Nati's Cooking Adventures

Pear and Maple Syrup Triangles

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:26:00 +0000

This super easy dessert can be made with homemade puff pastry or ready made pastry from the supermarket. If you're in Australia, the brands of puff pastry that I recommend are, first "Pastry Chef" from Aldi, and second the "Black & Gold" brand from IGA. I find that these brands are so much flakier and light than any other brand. The IGA "Black & Gold" had been my favorite for years until I recently discovered the brand from Aldi.

Ingredients
1.5 ready made puff pastry sheets
1 large pear
1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup
6 large strawberries, washed
6 tablespoons of creamy vanilla yogurt

Peel the pear, cut it into fours and remove the core. Slice very thinly.
Place the pear in a small bowl and pour the maple syrup over it, mix well and set aside.
Cut the whole sheet of puff pastry into four squares, and the half into two.
Remove the pear from the syrup and divide into 6.
Place filling in the center of each square and fold in half, pressing the edges with a fork to seal.
Place on a cookie tray lined with baking paper, and brush any remaining maple syrup (from the bowl) over the triangles.
Bake till they are nicely colored.
Serve drizzled with a tablespoon of vanilla yogurt and decorate with a sliced strawberry.

Serves 6

Roasted Veggie Bake with Lettuce, Apple & Walnut Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:05:00 +0000

Veggie Bake (serves 6)
1 large eggplant
1 large zucchini
400gms Jap pumpkin

1 large onion chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of fresh thyme (finely chopped)
2 tbs vegetable oil
800gm of canned tomatoes (blended)

500gms firm tofu (or 500gms low fat ricotta)
3 tablespoons dry chives
salt & pepper to taste

50gms baby spinach leaves

Slice the eggplant, zucchini and pumpkin very finely, spread out each vegetable on a baking tray lined with baking paper (to prevent sticking) and brush lightly with olive oil (or spray with cooking spray. Cook on a hot oven until they are tender. Set aside
Chop onion and garlic finely and saute in the olive oil some vegetable oil. When they are see through and starting to caramelise, add the can of tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes, add thyme and salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
Place tofu, dry chives and salt & pepper into a food process, and blend until it resembles a cream cheese. (if using Ricotta, just blend until the chives are mixed through the cheese)
Spoon some of the cooked sauce on the bottom of a baking tray and layer with eggplant, followed by some zucchini. Place the whole lot of tofu (or ricotta) on top of the zucchini, flatten it out, and then continue to layer that with pumpkin, followed by spinach leaves. Spoon more sauce on top of the spinach leaves, then place the remainder of the eggplant, and finish off with some more sauce.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Serve with salad

Salad
3/4 of a butter lettuce
50gms spinach
1 fuji apple
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 carrot
Dressing
1 tablespoon dijonnaise
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar

Tear the lettuce roughly and place in a bowl with the washed spinach.
Peel the carrot and cut into thin batons.
Peel apple, remove core, and cut into quarters. Slice each quarter into small pieces.
Mix dressing, and pour over the lettuce. Mix in other vegetables and walnuts.
Serve immediately.

Breakfast Stack

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:18:00 +0000

A few weeks ago hubby and I delivered a wedding cake in the morning to a venue near the city. Afterward we went to the Veggie Bar for brunch. One of the things Boone had was a breakfast stack. It looked simple enough, so I decided to try it out. So here it is. It was delicious. The hash browns I made were a little thick according to hubby, the ones at Veggie Bar were the type they use at McDonald's, and mine were homemade. I think if they were thinner they'd be crunchier, but I liked them like this.

Breakfast Stack (Serves 3)
Hash Browns (recipe below)
Mock Hollandaise (recipe below)
3 free range eggs (poached)
1 large tomato (cut into thick slices)
3 large flat mushrooms (stalk removed)
120gms Baby Spinach Leaves
Vegetable oil to cook

Make hash browns and hollandaise as per recipe below and set aside.
Cook mushrooms on a little bit of vegetable oil, these take a while to cook so I'd suggest cooking them first and setting them aside while you prepare the other ingredients (keep warm)
Poach your eggs.
Cook tomato on a non stick pan and a little vegetable oil
Sautee spinach leaves
Assemble by putting the hash brown on the bottom, follow with the tomato, then the mushroom, spinach and then the egg. Pour some of the sauce over the top. Serve warm

Hash Brown
420gms (15oz) Potato (cut into small squares)
40gms (1oz) Potato Flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
Vegetable/Olive oil for frying

Cook the chopped potatoes and set aside to cool. I put mine in the microwave for 10 minutes and they were done. I left the skins on because they were very clean and the extra nutrition never goes astray ;)
Add the potato flour and mix it through thoroughly through the potatoes. Press the mix into an egg mold on a chopping board. Move the mold to ensure it is not stuck on the bottom and unmold. The hash brown should come out intact. I used larger molds, used for crumpets. This mix made 3 hash browns in the larger mold.
Cook on a non stick pan with a little vegetable or olive oil until they are nicely colored and crunchy.

Mock Hollandaise
10gms Arrowroot
15gms Potato Flour
1 egg yolk (optional)
2tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup rice milk (soy or dairy is ok too)
1/4 tsp tumeric
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan until thoroughly mix.
Cook on a low heat until sauce thickens. Add water if the sauce is too thick.
Season with salt and pepper.
Pour over stack.

Three Cheese Pasta & Spinach Bake

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Ingredients
450gms cooked pasta (tubes or spirals are great for this, I used gluten free pasta, for a gluten free dish)
350gms ricotta
120gms grated Tasty cheese
85gms grated Parmesan cheese
250gm packet of finely chopped spinach (defrosted and drained, ends up being about 120gms of spinach)
6 large eggs (lightly beaten)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Place pasta, cheeses, spinach, salt, pepper and eggs in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly ensuring that the pasta does not break up too much.
Grease a deep non stick pan and pour mixture into the pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.

