The Queen of Tarts

Pastry.  I love pastry.  To be even more specific, I love to eat things made from pastry.  Pies.  Danishes.  Tarts.  Yum.  

Over the weekend I spent a day at The Food Show in Auckland, and saw some fantastic cooking demos by some of our coolest celebrity chefs.  It got me thinking back to past years at the show, and I remembered a tasty, but very quick, tart whipped up by Ray McVinnie, using mushrooms, pastry and butter (ok and a couple more ingredients, but you got the basics right there!).  

So, without further ado, here it is, as Frankie and I created it, yesterday for lunch...

Serves 2-3 (depending how hungry you are) 

2 sheets flaky puff pastry (I was using the pre-rolled Edmonds) 

1 egg 

sesame seeds 

c. 10-12 button mushrooms, sliced about 1/2 cm thick

3 tbsp butter, melted

1/4 onion, finely diced

1 clove garlic, minced or chopped fine

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 tsp dried tarragon 

salt and pepper 

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.  
2. Beat egg in a small bowl.  Brush 1.5 cm around edge of pastry with egg.  Fold over, creating a border.  Brush tops of border with more egg.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  
3. Prick bottom of tart (within the border) - this will stop that pastry rising when cooking.  Place in oven for a few minutes, just to start cooking the area where the mushrooms will be - don't leave it for too long, 'cause you don't want the border cooked too much before you top the tart.  
4. Remove from oven and top with a layer of mushrooms.  Mix together butter, onion, garlic, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper.  Drizzle over the mushrooms.  Sprinkle with a few more sesame seeds.  
5. Return to oven for 5 minutes.  Remove when nicely browned.  

Hulk's signature dish

If Hulk were to take on cooking, I reckon this would be his signature dish.  It's hearty, rich in flavour and, as with Hulk, has more than one personality involved.  This dish is essentially a sausage casserole, but mixed with a pasta bake and a lasagna.  That's right - sausage casserole pasta bake lasagna - boom!!  

As with most casseroles (and indeed, most dishes I make), there are several places where you can switch things in or out, depending on your tastes and what you have (or don't have) in the fridge.  This is adapted from Chelsea Winter's recipe in Scrumptious (thanks Janelle!!).  

500 g pumpkin + kumara (I used butternut and orange kumara, chopped into 2cm chunks)

2 tbsp EVOO 

salt and pepper

smoked paprika

8-10 sausages (I used our local butcher's beefys) 

butter

1 large onion, sliced

4 - 5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

2 cups chopped spinach (or 2 zucchini, grated)

1 tbsp dried oregano 

2 x 400 g tins tomatoes 

1 cup beef stock (fresh - if you use powdered, add a little extra water and no extra salt)

1/2 cup red wine (or another 1/2 cup stock)

1/2 cup tomato paste (I used half-and-half pizza sauce and BBQ sauce, 'cause I'd run out)

250 g dried pasta (penne, macaroni...) 

1.5 cups cheese sauce (however you like to make it) - or 200 g creme fraiche (sprinkle some grated chedder cheese on top, if you use creme fraiche)

1 cup freshly grated parmasan cheese

1. Toss the pumkin/kumara with oil, salt and pepper, and paprika.  Roast in oven at about 180 degrees celcius for about 20 minutes.  
2. Cook pasta as per instructions on the packet, to al dente.  
3. While veges are roasting, chop sausages into 5 or 6 pieces each.  Melt some butter in a large frypan and brown all over.  Remove from pan and set aside.  
4. Melt a little more butter, cook onion until softening.  Add garlic, spinach and oregano.  Cook for a couple more minutes.  
5. Put sausages back into pan and add tomatoes, stock, wine, tomato paste.  Stir and bring to rapid simmer.  Simmer away for about 15 or so minutes, until sauce is thickened.  
6. Make your cheese sauce, if using.  
7. Mix roasted veges, cooked pasta and sausage saucey mixture together in a large lasagna dish (I had to use one large and a small one too).  Pour cheese sauce over all.  Grate parmasan on top.  
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden in colour.  You could grill for a minute at end too, to get that really sweet golden top.  
9. Serve on its own or with some stramed greens.  This is so yum!  

Serves about 10 adults.  

Thai tastiness

I love Thai food.  These little 'cakes' (mini patties, really) convey all the flavours of the South-East that we love, in a quick, easy and versatile bite.  They make for a tasty midweek meal or a fantastic tapas option - I'm thinking perfect for watching the All Blacks take on the Lions tomorrow night!?  

350g pork mince (or chicken or turkey)

1.5 tsp Thai green curry paste

2 makrut leaves*, central stem removed and thinly sliced

1 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp sweet chili sauce

1 egg

1/2 cup panko crumbs

2 spring onions, white and green part thinly sliced

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp finely grated ginger (I use a microplane)

1 clove grated/minced garlic

juice of 1 lime/lemon

2 tsp soy sauce

1.5 tbsp sweet chili sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp fish sauce

1. Mix together all first batch of ingredients and set aside until ready to form into little patties and fry (I made the mixture earlier in the day and kept it in the fridge). 
2. Mix together second lot of ingredients, for the dressing.  Keep in fridge until you're ready for it. 
3. Melt butter in large frypan and cook patties until browned on both sides.  
4. Serve with dressing as a dipping sauce (tapas style!) or with coconut rice, winter slaw and toasted sesame/pinenuts, drizzled with the dressing (awesome meal!!).  

