TWD - Double Corn Tomato Crisp

This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Double Corn Tomato Crisp. It comprises a corn and tomato filling, covered with a crisp cornmeal crust.

It really is very tasty, and the crisp cornmeal crust is a revelation.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Devilled Eggs

 If they're scrambled I can only eat two eggs. If they're deviled, I can eat forty.

Devilled eggs is one of those party dishes that everyone jokes about, but most secretly enjoy.  Until recently, I had never made devilled eggs, but that changed when my team held a disco themed virtual Christmas party.  I know that they did not eat food at discos, but disco food was one of the prize categories, and I assume that they meant food from the disco era AKA the 1970s.  So devilled eggs and pineapple hedgehogs it was!

I made these devilled eggs using Nigella Lawson's recipe, which rather fancily pipes the egg mixture back into the whites.  They were rather good, a good mix of creamy and spicy, which is just as well, as I had to eat them.

If you would like to make these eggs, you will need:

12 large eggs (or however many you want to make
and adjust other ingredients accordingly)
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons mustard
a good pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3 drops tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons boiling water

Bring water to the boil in a saucepan, and add the eggs to it one by one.  Boil the eggs for one minute, then switch off the heat and leave the eggs to sit in the saucepan for 12 minutes.  Fill a bowl with ice cold water and transfer the eggs to that bowl, and leave to sit for 15 minutes before peeling the eggs.

Halve each egg lengthways and gently remove the yolk.  Put the yolks into a mixing bowl.  Choose 18 of the best looking white-halves and place them on a serving platter (you need more yolks than whites).

Add the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, paprika and tabasco to the egg yolks and mash them all together before blending with a stick blender to combine thoroughly.  Ass as much of the boiling water as is required to bring the yolk mixture to piping consistency.

Put the yolk mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe the yolk mixture into the cavity of each white, and sprinkle each one with extra paprika.

Serve.

Ottolenghi’s Spicy Nuts

 Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way

Christmas in Australia on a scorching summer’s day ...

             

The final item in this year’s Christmas boxes is Spiced Nuts, from an Ottolenghi recipe.

These nuts are made with 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper, so they pack a punch. They’d be great with a cold beer by the barbie, with seafood sizzling away.

If spicy nuts with kick are your jam, you will need:

380g of mixed nuts

80g pumpkin seeds

1 teaspoon sunflower seeds

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon salt

2 sprigs rosemary, leaves only

2 teaspoons pepper

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.

Put all of the ingredients except the pepper and cayenne together in a roasting tray and stir to combine. Roast for 15-17 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the nuts turn dark brown. Remove the nuts from the oven, stir through the pepper and cayenne. 

Allow the nuts to cool in the tray, stirring from time to time. 

Serve with a coldie!

Chicken Everest with Yellow Rice

I have owned The Monday Morning Cooking Club - The Feast Goes On for quite a while (umm, apparently about three or four years), but until recently had never made anything from it.  One weekend I pulled it out and searched specifically for a tempting dinner to make from it.

I decided to make Reuben Solomon's recipe for Chicken Everest (p166).  I had never heard of this dish before, but a quick Internet search shows that there are plenty of variations of it out there.  I chose this dish because it looked like a great spicy Sunday roast.

I did find making the paste to coat the chicken very messy, with herbs and spices all over the place.  However, I did like the flavour it gave to the chicken.  (Note that my chicken looks nothing like the photo in the book!)

The recipe suggested that I serve it with Shereen Aaron's Yellow Rice (p163), so inventively, that is just what I did.  I loved this tasty rice and would happily serve it with anything:

To make the Chicken Everest, you will need:

A 1.5kg chicken
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garam marsala
2 tablespoons lemon juice
10 fresh curry leaves (I subbed in parsley because I couldn't get the leaves)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons ground rice  (nup!)
3 chopped spring onions
1 small handful coriander leaves

Put all of the ingredients except the chicken in a food processor and pulse to make a paste.  Thin it out with water if necessary to make a spreading consistency.