Bean, Potato & Caramelised Onion Salad
Ingredients
260gms boiled potato cubes
190gms cooked flat beans
2 large onions sliced
1/4 red capsicum
1/2 yellow capsicum
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbs sugar

Method

Place balsamic vinegar in a small pot with the sugar. Bring to the boil, and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool. It will have a syrupy consistency.
Cook beans in boiling water, I like mine to be a little crunchy. Set aside.
Heat oil in a fry pan and cook onions until they are caramelised. Set aside.
Grill capsicums and remove skin, slice thinly and set aside.
Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss together. Serve with vinegar reduction.

Pasta Frola con Dulce De Batata - Sweet Potato Tart

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:13:00 +0000

Pasta Frola is a tart made traditionally with quince jam. It is very common in Uruguay and Argentina. In Uruguay we also have bastardised this tart and make it with other types of jams.

We have many so called jams in Uruguay, which are so different to what is regarded as a jam in Australia. We have milk jam, tomato jam, sweet potato jam, quince jam, pumpkin jam.

Milk jam is basically a thick rich caramel which we use for many of our desserts. It is a staple in our celebration cakes which normally consist of a sponge or butter cake filled with dulce de leche (milk jam) , Chantilly cream, and sometimes pieces of peach. Mostly these cakes are covered in a beautiful cooked soft meringue.

We eat dulce de leche on bread or on our lovely "tortas fritas" (which I will blog about another time). It is delicious on creme caramel and we also use it to fill these tarts. YUMMY. But I digress, today is not about Dulce de leche.

The texture and consistency of the quince, sweet potato and pumpkin jams is very similar. They are more like thick pastes which can be cut into slices, and eaten on bread or with cheese. They are all very different in flavour but all so delicious. All of these can be used as a filling for this tart. The traditional filling for a "Pasta Frola" as previously mentioned is the quince jam or "Dulce de Membrillo".

Yesterday my mum gave me a tin of "Dulce de Batata", or sweet potato jam. I love it!! I guess it must be an acquired taste, neither mum or dad are big fans of it, but they will eat it if they must.

Today we had lunch at mum and dad's. Mum made stuffed capsicums and a pasta sauce. I brought home made egg fettuccine and a Pasta Frola which I made with the sweet potato jam.

The recipe for the Pasta Frola that I used is an old family recipe that we have had for over 30 years, and possibly my mum has had since before I was born. It came from a little booklet which came with our "Royal" which is the brand of Uruguayan baking powder.
Anyway here is the recipe for the tart

Pasta Frola
125gms softened butter
100gms white sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
240gms plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp grated lemon rind
1/4 tsp salt
Filling
300gms Quince Jam (please note that I did not use quince, i used sweet potato)
2 Tbs water(for softening the jam)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg & yolk one at a time beating well after each addition.
Mix in lemon rind
Add flour, baking powder and salt (sifted together) to the first mix, forming a soft dough. Do not over knead or the dough will become tough.
Roll out 2/3 of the dough and place it in a 23cm tart pan.
Spread the filling over the dough and use the remaining pastry to decorate the top of the tart by cutting out strips of dough and placing it in a lattice pattern on top.
Bake at 180 for 30 minutes.

I sometimes make the recipe with margarine instead of butter, I did so today. For the filling as I specified before I used the sweet potato, I just used a whole tin like the ones pictured above, and placed the contents into the food processor. This made it really easy to get a really smooth filling.

This dough is also lovely to make cookies with, and it's also the same recipe I used for these Lime Meringue Tarts which are gluten free

It is very easy to convert this recipe to gluten free, you just swap the flour and baking powder for Orgran Gluten Free Self Raising Flour.
The recipe for the lime curd is here http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Lime-Curd-L2437.html

Fettucini and Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:59:00 +0000

Boone and I had dinner at an Italian restaurant last week. The main that he had was spaghetti with pesto and potato. It was delicious. He wanted me to try to make it for him.

I wanted to make fettucini instead of spaghetti and wanted to use a vegetable in the dough in order to give the fettucini some extra color to contrast with the green of the pesto.

I decided to use some carrots, but it didn't work so well for adding color, better luck next time. Anyway I put two carrots in the juicer, and used the pulp that is normally discarded to add to the dough.

Carrot & Cracked Pepper Fettucini
460gms plain flour
3 large eggs
80gms carrot pulp
Cracked pepper
Pinch of Salt

Place all ingredients into the food processor, and process until the mix resembles fine crumbs. If it has all come together into a dough, then your carrots had too much moisture and you need to add a bit more flour.

Knead mix until nice and smooth on a lightly floured surface. I like to just knead it enough till it comes together and then run it through the pasta machine a few times until the dough is at the right consistency. It really saves my arms from the kneading :)

Roll them out with your pasta machine and cut them with the fettucini cutter.

Cook in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes.

Pesto & Potato Fettucini
3 medium potatoes cut into cubes
2 bunches of basil
olive oil
60gms of butter
50gms toasted pinenuts
Crushed garlic
freshly grated parmesan
Cooked fettucini

Boil potatoes in salted water and set aside
Place basil, pinenuts, butter and salt in the food processor and process to a chunky consistency.
Heat some oil in a frypan and cook 2 cloves of crushed garlic for a few seconds, add enough pasta for one person, one heaped tablespoon of pesto mix and 100gms of grated parmesan. Toss together until the butter in the pesto is melted. Serve immediately.

Coconut Cream Strawberry net Pancakes with Chantilly Cream

Nets
1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup of coconut cream
2 tsp castor sugar
1 large egg
1/2 a cup of water
Mix all ingredients in a blender. Place mix in a sauce bottle.
Heat a non stick fry pan and using the bottle pour batter onto the pan in a net pattern. Once cooked on one side, turn net over and cook lightly on other side

Sauce
1/2 a punnet of strawberries
4 tbs caster sugar
1/4 cup of coconut cream
Blend all ingredients in a food processor. Cook for 10 minutes in a heavy based saucepan.

