This Week's Menu - a little bit French

I like sticky-beaking at what other people have on the menu so I thought I might start putting up what is on our menu for the week. A French feel seems to develop from mid-week this week!

* I will use the Vegetarian Chicken Tofu with the same baste for Mia


Hope this gives you some ideas too!!

Nicola

Around the World in 18 Fridays: Week 1- France

Each Thursday I cook dinner, so on Fridays I’ll aim to bring you a blog post about what I cooked. So far I’ve chosen an international theme, so each post will be from a different place in the world. Bon voyage! –Mia

Bonjour!

Today I'm cooking something French! Can you guess what?

Because we’re part of a fruit co-op, we always seem to have too much of one thing and not enough of something else.

This week’s excess was eggplant, zucchini and capsicum.

Ratatouille really seemed the perfect dish!

I loosely based mine on one on Taste.com.au and the one in Charmaine Solomon’s Complete Vegetarian Cookbook (a good book, I might add!).

But only some ideas for ingredients- I ignored the quantities and added/removed a couple of things.

And yes, it may be the ugliest coloured dish on earth, but trust me- the taste makes up for it!

Ratatouille

Serves 4, plus leftovers

3 Eggplants, cubed

4 Zucchinis, cubed

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Brown Onions, diced

3 Cloves of Garlic, crushed

2-3 Capsicums, de-seeded and cut into strips

2 Cans of Tomato

1 tsp Ground Coriander

A couple of sprigs of Basil, finely sliced

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Place zucchini and eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Toss, so all of the cubes are in contact with the salt. Set aside for an hour. After the hour and passed, rinse and pat dry.

Heat oil, in a large, heavy based saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook until soft, but not brown.  Add eggplant, zucchini and capsicum, and cook over low heat for ½ an hour.

Add tinned tomatoes, coriander, basil, salt and pepper and cook for a further 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and very tender.

Serve with pasta, or on it’s own for a light meal. Bon Appetit!

Mia

Quick, Vegetarian Finger Food!

On Sunday afternoon we had a tight time frame to make nibbles for a last minute "welcome home" party for  friends who've had a tough time lately. We came up with ideas in the car, popped in for a few extra ingredients at the local shops, though mostly used the contents of our vegie co-op bag. Then Mia, Eva and I spent about an hour preparing.


This is what we came up with:-




Beetroot and Cumin Dip with Greek Pitta and Carrot Sticks.

• Place a large Fresh Beetroot into a pot of cold water full enough to cover it and bring to boil, cook , covered, until tender (approx 45min - depending on size) 
• Peel Beetroot while still warm (skin should slip off easily - gloves may help with heat.)
• Puree beetroot in a food processor.
• Add Greek Yoghurt (about 1/2 cup), Ground cumin (about 2 tspn) and some salt and pepper and puree further.
• Taste to see if more yoghurt or salt needed.
• Serve beautiful coloured dip with bright accompaniments.

Asparagus Spears Wrapped in Smoked Salmon and Nori and a Lemon Mayonnaise
This one we googled while looking for asparagus ideas (and have included the link). Rolling Stiff Nori was harder than I thought so they look a bit rough - but the taste was great. We added a lemon mayonnaise (Good Mayo with fresh lemon juice and pepper stirred through it which went very well)










Goats cheese, roasted cherry tomato and parsley mini-toasts.

• Halve and roast cherry tomatoes (tossed in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, A little Balsamic Vinegar and some salt and pepper) until soft (about 20 min)
• Spread toasts with some goats cheese, a parsley leaf and a roasted cherry tomato and serve soon afterwards.
• I meant to use pesto but didn't have basil - it would have been tastier, but these were good and quick. 

It was all eaten and enjoyed!

Nicola

Croissants

Well, here goes nothing! First Post!

Today I made Croissants (Well, actually I started them yesterday morning, but I cooked them today so I think that's what counts)! They were a little more of an undertaking than I expected- I spent about 6 hours working on them and this was spaced across more than 30 hours! But the end product was remarkably croissant-like and delicious, so I am still making my mind up as to whether it was worth it.


The recipe I used was in 'Bourke Street Bakery; The Ultimate Baking Companion' A cookbook Dad got for his birthday, predominantly for use in sourdough making. It's a fantastic book with all sorts of yummy bakery-like things in it, although the methods do all seem to be at least a page long! The recipe was divided into 2 parts- Croissant Dough (Which can be used in all sorts of other things, like snails for example) and Croissants (to be precise, the recipe was spread across 148-9 and 168-9). I would have put the recipe, except it's literally 4 pages of very small font and I don't want to bore you.


They were meant to be for breakfast, but in a slightly more extreme example of my complete inability to predict how long I will take to cook something ( partly connected to my inability to read the full recipe before I begin them) they were ready just after 4:30 PM. Oh well, I guess I'll know next time! We served them with hot chocolate in bowls- when we were little we got croissants from a local bakery all the time and this was our way of making them just a little more French (No idea where the idea came from, or if it's French at all, but it's fun) and strawberry jam which I made last Friday. They were delicious!! They were pretty much like shop bought croissants, except perhaps a little less buttery on the inside. Enough writing now, here are some more photos.
Mia

Voila!