So, I've been pretty slack with the photographs lately - so you'll only be getting phone pictures for a while. Sorry about that.
I've been somewhat pre-occupied with researching and booking our upcoming holiday, so everything else has fallen by the wayside. Seriously, so excited! At times like this, my memory is even worse than usual. Do you ever buy a specific ingredient with a specific dish in mind - then completely forget why? I do. All. the. time. I bought some ruby red grapefruit last weekend. I can only imagine that it was for some form of salad, given that it got back up to 37C, despite being April. I can't remember what I planned to pair with it, but a salad still seemed like a good idea.
Lately I've been wanting Moroccan flavours. I haven't had a great deal of Moroccan cuisine (despite being in love with my tagine and using it to cook everything), but I had leafed through a Moroccan cookbook a few weeks back and thought that they would go well with the grapefruit. A lot of recipes call for harissa paste, which I knew was a chilli paste of some description, but I didn't know the specific flavours. I found a recipe online and gave it a go, using it as a rub on a slow-roasted lamb leg but I can't say that I was all that excited by it. I decided to try a commercial one, to see what it was 'supposed' to taste like. Much better. Zesty, with a decent residual heat. Cumin and caraway stronger than the one I made. Perfect for a salad dressing. I added honey for sweetness, herbs for freshness, crunchy veges and some seeds for texture.
Quite impressed with the results. Fresh and spicy at the same time. Really easy to prepare as the food processor does all the work. Perfect salad for a warm night. Paired beautifully with steaks. Next time, I would consider adding some fetta or goats cheese and toasting the seeds.
Moroccan Carrot, Cauliflower and Ruby Red Grapefruit Salad
Half head cauliflower
4 small carrots
4 big sprigs flat leaf parsley
4 big sprigs basil
4 big sprigs coriander
handful pepitas
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 red grapefruit
2 tsbp harissa paste
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp grapefruit juice
shaving of pecorino to serve
Break the cauli into florets, and put it through the processor, pulsing until it resembles rice. Put it in a bowl big enough to hold the whole salad. Do the same with the carrots, add to the bowl. Do the same with the herbs, but leave slightly bigger.
Segment the grapefruit, breaking it up over the bowl of the processor to catch the juice. Break the segments into small pieces and add to the bowl of vegetables. Add all of the seeds, and fold together, mixing thoroughly
To the grapefruit juice in the bowl of the processor, add the harissa paste, honey, grapeseed oil and salt. Blend to combine, check for seasoning.
Pour dressing over the vegetables and mix thoroughly, then serve with pecorino. As I said, next time I'll use fetta or goat's cheese.
Instead of buying eggs and bunnies for people we visited over the Easter period, I thought it'd be nice to make people something chocolatey. I've tried a multitude of truffles over the years, with varied success and didn't feel too keen to risk a failure. My last effort didn't go so well, the lemon white chocolate wouldn't set hard enough to roll into balls. It did, however, make the most delicious macaroon filling. I also find them really fiddly, something a bit more straight-forward seemed the go.
First on the menu - Whisky Caramel, Marshmallow and Bacon Bark. I first found this about year ago I guess, through pinterest on endless simmer and gave it a shot. It was a bit of effort, but delicious. And seeing as my brother and husband kept 'innocently' mentioning it when I said I wanted to make something chocolatey for presents, it seemed time to make another batch. I followed the linked recipe above almost 100% both times. Except Australian bacon isn't the same as American bacon. It doesn't 'crumble' as well, so I diced it finely before cooking. I also used normal marshmallows instead of mini. I'm guessing the gelatin content or something is therefore reduced? Not sure. It still sets pretty well if you keep it in the fridge. If you give this a go and it's too sweet, try eating it with ice cream!
And secondly, I made Alejandra from Always Order Dessert's Orange Chocolate Dessert Salami. I have Eastern European heritage, and grew up eating salamis and such, so when I saw this recipe on her blog, I knew I would be making it for my family at some point! I used shortbread and a combination of walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts. I also used a mandarin liqueur (it seems we'd drunk the Cointreau!). Make sure you check out her recipe for ideas of other flavour combinations.
As a gift combination, they work awesomely. The dark bitter salami dotted with delicious crunchy bits stands in stark contrast to the chewy, almost over-the-top sweetness of the bark. It's also fun seeing people come to terms with bacon on their dessert - then offering them chocolate salami!
I do caution you on a few things making these. One - watch the caramel! It goes from 'not quite caramel' to 'burnt' very quickly. Two - put the marshmallow pot into hot water immediately. Three - keep lots for yourself! They're seriously amazing!