Chantilly Cream
300mls of thickened cream
2tbs caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
Beat all ingredients together until the cream is very light and thick in texture.

Assemble by placing a net on the plate, then place three tablespoons of chantilly cream in a line in the middle of the pancake. Place three sliced strawberries on top of the cream and close the net over them.
Serve with strawberry sauce.

Scones, yummy, moist delicious scones....

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:59:00 +0000

I have spent the great majority of my life not being able to make scones. I can make all sorts of cupcakes and cakes, but scones?? Nope. They mock me, they hate me, they turn out like rocks.

Last Saturday my nephew was over and asked me if I had made the scones from Master Chef. Of course I hadn't, I suck at making scones. But Paul wanted to eat scones, so I decided to try again, for the gazillionth time. I took a look at the Master Chef recipe and it just didn't call out to me to make it. I decided to turn to Google to find a recipe.

I found this recipe. It looked so easy, there were great reviews about it. So it had to work right??

Problem was that I had no lemonade and no self raising flour. But decided to try it anyway. So I used these ingredients instead.

Easy Peasy Scones
3 cups of plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
3 tbs sugar dissolved in the juice of half a lemon
Enough mineral water added to the above mix to make one cup
1 cup of thickened cream

Sift flour and baking powder and place in a bowl. Make a well in the center.
Pour mineral water mixed with lemon mix and thickened cream into the flour, and mix with a flat knife until it all comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead just enough till it comes together. Roll out to about 3cm thickness (1 inch) and cut with a floured cutter.
Bake for 10-12 minutes in a hot oven (200 degrees)

We ate a couple of these each hot out of the oven. They were delicious!!!

I decided to try them a few days later as savory scones. YUM!!

Cheese & Chive Scones
100gms of grated Parmesan
3 tbs dry chives
3 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of mineral water (not flat)
1 cup of thickened cream
Pinch of salt
Mix flour, salt, chives and cheese together, make a well in the center. Same as previous recipe.

Chocolate Chip Scones
3 cups self raising flour
100gms of chocolate chopped coarsely
60gms of unsweetened cocoa
60gms of caster sugar
3 tbs Frangelico
1 cup cream
1 cup lemonade
Mix all dry ingredients together, then process as previous recipes.

These are not too sweet and have a beautiful texture!!!! YUMMY YUMMY!!!

This recipe can be modified easily to make all different flavors. WOOHOOOO I CAN MAKE SCONES!!!!! The curse has been lifted. YAY!!!!

Polenta with Mushroom and Blue Cheese Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:21:00 +0000

Boone and I went to dinner at Il Tempo last night. What a delightful little restaurant. In one meal (where we ordered 6 dishes, they were small ok!!) this restaurant quickly became one of our favourites.
I digress. One of the dishes we had was this one. Well not exactly this one, but one similar to it. I decided to try it at home. The polenta at the restaurant was cut as a big triangle, i decided to make rounds that i fried in olive oil. hmmmmmm

Ingredients
2/3 cup of polenta
garlic
2 tbs chopped parsley
100gms button mushrooms (cut into 4's)
45gms blue cheese (I used Castello YUM)
1/2 cup of thickened cream
salt & pepper to taste

Cook polenta as per instructions on packet. Towards the end of cooking add two cloves of garlic which have just been cut in half. Stir through the polenta which at this stage should be getting quite firm. Pour the polenta into a baking paper lined tray, and spread it to a 6ml thickness (about 1/4 of an inch), put it in the fridge to set.
Prepare your salad. (instructions below)
When the polenta is fully set, remove from the pan and using a cookie cutter, cut the polenta into rounds (6 rounds). Heat it up by frying it on both sides in some olive oil.
Sautee mushrooms in olive oil, when they are almost done, lower the heat, and add the cheese, cream and two cloves of garlic cut in half. Stir through until the cheese is melted. Remove the pieces of garlic. Add parsley.
Place three polenta rounds on each plate and pour half of the sauce over it. Serve with salad.

Side Salad
Ingredients
1/2 small red capsicum (cut into small squares)
1/2 small yellow capsicum (cut into small squares)
1/2 carrot (cut into small squares)
1 tabs lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs olive oil

Mix all ingredients and serve with polenta

Vegetarian Dumplings

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I am a big fan of the chinese style vegetarian dumpling. I have Carolyn to thank for this obsession, as I had never tried them prior to her introducing me to them many years ago.

I have since tried them in a few different restaurants, and I've found that quite a few of them refuse to fry the vegetarian ones. In my opinion they're not as nice if they're not fried. You don't get the crispiness that makes them oh so good!!

So my favourites are from Shanghai Village in China Town. They cost something like $5.50 for 15 of them. They are fabbo!!! And yes, they're fried!!!

Anyway a while back I decided to try making these delightful little morsels. My main problem is that I don't know much about Chinese Cuisine (apart from eating it!!).

And of course I'm too lazy or too silly to google these things to find the right way to do them. DOH!!!

So i went out and stupidly bought won ton skins. Made the dumplings, and they were so tough!!! They took ages to cook and they still had a very rubbery horrible texture. Of course my hubby ate them anyway.

Yesterday I tried again with Gow Gee Pastry, and they were fab. I decided to make them again today with a few modifications. Apart from the shape not being a true dumpling shape, they are so gooooood!!!!