Rub the chicken inside, outside and under the skin with the paste, then marinate the chicken in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Put the chicken in an oiled roasting dish and bake uncovered for an hour and a quarter or until the chicken is golden brown and cooked right through.

To make the Yellow Rice, you will need:

1 tablespoon oil
1 finely chopped small onion
black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 cup rinsed basmati rice
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
salt

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and fry the onion until soft.  Add the pepper and turmeric and cook until fragrant.  Add the rice and stir to coat with the onion mix.

Add the stock to the pan and bring to the boil.  Add salt to taste, then cover the pan and reduce the heat to low.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Serve!

This meal would be a terrific Easter feast, or a beaut Sunday roast.  Just be prepared for the mess when making the paste.

Red Tractor March - Colcannon

It was St Patrick's Day yesterday, so it seemed fitting to make the Red Tractor March recipe - Colcannon.  Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish of cabbage and mashed potatoes all mixed together - a bit like Heaven and Earth is apples and mashed potatoes.

I chose to serve my Colcannon with corned beef, mustard, tomato sauce and mixed vegetables - a pretty good meal.  Corned beef is also quite economical as you get a lot of meat for your money and there are always tons of leftovers.

Here is the accompanying Red Tractor quote for March, an Irish blessing:

To make Colcannon, you will need:

1kg Sebago potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/4 Savoy cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1/2 cup milk
a knob of butter

Boil up the potatoes and cabbage separately until soft, and drain.

Mash the potatoes, then add the garlic, butter and milk and mix well.

Add the cabbage, spring onions and parsley and mix well again.

Serve! 

Roasted Honey Mustard Vegetables - Red Tractor December

Wow, we have reached the end of the year, and it's time for the Red Tractor calendar December recipe.  Fittingly for those having a traditional Christmas lunch or dinner, the recipe is Roasted Honey Mustard Vegetables.

There is no quote this month - just lots of summertime Australiana:

These vegetables are mainly root vegetables, roasted until soft and then drizzled with a honey mustard dressing.  I am not much of a parsnip fan, as I find them woody and bland, but the rest of the veges were good.

I won't give you the exact vegetable blend suggested - you can roast what you like.  The honey mustard dressing recipe is as follows:

125g butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
2 tablespoons soy sauce
freshly grated ginger to taste

Mix everything together, pour over the roasted vegetables, and bake for a further 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower

It is winter here, a season for hearty comfort food, and roasts are high on the agenda.

No good roast is complete without a side of roasted vegetables.  If you don't mind the smell of "stinky" vegetables roasting, and you like brussels sprouts and cauliflower, then you might like this tasty recipe for roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower that appeared in the June 2017 issue of Mindfood.

It really is quite simple - preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Wash, drain and halve 400g brussels sprouts.  Cut a whole cauliflower into florets and wash.  Toss the vegetables with 2 garlic cloves and half a cup of olive oil, season to taste, then roast for 30-40 minutes in the oven. 

Remove from the oven and  allow to cool a little before tossing in a mixture of 1 cup Greek yoghurt, 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and 1 teaspoon ground coriander. 

Garnish with herbs and serve with lemon wedges if desired.

EwE - Chili Tortilla Chips - Garden Party

Originally, when Peggy suggested Garden Party as our theme for EwE this week, I was going to make sweets.  However, I then turned to the savoury side of things, because you need sweet and savoury at a Garden Party.

I made Ellie's Chili Tortilla Chips - recipe here.  I would use half the chilli powder next time as they were a little too hot for me, but otherwise, these were good.  They'd be excellent with a cooling dip like tzatziki.

To see what everyone else made for our Garden Party, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

EwE - Maple Squash Mash - Fall Harvest

Unsurprisingly, fall is a prominent theme for Eating with Ellie at the moment, and Margaret has continued on with this theme with her choice of Fall Harvest (Fall Veggies).  Although it is spring here, I am quite partial to whatever autumnal vegetables that are available, and this week, I chose squash (butternut pumpkin).

