Okies- testing iOS posting… So far so good…

… well overdue. Things have changed – I’ve changed – and there seems to be a lack of purpose to this here blog…

So. I’ll pick a new theme, update the pages and start something new that I’m passionate about. Not a departure at all… you’ll see :)

Ok, so.

I had a hankering to make barszcz (Polish beetroot soup – full of garlic and lemonjuicey deliciousness). So I made the barszcz, and I thought to myself…

I’m going to make me some Paszteciki!

I remember eating something like this when I was in Poland last – we went to the old city (stary myast) and stopped in somewhere for food. Usually, you get uzki with barszcz (little ear dumplings filled with mushroom) and whilst I love them, I’m sick and didn’t want to make pastry and dumplings.

I did have the energy for this. Granted, I’m using puff pastry which is cheating, but you get the picture…

Ingredients

• 500g swiss brown or portabello mushrooms
• 1/2 head savoy cabbage
• 2 large onions
• Olive Oil
• Nutelex
• 1 bunch dill
• 1 lemon
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 package frozen puff pastry (I use the vegan, 25% reduce fat one)

Method
Chop the shit out of the mushrooms, onions and cabbage. I mean SUPERfine. Like tiny, tiny diced bits of veg.

Yes, it’s a pain in the arse. But worth it! Do NOT use a food processor – it will turn it into a paste and that’s bad.

Heat oil and and a good knob of Nutelex under medium heat in a large pan. First, add the onions and stir till soft and fragrant. Next, add the shrooms and again stir till soft and fragrant. It’ll take a little time, but it will shrink in size as it cooks. As soon as you have the room for it, add the cabbage and gently stir until it goes limp too.

Next, add the dill – all chopped nice and fine as well – salt, pepper and the juice of a lemon. Check for seasoning. It should be delicious.

Now – turn the heat right down and cook on super low for about 90mins minimum. All the liquid has to slowly evaporate into the mixture, so you don’t lose any flavour, but also so that everything is super soft. You’ll need to stir from time to to time, but I like to keep a lid on it so it doesn’t evaporate too quickly.

After your 90mins or so, take it off the heat and allow it to cool to the point where you can handle it with your bare fingers.

Now the easy part!

Take out a sheet of puff pastry, and let it thaw at room teperature for about 2 minutes (yes, it should still be pretty frozen, but pliable. Use a ruler if you need to, but cut the square into 9 pieces (8cmx8cm). Separate the squares a little.

place about 1 tablespoon of the mushroom and cabbage mix and spread it on the lower 3/4 of the square only. Flatten it out so it’s evenly spread, then with the clean portion of the square pointing north, start to roll up the squares.

Rolling is gentle, and really more like a fold of about 3 times. The clean edge so stick nicely to the roll and is now ready to bake.

I baked mine for about 10-12mins in a super hot oven (from 230-250c). Take out and enjoy with barszcz or as they are.

YUM!

When I was ill recently, my mother brought me some dried porcini mushrooms as a part of a care package that also included delicious rosso bruno tomatoes and those addictive baby cucmbers. Given the weather, I had a hankering to make this soup with the most delicious of delicious dried shrooms….

This is possibly the simplest soup I make – it doesn’t take effort, but it does take time. I put this pot on yesterday at about midday, and we ate about 7pm. Realistically it probably needs a minimum of about 4 hours.

Usually we have it at Christmas cause, well, let’s face it – porcini’s aren’t exactly going cheap here in Australia… If you happen to live somewhere where you can get your hands on fresh ones then they make a great addition towards the end, but really, you want to make this with dried ones regardless. Something about the flavour…

It is seriously delicious.

Ingredients

Method

Quite simply, put everything bar the fettuccine into a large stock pot, cover with cold water till almost full, turn on the heat and bring to the boil. No need to chop or peel the veggies, just trim and wash them as prep.

As to the amount of Massal stock, I use the powder for this, and used about 1 tablespoon. You can use less or more to taste, start with a teaspoon and taste after about an hour and adjust as necessary. Don’t forget you are using salt too…

Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and stir every now and then. The water will evaporate over the day, so make sure you top it up from time to time – not all the way to the top of the pot though – you should end up with about 6-8 cups of liquid when it’s ready to eat – just taste it and you’ll see.

When you’re ready to eat (remember – at least 4 hours!) cook the fettucine to instructions (traditionally you’re supposed to make handmade egg noodle, but dried fettucine – egg or not – works just fine). Whilst it is cooking, use tongs to remove the leek, parsnip, carrots and celery from the soup.

