Garden Ventures

Not a recipe; but I've been growing my own herbs and things in the small space I have free in the front of the house.

Yesterday I was able to pick the green beans I planted a couple months back! So excited about having fresh home grown veg and it was practically free!

Growing stuff is so easy you can grow in anything even if you don't have a garden patch. I currently have basil sitting in an old party tub that I cut holes in to the buttom of. Grab a $5 bag of potting mix, some water and you're set! I encourage everyone to try it.

Fake Fancy

I've always been a firm believer in not having to spend much money to eat well. That said, you can also spend lots of money and eat well, but I don't see it as necessary. As long as you have the right mindset and know the best way to prepare/utilise certain ingredients, you can eat damn good food.

Everybody loves pasta right? It's cheap, it's fast, it's filling, and it's loaded with carby goodness. It's definitely my go-to meal when I'm feeling lazy and poor.

So, here's something I came up with on a whim, I really wanted some sort of fancy pasta dish but didn't have much money and was so tired of the regulars; bolognese, carbonara, etc. It turned out delicious and took very little time to prepare. As an added bonus it's vegetarian too, but either way you've gotta be crazy to not love big chunks of mushroom.

Most of the ingredients are pantry staples. So buying the rocket, mushrooms and parmesan only set me back around $10.

Portobello Mushroom Pasta

Serves 4

8 small portobello mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp butter + splash of oil
1 500g packet of linguine/any shape really
1 150g bag of rocket
Grated parmesan to garnish*

Method:

Bring a large pot to the boil and salt well. Meanwhile slice mushrooms and garlic.

Saute mushrooms and garlic with butter and oil. At the same time as adding mushrooms to pan, add pasta to boiling water.

Once mushrooms are nearly cooked through season well** with salt and pepper. Do this later and not first to avoid the water leeching out of the mushrooms.

Cook pasta until al dente (I ALWAYS ignore the packet instructions and just taste it till its ready). Drain, then toss through the mushrooms and rocket.

Pile on to plates and top with grated parmesan to impress your guests.


*Don't tell anyone but I won't hate you if you use that stuff kept in the aisles
**Remember that once the mushrooms are tossed through the pasta the flavour will be less strong. Don't stress if they're a little over salted, it's probably a good thing!

Silverbeet!

My housemate has a friend who grows abundant amounts of silverbeet in her yard and every time they visit each other we get adorned with a mountain of the stuff. I'd never tried it until the first time she brought it home and I loved it! So delicious and nutty, not what I was expecting at all. I sort of imagined a watery bland leaf with a bitter nasty flavour, but that's just the anti veg child in me coming out.

We had so much that I thought I should utilise it well and make something that required a large amount. I tossed around some ideas and then remembered a failed attempt at quiche I had long ago and wanted to redeem myself. Okay, so I didn't make quiche, but turned it in to a silverbeet-rich baked frittata (I guess you could call it).

The beet was mostly leafy with small stems which is preferable to me, I shredded it and tossed it in olive oil with sliced mushrooms and some saute'd garlic and  spring onions to wilt it a little and mixed it up with beaten eggs, cream salt and pepper before covering with a nice layer of parmesan and baking ;)

 

Silverbeet and Mushroom Frittata

Serves 6

1 large bunch silverbeet, sliced
500g mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
olive oil
4 large eggs
150ml cream
150ml milk
1/2 cup parmesan, gruyere or cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste


Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Slice silverbeet, musrooms, garlic and spring onions. Saute garlic, onions and mushrooms until mushrooms begin to cook. Add silverbeet and toss until wilted.

(I do this in the dish I'm about to bake in) Mix eggs, cream, milk and salt/pepper in the dish an add beet/mushroom mix. Carefully stir together to combine and make sure the beet is distributed evenly/there are no air pockets.

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 40 minutes or until set in the middle and cheese is browned on top.

Makes a nice lunch served with a simple side salad.

Better than Bolognese

One day I had absolutely nothing to do so I ended up lounging around watching Jamie Oliver TV shows on my computer. It was great! But it made me sooo hungry. I was inspired to make a 30 minute meal, but you know, it's pretty much impossible to do if you don't have the insane chopping skills of Jamie.

I figured since I'd taken inspiration from this one dish he makes on 30 minute meals and makes 4 in that whole 30 minutes that this one would be easy peasy and take no time at all. So it didn't take that long, but I think I managed it in about 40... Mostly because I have a silly electric stove which doesn't like getting hot and had to wait for the ingredients to brown.

Anywho, it was a delight to eat! I got hooked and was glad I made such a large amount so I could still have it for the next 3 days. The sweetness and aniseed flavours from the balsamic and fennel seeds are addictive. I didn't think I was going to like it because I used to be a sweet-in-savoury food snob, but now this is my go-to when I want something tomatoey but am totally over plain old bolognese. Don't be put off by me saying it's sweet, it's not like a sugary sweet it's very mildly sweet with a nice mellow tang.

Pork, Fennel and Balsamic Pasta

Serves 4 large or 6 small.

500g g pork mince
500g g pasta of your choice
1 carrot
1 brown onion
4 cloves garlic
2 celery stalks
1 tspn fennel seeds
1 pinch salt and pepper
1 splash olive oil
1 700ml jar of tomato passata

Method

Place carrot, onion, garlic and celery in a food processor and blitz until finely chopped.
Saute over med-high heat in a large fry pan with olive oil.

