Showing posts with label cabbage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cabbage. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw

Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw

I am lucky enough to have just over a week off for my company's Christmas shut-down and I had grand plans to make up for the current decline in my blog posts and prep a whole bunch for the new year. Then I would catch up on reading other blogs and spring clean my desk area and re-arrange the spare room and do some gardening. And. And. And I have done none of it. Today is the first day I've even been willing to turn my computer on. This has been officially my laziest Christmas break. I've actually used it as a break! Lots of book reading and beach going and lazy shopping.

Hopefully everyone has had a fabulous holiday period. I certainly did, celebrating with both families, eating up a storm. In lieu of a big night tonight (with Lance not getting January 1st off), we also had our now traditional New Year's Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve BBQ. But tonight we will have a quiet BBQ at home with the best of intentions to stay awake until midnight. And we will be eating this salad. 

This is currently one of my favourite salads. It is super easy to make, and can be made a day or two in advance if necessary. It is the perfect salad to take to a BBQ. It is a vinegar-based slaw, rather than the mayonnaise based coleslaw that most Australian's are more familiar with, which makes it a much lighter dish. Instead of carrot, I use pumpkin with red onion and silverbeet (chard) for colour. The salt comes from the delightfully savoury taste of miso paste, whilst maple adds a sweet touch against the vinegar. A touch of sriracha adds a faint spice, without too much heat. Toasted pumpkin seeds round out the texture perfectly.

I am not the hugest fan of raw onion in salads, which is why I added the step to sit the onion in vinegar first. It takes a little of the onion's punch out. Feel free to skip this step if you are an onion lover.

This makes a large amount of salad, but as I said, it keeps a few days in the fridge so you can have it as leftovers if you aren't serving it to a crowd.

Happy New Year my lovely readers, and I promise my posts will get a little more on-track in 2015!


Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw
Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw
Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw
Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw



Pumpkin Miso Slaw

1 small butternut pumpkin
¼ head cabbage
3 leaves silverbeet
¼ cup toasted pepitas
½ white onion
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp sriracha (or to taste)
Salt & pepper to taste


Thinly slice the onion into half moons, cover with the 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar and set aside whilst you prepare everything else.


Grate (by hand, or in a food processor) the pumpkin, finely shred the cabbage and silverbeet. Mix together in a large bowl.


Add all the dressing ingredients to a jar and shake until well combined. Taste for seasoning, adjust as required. Pour over the salad and mix well to coat everything. Mix the onion into the salad. Set aside for half an hour for the acid in the vinegar to soften the pumpkin.


Just before serving, toss through the pumpkin seeds


Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw
Summer BBQ - Pumpkin and Miso Slaw

Friday, October 10, 2014

Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl


Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl

I’ve never made croquettes before, but when someone suggested on Skamp’s facebook page that it was a good way for using leftover roast sweet potato and pumpkin, I thought it was time to give it a go. I had almost exactly 200g of roast sweet potato and pumpkin leftover from a roast the night before and this made the perfect amount of croquettes for the two of us for dinner. These would be great served as a hot snack at a dinner party with maybe some sweet chilli sauce or creamy sriracha dipping sauce.


I had a fairly salty style Danish fetta in these croquettes, so if your fetta is less salty, you may need to season. I used coconut as well as bread crumbs for the coating, because I love that combination and it just tends to work for frying anything. Seriously.

To make it a complete meal, I served it with a chipotle rotkohl – a sauerkraut made with red cabbage. This is in no way a traditional recipe, but it tastes pretty amazing! A nice briny sauerkraut with a smokey kick of heat. This with the naturally sweet flavour of the roast veges in the croquettes was a match made in heaven. And then to round it out, some rye bread toast and some chorizo fried in muscat. The rotkohl makes way more than you’ll need for a meal for two, but it keeps well, just reheating it as you need it for a few days


Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey RotkohlUsing Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl


Roast Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Croquettes

200g roast pumpkin and sweet potato, mashed
85g fetta
1 tsp dried basil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko
1/2 cup dried coconut
1 tsp coriander powder

In a large bowl, mash the sweet potato and pumpkin together, then mix through the dried basil to distribute evenly. Gently fold through the fetta. You want it to be evenly mixed through, but not necessarily smooth. A few small lumps of fetta are fine.