You’ll know the soup is ready when the mushrooms flake apart with the gentlest of touches. YUM!

To serve, place the fettuccine in a bowl and ladle the broth with pieces of porcini over it. My family are fans of adding a dash of cream to it (not my thing though, even before I went vegan).

Last night we also sliced up some delicious onion foccacia I picked up at Fratelli Fresh. Delicious is an understatement!

This soup freezes very well, and goes exceptionally with a light red. We had Chianti. Nom.

I made this salad as a packed lunch for an adventure down to the Southern Highlands on Australia Day. Although the day itself saw little awe-inspiring photography from me, I did hit a winner with this ‘last minute knock together’ of a salad.

I like it cause it travels well, has everything you need and fills you up :)

Ingredients

Method
Place the cous cous into a small pot and cover with boiling stock. Cover, and let stand at least 5 minutes. In the mean time, slice the onion super extra wafer thin fine, then chop roughly. At the 5 min mark, turn the heat on to low under the cous cous and add a good knob of Nutelex, some olive oil and the onion. With a fork, fluff it through on low heat for a minute or two.

Take it off the heat and stir through about 1-2 tablespoons of OJ. Turn it out into a large mixing bowl and stir/fan it to cool it down a bit.

Rinse the lentils under cold water, then stir them through the cous cous. Slice the artichoke into 1/8ths, add them too (with as much of the marinating oil as you can save), then cut the tomatoes into slim wedges and add to the mix. Last, add a good serve of salad greens, drizzle with olive oil and fold through.

How easy is that?

The picture above was taken a few minutes ago and I’m still eating it. Yup, for breakfast. Leftovers are the bomb, especially when you can do a little extra with it…

I made the gnocchi yesterday and served it with a similar sauce. Maybe cause I only managed about 4 hours sleep and woke up with my first hang over of 2010 (hey – how can you not drink wine when you make the tasty little guys?), but I saw the leftovers in the fridge and decided to wait out till Fratelli Fresh opened at 10am to grab the missing pieces for a light dressing.

The great thing about home made gnocchi is that they’re actually pretty quick to make – it’s just the mess that you make that can be a bit of a pain in the arse. They also freeze well, and lend themselves to simple dressings. I have a plan to make a sage butter for tonight’s serving, and an idea with broccolini as a star too…

Last night was my second attempt at potato gnocchi. They are similar in prep to the Polish farm cheese dumplings I am a champion at making, but I am going to experiment with other varieties of spud. I even grabbed some Dutch Cream’s this morning… something tells me I’m going to make a whole stack more tonight…

Ingredients

Method

Place the washed spuds, skin on and whole, in a pot and cover with cold water. Add some salt, bring to the boil and let them go till they’re cooked through. Drain, then using a tea towel to hold them (unless you are in fact a Nexus 6 and can hold them in your bare hands), and peel using a sharp knife.

Once peeled, pass them through a food mill. If not a food mill then a ricer. If not a ricer than do what I did when I first made these guys – push them through a sieve. It is HARD work, takes ages, but works brilliantly. Mill/rice/push it into a large mixing bowl.

You should have a mass of fluffy white (or off white) goodness, as shown:

Mix in a good splash of olive oil, salt, and some water. You don’t want it watery, but you do want it relatively easy to mix around, kind of like uber thick porridge. For this reason, add the water a little at a time, cause it’s a pain to correct and will alter the texture and flavour of the gnocchi (you correct by adding more flour).

Now, add the flour. You’ll probably need at least a cup to start with. Mix it in with either your fingers (messy and annoying) or a butter knife (FTW) until it starts to come together into a large ball. Dust your counter top and turn the dough out onto it. Cover with more flour and gently as she goes, kneed and add flour as necessary. It will ALWAYS be a bit gummy – that’s a good thing – but we do want the gluten to bind, and yes this can take some practice… Kneed for maybe 5 minutes, dusting as you need to ensure that it never really attaches to your hands or the counter (there will be a little sticky/tackiness).

This is about when you want to put a giant pot of water to the boil. Add salt and oil just before you cook the actual gnocchi.

Start to roll the dough into a sort of log, and cut into about 6 pieces. Take one and roll it out to about the girth of a fat cigar, dust it a little, then cut into about 1/2 inch slices. This is where you can use the tines on a fork to press each gnocchi down (not essential but apparently makes a difference for scooping up that sauce….).

Do this with the other balls of dough. Lay them out on the baking paper lined trays until you are ready to cook them, making sure that they aren’t touching each other. It is in this state that you can put them in the freezer (leave as such for about 3 hours then move them into freezer bags).

