Chicken udon soup

Another in my "write it down so you don't forget what you did" series of impromptu recipe creations. This is the sort of thing that happens when I haven't even begun to think about dinner till after 7pm and the thought of pizza delivery makes me feel slightly ill.

3 serves of udon noodles (I used Hakubaku Organic Udon which come dried in a 270g/3 serve pack)
1 tblspn olive oil
2 heaped teaspoons of diced garlic from a jar
4 shallots sliced
1/4 red capsicum diced
2L of water and 3 Massel chicken style veggie stock cubes
420g can of corn kernels drained
190g tin of whole champignons drained (or fresh mushrooms if you have them)
1 cup of diced BBQ chicken leftovers
a few shakes of dried chili flakes
a slosh of soy sauce
a drizzle of sesame oil

Cook udon until just short of done, drain and set aside
In a large pot cook garlic, shallots and capsicum in the olive oil for a few minutes
Add water, stock cubes, corn, mushrooms and chicken and bring to a simmer
Add udon, chili, soy sauce and sesame oil, simmer till the udon is cooked.

The kids all had seconds.

Beef and Barley Stew

On Thursday night I was faced with some defrosted steak, no shopping done, no plan and a mother-in-law coming for dinner. It was time to call on my inner Nanny Ogg, here's what she came up with:

Beef and barley stew

a slosh of olive oil
3 onions, diced
1kg steak, diced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
generous sprinkling of garlic powder
a shake or three of dried chili flakes
some allspice...maybe a bit more
3 tablespoons plain flour
1L beef stock
a few bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
the rest of the bottle of worchestershire sauce (I dunno, 1 tablespoon?)
3 carrots, sliced
4 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup pearl barley
salt & pepper to taste

Brown the onion and steak in the olive oil. Add the capsicum, spices and flour and brown a little more. Add everything else on the list except the barley. Simmer for 30 minutes. Decide to add barley. Simmer till barley is cooked. Season. Eat with rice. Be smug when your fussy daughter says "It's good!" Be less smug when she ends up feeding most of her serve to the dog.

Pear and blue cheese salad

Last night my dinner was this salad on its own. Except I didn't have any baby spinach to go with it. Tonight Adam wanted to bbq some steak so I when I went to the shops to acquire said steak I grabbed some spinach, pears and cheese and made it again. Because it is yummy.  (I had steak and corn on the cob and jacket baked potato with sour cream too.)

Pear and blue cheese salad

2 big handfuls of baby spinach
1 or 2 crisp pears cut into bite sized pieces
crumbled blue cheese (last night I used King Island Lighthouse Blue Brie, tonight it was King Island Roaring Forties)
a couple of handfuls of whatever nuts you have around - we had macadamias, almonds and cashews
drizzle with caramelised balsamic vinegar (or ordinary balsamic vinegar)

EAT!

Chicken noodle soup

Today was not a good day, but it ended well. In fact dinner was pretty much the only thing that went right today, even Caitlin liked it.

250g thin egg noodles
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 punnet of fresh baby corn, cut into bite sized pieces
6 mushrooms, sliced
150g sugar snap peas
breast meat from a BBQ chook, chopped
1.5L chicken stock (Don't want it too strong or salty, I used 2 Massel salt reduced cubes, which are supposed to make 500mL each, in 1.5L of water)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Cook the egg noodles as per directions on packet and drain when done. While they cook heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add ginger, garlic, corn, mushrooms and sugar snap peas and stir fry for a minute or two. Add chicken and stock, bring to the boil. Add drained cooked noodles, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Serves 5 with seconds for the bottomless pit disguised as the youngest child. It could have done with some shallots but there weren't any at Woolies when I went shopping tonight.