Ingredients
140gms Chinese Broccoli
140gms Firm Tofu (I used Silken by mistake, best to use just regular firm tofu)
100gms Water Chestnuts
50gms fresh Shitake Mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
5 Spring onions
1 large egg
1 tablespoon of flour
1.5 packs of Gee Gow Pastry
Salt to taste

Method

Cut off the leaves from the chinese brocolli, shred the leaves and chop the stalks coarsely. Place chopped stalks in the food processor, with the tofu, egg, crushed garlic and flour. Process till all thoroughly mixed.
Chop spring onions, mushrooms and water chestnuts, add to mixture above, and pulse a couple of times to combine. You don't want to lose the texture of the veggies, so don't be tempted to process them too much. Add salt to taste.
Fill each pastry round with about 1 tsp of filling. Moisten the edges with water and seal firmly. Set aside until you have all of them filled.
Prepare a pan with boiling water, and steam your dumplings in batches of 5 or so. Drain them and fry them right away in a small amount of oil. You only fry one side.
Serve hot with dumpling dipping sauce. I bought Lee Kum Kee Seasoned Soy Sauce for Dumpling, it is delicious. Once this runs out, I am going to attempt to make my own.

Makes about 40 dumplings

Coquitos - Coconut Macaroons

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:10:00 +0000

I've been baking and cooking a lot lately. Also taking lots of photos. Both are very addictive. :)
Today couldn't be any different :)

Yesterday whilst looking at pictures on Flickr, I ran across some really pretty cookies made by Karen. They were Scottish shortbread and had been piped, and had a glace cherry on top.
They reminded me of the coquitos (coconut macaroons) I used to have in Uruguay when I was a child. Last night I was on a mission to find a recipe, but I wanted a Uruguayan one. And I found this one. It's in Spanish, but basically the ingredients are

6 egg yolks
150 g dessicated coconut
150 g sugar
50 g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

You basically mix all the ingredients and form the mix into balls which you roll on the icing sugar.
I don't like to use just yolks when i have no plans for the whites, so I set upon doing my own thing following the list of ingredients. So this is what I used

COCONUT MACAROONS
Ingredients
4 large eggs
250 g dessicated coconut
200 g white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs water (optional)
Method
Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. If your paste is too thick to pipe with a large piping tip, then add the water, and keep adding one tablespoon of water at a time until you get a consistency you can pipe. If your eggs are extra large, you may not need the extra water.
Bake in a medium to hot oven for 30 minutes or until done.
YUM YUM, i love these...
I don't remember ever having made them before, but they are so easy, i will surely make them again ;)

Palmiers with Passionfruit Curd - Dessert Day 8

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:44:00 +0000

Part of today's dessert comes to you courtesy of the very talented Thérèse-Marie (Feasting on Pixels)

I made her palmiers recipe using frozen puff pastry. As I've mentioned before I use Borg's which is vegan.
I also only had vanilla sugar, so that is what I used.

The passion fruit curd recipe came from the Taste website. I modified this recipe slightly as follows.

Once your palmiers are cooked, serve with a dollop of passion fruit curd, I'm sure Boone will be adding some vanilla ice cream to it as soon as I turn around ;).

Passion fruit Curd

Ingredients

10 large eggs
360gms of white sugar
350gms of Les Verges Boiron passion fruit puree
250gms of chopped chilled butter

Method
Mix eggs and sugar until well combined, in a microwave safe glass bowl. Add butter and puree and stir.
Cook in microwave for 10-15 minutes. You must cook this mix only 1 minute at a time. You need to take it out of the microwave and stir it after each minute.
It is ready when the mix is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Thanks to Kathryn I have found out that this can be kept for up to 4 weeks in sealed jars in the fridge.

This mixture will fill up to 6 250ml jars.

Make sure your jars are sterilised. You can do this by washing them in hot soapy water, rinsing and then drying in a very hot oven.

Please don't burn yourself ;)

Day 7 Dessert - Nectarine Hearts (a very easy dessert)

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:20:00 +0000

This was dessert for day 7

Nectarine Hearts (a very easy dessert)

Ingredients
1 sheet pre made puff pastry (I use Borg's which is vegan)
1 small nectarine sliced thinly
Icing sugar to dust
Vanilla ice cream

Method

Cut 6 large hearts out of your puff pastry using a cookie cutter.
Place three of them on a lined cookie sheet
Cover each heart with thin slices of nectarine making sure you leave a border of nectarine free pastry in order to join the top
Cut a small heart out of the center of the remaining large hearts and stick on top of the hearts on the cookie sheet
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown
Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Dinner Day 7 - Vegetable & Chickpea Risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Tonight's dinner was another easy one. Risotto with chinese broccoli and almonds, followed by nectarine hearts with vanilla ice cream. Everything was a big hit with hubby who ate every last bite.

Recipe for nectarines hearts HERE

Vegetable and Chickpea Risotto

Ingredients

1/2 cup raw white rice
1 Tbs olive oil
200 g cooked chickpeas
100 g potato chopped
1/2 can tomato puree
1/2 medium zucchini chopped (200gms)
1 small fresh carrot chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 small red capsicum chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin powder
6 button mushrooms cut in 6

1 tsp Zest Mama Africa Flavour

1 tsp tumeric

2.5 cups of water
1 vegetable stock cube

Method

Heat olive oil in a large pan
Sautee onion and capsicum until tender
Add vegetables and spices, and stir till it's all mixed well
Add rice and mix in till the rice is all coated in spices
Add water, stock cube and tomato puree
Simmer for 45 minutes or until vegetables and rice are done
Serve with stirfried chinese brocolli

NOTE: The potato will take a while to cook, so to ensure your rice doesn't end up overcooking, cut up the potato in small pieces (no larger than 1cm cubes)

Sunday Dinner - Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:37:00 +0000

I took a break from cooking over the weekend. Boone likes to have vegan pies (which we buy from a vegan bakery) and cereal for breakfast on weekends. On Saturday we went out to dinner so there was no need to cook either.

Today I went back to the kitchen with a vengeance.

