Thai Pumpkin and Coco Soup, with coriander pesto

Yum yum
I'm so excited about this one, I'm posting here immediately!!

We are continuing the quest to use all of our pumpkins before they spoil, (also giving away to visitors, so please visit us!)

After eating pumpkin for dinner for the last week, I vowed to have a break. Well 24 hours off and I'm back into it! Yeah #teampumpkin

This soup is disgustingly easy to make.

Ingreds:

Soup:
I used an entire medium pumpkin (a Kent or something like that), which when seeded and peeled weighed in around 1650g.
1 brown onion
500ml coconut cream
Olive oil
500ml vegetable stock
200ml boiling water
About 3 thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger, chopped finely
2 generous tablespoons Thai Red Curry Paste (I used this one http://www.peterwatson.com.au/store/se-asian-indian-and-world-curry-pastes-and-mixes/thai-red-curry-paste.html?vmcchk=1)

Coriander pesto:
1 bunch of coriander
1 lemon - you need the zest and the juice
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
OPTIONAL: you could add nuts to this, but it might make the soup a little gritty. Something to experiment with at another time.

Just a quick note first, in relation to measurements/quantities... go by feel, and use what you have. If you have a 400ml can of cocomilk, use that instead. I used 500ml coconut cream because I already had a carton open. If you have a different kind of pumpkin, don't stress, use it - and let us know how it went! Don't waste food by only using part of what you have to meet my quantities. Cook it, taste it, and adjust it to suit your preferences and available ingredients.

Okay...

Heat a good glug of olive oil (3 tablespoons or thereabouts) in a large, heavy bottomed pot
Add chopped onion and cook while stirring for a couple of minutes
Add chopped fresh ginger and curry paste, stir then add stock, water and pumpkin
Cover with a lid, and cook until pumpkin is soft (took about 15-20 mins here, but if you cut the pumpkin into finer pieces it will be faster).
Remove from heat and blitz (I used a stick blender)
Add coconut milk to the blended pumpkin, and stir (or do what I did, and continue blitzing with stick blender)
That's the soup!

For the coriander pesto, place all ingredients except oil in food processor. Once it's finely chopped, add a little olive oil at a time and mix again in food processor, until you have a paste. Mine didn't get super smooth, but it's really good like that.

Stir a little pesto through the soup when serving. It's pretty strong and does change the flavour (hubby prefers without the pesto), so I suggest adding a small amount at a time

I have stored my coriander pesto in a glass jar with lid, I smoothed the top of the pesto and covered with a thin layer of olive oil, hoping that will prevent it going brown :). I'm going to try freezing some in an ice cube tray too, to enjoy with the soup that gets frozen.

Spanakopita

With an overgrown spinach patch in desperate need of picking, I set about my very first spanakopita adventure!

I found this fantastic recipe on Taste.com http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/spanakopita-2/bee85cd6-2286-42ba-9542-b45b0aeb390c and didn't really need to change anything.

Here's what I did:

- Prepare the spinach first - it's fiddly. I picked my spinach from the garden, and removed snails as I picked. Then once in the kitchen, I washed each leaf very carefully and thoroughly, finding another TWENTY SNAILS. I'm not even exaggerating.  Give it a really good wash and remove the heavy stalky bits if any (mine was full of stalks because it was over grown - not the dainty baby spinach). I used approx. 1kg of spinach. The recipe link above says 1.2kg, but I think it 1kg was the right amount.  Make sure the spinach is well drained. Roughly chopped.

- Heat a heavy cast iron pot on stove

- Add a glug of olive oil

- Add 1 large brown onion , 1 bunch of spring onions both finely chopped

- Cook/stir for a minute or two, then add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

- Cook until onions are done, translucent and smelling oh so delicious

- Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 180 Celsius

- Add the spinach, along with 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh dill, to the onions and garlic and cook for about 3-4 mins until the spinach is wilted. This took longer than I expected because there was such a lot of spinach and my pot was only just big enough, so it took time to get all the leaves hot and wilted.

- Tip everything into a colander and leave it to drain and cool down
- Get your filo pastry ready (ie remove from fridge or freezer to defrost)

