BUBBLE & SQUEAK

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK

Another fun weekend - another hangover breakfast!

Ingredients

1 Tin Butter beans

2 red potatoes chop in to small cubes

1 Onion

1/2 a cabbage chopped finely

1 tin tomatoes

Spring Onions

Yogurt

Olive Oil

Paprika, salt and pepper

Directions

Saute the vegetables in a little olive oil, sprinkle on some paprika, salt and pepper.  

Cook until the vegetables are slightly golden.
Serve sprinkled with chopped spring onions or other herbs, yogurt and paprika.

BRUCHETTA WITH WATERCRESS, MUSHROOMS, FETA AND TOMATOES

BRUCHETTA WITH WATERCRESS, MUSHROOMS, FETA AND TOMATOES

Simple Friday night TV dinner. Slice Turkish bread in half, drizzle with olive oil and rub with garlic, toast under the grill and pile with whatever ingredients you have handy. The Watercress on this particular bruchetta gave it a stunning peppery flavour which was enhanced by the lemon juice and peppery olive oil drizzled on top. Delish.

TOFU KEBABS

Ingredients

Marinated tofu chunks

Mini Squash (patipan's)

Cherri toms

Basting sauce - Olive Oil, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, Lemon Juice

(any other vegetables you have like peppers, onions, zucchini etc)

Directions

Thread ingredients on to skewers and cook on BBQ or grill pan as shown, turn and drizzle with basting sauce every couple of minutes. Serve as a snack or with rice and salad for a meal.

BROWN MUSHROOM AND PEA PASTA

BROWN MUSHROOM PASTA

Ingredients

1 bag brown mushrooms

1 cup of frozen peas

4 cups pasta shells

Garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, green Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Simply saute your mushrooms in a little olive oil while you are cooking your pasta, throw the peas in to the pasta pot at the last second and then drain well. Add plenty of fresh garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, green Tabasco, salt and pepper and fresh herbs to taste.

If you are not vegan, add cheese just before serving.

SWEET POTATO & MUSHROOM MELT WITH GOLDEN KIWI SALSA

SWEET POTATO & MUSHROOM MELT WITH GOLDEN KIWI SALSA

This was our Friday night TV dinner.

Ingredients

Wholegrain tortillas

1 large sweet potato

1 bag brown or white button mushrooms

Olive oil

Grated cheese

Golden Kiwi fruit

Chillies

Lime

Fresh Coriander

Yogurt to serve

Directions

Chop sweet potatoes in to cubes, season and toss in olive oil. Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes, then shake around and bake for a further 20 minutes. Prepare your mushies, thinly slice them, season and fry in a little olive oil. Place one tortilla on a sandwich press, top with the roasted sweet potatoes, mushrooms and cheese and place another tortilla on top. Toast until golden brown. Meanwhile, prepare your salsa, very simple, just dice the kiwi chop in some fresh coriander and chili and squeeze over some lime juice. Serve the melts with yogurt and the salsa plus some lime wedges, fresh tomato and pickled chillies if you have them.

Eggplant Couscous Bake

Eggplant Couscous Bake

 This dish has lots of layers of delicious goodness.

Perfect for cold winter nights.

Ingredients

 1 Large Eggplant – slice in to12 thin rounds

Olive oil

500g couscous (about 2 coffee cups full)

Boiling water for couscous

100g slivered almonds (lightly toasted)

Chopped parsley or any other fresh herbs

2 carrots grated

1 onion finely chopped

3 tins of tomatoes

1 glass of white wine

Salt & pepper

3 cups of grated cheese

Directions

Eggplant: Heat your oven to 180 degrees. Fry eggplant slices in a little olive oil – just be patient and only do a couple at a time, keep the cooked eggplant pieces on a plate until ready to make up the dish.

Almond Couscous: Prepare the couscous according to the packet instructions, add the slivered almonds and parsley.

Tomato Sauce: Cook onions and carrots in a little olive oil, then add the tomatoes, wine, salt and pepper and some herbs to taste.

Now that you have all the components – you are ready to layer the bake as follows:

Eggplant

Almond Couscous

Tomato sauce

Cheese

Eggplant

Almond Couscous

Tomato sauce

Cheese

Bake in the hot oven for about 40 minutes. Turn the oven off and let it sit for a further 20 minutes before serving. Serve with a fresh salad.