Scones

When I was a kid scones were always on the menu at Grandma's house. I'm told she used to make prize-winning cheese scones back in the day and I certainly have vivid memories of cheese scones for afternoon tea in the lounge room at Epping. I can remember exactly how they tasted, and the Tupperware container that the left-overs were put away in, and wishing I could have just one more but not asking because I knew my mum and my grandma would both frown on such an expression of greed. I don't cook cheese scones myself, mostly because the lure of jam and cream is too hard to resist.

I learned how to cook scones from my Mum so long ago that I don't remember not knowing how, but it was my dad's sister, my Aunty Meg, who taught me how to cook awesome scones. Aunty Meg lived in Melbourne and we didn't see her very often, but her visits were always quite memorable. One time when she was visiting, and staying at our place, my parents were on morning tea duty at church. So Meg decided she would cook scones for the whole congregation. This was no big deal apparently because she had for some years owned a cafe restaurant which specialised in Devonshire teas and for which she cooked all the scones, so a mere congregation's worth - no worries!

Whenever I cook scones I can see Meg standing there in my mum's kitchen, bossing everyone around and explaining to me what made a good scone.

Tonight I was seized with the scone baking urge and when I asked "Dates or plain?" the internets said "Both" which is why I have photos of two batches of scones, one lot plain, the other with raisins (turned out I didn't have any dates).

I very much doubt there's anything particularly special about my version of the ubiquitous scone recipe, but I thought if I was going to taunt you with food pron I'd better give you the recipe too.

2 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 pinch salt
1 dessert spoon of sugar
1 cup of milk

Pre-heat oven to 210°C and line a tray with baking paper.
Combine flour salt and sugar in a mixing bowl.
Cut the butter into small pieces and rub into the flour mix with your fingertips, you're done when there are no more lump in the flour (never have understood this fine breadcrumbs thing - doesn't bear any resemblance at all!).
At this point you can add chopped dried dates or raisins or sultanas if you like - half a cup or thereabouts.
Add the milk, reserving a small amount for brushing on the scones before baking.
Mix with a knife until dough just comes together - the less handling the better. The dough may seem quite wet, that's ok.
Dust a pastry board with flour and tip the dough out onto the board.
Knead VERY gently - I barely do more than just push the dough together and fold it in on itself a couple of times.
Flatten dough into a disc about 3cm thick and cut scones with a round pastry cutter - push straight down and don't twist the cutter, that'll make the scones rise all wonky.
Place on the paper lined tray and brush tops with milk.
Bake for around 12-15 minutes - keep an eye on them - they're cooked when they're a nice golden brown on top and sound hollow when tapped.

When you take the scones out of the oven you can wrap them in a clean tea towel if you want - it'll give them a softer crust. Or you can just go ahead and break them open and eat 'em - that works too.

Beef casserole

Aka "I made it up" because that's what I answered when asked 4 separate times "It smells good, what is it?"

2 tablespoons olive oil
4 onions, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
4 short cut bacon rashers, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1kg diced lean beef
4 tablespoons plain flour
800g tin crushed tomatoes
4 carrots, sliced
3 cups water
2 Massel beef stock cubes (each cube makes 500mL of stock)
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and ground black pepper

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Cook bacon, then add onion, celery and garlic and cook until onion begins to brown.

2. Add beef and cook stirring until it browns (or at least isn't red any more....). Sprinkle flour over the mix and stir through (here we're aiming for no patches of white stuff - it's all very technical).

3. Add the tomatoes, carrots, water, stock cubes, thyme, allspice, worcestershire sauce and sugar. Bring it to the boil, stirring constantly then reduce to a simmer and cover. Go take your daughter to her hour-long singing lesson and hope like hell that you turned the stove down far enough. Come home, give it another stir and season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and boring old ordinary salt. (It really ought to be fancy sea salt flakes to go with the fancy pepper, but once it's dissolved it's all just NaCl.)

