Treasures of metal and leeks

Posted on by July 1, 2012
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First day of holidays! Sleep in!
Not!
The lure of treasure abounding motivated boys to wake up at 6am, get dressed and ready to be on the doorstep of the garage sale down the road at 8 on the dot. In my stupour and with cup of tea in hand I went with them.
I struck gold!!!!

First thing I saw was a retro Toastie Toaster jaffle iron–the round ones that make deep flying saucers of toasty suprises. They sold it to me for $5 and wanted to sell me my mug too but were slightly puzzled that they didn’t quite recognize it.

Boys scored a 60’s toy basket full of real marbles–and eyed off a manner of other goodies.
We were to return…

I put my jaffle iron straight to work and made a breakfast egg jaffle. Totally out of practice, the top of jaffle stuck to the iron and tore…big mess, but yummy. Need to spread more butter on bread.

To market and Random Lunch Challenge was a challenge and stretch, but perseverance pays off.
The idea of a cob of corn wrapped in bacon and BBQed came to mind, but frustration set in when the cost of corn seemed prohibitive. Boys learnt that ideas may be good but seasonality is something to bear in mind.

Light bulb moment occurred when one boy suggested wrapping bacon around a length of leek…the ensuing to-ing and fro-ing of ideas led to the master plan: Leek wrapped in bacon, sauteed in butter, braised with verjuice to a soft, sweet caramelized parcel, topped with Gorgonzola dolce latte then baked in the oven until the cheese forms an unctuous melted coat on the leek. We struck gold!

A phone call from The Quality Controller’s brother led to an extra person partaking in the results of the challenge, and bringing a fresh loaf of crusty olive bread to mop up the sauce.

Random lunch challenge, apart from pantry verjuice and butter, and the contribution of bread, fed 5 for $8.50.

We returned to the garage sale and I was about to strike gold again but the lady realized she didn’t really want to sell her gorgeous Moroccan teapot that I had visions of using in a Moroccan banquet. Sigh.

A boy got some travel Scrabble and a retro German butter curler instead.
And I do already have a Moroccan teapot…

 

My immaturity about Chokos

Posted on by June 29, 2012
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Chokoes“Mrs. Landingham: You’re not getting enough roughage in your diet, you know I’m right about that.
Bartlet: I know I’d like to beat you senseless with a head of cabbage, I know that for damn sure.
Mrs. Landingham: Once again you display an immaturity about vegetables that I think is not at all Presidential.”
(from the series West Wing by Aaron Sorkin)

I love the West Wing series and the snappy quips and repartee have me and the Quality Controller in fits of laughter. I’ve recently noticed that food happens to be a consistent theme of this repartee.
But back to reality… I think I need to own up to a certain disdain for a particular vegetable that Mrs Landingham would chastise me for.

Focus on the CHOKO…(and these thoughts stem from a volley of comments after a FB post saying I was so with my chickens in not liking Choko):

1.Is it a fruit…? It is not soft like a papaya or an avacado. It is used as a vegetable and grows on a vine of the gourd family. It is usually boiled or steamed and the closest texture I can think of is unripe pumpkin. It has absolutely no distinct flavour, is a pill to peel, has a horrible sticky juice in its skin.
2. Do humans eat it? For some reason some do. The Quality Controller likes it.
3.How come some of you have never heard of it? Because you had friends who cared for you.
BUT
As President Bartlet’s press secretary had to back-pedal when the full force of media attention was bearing down after discovering that the President did not like green beans, I am going to try and redeem myself for my publicly announced dislike of this, one of Gods creations, by posting the following.

According to the following newspaper article:

“Choko is no joke”

One last dig–my local market stall calls them “chokes”!

Thai curry pumpkin soup

Posted on by June 28, 2012
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Having coffee and talking with (listening to) fellow school Mums can be a broadening, enlightening, embarrassing, funny experience and somehow or other food and recipes are in the mix well and truly. Again, food is such a unifying thing!
Today I discovered that some soups I cooked for the school teachers a few weeks ago are still being talked about. So, with that encouragement, the cold weather and being told I HAD to include some recipes, I am sharing my recipe for Thai Curry pumpkin soup, although not with the 4kg quantity of pumpkin I used for the teachers’ lunch! (and yes pumpkin is more than animal feed).

