You Say You Want a Revolution….

Layer upon layer upon layer

A quinoa one, that is. Quinoa has been a super food winner for the last couple of years, and I’ve been on that bandwagon since living in Chile, where it has always been a commonly found staple food, and for good reason – it tastes great, is easy to cook, is suitable for those with wheat allergies, and of course is extremely good for you.

There is a plethora (I just wanted to use that word cos’ it’s a cool one!) of quinoa cookbooks around these days, and I eagerly scour through every new one that comes in at my work. The recipe below is adapted from Cabbage Crockpot Casserole, from Patricia Green & Carolyn Hemming’s new cookbook, Quinoa Revolution.

I don’t usually go in for crockpot recipes that involve a heap of pre-preparation – I do like to just throw it all in – but I had plenty of time on this day so was happy to brown the mince before putting it in the crockpot, and it was simple enough to do. Everything else is just layered over the top and then it is switched on and ignored for the day.

I don’t feel the passata on the top added anything really, so next time I will just leave that top bit out – it doesn’t really mix in through the rest, and just stays as a layer of tomato “paste”, when you serve it. Just tinned tomatoes is enough I think.

Layered Beef Casserole

1 tbsp olive oil

500 gms minced beef

1 brown onion, cut into wedges

4 slices rindless bacon, fat cut off, roughly chopped

3/4 cup red quinoa

1 green capsicum, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 green cabbage, roughly chopped

cracked pepper, to taste

400 gm can diced tomatoes

700 ml bottle bought passata

Heat olive oil in a large pan or wok, and saute the beef for a couple of minutes, stirring to break up lumps, until lightly browned. Drain in a colander and if it is a fatty mince, rinse through with hot water.

Place meat in crockpot. Place all other ingredients on mince, layered in the order given.

Cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH 4 hours.

If desired, serve with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable, or salad and garlic bread.

Serves 4-6

I don’t think this wins a lot of points for looks, but the flavours are great.

Happy Fooding!

Beef Stroganoff

I’m eating meat again at the moment, although not much, and I couldn’t resist trying this delightfully simple crockpot Beef Stroganoff recipe from Best Recipes, on the weekend. I love this recipe site, and this beef dish will now be a firm favourite. Not only was it easy, but it tasted fabulous and the consistency was perfect – rich and creamy just like a stroganoff should be.

I did it on LOW so all up it was 8 hours cooking time – the 5 hours they say at the top of the recipe is if you cook on HIGH.

This definitely serves 6 as the recipe states, and could actually serve more if you have it as part of other dishes – great for a party buffet. I didn’t bother cooking pasta and green beans, as suggested, because I knew it would be very filling and there’s only me to feed – I just had a little black rice with mine. I have lots of leftovers in the freezer now!

Happy Fooding!

Getting My Irish On…

I made this beef stew with Guinness, on St Patrick’s Day, and OMG it was so delicious.  Of course it made enough to feed an army lol, and there was just me, so I now have portions in the freezer, but with something as yummy as this I don’t mind at all.

There was about 20 minutes of chopping up/prep involved, but once that was done the cooking itself was pretty easy. I do so love things that simmer away on the stove creating gorgeous smells, while you get on with the important relaxation things of life…..in this case I was stitching away merrily on a Henry VIII cross-stitch project that I am obsessed with currently, and watching the Australian F1 Grand Prix.

I keep forgetting to tell you, I have a new Twitter handle for this blog, so feel free to follow me @salmonavocado and share with your friends by retweeting!

A little bit of Henry

Happy Pot of Gold Fooding!

Restaurant Review: Fantastic Pub Fare

Last week I was in Melbourne for a few days, visiting my awesome kiddies and parents, and I had several yummy meals, including a family bbq at my mum’s (where I stay when I’m there), scrambled eggs for brekky at Geo’s Cafe (complete with champagne, because it’s always 3pm somewhere!), and lunch with my mum Kaye and good friend Linda, at Kelly’s Motor Club Hotel in Cranbourne.

I’d been to this pub once before, several years ago, and I don’t really remember what the food was like, so it can’t have been too memorable, but the pub itself is an historic icon in Cranbourne and has been owned by the same family (the Kellys, strangely enough!!!) since 1923.

I felt like a salad, so decided to have a Caesar – but there was the option of paying a bit extra for either chicken or salt & pepper calamari with it. I love calamari so thought that would be good, and was expecting really just a ‘garnish’ of a few pieces on top of my salad.

WELL, as you can see from the photo above, there was actually more calamari than salad! It is rare that you get such generous portions (the prices were very good – but then I tend to compare with Perth which is more expensive than Melbourne anyway). There was a substantial amount of salad to begin with (and the poached egg was cooked to perfection and actually still HOT, which is rare by the time it comes out to your table lol), which is not that obvious in the photo, but believe me this was a humungous meal. I couldn’t eat it all and ended up wrapping half of the calamari up in a serviette and taking it home – I had it cold in a bread roll with Greek yoghurt, for lunch the next day (yes, I am strange, but you already know this).

