Pinenut, Parmesan and Fennel Seed Wafers

My second job is in a library. While I'm there I almost always come across a new and interesting food book - or an old favourite that I haven't seen in a while. This week my find was "Ärabesque - Modern Middle Eastern Food" by Greg and Lucy Malouf. I look forward to really exploring it, but so far have only flicked through it and was instantly drawn to Pine Nut Wafers. I tried them this evening. They were straightforward to make, and just as tasty and luscious as I'd hoped. They'd be great with pre-dinner drinks. 

I love the colour of fennel seeds!

Pine Nut Wafers

Ingredients 

100g Pinenuts, roughly chopped

100g parmesan cheese, grated

1 tspn fennel seeds, roasted and lightly crushed

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180C

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients well. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Carefully spoon rounds of the mixture onto the tray. I used egg-rings as a mould, but removed them before baking.)

before baking

after baking

Bake for 8-10 minutes

Remove from oven and allow them to cool completely on the tray.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes 10-12 wafers.

Cheers
Nicola

Candied Pecans with Rosemary and Spice

Hi, I'm Back!

I can''t believe it's been 9 months!!

It's been a busy year and there have been other things to focus on - like losing 18kg - but I'm back now and filled with enthusiasm!

I imagine my food has changed a little over the time I've been away. I'm certainly much more wary of sugar and fructose specifically, I've delved into the world of calorie counting for the first time ever though I'm backing away now,  I am dabbling in intermittent fasting for health benefits. I'm still almost vegetarian (Monday to Friday).   I'm sure more will come out about these things in coming posts. Also, just yesterday we bought a new fancy oven and I imagine that will change things!

Today I wanted to make something fairly simple so I could would have time get back into the swing of writing, photos and editing, find all the cables etc and still produce a post. But it still had to be delicious. And it HAD to use the oven :)

I had a big bag of pecans in the cupboard. Two years ago on a visit to California we had a snack mix that was candied pecans with rosemary and dried cranberries. The memory of how good that match was has stayed with me. Pecans and cranberries aren't used widely in Australia so I've never seen anything similar here. So this afternoon I found some recipes and modified them a little to come up with this fructose-free version.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups (275g) pecans, halved
1/4 cup (80g) rice malt syrup (you could use honey)
1 tspn salt 
1 tspn smoky paprika
1/2 tspn ground allspice
2 tspn chopped fresh rosemary 


Method

• Preheat Oven to 180C (350)F.
• Line a baking sheet with baking paper.



after baking



before baking

• In a bowl toss all ingredients together, then spread in a single layer on the prepared tray.

• Bake the pecans for about 10 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.
• Cool to crisp, before breaking up and putting in an airtight jar. 

Notes:
Recipes suggest this will last a few days in the cupboard and a week or so in the fridge - I think they'll be long gone before we get to test that . 
I know it would taste great with dried cranberries too. (but I steer away from dried fruit nowadays)

Nicola

Lentil Stew with Pan-fried Haloumi and grapes - Meat Free Monday

This sounds a little odd and perhaps a little ordinary - but it is not! 
The lentil stew is really tasty and delicious. Haloumi on top adds a great salty luxuriousness and the mint salsa is tangy which compliments the Haloumi really well. Pommegranite would set it all off beautifully - but as Kevin Spacey left it out of his ingredient list and I had to do a last minute dash to a suburban supermarket which,  of course, had no pommegranites, so we substituted grapes which were good, but not as pretty or special!

This takes a while - over an hour - so would be challenging on the average Monday - but I made it on holidays and thought it was well worth the effort.

I made double the lentil part and have 6 little containers in the freezer for lunches which makes me happy. The school year starts tomorrow ;( so back to the grindstone for all of us and the more prepared morsels in the freezer the better!

Lentil Stew with Pan-fried Haloumi and Pommegranite 
from "Meat Free Monday" Recipe contributed by Kevin Spacey

Serves 4

Lentil Stew Ingredients
250g Puy lentils, washed
3Tb Extra virgin olive oil
4 zuchinni (courgettes) sliced into 1cm disks
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 t ground cumin
pinch chilli flakes
1 Tb tomato puree
125ml dry white wine
227g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
100g sliced spinach/chard
8 cherry tomatoes
1 Tb pommegranite molasses
freshly ground salt and pepper

Mint Salsa Ingredients
3 Tb fresh mint, roughly chopped
2 Tb flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 t capers, rinsed
3-4Tb Extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon

