Crazy For Cauliflower

I do like cauliflower. A lot. It doesn’t have to have cheese/white sauce on it or be anything too fancy, and I adore it as cauliflower rice. So the idea of roasting a cauliflower whole, slathered in a yoghurt/spice mixture, was something I could not resist trying when a friend shared the post on facebook recently. You can find the recipe here at PureWow blog.

This was very easy and smelt fantastic when cooking. I’m using an unfamiliar oven at the moment, whilst in my temporary home for a few weeks, and I wasn’t sure how it would go – it did start to burn on the top so I covered it with foil for the last 10 minutes.

The result was pretty good (apart from a pan with the bejeezus burnt out of it because I didn’t think to put baking paper underneath, and the yoghurt mixture kind of dripped down the sides like icing on a cake!), but I do think it needed something more. Maybe a type of gravy or some extra yoghurt, or a drizzle of lemon juice/EVOO would have given it a finishing touch. It was cooked beautifully without being soggy, which surprised me after such a long cooking time.

This would be well worth trying with broccoli too, I think! We had it with very easy Honey Baked Chicken, for a simple Sunday night lazy meal, as we’d already been out for lunch with friends at Edgecombe Bros winery in the Swan Valley. We had shared platters of delicious local nibbles, and tasted wines – a very relaxing way to spend a Summer Sunday afternoon!

Happy Fooding!

Quick Lamb Curry

This simple lamb mince dish is based on one from Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – an old book that I came across at work recently, with loads of terrific and EASY Indian dishes.

There is no rocket science here; the key is in the use of fresh spices – get your mortar & pestle action on!

You could serve this as is, in a bowl, or make it a bit more glamorous with rice, tortillas or naan bread, raita, and maybe a side dish of sauteed mushrooms or mashed potato!

Minced Lamb With Peas

2 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

1 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 tbsp low-fat Greek yoghurt

500 gms minced lamb

cracked pepper, to taste

1 cup water

juice of 1 lemon

3/4 cup frozen peas

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger; stir until lightly browned.

Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper, and stir for 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and yoghurt. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have softened, stirring often.

Add the lamb and cracked pepper. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, breaking up all the lumps.

Add the water and bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add lemon juice and peas, return to a simmer and cook gently, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Chicken Tagine

Marinating it all.

From one of the Two Fat Ladies‘ cookbooks – Potty, by Clarissa Dickson-Wright, I adapted this chicken dish, which is very suited to preparing in the morning before work and then easily plonking on the stove at night. And speaking of plonk, I think you should also have a glass of wine in hand while you’re keeping an eye on the chicken…..I usually have wine in one hand and a book in the other, because I am such a nerd!

I think next time I will add some green olives to this – I thought of it too late, as I had already started cooking and the shops were shut!

Chicken Tagine with Green Peas & Preserved Lemons

800 gms skinless chicken thigh fillets, trimmed off any fat and cut into 3cm pieces

1 large brown onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

1/4 tsp cumin seeds, ground

3 tbsp olive oil

skin of 1 preserved lemon, thinly sliced

350 gms frozen peas

cracked pepper, to taste

Place chicken in a bowl with the onion, garlic, parsley, coriander, cumin and olive oil. Mix well to coat, and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to marinate.

Transfer chicken mixture to either a tagine or large saucepan, and add just enough water to cover the chicken.

Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, covered. Stir occasionally.

Add preserved lemon, peas and pepper, bring back to a simmer and cook for a further 15 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Serve with couscous or rice, naan bread and yoghurt.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Crockpot Vegetable Chilli

Healthy and filling, this slow cooker chilli is the perfect example of the ‘chuck it all in and turn it on’ philosophy that slow cookers are all about. To me, a slow cooker should be about convenience, so the recipes where you still have to saute things on the stove first etc are just not my idea of fun. I want my crockpot to serve my needs, and this chilli suits the slow cooker ideal so well. Plus, it tastes great!

