Sprouting Broccoli and Oyster Mushrooms in Ginger Broth with Pumpking and Macadamia Dumplings

This one is out of one of my favourite recipe books, a gift from my sister called Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me, by Denis Cotter. It's really great.

This is also the last of my backlog, which means that I will probably be falling silent for a while as I have some travelling coming up.

So! The first thing I have to admit to is that in Dunedin it is impossible to find either sprouting broccoli or oyster mushrooms. So, um. That was fun.

I ended up using portobello mushrooms and ordinary broccoli, so it was probably totally different to how it was meant to be. But, it was still pretty good.

So, You start by bringing1.5 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan, and throwing in a chopped onion, 2 chopped celery sticks, a chopped carrot, some garlic cloves (recipe says four, I probably used more, because I always do), a thumb of sliced fresh root ginger, a sliced chilli, some coriander leaves and parsley leaves. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 mins. Then strain through a sieve and discard the veggies, keeping the broth. (This part always breaks my heart, but I assume all the goodness of the veggies in the juice by then anyway.)

Then steam 100g pumpkin diced up till it's soft. (I actually steamed this over the broth while it was cooking.) Mash it up. Stir in a tablespoon of finely chopped macadamia nuts (I used significantly more than that. Mmmmmm macadamias.), grated zest of half a lemon, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (I just squeezed it over the pumpkin and guestimated), and 2 tsp chopped coriander. Leave it to cool.

The recipe calls for 8 wonton wrappers, but I made more than that. Possibly I used too much pumpkin. I basically just kept going until the mixture was finished.

So place the wantons on a work surface, put a teaspoon of the pumpkin mixture in the middle, moisten the edge of the wrapper and fold it to make a rectangle, pressing down the edges. (A few of mine burst open, so make sure about those edges!)

Reheat the broth gently, Fry the broccoli (350g) and mushrooms (100g) in some olive oil in a pan, occasionally ladling in some of the broth to keep them moist. Add 4 sliced spring onions, and cook a little more.

Bring the broth to the boil, and drop the dumplings in, simmer for two minutes, and serve broth and dumplings poured over the fried veg.

This dish was really tasty - the broth was amazing. It didn't survive longer though, so eat it all immediately! It sort of went mushy and gross after a day.

But those dumplings - NOM. Highly recommended, even though it's a bit fiddly.

Eggplant in Garlic Tomato Sauce

I'll be honest and say it's been so long since I made this one, I don't remember it that clearly. I know we had it as a side dish with something else, and I do seem to remember it was pretty yummy, but I don't recall much else.

*sigh* Note to self: MUST write these up soon after cooking them!!

In any case, here's how it went:

Cut an eggplant into 1cm wide strips, place in strainer, and salt them. Let them stand for 30 mins, and then rinse. (You know, almost every eggplant recipe has instructions like these. I don't know what it's meant to do. I often leave it out because I don't have time, and have never noticed a notable problem with it. But you know, whatever. I wonder if it's like salting the water in which you cook pasta - just one of those things "everyone knows you should do", but it's not actually necessary. Anyway...)

Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the eggplant in batches till brown and soft. Remove from heat. fry some chopped brown onion, add some undrained crushed tinned tomatoes, 1/2 cup of water, a tablespoon tomato paste, a tablespoon chopped basil and a pinch of black pepper. (The recipe wants a pinch of sugar too, but I always leave that out.) Bring to the boil, simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, pour over eggplant and serve hot.

Like I said, my memory says this was yummy, but I don't remember details. Look at those ingredients though! It had to have been delicious and Med and nom. ;)

Roast pepper terrine

This was not a success. I'm going to admit that straight out of the gate. But I think it was my fault. Let me explain.

I have never made a terrine before.

The recipe says to roast 8 red or yellow peppers. I did so. They went all black and crinkly. I peeled them, discarded the peels and seeds, as requested. So far so good.

Sliced them up, and set one aside, as instructed.

Then it says to put 3 cups of mascarpone in a bowl with 3 egg yolks, some herbs (I used basil and parsley) and a clove of garlic. I used more than one clove, because I always do. Then it says "Beat well".

I think this is where I failed, because I did not beat it as well as I perhaps should have, so I don't think the cream thickened up as much as it should have. So, BEAT WELL, dear reader. ;)

Then you whisk the egg whites into soft peaks (which, again, I probably didn't do as well as I should have) and fold them in.

Layer the cheese mixture and the sliced peppers in a loaf tin. Cover with foil. Put it in a roasting pan, with boiling water poured in up to half way up the loaf tin. Bake in a 180C oven for an hour. Leave to cool in the water, then chill overnight.

There's a salsa too, which is just the remaining roasted pepper, two more raw ones, some garlic oil and vinegar, whirred in a food processor.

