Chickpea and spinach curry

The best thing about this recipe is that it is quick and relies on staples that are usually in my cupboard/fridge. The other thing is that it is mild and great for the kids.

splash of olive oil
1 red onion
3 cloves garlic finely sliced
2 teaspoons jar ginger
1 teaspoon of sambal olek
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 cup water
2 cans of chickpeas, drained
1 teaspoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
pepper
500gm cherry tomatoes
250gm frozen chopped spinach (thawed and juice squeezed out)
1 cup corn
1 cup of peas

In a large fry pan heat oil, when hot add the onion, garlic, ginger, sambal olek and salt. Cook until onions are soft. Add the chickpeas, corn, peas, water, cumin, turmeric and pepper and cook until the water evaporates. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Stir through the spinach.

Serve with plain yogurt.
Serves 4.

Options

• Reduce the amount of sambal olek if concerned about spiciness
• Use fresh green chili's (1 or 2) if available
• Omit corn and peas as they are not a traditional ingredient in this sort of dish (I only added them as they were in the fridge and demanding to be eaten, great excuse to get more vegies accidently into kids)

Broad bean fritters with lemon yoghurt

Tonight we had broad bean fritters. Now I am the first to admit I have never been a fan of broad beans, however this recipe has changed my mind. Would make an excellent entree.

500g frozen broad beans skinned
6 sprigs of coriander plus 6 for the yogurt dressing
sea salt
ground pepper
1 level teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of sambal olek
1 heaped teaspoon of gluten free plain flour (or ordinary plain flour)
zest and juice of one lemon
Vegetable oil for frying
125g natural yogurt
salad leaves

Pinch off skins of broad beans. Whizz the coriander, add salt and pepper, then add the spices, sambal olek, broad beans and lemon zest. Whizz until finely chopped - stopping to scrape the mixture off the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle in the flour and pulse a few more times.

Shape the mixture into small rounds, approximately 20, and drop into preheated oil. Cook until brown on the outside (1-2 minutes). Drain on kitchen paper and serve on washed salad greens.

To make the lemon yogurt dressing, finely chop another six sprigs of coriander and stir into the yogurt, add the juice of half the lemon and mix well. Dress the salad leaves with any left over lemon juice and a little olive oil.

Alternatives
Use mint instead of coriander in the yogurt.
Use a small fresh chili instead of the sambal olek
Make the fritters larger for more of a main meal option

Other recipes coming this month:

• Spinach and chickpea curry
• Ratatouille
• Thai pork balls
• Rice salad
• Asparagus souffle

Aunty A

Interesting Vegetarian Blog Site

I was searching today for a spinach and chickpea curry (now that the temperature is out of the 30's I have an urge to cook warm food!) for dinner tonight and for a dinner party next week. As I was searching I found this blog site:

From the Kitchen of a Captious Vegetarian

It is written by a woman called Rose who grew up in Texas, has lived in Canada and is moving to live in Germany as her husband Derek has a new job there.

I like how she writes and I like the variety of her recipes, check it out sometime. For those, like me, who wonder what Captious actually means, here is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defiinition

"marked by an often ill-natured inclination to stress faults and raise objections"

which I guess means that Rose is a critical vegetarian!!!

Aunty A

New year, new you?

If you are thinking about making 2008 a year when there is less of you around! then you might want to check out this link.

Here is to another year of wonderful recipes and cooking ideas.

Spicy Indian potato and spinach curry

800g potatoes, peeled, cut into 4cm pieces
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large brown onion, halved, cut into thin wedges
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes
150g spinach leaves
90 g sour cream
handful of cashews
2 tablespoon of chopped coriander

Cook the potato in the microwave for 12 minutes or until cooked firm
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic, garam masala and cumin and cook, stiring for one minute or until aromatic.
Stir in the tomato and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Stir in the potato, simmer for a further 5 minutes or until the potato is very tender.
Add the spinach and remove from the heat. Stir for 1-2 mintes or until the spinach just wilts. Season with pepper. Divide among serving bowls. Top with sour cream, cashews and corriander to serve.

MLR's creation

Here is what MLR put together for her tea the other day.
a new twist on scrambled egss and toast!!!

Rustic Italian Pie

12 slices of wholemeal gluten free bread (can use ordinary bread)
60g butter, melted
250g froxen spinach thwaed, drained and squeezed dry
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
250g tub smooth ricotta
200g feta crumbled
1/2 cup sour cream
5 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped oregano, plus extra sprigs to garnish
salad to serve.



Preheat oven to 180c or 160 fan forced
Lightly grease a 22cm spring form pan. Using a rolling pin, roll the bread flat, brush both sides with melted butter. Press firmly into the base and sides of pan, overlapping slightly. Bake for 15 minutes or until toasted.
Spread spinach in base of crust. Place onion, garlic, ricotta, feta , sour cream, and eggs in a large mixing bowl, season to tasted with salt and black pepper. Mix well. Carefully pour over spinach. Combine Parmesan and oregano, sprinkle over filling.
Bake for 40 minutes or until just set. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, loosen spring and remove. Sprinkle with oregano sprigs and serve with salad.