Set up a crumbing station. Have two shallow bowls, one with a lightly beaten egg. In the other, mix together the panko, coconut and coriander powder.

Form the croquettes by rolling 2-3tbsp of pumpkin mixture into logs. Roll in the egg, then in the panko mixture. Place on a tray and refrigerate for 30 minutes to set.

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a pan, and fry each side of the croquettes until golden and crispy on the outside, and warm and gooey inside. About 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towel for 5 minutes to cool to eating temperature and eat straight away!

Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl


Smokey Rotkohl (Red Cabbage Sauerkraut)

1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 red cabbage, thinly sliced
1 chipotle chili
1 cup hot water
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp honey

Pour the hot water over the chipotle chili and set aside to soften.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil to medium heat. Add the red onion and salt, and sautee until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic.

Add the cabbage, tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, cumin seeds and honey. Remove the chipotle from the hot water, and add the water to the pot as well. Bring the liquid to the boil, pushing the cabbage into the liquid as well as you can. Then turn down to a simmer.

Core the chipotle, then finely slice and add to the rotkohl. Simmer for 30 minutes or so, until the cabbage is soft. Serve!


Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl
Using Leftovers - Sweet Potato, Pumpkin and Fetta Croquettes with Smokey Rotkohl



Monday, June 30, 2014

Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon

Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon

I went to the Taste of Perth Food Festival earlier in the year. It’s a bit of a different concept to your usual food festival in that the top restaurants of the city present 4 dishes in tapas size-servings so you can taste what the restaurant is all about. It was so amazing. Lance and I shared each dish so we could fit in the maximum dishes and in so doing added a bunch of new restaurants to our ‘to-visit’ list. One of the (many) stand-out dishes was Nobu’s pork belly with caramel miso sauce. Everything about the dish was perfectly constructed. The textures, the salt-to-sweet-to-umami flavours of the sauce. Heaven. 


The use of caramel sauce in a savoury dish brought back the memory of a dish I made often a few years back of Caramel Braised Pork. Another sweet-savoury dish using caramel, pineapple, sweet potato and pork. So then my head started going through what I had at home and what flavours would go well with caramel. I had bought a bag of baby eggplants from the Nanna Shop. I love the creamy texture that eggplants get when you cook them, and thought that would make the perfect vegetarian base for a caramel dish. I used pomegranate for a tart contrast and water chestnuts for a textural counterpoint. And instead of using sugar to make the caramel, I used redgum honey. I’d never made caramel with honey before, but it works just as well as sugar. It adds a subtle floral flavor to the caramel that works well in this dish. Number one rule for making caramel is to watch it carefully, because it turns from caramel to burnt mess very, very quickly. But once the caramel is done, the dish can be left to cook, just stirring here and there, making it a good week night dish to set going while you prep for the next day. The toasted nuts on top really do finish the dish, so do add them. 



Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon


Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon


½ cup honey
1 tbsp lime juice
3 tsp butter
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp fish sauce
¼ cup Chinese cooking wine
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
Juice from one orange
1 tsp finely chopped red chilli
1 pomegranate, seeded
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 brown onion, diced
6 baby eggplants, cut into rounds
1 tin sliced water chestnuts
¼ large green cabbage, shredded
Udon noodles
Handful roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Pickled onion 

Start by preparing your sauce. Mix together the onion, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, Chinese cooking wine, rice wine vinegar, orange juice, chilli and pomegranate in a bowl and set aside. Prep all of your veges. 

In a large, deep frypan add the honey and lime juice and heat over a medium-high flame. Stir to combine as it warms, then as it starts bubbling, stop stirring. Swirl occasionally by the handle to keep it moving as it starts browning and turning to caramel – about 3 minutes. Watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat, and stir in the butter. Watch it as it will spatter. Mix until smooth. 

Add the sauce, add back to the heat and stir well to combine as it comes back to a boil. Add the eggplant, cabbage and water chestnuts, and stir well to coat in the sauce. Leave to braise, stirring now and then until the sauce reduces and thickens, and the vegetables become tender. Around 20 minutes. 

Prepare udon as per the packet instructions, and drain well. Place in a bowl and scoop the caramel braised vegetables on top. Sprinkle generously with toasted peanuts and pickled onion, if desired.

Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon
Caramel for Dinner - Pomegranate Caramel Braised Eggplant and Cabbage with Udon