4. Take your son to Drama class and then go check out the new car you're probably, almost certainly, we'll see, buying. Come home and decide 2 hours simmering is probably enough. Put half of it in the freezer for one of those days when cooking is just not going to happen. (I ended up getting 12 serves out of this recipe.) Stick the rest in a serving dish in the microwave and put the rice on to cook. Send Dad to pick up the youngest child, set the table and feed the cats and dog so they'll shut up and leave you alone. Feed the fish too even though they're not complaining.

5. Serve over rice and fail to take a photo because you're too tired and hungry and it doesn't look particularly photogenic any way.

I'll take a photo next time I cook it, because it tasted pretty damn good. Even Caitlin liked it.

And we used up a whole sourdough loaf mopping up the gravy.

(I seem to be posting an awful lot of food posts lately. Tell me, is this good or bad?)

Thai red chicken curry

I started with Helen's recipe for Aromatic Thai Chicken and added some bits and tweaked some quantities and ended up with this:

1kg chicken fillet (I used half thigh fillets and half breast fillets)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 stalk lemon grass, finely chopped
1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped (I used one of the larger and milder varieties - 2 birdseye chillies would also work. Or more if you're not feeding whimpy kids.)
1 red capsicum, diced
150g snow peas
270ml coconut milk
125ml water
roasted cashews and macadamias to serve

1. Cut chicken fillets into large chunks and place in a glass bowl with the onion. Mix the garlic, sugar, mustard seeds, curry paste, fish sauce and lemon juice together and pour over chicken. Stir to coat the meat and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oil in a large deep frypan and stir fry chili and lemongrass briefly before adding the chicken, marinade and onion mix to the pan. Cook, stirring, until chicken is browned and almost cooked through.

3. Add the capsicum and snow peas and stir fry for a couple of minutes, then add the coconut milk and stir in well. Add water gradually until the sauce is the desired consistency.

4. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked to your liking, serve over rice and sprinkle a few cashews and macadamias on top for extra yum.

Sadly I'd got it ready a little too early and by the time Adam got home for dinner the snow peas were a bit overcooked. But it still tasted pretty damn good.

We need a new car

We went to my mum's place for dinner tonight, my brother's family were also there. Mum had been looking after his 3 kids all day so I offered to provide the meal. My sister-in-law and one of their kids are semi-vegetarian (they eat fish, there's a word for that I'm sure but I can't think of it right now) so I decided to do Mexican because we could have meat and non-meat stuff. We had taco mince with red kidney beans, blue eye cod in fajita seasoning with coleslaw, refried beans with chili, a bean salad, shredded cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, avocado, sour cream, taco shells and tortillas...and then we all asploded.

The bean salad was an impromptu invention, I'm writing it down here mostly so I don't forget because it was actually pretty good.

There wasn't much left over.

420g can red kidney beans, rinsed
420g can sweet corn kernels, drained
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 small tomatoes, diced
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
1 tspn minced garlic
a few shakes of smoked paprika
a few shakes of ground cumin
a drizzle of olive oil
lemon juice to taste

Mix it all together and eat!

After dinner we sat around talking for a while before facing the fact that there were kids who really needed to be in bed. We said our goodbyes and piled into the car.

Adam started driving down the street and then suddenly pulled over and said "We have an extra passenger on the inside of the car."

Yep, there it was, lurking down in the bottom corner of the windscreen ready to scuttle across the dashboard at a critical moment - a huntsman spider. Not huge, but big enough - about the size of my palm, legs included. Adam was all for killing it but I have a soft spot for huntsmans and besides, if he tried to hit it chances were it'd just end up scuttling off to hide somewhere only to re-appear when you least expect it. Well, that or end up squished all over the windscreen.

So I grabbed a plastic container with left-over lettuce from dinner, tossed out the lettuce and, using my super huntsman removal skills (and an envelope), coaxed it a little further up the window until I could put the container over it, collect it unharmed and chuck it across the road into the bush.

As we headed off again Tom announced that if, as Adam suggested was probable, there were any more spiders living in the car then it was definitely time to get a new one!