Caramalised Onion Dip

Here is a dip that is best made the day before it is needed.

2 large onions
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
4 ounces of cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream (room temperature)
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Cut the onions in half and then slice thickly
Heat the oil and butter in a large saute pan over a medium high heat.
Add the onions, cayenne salt and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook for 40 more minutes, stirring occasionally, but not too often, until the onions are browned and caramelized.

Add the Dijon mustard and the balsamic vinegar and continue to cook for about 10 more minutes. Allow the onions to cool.

In a whizz or blender combine the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise, blend until smooth, add all of the onions, reserving a tablespoon for garnish, blend again. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavours to develop.

Serve with crackers or chips.

Sorry no photo,

Cucumber and crab bites

4 medium Lebanese cucumbers
250g cream cheese
210g can of crab or red or pink salmon
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
dash of pepper

Wash cucumbers and slice 0.5 cm thick
Beat the cream cheese in a small bowl using electric beaters until it thick and creamy
Add the crab (or salmon), sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, herbs and pepper until well combined.
Place a teaspoonful of the cheese mixture on the cucumber rounds, serve.

Salmon and blue cheese quiche

Olive oil
1 onion chopped
100g of Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil
8 large eggs, beaten
250 ml creme fraiche
10 black olives freshly pitted and chopped
100g of salmon sliced (I used the 100g packets of salmon from Woolworths)
100g of blue cheese

Lightly grease a 26cm round ovenproof ceramic dish and preheat the oven to 150c

Drizzle a little olive oil into a frying pan over a high heat. Add the onion and sweat for 2-3 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Tip the onion into a large bowl to cool before adding the Parmesan and basil - stir through

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and the creme fraiche. Pour into the onion mixture, add the olives and mix well before adding the salmon. Stir gently.

Pour the egg mixture into the buttered dish. Sprinkle the blue cheese over the mixture, the cheese should float on top. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature and serve with a green salad.

Serves 4
Remove the salmon to make it really vegetarian.

Mushrooms

I found this resource on different types of mushrooms and thought I would share with you.

You could set yourself a goal to try each type of mushroom!

Let me know if you do, some of these mushies I have never heard of!!

Spinach Mushroom Salad

5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried sage
dash of pepper
250 mushrooms sliced in half or quarters if large
(I used swiss brown, but any firm mushroom will do)
1/2 pkt baby spinach

Combine the first 12 ingredients, mix well. Add mushrooms and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (I left it overnight). Just before serving, toss the spinach and mushroom mixture in a salad bowl.
Serves 6.

Sorry no photo

Balsamic Chicken

On checking my paper file for this recipe (checked here and under recipes in the word documents) I found this delightfully stained recipe below.

An easier to read version is below:

3/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tspn sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lemon squeezed
1/4 cup oil
chicken
pine nuts or slivered almonds
lettuce (or your favourite greens)
sundried tomatoes

Take first five ingredients and place in a jar and shake.

Cook chicken, add the pine nuts and fry briefly.

Assemble on a platter, and pour over the dressing and serve immediate.


This is one of the first recipes that I begged from Bron (who begged it from Kylie). It is easy and interesting to eat. Again no pictures, sorry.

Creative Gourmet

Finally something I am excited about and want to share.

While mooching along the frozen food aisle in my local Woolies the other day I came across some frozen pancakes!! Wow I thought, I will get those they will be fantastic. I have had them for some days now and today I decided to make a roulade of pancake, ricotta and pesto. Yummy, sorry no pictures.

I was looking at the box and noticed that not only are they good looking, easy to use, they are also GF!!! So watchout CJK.

For some recipes using these crepes check here.

Veggie Sausage Rolls

These are yum and easy too!

Ingredients
1 cup (250g) low fat smooth ricotta
3 eggs
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup (70g) cashews
1 tbs Kikkoman soy sauce
1/2 cup finely grated carrot (half a large carrot)
1/2 cup (45g) purchased breadcrumbs
1 cup (90g) quick oats
3 (25cm x 25cm) sheets frozen ready-rolled puff pastry, thawed
1 tbs milk

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Place ricotta cheese, eggs, onion, cashews and soy sauce in a food processor. Process until well combined. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add carrot, breadcrumbs and oats. Mix well. Divide into six portions.
Cut each pastry sheet in half. Brush lightly with milk. Shape one portion of mixture into a log 3cm from edge of long side of pastry. Roll up to enclose filling. Place on baking tray. Repeat with remaining pastry and mixture. Brush rolls with milk. Bake 35 minutes or until golden, turning them over half way through the cooking process. Cut. Serve with tomato sauce.
Makes about 36.

Vietnamese spring rolls

1 pkt udon noodles
1/2 capsicum chopped roughly
1 medium carrot peeled and grated
30 gms snow pea sprouts chopped
1 bunch mint roughly chopped
2 tspn ginger
2 tspn garlic
2 tblespn soy sauce
2 tspn fish sauce
7 round rice paper sheets (22 cm round)


Place noodles in a large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak for 2 minutes or until softened.

