Produce Experimenting - Taro and Bacon Hash

I bought a taro the other day. I saw it at the greengrocers and had never seen one before in the shops, so I got excited and bought one. Then realised I had absolutely zero idea of what I was supposed to do with it. I remember seeing it in recipes and on menus, but I couldn’t pick enough of a memory to know what to do with it. A quick google search indicated that as a tuber it can be cooked pretty much like a normal potato. But that it absolutely must be cooked to get rid of a chemical that has a toxicity that causes gout-like issues. Not a problem, I prefer my tubers cooked. It’s also used extensively to make desserts. Before I contemplate getting into taro desserts, I thought I’d cook one up in a more traditional-potato manner in order to get a feel for what it’s taste and texture is like. That also meant curries and stews were out.

So, that somewhat narrowed down what I was going to do with it. And it was another cold, rainy night which automatically lends itself to comfort food. I have said it before and I’ll say it again…I love breakfast. So breakfast for dinner is a pretty huge comfort food for me. Taro Hash with eggs it was. Add some bacon – because it’s bacon. And some ginger, pomegranate and chilli for a pop of brighter flavours and you have a pretty amazing dish.

Serve with some fresh parsley and sumac scattered over the perfect yolks. Then eat with hot sauce. The taro cooked this way developed a slightly chewy texture and it has a nutty, somewhat earthy flavour which worked really well. I’m thinking I might need to try some more taro recipes in the future. Have you tried taro before? What’s your favourite way of preparing it? Comment below or email me!

Taro and Bacon Hash

(serves 2 big servings)

1 large taro, peeled and cut into 2cm dice

1 brown onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Generous grind salt and pepper
Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
Juice of 2 limes
1 pomegranate, seeded
4 rashers eye bacon, diced
2/3 cup corn kernels
1 chilli, minced (or to taste)
4 eggs

Heat a tall-sided pan that can also go into the oven to medium heat and add a generous splash of olive oil. Stir in the onions and salt and pepper, and cook 10 minutes or so until caramelising and soft and sweet. Stir here and there to make sure it doesn’t catch. Add the minced garlic and bacon and stir through.

Heat the oven to 175C

When the bacon is starting to colour and render out it’s fat, add the grated ginger, chilli and lime juice. Stir through the taro and corn, coating it in the oniony-mixture. Pop the pan into the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the taro is mostly cooked and softer. Stir through the pomegranate seeds, then carefully crack the eggs into each ‘quarter’ of the pan. Pop back in the oven for 10 minutes or until the egg is cooked to your liking. I like runny yolks!

Sprinkle with some fresh parsley and sumac. Eat, curled up on the couch watching your favourite show!

Happy WA Day - Pumpkin Spice Porridge

Happy WA Day holiday! My husband works on public holidays, so I play the single lady after he leaves for work. I sleep in until a leisurely hour, get up and make things that I like for breakfast that he doesn't necessarily agree with. So in honour of that luxury, I will do a post in real-time! Being a public holiday, I don't want to put too much effort in. And being the second day of winter means it needs to still be satisfying comfort style food. Something I can eat from a bowl, snuggled up on the couch, flicking through cook books.

I love sweet pumpkin dishes. Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin and Maple Bacon Muffins, Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows and all that. Love it. Lance isn't the hugest fan. Nor does he particularly like porridge. So this dish is all me. I have some pumpkin puree from making a pumpkin mac and cheese a few days ago so this dish all came together in the time it takes to make the porridge and boil the kettle for my coffee.

I'm sure you've all made porridge before, so I'll leave it to you to cook it the way you do. Personally, I like to cook my oats in water (or coffee) with a pinch of salt and add milk or butter (or both!) once it's cooked. You can sub the butter for coconut oil, or coconut cream for a delicious vegan version of this dish.

Pumpkin Spice Porridge
(serves one)
1 cup cooked porridge (made from 1/3 cup rolled oats)
3 heaped tablespoons pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp maple syrup (plus an extra to drizzle  if desired)
1 tsp unsalted butter
6-8 crushed walnuts

Cook the oats to by your preferred method.

In a small dish, mix the pumpkin, spices and maple syrup. Microwave for 1 minute to heat the mixture.

Stir pumpkin mixture and butter into porridge. Top with crushed walnuts.

Breakfast of Champions - Coffee and Mango Chia Pudding

You’ll remember I was coffee-soaking oats for breakfast a while back. I still do that. It’s still delicious. You should still do it. (And incidentally, with these colder Autumn mornings, you should cook your oats in coffee). But my feeds were full of chia puddings, and so was my pantry so I thought I would just slightly alter my work breakfast of choice. Our mango tree was amazingly prolific this season. At final count we got 56 (!!) mangoes, so I knew that this would be an ingredient. Mango and coffee match really well even though at first thought they might seem odd together – the smoky bitterness of the coffee complements the sweetness of the mango. The ginger and cinnamon just round out the flavours and create quite a complex flavour profile. I don’t have a lot of sweet foods in my diet – I naturally crave salt – so the sweetness of the ripe mangoes was sweet enough for me. But feel free to add honey or maple syrup to sweeten things up.

