Tomato sauce/ketchup

So I had made the sausage rolls, but it seemed a terrible shame to serve them with commercial tomato sauce.

But what recipe to use? A quick rummage through my cookbooks turned up nothing. Hmm... time to get inventing!

1.7kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 large onions
1.5 cups vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 cups water

Chop the onions finely. Cook with a splash of olive oil in a deep heavy bottomed saucepan until softened and transparent. Add the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Drop to a simmer, and simmer for an hour, topping up with water if required. Push through a seive and pour into jars.

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Someone asked for my judgement on how it worked out. I would describe it as a complete success (I don't post up my failures ).  Texturally it was just right, pouring and dipping in just the way you want from a sauce - clinging to the sausage rolls perfectly.

Well worth the effort to make it. It was a little spicier somehow than a commercial tomato sauce. I would definitely make this sauce again. 

Maybe if I am lucky one of the guests at the wedding will post up their perspectives on it!
 

Spicy Roasted Carrot and Sweet Potato soup

This tasty winter soup was invented on a whim, as I cooked it up for a work lunch. It is fun having a workplace that uses both my normal work skills and occasionally some of my other talents! I served it up, and after a colleague tasted the leftovers, was promptly asked to do another batch for another lunch a few days later. I made the new batch and found it as tasty as the first, which tells me, this is definitely one to share with you all. Now, as usual, I was slack about weighing and measuring, but luckily the receipts from the supermarket have weights on them. 

It's funny because I thought this recipe is super simple, with only a handful of ingredients, but now that I list them out, I included 12 different things!

• 1.2kg carrots
• 1kg sweet potatoes
• 3 large potatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tsp fresh ginger
• 1 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 2 lime leaves
• 3 tablespoons of coconut milk powder
• 1 good sized pinch of chili flakes
• ~ 1 tsp lemon myrtle, coconut and chili seasoning

Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potatoes into even sized chunks. Lightly drizzle with just a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. With your hands turn the pieces around to get them covered in oil, and then bake in a 200 degree (c) oven until the sweet potato has gone soft and browned. The carrots take longer to cook than the sweet potato, so while they may have browned a little, are not likely to be very soft. But don't worry about that as they will cook up in the pot - this is more to get that delicious sweet caramelisation taste into the soup.

While these are cooking, chop the onions - no need to be too fussy about how finely they are chopped as it will all be blended in the end. Brown the onion in a 5 litre pot with a bit of olive oil. Once they are transparent and going brown, add the finely chopped fresh ginger and the garlic - they will only take seconds to cook.

Once browned, add a splash of vegetable stock; enough to lift the caramelised onion and tasty bits from the pan.

Add the roasted orange vegetables, pour in the rest of the stock and add the lime leaves and chili. Peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the pot. Bring to the boil and then drop to a simmer. Simmer until the carrot and potatoes have softened - the potatoes will likely start to fall to pieces, while the carrots will crush easily with the back of a spoon.

Blend the soup with a stick blender. Stir in the coconut milk powder along with an equal amount of water. You may need to add extra water to thin the soup out as it gets very thick. If you are transporting it, I advise leaving it very thick to make it less likely to leak out of its container during transport, and then then when reheating. Reheat on quite a low heat, to prevent it sticking to the bottom. Pour into a pretty tureen to serve, sprinkle some of the lemon myrtle sprinkle and swirl it through. There you go... all finished!

Amuse-bouche: black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham & baby tomatoes

This charming amuse-bouche was a bit of a last minute inspiration, and went down a treat with the little dinner party I put together the other night.

My inspirations were multiple: a funky pasta I have in my cupboard just itching to be used, a visit to "goodies" (a local meditteranean shop) where I found haloumi, discovering a source of relatively inexpensive serrano ham, and the dinner party itself. The result was this simple, colourful and delectable medly, which I encourage you to try - I promise it is easy and scrummy.

Cooking time: I think it took me less than half an hour from start to finish.

Black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham and baby tomatoes

50 g Haloumi

2 slices Serrano Ham

17g of baby bow tie pasta or 3 pieces per person giant bow tie pasta (+3 pieces spare)

120g mixed baby tomatoes (red and yellow)

Finely cut the haloumi into 1/2cm cubes, and cut the baby tomatoes in quarters. Tear the serrano ham into pieces about 3 cm by 2cm (no need to be too careful, tear, not slice).

Brown the haloumi in a frypan with a tiny splash of olive oil - if you have a herbed oil so much the better. At the same time, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta until done (I won't give an exact time as it will depend on the style of pasta you choose) and then drain.

