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Pumpkin & Cauliflower in Sweet Tamarind Masala

Pumpkin & Cauliflower in Sweet Tamarind Masala is a simple side dish that is full of flavour and tangy sweetness.

With both my mum and sister having ‘big’ birthday’s – 65 and 40 respectively, we all headed up to the family cabins on the Hawkesbury River for a weekend celebration. Six adults, four kids, two dogs and a cat.Friday was beautiful, and we only just made it in time for the sunset… always breathtaking as the colours cross the water, so a great start to the weekend. Dinner that night was mum’s special Moroccan styled Lamb and Pumpkin Soup with delicious sourdough breads and Pepe Saya Cultured Butter. Simple, clean, well developed flavours – you can never get her soup recipe though as she adds leftover ingredients to the soup through the week so it turns into something quite different from where it started, but always amazing. Anyway, that was the last of the beautiful weather, well actually, Seb and hubby got up for some early morning fishing. The weather was peaceful, Seb caught the first fish – a bream – everything was lovely, and then it all changed. The sun came up and brought with it the massive winds. The temperature dropped the winds were blowing a gale, and the skies were grey. There were fleeting moments of blue sky and sun (still windy as all hell) and the cousins would go back on the wharf for some more fishing. Continue reading “Pumpkin & Cauliflower in Sweet Tamarind Masala” →

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Red Pepper (Capsicum) Sauce

Spicy Red Pepper Sauce — Click image for recipe

Red Pepper (Capsicum) Sauce… Bella and I both love to head to the bargain corner of the grocers hoping to get a great big stash of vegetables or fruit to make into a sauce, jam or some other condiment that takes our fancy. They are generally still firm and beautiful but get relegated to the back of the store after a week or so and sold off cheaply. Tomatoes, capsicum, passion fruits, leeks, cauliflower etc, it’s the grocery shop forage – you don’t now what you will get, if anything, but it’s the thrill of the hunt in the city.

So after a successful gathering session I came home with 10 big capsicums. I knew that I wanted something zingy and spicy with a big hit of heat, so I started looking through recipes online for the one that was going to be the perfect fit. A Roasted Red Pepper Sauce popped up and I knew straight away that this was the one. It’s from Bobby Flay’s Mesa Cookbook (this one will most definitely be added to my collection) and it’s just a stunning sauce! Bobby Flay apparently describes this sauce the ‘work horse’ of his restaurants, and I can see why as I have now used it to marinade chicken, eaten it as a dip and have basted fish on the BBQ with it!

Tonight I’m making Chicken Quesadilla’s with it… or maybe Mexican pizza’s?

Enjoy

Blondie

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Spinach & Bacon Tart

Spinach & Bacon Tart, is there anything more delicious than a savoury tart? They are effortless to make and yet look like time and thought have been put into it. Like framed pictures of edible art.

Any ingredients can go into your tart but this one I have left simple, just two tasty ingredients… bacon (since it’s bacon week here in Australia), and silverbeet (any greens will do – kale, spinach etc) but let your imagination rule, you really can’t go wrong.

Enjoy! Blondie xx

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Easy Prawn, Bug & Fish Pie

Easy Prawn, Bug & Fish Pie is exactly that. It’s a basic velouté sauce with seafood and herbs topped with a perfectly crispy lid.

On our annual Easter getaway with our families, the Easter Friday Fish BBQ is where our feast begins. Bella and I head to the Sydney Fish markets and get a wheelbarrow load of delicious seafood. With eyes bigger than our stomachs we, without doubt have a great amount of seafood to use and it’s always nice to change it up a bit so you aren’t eating the same dish for 2-3 days… plus we have the massive lamb roast to dinner to do during that week also!

This can really be made with any seafood, it’s especially great to have this recipe on hand to use with leftover seafood. If you feel there isn’t enough seafood to use you can pad it out with vegetables and then you will have a delicious Seafood and Vegetable Pie.

This is a rough guide recipe, so long as you have the velouté sauce you can use as little or as much seafood as your bowl can take.