Drain noodles and use kitchen scissors to cut into small lengths.
Put all ingredients except the rice paper sheets and the chili sauce into a bowl and toss thoroughly.

Using one sheet of rice paper at a time dip into a bowl of hot water and soak for 30 seconds or until pliable. Place on a clean chopping board or tea towel. Top with some of the noodle mixture. Fold in ends and roll up tightly to enclose filling. Repeat with remaining rice paper sheets and filling.

Arrange on a serving platter and serve with sweet chili sauce.

Alternatives: add Vietnamese mint or coriander instead of mint. Use rice vermicelli noodles instead of udon. Recipe can easily be doubled.

Tofu fritters with sweet chilli sauce

Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes

Ingredients; vegetable oil, for deep-frying
 8 iceberg lettuce leaves
 1 large (180g) carrot, sliced thinly
 1 Lebanese (130g) cucumber, sliced thinly
 2/3 cup (160ml) sweet chilli sauce

Tofu fritters
 250g firm tofu, chopped
 250g cooked rice (I used Basmati as that was what I had) 
1 egg
 2tsp ginger, 
1 1/2 teaspoons sambal oelek (bottled chopped chilli)
 2 cloves garlic, crushed
 2 green onions (green shallots), chopped 
½ cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves, 
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

For the tofu fritters, process the fritter ingredients until just combined.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or wok. Shape heaped tablespoons of the fritter mixture in ovals or rounds. Deep-fry them, in batches, in the hot oil until browned lightly. Drain on absorbent paper.

Serve the fritters immediately with whole lettuce leaves, carrot, cucumber and sweet chilli sauce.

Dinner in the sky

For those of you looking for an alternative to the local fish and chips or chinese take away, this restaurant might be just what you are looking for!!!

Here is what YouTube had to say about Dinner in the Sky

Restaurant in the Sky

For a newspaper review check here.


Of course the airfare to Europe might put you off!!

Stick with Banrock

Today I found McGuigan's Black Label Red in a one litre bottle for $9.90.

unfortunately it is too soft (tastes almost sparkly) and almost sweet for my pallet
price not low enough, back to Banrock for me

Quest for cheap wine (no three day growth)

In the quest for cheap wine (that tastes reasonable, rather than like flavoured tap water) I found my favourite 1 litre bottle of Banrock Station (Chardonay and Shiraz) for a mere $5.50 at Dan Murphy - I had seen it advertised at Jim Murphy's (no relation at all they tell me) for $6.95 and I found it on sale for $8.75 at Woolworths. It really does pay to shop around. So if you are visiting come Christmas time, you will find that you will be plied with some Banrock Station if I am not mistaken. Of course the other reason that you would love to buy this wine is that you are supporting research and preservation of wetlands in Australia.

Cheers,
Mondo

Wedding cake

Check out this most amazing wedding cake - I was flabbergasted

Lemon Butter

2 eggs
250 g white sugar
125 g butter
Juice of 3 lemons
Zest of 2 lemons

Beat the eggs with the sugar in a saucepan (to make a creamy rather than stiff consistency). Add the butter, lemon juice and zest.

Stir over a medium heat until it thickens, like honey.

Cook for another 2-4 minutes, do not boil.

Cool and bottle.
This recipe makes approximately 400g of Lemon Butter.

Oven Baked Pumpkin Risotto

2 tspn oil

2 cups cubed pumpkin

2 cups arborio (or other risotto rice)

5 cups boiling water

4 tspn vegeta vegetable stock
2 tblspn marg or butter

310gm can creamed corn
2 cups baby rocket
2 tblspn pine nuts, roasted

Toss oil through cubed pumpkin and place on a roasting pan. Bake in a hot oven 200c (190c fan forced) for 20 minutes or until done.
Combine rice, water, stock powder and margarine into a large ovenproof dish. Cover with a lid.
Bake in a hot oven 200c (180c fan forced) for 40-50 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Stir through the pumpkin, corn and rocket. Sprinkle pine nuts on top and serve by itself or with a green salad.

Serves 6

Two new things for me!

I succumbed to a rice cooker last week - I used it for the first time last night. I made a butter chicken curry and cooked basmati rice in the cooker and it came out perfectly. Two cups of rice, and three cups of water. The rice cooker was a bargain at $22.00 from the work social club. While putting the curry together I had to chop some garlic that I bought fresh.

The garlic is whole single clove garlic, that is each garlic is one clove and they are huge. They have purple leaves around them. I used half a clove in the curry.

Steak and sweet potato mash

Tonight I made steak and sweet potato mash for tea, with a mushroom sauce.

3 steaks (good quality)
3-400gm flat mushrooms sliced
garlic
1/4 cup white wine or stock
desert spoon butter
small amount of milk
400gm sweet potato
300gm baby spinach

Cook the sweet potato until soft and mash with some butter and milk until soft and creamy, then stir in 300gm rocket or baby spinach.