Bacon Bark
450g milk chocolate
Whiskey Marshmallow
1 packet Pascall's Marshmallows (I put the brand, because I can't remember how much it weighed)
1/4 cup whiskey (I used Jack Daniels)
Bacon bits
450g bacon, finely diced
4 tbsps sugar syrup
1 egg white
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne
Caramel sauce
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp water
4 tbsp butter
7 tbsp cream
Because of the time involved, I start making the bacon crumble first. At the 'place in oven' stage, I then make the caramel, to allow adequate cooling time for that, too.
Cook finely diced bacon and set aside to cool completely. This is important, because otherwise you scramble the egg white. Heat oven to 150C. Toss the bacon bits through the sugar syrup, and pass through a strainer to remove excess syrup. While straining, beat egg white in a bowl until foamy, whisk in the black pepper and cayenne. Add in bacon and stir well to coat. Spread this bacon mix over a baking tray and put in the oven for 30 minutes or so until crispy. Remove and cool.
To make caramel, add sugar and water in a pan over low heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to high, every so often, swirl the pot to keep mixture moving, but do not stir. The mixture will then start turning a nice caramel colour, when this happens, remove from the heat and add the butter and cream. Whisk to combine, set aside to cool.
Break the chocolate up into a bowl, and slowly melt over a simmering pot of water. Line a baking tray with baking paper allowing some overhang. Spread half of the chocolate into a thin layer on the tray. Place into the freezer/fridge to set hard.
Place the marshmallows in a pot over a low heat to melt. When they start to break up and stop looking like individual marshmallows, remove from heat and stir through the whiskey. Spread in an even layer over the chocolate. Put in the freezer/fridge to set.
Spread a layer of the caramle over the marshmallow layer, then follow up with a chocolate layer using the other half of the chocolate. Sprinkle the bacon bits over the top, pressing in slightly. Put in the fridge/freezer to set. Store in the fridge, remove about an hour before serving. If you can wait that long.
Chocolate Salami
1/3 cup finely chopped almonds
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
1/2 cup crushed shortbread
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup Mandarin liqueur
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp orange zest
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
icing sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 175C. Spread the nuts on a baking tray and put in the oven until lightly toasted. Remove and cool
Chop the butter up, add to chocolate chips and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until completely melted. It'll burn if you try do it all at once. Stir in the liqueur until smooth, then add the nuts, shortbread, salt and zest, making sure it's evenly combined. Fold through the white chocolate chips. Place in the fridge to cool and harden, so you can form it.
I then divided this into 3 portions, for three smaller salamis. Place three sheets of plastic wrap on the counter - 1 for each sausage. Form into a sausage shape and wrap tightly in the plastic. Let it chill until firm, I left it overnight.
Remove from plastic, then rub the outside with icing sugar to make it look like a real salami! You'll then need to wrap in new plastic wrap to store. Slice and eat!
Last weekend was spent raiding family members' gardens for herbs. Well, technically, we were visiting family, but as a happy offshoot of these visits, I came home with a nice swag of chillis, parsley, spring onions, basil, thyme and oregano. The basil, thyme and oregano was stored in the one bag and when I opened it up it smelt like pasta. Or pizza. It was crying out for tomatoes and garlic. I thought it only fair that I complied.
Sitting at work, looking out the window, the sky got steadily greyer, and heavier, and wetter. Summer is officially over, with this storm and the temperatures dropping. Ok, so it's still not super cold, but it's cooler. And it's been a while since we've had such snuggle-worthy, soup and bread weather. So I decided to just go with it. A steaming bowl of hot soup and some crunchy pizza bread to dip into it. Some of the positive aspects of winter! My husband isn't the hugest fan of "just" tomato soup, so as I drove home in the rain, I contemplated what I should add. Sitting at the lights and going through the vegetables I had at home, I decided to go with those colours. Red, orange and green. I know, I know, kinda lame. But it turned out delicious! Red tomatoes and chilli, orange pumpkin, sweet potato and carrots and lots and lots of green herbs.
I then followed through again with the garnish. Red bacon bits, orange soup and green parsley. I already had some cooked bacon bits in the fridge, but if you don't, dice up some bacon very finely, then fry for a few minutes until crispy.
Technically, a roast vegetable soup - but I'm calling it Traffic Light Soup.
