Damper / Soda Bread

I felt like soda bread one day this week, and decided to see if the recipe I’ve had for years worked in the bread machine, because things are so easy that way. It did work, really well, and made great open sandwiches with olive/feta dip, jarslberg cheese, roast beef & alfalfa sprouts on top.

For something different I added a small can of corn kernels and some caraway seeds – you can add lots of things to bread recipes to jazz them up a bit – sun-dried tomatoes, chopped olives, walnuts, poppy seeds, herbs etc.

Soda Bread

3 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bi-carbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp caraway seeds (optional)

125 gm can corn kernels, drained (optional)

1 1/2 cups buttermilk or low-fat Greek yoghurt

Regular Method:

Mix dry ingredients, seeds & corn (if using) together with a whisk.  Make well in the centre and add 1 cup of buttermilk/yoghurt.  Mix with a fork then gradually add more of the remaining buttermilk/yoghurt until a soft dough is formed.

Knead dough lightly on floured surface for 1 minute. Form into an oval shape and place in a greased/lined loaf tin or on a greased/lined baking tray.

Bake at 190C (170C fan forced) for 45 minutes.

Bread Machine Method:

Place all ingredients in machine. Cook on Damper setting. After the first five minutes, scrape down the sides of the mixture with a spatula to make sure it all gets mixed in properly.

Yummy Lunch!

As with all quick breads, this is best eaten on the day of baking. Use leftovers for great toast!

Happy Fooding!

Salmon Bake

Can’t remember where I got this recipe from – online somewhere I think – but I originally made it as a “non red meat” addition to a dinner party table, years ago – where I had a pescetarian who needed something in an otherwise mainly beef related dinner. It was a big hit with everyone, however, and so has been on my regular menu ever since.

Although salmon is my favourite food, the tinned kind is not something I am super keen on – I could not eat it just on its own, but this dish is one of the rare “tinned” dishes that I really love. It is great as a main dish, comfort-food-style, just to dig in with a spoon in front of a movie on a cold Winter’s evening. It is equally good at a party or pot-luck-supper, as part of an array of various dishes. Enjoy…..

Salmon Bake

30 gms butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

1 1/4 cups milk

cracked pepper, to taste

210 gm can red salmon, drained

125 gm can corn kernels, drained (or cut the kernels from one small corn cob)

1 cup frozen green peas

1 cup tasty cheese, grated

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 180∞C.  Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat;  cook onion and celery for 3 mins, stirring, until onion is soft.

Add flour and cook for 1 min, stirring, then add milk and pepper and cook, stirring constantly, for 3-4 mins until mixture boils and thickens.

Remove from heat and add salmon, corn, peas and half of the cheese. Mix well and pour mixture into a 2 litre ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with combined breadcrumbs and remaining cheese.

Bake for 20 mins until golden.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Need to Get Healthy Again….

Salsa

I had a severe meat overdose last week.

Firstly, I made a beef stir-fry which lasted me for two evening meals – no particular recipe, just chucked in some marinated beef strips plus whatever veggies I had and a few sauces. It was good.

Secondly, I tried the Indian cafe at the end of my street, for the first time (even though it’s been there for over 2 years….) on Friday night – I bought takeaway lamb saagwala, rice, naan bread and vegetable pakoras. Apart from the pakoras, which were delicious, the rest was awful – undercooked, tough lamb with no flavour, and too-chewy naan bread. The service was also very poor – 25 minutes to get a takeaway order when there was only one order before me and one table of 6 in the actual restaurant. Plus, the girl taking the orders stopped halfway through an order to take an obviously personal phone call, which she then proceeded to take outside to carry on in private! I won’t be going back there again. Shame, as it is so close to home and they home-deliver for free if I really can’t be bothered walking 100 metres haha.

Thirdly, on Saturday, I decided to cook lamb shanks in a cook-in-the-bag thingy, with roasted veg. This was quite lovely – I don’t use a lot of pre-prepared foodstuffs, but I like the convenience of these flavour sachet/bag things for an easy, family-style meal occasionally. I had, however, eaten the leftover lamb saagwala, on a roll at lunchtime (because despite its lack of flavour excitement, I do hate to waste food, especially when an animal has died to provide it), plus I had a slice of roast beef on my crumpet for breakfast, so the whole day was very meat-intense, which is not like me.

And finally, on Sunday I went to “high tea” at a posh hotel in the afternoon. I deliberately ate nothing but a crumpet early in the morning, to build up a good appetite. I will write about my total pig-out separately, but suffice it to say, I did not need dinner that night and in fact felt quite disgustingly bloated and huge afterwards. Not only that, but the skirt I wore to the high tea was tight and it is usually quite a loose fitting one, so that means I still haven’t physically gotten over my excess of cheese and pastry whilst in the UK!

Time has come for some detoxifying……for me that means not eating meat for a while – not that I will ever completely be a vegetarian, as I do love a good curry, roast or  meat stir-fry. But I know my body, and I do just feel a lot healthier when I stick to veg & fish/seafood. I’d like to say I would give up alcohol to detox, but hmmmmm that will never happen. I have to have something to keep me sane….