Cook the steaks on a griddle pan or the BBQ until cooked the way you like then (which for me is medium rare).

Cook the mushrooms with the garlic and wine for about 5 minutes.

To serve:

Put a spoonful of mash on each plate, top with the steak and the mushrooms and serve.

For the vegetarian in the family, I cooked a vegetable patty in the griddle pan before I cooked the steak.

Serve with roast tomatoes.

AJR has an asignment

AJR had to cook a cake for an asignment, with a partner and then hand it in, unfortunately, the school roof is caving in and the kids are being bussed to other local schools, so this was one asignment he did not have to hand in. However he was excited about making a cake and he decided to make one anyway (perhaps he is going to take after Aunty A and get into cooking!). So he found a recipe for a dog cake, and here is a picture of his cake - it tasted alright, although the cooking times were not great, we are still working out the settings on the convection microwave oven thingy.

chick pea, spinach and sweet potato curry

400 gms sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 can chick peas
1 large onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tspn ground cumin
2 tspn curry powder
2 bay leaves
1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
about 200g baby spinach leaves

Mix the oil, onion, garlic, curry powder and cumin in a non stick fry pan and heat until the onion is soft, then add the rest of the ingredients, except the spinach leaves and cook over a gentle heat for 20-30 minutes, or the sweet potato is soft. Stir through the spinach and serve with rice.
serves 4
This is mild if you prefer a stronger curry add more cumin and curry. Add baby rocket instead of the spinach. Could use pumpkin instead of sweet potato.

New titles in the book list and more

I have added two new books to the list on the right. The crockpot one is great, by two authors whom I have already sampled (see Meals without meat) . If you are interested in what else they have written then the list is here. I will put the chick pea curry that we had last weekend in here later. The fillet book (also new) gave the recipe for the following picture.

It is simply steak cooked as desired, with flat and shitake mushrooms cooked in the meat juices, on polenta with parmesan and baby spinach and baby rocket. Yummy - sorry not very vegetarian!!!!! AJR had the polenta and a vegetarian schnitzel.

Pine Nut Butter

If you are thinking of a nice juicy steak or chop or other rich red meat tonight, then you might want pine nut butter on the top. Of course you can also put this on a great pile of bbq vegies or range of baked root vegies. It is just yummy.

¼ cup toasted pinenuts
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1 spring onion, chopped
125gm butter, softened
pepper

Method:

Use the food processor or blender to finely chop the pine nuts, mint and spring onion. Add butter and freshly ground black pepper – mix until just combined. Place the mixture in the centre of a piece of baking paper, and roll into a log about 3cm in diameter. Place into fridge until firm.

Vegie Delights

I am a big fan of the Sanitarium website and regularly get their suggestions for great vegie meals and thought that you might enjoy checking out this site. Includes menus and ideas. We have used their frozen schnitzels and burgers!!

Also thought I would let you know that Sara Lee makes great individual vegetable lasagne's. I have not seen the family size (see below), only the single serves, which are readily available in Woolies. They make a great stand by for my vegetarian, when the rest of us want to eat meat. Most days this is what he would prefer to eat.

Of course MLR loves the meat lasagna - really does not matter for her as long as it is meat.

Aunty A

Vegeta

Just so you know, if interested, Vegeta make a range of stock powders that are gluten free. The title is linked to the Vegeta site.

Fantastic news.

The other day I went looking looking for my usual Massel stock liquid, which I buy on a regular basis and now don't seem to be able to find. Do let me know if you spy some!

Stir Fried Haloumi!!

Ever wondered what happens when you stir fry haloumi?

Wonder no more, here is the vegetarian/haloumi stir fry made for AJR the other day (could really be called cheese moush).

It was stir fried in Portuguese chicken sauce (Woolworth's select brand). AJR has asked for it again, so it can't be too bad.

The rest of us had stir fried chicken with the Portuguese sauce.

Lattice Biscuit Slice Recipe

Happy birthday TC!!!! More to come in the mail.

I have two recipes for this, and they are different, the first one is runnier and the lack of lemon is noticeable. I do not like this one as much as the one my mother in law gave me (see below).

1. Lattice Biscuit Slice
12-24 servings

20 min 20 min prep
250g cream cheese
250g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
40g gelatin dissolved in
1.2 cup of boiling water
2 200g packets lattice biscuits

Line a lamington tin (11"x8") with foil. Place lattice biscuits FACE DOWN on the bottom of tin Blend all other ingredients in a food processor or with a mixer (DON'T MELT THE BUTTER).
Pour over biscuits.
Top with lattice biscuits (face up).
Refrigerate till set.
Cut into desired sizes either whole squares or strips.
Store in an air-tight container (if they last that long).
If the mix is too runny, set in refrigerator for 5 minutes then pour over biscuits.

The recipe below is the one my mother in law introduced me to, it is a tradition every Christmas along with my father in law's shortbread. Remember it has a gazillion calories.


2. Lattice Biscuit Slice


125g butter or margarine
125g cream cheese
½ cup caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbs hot water
1 tsp gelatin
1 pack of Arnott’s Lattice




Method
Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Then add sugar and beat well. Add lemon juice and vanilla and mix in.