Once the haloumi has started to get a golden colour, put your chopped tomatoes into the pan. You don't want to cook them so much as warm them up. Add your cooked pasta and gently stir to combine in the pan.

Serve in small dishes garnished with the serrano ham.

The photos somehow don't really capture just how attractive this dish is... I need my friend Ed's photography skills!

Handful soup

Dinner tonight was a super quick and easy soup. I am dubbing it "handful soup" because it is assembled from handfuls of ingredients; no measurements, no fuss. 1 handful of dried mushrooms 1 handful of frozen peas 1 handful of snow peas torn in to pieces 1 handful of rice stick noodles 1 mushroom (or beef will do) stock cube about 2 cups of water 1/2 a star anise In a saucepan, bring the water to the boil. Add the dried mushrooms and star anise and simmer for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are rehydrated and tender. Add the stock cube, rice stick, frozen peas and bring back to the boil. After about 3 minutes (when the rice stick has softened), add the snow peas and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for a minute, and serve. Easy eh? The star anise is the real secret to making this soup fragrant and irresistibly delicious.

Sweet potato, pumpkin & feta pizza

Long gone are the days of pizza having to have tomatoes and mozzarella. Nowadays you can get pretty much anything on a pizza, for example, tandoori chicken & thai green curry. You can even buy strange dessert pizzas. I am all for pushing the envelope in cooking, so I am pretty open minded about what should or should not go on a pizza. That said, there are some things that should simply not go there... along with deep fried mars bar and deep fried cupcakes, and I am thinking that rocky road pizzas are one of those things.

But this delicious pizza is all good. The combination of the sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato and saltiness of feta create a perfect partnership joined with the textural joys of the softness of the vegetables and crispness of the crust. 

1 small sweet potato (around 200g) 

1 wedge of pumpkin (around 200g) 

1 onion 

50g feta 

pizza dough 

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Peel and dice the pumpkin, sweet potato and onion. Pan fry with a little olive oil on a relatively low heat until the onion has gone transparent and the vegetables have softened. 

Spread the mixture onto the pizza dough and crumble feta on top. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust has crisped and the cheese has browned.

Quick and pretty canape

I was hired to cater a small reception for 40 people. A nice simple function of 5 different dishes.

Dish number one: Cherry tomato, basil and baby mozzarella skewers.

It doesn't get much simpler than this for a canape! I marinated the mozzarella in pesto and then skewered them. The hardest part was figuring out how to present them!

A little bit of silliness - deconstructed potato salad

I have canapes on my mind at the moment because next week I am catering a small cocktail reception for 40 people. Anyway, I had this thought about raclette potatoes. If you aren't familiar with raclette potatoes, they are golden, buttery and totally delicious. Boiled, they taste like they have been soaked in melted butter. They also keep their shape really well when cooked, which makes them lousy for irish stew but excellent for samosas and, I theorise, for cocktail food.

My thought was to do a sort of deconstructed potato salad... potatoes sliced skewered and layered with mustard mayonnaise. But this alone, while tasty, would be texturally dull as dishwater, and equally boring to the eye.

So what to do? How about a sliver of cucumber, to add some colour and texture... not bad, not bad at all.


Completely coincidentally, tonight's little invention fits into the Recipe Remix food challenge - to rethink a traditional summer "cookout" food. Now to be truthful I am not entirely sure what a cookout is (I am thinking it is what we Aussies call a "barbie") but potato salad is one of the dishes listed as a dish to be played with, so this becomes my little contribution to the fun!

Click event... metal

I got all inspired by the latest "click event", the theme of which is METAL. As a photographer I make a great cook, but I couldn't resist having a go, with a photo of some of my favourite vegetable cutters.

Sweetcorn & Chilli fritters with guacamole

Sweetcorn & chilli fritters (original recipe by Kiriel)

4 tins of sweetcorn (340g)
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
3 small chillis
100ml milk
salt and pepper

Mix flour, eggs, milk and salt and pepper to make a batter.
Add three tins of sweetcorn, and finely chopped chillis. Blend the last tin of sweetcorn and add. Heat a fry pan (I tend to use a non-stick pan & no oil myself). Drop heaped teaspoons of mix into the hot pan, flipping once the bubbles have risen to the surface and burst.
Allow to cool. These can be frozen in ziplock bags and thawed on the day of use. Crisp up in the oven for 3 minutes before use. Top the fritters with the topping within an hour of serving.