On Friday night whilst poring over the menus of several restaurants, (trying to find one to dine out on Saturday night) I read the description of a salad that had my taste buds calling out. It was a rocket, white peach salad with a balsamic reduction. We didn't end up going to that restaurant for dinner, we went to Kobe Jones, and the food was spectacular.

Still couldn't forget about the salad. I wasn't able to buy rocket or white peaches, ;) So I improvised with other ingredients.

Here is tonight's dinner feast :)

Stuffed Zucchinis
Ingredients
5 medium sized zucchinis cut in half (About 560gms)
1/2 a large onion chopped finely
1 Tbs olive oil
120gms grated pumpkin
1 small (90gms) red capsicum chopped finely
150gms cooked chickpeas
1 medium (80gms) grated carrot
Freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup soy milk (you can use regular milk or cream if you like)
salt
cracked pepper

Method

Using a melon baller or a spoon scoop put the flesh from the zucchinis. Put flesh aside, as it will be used for the soup.
Lay them on a tray lined with baking paper, and season with cracked salt & pepper
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Heat oil in a non stick pan and sautee onions and capsicum
Add carrots and pumpkin and cook for a few minutes.
Add chickpeas and mash them roughly into the other ingredients
Add soy and cook until the mixture is thick
Add grated nutmeg and salt to taste
Spoon filling into zucchinis and bake for 20-30 minutes until zucchinis are tender
Serve with rice and salad

Zucchini, Onion & Corn Soup

Ingredients
270gms zucchini flesh (use the flesh leftover from the above recipe)
1/2 large onion chopped finely
1 Tbs (20mls) olive oil
1.5 cups of water
120gms fresh corn kernels
1 Massel Beef stock cube (these stock cubes are vegan)

Method

Heat oil in a pot, and sautee onion
Add zucchini, and 2/3s of the corn kernels
Add stock cube and water and simmer for 15 minutes until zucchini is tender.
Process in a blender, and place back into the pot.
Add the remaining corn kernels, and cook for a further 5 minutes
Add freshly grated nutmeg, salt & pepper to taste

Spinach & Nectarine Salad

Ingredients
80gms of baby spinach leaves
1 small nectarine (washed and sliced)
1/4 of a small onion, sliced very finely
40gms flaked almonds
4 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs olive oil
Method

Place balsamic vinegar in a non stick pan and heat until it is reduced to a thick sauce, about 1/2 of it's original volume.
Place spinach in a bowl, followed by nectarine, onion and almonds
Dress with cracked salt, balsamic reduction and olive oil

This was the salad inspired by the peach and rocket salad at Markov.
I will have to try the one at that restaurant one day, but the version I've come up with is delicious!!! I will be making this one for the family at Christmas :)

Uruguayan Fruit Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:06:00 +0000

This is a dessert that is very popular and traditional at Christmas time in Uruguay. I made the one below for New Year's Eve 2007. We normally have it all throughout the summer as it is very refreshing and also makes a few fruits go a long way.

Uruguayan Fruit Salad
1 red apple
1 large orange
1 nectarine
2 plums
1 x 400gm can of peaches (in natural juice)
1 x 150gm can of pineapple pieces (in natural juice)
1 large banana
200 gms of cherries
2 passion fruits
200 gms of any type of seedless grape
1 punnet of strawberries.
1 1.25 lt bottle of Fanta

Place canned fruit in a large bowl along with it's juice, make sure you cut the peaches into small pieces.
Wash remaining fruit thoroughly.
Place cherries and grapes (minus stalks and any leaves) in the bowl.
Cut up remaining fruit into small pieces and place in the bowl.
Cover with Fanta.
Chill and serve for dessert, lovely summer dessert, especially during the holidays when we need a stomach cool down after a heavy meal :)

NOTE: Any of the fruits above can be omitted.

Roasted Vegetable Salad - Day 5 Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:40:00 +0000

This is a very straight forward lunch. There is a tip though, a great tip that will save you heaps of time cleaning up. Im sure lots of people know about this already, but i had forgotten about it until the other day.

The tip is to line your baking tray with non stick baking paper before putting on the veggies, this prevents sticking, your veggies come out a lot nicer, and you dont have to kill yourself scrubbing the tray afterwards.

Roast Veggie Salad with Walnuts
a piece of pumpkin
1 medium sized Beetroot
2 small washed potatoes
1 medium onion
1 carrot
6 walnuts

Peel, wash and cut all the vegetables and place on a roasting tray that you've previously lined with non stick baking paper.

Sprinkle with a little salt. Drizzle with olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 1-2 hours, the baking time will depend on how big you've cut your beetroot, this is the veggie that takes the longest.

Halfway through baking add the chopped walnuts and continue baking.

Serve with baby spinach leaves or as is. It looks pretty dull as is, but tastes yummy all the same. I had no greens to go with it. Next time i will certainly put the spinach leaves.

Turns out that after i took the photo Boone added rocket and parsley. He said it was delicious.

Lentil & Veg Patties with brown rice - Dinner day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Lentil & Veg Patties

Ingredients
150gms cooked brown lentils
1 medium onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
150gms chopped & boiled sweet potato
1 large egg
2 Tbs plain flour
1/2 tsp Zest Mama Flavour
Olive oil for sauteing the onions

Method
Heat some olive oil in a pan, and sautee onions and carrots.
Place egg in a bowl, then mix in all other ingredients to form a thick paste.
Heat some extra olive oil in a non stick pan. I used egg rings to form the patties. Put egg rings in the fry pan and place mix into the rings to form a pattie. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Asparagus & Carrot Side Dish
Ingredients
120 gms of asparagus cut in half
1 medium carrot cut into sticks
3 walnuts chopped coarsely
olive oil
1/4 tsp of Zest Fearlessly Hot spice

Method
Heat olive oil in a non stick pan, and sautee the vegetables & walnuts. Add spice and one tablespoon of tamari at the end. Serve with patties and brown rice

Paprika Mayo Serving Sauce
1 tablespoon of Hellmans mayo
1 tablespoon of Ajvar paprika relish
Mix together and serve as an accompaniment to the patties

Roll with Roasted & Fresh Vegetables - Lunch Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:07:00 +0000

1 large baguette

Hellmans Mayonnaise
Copperpot Salsa with Capsicum & Cashews
Sesame Seeds
Marinated Roasted Capsicum

Roasted Veggies
Pumpkin sliced
2 thick slices of eggplant
1 carrot cut into sticks

Fresh Veggies
1 small firm tomato
1 small avocado
a handful of washed rocket

Roast pumpkin, eggplant and carrot after drizzling with a small amount of olive oil. Use baking paper on your tray to prevent sticking. Set aside and allow to cool completely.