When I turned the terrine out, mine went FLOP. :( It didn't set. I suspect it was because I didn't beat as well as I should have. It tasted okay, but not great. I will say the salsa was completely amazing though. And the easiest part. Go figure.

Ah, well, can't win 'em all right?

Ratings:
Me: Meh.
(Everyone else was nice, but I think they were lying. ;)

Egg and lentil curry

As it happened, we had this one scheduled, and then #vegetarianstudent and his friend decided to come for lunch. Perfect!

This is out of one of the Delia Smith books, and it's kind of delightful how it gives you every single instruction right down to "peel the onions". I'm not going to do that. ;)

Then roast the spices: cardamom, cumin, fennel and coriander, all whole seeds. Roast 'em, and then grind them up in a mortar/pestle and crush 'em up.

Add oil to the same pan (no need to miss out on all those lovely spices), throw in some onion, chili, ginger, garlic and lime pickle*, some turmeric and some fenugreek. Throw in the crushed, roasted spices.

The recipe called for a convoluted coconut thing, I just used tinned coconut cream, and it was great. Throw that in.

Stir in the lentils, add some grated lime zest. Bring to a simmer, and then turn it down and let it cook away for 45 mins.

Boil some eggs (we did four, iirc), to whatever stage you like them. (I actually did this right at the beginning, so that they were cool and ready for peeling when I got to this stage, but you do whatever you wish.)

Season sauce with lime juice and salt, and serve with the halved eggs perched on top, and on a bed of rice. We also had various pickles and chutneys, cos that's how we roll.


It's a really good curry, though I ended up adding more liquid because it kind of dried up. That may have been because I used dried lentils instead of tinned ones. But REALLY tasty.

Ratings:
Thumbs up all round really. :)

I had actually made some lemon and lime pickle a while back, and I used that. Boil up some vinegar, throw in some sugar and some pickling spice. Put into a sanitised bottle with slices of lemon and lime. Leave for at least three weeks. NOM.

Tomato, garlic and basil pasta

We didn't know what to have for lunch today, so I said, "Hey, let's see what the next recipe is and whether it is lunch appropriate." It was!!

Really simple. Roast a head of garlic in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Put some pasta on to cook. The recipe said spaghetti, but we only had fettuccine, so that's what we used. Take the garlic out. Squeeze the edible bits out into a bowl. Mix with some olive oil, some pepper and salt, some tomatoes (I just used canned stuff, cos that's what we had, but I expect it would be awesome with fresh tomatoes too). Mix in the hot pasta, throw in some fresh basil leaves from the plant you're growing in your sunroom. Sprinkle some grated parmesan on top. And voila.

Simple, delicious, easy. Took maybe half an hour to make.

Extra points if, like us, you eat it while watching "The Godfather II". ;)

Ratings:

Me: Thumbs up. Good ingredients combined simply, what's not to like?

Husband: Thumbs up.

Jax's fabulous chicken

On Friday night we had a little dinner party. I made one of my all-time favourite dinner party dishes. I.E: Easy, and always impresses. This once upon a time started out as something I found in an actual recipe book somewhere, but it has since morphed into something I can probably call my very own recipe.

Here's what you do:

Get some chicken pieces. I use legs, because that's what I like, but it would work just as well with breasts, if that's your preference. Brown them in some oil. Once brown, stick them into a casserole dish of some kind.

Fry up some garlic, mushrooms, peppers, onions (and/or whatever other kind of veggies you happen to like), and then toss some white wine in, once the onions have gone clear. I am pretty generous with the wine so don't be shy. Cook it a bit so that the wine cooks off a tad. Pour it over the top of the chicken. Layer some pieces of bacon on top. This is the big secret. See, that yummy bacon fat oozes gently down, and the chicken becomes so tender it absolutely falls off the bone. Heaven!!

Cook it at about 180C for about an hour to an hour and a half.

I also made Ann's potatoes, named after my aunt, who was responsible for them becoming a family staple years ago. I honestly don't know where she got the recipe from but they really are a standard in my (and my mom's, and quite probably, my sister's) house these days.

You take the potatoes. Wash 'em. Don't peel them. Cut them in half and lay them out on a greased baking tray or shallow glass dish and score the tops into little squares. (Don't cut all the way through!) Then melt some butter and olive oil in the microwave, mix in some brown onion soup (or french onion, or just plain onion if you live in a crazy place that doesn't believe in brown onion soup) and then spoon it over the tops of the potatoes and stick 'em in an oven at 180C for anything from an hour to about two hours. They're great for meals where the eating time is flexible, like braais (bbqs).

Those two things combined with a big fresh green salad resulted in some pretty satisfied guests. Yay!