Guacamole

3 avocadoes
1 red onion finely chopped
tabasco to taste
lime juice to taste
Salt and Pepper
Coriander leaves to garnish

Combine ingredients. Can be made up to 2 hours in advance - refrigerate, covering surface completely with plastic wrap to prevent discolouration.

Top the sweetcorn fritters with the guacamole, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Lobster scented potato veloute

I was sent from Australia some lobster flavoured oil, which got my mind buzzing with ideas.
What to do with it? The scent was slightly smokey and flavour delicate. What could I cook that would complement and not overwhelm it?

Potato soup seemed to be the perfect solution.

A tiny tureen of veloute (100ml)

Lobster Scented Potato Veloute

1 medium sized leek
5 large potatoes
1 tablespooon of butter
3 cups mild flavoured vegetable stock
3 teaspoons of lobster flavoured oil

Clean and finely slice the leek, and gently cook in butter with the lobster oil until softened. In the meantime, peel and cube the potatoes. Once the leeks are softened, add the potatoes and the vegetable stock.

Cook at a slow boil until the potatoes are disintegrating (adding water if required). Using a stick blender, blend until velvety smooth. I served this soup hot with a little extra of the lobster oil on top (using an eye dropper), but in fact I think that it would be better served at room temperature.

Tea noodles

As regular readers (the vast numbers of you that there are... ha ha) will know that I bought some elegant spoons and have been hanging out for the opportunity to use them. The tea theme dinner party finally gave me the opportunity! Amuse Bouche: Sesame tea noodles (Original recipe by Kiriel) 100g chinese rice noodles 2 tsp sweet chilli sauce 2 tsp rice wine vinegar 2 tsp soy sauce 2 tsp sesame oil 3 tsp sunflower oil 2 bags of a good strong tea 1 carrot cut into super fine strips 2 tbsp sesame seeds Put 3 cm of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the tea bags and allow to steep then remove them and add the noodles. Cook the noodles, adding the carrot just before they are done, and drain off the liquid (reserve 3tablespoons of the liquid) and allow to cool. Mix together the other liquids with the reserved tea and use to dress the noodles. Toast the sesame seeds. Twirl a few noodles around a fork to make a nest and put on a spoon. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds. You can prepare and dress the noodles the day before and keep in the fridge. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Chicken soup for the soul... and everything else

ouI was sitting at my computer tonight thinking "what on earth can I post up on the foodblog today? I haven't cooked anything".

Somehow I had successfully overlooked the fact that I had just made a big pot of chicken soup for a friend of mine who has a nasty cold. How is that for domestic blindness? Anyway, here is Aunty Kiriel's quick, tasty and nutritious chicken soup recipe, which is a sure fire cure for colds and flus.

1/2 a pre-cooked bbq chicken
2 carrots, sliced thinly
1 zucchini, sliced (actually I tend to use broccoli stems, but there wasnt any broccoli in the shop)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 chicken stock cubes
250 grams mushrooms, quartered
100gms mangetout/snow peas 'topped and tailed'
2 litres of water

Strip the chicken off its bones. Put the bones (removing the cartilege) in a pot. Fill with water and bring to the boil. I also add the ends of carrots to the pot and any other vegetable ends that might be handy. Simmer for 45 minutes to make stock, adding any herbs you fancy (basil and oregano are my favourites).

Fry the onion on a medium heat in a separate pot with a little olive oil until it goes a little golden, add the chopped mushrooms. Brown the mushrooms a little. Strain the stock into this pot, discarding the solids.

Add the sliced carrots and the chicken meat, and bring the pot to a simmer. About 15 minutes later, add the sliced zucchini, and one stock cube. Taste, and add a second stock cube if needed.

Add the mangetout a minute before serving, so that it is still bright green and crisp.

Spinach and feta parcels

I can't really provide a recipe for these yummy little parcels, as I just kinda threw them together. They are made from frozen spinach, thawed in the microwave, and feta. Finished off with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, the mix is made into little parcels with puff pastry and baked. You can make them small, as pre-dinner snacks, or big for a handy pasty-style lunch. I pop them in the freezer and just pull them out as wanted.

Main meal coleslaw

(dinner for one)
100g grated carrot and cabbage
1 apple, finely sliced and chopped
1 spring onion, finely sliced
4 rashers of swiss bacon (swiss rashers are about half the size of English/Australian bacon) cooked and crumbled up
Mayonnaise

Combine and eat. Easy huh? Sooo tasty, but it doesn't photograph well.

What shall I make with these?

I bought some cherry tomatoes today. Then as I sat on the bus, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Hmmm... what to do with them? I have a basil plant, so that is an obvious match. I have some cheese in the fridge that has moved into the melted stage so really should be used.