Cut baguette in half lengthways and spread a generous amount of mayonnaise on one side and salsa on the other.

Layer all roasted vegetables on the mayonnaise side, then top with avocado. Layer rocket and tomato on the side of the bread you spread with salsa. Finishing with sesame seeds.

Join the two sides together and cut in half.

Serve to a very hungry person :)

Pancakes with Honey & Bananas - Breakfast day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:49:00 +0000

So today Boone got a completely different breakfast to the previous days. He didn't end up finishing it, because he couldn't resist having part of his lunch too ;)

This recipe makes 4 largish pancakes

Oat Bran pancakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup Oat Bran

1/2 cup Self raising flour

1/2 cup soy milk

1 large egg

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs water

1 banana

honey

icing sugar for dusting

Method

Mix all ingredients to make a thick batter. Cook in a frypan which has been coated with margarine or butter on medium heat.

Place on a plate and put sliced banana on top, and drizzle with honey. I heated the honey in the microwave to make it more pourable.

Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Dinner on day 3 - Marinated Tofu with vegetables & Eggplant Chips

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0000

aThe idea for this recipe came from a low calorie cookbook that I've had for a long time and never used. It never occurred to me before to marinate tofu.

Marinated Tofu & Vegetable Stir Fry
Ingredients
180gms firm tofu
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs Tamari
1/2 Tbs of honey
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
100gms broccolini cut in 4s
90gms snowpeas
1 large onion cut into wedges
8 baby corn cut in half lengthways

Method
Mix the tamari, Worcestershire sauce and honey in a bowl. Place in the sliced tofu and cover with glad wrap. Refrigerate for two hours.
Drain the tofu and reserve the marinade.
Heat some olive oil in a wok or large fry pan and cook the tofu.
Remove tofu from pan. Stir fry the vegetables until they are done (i like mine to still be crunchy).
Add tofu and marinade and cook for a minute. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Serve with steamed rice.

Eggplant Chips
Ingredients
1 medium sized eggplant
salt
bread crumbs
1 lightly beaten egg
Method
Cut eggplant into chips, and salt lightly. Set aside for a few hours.
Rinse eggplant and dry well.
Dip eggplant chips in egg and then in breadcrumbs.
Deep fry and drain on kitchen paper.

Easy Apple Dessert

1 medium sized Red Delicious apple (peeled and chopped)

2 Tbs sugar

3 Tbs water

1/2 cup of ready made custard
2 sheets of pre made puff pastry (I use Borg's, the one i get is vegan)

Place apple, sugar and water in a small pan, and cook on slow heat until apple is soft.

Add custard to the mix, and cook until the custard has reduced and the mixture is thick, set aside to cool.

Cut pastry with a round cutter, and place a large tablespoon of the mix in the middle, cut another piece of the same size (decorate if you like) and place on top of the apple mix, and seal the sides.

Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Take two on the sushi for breakfast - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Yesterday's sushi were not very close to the ones that we've had at Tomodachi because of lack of ingredients. So today armed with most of the right ingredients I gave it another shot. Still used sweet potato instead of pumpkin and added the carrot, but once hubby sat down to eat them he said "We don't need to go to Tomodachi anymore"

So yeah, they were a huge hit, and OMG so delicious!!!

Sweet Potato & Avocado Sushi
Ingredients
Pre cooked Sushi Rice mixed in with
Sushi Rice Seasoning (I bought this instead of the Mirin because that is all that was available, but the Mirin is so much better)
Avocado
Kewpie Mayonnaise
Sesame Seeds (toasted)
Sweet Potato (see yesterday's recipe for preparation details)

Method
Cover your bamboo rolling mat with glad wrap (saran). Place seaweed sheet on the wrap and cover with rice, making sure you put rice right up to the edges. Press it down firmly.

Turn seaweed sheet upside down, so that your rice is now facing the bamboo mat (still covered in glad wrap)

Put some mayonnaise on the seaweed, and then place all your fillings. (i put double the amount of filling in them this time)

Roll up tightly, and then roll over some of the sesame seeds which have been pre toasted.

Cut with a sharp knife and serve with wasabi and Kikkoman soy sauce.

It's breakfast today - A different kind of sushi

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:17:00 +0000

Last night before going to bed, i did a lot of prep work for Boone's breakfast. I cooked some rice, and sweet potato, and left all the tools I needed out so I wouldn't have to go rummaging in the morning.

The last three times that we have gone out to dinner it has been to a Japanese restaurant named Tomodachi . We love it. It is so good!!! We ALWAYS order pumpkin sushi, which consists of pumpkin tempura wrapped in rice and seaweed with a bit of avocado. It is then rolled on sesame seeds and served with mayonnaise and ginger.

I thought i would make this for Boone's breakfast but lo and behold i had no pumpkin or sesame seeds. So i rummaged through our fridge and found sweet potato. Hm that would do, wouldn't it??

