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.

Sesame greens

By request, for Miss Amanda...

4-5 Choy Sum (Chinese broccoli). I buy these in my local woollies in a packet - sometimes there are 2 large ones, other times 5 small. Use the whole pack! Pull it apart and wash well.

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

Asparagus, snow peas, broccoli...Whatever crisp greens you have on hand

Sunflower oil

Soy sauce

Sesame seeds

Cracked pepper

1. Chop all the veg:

Today I used Chinese brocc, broad beans and asparagus. 

And here it is chopped :)

2. Heat oil in a hot wok

3. Add all of the vegetables.

4. Stir fry - keep the heat high and move the veg around - for about 2-3 mins. The leaves will wilt and give off water. You want the rest of the veg to still have a bit if crunch when you're done cooking.

5. Towards the end of the cooking time, add 1-2 teaspoons sesame seed and 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce. Mix it all around! Add (optional) pepper.

6. Serve and enjoy. I prefer to serve this in individual bowls, so when you eat it, you can slurp up all the yummy sauce and it doesn't make a mess of your plate!

Enjoy x

My weekend...

Chris recently acquired this beauty from my uncle Brent. It had been under his house for 7 years, purchased in 1980 for $110. It is a 1979 Apollo. And its a beautiful thing! The tyres stayed inflated for a couple of laps of the yard, and a squirt down the road, but are very brittle. 

Chris started tinkering with it over the weekend and got me inspired. 

Meet this old gem- the blue Repco! I have had it in the shed for about 6 months, bought at the local tip shop for $5. A nice little Sunday project!

More photos later. 

And a little run with KM this arvo... Pre-empting a big and delicious dinner at Fryers Street Food Store tonight!

Are we ready for another week...!?

Keiramoo

Two of my favourites...

....

A little post about my bestest run buddy, schnuggly fur baby, favourite girl Keira. She is so easy to love, and is most definitely in charge in our house. 

One of our favourite activities is running 'Keira's Loop' - a 7km track in the forest near our home. She runs 5 meters to every 1 of mine - for the first 6km... Then trots beside me, exhausted, for the last km home. We always run the same track, and one would expect that over time, she might have worked out how to pace for the distance?! Nope! Boom and bust is the only way!!

Her birthday is 14 August 2006, so she is  turning seven this year. This scares me a lot... I can hardly remember life without her in our family, and those seven years have flown. I hope the next seven last forever!  I truly love this mushy mud puddle obsessed pudding!!

(Snaps from Saturday's burn around Keira's Loop... Followed by the usual swim in the Goulburn to freshen up. We are both creatures of habit!)

Did I mention she likes puddles? Just a little bit ;)