slow-cooked vegetable curry with little lamb meatballs

This one couldn’t be easier (& it helped to slightly reduce our pumpkin supply).

Halve and slice one brown onion & start it cooking gently in a few Tblsp of olive oil. Finely slice & chop a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger & add to the pan along with 4-5 finely sliced cloves of garlic. (We’ve just planted our garlic – 2 & 1/2 of our 2-m long raised beds. Should be a great crop.)  Continue to cook until the onion is softening & turning translucent, then add 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp ground cumin, as much chili as takes your fancy (I used 1/4 tsp) and 1/2 tsp salt). Cook a little longer, stirring, until the mix is fragrant, and then tip it into the bowl of your slow-cooker where you have already placed

1 butternut squash, peeled & de-seeded & cut into 2cm chunks; 3 medium potatoes, cut into 2cm chunks; a couple of red peppers, cut into strips; and a can of drained chickpeas – or, in my case, cannellini beans on account of I didn’t check the label before opening the can. Add 5oo mL of chicken stock, cover, & leave to cook on a low setting for about 5 hours.

At this point I tasted the curry & decided that although it smelled great it needed coconut; with no little cans of coconut milk in the pantry I added a couple of Tblsp of desiccated coconut instead 🙂 Plus 3 Tblsp of tomato paste to thicken the mix. Pretty much anything goes in this recipe! (If we hadn’t eaten a lot of spinach the previous night – spinach galettes with tomato passata – I’d have sliced some thinly & added towards the end of the cooking time.)

Stir everything well and then add your meatballs. I used a cup of nice soft fresh breadcrumbs from yesterday’s loaf of beer bread, & added 1 egg, 2 Tblsp of finely chopped fresh mint, 2 tsp of garam masala, 1 Tblsp dark soy sauce & 300g of lamb mince. Mix this together really, really well & shape into small balls about the size of a walnut. They’ll be quite soft. Place them carefully in the curry & leave everything for another hour or so until the meatballs are cooked through.

You could serve with rice but we ate it on its own, with a little chopped fresh coriander sprinkled on top.

beef cheeks (& even the doubter liked them)

Well, this has been a rather occasional diary lately, hasn’t it? It’s not that I’ve not been cooking, but rather than I’ve had so much else on my (metaphorical) plate that this blog slipped to the back. But anyway, here we are again 🙂

A few days ago I called into a new butcher’s shop on the way home (‘new’ in the sense of  ‘new to me’; they’ve been there fora while but I’ve never stopped before). Into my basket went lamb sausages, a couple of nice bones for the dog, and 6 beef cheeks. I’d not cooked this particular cut before I thought I’d experiment.

So yesterday morning I turned on the slow cooker & got to work. First up, & sliced & gently fried 2 medium-sized brown onions in a bit of olive oil – I know most slow cooker recipes say to just put them in the pot, but I’ve found the flavours are better if the onions are at least partly-cooked before they go in there. Dunno why. After about 5 minutes I added 6 big cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced, and gave them all another 5 minutes in the pan.

At about the same time I put a cup of dried mushrooms – several different kinds – into a bowl & covered them with boiling water.

The onions & garlic went into the bottom of the slow cooker dish. I put a bit more oil into my frying pan, coated the beef cheeks in cornmeal, and browned each in turn before arranging them on top of the onions. A couple of largish carrots, peeled & diced, joined the meat, & I tucked 3 bay leaves in among them. (One of the things I love about our current house is that all my herbs are in the garden, or in pots, in the courtyard – just a few steps from the kitchen.)

Then I opened a bottle of pinot noir & used a cup of that to deglaze the pan. (My brother – the one that does a lot of cooking – would say that at this point I should have made personal inroads on the remaining wine, but I’ll confess to not particularly liking reds.) I added the leaves from several sprigs of thyme, 500 mL of beef stock, the rehydrated mushrooms (having cut the big ones into smaller pieces), and some of the water from the mushrooms, & brought all that to the simmer before pouring it over the meat & veges in the slow cooker. And left it all to cook on ‘low’ for 8 hours – I turned the meat occasionally but it could have been left entirely to its own devices. By the end of that time it smelled divine & the sauce/gravy was delicious 😀

We’d invited friends to dinner (one of whom loves beef cheeks, but the other was decidedly suspicious). To accompany the casserole, we had beans (frozen in the summer when we had a distinct surplus), roast butternut pumpkin (also from the garden) & baked potatoes, based on a Gordon Ramsay recipe I saw on TV recently.