To Serve
250g block of haloumi sliced in 1/2 cm slices
1 pommegranite, seeds removed - easiest if you halve, then hit each half with a wooden spoon
over a large bowl

Method

• Cook the lentils in a pan of boiling water until only just tender and then drain. (this took just over 1/2 hr for me but would vary with different lentils)

• Meanwhile, heat 2 Tb olive oil in a large pan over a medium flame. Add the zucchini and cook until both sides are golden, remove from pan and set aside.
• Add last Tb olive oil to the same pan, add the onion and cook until tender. 
• Add the garlic, cumin, and chilli and stir for another minute.
• Add the liquids (tomato puree, stock, wine and tinned tomatoes) and bay leaf and bring to boil. 
• Turn down to a simmer and simmer for about 20min. 
• Add lentils, cover and cook for 10 more minutes. 
• Add vegetables (zuchini, cherry tomatoes and chard) and pommegranite molasses, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.  

• Meanwhile prepare mint salsa by putting all ingredients in a food processor and whizzing until combined. Taste & Season

• Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add sliced haloumi and cook until golden brown on both sides (this only takes a couple of minutes)

• To serve place a scoop of lentils in a bowl, top with 2-3 slices of haloumi, drizzle the salsa over the haloumi  (using it all up). Scatter the pommegranite seeds (or halved green grapes 

Wish me luck as summer finishes with torrential rain and the numb feeling that the long break is a whole year away again!

Nicola

Meat Free Monday

I love "Meat Free Monday".  When we started down the path of questioning our meat eating it was such a revelation to me that I could give up some meat without necessarily giving up all meat! That sounds a bit strange, but being vegetarian is usually shown as such a passionate and total thing, being part way there doesn't occur to you!

We started (before Meat Free Monday began) with one day a week without meat as a trial - (it was Monday initially, but then moved to Tuesday). At first it was hard to think of ideas and adjust the way we planned meals but once we got our heads around it,  it shifted without much further thought to Monday to Friday without meat, and for a while there it became rare on weekends too. (Right now we are eating a little more meat on weekends after Christmas and our country holiday.)

So Meat Free Monday seems a great idea to me! It seems it may be a realistic stepping stone to much less meat consumption by many more people.


Now I have discovered the Meat Free Monday Cookbook! I borrowed it from the library last week and within 24 hours I had bought it for myself with a book voucher a colleague gave me for Christmas.

I have decided to try to cook my way through it in a "Julie and Julia-esque" way. Well perhaps not every recipe but some from every week. The book is laid out with a breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert as well as a packed lunch alternative and a side dish or two for each week, 13 weeks worth for each season.  They seem tasty and varied, yet simple enough to be achievable on a busy week night with a little added cool factor that many are recipes contributed by famous people. I really look forward to trying so many of them. I'll let you know how I am going along the way.

Nicola

Fancy Mushroom Pasta - a Birthday Foodie Treat

Making Decisions!

It's almost my birthday, so today we went on what has become a bit of a birthday tradition in the family - a trip to Everleigh Farmers Market at Carriageworks. It's foodie heaven. We take $50 each and a few bags and taste and buy our way though as much as we can manage.
Tasting highlights included:-

• fantastic sweet strawberries
• Trout sausages (sadly sold out)
• The creamiest Yoghurt 
• Middle Eastern Ice Creams - we bought a halva one and a turkish delight one.
• Blackberry, Blueberry and almond Jam
• lemongrass chicken
• salted caramel sauce
• Pear, Pecan and Ginger Museli - bought
• lemon myrtle cheesecake
• Amazing Goats cheeses - bought a goats curd maninated in garlic.

Lunch (which was a little obscene after all that tasting) was a shared combination of a "Billy Kwong" Pancake with asian vegie salad and organic egg (and we actually saw Kylie Kwong - one of my favourite chefs),  a fancy Toasted cheese sandwich (Croque Madam) from "Bird Cow Fish" (Alex Herbert was there too!!) and some Indonesian Vegetarian Spring Rolls. YUM.

Our Combined Haul!

Tonight we used the first of our haul for dinner - a fancy creamy mushroom pasta made with the amazing mushrooms we bought and an awesome Cherry Pie Ian chose. Sadly I didn't photograph the pasta - out of the blogging habits - but you can see the mushrooms and the pie in the photo of all the things we bought.