I’m really big on mushrooms at the moment, so this is what I had last night – I simply placed 200 gms (9) cup mushrooms (stalks cut off then finely chopped) in a baking dish and topped with 100 gms crumbled feta, the chopped mushroom stalks, 50 gms pitted kalamata olives, cracked pepper and some fresh basil leaves. Baked it for 30 minutes at 160C and served with a freshly made salsa – in this case I used the kernels from 1 corn cob (I don’t bother blanching it, just slice it off raw – yummo), 1 red onion (finely chopped), 1 tomato (finely chopped), 1 avocado (chopped), a pinch of salt, cracked pepper and a splash of lime juice.

Mushrooms, Feta, Olives

This was a delicious and healthy comfort food – filling and “meaty” tasting thanks to the mushrooms, but without the blurrrrggggghhh feeling of eating too much meat in one hit.

This mushroom idea actually works well as a side dish, rather than the main meal that I made of it. I made this quantity just for me – it was too much of course, but bearing in mind that mushrooms shrivel a lot when they cook, you would need to increase the quantities if you wanted this to be a main dish for a few people or a side dish for a large group.

Mushrooms + Salsa = Yum

Happy Fooding!

Mild Thai Vegies

It is really, really hot here at this time of year. I love it, as I hate the cold, but many are not happy right now. Over Christmas we had about 10 days in a row of 37-42C with no relief, and even night minimums only getting down to 23-27C.

Finally a minor cool change came through on New Year’s Day, and since then it hasn’t been too bad, but even with a bit of a cool breeze, it is still way too hot inside my tiny place to think about using the oven much. The aircon is very inefficient and there is no insulation, making it freezing in Winter and stinking hot in Summer!

On New Year’s Day, when I was in post-Hawaiian-party recovery mode and pretty much doing nothing all day, I wanted to make a healthy vegie dish to go with my crumbed salmon (which I did in the microwave rather than the oven). I also needed to make do with whatever was in the fridge, as the shops were not open and I had not yet fully re-stocked from being away for 2 weeks.

I made up this curried veg dish – Massaman curry paste is very mild, so this is not a spicy dish at all, and you could use whatever vegies you like.

Massaman Thai Vegies

1 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, cut into wedges

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tbsp Massaman curry paste

400 mls coconut milk (low-fat)

400 mls tinned, diced tomatoes

7 baby potatoes, cut into quarters

2 small carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

1/2 red capsicum, sliced

kernels of 1 corn cob

2 tbsp fresh basil, torn

2 tbsp fresh mint, torn

Heat olive oil in large saucepan, and saute onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add coconut milk, tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Add capsicum, corn kernels, basil and mint, and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until potato/carrot is tender, stirring occasionally.

Serves 4

Happy hot weather fooding!

Jamie Oliver’s Lemon Herb Chicken

Chicken fillets pounded & herbs/lemon added

I watch a lot of cooking shows and often go and find the recipes online, but don’t actually end up make too many of them. I like Jamie Oliver’s cooking more than some other celeb chefs, but there are so many out there these days that there isn’t enough time to try them all.

This dish – Herb & Lemon Chicken With Sweetcorn Mash – is from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals app (I think – actually saw it on a friend’s phone so not quite sure which app it was) and was a beautiful blending of 3 different things – the actual chicken fillets, pounded and then rubbed with lemon zest and herbs…..the salsa topping, a delightful mix of tomato, spring onions and balsamic dressing….and underneath, a creamy mash with corn kernels. The mixing of these three things really brought a wonderful flavour to the mouth – a perfect blending really.

I used fresh corn kernels, sliced directly from a cob – if you can be bothered it is much yummier than the tinned/frozen variety.

This served 2 but with a bit of the salsa topping left over, which I added to my sandwiches for lunch the next day. I’m a firm believer in adding leftovers of all kinds, to sandwiches!

I’ve just borrowed “The Chef” Simon Bryant’s brand new Vegies cookbook from the library – can’t wait to have a drool over it on the weekend.

Happy Fooding!

Good Old Fritter Batter

This week I had a pang for corn fritters……haven’t made these for years and so I looked up my old school cookbook from, ahem, many years ago. It is still a cookery bible of sorts, for me, and I often go back to it, despite its now-falling-apart condition. It is completely food splattered and well loved! I found my handwritten corn fritter instructions underneath the “fritter batter” recipe and made a batch of these to have cold (because that’s the kind of gal I am).

Simple and basic…..and yummy for brekky, cold, spread with a little cream cheese and topped with a slice of silverside (corned beef).

Corn Fritters

2 cups self-raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 2/3 cup water

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp dried basil

425 gm can corn kernels, drained

Sift flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, and gradually add the water, blending with a hand held blender (or use a food processor, or a wooden spoon if you have no choice but you’ll get a sore arm!).