Vegetable Chilli

2 medium zucchini (OR 1 large eggplant), chopped

1 green or red capsicum, chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled & chopped

2 celery sticks, sliced (optional – include leaves as well)

2 brown onions, chopped

425 gm can chopped tomatoes

425 gm can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

2 tsp chilli paste

2 tsp cumin, ground

225 jar salsa (hot)

140 gms tomato paste

425 gm can corn kernels, drained

cracked pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on LOW for 8 hours. Serve with rice or tortillas.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Happy Fooding!

Still on the Quinoa Train…

I recently borrowed Cooking With Quinoa: The Supergrain from work. It’s a great resource for quinoa recipes, and here is a lamb dish that I’ve adapted. The only time-consuming part was grinding a tablespoon of cumin seeds – as I have quite weak wrists I find using a mortar and pestle not that easy, but I do prefer to grind the spices freshly as I need them. I sat outside in the sun with my neighbour, grinding away whilst stopping regularly for champagne liquid refreshment to keep me going!

Lamb With Quinoa

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium brown onions, cut in half & thinly sliced

500 gms minced lamb

5 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds, whole

1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground

3/4 cup quinoa (rinse it if you prefer)

1/4 cup black rice

1 tbsp light soy sauce (I like Pearl River Bridge)

1 tsp chilli paste

2 cups hot water

1 cup frozen peas

1 red chilli, sliced

10 dried prunes, roughly chopped

preserved lemon & low-fat Greek yoghurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan, and saute onion until soft and golden. Add lamb mince and cook until well browned.

Stir in the garlic, cumin seeds and ground cumin, and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the quinoa, rice, soy sauce, chilli paste and water. Stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa is almost cooked.

Stir in the frozen peas and prunes, and cook for a further 8 minutes. Add the sliced chilli and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Serve with pieces of preserved lemon and yoghurt, if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

All Aboard the Quinoa Train

I became a fan of quinoa when living in Chile – it’s a staple thing there, just like rice or couscous. At the time, no one in Australia had heard of it, but now it is very trendy and recipes are popping up in all the foodie magazines. Quinoa is extremely nutritious, and goes equally well as a plain side dish or as a more substantial meal, such as this pilaf.

My work colleague, who writes the fabulous Excelsior literature blog, and runs the book club at our library, adores quinoa and recommended this Indian-Spiced Chicken Quinoa Pilaf recipe as one he had tried and found delicious. And I agree! I made it exactly as written and it was completely perfect in every way.

My goodness, this was sooooooooooooo tasty! There was quite a bit of chopping up and measuring things out beforehand, but the actual cooking part was easy. I thought it would be very spicy because of the green chilli and all the spices, but actually it wasn’t so much spicy as flavoursome – a great Indian blend of aromatics that works really well.

This is VERY filling and quinoa, like rice, increases hugely as it absorbs liquid, so this quantity would easily serve 6 if you had some kind of bread and salad with it.

As a variation, I’m thinking prawns instead of chicken would work really well here – added sometime towards the end maybe, as 20 minutes would be way too much cooking time.

This is definitely going in to my saved recipe files.

Happy Fooding!

Aloo Dhal Curry

This website promotes Australian potatoes (including some varieties that I’ve never heard of!) and every now and then puts out a leaflet of recipes in the supermarket, which is how I came across this vegetarian lentil curry recipe. And, it tastes amazing!!

Below is my tweaked version – mainly I’ve just changed a few quantities to suit my taste or the weight of vegies I happened to have, and of course I upped the garlic lol. I also found it took longer than the stated cooking time, but then I did cut my vegies in quite large chunks so that could be my fault, not theirs.

Anyway, this is lovely and flavoursome, and hearty warming Winter fare for this last burst of cold weather (which I really hope is the last….). Or you can check out my similar-but-not-exactly-the-same Potato & Lentil Curry, a great vegetarian curry standby that is a no-fail easy dinner.