Pour hot water into a heatproof bowl, add the gelatin quickly and stir briskly until dissolved. Leave to one side to cool slightly.

Add dissolved gelatin to cream cheese mixture. Beat again.

Line a square baking tin (approx. 20cm x 20cm) with foil and make a base using half the Lattice biscuits. You can bend the foil up to fit the biscuits, as I can never find a cake tin that fits the biscuits exactly.

Spread with cheese mixture then cover with a layer of the remaining Lattice biscuits.

Place in the freezer for half an hour to set. Chop into small slices to serve. Slice can be made the day before required. This recipe doubles easily, ensuring that you don't have half a packet of cream cheese beckoning you from the fridge. Lattice slice also freezes well and is a great standby for the drop in visitor.

Ricotta Hotcakes

1 1/3 cups ricotta
¾ cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup GF plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
pinch of salt
50g butter

Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold eggwhites through batter in two batches with a large metal spoon.
Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (don’t cook more than 3 per batch) Cook over a low to medium heat for 2 minutes or until the hotcakes have golden undersides. I set the electric frypan to 150c. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and keep warm. Dust with icing sugar, add maple syrup, lemon sugar, honey or soft fruit as desired. Serves 6-8. They were delicious and some of the best I have cooked.

Sorry no picture as they were eaten too quickly!

Soft polenta with mushrooms

This is for you JC - another delicious meal for a Coeliac/Vegetarian


1¾ cups (435ml) milk
1¾ cups (435ml) vegetable stock
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup (110g) polenta
80g (1 cup) finely grated Parmesan
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced width ways
4 shallots, thinly sliced width ways
100g butter
200g king brown mushrooms, thickly sliced
200g chestnut mushrooms
200g Swiss brown mushrooms
½ cup (125ml) dry white wine
6 sprigs thyme
¼ cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley



Combine milk, vegetable stock and salt in a medium heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Bring to boil, then while whisking, add polenta in a slow, steady stream until incorporated. Cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for 30 minutes or until polenta is tender. Stir through ½ cup (50g) Parmesan. Remove from heat and keep in a warm place until required.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large casserole pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and shallots, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until soft. Increase heat to high. Add butter, mushrooms, wine, thyme and cook, covered, for 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mushrooms soften.

You could use the polenta recipe any place you would use potatoes. The flavour was fantastic.

The remaining juice from the mushrooms is a great vegetable stock base.

Please note that I used rosemary instead of thyme and was a good substitute, just don't use too much.

Fast Bean Taco's

1 onion finely sliced
1 clove garlic chopped
1 can refried beans
1 pkt corn chips (plain gf)
1 pkt taco seasoning (gf)


Cook onion and garlic in a little olive oil and then add the can of refried beans, plus half a can of water and the taco seasoning. Cook for 5-10 minutes until all the ingredients are combined and the liquid is reduced a little.

Cook the corn chips in the oven 180 c until warmed through, be careful not to burn them.

On a platter or individual plates pile the corn chips, add the refried beans, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, sour cream and serve.

Serves 4.

Magic Muffins

Check out this link to some wonderful looking savoury muffins, they look so yummy.

Might have to make them myself.

Omelet for tea

Sunday night we had omelet - two different sorts to cater for my family's foodie needs.


Version 1 (vegetarian and gluten free)
4 eggs
1 tblspn Mascarpone
1/2 a leek finely sliced
2 tblspns fried garlic
1/2 bunch of asparagus cut into bite size pieces

Fry the leak and the asparagus gently for a few minutes until the leek softens
Combine the eggs and the mascarpone in a bowl and then add all the other ingredients
Cook in the omelet maker or an omelet pan and serve with a green salad.
Feeds two for a light lunch.

Version 2 (gluten free)
5 eggs
2 tblspns Mascarpone
1/2 a leek finely sliced
2 tblspns fried garlic
1/2 bunch of asparagus cut into bite size pieces
1 chorizo sausage sliced and fried (check that it is GF)

Fry the leak and the asparagus gently for a few minutes until the leek softens
Combine the eggs and the mascarpone in a bowl and then add all the other ingredients
Cook in the omelet maker or an omelet pan and serve with a green salad.
Feeds 4 as a light lunch

Flourless Orange Cake

So Saturday finds us getting ready to go to the wedding of B&L at St Paul's in Manuka and then later a reception at Royal Canberra Golf Club.

This is always the best time to whip up a cake!!! Please note that I had boiled the oranges the day before.

2 Large Oranges
1 Cup water
6 60g eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tspn baking powder
200g almond meal

Boil the oranges in the water for 1.30-2.00 hours
Preheat Oven 200C
Once the oranges have cooled, cut in half and remove the pips. Place them in a food processor and blend them.
Beat the 6 eggs with a hand mixer until creamy, then slowly add the sugar, once the sugar is dissolved add the almond meal and the baking power and mix gently.
Pour mixture into a spring form pan which has had the base and sides buttered and a circle of baking paper place on the base.
Cook for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean, rest for five minutes and then release the sides of the tin and remove. Serve dusted with icing sugar and cream.