Traffic Light Soup
1 medium butternut pumpkin
2 medium sweet potatoes
4 small carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
a few sprigs of thyme
4 ripe tomatoes
2 cans diced tomato
big handful basil
big handful oregano
salt & pepper
1 brown onion
1 red chilli
4 cloves garlic
5 cans of water/stock
parsley
cream (or sour cream)
bacon bits
Preheat oven to 180C
Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds. Lightly oil and place cut side down on baking tray, with a thyme sprig in the cavity. Slice the sweet potatoes and carrots in half length-wise, lightly oil and sprinkle in thyme leaves. Roast for 40 minutes or so until soft.
Mix the chopped herbs, salt, pepper into the tinned tomatoes, put in an oven proof dish and add the fresh tomatoes on top. Roast for 30 minutes or so, until the whole tomatoes fall apart when you touch them.
About 10 minutes before the vegetables are done roasting, saute the onion, chilli and garlic in a tbsp or so of olive oil until translucent. Fill the tomato cans with water to rinse out and add the liquid to the pot. All up I used 5 cans of liquid (3 water, 2 stock). Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Take the vegetables out of the oven. Add the tomatoes (carefully!!) into the pot. Allow the pumpkin and sweet potato to cool slightly, then skin and tip into the pot as well, along with the carrots. Stir it all around, then whizz it up until smooth with a stick blender. This can also be done in batches in a normal blender. Check for seasoning.
Swirl some cream over the top, sprinkle on some bacon bits and parsley.
Serve with your favourite bread. This pizza bread is just Lebanese loaves, garlic olive oil, parsley and parmesan, chucked in the oven for a few minutes.
This is a weird combination of leftovers/cooked-for-another-dish/new meal that I made for dinner the other night. Confused? Haha! Me too, writing that! Let me explain. Earlier in the week, we had my in-laws around for dinner. For Christmas, they had given my husband a beer chicken frame - it's a ring thing that you put a can of beer in, and place the cavity of the chicken around it and then roast it in the BBQ. The beer steams through the chicken and subtly flavours it. It's quite delicious and seeing as we had a small chicken, my husband roasted it as a taster for them before the main meal. It's something he's planning on experimenting a lot with, I think ginger beer is next on the list! Currently his favourite way of doing it is by adding chillis and garlic into the beer. So anyway, I had about 1 cup's worth of beer-roasted chicken leftover, so that takes care of the "leftovers" part.
And that night, I was making people chocolate gifts for Easter, rather than buying them eggs. I decided on two items, Chocolate Salami and Whisky Marshmallow, Caramel Bacon Bark. I absolutely fell in love with the Chocolate Salami idea when I saw the pictures on my favourite food blog, Always Order Dessert. And the Bacon Bark, which as a vegetarian dish improved by bacon, shouldn't really need further explanation. I will do a post on both of these in the not-too-distant future. It being Easter very soon! But to make the Bacon Bark, I needed to cook bacon! So I left about a quarter cup of small diced bacon in the pan to help flavour this pilaf. So that's the "cooked-for-another-dish" portion.
Add newly roasted vegetables, and that sort of explains what I meant. But after tempering more chocolate than I've eaten all year, toasting nuts, making caramel, burning caramel, making more caramel, melting marshmallow and crushing biscuits, this hearty yet light pilaf was a delightful dinner. And it all comes together with very minimal 'active' cooking time. In fact, I was calling it a 'risotto' until I realised I didn't do the constant stir, add stock, stir that comes with real risotto cooking.
Roast Chicken and Vegetable Buckwheat "Pilaf"
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
1/4 cup finely diced bacon bits
punnet of cherry tomatoes
kernels of 3 corn cobs
1 small zucchini, diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
splash of apple cider vinegar (or white wine)
1 cup buckwheat
2 cups water (or stock)
pecorino to taste
salt and pepper to taste
Toss the cherry tomatoes, zucchini and corn kernels in a splash of olive oil. Add the garlic slices and roast in a moderate oven for around 30 minutes. Until zucchini and tomatoes are soft and squishy and corn is golden and cooked.
Meanwhile, fry the bacon bits in a high sided saute pan or put until crispy. Add the buckwheat and stiry around to coat in the bacon fat. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar and stir the buckwheat around in it until it's evaporated. Add the water (or stock), put the lid on and cook for half an hour or so until very almost cooked. Stir through the shredded chicken and cook for an extra 5 minutes or so until warmed. Check for seasoning.
Serve with shaved pecorino, and a fresh crack of pepper.
Food inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. Have you seen "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"? It's got Johnny Depp in it, of course you have! In it, his character says that he orders Puerco Pibil in every dive he goes to in Mexico, ordering it with tequila and lime. There's a sort of pivotal point he makes in relation to the dish, which I won't go into on the off-chance that you haven't seen it. But consequently, the dish is deemed significant enough for the recipe to be included on the DVD. Awesome, right?