I also eat mine with plain greek yoghurt for the same reason, substitute with a sweeter style yoghurt, or even cream or coconut cream for a more decadent breakfast. And finally, you can substitute whatever crunchy add-ons you have. I’m currently addicted to bee pollen. I first had it when I went to Germany around 16 years ago and am so glad it’s fairly readily available here now. I often just sprinkle some on nut butters on fruit toast, or on top of smoothies. Divine

 

Coffee and Mango Chia Pudding
(one serve)

¼ cup chia seeds

1/3 cup cold-brewed coffee
1 mango, finely diced
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
Dollop greek yoghurt to serve
Toasted walnuts, coconut and bee pollen to serve

Mix the chia seeds, ginger and cinnamon (I shake it in a jar). Add the coffee and mango, stir well. Leave to sit at least 15-30 minutes for the chia seeds to swell. Add more coffee if it looks like some of the seeds didn’t turn gel-y. (I usually make this before bed and take it to work in the morning)

Serve with yoghurt drizzled with your crunchy add ons

 

 

Easter Treats - Chocolate Halva Spread

Sometimes you grow up eating something that you don’t realise isn’t common to the people you hang around with. One of those things for me is halva. We used to get halva mainly on full-family trips to the Nanna Shop or Kakulas as dad was it’s biggest fan in our family and he’d add it to our baskets. But it wasn’t until I was a bit older and telling someone about it and they had never heard of it that I realised it wasn’t a common food in Perth. If you’ve never had it, it’s a bit hard to describe. It’s a sweet that is made from processed sesame seeds and it’s texture is completely unique. It has a sort of ‘gritty’ texture that goes sort of chewy in your mouth like nougat as you eat it. When you cut it, it is almost sandpapery sounding. It’s only mildly sweet and has that lovely nutty flavour of sesame and this makes it perfect for cheese platters and the like. We would get two main flavours, just a plain one and chocolate. This was my favourite, as the chocolate is swirled through the halva in a marble pattern. It looked awesome, and tasted awesome.

I don’t eat halva that often now I don’t live at home, but occasionally I get nostalgic cravings for it. I saw a recipe for halva spread on the My Name is Yeh blog, I immediately got a craving. Then vowed to make this for an Easter present for my parents. This is a perfect spread for hot cross buns. I also love it spread on these chocolate hazelnut crackers from Alejandra’s Always Order Dessert. Traditionally, our family has Pasha on hot cross buns at Easter (an almond, lemon and vanilla cream cheese spread which is currently a secret family recipe), but this year I had to have two hot cross buns - one of each!

 
I used unhulled tahini, as the flavour is a bit milder which suits this sweet spread.

Chocolate Halva Spread

Adapted from My Name is Yeh
1x 385g jar of unhulled tahini
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup honey
½ tsp fine sea salt
2/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Pop the chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Set aside.

Pour the tahini, honey and sea salt into a bowl and mix with a hand mixer on low speed until well combined. Take 1/3 of the mixture and put in a new bowl. Add the melted chocolate and blend until combined.

Alternate spooning the ‘plain’ halva and the ‘chocolate’ halva into jars to make a layered pattern.

Spread on toast, these chocolate hazelnut crackers or hot cross buns!

 

Resolution Follow Through - Cornbread Waffles

So, remember how making more cornbread was part of my late-recognised New Year’s Resolution? Well, I’m extending the definition of cornbread to include these cornbread waffles. We received a waffle maker as a wedding present, and I don’t use it anywhere near as much as I should do. Waffles are awesome. Sweet and savoury, I love them all. I currently am in love with these specific cornbread waffles. I love the savoury/sweetness that using cornmeal automatically adds. They taste chewy and dense but light and waffly all at once. We don’t really do the savoury waffle thing very much in Australia, but I am a champion of it. So here you’ll see it served with BBQ beef. So. Unbelievably. Good. This makes a pretty big batch. Way too much for the two of us for dinner. I wrapped the remainder in single serve portions of foil and froze them, then toasted them as required in the toaster. I took some down to Molloy for a group getaway and they made the most delicious breakfast with hickory bacon and creamy scrambled eggs. 

Cornbread Waffles1 cups plain flour¾ cup cornmeal 2½ tsp baking powder ½  tsp bicarb soda ½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper ½ tsp smokey paprika½ tsp sweet paprika 1 cup ricotta 2 large eggs 1 cup milk½ cup water 4 tbsp melted butter 2 tbsps finely chopped herbs (I used parsley, basil and coriander) Butter for the waffle iron Preheat the oven to 150C to keep cooked waffles warm. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the ricotta and eggs until smooth. Add the milk, water and melted butter and stir to combine.
 Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently until no flour remains. Fold in the herbs.
 Heat the waffle iron and brush with melted butter. Add the required amount of waffle batter for your size iron. Mine makes small heartshaped ones, so I only need 2 tbsps or so of mixture per waffle. As you can see in the photos above, I was incredibly messy! Cook 5-8 minutes or until crispy and golden. Remove to a plate and put in the oven to keep warm while you cook the remainder. Serve with BBQ shredded beef and roast tomatoes and grapes. Or bacon and eggs and maple syrup. Or just a drizzle of maple syrup and an extra cracking of pepper