NB - for this to be GF you must use real icing sugar and not icing mixture.

Dinner Party Vegetarian Meals

JC asked me for some vegetarian recipe's to impress.

The first two recipes are two glutten free recipes and the last contains gluten:

1. Eggplant, spinach and pumpkin Stacks

1 Large eggplant(500g)
200g pumpkin, sliced thinly
700g of bottled tomato pasta sauce
80g baby spinach leaves
4 green onions sliced thinly longways
1 cup coarsely grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts

1. Discard top and bottom of eggplant, cut eggplant length ways into ten 5 mm slices. Discard rounded skin side slices, place remaining eight slices in colander, sprinkle all over with salt, stand 10 minutes.
2. Rinse eggplant well under cold water, pat dry with absorbent paper. Cook eggplant and pumpkin, in batches, on heated oiled grill plate (or grill or BBQ) until tender.
3. Place sauce in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered, 2 minutes 4. Place four slices of the eggplant, in a single layer, on oven tray: top with half of the spinach, half of the pumpkin and half of the onion. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the sauce over each then repeat the layering process, using remaining spinach, pumpkin and onion and another 2 tablespoons of the sauce for each stack. Top stacks with remaining eggplant slices, pour over remaining sauce, sprinkle stacks with cheese and nuts. Place under hot grill until cheese browns slightly.

This was really delicious and only lasted a few minutes on the plates. Unfortunately the 35 minutes the recipe claims to take to get it to the table, took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. I used two small eggplants, I did not have pumpkin and used slices of potato. I did not have spring onions so used finely chopped onions. I only used a 500g jar of tomato sauce. However my dish looked very much like the one above.

2. A Terrine with Four Cheeses
I made this for Christmas one year when we had all my family here in Monash, a great special Christmas dish for vegetarians.

275 g Cottage Cheese
75 ml Mayonnaise
11g sachet powdered gelatin
50 g garlic and chives cheddar
50 g blue brie
50 g Cheshire
1 dessertspoon of snipped chives
2 tablespoons cold water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
150 ml double cream
fresh milled black pepper to taste

Place the gelatin in a teacup with the cold water and the lemon juice and let it soak for about five minutes. Then place the cup in saucepan containing 5 cm barely simmering water, leave the gelatin to dissolve and become transparent.
Chop the three hard cheeses into 5 mm pieces, and combine. Blend the cottage cheese and mayonnaise until absolutely smooth. Whip the cream to a soft floppy stage.
Mix the gelatin and cottage cheese/mayonnaise mixture, stir to ensure the gelatin is evenly spread. Mix in the hard cheeses.
Finally fold in the cream and pour the whole mixture into the terrine. Cover with glad wrap and chill for several hours until firmly set.
Invert onto a plate and slice. Serve with a green salad.

3. Pumpkin Tartlets

300g golden nugget (small pumpkin), peeled, seeded and thinly sliced.
2 sheets reduced fat frozen puff pastry
2 tspns oregano
2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
2 tblspns coarsely chopped hazelnuts
1 tblspn finely grated lemon rind
2 tblspn finely grated orange rind
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
200g boccochini pulled apart
2 tspns rocksalt

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into six and rest.

Mix the garlic, rinds, half the oregano and salt in a mortar and pestle and make a paste, add the olive oil and mix well. Add pepper to taste.
Take the finely sliced pumpkin and toss in a bowl with a little of the oil. Brush the pastry with the paste and place the pumpkin on top, sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Cook at 200C for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked, then sprinkle with the boccochini and serve with a green salad.

Tomato Pasta

We have a new Bill Granger book and we love his food, it is always simple and tasty. The other day JSR made this tomato pasta and we loved it. If you are interested in some of his other tomato recipes check out BillGranger.

1kg vine ripened tomatoes
1 tblspn sea salt
1.2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tblspns balsamic vinegar
juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
fresh black pepper
300g spaghetti
1 cup lightly packed basil leaves, torn

Score a cross in the the base of each tomato. Place tomatoes in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them. Drain after 10 seconds, then peel the skin away from the cross. Halve the tomatoes and press halves to squeeze out seeds and excess juice. Chop tomato flesh roughly, place in a sieve over a bowl and sprinkle with the sea salt. Leave to drain for half an hour.
Place drained tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice and zest, garlic chilli and pepper in a bowl and stir. Leave for 20 minutes for the flavours to combine.
Cook the spaghetti in rapidly boiling salted water according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drain well. Toss through tomatoes with freshly torn basil leaves and serve with freshly shaved Parmesan cheese.
Serves 4.