You want a great fish stock so don’t throw anything in the bin till you have made the stock. You want lots of fish heads and carcasses. It’s important not to over cook a fish stock, which unlike a bone broth where your aim is to extract as much vitamins, mineral and antioxidants and more importantly the amino acids, proline and glycine over days of simmering, a fish stock will go bitter if left more than 40 mins or so. 40 minutes is all that is needed to extract the goodies without losing the flavour.

If you’ve read my other recipes using stocks/broths you will know that I don’t like to over flavour them with lots of herbs and vegetables. Keep this one clean so as to have the fish and the dill as the main flavours.

A stunningly crispy pie top with a delicious seafood medley filling… Blondie 🙂

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Activated Nuts

I am the type of person that loves to snack during the day be it on cheese sticks, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, mums pickles and the list goes on so in my quest to find a new super snack food I came across activated nuts. Uber cool and healthy.

Activated what? Yep, that’s what my hubby said and the work colleagues cracked a few jokes as well.

So what are they and why?

Whilst raw nuts are full of antioxidants, loaded with protein, healthy fats, fiber and minerals, they also contain natural inhibitors that can interfere with the absorption of the good nutrients and put a massive strain on our digestive system if they are not properly prepared.

The nuts are soaked in some filtered and slightly salted water for a lengthy period of time and slowly dehydrated, by doing so you imitate the sprouting process and decrease the levels of anti-nutrients.

Why salted water? The salt helps to activate the enzymes that deactivate the natural inhibitors that will interfere with absorption of the yummy goodness. Only a small amount of salted water is needed,

The activation process is a small labour of love so I would highly recommend that you make these over the weekend. Preparation takes a few minutes but it is the soaking and dehydrating that takes time. If you will be making these on a regular basis I would also recommend investing in a small dehydrator. You can also dry them at very low heat, approx 50-60 °C, but go on, treat yourself and get a dehydrator! The possibilities are endless!

Once activated I had mine with my yoghurt for brekkie, and always kept a small tub of them in my handbag for work.

Go on…get your nuts activating!

Bella 🙂

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Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes

Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes are a stunningly moist and slightly spiced chocolate cake that will certainly be enjoyed by all.

The original recipe is from Julie Le Clerc’s gorgeous cookbook, Little Café Cakes.

Needing a treat for the school lunch box lead me to this one but with what I had in the cupboard it turned out a little different. To start with I used Dutch processed cocoa powder, which you aren’t suppose to use with baking soda but since the recipe also asks for baking powder I took my chance. I used 2 large zucchini’s so there was A LOT of zucchini. I threw in dried cranberries and chocolate bits for extra sweetness as it wasn’t very sweet but the end result was surprisingly good. I have written the recipe to what Julie Le Clerc documented – adding the cranberries and chocolate bits… oh and using olive oil rather than canola, just to show you that you can mix up recipes a little and still end up with a great end result.

As I used so much zucchini I ended up with some extra mixture so poured it into a pie tin and made an extra large soft cookie that master M absolutely loved! More so than the actual cakes so I will remember to make more of the giant ‘cookie’ next time.

These are dark, moist and tasty – enjoy! Blondie

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Chicken w/ Lap Cheong & Spinach

Chicken w/ Lap Cheong & Spinach is a deliciously juicy Chinese dish that can adapt to having whatever vegetables you want to use in it.

This is an adaption from a new cookbook I picked up from the library, Sweet Mandarin Cookbook by Helen & Lisa Tse. “Classic and contemporary Chinese recipes with gluten and dairy-free variations.” This is a book I will be adding to my collection, without doubt – so many great recipes and very simple.

I say adaption because I used a whole chicken broken down instead of the skinless chicken breast and English spinach instead of the Chinese cabbage, oh and sherry (which I personally prefer) instead of the Shaoxing rice wine. I didn’t need to thicken the sauce with cornflour but if you choose to use the chicken breast you may want to. Just add 2 tablespoons of cornflour or potato flour to 1 tablespoon of water, mix it well then pour in near the end and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring continually.

So delicious… Blondie 🙂

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