Thai Curry Pumpkin Soup     Serves 4 usually

Ing:
2 tsp vegetable oil                      Water
1 kg peeled Jap* or Kent pumpkin cut into chunks.
1 – 2 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tbs palm sugar or brown sugar
270ml lite coconut milk
1 kaffir lime leaf
2 tsp fish sauce ( I did not use this when cooking this as a vegetarian dish)
1/3 cup chopped coriander
1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Method:
Heat oil in a saucepan and gently fry 1 tbs of the paste for a minute (add more paste later to taste as pastes vary in heat).
Stir in pumpkin chunks so they are covered in paste. Add enough cold water to just cover pumpkin. Add stock cube.
Bring to the boil, add lime leaf then simmer until pumpkin is almost tender. Take out lime leaf.
Pour in coconut milk.
Add fish sauce and sugar. Continue to cook until pumpkin soft. Stir and taste to see if extra paste needed.
Take off heat, add ginger. Puree with hand blender or in jug blender, being careful of molten blopping puree.
Stir through chopped coriander.

Spicy, warm, orange deliciousness.
*I use Jap pumpkin as it tends to be sweeter in flavour. Choose deep coloured flesh. Nothing worse than an anaemic pumpkin! Actually there is–anaemic chocolate crackles.

HOS-PI-TAL-I-TY

Posted on by July 15, 2012
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Today I went around to a friend’s place to take her out for a mocha coffee. It happened to be around lunchtime as that was when she arrived home from a prior engagement, and the time we had arranged. On discovering I had not had lunch, she welcomed me in to share the meal she had prepared for her husband and herself.

Friendly, welcoming hospitality.

I have recognized that my description of hospitality in this blog started with what I thought hospitality is NOT. I guess my stance initially was a reaction to the in-your-face food snobbery and competitiveness found  in recent television food shows and blogs, but also subtly experienced in day to day life.

A definition from Merriam Webster dictionary:

hos·pi·tal·i·t y noun

1 : generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests : hospitable treatment

My experience and reading of the Bible (hmmm maybe future post on Bible references) leads me to believe that kindness in welcoming and providing (food) for strangers or guests  is to be  done freely with no grudge or sense of obligation, without show, or hints and complaints at trouble or expense gone to; without any sense of one-up-manship or competition.  I reckon this is as equally applicable to church gatherings as  in your own homes.

Oh, and lunch was really nice!

Black Caviar and other equine foodie thoughts

Posted on by June 25, 2012
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I am not into horse racing, but I thought I’d ride on all the media interest in Australia’s Black Caviar and have a little gallop through horsey food.

Caviar is the salted eggs of a variety of sturgeon fish. One of the most expensive is Sevruga–a dark grey to black caviar.

Black Caviar seems to be an appropriate name for a sleek, black expensive winner, although caviar is not to everyone’s tastes. In 1925 when two Russian brothers tried to introduce caviar to the world at the Grand Exhibition in Paris, they had to provide spittoons to cope with the public’s reactions.
So from the name of this winner to the thought of eating horse…

I never have to my knowledge, and in many countries this thought is repulsive. But some people do. On a recent visit to Paris, we saw horse meat on sale at the market–”cheval”. Apparently during the Napoleonic wars, army horses had to be butchered and eaten for soldiers survival and an appreciation of horse flesh grew from that. Did you know that the eating of horse flesh is called hippophagy? There you go–learn something new every day.

On a different track–Two horsey nibbles:

Angels on horseback recipe:

Wrap some rindless bacon around individual shucked oysters. Grill until bacon is cooked. Serve as is or on buttered toast.

Devils on Horseback:

Wrap some rindless bacon around individual pitted prunes. Grill until bacon is cooked. Serve as is or on buttered toast.

And a little sweetener at the finish–my family love munching on the brown sugar cubes found in many cafes. We call them horsey treats.