Blend until the mixture is nice and smooth, then add the milk and blend further until nice and glossy.

Add corn kernels and basil, and mix well. Refrigerate for an hour or so.

Pour large tablespoonfuls of mixture into greased egg rings in a little olive oil heated in a pan (I use the oil spray so it isn’t too oily); cook until bubbling on top. Remove rings, flip over and press down with the back of an egg-flip or spatula, and cook for about 1 minute more or until cooked through. Drain onto paper towels and serve hot or cold.

Makes 18.

Happy Fooding!

Crockpot Spoon Bread (aka Corn Pudding)

Spoon bread is a misnomer for this dish really…..it’s actually a side dish, a kind of savoury corn pudding, and not a bread itself. Very tasty though and worth playing around with, as you can add whatever you like to the basic polenta/flour/milk/egg/butter mixture.

Southwest Spoon Bread

olive oil spray

4 large eggs

1 1/3 cups milk

420 gm can creamed corn

60 gms butter, melted

1/3 cup plain flour

1/3 cup polenta

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

cracked pepper, to taste

310 gm can corn kernels, drained

1 cup tasty cheese, grated

1 large green chilli, finely chopped

1/3 cup ham, finely chopped (optional)

Spray inside of crockpot with olive oil spray. In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, creamed corn, melted butter, flour, polenta, baking powder, salt and pepper.

Stir in the corn kernels, cheese, chillies, and ham if using.

Pour mixture into crockpot, and cook in HIGH for 4 hours.

Serve warm as a side dish.

There are many versions of this around, mostly from US sites/cookbooks. This is the crockpot version I made, and I was very happy with it as a vegetable dish – makes a lot, happily cooks in the background while you are doing other things etc. The downside was that the crockpot bowl was a nightmare to clean afterwards!

Happy Fooding!

Spicy Bean Polenta Wedges

A rainy, windy, miserable Sunday means an urge to rummage through recipes and try something new. Hence this savoury side dish (bread dish I guess), adapted from a recent recipe in Recipes+ magazine. I should have been ironing, packing for my upcoming holiday, taking up the hem of a dress that is too long (I am vertically challenged) etc…..but instead I dropped everything and made a huge mess in the kitchen!

I ate this just as a snacky lunch, but I think the idea is to serve it as an accompaniment to a main dish (especially a Mexican one).  I think it would work very well as a bbq dish – grill the wedges on the bbq rungs instead of baking in the oven.

Spicy Bean Polenta Wedges

1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock

1 cup instant polenta

3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (I didn’t have plain so I used Tilba Trilogy – Summer Herbs flavour)

415 gm can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 tsp chilli powder

olive oil spray or a little olive oil

Line a springform tin with baking paper.

Bring stock to the boil in a large saucepan. Slowly whisk the polenta into the stock until combined, then stir with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes or until polenta mixture is thick. Remove from heat; stir in cheese until melted. Stir in beans, spring onions and chilli powder. Press mixture into prepared tin; smooth top then set aside in the fridge for about 20 minutes to cool.

Preheat oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Turn out the firm polenta onto a chopping board. Cut into 12 wedges. Place on the tray and spray lightly with olive oil spray (or brush lightly with a little olive oil).

Bake for 25 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Makes 12 wedges.

Happy Fooding!

Microwave Cornbread

This easy cornbread recipe is from the Tupperware microwave stack cooking cookbook from many years ago – you know, that ridiculously overpriced 3-part (now changed to 2-part) “revolutionary” cooking system.  Hmm, don’t get me wrong, as any who knows me will tell you I am a huge fan of the ultimate in Plastic Stuff……but the stacking thing I never found made large enough quantities for 4 people really, way back when, so I have mostly just used the recipes as individual ones.

This is a great thing to make when you want to whip up something bread-y at the last minute to go with soup or whatever, as the ingredients are usually on hand.  If you want to pep it up a bit, add some chopped jalapeno chillies for some kick!

The green bits in the photos are chopped parsley, which I just added because I love parsley 🙂

The original recipe called for a longer cooking time, but at the front of the book it says “microwave wattages are available from 500-800 watts” – HAHA mine is 1200 and it is 4 years old, so that’s how out of date the book is!  I have reduced the cooking time accordingly.

1 cup self-raising flour

1 tbsp castor sugar

1 cup polenta

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 egg

1 cup milk (250ml), at room temperature

1 cup corn kernels, drained

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, then add all remaining ingredients and mix together well.  Place in a greased, ring-shaped, microwave-safe round container.  Place on an upturned bowl in the microwave, to elevate it, and cook on HIGH for 5 minutes, covered with a paper towel.  Stand for 5 minutes before turning out of container.

This bread is best served the same day, or if you freeze it, you might need to spread it with something next time, as it does get dry fairly quickly. It is yummy broken into pieces and mixed in to a dish of stew or a casserole as well – sort of like you do with flour dumplings.

If you don’t have a micro-safe ring container, use a plain round one with a round class placed in the centre, upturned.

Happy Fooding!