My recipe was Ellie's Maple Squash Mash from So Easy.  This one doesn't break any new ground - combine cooked mashed squash with butter, salt and maple syrup.  It's simple, but tasty. I have never seen frozen "squash" here, so I just boiled up some fresh squash. It was a tasty side.

To see what other autumnal veggie treats the others cooked up, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Rosemary Potatoes - This Spud's For You

It's autumn (fall) in the US, so Kayte has chosen the seasonally appropriate theme of "This Spud's For You" for Eating with Ellie. Of course, potatoes are good at any time of the year, and in cool Melbourne, I am not dreaming of icecreams and seafood on the beach yet.

I made Ellie's Rosemary Potatoes from So Easy.  These potatoes are so easy to make - just chop red potatoes in half, spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and rosemary, and et voila - a beautiful side dish is created.

To see what the others made this week, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

Low Fat Macaroni Cheese

If you read this blog regularly, you will know that while I like my sweets, I try to keep my meals healthy.  This led me to search for a low fat recipe for macaroni cheese as a side to serve with dinner while my mother was staying with me.

I found this recipe for low fat macaroni cheese on Taste.com.  The recipe calls for bacon and parsley, which I left out, but I otherwise followed the recipe.  It was quick and easy to make, and sliced easily into convenient squares for serving.

This macaroni cheese was pretty good, but lacked a little oomph flavour wise.  Perhaps a sharper cheese or a dash of chilli or paprika would remedy this.  However, I would make this again.

EwE - Garlic Mash - One Potato, Two Potato

For Eating with Ellie this week, Margaret chose the theme of One Potato, Two Potato.  This was an easy one as most people like potatoes and Ellie has a few potato recipes.

I chose Ellie's Garlic Mash from So Easy.  Basically, you steam the potatoes with the skin on (which is interesting!), then mash them up with a good dose of garlic and chicken stock.  These potatoes were quite flavourful, although I would probably cut back on the 4 cloves of garlic next time.

I served my Garlic Mash as a side with Provencal Chicken, another Ellie recipe:

To see what the others made this week, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

Broccoli and Ricotta Mash

Mashed potatoes are nearly universally adored, but poor old broccoli is often given a bad rap.  If you have children who don't like broccoli, or you are not a fan, a way that you might be able to make it more palatable is by making this broccoli and ricotta mash.

The mash comprises potatoes, broccoli and ricotta, mashed together with flavour enhancing ingredients.  This delicious mash alternative is from The Good Life by Sally Obermeder, and the recipe is as follows:

2 small potatoes diced into 2cm squares
500g broccoli cut into small florets
2 tbspns olive oil
2 crushed cloves garlic
115g ricotta
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbspns lemon juice

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 8 minutes.  Add the broccoli and cook for another 6 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Heat 1 tbspn of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic.

Drain the potatoes and broccoli and put into the bowl of a food processor.  Add the garlic with the remaining tbspn of olive oil, the ricotta, and    the lemon zest and juice, and process until you have the desired  mash consistency.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve as a nutritious side with whatever you fancy.

EwE - Greek-Style Spinach Rice - It Isn't Easy Being Green

For Eating with Ellie this week, I chose the theme of It Isn't Easy Being Green.  Ellie has lots of fabulous vegetable recipes in her books, so I decided to choose something along that line for a side dish.

I chose Ellie's Greek-Style Spinach Rice from Weeknight Wonders.  In theory, it sounded great - brown rice and frozen spinach cooked with tomato paste and onion, with optional feta.  I left out the feta but otherwise made the recipe as written.

Unusually for me with an Ellie recipe, I didn't take to this dish.  It was too bland for my liking - a little too close to rabbit food.  Unfortunately, it won't be a repeat.