STEWED RHUBARB WITH GREEK YOGURT

STEWED RHUBARB WITH GREEK YOGURT

Ingredients

5 stalks rhubarb

5 tablespoons of water

4 tablespoons raw sugar

Good quality Greek yogurt

Directions

Clean and slice rhubarb in to small pieces, place in a pot with the water and sugar, cover and cook, turning every couple of minutes, until the rhubarb is soft. Let cool and serve on top of yogurt, or make in to a crumble.

CRUNCHY CORN ON THE COB

CRUNCHY CORN ON THE COB

Simple but delicious corn is great for a quick dinner or serve as a starter.

Ingredients

Fresh corn cobs, leaves removed and broken in to halves

Olive Oil

Herb or garlic salt to season

Directions

Place corn in a big pot of water and bring to the boil. Let them bubble for about 2 minutes - no longer. Place in an oven proof dish. Pop under the grill until they start to brown. Drizzle with olive oil and season with a herb or garlic salt. Serve to your drooling guests.

SILVERBEET CALZONE

SILVERBEET CALZONE
Ingredients
1 bunch of silverbeet (or other dark leafy vegetable)
1 celery stalk
1 small red chili
1 small red onion
Olive oil
Milk
Lemon Wedges
1 cup grated cheese
Salt and pepper
Pizza dough - (I bought this from my local pizza guy as I didn't have much time, but you can easily make your own)

Chop all vegetables finely and cook in a frying pan with olive oil until soft. Roll out the pizza dough and place a pile of veg on one half, top with a little cheese and fold the other half over. Brush with milk and bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven. Serve with lemon wedges.

TURKISH BREAD SALAD

TURKISH BREAD SALAD

Ingredients

Mixed Salad leaves

Black Olives

Turkish bread

Red Peppers

Red Onions

Tomatoes

Ingredients

Red wine vinegar

Olive Oil

Dijon Mustard

Directions

Soak sliced red onions in a mixture of water and red wine vinegar for at least an hour to reduce the harsh flavor. Tear the bread in to bite size chunks and bake in a hot oven for about 15 minutes - just to dry it out. Layer all salad ingredients in a bowl, top with the bread and dress well (trick with the dressing is to mix the vinegar and mustard first, then add the olive oil).

SOUL FOOD PESTO

SOUL FOOD PESTO

I just bought a mortar and pestle, and I am delighted with it! The first thing I made in it was this delightful pesto. A lot of commercial pesto's have cheese in them and it sometimes overpowers the delicious taste of fresh basil and pine nuts.

Ingredients

1 big bunch of basil

1 small garlic clove

1 70g bag of pine nuts

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 teaspoon sea salt

4 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions

Lightly toast the pine nuts on the stove top, this should take about 4 minutes maximum, watch them because you only want a very slight brown tinge. Remove the leggy stalks from the basil and roughly chop the small stalks and leaves (with scissors) in to the mortar, add the pine nuts while they are still warm, and throw in the garlic, olive oil, sea salt, and lemon juice. Give it all a good bash and grind....this is the part that is good for the soul. Obviously this would be good for pasta, but I decided to serve this for breakfast on toast with a grilled tomato on top.

CHAR GRILLED MUSHIES

CHAR GRILLED MUSHIES

Ingredients

1 large field mushroom per person - thickly sliced as shown in the picture

Turkish bread

Baby rocket leaves

Feta

Chillies

Garlic clove

Olive oil and balsamic to dress

Directions

Heat a grill pan, brush Turkish bread slices with olive oil and cook face down for about 1 minute (careful, it is very easy to burn these!). Remove and cook mushrooms the same way. Rub garlic on the hot bread (enjoy the aroma!) top with baby rocket leaves, feta, mushrooms and chillies, dress with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

HONEY RED APPLES WITH COCONUT AND ALMOND CRUMBLE

HONEY RED APPLES WITH COCONUT AND ALMOND CRUMBLE

Need something to warm you up?