Knowing my husband's love of food & tequila matching, I surprised him one day around 5 years ago by making this slow-roasted pork dish. Well, as close as I could (I couldn't find annatto seeds or banana leaves). It was pretty darn good. It's a pretty specific hot/citrussy flavour that both of us end up craving from time to time. You know something I realised just not - a lot of my food cravings are things that are either slow-cooked or have ingredients that I don't ordinarily have on hand - convenient :/). My husband has to work on public holidays, so consequently I often end up making slow-cooked or complicated dishes on these days. So I have time to make them and he gets to come home to something awesome. Win-win!
Last public holiday, I decided two things. I was *finally* going to make my own tortillas. This was something I was putting off until weekends because the idea seemed time consuming - but then our weekends were so full that it still never happened. I am absolutely addicted to tacos at the moment, so it just makes sense for me to make my own tortillas. And two, I wanted to make Puerco Pibil to go in those tacos. With tequila and lime on the side. I didn't have any pork in the house, but i did have a big lump of beef. I thought that beef would stand up to the flavours just as well. So, Beef Pibil? I chucked it all in the slow cooker, made some fresh guacamole, a fresh tomato and nectarine salsa to kick in some sweetness, a few crispy veges in my own homemade corn tortillas. Now, who wouldn't want to come home from a hard day's work to eat that?
Beef Pibil
1.5kg beef gerello
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
1 tbsp salt
2 green chillis, finely diced
2 jalapeno chillis, finely diced
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
8 garlic cloves
juice of 5 lemons
shot of tequila (I use a reposado for cooking)
half tin black beans - optional
Cut the beef up into chunky dice, or i just sliced into fat rings that would be just submerged in the braising liquid. Grind the spices in a mortar and pestle. Mix all the liquids together in a bowl, stir the spices in.
Throw the beef and braising liquid into your slow cooker, then cook on high for 4 hours, turning occasionally. When the beef is tender, use two forks to shred, then continue cooking for an extra half hour with the lid off to cook off some of the liquid. Add the black beans, if you're using them.
Tomato & Nectarine Salsa
2 large, ripe tomatos
2 small, ripe nectarines
splash of red wine liqueur vinegar
hot sauce to taste
chopped coriander
chopped basil
chopped flat leaf parsley
Everything here is basically to taste, chop it up, mix it up. Let it rest for half an hour or so for the flavours to infuse while you make the tortillas.
Corn Tortillas
As per the recipe in this book, bought for me by the lovely Jasmine
3 cups tortilla flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups warm water
Mix the flour and salt together, add the water and mix with your hands, kneading it to become a firm dough. This is only a minute or so. The dough should be slightly sticky, and leave a light film on your hands. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.
Take small balls of dough (around 2 tbsps) , roll out disc-like between two sheets of baking paper. Try make it as even thickness as possible.
In a frypan heated to medium, carefully place the tortilla onto the pan. Flip over after around 30 seconds, then again after 30 seconds. Both sides should be slightly coloured. Put on a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm.
Repeat with all the dough.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I get really specific cravings. I'll be sitting watching tv and really want avocado and vegemite on rye toast. Or I'll be reading and want a Corona with a splash of Creole bitters. Or sitting at work imagining a jambalaya just like I had in San Francisco 5 years ago. Or that dish that I made up a few months back that would be perfect right now. In my introduction post, I sort of forgot to say why I decided to start up this blog. I told you a bit about who I was and where I was coming from, but not why I came to be here, doing this.
Something like this is always based on lots of reasons - wanting a creative outlet, showing off my mad skills in the kitchen (ha!) and giving back to a source that has inspired me so often are all up there. But the number one reason is because I need to have a reason to write down my recipes and what I cook. I'm a bit scatty in the kitchen, I find it difficult to follow a recipe exactly. I like to consider it 'experimental', because that makes it sound like a good thing. I change the recipe bassed on what my mouth feels like it wants, what I have stocked in the house and crazy ideas of what just might work. I can be disappointing to realise that the thing I am craving, I can't replicate exactly. I'm still a little fly-by-the-seat-of-my-apron, so most of my measurements will be a little guesstimated (mainly to save on dishes), but generally close enough is good enough.