As it happens we are planning on looking at cars on Saturday - I can't wait for Tom to explain to the salesperson why we want a new one.

Friday Fragments and Linkfest No. 12

Hosted by Mrs4444.

A tossed salad of bits and bobs from the week just gone with a touch of things to come for extra flavour. Be sure to pop over to Mrs4444's place for other fragmentary offerings for today!

1. On Wednesday afternoon my 12 year old walked into the loungeroom , smiled at me and said "Hi Mum, you're awesome." I can live with that.

2. The second dwarf gourami is dead and we're down to one rummy nose tetra in Tom's tank. I'm not buying anymore fish till after Christmas, that should give all the tanks plenty of time to stabilise and I'll have more time to pay proper attention to them after that too.

3. On Wednesday night I had forgotten that Adam's mum was coming for dinner and I had done nothing by way of so much as deciding what we would eat. I think I was leaning towards toasted sandwiches but that wasn't really and option with a guest to feed. Emergency pasta sauce time! One diced onion, 2 heaped teaspoons of minced garlic, a bit butter and a splash olive oil - fry till onion is soft. Add 800g tin of chopped tomatoes, plenty of dried basil and oregano, and a small sprinkle of dried chili flakes and simmer. Slice 2 chorizo and cook in another pan, drain fat and add chorizo to sauce. Serve over spaghetti. YUM.

4. Tonight we went to the school's Band and Choir Christmas concert. Caitlin is in the choir, which sang beautifully and was clearly having lots of fun. They have a wonderful director, she's done such great work with them over the year. The Training and Concert Bands played a few pieces each, I usually manage to hear the bands play early in the year and am always most impressed by how far they've come by the end of the year. I particularly liked the Concert Band's rendition of "Born to be Wild" - I count it a win if I come away from one of these things with an earworm I can actually enjoy!

5. This Saturday we will be attending a rally in the city in support of same sex marriage

6. Linkfest time - a collection of stuff I think is worth sharing.

Does Twilight deserve any "feminist defense"? from tigtog at Hoyden About Town.

Hoydenizens About Town - a skills showcase and marketplace for the Hoyden About Town community.

Greta Christina on Atheism and Friendship.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy on Giving Thanks.

And to finish off, some light entertainment. No doubt everyone has seen these already but I'm sticking them here anyway 'cause that way I can find them again later!

Muppets Bohemain Rhapsody

Click here if you can't see the embedded video.



Five Star Wars status updates - Star Wars comes to Facebook on CollegeHumor.com

Chorizo and smoked chicken risotto

I've been meaning to make a risotto that involved chorizo for quite some time so when Adam announced this morning that he'd really like risotto for dinner I decided tonight would be the night. Not having a recipe that quite hit the mark I decided to experiment and wandered about Woolworths popping anything that seemed like a good idea into my trolley.

As I began cooking tonight, Tom asked my Mum if she was staying for dinner - she'd been helping out with the kids' homework as she often does on a Monday afternoon, because she is made of all kinds of awesome. I warned her that I was inventing and said that of course she was welcome to stay and yes, I was sure there'd be plenty of food (mostly because I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't eat much). I was right about Caitlin not eating and Dave wasn't overly thrilled, but Mum had seconds and Tom asked for thirds!

1/4 cup dry white wine
1.5L chicken stock - use a low salt stock, I use Massel's salt reduced chicken style stock cubes
2 chorizo sausages sliced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
25g butter
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
2 heaped teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups arborio rice
1 smoked chicken breast, skinned and sliced
1/4 cup marinated roasted red capsicum, rinsed and diced
a few handfuls of baby spinach

1. Heat the stock and wine in a saucepan and keep it at a low simmer.


2. In a large non-stick pan cook the chorizo until it begins to brown, drain the fat then add the mushrooms, once the mushrooms are cooked remove both from pan and set aside.