So at the crack of dawn i was up frying sweet potato and assembling some sushi. These were made with the seaweed on the outside, whereas the ones at Tomodachi are done with the rice on the outside (I will try those next time :) )

They went down a treat, he loved them!!!

Sweet Potato & Avocado Sushi
Ingredients
1 cup of sushi rice raw (cooked with 1.5 cups of water or as per packet instructions)
3 tablespoons of Mirin
1 tablespoon of Cooking Sake
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 a small avocado
1/2 a carrot sliced very thinly (I use a special tool for this that gets them as thin as if they were shredded but in long strips)
50gms of sweet potato cut into sticks (Like thick chips, and cooked in the microwave for about 3 minutes on high)
3 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of cornflour
2 seaweed sheets

Whilst the rice is cooking, mix the mirin, sake and sugar in a pot, and heat the mixture until the sugar melts. Set aside.

Once the rice is done, pour the mirin mix over the rice and mix it in. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Dust the cooked sweet potato with the flour and corn flour and deep fry until golden brown.

Press half of the rice mix over one of the seaweed sheets, and press down firmly. Add one piece of the sweet potato, then some avocado and some carrots. Roll up tightly and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the rice. Cut into small bit sized pieces and serve with wasabe and soy sauce.

YUM!!!

Im not fattening up a turkey for Christmas :)

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:05:00 +0000

About 3 months ago, my husband finally stopped eating meat. He wasn't a big meat eater for a very long time, and only really had chicken and fish once in a long while. Since he gave up meat he has lost quite a bit of weight. His father saw him on Skipe the other day and asked him if he was sick because he was so thin.
We tend to eat at different times because we get home from work at different times. When he cooks he tends to be quite lazy and makes whatever is simplest, and usually makes something very boring and low on calories. Add to the fact that he usually only eats an orange or banana for breakfast, and a salad for lunch, it's no wonder he's lost weight.
Here I am struggling to lose weight, and he loses it with no effort.

Anyway I am on a mission to feed him better, and since work has been a lot quieter these days I started my cooking adventures today. This is what he got for dinner on day 1. Let's see if it works and when he gets to Thailand on Christmas day his dad no longer thinks he looks sick :)
Fingers crossed everyone!!!

Mushroom & Lentil Cottage Pie
Ingredients
350gms brown lentils (pre cooked)
1 large onion chopped
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 medium carrot chopped or grated
1/4 cup of tomato paste
Kernels from two fresh corn cobs
2 tablespoons of Zest African Mama spice
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
5 medium sized button mushrooms thinly sliced
100gms of Enoki mushrooms (separated)
1 Massel Beef Stock Cube (these are not real beef, but vegetarian beef cubes)
4 medium sized potatoes (peeled and boiled)
3 tablespoons of Nuttelex (dairy free margarine)

Method
Heat olive oil in a pan and sautee onions until they become transparent.
Add carrots, and spices and fry off a little
Add mushrooms, and lower heat.
Add corn kernels, tomato paste, lentils, stock cube and half a cup of water.
Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring to avoid the mixture sticking to the pan.
Set aside

Mash potatoes with Nuttelex and set aside.

Pour mushroom/lentil mix onto individual oven dishes, and top with mashed potato.
Bake for 20 minutes until mash becomes slightly browned. (My dishes were big enough to only get two servings out of this recipe)

Serve with brown rice and steamed or sauteed vegetables.

Yummy Asparagus

Sautee asparagus spears in some olive oil and add 2 tablespoons of Tamari and 2 tablespoons of Mirin towards the end. Serve with rice.

Father's Day - Making some of dad's favourites

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:47:00 +0000

My dad has a couple of things that he loves eating (apart from sweets :) )
One of those is stuffed tomatoes. For some unknown reason, we only make them at Christmas. I decided to break from tradition and make them for Father's day, cause dad just loves them.
They are very easy to make

Ingredients
8-10 medium sized ripe but firm tomatoes
400gms of cooked rice
200gms of mayonnaise (approximately)
1 425gm can of tuna in olive oil (drained)
2 small onions chopped
Olive oil
5 stuffed olives cut in half.

1. Sautee onions in olive oil until they become transparent. Do not allow them to color. Remove from heat.

2. Cut out a circle at the top of the tomato, and using a spoon remove all the seeds and pulp. Rinse them and put them upside down on a piece of kitchen paper to drain.

3. In a large bowl mix in the rice, onion, tuna, mayo.

4. Using a small spoon fill the the tomatoes with the rice filling.

5. Cover the top with a little more mayonnaise and decorate with half an olive.

I don't actually eat these, as I'm vegetarian. For a vegetarian option, sautee one red capsicum (chopped) together with the onions, and then add one greated carrot, and cook until tender. Allow to cool and then add it to the rice and mayo mix.

Another of dad's favourites is canneloni. They are a variation of the italian ones. I am not sure if anyone else in the world makes them this way, in fact they're not really canneloni, but that is what we call them. They are thin crepes filled with spinach, ricotta, fresh corn kernels, sauteed onions and white sauce.

I made about 40 of these, some of them got frozen at mum's and some at home, because hubby also loves them. The filling I am going to detail below makes approximately 30-40 of them, depending on how much you fill each one.

Ingredients for Filling
1kg of fresh ricotta (i bought it still warm from the cheese factory)
400gms of baby spinach leaves (washed and drained)
2 medium onions chopped finely
Kernels removed from 4 medium sized fresh corn cobs.
2 cups of white sauce (made with flour butter and milk)
Ground nutmeg
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large saucepan, and sautee onions until lightly coloured.

Add baby spinach leaves and stir until they have just wilted.

Mix in ricotta, corn kernels, and white sauce, until all well combined.

Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Use aroun 2-3 large heaped tablespoons to fill each crepe, and roll up, and place in a deep oven tray so they can be heated up in the oven.