To se what the other Ellie cooks made this week, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

Honey-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Sesame and Hummus

Finding interesting recipes for side dishes is a never ending quest for me.  Sure, I can make boiled rice and vegetables in my sleep, and they do the job, but it is great to  be able to mix it up a bit from time to time.

Enter Karen Martini's recipe for Honey-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Sesame and Hummus from p108 of the June edition of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. If you hate brussels sprouts, you probably aren't even reading this post.  However, if you don't mind them, and want an interesting way to cook them, then Karen Martini's recipe might be for you.  It features Brussels sprouts that are pan fried, tossed with honey and toasted sesame seeds, and served on a bed of hummus.  Love it!

To make these brussels sprouts, you will need:

3 tbspns olive oil
500g brussels sprouts
6 sprigs thyme
salt and pepper
1/4 cup honey
2 tbspns toasted sesame seeds
300g hummus

Heat 2 tbspns of the oil in a large, deep, lidded frying pan.  Add the brussels sprouts, 3 sprigs of thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.  Pour 120ml water into the pan, put the lid on the frypan, and reduce the heat to low.  Cook for 5 minutes or until the sprouts are cooked through and the water has evaporated. 

Remove the lid from the pan and increase the heat to high.  Add the honey and the remaining tbspn of oil to the pan, cook the sprouts in the honey for 2 minutes, stirring all the while to coat the sprouts, then add half of the sesame seeds and stir through again.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, spread the hummus on a plate and pile the sprouts on top of it, and sprinkle with the remaining thyme and sesame seeds.

EwE - What's on the Side - Zucchini, Spinach and Corn Saute

Our last theme for Eating with Ellie in April is What's On the Side?, chosen by Margaret.  Ellie described her Zucchini, Spinach and Corn Saute as one of her favourite sides at a particular Mexican restaurant.  She suggested pairing it with her Chicken Enchiladas.  The combination sounded faultless, so I went with that combination.

This side is super easy to make - I used tinned corn kernels (although you can use fresh), bagged baby spinach and zucchinis paired with onion and garlic, sautéed in the pan.  It is super quick to prepare and super tasty.

To see what the others made for this week's Ellie theme, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Vegetable Harvest - Orange-Balsamic Green Beans with Basil

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Vegetable Harvest, chosen by yours truly.  I thought that this was a broad theme that gave everyone plenty of scope to do what they wanted.

I chose to make Orange-Balsamic Green Beans with Basil from Weeknight Wonders.  This entails frying up some shallots and green beans, then adding orange zest, orange juice, balsamic vinegar and basil.  I was very proud because I got to use basil from my own planter box.

These beans were really tasty - they made a nice change from plain boiled or steamed beans.

To see what the others did with this theme, visit the LYL section of the EwE website. 

EwE - Rainbow Chard with Sunflower Seeds and Dried Figs

For Eating with Ellie this week, I chose Rainbow Chard with Sunflower Seeds and Dried Figs.  As often happens, I substituted near-to-but-not-quite ingredients to use what I could readily find or already had  - for the rainbow chard, I substituted spinach, and for the sunflower seeds, I substituted pepitas.  

Basically, this dish involves toasting the seeds, then setting them aside while you sautee the greens in a mixture of chicken broth, garlic and lemon juice.  The seeds, sliced figs and lemon zest are added at the end.

 I really enjoyed this dish - I really didn't feel like making it when I did, but when I tasted it, I changed my  mind.  It's a little bit savoury, a little bit sweet and all kinds of goodness.

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Sesame Cous Cous

Our Eating with Ellie dish this week is Sesame Quinoa, chosen by Chaya.  However, I cannot eat quinoa, so I substituted wholemeal cous cous for the quinoa.  Toasted sesame seeds and scallions flavour the cous cous.

I liked this side dish - very simple, hardly a recipe, but good all the same.

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Onion

For Eating with Ellie this week, Chaya selected Spinach Salad with Mushrooms and Red Onion.

I skipped the red onion and used brown onion instead.

I wasn't initially excited to be making this, but it was a pleasant side to go with last week's meatballs:

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.