Once the mix begins to caramelise, push to one side and add the pork mince and brown.
Give it a good lug of balsamic – about 3 tbsp and let it sizzle off the tart vinegar tang and leave behind the sticky sweet balsamic taste.

Season generously with salt and pepper and add the fennel seeds.

Add the passata and simmer gently, tasting and seasoning with salt and pepper again if required.

Drain your pasta but reserve some cooking liquid and toss it all together with the sauce (this is why you need a large pan) which will help to emulsify the sauce and stop that horrible water-in-the-bottom-of-your-bowl problem.

Enjoy!

Optional: Toss through some fresh chopped parsley and garnish with grated parmesan.

Cold Rolls

These things go by so many different names, I've met people who have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention them. Sometimes people call them Vietnamese rolls but that generally refers to those crazy french inspired pork baguettes filled with fresh herbs and mayo. Rice paper rolls, fresh spring rolls and cold rolls are common names.

Anywho, I love them! I'd never had them really until I moved to Adelaide and my first housemate introduced me to them. She put avocado in them too which was so delicious! They're the best lunch on a hot day because they're so refreshing. I love that fresh herb and chewy rice paper goodness.

The concept is so fun because you can fill these with all sorts of leftovers, doesn't need to be ~authentic~ just as long as it tastes good. They're super transportable and can be eaten with your hands so they make the perfect picnic or packed lunch addition. Going to be making many more of these over the summer.
 

Chicken Avocado Cold Rolls

300g chicken thighs
1 tsp soy
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp palm (or brown) sugar
1/2 a lime's juice

16 round rice paper sheets (available in the Asian section at most supermarkets)
1 bunch coriander
1 bunch Vietnamese mint (or regular if you can't find Vietnamese)
100g rice vermicelli or glass noodles
Cucumber slices
Shredded lettuce
4 spring onions sliced
1 large avocado, cut in to slices


Method
Marinade the chicken in the soy, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. Pan fry until cooked through and browned on the outside. Let rest then slice thinly.

Prepare the rice vermicelli or glass noodles as instructed.

Lay all the ingredients out along with a large shallow bowl/tray filled with recently boiled water and assemble as follows (I love to put this all on the table and let people DIY)

1. Quickly dunk rice paper in the hot water ensuring it is wet on all sides. Do not let it soften and wilt in the water otherwise you will struggle to handle it later. It will continue to soften as it sits.

2. Place on to a clean damp tea towel and lay chicken gracefully down the middle of the sheet.

3. Top with avocado, herbs, lettuce, cucumber and spring onion then adorn with a generous pinch of the noodles.

4. Wrap like you would a burrito, bringing two opposite sides in then folding a third over and rolling to seal shut.

Serve with a dipping sauce of choice, I like to keep it simple and just eat them with soy or a mix of 2/3 soy, 1/3 rice vinegar, a dash of fish sauce and a squeeze of lime.

So Much to Post!

So little time... Or maybe I'm just lazy. Probably the latter.

I've got a vast amount of different dishes that have been photographed all lined up on my camera. Will be getting in to doing a big update soon but finishing my last semester of uni is becoming busy. For now, I'll leave you with a photo of a paella that I made for a Spanish themed dinner party I held. The recipe for this one won't be going up because I really wasn't happy with it, didn't taste right and I will definitely be switching things up next time. It was still nice! And it looked pretty.

I used this beautiful Calasparra rice for it and (even though I burned the first lot) I still have some left, so I'll make a smaller paella with a different sofrito next time which I'm hoping will be much nicer! You can find the rice at most gourmet grocers that carry spanish products, otherwise aborio or carneroli rice make a very reasonable alternative (and cost less too).

Inappropriately Chocolatey Cookies

I saw these cookies on an episode of one of Nigella's shows recently and died at the sight of them. I brought the ingredients around to the boy I babysits' place one night and we made them and they were just as good (if not better) as I imagined!

The biscuit part is actually quite bitter but once you load it up with chocolate chips all bitterness goes away, so don't freak out if you eat the mix and they don't taste right. They will, and with THAT many chocolate chips how can they not?!

I actually made this batch in the photo's with some caramel chips my boyfriend bought and sent me off to bake with. They were pretty sweet and I prefer dark choc chips instead but still so so good!

125g good dark chocolate (the stuff you eat! trust me it tastes best)
150g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp salt
125g butter, softened
75g dark brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 med (cold from fridge) egg
350g dark chocolate chips (or milk if you prefer, in my case caramel)

Pre-heat oven to 170°c

Melt the 125g of dark chocolate in either the microwave or over a pan of simmering water.

Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl (or stand mixer if you have one) then add the melted chocolate and combine.

Beat in the egg and vanilla then stir in the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb and salt.

Finally mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the mix out in to 12 equal portions on to 1 or 2 lined baking trays ensuring there's plenty of space between each as they will flatten a lot. Do not flatten them! An ice cream scoop is easiest but I don't actually have one so I just used 2 big tablespoons scraping the mix off one with the other.

 

Bake for approx 18mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. If you hit a chocolate chip try again.

Let cool slightly before removing from the trays and enjoy! Best served warm straight from the oven.