- While that's all happening, prepare the cheeses: (combine 250g crumbled feta cheese, 150g ricotta cheese, 4 tablespoons freshly and finely grated grana padano)
- Once your spinach mix has cooled a bit, add the cheeses, 4 eggs, salt (not much, if any) and pepper to taste, freshly grated nutmeg (I did about 1 tsp because I REALLY like nutmeg, you may wish to use a little less). Just a note on nutmeg, don't fuck around with the powdered, pre ground stuff. It sucks. Get the whole nutmeg (from the supermarket in the spices section), and grate it yourself. I use one of these http://us.microplane.com/microplaneclassicserieszestergrater.aspx for nutmeg, citrus zest, and especially parmesan (it makes it so sexy, light and fluffy).
- Prepare the baking dish - I used an approx. 3 litre rectangular lasagne dish.
- Melt about 120 g of butter - I used salted butter, because it's way more delicious than unsalted (and this is why I advise above to only use a small amount of salt in the spinach), and this is what I had available.
- Brush the inside of the baking dish with melted butter, and lay your first sheet of filo on top. Then generously slap on another layer of butter, another layer of pastry, and keep this up until you've layered 5-6 sheets (I did 5, but I think i'll do 6+ next time, because pastry is so tasty).
- Carefully place the spinach mix into the pastry and spread out.
- Cover the spinach with another 5-6 sheets of filo and butter.
- Make sure you butter the top sheet, then take a sharp knife and score a funky criss-cross pattern in the top. This really makes a difference because you get lots more delicious, golden, buttery crunchy pastry edges.
- Bake for 40-50 mins, until the top is golden and perfect. Set aside for 10 mins.
- Melt a little more butter, and add 1 tablespoon of fresh dill, chopped. Give it a stir, then pour over the top of the cooked spanakopita.

- Cut and enjoy!

We ate this on its own, in all its glory, on a plate. It made about 5 serves for grown up humans, and a little bit for the toddler.

If you give this recipe a try, please let me know what you think. I don't know if it's anything near a traditional spanakopita, but it was the best one I've ever tasted!  Next time I plan to add some fresh mint when the spinach is cooking, just for something a little different.

Photos below :)

xx

Just some of the ninja, freeloading snails who made it into the kitchen. There was 20 in total.

A bit of a squeeze in my pot, but we managed without too much spillage

cheeses and egg

the filling

 

filo

it remains a mystery as to where those 2 g of butter went?!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention this essential ingredient...

om nom nom.

xx

Easy Peasy, Awesome Cauliflower Rice

I discovered this recipe a few days ago, and can't stop telling people about it... so easy and delicious.  Take a whole cauliflower, remove leaves and wash. Either finely chop, or blitz in batches in food processor. Into a hot pan, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (you could use ghee, butter or other oil).  Add 1 tablespoon each of ground tumeric and cumin, stir for about 30 secs until fragrant.  Add cauliflower. Cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 mins until cooked to your liking (I like mine a little crunchy/al dente). Serve hot. Enjoy!  I served with fresh coriander and Greek yoghurt, but would work as accompaniment to curry.  Store leftovers in fridge in airtight container, use within a couple of days. Made a yummo work lunch. 

Slow cooked spicy goat curry

We love buying direct from growers and producers (food tastes better when I know there's no middle-man fingerprints on it), and it's even better when it's local.  We recently discovered there's a purveyor of fine goat meat at our local farmers market, and bought a frozen shoulder (2.5kg was about $35). After defrosting in the fridge for about 3 days (yes, really, it was a huge piece of meat), I vaguely followed Matt Moran's recipe below, and made a huge curry! http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/matt-morans-spicy-slow-cooked-goat-curry/news-story/f7c0d9e816484f85208cddb25dc9eb61 Last time I made this, I only had half the amount of goat the recipe called for, but kept all other ingredients as per recipe. It was the right amount of sauce, so I decided this time I would triple all ingredients to go with my 2.5kg goat. It was a good choice.  Mr Moran's recipe suggests chopping the goat into small pieces, this wasn't possible with the bony cut I had, I hacked off a couple of large bits, but mostly left it whole. This obviously makes the cooking time longer, adapt to suit the cut of meat you have.  The other major change I made was instead of cooking on stovetop as per step 6, I transferred to a slow oven (150degcelcius) and left it there for about 5-6 hours. Check, turn, stir regularly. It's ready when it's falling off the bones.  I cooked mine in a cast iron pot like this http://www.everten.com.au/chasseur-riviera-blue-round-french-oven-24cm-3-8l.html - great for stove to oven dishes.  Hubby had his with rice, I ate mine with steamed greens. Choose your own adventure! 

Pesto Zoodles

Our garden is overflowing with zucchini and pattypan squash at the moment. Mid week dinner success. Simple food and oh so awesome! Had to share.

Handfuls of fresh basil, flat parsley, rocquette, almonds and walnuts, garlic clove - blitz in food processor til well chopped.  Add grated parmesan, lemon juice (about half lemon), olive oil, fresh chilli, pepper and salt to taste. Blitz again. Using a vegetable peeler, cut ribbons of zucchini and/or pattypan squash (I used about half/half). Into hot wok add olive oil, then zucc/squash, followed by pesto. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes... serve with olive oil or butter. Enjoy xx

Sugar free bliss balls

Attempted (processed-sugar free) bliss balls last night. Vague recipe:

- 100g almonds raw, unsalted

- 70g walnuts

Blitz in food processor, set aside.

- 7 dates, 11 dried figs

Blitz in food processor.

Return nuts to food processor with fruit.