This is the way I made the pasta.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients

2 Tb Extra Virgin Olive Oil

40g butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large red onion, diced

500g mixed mushrooms, sliced (we used 300g Portobellos, 100g fresh shiitakes and 100g Black Cloud Fungus)

125ml red wine

100ml fresh cream

1 tspn truffle oil (optional)

500g Pasta of your choice (we had little elbows)

Pepper & Salt

Method

Put a large pot of water on for the pasta

Heat the oil and half the butter in a heavy based pan.

Cook the onion and garlic gently til soft.

Put the pasta in to cook

Add the remaining butter and the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until they are all soft.

Add the red wine, letting it bubble and reduce a little.

Stir in the cream, truffle oil and a generous grind of salt and pepper.

Simmer for a few more minutes, while pasta finishes cooking and is drained.

Stir pasta through the sauce.

Serve sprinkled in chopped parsley and with a green salad on the side (Cos and Cucumber with balsamic vinegarette today)

Very simple - but delicious because they were fantastic fresh mushrooms!

In the coming days we have the following market treats to make and/or eat to look forward to:-

• tasty museli for breakfast
• Mia plans to make kale chips and stuffed zucchini (courgette) flowers tomorrow
• A busy monday evening with no cooking time we'll have a meal of pumpkin felafels, greek pitta, tabouli, baba ghanoush and dolmades.
• the lovely ice creams
• the hazelnut and coconut butter (Mia made today with the market hazelnuts) on the 2 sourdoughs Ian chose.
• a salad with my new pot of french tarragon growing on the window sill.
• smoked salmon and dill muffins and dried fruit and vegetable "Flats" in our lunchboxes
• something yummy with the Goats curd.
• Pizzas this friday night with the very tasty roasted tomato and basil sauce Ian bought

Days of treats still to look forward to. A fabulous Birthday Outing!

Nicola

Playing with the dry ice from  the ice cream packaging.

Cauliflower and Spinach Curry in Creamy Tomato Sauce

There have been a few cauliflowers in our fruit and vegie bag in the last month or so. I do love cauliflower but past cauliflower cheese and roasted cauliflower it doesn't come naturally to me what to do with them. But now I have this great curry! I found this one first - and since then have made it and altered it a few times and now have something the whole family loves and it is pretty quick and easy - very achievable on a weeknight.

Ingredients

A Cauliflower Florets separated into florets

A bunch of English Spinach, stalks removed and rinsed

an Onion sliced

a Tomato diced

one tin (425g) of diced tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2cm piece of ginger, grated

1 tspn mild curry powder

2 tspns  Garam Masala

1/2 tspn ground Turmeric

1 tspn Chilli powder

1 tspn ground Coriander 

2 Tbspn Oil

Salt – to taste

1/2 cup Water 

1/2 cup Cream

Method 

Heat a heavy based pan and add 2 tbsp oil. 

Saute the sliced onions until translucent.

Add garlic and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring

Add both types of tomato with salt to taste and cook until soft.

Add the spices (curry powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, chilli and coriander. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

Add the cauliflower florets along with 1/2 cup water and mix everything well. Cover the pan and cook for around 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat.

When the cauliflower florets are almost cooked, reduce heat to medium-low and add the cream and spinach. Cover and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, until the spinach has wilted. 

Serve this creamy cauliflower curry on brown rice with pappadums, a yoghurt raita and perhaps some mango chutney.

Vegetable Pakoras

It's Back! I have "Vegetarian" by Alice Hart in my possession again for a few weeks.


I picked up where I left off (see earlier post) and made her "Spring Vegetable Pakoras" last night. I intended it to be a nibble before dinner, but it made a lot and we scoffed them all down and didn't actually need a dinner after that.
I have made very minor modifications to her recipe.
* I used cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas and Spanish/red onion because that's what I had - she used broccolini (tenderstem broccoli), shelled peas and spring onions.
* I made the batter her way but have now quadrupled the cumin seeds for next time as they were the highlight flavour and I love them.



Ingredients


2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
200g chickpea flour (also known as gram or besan depending where you are)
1 litre vegetable oil for frying
1/2 a cauliflower, separated into florets
1 head broccoli, separated into florets
1 Spanish onion, cut into small wedges
100g Snowpeas, tops and strings removed


Method


Quickly Blanch or microwave the broccoli and cauliflower to par-cook it a little (about 30 seconds in boiling water or 1 minute on high) 
Mix the cumin seeds, coriander, turmeric, chili powder, salt, baking powder and flour together in a large bowl and gradually whisk in 200g cold water to make a batter.