Kaye and Linda both had “Seniors meals”, which are smaller servings, priced accordingly, and include dessert. Kaye had the battered fish & chips, which as you can see is still a reasonable size, and Linda had porterhouse steak with mushroom sauce – and they made a gluten-free sauce for her, as she can’t eat wheat. They also brought out a special serving of gluten-free bread, without being asked for it, which Linda said it was delicious (often GF breads are pretty disgusting!).

Even though the fish and steak were smaller sized options, neither of the ladies could fit in their free dessert, which was a shame as the choice was a massive mixed berry cheesecake or a very large serving of chocolate mousse.

The menu choices were really great, so much choice that in fact it was really hard to decide what to have. Service was great and staff very friendly. We were all very impressed and I will definitely go back there.

Happy Fooding!

Delicious Dumplings!

Still haven’t been cooking much here, apart from a last minute Christmas cake. Instead, I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping (and I mean a LOT – 10.5 hours at Chadstone shopping centre on Thursday!!!), and quite a bit of just slobbing around!

At Chadstone, 4 of us had the most wonderful dumpling lunch at the Oriental Teahouse. Lots of small serves of dumplings that just melted in your mouth. I had chilli prawn dumplings, chill vegetable dumplings and chilli pork dumplings (yes there is a recurring theme there….). The pictures tell it all really. Scrumptious.

Today, we are in a flurry of Christmas Eve activity – last bit of shopping (there is always something you’ve forgotten, isn’t there), roasting two boneless turkey breasts and a piece of pork, preparing the stuffing, making a cheesecake, making some mountain bread rollups, the list goes on…..busy day, but it means tomorrow will be nice and relaxed, with strawberries and champagne flowing from very early on!

Mum’s Christmas Tree

May all of your Christmas wishes come true, with lots of food, family (and of course presents!), involved in your day tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Fooding!

Bye Bye Air Frier….

Well I’ve had my last quick play with my borrowed air frier this week; both things I tried were quick after-work convenient things, as I was tired and couldn’t be bothered doing much but vedge out in front of a DVD with a glass of wine!

The schnitzel turned out well – I usually crumb my own, but as I said I was being lazy and slack, so this was an already-made beef topside schnitzel from the supermarket. It worked well in the frier and only took 8 minutes – and even with that time it was almost overdone. I’m a bit hit and miss with the cooking times with the frier, being in an experimental stage.

The salmon fillet didn’t really turn out like a piece of fried fish – really it was just the same as baking or microwaving or poaching it. I think other types of fish might work better, or crumbed/battered fish, which I’ve heard air-fries very well.

Last week I had some leftover steamed baby potatoes and chunks of carrot, which I “roasted” in the air frier – these came out fantastically – crunchy and like a big chunky chip!

I’m still undecided about whether to buy an air frier for myself – it has been great having the opportunity to try-before-you-buy. I think I will get one eventually, but I’ll wait ’til 1) the prices come down a bit and 2) I am living in a larger space, as it’s really the kind of thing you will only use regularly if it is out on the bench sitting there being convenient. How many of us have had kitchenware that sits in the back of the cupboard and never gets dragged out…… for me, if it’s in my face and all I have to do is turn on a button, I’ll use it!

In case you were wondering about the mustard blobs on top of the potatoes above, it’s an amazing truffle mustard I bought at the wonderful Brisbane city farmers market when I was there in July – it is an imported French truffle product, but you can get equally delicious truffle foods here in WA. I also bought a jar of truffle salt from Manjimup, this week, and it is delicious sprinkled on a bbq’d steak. Mmmmmm yummy. I pass a gourmet food shop on my way to work that currently has actual truffles advertised for “ONLY” $2,500 a kg…..don’t think I’ll be having those for breakfast any time soon lol!

Happy Fooding!

Another Greek Review…

I’ve been in Brisbane for 10 days, attending the wonderful Koala Conventions annual embroidery week –  loads of fun, fantastic stitching workshops, and LOTS of food! Last Tuesday night we went as a large group, to Kapsali Greek restaurant.

The food was a banquet organised specially for function groups, so large platters were brought out, first of dips, then hot treats like calamari and saganaki.

Between courses the waiters got up and did some Greek dancing, then they made all of us get up and have a go – in fact the whole restaurant pretty much joined in. Lots of fun.

Main course platters included lamb that just melted in the mouth, and delicious garlic potatoes. By then we were all so full because we had pigged out on the dips and cheese, so quite a bit was left on the platters. I hate to see food go to waste but we just couldn’t eat it all. As for dessert (baklava and fresh fruit) I couldn’t touch a thing.

A great night, lots of laughter and big garlic breath fumes in our room (I was sharing with my mum, who flew to Brisbane from Melbourne to join me for the embroidery week) afterwards!