Carrot and coriander soup

Carrot and Coriander Soup

1 kg of Carrots, roughly chopped
1 large onion sliced
1 large potato thickly sliced
2 cloves of garlic chopped roughly
1.2 Litres stock (Massel GF vegetable stock)
2 bunches of coriander, chopped

Place the onion and the garlic in the soup pot and sweat for five minutes. Add the stock, carrots and potato and cook for 25 minutes or until the root vegetables are soft. Add one bunch of coriander at the end. Blend in batches in the food processor or use a stab blender to make the soup smooth, you may need to add a little water if the soup is too thick. Reheat and serve with fresh coriander sprinkled on the top.

Serves 4-6

On Monday, CJK and the kids came over and I made a bit of a gluten free festival (see photo) I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did,

Terrine with Four Cheeses

Great for Christmas or dinner party

275 g Cottage Cheese
75 ml Mayonnaise
3 tspn powdered gelatine
50 g garlic & chives cheddar
50 g blue Brie
50 g Cheshire
1 dstpn of snipped chives
2 tblspn cold water
2 tspn lemon juice
150 ml double cream
Fresh milled black pepper to taste


Place the gelatine in a teacup with the cold water and the lemon juice and let it soak for about five minutes. Then place the cup in saucepan containing 5 cm barely simmering water, leave the gelatine to dissolve and become transparent.
Chop the three cheeses into 5 mm pieces, and combine. Blend the cottage cheese and mayonnaise until absolutely smooth. Whip the cream to a soft floppy stage.
Mix the gelatine and cottage cheese/mayonnaise mixture; stir to ensure the gelatine is evenly distributed. Mix in the cheeses.
Finally fold in the cream and pour the whole mixture into the terrine. Cover with glad wrap and chill for several hours until firmly set.
Invert onto a plate and slice.
Serve with a green salad.

Serves 4-6.

Thai Amarin

There are two Thai Amarin restaurants in Canberra, one in Kingston and run by the original owners of the Thai Amarin in Erindale. John and Silvie left Erindale 10 years ago to set up the Kingston restaurant. We have been regular visitors to the Erindale Thai Amarin, since we moved into Monash. We went there this week on a day when I ran out of energy. Our current favourite is something called Takay which is spicy and nice, we love the curries and they have a variety of vegetarian dishes which keep AJR interested. They also have a little boy, who MLR loves to play with.

Buy local road trip

Well some time ago I suggested that we should try a buy local trip and yesterday TSS, JC and I managed it. We went to the Poachers Pantry on the Yass side of Hall, here I collected information for a colleague at work who is thinking of getting married there. I must say that it would be a great venue to get married at - out in the bush and lovely scenery. Then to Gundaroo for a look see, were there was little in the way of local produce. Finally we went to Collector where we stopped off at the Lynwood Cafe and then on to the art gallery/bookshop. See The Shopping Sherpa for a complete record of our trip. Unfortunately we did not do well in the "finding local produce" stakes and we found only olive oil that was both grown and bottled in the district. I bought a book on DH Lawrence about his time in Thirroul where he wrote Kangaroo. I also bought a beautiful bead necklace as a present for Bron (who's birthday party we attended later last night), and a fridge magnet in the shape of Australia in wood, which I sent to Sally this morning. It was great and we have all agreed to do it again, as well as organising a trip to Ikea.
I did take photo's of this trip on my mobile phone, and when I work out how to download them I will post them here.

Tuesday at the Italian

Tuesday I was tired and had gone to Woolies to pick up something for dinner and baulked when I saw how long the queues were. Went to the petrol station and managed to pull into the wrong side of the bowser!!! Saw this as a sign that it was time to go home and stop.

We decided that we would eat out!!! So we went to the new Italian restaurant in Erindale - Italian Grill. JSR had a steak and I had chicken masarla, the kids had a pizza and chicken bites. The service was fine and the location is good as it is part of the restaurant strip. Our meals were fine, however the pizza was definitely ordinary and the chicken bites was dry and overcooked. JSR went off to get a bottle of wine and came back with The footbolt shiraz from Mclaren Vale. It was an excellent drop and I would recommend it as a great wine for the price (just under $20).
Collected the ironing from Dale and headed home to fall asleep in front of the Bill.

Chestnut Soup

Monday saw us eating Chestnut soup with the Bundanoon chestnuts.

Recipe from: http://www.chestnutsonline.com/recipes.htm

GLUTEN FREE 3 tbsp. butter 1 stalk celery 1 medium carrot 1 medium onion 1/4 C parsley, chopped 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1 bay leaf (to be removed later) 6 C chicken broth 12 oz. cooked, peeled chestnuts (1 lb fresh in the shell) 1/4 C heavy cream 1/4 tsp pepper Salt to taste Of course I changed something!!! I used vegetable stock rather than chicken stock and I did not have a bay leaf, also used too many cloves. Apart from the preparation work to get the chestnuts roasted, it was an easy recipe.

Cut the celery, carrot and onion into small pieces and process in a food processor. Melt the butter in a 3 qt. saucepan. Add the celery, carrot and onion. Sauté about 10 minutes. Add the chestnuts, broth, parsley, cloves and bay leaf to the veggies. Bring to a boil; then simmer for 30-45 minutes covered. Puree the soup in small quantities in a blender and put into another pan. Stir in the cream, salt and pepper and reheat over medium heat until warm. You may want to garnish with a bit of parsley.