Heat the oil in a deep saucepan or wok until it reaches 180C/350F. If you don't have a thermometer try a little batter in the pan and it should sizzle, but not burn, immediately if it is around the right temperature.


Add the chopped vegetables to the batter, stirring to coat well. 


Gently drop pieces of vegetable (or tablespoonfuls of any little bits) into the hot oil a few at a time, being careful not to splash yourself or overcrowd the pan. 


Deep fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Lift out with a spider or slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.


Serve immediately.


Alice suggested an optional fresh herb chutney to serve with them.  (mint, coriander/cilantro, red onion, green chili, lime juice and a little water) We simply squeezed lime on them and were very happy!!

 Enjoy!
 Nicola

Winter Vegetable Gratin

I had a pile of winter root vegetables on hand and a mother-in-law coming to dinner at short notice. Just roasting them didn't seem quite fancy enough, soup didn't seem substantial enough so I googled sweet potato and parsnip and found my solution - gratin. I found a recipe which inspired me - then I made one up with what we had on hand.
Everybody (including me) loved it, and most had seconds (not including me).
Here's how I made it.


Ingredients
4 small Sweet Potatoes
2 Parsnips
3 Small Potatoes
1 large Carrot
2 brown onions
100ml cream
400ml milk
Salt & Pepper
Few sprigs of Thyme
a long stalk of Rosemary
a little butter for greasing pan
150g gruyere cheese


Method
1. Finely slice all 5 vegetables (a mandolin makes this much easier if you have one.)
2. Combine Cream, Milk, a good grind of salt and pepper and the leaves from the thyme in a jug and stir well.
3. Start layering into a large baking dish. I went sweet potato, onion, a little cream, parsnip, onion, cream, potato, onion, cream, carrot, onion, cream and then repeated til I ran out of things.
4. Top it all with gruyere and sprinkle the rosemary leaves over the top.
5. Bake in a moderate oven (180C or 350F) for about 50 min. - I needed to cover in foil for the last 15 min to stop the browning.


I served this with a salad of cos lettuce, cucumber slices and avacado dice with a lemon mustard salad dressing. (lemon juice, dijon mustard, honey and extra virgin olive oil). They were good together as the lemon and freshness of the salad balanced the richness of the gratin.


 I used Heirloom Purple Carrots in my gratin. They looked beautiful when I sliced them (like little tie-dye splotches) but the colour permeated the whole gratin in a slightly odd way. I think I would use orange carrots next time.


Enjoy
Nicola

Moroccan Family Feast

Yesterday was a busy day around here. The kind of busy-ness that can only come with the under 5's. My brother and sister-in-law are about to move and have a lot of packing to do. Apparently little Miss 2 and big Mr 4 are not the most helpful packers in the world - who would have guessed! So they came here for the day and their parents packed furiously and then came here to join them for dinner. Chaos and cuteness ensued. It poured with rain from the moment they arrived so all backyard and park plans evaporated and lots of toys, games, puzzles and leaping off furniture occurred. 
In amongst that (and when their parents arrived) we cooked a moroccan-ish dinner to share. It was inspired by the pomegranate sitting in my fruit bowl (which is strangely still there!!!)


The meal was a number of different dishes down the middle of the table to cater for all the different tastes, ages (2 - 40ish) and dietary requirements (celiac, vegetarian and meat lovers) and everyone self served.

Roast Free-range Chicken with preserved lemon and ras-el-hanout marinade.

Roast Hard Tofu with preserved lemon and ras-el-hanout marinade.

Haloumi, chickpea, Kale & tomato stew

Roast Sweet Potato & Asparaus

Roasted Cauliflower with apple, Red Onion and balsamic vinegar 

Pearl Cous Cous with flame raisins and pistachios

Greek Yoghurt with lemon & cumin

I think we found something for everyone in there. The recipes and notes about where each dish came from are detailed below.


Roast Free-range Chicken with preserved lemon and ras-el-hanout marinade.
The chicken was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. I simplified a little. It was very tasty and a satisfying brown when it came out.

Ingredients

• 3 Preserved lemon halves (I keep some in the fridge I made years ago from Stephanie Alexanders "The Cooks Companion" Cookbook)
• 1 Tb of Ras-El-Hanout (I didn't have any so made up a tablespoon of Cumin, Corriander, Chilli, Clove, Cardamom, Nutmeg, Turmeric and Cinnamon roughly in the proportions I like them)
• 2 Tb olive oil (colavita)
• 1.8kg free range chicken

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 

2. Remove the flesh from the preserved lemon and discard. Chop the lemon rind into fine dice

3. Bash together the lemon and ras-el-hanout into a paste using a pestle and mortar. 

4. Stir the oil into the lemon mix. 

5. Rub  the marinade into the chicken.

6. Roast for about 80 min.

Roast Hard Tofu with preserved lemon and ras-el-hanout marinade.