For this, I used 3 large Agria spuds – they are yellow & floury & wonderful when baked. They needed an hour at 180 C. About 15 minutes before the potatoes were done, I finely shredded 1/4 of a drumhead cabbage and cooked it gently in a little butter until it was tender. Then I cut each spud in half lengthways & carefully scooped out the flesh into a bowl, arranging the skins in a baking dish. I mashed the flesh with a little butter & a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, seasoned it with salt & ground black pepper, and then mixed in the cabbage. And then mixed in about 75g of crumbled blue vein cheese – it really lifted the dish out of the ordinary – before popping back in the oven to heat through.

That was such a nice meal – & I think the doubter is converted.

zucchini timbales & tomato coulis

Last night we had some good friends to dinner. The main course was garlic & sweet chilli prawns, but on casting about for an entrée I decided on this zucchini dish. Mainly because we have zucchinis in the garden, & with this vegetable it seems you have either a glut or a famine. I’ve had the recipe for years but haven’t made it a lot in recent times; it’s from an old edition of the Australian Women’s Weekly microwave cookbook (we’re talking the 1980s here 😀 ).

The timbales: first, puree 8 small zucchini in a blender – you could equally well grate them; I’ve done it both ways & both work just fine. Cook the result in the microwave on ‘high’ for 5 minutes & then squeeze out as much of the moisture as you can.

Put the squeezed veges in a bowl & mix in a 250g tub of sour cream (‘lite’, if you insist, a pinch of salt, as much chopped basil as you like (the recipe says 2 Tblsp but I like more than that), 2 Tblsp grated parmesan, & 4 eggs.

Divide the mix between 6 1/2 c moulds (I love my silicone ones; if you are using another kind remember to grease them well) & cook in the microwave for around 7 minutes on med-high – check occasionally. You want them firm in the middle. (They could also be done standing in a dish of water in a moderate oven.)

The coulis: peel & chop 4 medium tomatoes & put in a bowl with a clove or more (I used more as garlic is something we also have a lot of & we all like it) & 2-3 Tblsp tomato paste. Cover & cook on high for 3-4 minutes, then blend to a puree.

Unmould the timbales onto serving plates & serve with some of the tomato sauce on the side. This is a lovely, light, summery entrée 🙂

macaroni with broccoli pesto

We had my mother-in-law to tea last night & I wanted to make something a bit different that would tickle her taste buds. Looking in the fridge I found we had quite a lot of broccoli (the result of me buying some at the market before I found the first big head of the season growing in the garden). And in the cupboard we had dried macaroni, so I decided to make a variation on a recipe in the Saturday paper. (A variation that was necessary because I didn’t have basil & I didn’t have pine nuts & I didn’t have the fancy pasta, just the macaroni 🙂 )

First I set water to boil in a large saucepan, prior to adding the macaroni (about 1&1/2 cups). Then I cut a large head of broccoli into florets before cooking them until just tender. The recipe said just to blanch the veges, but Mum is not a fan of crispy greens unless we are talking lettuce.)

While the broccoli cooked I pulsed 1/2 walnut halves (I know you don’t like them, Annette, but you could use cashews instead – or the original pine nuts!) in my stick blender’s chopping attachment until they were like largeish breadcrumbs, put them in a bowl, & chopped a cup or so of basil mint leaves (new addition to my herb garden & it’s a very vigorous grower) before adding them to the bowl as well. Then I did the same with the broccoli, until it was a rough paste, & added it to the bowl with 1/2c olive oil & a good grinding of salt & pepper.

By that time the pasta was nicely al dente, so I drained it & returned it to the pan along with the broccoli pesto, mixed it all together, & served with grated parmesan atop and alongside some carrots & nice crumbed pork schnitzel.

Mum was very taken with this offering 😀

carrot soup – with a twist

Yesterday, when I did the grocery shopping, I bought a little bottle of star anise. (I love aniseed. When I was little, aniseed balls were one of my favourite sweets; they used to be 8 for a penny at Mr Montgomery’s dairy. The fact that NZ has had decimal currency since 1967 tells you that I was little a loooong time ago 🙂 ) I bought it, because I wanted to see if I could recreate the lovely soup we had for dinner at Scotts Epicurean, the previous week. And I had a go for today’s lunch.

First, I melted 25 g of butter in a large saucepan, before adding a finely-sliced brown onion & a minced clove of garlic & setting them to cook gently. On top went 2 medium potatoes, cut into small dice (I don’t usually bother peeling spuds if they’re going into soup; I just give them a good scrub). Once the onion was becoming translucent I added 6 peeled carrots, sliced about 5 mm thick, 2 star anise, and 1 L of chicken stock. Then I covered the pan & left everything to simmer very gently while I took the dog for a walk.