Full weekend, food, family, fellowship.

Posted on by June 25, 2012
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My quality controller (aka my IT expert hubby) has helped me to finally dish up this very slowly cooked blog. Enjoy!

No Random Lunch Challenge this week as we had an early trip to our market to purchase the makings of a weekend of meals, or meal contributions, as well as our own weekly supplies.
An early visit of course involves breakfast–which can be slightly random, but is a bit more predictable than the RLC. We have been known to enjoy egg and bacon pies, big buttery croissants or a tub of Greek rice pudding…

We then attended a memorial service for a cousin who died last year, followed by a luncheon. It was emphasized that the food served was some of our cousin’s favourite types of food that she was happy to share with others. Food can have such strong associations.

Anyway, the weekend  focused heavily on gatherings of people involved in   Heal Africa–an organisation working to eradicate poor health, poverty and the oppression of women in DR Congo.

Meeting and greeting some representatives occurred over a pot luck smorgasbord dinner on Saturday, guests contributing an item towards the meal. My contribution was a huge tray of grilled/roasted red capsicum, zucchini chunks, sweet potato, red onion, eggplant, smoked paprika and Spanish sherry vinegar. The hostess kept the left overs which was a nice unspoken compliment.

On Sunday morning, a church gathering of all the congregations to hear from the Heal Africa reps culminated in a buffet pot luck lunch of an array of tasty sandwiches, soup, salads and dessert. The chilli lime chicken wings I roasted flew off the table and people seemed to like my sticky date pudding and toffee sauce. Have been asked for the recipe and am seriously contemplating whether to divulge this secret!!!!!

I am impressed with some of the younger guys approach to food, cooking and hospitality. I am encouraged that many see the provision of appropriate meals as a caring ministry. It’s delightful how food can help link people.
I am also mindful of others poverty and how good we have it and how to hold that tension……

The weekend ended over a meal and Communion with another group of Christians we know.
That’s right–it was our turn to do mains.
Which was a Moroccan lamb tagine, warm with ginger, cinnamon, paprika, Ras el Hanout, preserved lemons, olives in a tomato rich gravy……served with nutty brown rice.

And then communion–the breaking of bread, the drinking of wine. The simplest yet greatest meal of all–the symbol of the greatests act of caring ever.

Someone To Eat With: A celebration of 40 years

Posted on by June 24, 2012
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Set in a medieval feel dining hall in a chalet in a beautiful park setting we gathered – gathered to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of  dear friends.
40!

Food and CELEBRATION go hand in hand.
Over roast beef, mustard mash, roast lamb and grilled capsicum ,zuchinni and eggplant; pumpkin and spinach salad and the mandatory roast potatoes; coconut/vanilla panna cotta or sorbet trio we reminisced, laughed and almost cried. Family and friends together to support and encourage a couple in their life together and to thank God for that and all the relationships around. And to eat and be merry.

Menu Planning: A Week on our Plates (Dinners)

Posted on by June 24, 2012
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Sat: Tacos  (carry over from last week)

Sun: Leek and Potato Soup with homemade bread

Mon: BBQed steak , mushroom sauce, wet polenta, wilted spinach

Tue: Chicken and olive tagine, cous cous, spiced pumpkin and zuchinni

Wed: Conchiglie con pomodoro crudo, avacado et gamberetti (pasta shells with  tomato, avacado and prawns)

Thurs: Roast leg lamb, rosemary potatoes, steamed beans…gravy.

Fri: Curry crusted fish with Indian rice.

Somehow we will have to incorporate cauliflower in the menu next week–it’s blooming everywhere!

Random Lunch Challenge: Cold Wet Day

Posted on by June 24, 2012
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Mushroom on toastDespite a few altercations between strong willed boys, they managed to decide on purchasing mushrooms to pan fry in butter then swirl through some pesto, to serve on toasted rye. With the other ingredients, the pesto did not fall within the $8.00 or under budget for the challenge. Solution: Some Polish Boletus mushroom sauce instead of pesto.
So warming and delicious….yes, we licked the plate clean.