We made this variation up, based on great plain roasted tofu my Aunt served up last weekend as part of a family buffet. It worked well.

Ingredients

• 1 Preserved lemon half (I keep some in the fridge I made years ago from Stephanie Alexanders "The Cooks Companion" Cookbook)
• 1 teaspoon of Ras-El-Hanout (I didn't have any so made up a tablespoon of Cumin, Corriander, Chilli, Clove, Cardamom, Nutmeg, Turmeric and Cinnamon roughly in the proportions I like them)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil (colavita)
• 400g pack hard tofu 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 

2. Remove the flesh from the preserved lemon and discard. Chop the lemon rind  into fine dice

3. Bash together the lemon and ras el hanout using a pestle and mortar. 

4. Stir the oil into the lemon mix. 

5. Rub  the marinade into the tofu.

6. Roast for about 15 min.

Haloumi, Chickpea, Kale & Tomato Stew

This recipe was found on one of my favourite blogs - Finski's - (I know Bella & Blondie a little through the  school I work at.) They called it Spiced Chickpeas and Haloumi. I changed it a little to fit what I had. This was surprisingly easy and I think we will have it with Brown Rice or Cous Cous and yoghurt as a fairly regular weeknight dinner over winter.

Ingredients

2 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves of garlic – crushed

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp fennel seeds 

400g chickpeas – rinsed and drained

200g cypriot-style haloumi cheese – cut into 1-2 cm chunks

1 Tbs tomato paste

1 tsp brown sugar

400g can cherry tomatoes in juice

salt and ground black pepper

1/2 bunch of Black Kale, stalks removed, leaves shredded (You could use silverbeet)

Method

1. Blanch the kale very briefly until it is just slightly wilted. You want the leaves to hold some texture. Drain and wash under cold water to set the fabulous green colour. Set aside for later.

2. In a sauce pan heat the oil, then brown the garlic, cumin, fennel seeds and chilli until fragrant. 

3. Add drained chickpeas and haloumi and cook stirring for 2-3 minutes so that the spices infuse through.

4. Add the tomato paste, brown sugar and canned tomatoes with the juice. Season with salt and pepper and simmer very gently for another 3-5 minutes.

5. Just before serving add in the blanched Kale, cook for another 1-2 minutes until warmed through.

Roasted Cauliflower with apple, Red Onion and balsamic vinegar 

I found this by Google, having wanted to try a roasted cauliflower dish, but the one that had inspired me was not at all Moroccan. This was on a blog called Family Favourite Foods . It isn't so Morroccan either, but I have a glut of apples and plenty of red onions and dried cranberries so I gave it a try. As I was cooking so may things in the oven I had to do this at a lower temperature. I think the higher temperature would have improved it.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower, core removed and separated into florets

1/2 large red onion, cut into 1/4-inch think slices

1 large unpeeled apple, cored and coarsely diced

3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons dried cranberries or currants

1/4 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

1 Tb Balsamic vinegar 

Method

• Preheat the oven to hot - 230C degrees.
• Toss the cauliflower, onion, apple, olive oil, and salt together in a baking dish and spread out into a single layer.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the edges of the cauliflower begin to brown.
• Add the cranberries/currants and continue to bake for about 10 minutes longer, stirring halfway through.
• Remove from the oven, toss through balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Pearl Couscous with flame raisins and pistachios

I found this pearl couscous next to the regular couscous at the supermarket and thought I'd try it. Mia had ordered something similar at a Middle-eastern restaurant a few months ago (though it had a different name I can't recall) and loved it. Well, I'm so glad I did - everyone loved it and we'll definitely do it again.

Ingredients

250g packet Gourmet Pearl Couscous. (Mine was a Blu brand box)

1 small onion

1 Tb olive oil

2 cups of vegetable stock

1/4 cup pistachios

1/4 cup flame raisins

Method

• saute the onion in the oil
• stir the couscous through the onion until lightly browned
• add stock, salt and pepper
• cover pot and simmer for 8-10 min stirring a few times
• remove from heat, stir through pistachios and raisins

I did this quickly and it was good - but I think lemon or orange zest, pommegranite seeds, many dry spices and fresh corriander, parsley or mint would be fabulous through this too and will vary it next time. 