When we got back I put some scuffins in the oven, then pureed the soup with my trusty stick blender & served it – once the scuffins were cooked, with a spoonful of sour cream in each bowl. (It’s on Scotts’ brunch menu with creme fraiche, but I didn’t have any.)

Success! The husband said, this tastes just like what we had at Scotts the other night 😀

pumpkins – stuffed & in pie

While the husband & I are both really fond of pumpkin, we don’t want to eat it the same way all the time 🙂 The mini-pumpkins are just the right size for 1-2 people (well, some of them are – others would do for 4 & have some left over), so one night I decided to stuff them. This is probably the cheat’s way to do it 😀

All I did was cut out a ‘plug’ around the stump of the stem – this would act as the lid – and then used a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then I got a packet of Uncle Ben’s savoury rice out of the pantry & used some of that, mixed with a little crumbled feta, to pack the cavity in the pumpkin before adding a couple of Tblsp of water and replacing the lid. (The rest I cooked & served as a side dish for the benefit of the daughter, who professes not to like this particular cucurbit fruit.) And then it went in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 C. Couldn’t be simpler, & tasted wonderful.

And for another option – well, my science blog-buddy Darcy has shared his favourite pumpkin pie recipe:

500g pumpkin (cooked)
3/4C sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp ginger
3 eggs lightly beaten
150mL evaporated milk.

Mash pumpkin and blend ingredients together. Pour into pie dish lined with sweet short crust pastry (We usually get the pre-rolled stuff from the supermarket – much easier to work with). Bake @ 180C for 25 min or till skewer comes out clean.

Eat hot or cold with whipped cream – I prefer cold, straight from the fridge.

I usually do double the mix so I don’t have half a can of evaporated milk lying around.

I’ve yet to try this one – but we’ll see what the next lot of dinner guests think 🙂

And then of course there will be pumpkin curry, & pumpkin soup… And I’ve got a rather nice recipe for pumpkin bread too!

a couple of dips

When catering for the daughter’s birthday party, one of the things I made was a gloriously pink beetroot dip. One of her friends was asking about recently & so I thought I’d share it here, along with the yummy bean dip we had as a starter the other night.

Beetroot dip: drain a 480 g can of beetroot (sliced, chunks, baby; it doesn’t matter) & put it in a blender along with a 250 g tub of sour cream, and 1 tsp ground cumin. Blend till smooth & season to taste. For the party I served it with chips made from gluten-free wraps, as two of the guests are coeliac. (Which reminds me – until recently it’s been quite hard to get gluten-free spices. I was flabberghasted to find, on reading the labels, that many of them contained gluten. Presumably as a filler?)

Zesty red bean dip: this one’s from the wonderful Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook, by Alison & Simon Holst. Put a clove (or more – I inclined to more 😛 ) of garlic into your trusty blender, along with 1/2 c roughly chopped parsley, 2 Tbl coriander leaves & stems (ditto), 2 Tbl olive oil, 2 tsp lime or lemon juice, & either 2-3 spring onions (cut into 2cm lengths) or a small red onion (also roughly chopped. Blend until smooth. Then drain a 480 g can of red kidney beans, keeping the liquid, & add the beans to the blender before processing everything until smooth & well blended. You can add some of the bean liquid if the mix is too thick. Taste it & adjust the seasoning – the Holsts suggest adding some sour cream if the flavours are a bit sharp, but I didn’t find I needed to.

Enjoy 🙂

pumpkin risotto

This year we have a plethora of petite pumpkins – the shot below shows rather less than half the crop. Pretty, aren’t they? We decided to grow mini-pumpkins as while the husband & I love them, the daughter has them on her list of Food to Avoid If Possible. (No accounting for some tastes…) Anyway, the seed packets informed us that we’d get just 3-4 fruit per plant, so we planted quite a few, wanting to try the different varieties on offer. And most of the plants grew like Topsy & produced a dozen or so cute little pumpkins. Which, as well as looking gorgeous, taste great. I just need to come up with a range of ways to cook them.

So the other night, I made pumpkin risotto. First up, I cut two of our larger fruit in half, scooped out the seeds, & put them cut side down in a baking tray lined with a teflon sheet before baking them at 180 degrees C until soft – about 45 minutes. When they were done, the cut surfaces were slightly caramelised, giving added depth to the flavour.

While that was happening I started in on the risotto part of the meal. A thinly-sliced onion went into one of my big saucepans with 25 g of butter & a splash of olive oil, to soften over a low heat. After 5 or so minutes I added several cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced, followed by 2 c of arborio rice. I stirred all that together until the rice started to go translucent round the edges & was glisteningly covered with the butter/oil.