And speaking of cravings, last night I wanted roast pumpkin. And bacon. I had bought the cutest ever baby butternuts earlier in the week and it conjured up a memory of a stuffed squash recipe I'd seen in the not too distant past. Back when pinterest was full of 'Fall' recipes and I was gearing up for summer. And then that was what I wanted. But with bacon. I was so satisfied with the result that I made sure I wrote it all down. So far, so good!
Stuffed Butternut Pumpkin with Kale, Chipotle and Bacon
serves: 2-4 depending on how hungry everyone is and how big the pumpkins are. I had the cutest little ones.
2 small butternut pumpkins
2 cloves of garlic,cut in half, then lightly squished
2 chipotle chillis, cut in half
1/2 cup cooked millet
3 rashers bacon
2 shallots, minced
1 celery stalk, small dice
1 carrot, peeled and small dice
2 bay leaves
10 or so coriander seeds
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried sage
splash of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 leaves kale, finely shredded
3 sprigs parsley, leaves chopped fine
1/4 cup pepitas
Parmesan cheese – a few shreds on top of each half.
Pepper (I used lemon pepper – get the no added salt type)
Preheat the oven to 180C.
When I was making the millet for this, I cooked a whole big batch, because I needed some for another recipe. But generally I use a 1:2 millet:water ratio, bring to the boil, simmer for about 10 minutes, then turn off and leave the lid on for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork to separate the grains.
Cut the pumpkin in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place the smashed garlic cloves and chipotle peppers on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover them with the hollow of the pumpkins. Roast in the oven and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Flip the butternuts, and spoon a bit of the cooked flesh out to make a bit more of a hole for the stuffing . Leave a decent pumpkin lining still. Finely dice the chipotle and garlic from beneath the pumpkin. Set it all aside.
While the pumpkin is in the oven, dice the bacon small, and chuck in a medium heat pan with tallish sides. As it releases some of it’s fat as oil into the pan, chuck the shallots and bay leaves in and give a good stir. Once the bacon is a bit crispy and the shallots are softened, add the carrots and celery. Cook these for about 5 minutes and then add the coriander seeds, thyme and sage. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar and scrape the bacon bits off the bottom of the pan. Add the parsley and kale, swirling around until the kale wilts a little. Add the millet and water and mix around to ensure it’s all fully incorporated. Cook until the water has evaporated. Add the pumpkin flesh you removed earlier. Chop the chipotles and garlic from beneath the pumpkin, mix it all in well.
Change the oven to grill. Fill the pumpkin hollows with as much stuffing as you can, pop some pepitas on top, and as much parmesan as you desire – I only put a tiny bit. Just enough to add flavor and that crispy/melty crunch that parmesan gets. Top with lemon pepper, then grill until cheese is melty and pepitas are toasted.
Love is in the everyday, in the rituals. My husband and I have developed and perfected various routines for our day-to-day chores and tasks. And mornings are more sort of my domain. When the alarm goes off, I get up and get my husband toast, bring it in on the best plate ever, and pack his lunch while he gets dressed. His lunch has changed over the years to something super easy for me to pack.
He works with a lot of tradies, and doesn't really like the state of the kitchen in his lunch room, so he was never a fan of preparing, or even storing his food there. And working outside in an Australian summer restricts what he wants to bring in for lunch. His current food of choice for lunch is biscuits. Nutritious, right? But he often doesn't get a proper lunch break, so he likes things he can snack on here and there. Enter quinoa. These cookies are the perfect mix of healthy, extended energy, bite-sized and delicious to work perfectly as a lunch biscuit. Something I don't feel too badly about giving him. Make sure that you use natural peanut butter (the only ingredient should be peanuts), because the texture helps them stick together. I found the original recipe here, but changed the mixing method slightly and added vanilla.
But knowing I make these biscuits for his lunch and help him get off to work every day makes him feel loved. Like when he gives me a back rub when it's my turn to do the dishes. It's the little things.
Quinoa Cookies
Makes around 30 small cookies
2 cups cooked quinoa, cooled
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I like chunky)
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsps maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or cacao nibs if you're feeling especially virtuous)
Preheat oven to 180C
Line a baking tray with baking paper
Combine quinoa, salt, coconut, chocolate chips and oats in a large mixing bowl.
Stir in coconut and chocolate chips, make sure it's evenly distributed.
Add peanut butter, maple syrup and vanilla and mix it all in really well.
Very lightly oil your hands (to stop the mix sticking too much!)
Mix round balls, forming together tightly and push to flatten slightly. They do not flatten/spread themselves.
Bake for around 20 minutes until golden.
Cool completely before storing.
These are also delicious with dried fruit - cranberries, sultanas and the like!