3. Add oil, butter, leek and garlic to pan and cook until transparent. Stir in the rice until well coated.


4. Add the stock 1/2 cup at a time stirring constantly over a medium heat, each time waiting until all the liquid is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup. About half-way through drain and reserve any juices from the mushrooms and add the juices to the pan. Once all the stock has been added taste test the rice, if it's still a little on the firm side add hot water in small amounts and continue stirring until the rice is cooked through.


5. Add the mushroom and chorizo mix, the diced capsicum, sliced smoked chicken breast and spinach. Stir gently until the spinach has wilted. Serves 6 people as long as 2 of them think you are poisoning them.
   

Twitterable recipes

In a moment of silliness last night I challenged my fellow Twits to produce recipes that could be squished in to 140 characters (well, 133 actually, given that we're hash-tagging them #recipe).

So far we have:
From me:

• mimbles: Wrap pork fillet w/ proscuitto, put on bed of sliced red apple & onion, drizzle w/ olive oil, season with black pepper & sage, bake #recipe
  7 minutes ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• mimbles: Brown 500g mince , 1 onion chopped + garlic - lots; add 800g tinned tomatoes, basil & oregano, 40g tomato paste, serve w/ pasta #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• mimbles: Core apple, fill w/ sultanas, honey, butter. Wrap in foil. Bake till apple is soft. Top with cream/ice cream. #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• mimbles: 2c s.r. flour, 1 pinch salt, rub in 2 tblspn butter, add 1 cup milk, knead gently, cut in rounds, brush w/ milk, bake 220°C ~ 10 min #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

From Ariane:

0 more results since you started searching. Refresh to see them.

• shonias: Wrap fish fillet in proscuitto, wrap all in puff pastry. Bake 200C til pastry is brown. #recipe
  9 minutes ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• shonias: Sliced tomato, basil leaves, sliced bocconcini. Lay out tomato, then basil then bocc. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. #recipe
  about 10 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• shonias: Watermelon, rockmelon, honeydew - balled. White onion finely sliced. Mix onion and melons for a few hours. Add cream before serving. #recipe
  about 12 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet
• mimbles: RT @shonias: 1/2c butter 1c br sugar 1c coconut 2c oats. Melt butter. Mix with all. Press in tin. Cook 20min at 180. Cut while hot. #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

And from Zuckerbaby:

• ZuckerBaby: Cook spaghetti. Melt marg, olive oil, add minced garlic & chilli, saute, toss with spaghetti & some pasta water, add salt, pepper. #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• ZuckerBaby: Peel oranges, slice into rings, alternate with marg & brown sugar. Wrap in foil. Bake til marg & butter melt. Pour over icecream. #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• ZuckerBaby: 2 frozen bananas;1/4c soymilk;1/4tsp vanilla: mash til smooth;.5c choc;1TS marg;2TS maple syrup;1/4c soymilk: melt, pour on bananas #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet
• ZuckerBaby: 3/4c marg;.5c icing sgr;1.5c flr;.5c crnflr;1/3c cocoa: form balls, squish, bake 140C; 1/3c marg;3/4 icing sgr;1/4c cocoa, mix, ice #recipe
  about 23 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

Wonder how far we can go with this...

Soup!

When the weather turns cooler and the fridge is full of veggies that really need to be eaten what else is there to do but cook soup? So out came the big pot for the stove, and the crockpot too, and I got to chopping veggies.

Vegetable and barley soup

For this one I used 4 onions, 4 teaspoons of minced garlic, half a bunch of celery - cooked in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes - then 4 parsnips, 4 carrots, a swede, 800g can of crushed tomatoes, 2.5L of beef style veggie stock (Massel cubes), a sploosh or two of soy sauce, 3-4 bay leaves and 1 cup of barley - simmered till the barley was tender - then I added 3 zucchinis and some mushrooms.

Pumpkin soup

The pumpkin soup has 3 onions, 1/4 head of cauliflower, a whole butternut pumpkin, 2L of chicken style veggie stock and a generous sprinkling of black pepper and nutmeg all chucked into the crockpot and cooked on high for 6 hours before attacking it with a stab mixer. I know it has turned out right when the spoon stands up in it!

