Food Failures

Boring!

I have had a couple of no-good cooking attempts recently. One was a recipe I pulled out of a magazine, for gnocchi that is cooked and then sautéed with butter beans, lemon zest, lemon juice and peas, then topped with parmesan. I added fresh basil, baby spinach and pine nuts for good measure – all in all a great combination of flavours that should have worked, but sadly did not. The resulting bowl of pasta was a stodgy carb overdose that looked like mashed potato gone wrong, and just left me feeling blurgh (family word). I had to have a glass of wine to help me get through the experience!

My other not-so-great meal was this “melt in your mouth chicken breasts” dish that I mentioned in the steamed carrots post the other day. Upon reading the chicken recipe, you would think surely this can’t go wrong. Well, it didn’t so much go wrong as just not look or taste like anything out of the ordinary. The photo in the original looks like a great crunchy topping – mine did not turn out like that! Nor did it melt in the mouth. The mayo topping just slid off and disappeared into a vague bit of liquid in the baking dish. It was just total “plain Jane” in flavour, and is another recipe to be filed under R for rubbish bin!

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all, and overall I don’t have TOO many failures so can’t really complain. I hate wasting food, so I always eat the bad stuff anyway, reminding myself that it’s healthy….

Happy Fooding!

Surprisingly Good!

The weather has been perfect this week – hot during the day, but still cooling down enough to sleep properly at night. Being at work sucks when the weather’s great though!

I wanted to try this easy broccoli side dish, Madras Hari Bhari (love that name!). I actually ate this as my main course, being still in a 95% non-meat phase at the moment – I say only 95%, because I can’t resist the occasional party pie for a snack I’m afraid. And not the gourmet homemade variety either – I just like the Woolworths own-bakery ones and I like to eat them cold straight out of the packet (yeah I know it’s gross, but they just taste so GOOD that way!).

Although this was super easy, when I threw it together I thought oh I don’t think this is going to be too exciting, but in fact it tasted great. Mild curry flavour and ready in half an hour. This made enough for 4 as a side dish, but could easily be increased to make a big bowl of it as a dinner party accompaniment or a vegie dish at a party. You could also add cauliflower as well.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Smashing Summer Salad!

Bright, vibrant and fresh, this salad was made by my daughter on Christmas Day – it is in fact a recipe her friend made up. There aren’t proper quantities for the salad part – just toss it in until it looks good!

I’ve listed the dressing ingredients as it was made; however, I found this amount of sesame oil to be too overpowering. Next time I will only use a few drops.

AJs Salad

cucumbers (we used the small Lebanese ones – sliced thinly)
cherry tomatoes (chopped in half)
fresh coriander (chopped)
snow peas (blanched in microwave for 1 minute first)
sweet potato (we used 2 – peeled, diced, and roasted with olive oil for about 15-20 minutes – be careful they don’t burn)
pine nuts

Dressing

1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part sesame oil
1 part extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of sugar
sesame seeds, to taste

Mix all ingredients together, toss well and refrigerate until serving. Toss again just before serving.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Quick Apricot Couscous

I love couscous, quinoa, burghul – so healthy – I add anything I have lying around, a bit of lemon juice and lots of cracked pepper. Here is what I made on Sunday for a quick and easy dinner. I often make something like this to take to uni for my lunch as well.

Apricot Couscous

3/4 cup couscous

3/4 cup boiling water

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

grated zest of 1 lime

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

cracked pepper, to taste

Place couscous in a large bowl; pour over boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes until liquid has absorbed. Fluff up with a fork to separate grains.

Whisk lime juice and oil together. Add all ingredients to couscous and mix well.

Serves 2.

Easily doubles or make a huge quantity for a salad – you don’t really have to measure, just toss it all in. Use whatever nuts you like, and whatever juice you like – lime, lemon, orange. If you like things a bit salty, add a splash of soy sauce (not too much).

Happy Fooding!

Getting Stuffed!

Well today is moving day, for me. And all I’ve eaten over the last 3 days has been leftovers, sandwiches, muesli and oven-roasted bought trays of vegetables. So nothing exciting to report, and tonight when I am left alone with my still-packed boxes and am exhausted, my dinner will consist of a home-delivered Crust pizza and a bottle of champagne all to myself. I’m working tomorrow and the next day, and will have no Internet connection at home for a few more days, apart from my iphone, so my next posting might be a tad delayed due to technical difficulties and sheer exhaustion!

But in the interests of being well-organised with my blog, as they say on cooking shows, “here’s one I prepared earlier”…..

I LOVE stuffing! No one makes it like my ex-mother-in-law, who always used to have to make a whole extra batch when I was coming over, so that I could take it home. I love it sliced and eaten cold on sandwiches, and these days I don’t bother actually stuffing a chicken/turkey with it – I just make it separately – because why wait for a roast in order to make a batch, when you can just make and enjoy it any old time.

This is my ex-MIL’s recipe, with my addition of pine nuts, because pine nuts are one of life’s great joys and you should be eaten on or in as many dishes as possible!

Phyl’s Stuffing

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup fresh white breadcrumbs (of course you can use any kind of bread, doesn’t have to be white)

1 box packaged stuffing mix (if you can’t find any, use 200 gms more breadcrumbs mixed with dried herbs of your choice)

2 springs fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

~ 1/2 cup pine nuts (optional)

1 egg, beaten

cracked pepper, to taste

milk

Boil the onion in a little water for 10 minutes or until soft; drain and add to breadcrumbs, stuffing mix, herbs, pine nuts, egg and pepper. Mix well, then add enough milk to make a quite moist (but not runny) consistency.

Use as desired: either stuff a chicken/turkey with it, OR form into a log and wrap in lightly greased piece of foil to bake (about 45 mins at 180C), OR spoon into greased patty pan tins and bake for about 30 mins at 180C.

Happy Fooding!