The solution became very clear; risotto!

Firstly I quartered the cherry tomatoes and popped them in the oven to bake, having drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with Murray River salt flakes.


Then it was time to rummage out my rice, dried mushrooms, some white wine and a clove of garlic.

I fried the diced garlic in olive oil, added the rice and stirred it for a bit. Poured boiling water over the dried mushrooms to re-hydrate them, and added some to the rice. Allowed the rice to sizzle, and, stirring regularly, added water bit by bit as the water absorbed and rice cooked. A decent splash of wine and the re-hydrated mushrooms, as well as a spoonful of stockpowder and dinner was almost ready.


I broke up the cheese with my hands and stirred it into the pot, allowing it to melt. After stirring in the oven-baked tomatoes and fresh basil it was time to eat! Not bad at all.

Gazpacho with Avocado Ice-cream

Gazpacho
(Serves 8)

6 ripe tomatoes
1 cucumber (peeled and seeded)
1 onion
drizzle of white wine vinegar
salt & pepper
tabasco

Place the tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over the top. Allow to sit for a minute then pull out with tongs. The skin will have split, so you can easily peel the tomato. Peel the cucumber, cut into quarters lengthways and slice out the seeds. Peel and roughly chop the onion.

Put all these in a deep sided bowl or jug and blend until smooth. Add salt & pepper, vinegar and tabasco to taste. If you find the soup a bit lacking in taste (if the tomatoes weren't as ripe as they could be), you can add a good splash of tomato juice. Chill thoroughly before serving.

Avocado Icecream

2 avocadoes
lemon juice
300 mls cream
mayonnaise

place the avocado meat in a jug. Add a tablespoon of mayonnaise, and a good squeeze of lemon juice. Blend till mixed then pour in the cream. Blend until smooth and then put into ice-cream machine. Store in freezer. Remove from freezer 10 minutes or so before serving to allow it to thaw enough to permit scooping.

Serve bowls of gazpacho with a scoop of avocado icecream.

Japanese snow pea salad

300g snow peas
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp light olive oil
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1 tbsp fresh orange juice
pinch finely grated orange peel

Steam the snow peas until they turn bright green. Put the liquid ingredients together and shake until well combined. Toss the sesame seeds among the snow peas. Add the dressing to the salad about 20 minutes before serving.

Mediterranean stuffed loaf

This is a perfect picnic dish: portable, attractive and delicious!

Ingredients:

1 loaf of bread (choose one that is qiute deep)
Marinated grilled aubergine
Marinated grilled courgette
Artichoke hearts
Sundried tomatoes
Mozzarella cheese (feta is also good)
mushrooms
Olives

Slice the top of the loaf of bread and set aside. Dig out the centre of the loaf. Starting with the cheese, cover the bottom of the inside of the loaf. Layer each of the ingredients into the loaf, with layers of mozzarella between every few layers of other ingredients. (drain the liquid off the ingredients before using!)

Lay the top of the loaf back on. Wrap firmly in plastic wrap. Lay a wooden board on top and then place a few full tins of food on top as a weight to press down the loaf. Allow to sit for a few hours

The different layers will all press together and the flavours will merge into a delicious whole. You can take the loaf as is to your picnic, slice and enjoy the impressed looks on your friends faces!

What's for dinner tonight?

How does linguine with asparagus, tuna and fresh lemon juice sound? I got all inspired to eat fish tonight, and whipped up the following experiment.


Recipe for one

Ingredients

1 organic lemon
1 small tin tuna in spring water
50grams dried pasta - Linguine
1 small bunch of thin asparagus
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

Snap the bottom off the asparagus stalks. The bottoms can go into the pot of water in which the pasta will be cooked (never hurts to add a bit of extra flavour eh?). While the pasta is on the boil, cover the asparagus and cook in the microwave (2 minutes on high). If you prefer you can steam the asparagus, one way or another, cook until bright green but still crunchy.

Drain the pasta and discard the asparagus stems. Stir the tuna and asparagus through the pasta, season and plate. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and for some extra oomph, add a tiny bit of the zest of the lemon shredded finely.

Grate parmesan on top and serve.

Leek and potato soup

2 kg potatoes (ones suitable for purees and soups. eg. Victoria) peeled and chopped
4 medium sized leeks, cleaned and sliced finely
2 tablespoons butter
1 and a half litres of chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste

Fry the leeks in butter until softened. Add the potatoes, stir around to coat. Pour in the chicken stock and cook at a slow boil until potatoes are completely soft. Puree and serve