Pork and beans?

Hmph! I wanted to embed the Weezer vid but You Tube has embedding disabled for it. Oh well, you all know it anyway don't you? Moving along....

I was going to take it easy on the culinary front this evening and whip up some couscous with onion, capsicum, peas and corn to serve with grilled pork loin medallions...and then discovered I didn't have any couscous.

Oh bugger.

So I had to improvise and it ended up turning into another Nanny Ogg type cooking adventure, here's what I came up with:

Mim's Pork and Beans (as christened by Tom, Adam wanted to call it "Weezer")

some butter
1 brown onion, diced
1/2 small red capsicum, diced
2 heaped tspn minced garlic
a splosh of olive oil
600g diced pork loin
a bit of water
800g can diced tomatoes
1 Massel chicken stock cube
4 shakes of dried chili flakes
2 bay leaves
a few shakes of ground cumin seeds
a few shakes of ground cardamom
a couple of shakes of dried thyme
a couple of shakes of ground allspice
freshly ground black pepper
a couple of shloshes of Worcestershire sauce
420g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Melt butter in large saucepan and cook onion, capsicum and garlic for a few minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add olive oil to pan and brown pork.
Add water to deglaze the pan (the pork can stay in there while you do this).
Add onion and capsicum mix and tinned tomatoes. Start rummaging through the spice rack grabbing this and that, reading the "what this is good with" blurb, realise you have no idea what this dish really is (chili? casserole? something else entirely?) and end up throwing in a semi-random collection of herbs and spices.
Add stock cube and Worcestershire sauce.
Be suddenly afflicted with a Weezer earworm and decide to throw in a can of beans.
Simmer until pork is tender the cries of hunger from the family who were expecting to wait about 10 minutes for dinner become too much to bear.

Tom got very excited while I was cooking this, I think he was fascinated by the process of inventing a recipe, he was watching everything I put in and then running to the other end of the house to give updates to the others. He kept telling me how great a cook I am and how much he loves me. It certainly made cooking the meal into something special instead of an inconvenient chore (I was tired and not really looking forward to tackling the kitchen).

We served it up over rice, Adam made Weezer jokes, Dave told me it looked yum and I held my breath as Caitlin tasted it.

"Yum, this is good Mum, you should make it for Grandma or Grandy or Nana."

And then I fell off my chair in shock.

It did need longer cooking, the meat wasn't as tender as I'd have liked, I reckon it'd be pretty good in a crockpot with the beans added towards the end of the cooking time. The spices were fairly mild, if I didn't have to accommodate the kids I'd bump up the chili. Definitely worth doing again sometime.

Garlic prawn and spinach risotto

I went shopping this afternoon knowing that I wanted to make a prawn risotto but without having looked up a recipe. So I put on my recipe inventing hat and chucked in the trolley whatever seemed like a good idea at the time. I reckon it turned out ok.

2 tbspn olive oil
500g garlic prawns (I got the De Costi ones)
2 onions, diced
50g butter
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine (nicked from the bottle my dad brought to have with the meal)
1 L chicken stock (made with salt reduced Massel cubes)
400g can diced tomatoes with oregano and basil
1 bunch English spinach, coarsely shredded
freshly ground black pepper
2 tspn lemon juice

1. Heat the stock and wine in a saucepan and keep it at a low simmer.


2. In a large non-stick pan, heat the oil and cook the prawns until just changed in colour, remove from pan and set aside.


3. Add onions and butter to pan and cook until transparent. Stir in the rice until well coated.


4. Add the stock 1/2 cup at a time stirring constantly over a medium heat, each time waiting until all the liquid is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup. About half-way through add the tin of diced tomatoes and season with pepper. Once all the stock has been added taste test the rice, if it's still a little on the firm side add hot water in small amounts and continue stirring until the rice is cooked through.