Add about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a handful of coconut, 1 teaspoon agave nectar (will try honey some time), 2 teaspoons coconut oil, a tablespoon cacao powder.

Blitz, adding a bit of water if required, til combined, starts turning into a big ball.

Form into small balls, roll in chia seeds, place in small patty cases, in small muffin trays, refrigerate or freeze.

Will try some different ingreds, including orange zest, ginger, other nuts and fruit.

It's not chocolate, but could be the next best thing! Please feel free to share your recipes with this amateur! Xx

Death by chocolate cake

My team had a cracking month in January, they each hit some big personal goals, and also made huge in-roads on the work front... So we celebrated with cake! 

Death by chocolate cake - recipe from CacaoWeb - http://www.cacaoweb.net/deathbychocolate.html

* note for next time- mix the sour cream into the chocolate to melt it, before adding to cake batter- this will help reduce chance of s/c lumps in the cooked cake. 

Small slices only!

I made this in tins approx 8inches x 4.... My first 4 layer cake ever!

Keeping this recipe!

My favourite salad (this week at least)

I want to tell you about my current favourite work lunch;

It's vegan, glutard safe, and ... smashing!

This salad is one of those depends-on-what's-in-the-fridge arrangements... But I have some staple faves, along these lines:

Roasted pumpkin:

Fresh pumpkin (butternut, jap, kent, whatever you have)

Drizzle in oil of voice - I use olive

Season with spices of choice, I suggest cinnamon and cumin as essentials, sometimes I add cayene or paprika too.

Roast in oven at 180-200C until cooked and preferably a little caramelised ;)

[use any roasted veg that you like here, sweet spud, spud, capsicum, carrot, beetroot... Fill your boots]

I make a big batch of pumpkin a few days ahead and refrigerate until required (up to 3 days usually ok).

Make a batch of quinoa ("keen wah", or "kin-o-a" depending on which side of the train line you're from. Quinoa is some kind of ancient grain. Super food! 

Follow packet instructions. (Boil it!) refrigerate til required.

Assemble the salad. Here are my favorite ingreds:

- quinoa

- pumpkin

- spinach leaves

- shredded purple cabbage

- mint leaves chopped 

- coriander leaves and stalks chopped

- spring onion finely sliced

- hazelnuts - chopped

- grated carrot

- rocquette leaves chopped

- baby tomatoes

Dressing:

- pumpkin seed oil (or any other yummy oil like avocado, olive)

- citrus juice (I like a combo of lemon and lime

When taking this for work, I dress the salad in the morning, but toss just before eating at lunch time.

So freaking tasty, healthy. Be good to your body and try this salad. 

Ups to Mrs Jac Jac for introducing me to the concept via her fab roast sweet potato and quinoa salad on New Years!

Salted caramel icecream - oh yeah!

I'm excited. I remembered that I own an icecream machine!

Next stop: Salted caramel icecream... It might be true love.

Recipe courtesy of the Kitchen Paper http://www.thekitchenpaper.com/salted-caramel-ice-cream/ for those playing at home. 

I used raw sugar, Maldon salt, thickened cream, vanilla extract.

Caramel

(sugar + heat + cream)

Eggs x 3

Cream, whole fat milk, sugar - heat

Strain milk into caramel 

Mix it, baby!

Chill the custard for a few hours, stirring regularly 

Then bung it in the icecream machine (don't buy one, borrow mine)

And now we churn!

The finished product- delicious

Lesson learnt: I over cooked the sugar at the start so ended up with a slightly burnt sugar flavour. Not terrible (I kind of liked the bitterness against the creamy sweetness). Next time I'll use white sugar so I can see more easily when it is starting to brown. 

 

You're welcome. 

X

Goat curry! Y U M

New apron (makes all the difference)

Heat 4 tablespoons sunflower oil

Add cinnamon stick? 5 bruised cardamom pods, 5 cloves and 2 bay leaves. Cook 30 secs.

Add goat. We used 4 pieces of goat scrag/neck but this recipe would work with lamb. The original recipe used lamb chopped up into even sized pieces but we just bung these in whole and hoped for the best. 

Cook for about five mins until starting to brown and add one brown onion, finely chopped along with about 2 tablespoons of garlic and ginger purée (I whazzed up about 5 garlic cloves and 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger in the food processor).

Cook for a few mins but don't let the garlic burn.

Add a good tablespoon of tomato paste, along with a teaspoon each of turmeric, coriander seeds (ground) and ground cumin. Stir and cook a couple of mins.

Mix up 125g natural yoghurt with a tablespoon of corn flour and a good teaspoon of chilli powder.

Add to the curry and stir. Add about half a litre of water - enough to cover the meat. Lid on, cook til tender. That took about 4 hours here. Remove lid and reduce to desired consistency. Pull meat from bones. 

Serve with quinoa, rice, naan, choose your own adventure!

Top with mint, coriander, yoghurt... 

Watch out for pesky cardamom pods and small bones.