I fly home to Perth today with mountains of washing to do, 2 new embroidery projects to complete (I did actually finish the 3rd one, which is the first time ever that I’ve been able to do that within the workshop week) and a lot of stuff to unpack. A wonderful 10 days was had by all.

Happy Fooding!

A Mild Curry for a Chilly Winter’s Evening

Simmering away.

My friends are totally used to me pulling out the camera while they’re cooking and saying WAIT I have to take photos before we starting eating, haha. Here is a yummy new dish I had last week, made from a recipe in the latest issue (Jun/Jul Issue 63) of Donna Hay Magazine.

This is not a budget-conscious curry using cheap cuts of meat – it calls for scotch fillet steak. The upside is that it cooks very quickly, so the whole meal is ready in about 45 minutes. The cauliflower is only just cooked and still a tad crunchy, rather than being overcooked and soggy.

The meat was very tender (from a real butcher rather than a supermarket), and despite the curry paste (yellow, which is not fiery like red or green) and green chilli, this is a VERY mild dish, not spicy but just flavoursome.

Beef, Cauliflower & Potato Curry

1 tbsp olive oil

4 x 200 gm scotch fillet steaks, trimmed and sliced

1 red onion, cut into wedges

2 tbsp yellow curry paste

1 large potato, peeled & chopped

2 x 415 gm cans coconut milk (I would use low-fat)

300 gms cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets

100 gms cherry tomatoes, halved

1 long green chilli, sliced

1 tbsp lime juice

fresh coriander leaves, to serve

Place the tomato, chilli and lime juice in a bowl and mix to combine.

Heat oil in a deep-sided pan or saucepan over high heat. Add the beef and cook for 3-4 minutes or until browned. Add the onion and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.

Add the curry paste, potato and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Add the tomato mixture and heat through for 1-2 minutes.

Serve with rice, topped with coriander leaves.

Happy Fooding!

Restaurant Review

I’ve been in Melbourne for a few days, to celebrate my son’s 21st birthday. I took he and my daughter to Counting House, a French restaurant in Mornington, for a birthday lunch. The restaurant is a heritage-listed, huge old weatherboard house – room upon room with hallways and a big front verandah/decking. The weather was lovely so we were able to sit out the front, very pleasant indeed.

We chose the $30 per head, 2 course + glass of wine option. I went for an entree and a main, and both of the kids had a main and a dessert. My entree (duck liver parfait) was delicious, a light and creamy pate with homemade brioche slices and a very rich caramelised onion chutney.

For main I had the Moroccan vegetable tagine – it looked small but was super filling – carrot, pumpkin, onion, parsnip, on top of a bed of couscous.

Both of the children (I say children, but they’re 21 and 24!) had the steak, and pronounced them to be perfectly cooked and tender. I tasted the celeriac puree (doesn’t it look great – full marks for presentation!) and it was divine. Celeriac is something I’ve never really used in my cooking, but I am going to try it out after this tasting.

Dessert chosen was the cheese platter x 2 – small but elegant and apparently the French triple brie was delightful.

I didn’t have a dessert but I did have a second glass of wine…..it was a special occasion, after all.

Happy Fooding!

Rendang, Anyone?

OMG. Last week I made the best curry of my life (so far)……I have not yet shared my “up til now best curry” recipe with you, which is a Thai beef curry, because last time I made it I forgot to take photos. And you will love that recipe. But here is a new favourite one!

When living in Suriname I had a half-Indonesian/half-Malaysian Australian neighbour (confusing I know! – I lived in a compound with loads of expats from all over the world) and she made amazing curries, rice dishes and fantastic lemper. I have always wanted to try making my own rendang, and I had an “Indonesian Beef Rendang” recipe pulled out from a magazine from a while back – one of those ones using a “simmer sauce” – sort of a sponsored recipe I guess. It looked so easy that I thought I’d do the cheat’s thing and make it – but when I went to buy the simmer sauce, I accidentally bought rendang curry spice paste instead. So I looked up a few other rendang recipes and then just improvised, and this is what I came up with. It is quite rich and filling, so a little goes a long way.

Beef Rendang

100 gms Indonesian rendang curry paste (if you have time make your own from scratch!)

2 x 400 ml cans coconut milk (low-fat)

2 tbsp ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)

1.2 kgs chuck steak, cut into 3cm cubes

1 large red onion, cut into wedges

rice, yoghurt or raita and naan bread to serve

Heat the curry paste, coconut milk and ketjap manis in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir until smooth and mixture comes to the boil. Add the beef and onion, stir until combined and mixture comes back to the boil. Simmer for 2 hours, covered, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and simmer for a further 1 hour, stirring occasionally (especially near the end as it thickens and sticks to the bottom).

Serve with rice etc.

This will melt in your mouth!

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!