5. Add the spinach and, once the spinach has wilted, add the cooked prawns and lemon juice and stir until heated through.

Of course, the kids thought I was poisoning them. Tom picked out the prawns and ate them and then tried to eat the rice without consuming any vegetables, David took 2 bites and announced he wasn't hungry and Caitlin ate, hmmm, let's see, maybe 3 grains of rice? Dad and I both had seconds and Clara thought all her Christmases had come at once when the kids gave her their left-overs.

Shepherds Pie Surprise

I was up to the assembling stage of cooking shepherds pie tonight when Tom wandered into the kitchen pulling his pj top down over his head.

"Smashed potato! Ooo, I LOVE smashed potato! Mum, that's just the way I remember you making shepherds pie. I LOVE your shepherds pie, it's the BEST!"

"You do know it tastes different every time I make it 'cause I don't use a recipe, don't you?"

"Yes, that's what I like best about it, you never know what you're going to get!"

Here's tonight's Nanny Ogg-style non-recipe:

a bit of olive oil
4 onions
some minced garlic from a jar (I think I used 2 heaped teaspoons)
1kg lean beef mince
a few heaped dessert spoons of plain flour (can't remember, was it 3 or 4?)
1 Massel beef stockcube
2 cups hot water
a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce (about 1 tblspn?)
a few sploshes of soy sauce (sploshes are bigger than splashes, maybe 2-3 tblspns?)
more water (I think I ended up adding 2 more cups)
500g frozen peas, corn and carrots
a few shakes of dried thyme leaves
2 tblspn tomato paste
salt and pepper
1 medium potato per person (or more if you have smashed potato monsters in your house)
some butter, or not if you're avoiding the saturated fats
milk, you know, enough to make smashed potatoes

Brown the onions, garlic and mince in the oil.
Add the flour and stir until there's no white showing.
Mix stock cube and sauces in the hot water then add to pan.
Add more water a bit at a time until the gravy looks about right.
Add the frozen veg.
Taste. Hmm, needs something else. Add thyme.
Taste. Add another splash of soy sauce.
Taste. I know! Tomato paste!
Taste. Grab the pepper grinder and grind away.
Taste. Sprinkle some salt in.
Taste. Yup, that'll do.
Smash the potatoes that hubby cooked while you were doing all that tasting.
Put meat mix in a baking dish and top with smashed potatoes.
Have amusing conversation with small child.
Stick it in the oven at 180°C and go do some blogging.
When it goes nice and brown on top and bubbly around the edges - EAT

There were second helpings all round ('cept for Caitlin) so I guess it turned out ok.

Brunch

It was kind of hard to get out of bed this morning, Adam and I slept in but we managed to get the kids dressed, fed, packed for school and out the door with just enough time to make it to school before the bell. I popped in to the school office to drop some keys off and have a chat to a couple of people, then took Clara to the dog park where she had a wonderful time chasing, being chased and wrestling with Gem (a lovely 1 year old bitzer who has some staffy in her along with who knows what else).

What was missing from all this was breakfast. So I came home and cooked myself some brunch.



English muffins with baby spinach, low fat cheese slices, grilled tomato, egg and bacon. 'Twas good.

Chicken and pumpkin risotto

I have cooked risotto once before but if I remember rightly I didn't have half the things I needed and between that, trying to keep it kid-friendly and trying to short cut the standing around stirring thing it just ended up being a total flop, no-one wanted to eat it.

When I was doing the menu plan for this week I thought "stuff the kids, I'm cooking this for me" and, because doing anything as simple as following instructions in a book is just boring, my first successful risotto is in fact my own recipe.

500g butternut pumpkin, diced
olive oil spray
rosemary
sea salt
1.5L chicken stock
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
50g butter
500g chicken breast fillet, diced
1 white onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 1/2 cups arborio rice
2 cups firmly packed baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup shaved Parmesan
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Spread the diced pumpkin on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spray with oil and sprinkle lightly with rosemary and salt. Bake at 220°C until tender.