Aloo Dhal Curry

1 brown onion, cut into wedges

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled & grated

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, ground

2 tbsp olive oil

450 gms potatoes, cut into large dice (leave skin on)

500 gms pumpkin, peeled & cut into large dice

1 1/4 cups brown lentils, rinsed & drained

425 gm can diced tomatoes

2 cups water

cracked pepper, to taste

1 bunch (about 1 cup) fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium heat, and saute the onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cayenne, ground coriander and cumin for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add all remaining ingredients except coriander leaves. Bring to a simmer, and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add coriander and stir through to serve.

Serve with yoghurt or raita and naan bread, if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

Vegetarian (or Not) Barley Stew

This Barley Stew is something I’ve been making for years, from the Internet somewhere, no idea where. It is true comfort food, perfect bowl food for a chilly Winter’s evening. This time, however I decided to make it as a meat dish, by simply adding a couple of chicken breast fillets to the pan. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this worked – no tweaking of the recipe was needed, I just added them along with the onion etc at the beginning.

So it’s your choice – without chicken as a great vegetarian main dish, or with chicken for the meat eaters.

Barley Stew

2 tbsp olive oil

2 chicken breast fillets, chopped into 2cm cubes (optional)

1 brown onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 red capsicum, chopped

1/2 green capsicum, chopped

300 gms button mushrooms, chopped

1 cup pearl barley

425 gm can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

a few drops Tabasco sauce, to taste

cracked pepper, to taste

1 tbsp soy sauce

4 cups vegetable stock

Heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken (if using), carrot, onion, garlic and capsicum and saute until onions are translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute for 2 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until barley is tender (about 50 minutes).

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

1 medium carrot, peeled & finely chopped

Disappointing….

Recently in the Coles junk mail (since I moved I am finally getting junk mail in my letterbox again – yay!) was one of their “feed your family for under $10” recipes that looked pretty good – Lamb, Cauliflower & Coconut Curry – so I tried it. I don’t believe the under $10 rubbish – the recipes are supposed to use in-season products so that the prices are good, but I don’t call $5.65 for a cauliflower a means to a low budget dinner! Just the cauliflower and the mince came to almost $10 for a start.

Anyway, in theory it should have been lovely and tasty – loads of spices, garlic, ginger etc, but really it wasn’t up to much. Lacking in flavour I thought. Maybe they like things to be child-friendly ie no really strong flavours. Certainly it was quite easy – simple enough to make after a 7 hour work shift, – I wouldn’t bother with too much complication at the end of a work day when there’s only myself to cook for.

Oh well, it filled the spot, as they say, but I won’t make it again. Or if I do, I’ll really add some hot chillies to pep it up a lot!

Happy Fooding!

Real Falafels…

I’ve been making my own baked falafels for a few years. About a year ago I tried one of those dried falafel mix boxes, where you just add water and an egg or something. Disgusting! Then a couple of months ago I saw some nice looking ready-made ones in a vacuum-sealed packet, in the supermarket. They came in different flavours and were on special so I thought I’d try them, as we were going away on the boat that weekend and wanted easy nibbles to take with us. Also disgusting! SO dry and tasteless.

I think I’ll just stick to my tried and true homemade ones. I bake them rather than fry, as I do not like food where all you can taste is oil. These are easy and delicious, and if you don’t like the yoghurt dipping sauce, sweet chilli is just as good.

Falafels

425 gm can chickpeas, drained

3 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

2 tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled & grated

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 egg

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

Sauce for Serving:

1 cup low-fat Greek yoghurt

1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp chilli paste (optional)

Mash the chickpeas in a food processor until smooth. Place in a bowl and mix with all other ingredients.

With clean hands, form into smooth oval shapes of about 1 tbsp of mixture each. Refrigerate for an hour, then bake on a greased oven tray at 200C for 20 minutes (turning over after 10 minutes).

Serve with dipping sauce – mix all sauce ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.

Makes 16.

Happy Fooding!