Ingredients for the apple part

6 Apples

5 tablespoons of honey

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 tablespoon margarine

Ingredients for the crumble part

5 tablespoons honey

1/2 a cup of shredded coconut

1/2 a cup of whole oats

3 tablespoons of margarine

1/2 a cup of chopped almonds (I put whole almonds in to a bag and bashed them until they were the right size - most satisfying!)

Directions

Chop apples in to decent size chunks and cook on the stove top with margarine, honey and lemon juice. I only cooked mine for about 10 minutes, turning often - because I am not a fan of mushy apples - but it is up to you how much you cook them!

In the mean time, prepare the crumble by mixing all the dry ingredients & binding with the honey and margarine. Grease an oven proof dish, fill with the apples and top with the crumble.

Serve with cream or custard.

BUTTER BEAN AND VEGETABLE SOUP

BUTTER BEAN AND VEGETABLE SOUP

Perfect for winter nights!

Ingredients

2 stalks of celery

1 box of vegetable stock

3 carrots

2 potatoes

1 turnip

1 thumb of ginger

2 large cloves of garlic

lemon zest

parsley

1 tin butter beans

2 tins chopped tomatoes

Directions

Dice all the vegetables, start cooking the onions, garlic, ginger and celery first, then add the stock, and root vegetables. Next add the tins of tomatoes and cook on a medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add the butter beans, lemon zest and fresh parsley. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

SAVORY BUTTERNUT PIKELETS

SAVORY BUTTERNUT PIKELETS

Ingredients

1 medium butternut, cooked and mashed

1 teaspoon curry powder

4 eggs

1/2 a cup of wholemeal flour

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 a cup of cheese

Olive oil for frying

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and then shallow fry. Can be kept in a warm oven until ready to serve. Note, these do take patience, you need to stand over them and go slowly! Only turn the pikelets when you see little bubbles form in the middle of the pikelet. Serve on a bed of spinach leaves with a savory yogurt dipping sauce.

APPETITO - SYDNEY RESTAURANT

APPETITO - DELICIO!

I am on holiday so no cooking for me this weekend, it made me think of adding some vegetarian friendly restaurants to my blog. Here is the first....Appetito in "The Rocks" Sydney. I had delicious lemon infused lentils with gnocchi and a Greek Salad, and my man had hand made saffron tagliatelli with zucchini flowers and OMG all fantastic. Thanjks Appetito. Webste below FYI. 

www.appetito.com.au/

BANANARAMA MUFFINS

BANANA MUFFINS

Don't let your banana's go to waste!!!  Make a banana cake or muffins or something.

They are like gold at the moment.

Ingredients

2 cups self raising wholemeal flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons margarine
2 bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten
4 Tablespoons yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla
Black sesame seeds or poppy seeds to top

DirectionsPreheat your oven to about 200 degrees

Mix sugar, margarine, eggs, yogurt, vanilla and mashed bananas

Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon. Fill muffin cups with mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until you can poke a knife in to one and it comes out clean :)

WHOLEMEAL ROSEMARY, GARLIC AND OLIVE BREAD

WHOLEMEAL ROSEMARY, GARLIC AND OLIVE BREAD

This one is for those of you who have bread makers! I just followed the wholemeal pizza dough recipe  instructions. Roll out and brush with olive oil, top the bread with fresh rosemary, garlic, whole green olives & sea salt and bake in the oven until just turning brown on the edges. Serve as a starter.

POLKA DOT PIE

POLKA DOT PIE

Ingredients

25 Brown and White button mushrooms

1 cup of Peas

1 packet of Mushroom soup

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 cup of Milk

Pastry

1.5 cups of wholemeal flour

3 tablespoons margarine

5 tablespoons ice cold water

Directions

Make the pastry first by rubbing the margarine in to the flour until breadcrumbs form, then add water and mix quickly - don't fiddle with it too much. Roll out and bake in the oven blind. Keep some left over pastry for making the polka dots on the top.

Once the base is in the oven, fry the mushrooms in the olive oil, mix milk and mushroom soup and add to the mushrooms, add peas and cook for about 3 minutes or until thickened. Fill the pastry case and add the polka dots on the top of the pie. (I used a champagne glass to make the dots) Brush dots with milk. Bake for 15 minutes.