I don't have an exact recipe for the crepes. But i made about 4 or so batches of the following to make enough crepes for all the filling above

Crepe Recipe (rough recipe, not exact)
In a blender place
1 large egg
400mls of full cream milk
2 tablespoons of finely greated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of plain flour

Blend, and add more flour or milk to form a mixture with the consistency of thickened cream. Cook on a non stick pan. I like my crepes to be very thin, but having a very thin mix means getting lots of holes, so you need to get a perfect consistency :)

Heat up your filled crepes and serve with extra white sauce and pasta sauce. We heated ours up in the microwave, but you can also heat them up in the oven :)

Pasta Sauce
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large red capsicum finely chopped
2 400gm cans of chopped tomatoes (i only use 100% tomatoes, with no added sugar or other preservatives etc)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee onion and capsicum in olive oil until tender. You can now add your tomatoes and cook it for 40 or so minutes, but I put the tomatoes and the cooked capsicum and onion in the food processor to make the sauce a little less chunky. Once it was all blended together, i put it back in the pot and simmered it for about 30-40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Spring time in Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Natalia) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:08:00 +0000

After much arm twisting and strong suggestions, I finally agreed to (thank goodness!!!) tag along with my bestest buddy in the world to yet another interstate cake course this year.

This was a 2.5 day advanced sugar flowers course at Planet Cake. The teacher non other than the wonderful and super talented Greg Cleary of Sweetums. The man is the GOD OF SUGARFLOWERS. Man he's good!!!!

We left Melbourne in the wee hours of the morning of Friday 10th of July. It was freezing cold here in Melbourne. It was dark when we arrived at the airport, but by the time our flight took off the sun was shining. We arrived in Sydney at around 9.00am (I think that was the time). The sun welcomed us, and it was lovely and warm. I sat in the taxi, with the full sun on me, fealing like a happy fat seal lying on the beach.

Fran brought her own fruit cakes to the class, covered in marzipan. Fran's cake is destined as a present for her friend, whose birthday is at the end of August. The things weighed a ton, but I couldn’t help her out, because I was struggling with my bag which weighed a little under a ton. Lucky for Fran her wonderful hubby, who works in Sydney during the week, took her clothes up with him and left them at the concierge for her to pick up when we checked in. Because of this she was able to fly with no luggage.

First day at PC, we filled and covered our cakes with ganache. The cake looked nice, it was a three colour marble mudcake.

After ganaching we made the centers for our tulips, all the parts for the lily of the valley, the sweet peas, and some buds. We also covered our boards with fondant and added the ribbon trim.

Class finished at around 4.00pm, but Fran and I stayed back gas bagging with Greg, Anna Maria (AKA Madhatter Queen) and Paris (owner of PC), until about 5.00pm.

We arranged to meet Greg afterwards for dinner. We went back to our hotel, and bummed around for a bit. Greg came to meet us at our hotel in the city at around 7.30, and we just walked down the street to an Italian restaurant (La Bora) that David (Fran's hubby) had recommended. We had a very delicious dinner, and great conversation, although Fran had lost 85% of her voice, and the place was packed to the rafters, and very bloody noisy!!! It was a wonderful night, and Greg had us mesmerized with his wonderful stories. The staff at the restaurant though, were very bizzarre and made the characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show seem tame and normal ;)

We got to sleep at around 11.30pm, woke up at 8.00am so that we could go and have brekkie at the hotel cafe before class. For some unknown reason, i was absolutely starving and had to have a full breakfast of eggs, toast and hash browns. Hmmmm Brekkie was yummy!!

We got to class and Greg had bought us a lovely treat. The night before he had been telling us about a place that he walked past every day on the way to Planet Cake, that had beautiful pastries. He bought us a delicious Lime and Almond tart, OMG, it was devine!!!

During our class we covered our cakes, and did all the petals for our flowers. We finished class at around 5.00pm on Saturday. It was a very busy day!!!

Back to the hotel again, to have a very quick shower and to get ready to go and see the Phantom of The Opera OMG can a girl have a better friend than Fran??? Nope I really really doubt it!!! She bought the tickets, so that I could go and see my very first musical. AND MAN!!! It was soooo wonderful, I was just in awe of it all. I loved it, loved it, LOVED IT!!!! Anthony Warlow is fabulous, and Alexander Lewis is gorgeous!!!

After the show, we went straight back to our hotel, we were very very tired, and tried to get to sleep ASAP because we had agreed with Greg that we would go into class at 8.00pm to get an early start on our cakes, we needed to be packed and checked out of the hotel by 7.00am.

Unfortunately, there was very loud music coming from a pub downstairs, and we couldn't get to sleep. We got into silly giggles, and I was having stupid laughing attacks over the silliest things. It was fun, but we didn’t fall asleep till waaaaay past midnight!!!!

It was very hard to get up at 6.00am, but we had no choice. Brekkie got us going a bit, and off to class again. We were lucky and managed to finish in time to head off to the airport at 1.15pm. We missed out on the group photo though.I was sooooo absolutely gobsmacked with my cake, I just could not stop staring at it. I just love it that much!!!

Greg is such a wonderful teacher. He wrote fantastic notes for us, and taught us so many great tricks. The fact that he was a florist and he has such a love for flowers really shows in his work, and his beautiful flower placement. Flower placement was something that I had no clue about before this class. I feel so privileged to know him.

Fran left her cake in Sydney to be shipped by courier, but because my cake was not destined for any particular event, I decided to just check it in as fragile luggage.

The flight was pleasant, but arriving into Melbourne, there was a lot of wind, and it was a bumpy sort of landing, quite scary really, but the pilotess got us home safe :)

Hubby, David(Fran's hubby) and D'arcy were all waiting for us at the airport. It was great to see them all.

My cake arrived in perfect condition. wooohooo!!!!
I would certainly do another class with Greg Cleary, at the drop of a hat!! No doubt about it.