchi with tomato sauce

Happy Monday!

Gozleme Recipe

I have re-written this post a heap of times. I'm not sure why, but the gallery software I use is having a heart-attack over the photos. Then the internet connection would die, and it wouldn't save my edits... It's latest attempt to frustrate me involves rotating the photos 90 degrees when it uploads them. Gack!

Gozleme are Turkish flatbread that are stuffed with something good. Usually spinach and feta, although there are a heap of variations. I found a great recipe here. The dough is just flour and yoghurt, which is pretty healthy, and really frugal if you make it with home-made yoghurt. Once you've made the dough (which is soft and stretchy and very forgiving) you form it into pasty kind of shapes, and fill it with good things. In my case, that was leftover chilli con carne, and leftover vegetables and gravy from a Red Rooster Classic Roast pack. I'm not sure why I had that hiding at the back of my freezer, but never mind. Anyway, I thought the gozleme would be a great entry to Project Foodies' Leftover Tuesday #7.

Enjoy!

Too many vegetables - celery pasta

What would you do if you inadvertently bought two bunches of celery at the same time? This is what happens when Ryan and I go in separate directions at the farmers' market. I didn't mind too much though - I saw a briliant recipe on Frugal Cuisine (months ago) and remembered it just in time.

Basically, you sweat the celery for a little while, add chicken stock and set to simmer. When the celery is breaking down and the stock has reduced a bit, you add some stirfry noodles, and cook until ready. I couldn't find any stirfry noodles in the cupboard, so I added some bowtie pasta a little earlier.

It was good. I just wish I could take photos as well as Pepper.

Menu Plan Monday - August 13

I hope your week has started out ok. We didn't get to the veggie markets on the weekend, so this is a bit of a clean-out-the-cupboard week.
Stuffed capsicums
Red Rooster gozleme
Sausage rolls
Cous cous and canellini burgers
Chicken and chickpea curries

Happy Monday!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi for Donna Hay

I love Donna Hay recipes for the simplicity and the beautiful photos. I don't think gnocchi is either simple or particularly photogenic, but I love eating it. So when Linnylu chose gnocchi as the theme for Hay, Hay, it's Donna Day #14, I knew I was going to have a go.

I'd like to say I came up with a completely new and original recipe, but this stuff is difficult! I've had gnocchi disasters before. (Hint: If you're going to freeze 'raw' gnocchi for later, you probably want to flash freeze it. Or eat a lot of potato cakes.) I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage on epicurious, and proceeded to make an enourmous mess. I also made some cute little gnocchi's, that maybe aren't so ugly after all. The colour was great, but the best thing was the sage butter. Unfortunately I can't add the aroma to the photo for you!

Mushy Mushrooms

What on earth is that funny lumpy stuff? Well, according to the recipe I was following, it's Two-Mushroom Barley Soup. It's a slow cooker recipe from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. I really like the book - because I'm always on the hunt for slow cooker recipes that don't rely on a can of cream of mushroom soup. The range of recipes is really inspiring, as is the meatless factor. It even has instructions for making your own seitan (wheat protein), which I'm keen to try.

As for the mushy mushrooms, they turned out more like a barley risotto. Not that I'm complaining - it was still really tasty and had texture. If you've got a slow cooker, I'd definitely recommend it. I've written it up in metric, but the measurements were actually in ounces.

Two-Mushroom Barley Soup from 'Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker' by Robin Robertson
30g Dried mushrooms (I used shitake where the recipe recommends porcini)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (I'm not sure about yellow onions, I used a brown one)
1 large carrot, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped (I used a couple. I may explain later)
1 Cup pearl barley
225g white mushrooms, sliced
6 Cups vegetable stock (mine was homemade, also from the slow cooker)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons minced fresh chives (I didn't have any)
1. Place the dried mushrooms in a heatproof measuring cup and cover with hot water. Let sit until softened. Drain, straining and reserving 1/2 Cup of the liquid, thinly slice the mushrooms, and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a small skillet (frying pan, aussies) over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the cooked vegetables to the slow cooker. Add everything except the chives and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Taste to adjust seasonings before serving. If a thinner soup is desired, add more stock (I may have missed that bit).
4. Serve, garnished with the chives.

Crustless quiche - impossible pie

This is a new recipe from Australian Table Magazine. It's quick, tasty and good for you, but the reason I'm REALLY posting about it is eggs. We have started buying eggs at the Woden Farmers' Market. (They are on Sunday mornings at Woden CIT if you'd like to buy some yourself). These eggs are small, but so fresh! You can tell good eggs by the gooeyness of the whites (they get more runny over time) and the yellowness of the yolks.

This quiche turned out so yellow!

We've been eating these eggs for breakfast, and I'm amazed at how good they taste. I think they are definitely worthy of Alanna's icon, even if they aren't veggies.

"Impossible" Quiche

5 small eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 Cups skim milk

1 Cup fresh bread crumbs

1 Cup grated cheese (your favourite)

100g diced sandwich meat (I used roast beef)

1 brown onion, finely diced (green onions would be better, but I didn't have any)

1 Tablespoon dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Grease a pie plate.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and season to taste. Pour into pie dish and bake until golden and set (around 30 minutes). Bon Apetite!

Menu Plan Monday - August 6

Good grief, I can't believe it's August already. I can't believe I survived last week without a menu plan either. It was fine by myself, but when Ryan was back on the weekend we ate an awful lot of takeaway.
Anyway, it's a new week, with a bunch of new things to try. I bought a new cookbook, I'm going to put an entry into Hay, Hay, it's Donna Day. And there was some new and interesting vegetables at the farmers market.

• Sweet Potato Gnocchi
• Prawn Curry
• Lamb Chops with couscous and endive salad
• Sausage Rolls and more salad
• Stuffed Capsicums
• Two-mushroom and barley soup

The soup is in the slow cooker as we speak, and it smells pretty good.
Happy Monday!

Crispy Chickpeas

This is really simple. But these crispy roast chickpeas are a great snack. They also make a great addition to salad, or work as a garnish on top of curries. Tonight I ate half in a simple (really filling! salad), and I'm saving the rest to snack on during 'Las Vegas'.
Bon Apetite!
Crispy Chickpeas
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 Tablespoons olive oil
A generous amount of rock salt.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Mix everything together, until the chickpeas are coated. Then spread them out on a cookie tray, and roast for 20 minutes until crispy. Of course, you could add any herbs or flavourings you like. Check on them every so often, and shake the tray a bit so they roll around and cook evenly.

A five minute pasta dinner

I love making dinner just for me. I don't have to worry about anybody else's whims. But this is easily dinner for two - just increase the portions.

Smokey tuna tomato pasta

Cook enough wholemeal pasta for just you. Top it with one of those small, flavoured tuna tins - I love the smokey flavour. Cut up some cherry tomatoes, red capsicum, and any other veggies you like. Mix it all up, and zap it in the microwave for two or three minutes. Yum. This recipe works equally well for two people.

OK, I admit it isn't quite as quick if you have to cook the pasta. But I had a single serve already cooked and frozen in the freezer. I'd put it in the fridge last night.