To cook, simply drop them into the boiling pot of water, one at a time, trying to separate where you drop. Try not to do too many at a time or they won’t cook properly either, and may stick together. Most people say they are done when they float to the top, but I like to cook them a few minutes longer to ensure no under-cooked-flour taste.

If you’re cooking from frozen, then make sure you have PLENTY of rolling, boiling water, drop them in REALLY slowly, and GENTLY stir them through. The fact they are frozen will drop the water temp down significantly and they will go sludgy if you don’t heed my advice (I learnt the hard way).

To serve, dress with whatever tickles your fancy. What you see in the first pic is one of the simplest dressings you can make. pre-heat your oven to crazy hot (top). In a ceramic baking dish, place 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, a handful of torn basil leaves, salt, pepper and olive oil to coat. Mix to ensure good coverage, then roast in the super hot oven about 15 minutes, or until the cherry tomatoes start to explode, collapse and juice out (IMPORTANT!). Pour this delicious mixture, juice and all, over the gnocchi. Delicious and vegan! You can also add baby courgettes if you like, but they need to roast for an extra 5-10mins before everything else goes in.

For sage butter (or not butter in my case), in skillet heat up some olive oil and a knob of Nuttalex (or other vegan spread). Once it’s starting to spit a little, drop in some sage leaves and kind of fold them through for a minute or so. Toss the gnocchi in, coat and serve. Non vegans can just use butter :P

My idea for broccolini will be a similar olive oil and Nuttalex base, but with lemon juice and chillies. Nom nom nom… or at least I hope it will be! I’ll keep you posted on that…

I must say, I’ve been having a bit of fun utilising the Sanitarium brand of ‘Vegetarian Mince’ – it’s essentially TVP, and is found in the refrigerated health food section of the supermarket. I realised I had a hankering to make a hearty pasta sauce, and thought I’d give the veggie mince a go.

Now, for the strict Vegan’s out there – I wouldn’t bother trying to substitute the wine for anything else, and I’m sure it’ll taste awesome without it. Maybe just not as awesome as mine….

Ingredients

Method

Heat some oil in a large pot to medium heat and add the chopped onions. Coat them in the oil, then drop the heat to superlow and cook till they are soft and translucent. It’ll take at least 15 mins.

Turn up the heat to med-high and add the Veggie mince, making sure to separate the stuff with the spatula/implement of cooking doom. after a couple of minutes, add the mushrooms and cook until they are glossy and soft all over.

Add the tomato paste and stir through. Add the cans of tomato and stir through. once it heats up again and starts to bubble away, add the wine. Stir through for a few minutes on high heat, then add the cloves, oregano, basil and salt. Stir again, make sure it’s bubbling away, then turn the heat down so that it’s on a gentle simmer.

You may want to add a little water at this stage, as it is going to cook for a REALLY long time.

Basically, keep an eye on it, stir it relatively frequently so it doesn’t stick at the bottom, but let it gently simmer away for a minimum of 2 hours. I like to let it simmer, then turn it off, let it completely cool, then warm it up again just before serving. Something about the cooling then re-heating process makes it taste extra awesome…

Serve it with whatever pasta you like to eat a bold, thick sauce with….

* A wise (ahem) man once told me “Only ever cook with a wine you’d love to drink as a stand alone”. That is my mantra when cooking with the stuff – make it yours too.

So, with James’ comments regarding breakfast, and with my current virus, I had a hankering to make soup. I already made a large pot of pumpkin soup, but as that is my trademark I am not going to share the recipe here.

Today though, I made lentil soup. I was craving it. It is certainly up there in my comfort food staples, and a great dish for winter. So here it is: My lentil soup recipe.

Ingredients

Method

Chop the onion, carrot and celery nice and fine.

Heat the oil up in a heavy, large pot under low heat, add the veggies and cook very slowly. After about 15-20mins they should be soft and fragrant. Yum.

Now, add the lentils, the stock and the bay leaves. Turn up the heat and let it come to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20mins. Now, add the tomatoes. Stir through and let simmer about 45mins, stirring occasionally.

Whilst that is going on, cook some potatoes any way you like. I generally just boil them, but if I am super lazy, then I’ll just nuke em…

Once the soup has simmered away for the 45mins, get out your hand/stab blender and give it a few pulses to just blend a little of the soup – you don’t want it smooth at all – just to thicken it up a little.

Serve poured over the potatoes and with a small hunk of either cherve or feta. Enjoy :P