Chestnuts

Dad brought some chestnuts from Bundanoon the other day, still in their protective cases. AJR and Mum and Dad removed the chestnuts from the cases yesterday and today we will be making roast chestnuts.




Facts about Chestnuts:

• Instructions on preparing and cooking chestnuts.
• May is chestnut month, and this link gives a list of restaurants that have signed up to promote chestnuts in May.
• Chestnuts Online have an extensive range of gluten free recipes as well as other information.
  

Omelet with a twist

We have an omelet maker and the other day I made delicious omelette's for everyone.



5 eggs
left over sweet potato fritatta mix
bag of spinach and rocket
Camembert cheese chopped or pulled into pieces (a little or a lot depending on your taste, could also use blue cheese)

Mix everything up and pour into the preheated Omelet maker and cook until set.

Chocolate

As Easter approaches I thought we should spend some time thinking (in addition to eating) chocolate - well who doesn't.

Origin of the word:

Chocolate When the Spanish arrived in Mexico they came across the Aztecs. The Aztec language is called Nahuatl. The Aztecs had a drink which they made from a bean they called CHOCO (bitter). They would put this bean into water (ATL) to produce CHOCO-ATL (bitter water).

The TL sound is common in the Aztec language but not in Spanish. The Spaniards mispronounced the drink CHOCOLATO.

This drink was brought to Europe (with sugar added) where the pronunciation and spelling in English became CHOCOLATE.

From: http://www.krysstal.com/wordname.html

History of Chocolate.

Interesting information about Chocolate:

The Quakers were, and still are, a pacifist religious sect, an offshoot of the Puritans of English Civil War and Pilgrim Fathers fame and a history of chocolate would not be complete without mentioning their part in it. Some of the most famous names in chocolate were Quakers, who for centuries held a virtual monopoly of chocolate making in the English speaking world - Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree are probably the best known.

It's probably before the time of the English civil war between Parliament and King Charles 1st, that the Quaker's, who evolved from the Puritans, first began their historic association with Chocolate. Because of their pacifist religion, they were prohibited from many normal business activities, so as an industrious people with a strong belief in the work ethic (like the puritans), they involved themselves in food related businesses and did very well. Baking was a common occupation for them because bread was regarded as the biblical " Staff Of Life", and Bakers in England were the first to add chocolate to cakes so it would be a natural progression for them to start making pure chocolate. They were also heavily involved in breakfast cereals but that's another story.

What is certain is that the Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury families in England among others, began chocolate making and in fact Joseph Fry of Fry & Sons (founded 1728 in Bristol, England) is credited with producing and selling the worlds first chocolate bar. Fry's have now all but disappeared (taken over by Cadbury) and Rowntree have merged Swiss company Nestle, to form the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world. Cadbury have stayed with chocolate production and are now, if not quite the largest, probably one of the best known Chocolate makers in the world.

From their earliest beginnings in business the Quakers were noted for their enlightened treatment of their employees, providing not just employment but everything needed for workers to better themselves such as good housing etc. In fact, Cadbury built a large town for their employees around their factory near Birmingham, England. Complete with libraries, schools, shops and Churches etc, they called it Bourneville. So next time you see Cadbury's chocolate with the name Bournville on it you will know where it comes from and what the name relates to.

From: http://www.aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/history_chocolate.htm

Origin of the use of chocolate at Easter Time:

Easter Eggs

As well as adopting the festival of Eostre, the Egg, representing fertility and re-birth in pagan times, was also adopted as part of the Christian Easter festival and it came to represent the 'resurrection' or re-birth of Christ after the crucifixion and some believe it is a symbol of the the stone blocking the Sepulchre being 'rolled' away.

In the UK and Europe, the earliest Easter eggs were painted and decorated hen, duck or goose eggs, a practice still carried on in parts of the world today. As time went by, artificial eggs were made and by the end of the 17th century, manufactured eggs were available for purchase at Easter, for giving as Easter gifts and presents.

Easter eggs continued to evolve through the 18th and into the 19th Century, with hollow cardboard Easter eggs filled with Easter gifts and sumptuously decorated, culminating with the fabulous Faberge Eggs. Encrusted with jewels, they were made for the Czar's of Russia by Carl Faberge, a French jeweller. Surely these were the 'ultimate' Easter gift, to buy even a small one now would make you poorer by several millions of pounds.

The Chocolate Easter Egg

It was at about this time (early 1800's) that the first chocolate Easter egg appeared in Germany and France and soon spread to the rest of Europe and beyond. The first chocolate eggs were solid soon followed by hollow eggs. Although making hollow eggs at that time was no mean feat, because the easily worked chocolate we use today didn't exist then, they had to use a paste made from ground roasted Cacao beans.

By the turn of the 19th Century, the discovery of the modern chocolate making process and improved mass manufacturing methods meant that the Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter Gift of choice in the UK and parts of Europe, and by the 1960's it was well established worldwide.

From: http://www.aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/easter-eggs-history.htm