2. Heat the stock and wine in a saucepan and keep it at a low simmer.


3. Heat the oil and butter in a large non-stick pan, add the chicken and cook until lightly browned. Remove the chicken from the pan.


4. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft and golden. Stir in the rice until well coated.


5. Add the stock 1/2 cup at a time stirring constantly over a medium heat, each time waiting until all the liquid is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup. It should take about 20 minutes to do this. Taste test the rice, if it's still a little on the firm side add hot water in small amounts and continue stirring until the rice is cooked through.


6. Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in the baby spinach, lemon juice and Parmesan and cook for a few minutes more. Add the cooked pumpkin and fold through gently. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, 'twas yum! My dad was at my place for dinner, but Adam was away, so there were 5 of us eating. David and Caitlin were not impressed, Tom asked for seconds. There's quite a bit left still, I reckon this recipe would serve 6 adults pretty easily.

Roast pumpkin and couscous salad - party sized

I served this at our Christmas party and then made it again today to take to a friend's Boxing Day party, it seemed to be well received so I thought I'd share it here.

I took this photo using what was left over after the party, there was lots more to begin with!

1kg butternut pumpkin
garlic powder
mild paprika
nutmeg
olive oil
3 cups couscous
3 cups chicken stock (I make mine from Massel cubes and make it less than full strength - 1 cube for the 3 cups instead of 1 cube for 2 cups)
2 red onions diced
1 red capsicum diced
150g snow peas sliced

1. Cut the pumpkin into bite sized pieces and spread on a tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with garlic, paprika and nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bake at 220°C until tender. Allow to cool.

2. Add boiling stock to couscous in a large bowl and stand for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile briefly stir fry onions, capsicum and snow peas in a little olive oil, they should still be slightly crunchy.

4. Fluff couscous with a fork then toss with the vegetables. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Fruit mince pies mmmmm....

Fruit Mince Pies
(makes up to 36 depending on how thin you roll the pastry)
3 cups plain flour
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
225g butter, diced
3 - 4 tablespoons iced water
icing sugar for dusting

2 x 410g jar of Robertson's traditional fruit mince (you need about 1 3/4 jars)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Brush 3 12-cup shallow patty tins lightly with melted butter.

2. Place flour, sugar and butter in a food processor. Process until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Add almost all the water and process until the mixture comes together. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, press together until smooth. Roll out 1/2 the pastry (about 1/4 at a time is managable, I place baking paper over the top so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin) and cut with a round biscuit cutter. Fit the circles into prepared tins.

3. Fill pastry cases with fruit mince - don't overfill.

4. Roll out remaining pastry, cut with the same cutter and place circles on tops of pies, press edges to seal, prick with a fork to let steam escape. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Leave in tins for 5 minutes and then carefully lift out with a knife and allow to cool on wire racks. Dust tops lightly with icing sugar.

Lasagne love

Because the vegetable lasagne I invented tonight turned out so very yummy I thought I ought to share.
1 x 405g can diced italian tomatoes with basil and herbs
1 zucchini, sliced thinly lengthways
1 small lebanese eggplant, sliced thinly lengthways
250g butternut pumpkin thinly sliced
1/2 bunch english spinach
2 sheets Latina lasagne (fresh lasagne sheets, no need to pre-cook)
250g tub low-fat ricotta
70g light mozzarella

In a deep loaf pan layer tomatoes, pasta, zucchini, tomatoes, pasta, pumpkin, spinach, ricotta, pasta, eggplant, tomatoes, pasta, pumpkin, tomatoes, ricotta and mozzarella. Bake covered with foil at 170 degrees C for at least an hour (I lost track of exactly how long it took in the end, just give it a poke occasionally to see if the pumpkin is tender), remove foil and allow to brown slightly, enjoy!