Greek Yoghurt with lemon & cumin

I simply stirred 2 teaspoons of cumin, juice of 1/2 a lemon and a tiny bit of sugar through a cup of greek yoghurt and put it in small bowls at each end of the table.

We had a great relaxed meal, full of flavour and news. We finished with an apple and cardamom cake that Mia very patiently made with big Mr 4 (and even some stirring assistance from little Miss 2). There's a good chance that recipe may finish up on The Little Blue Bicycle sometime soon (when she gets past a homework mountain which she's currently climbing)

Now I have added the photos I see this is something I have to seriously work on. A couple of poor light iphone snaps as everything hit the table all at once looks really disappointing now I look at them. Oh Well - I'll just have to hope my words have painted the remainder of the picture and to allow more time (or enlist family help) next time!!!

Nicola 

Mexican Corn Soup

I've become slightly addicted to Pinterest! It is perhaps slowing down my actual blogging (and my actual life) but I have so many ideas floating around my head!

One of the many recipes I have pinned waiting to try was this Mexican Corn Soup from the Vanilla Bean Blog. The picture in the Pin had gorgeous subdued autumnal colours - I was a bit surprised when mine had an incredibly bright vibrant summertime yellow. (Perhaps different corn? We don't seem to have the varieties I saw in the US here in Australia.) In any case it was still a beautiful colour.

My next surprise was how quick and easy it was to make - the cooking time is a fraction of many soups. (So on an evening with a dentist appointment, a long wait at the doctor for a sick child, some last minute shopping for school cooking tomorrow and some homework I still managed to get this on the table by 7pm.) 

The final surprise was how delicious it was and that the whole family felt the same!

This one will definitely be made again.

Mexican Corn Soup - served 4 (just)

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups corn kernels (This was 8 fairly small cobs of corn)
1 cup vegetable stock
60g (4 Tb) butter 
1/2 cup cream

1 1/2 cups milk 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 clove of garlic, minced or pressed
1 large green chili, seeds removed, finely sliced
a dash of Tabasco sauce
1 cup tasty cheese, grated
salt and pepper, to taste 
1 large avocado, diced  
1 lime

few sprigs of coriander (cilantro) Optional


Method

In a blender or food processor, puree 3 1/2 cups corn and the stock, thoroughly, until smooth. 

Melt the butter in a stockpot. Add the corn puree and simmer over low heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Stir in the milk, cumin, and garlic. 

Heat to boiling, reduce heat and stir in green chili and Tabasco sauce. 

Add shredded cheese and remaining 1 cup of corn to the simmering soup, and stir until the cheese melts. 

Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Top soup with avocado which has been tossed in the lime juice and some coriander leaves (cilantro). 
Serve with Tortillas.

Enjoy

Nicola 

Gorgeous Mother's Day

I had a gorgeous Mother's Day.


Mother's and Father's Days around here normally concentrate on sleep-ins and breakfast in bed made by the kids.


This last year both girls have done a lot more cooking and it really showed how much their skills have improved in the meal they produced yesterday. Makes me wish I'd kept a record of what they made each year. I do remember a few tea and toast years, some french toast, and quite a bit of Dad help but can't remember much more.


Anyway this year there was a cup of tea followed by a delicious banana and oat smoothie in bed. 
After leisurely getting up and ready there was a brunch of pumpkin, fakin (vegetarian bacon) and caramelised onion mini quiches and salmon, dill and cream cheese finger sandwiches,    

lemon and cardamon bun and chocolate pastry swirl with a latte to go!

Finally an early afternoon sweet course of lemon and cardamon buns and chocolate pastry swirls with coffee. 


Fabulous! 

And done with no help - (and all went smoothly except the spilling of milk all over the laptop with the recipe on it which was sitting on kitchen bench!! We need to rethink this habit!! Insurance claim in, fingers crossed!)






I suspect you may see their recipes if you follow Mia's Blog. 

In the afternoon friends lent us their season passes to the netball and we saw our first professional level netball match - NSW Swifts vs Melbourne Vixens. What a game! Swifts won - just - and it was very exciting with a great atmosphere. Always good to try something new. Ian even one a lucky door prize at the after match members event. 







Thank you Gorgeous Girls and Lovely Husband. It was a great day!
Nicola / Mum