At which point I opened a bottle of the rather nice 2011 Villa Maria gewurtztraminer, added 250 ml to the rice – & poured myself a glass as well 🙂  – then stirred everything together & turned the heat right down, so that it was all barely simmering. Once the liquid was almost all absorbed, I started adding a litre of hot vegetable stock (again, 250 ml at a time), stirring & then leaving each lot of liquid to be absorbed before adding the next.

While this was going on I also cooked 4 large rashers of shoulder bacon in a very little butter (I find it tends to stick, otherwise) until crispy round the edges. Once that was done I drained it & chopped it into smallish pieces, before cooking 12-15 sage leaves in the fat that remained in the pan. Be careful with this – they need very little time to go crispy!

By this time the pumpkin was done & the risotto was creamy & tender. I added 1/2 c of sour cream to the rice & stirred that through, following it with the bacon & the pumpkin, scooped out of its skin with a dessertspoon to give reasonably big chunks. And then we ate it all up, with lashings of parmesan & the rest of the wine on the side. (No, Trevor, I did not drink it all!)

a nice bean salad

Somewhat to our surprise we’re still picking & eating a few of our scarlet runner beans – earlier in the season I was freezing the excess too, for a winter’s day. (The fardanosa & cobra beans, though, have had it, & their browned remains have joined the vegetable peelings in a compost heap.) I’ve got a cool little bean-slicing gadget that cost a few dollars at the supermarket & has well & truly paid for itself in slicing the beans & removing the stringy bits. While in the past we’ve tended to steam beans to the desired state of ‘done-ness’ – which can be tricky as I like them just-done but the husband objects to their squeakiness in that state – more recently we’ve been eating quite a few bean salads. The basic recipe I’m sure I read in the Herald at some point, but as usual, I’ve fiddled with it a bit.

So – last night I had about 300g of freshly-picked beans to hand (a mix of ours and some dwarf beans from the farmers’ market). First up, I peeled & very-thinly sliced a red onion and a de-seeded red pepper, then put them in a large-ish bowl along with a handful of dried cranberries. Next I mixed a vinaigrette dressing (6 Tblsp olive oil, 2 Tblsp red wine vinegar, & a couple of tsp of Tuscan seasoning), poured it over the veges, & stirred well so that the onion slices were separated & everything was nicely covered.

Then came the slightly tedious job of topping & tailing the beans (the slicer does that too) & putting them through the slicer, but hey! there’s always the iPod to listen to while I do it 🙂 The big pile of beans went into a big pot of boiling water until they were just done; subsequent marinating them in the dressing would get them past the dreaded squeaky stage. I drained them & plonked them in cold water for a couple of minutes – I wanted them still warm when they hit the dressing. Then I added them to the bowl, along with the drained, rinsed contents of a 400g tin of red kidney beans. After another mixing, the salad could sit -covered with gladwrap – on the bench to marinate until tea time.

It’s certainly been a summer of healthy eating 🙂

oyster mushrooms with pasta

This morning at the farmers’ market a lovely young chap from Raglan was selling oyster mushrooms, both fresh & dried. I asked about cooking them & he made them sound so delicious that I just had to buy a bag of fresh mushrooms (about 100g) & put them in my saddlebags, to be joined by all manner of other nice things (including cherry tomatoes, dwarf beans (our runner beans are still going, but the dwarf ones we put in were a bit of a disappointment), Purple Heart spuds, peppers, blueberries, & Guide biscuits). And as I biked home, I considered dinner…

… and decided on pasta with mushrooms, roast tomatoes, & beans.

First, I put the cherry tomatoes into an oven dish & tossed them with salt, pepper & a little olive oil before leaving them to roast at 200 degrees Celsius. Next I sliced the beans (using my nifty little bean-slicer-thingy) & put a big pot of water on to boil for the spaghetti. Because I was using the bought, dried variety I figured the pasta should be cooked at the same time as the beans (this is important as the husband doesn’t like his beans ‘squeaky’).

Once the beans were also set on the heat, I melted 50g butter in a heavy frying pan & – as instructed by the grower 🙂 – tore the mushrooms into smaller pieces: you tear along the line of the gills so that the texture is retained. They softened quite quickly, at which point I added 125g sour cream and the leaves from 3-4 sprigs of lemon thyme; the mix needed thinning with a little water.

Everything was done at the same time (doesn’t always happen!). I drained the pasta & returned it to the pan, then poured in the creamy oyster sauce & mixed everything together quickly before dividing it between 4 plates (along with the drained beans) & topping each mound of pasta with some cherry tomatoes, the juice from the tomato dish, & a goodly helping of finely grated parmesan.

Delightful! I’ll be buying more of those mushrooms sometime Real Soon!!