Makes enough for 4, as a meal with rice etc.  For the coconut rice I cooked 1 cup of rice in 1 cup coconut milk and 1/2 cup water.  Once boiling turn down to low and cover with lid.  After 20 minutes turn off and keep covered until ready to serve (can sit there steaming away for a good half hour).  

For the slaw we finely chopped coriander, bok choy and a carrot, then stirred through a couple of tablespoons of the dressing.  Yum!!  

NB: * makrut leaves = kaffir leaves.  Makrut (pronounced mah-krut) is the Thai word used to describe the bumpy-skinned lime otherwise referred to in many Western countries as the kaffir lime.  Given that word's place in many countries' vernaculars as a racial slur, there is a push to use the Thai name instead.  Given this lime's leaves are often seen in Thai cuisine, this makes complete sense to me.  So, same leave, different name.  

Harissa chicken with fennel bulgur pilaf

We've been loving some of Nadia Lim's My Food Bag recipes lately, and last night's dinner was another winner.  Sometimes I have bought the food bag itself, sometimes I've just worked from the recipes on the website, as was the case here.  So there are a few tweaks, where I didn't have the exact ingredients that would've been sent out with the bags (ie: I used fennel seeds in place of fresh fennel bulb, and ras-el-hanout with a little turmeric powder in place of baharat mix).  

We'll definitely be doing this one again, would like to try it with lamb steaks in place of the chicken, or even some fish?  KB made the good point that, because it is VERY filling, perhaps a smaller portion of the pilaf and chicken, with some steamed greens on the side.  Yum!! 

300 g chicken breasts

3 tbsp harissa paste

1/4 tsp salt

2 - 3 carrots, peeled and cut into quarters lengthways

butter

1/2 red onion, cut in half then thinly sliced

1.5 tsp ras-el-hanout 

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp fennel seeds 

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

3/4 cup bulgur wheat

50 - 75 g baby spinach leaves, chopped a little

75 g natural yoghurt (I like Gopala Full Cream)

2 tsp basil pesto (sundried tomato pesto would work well too)

2 tbsp coriander leaves and stalk, chopped

slivered almonds (these are great raw or toasted)

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celcius, fan-forced (a little higher if not fan-forced).  
2. Cut chicken into steaks by placing your hand flat on top of the breast and slicing through horizontally to make two thinner steaks.  Combine harissa and salt in medium bowl, add chicken and mix to coat.  Cover and place in fridge until you're ready to cook it (this can be done hours in advance, if you wish).  
3. Melt butter in roasting tray and put carrots in to start cooking (season with a little salt and pepper).  
4. Heat a little butter in a medium pot.  Add onion and cook for a couple of minutes until softening.  Add spices and second portion of salt.  Add water and bring to the boil.  Once boiling stir in wheat and cover with lid.  Remove from heat and leave covered to allow to steam for 10 minutes (don't take the lid off until you're ready to stir through the chopped spinach and serve).  
5. Heat butter in large pan and fry chicken steaks briefly on both sides (to sear).  Remove from pan and add to roasting tray with carrots (these should already be cooking away). 
6. While chicken and carrots finish cooking in the oven (remember chicken is relatively thin, so shouldn't take too long, maybe 15 minutes tops), mix together yoghurt and pesto. 
7. Remove lid from pilaf and stir through the spinach.   
8. To serve place dollop of yoghurt on each place, to help the pilaf remain in place.  Top with a couple spoons of pilaf (it's very filling!) and carrot sticks.  Next a layer of chicken (we sliced ours up once cooked), topped with almonds and coriander.  Enjoy!!

Risotto takes a holiday

Risotto lives in Italy, but sometimes likes to take a holiday.  Sometimes he heads to Spain and calls himself Paella (the Costa del Sol is a favourite spot).  A few years back he took a trip to Mexico, where the locals nicknamed him Chimichanga.  He's even done the odd world cruise, under the moniker Pilaf.  But this time Risotto decided to take a trip somewhere new, somewhere exotic.  India, where he called himself Biryani.  

Biryani, a word of Persian origin, is a mixed rice dish which was developed by Muslims living on the Indian subcontinent during medieval times.  Nowadays you'll find variations of biryani as a part of cuisines throughout the Arab world and South-East Asia (as well as India, of course!).  This recipe is derived from Annabel Langbein's collaborative website 'We Are What We Eat' and it was tasty!  The smell as well, as it cooked, was heavenly!  

1 cup plain, unsweetened yoghurt (I used Gopala full cream, delish!!)

2 tsp curry powder

1 lemon - finely grated zest AND juice

1/2 cup (or a little more) chopped coriander

1 tsp each salt and pepper

500 g skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped into 2 cm chunks

1.5 cups basmati rice 

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1-2 tbsp ginger, finely grated

2 tsp ground turmeric

salt and pepper

1 tbsp butter

1 cup frozen peas

2.5 cups chicken stock

extra coriander, sliced almonds - to serve

1. Mix together all marinade ingredients, stir chicken through and put in fridge (covered) for an hour or so (half an hour will be fine too, but I prefer to prep earlier in the day, so mine sat in the fridge for about 5 hours).  
2. Rinse rice in sieve (I think this is to rinse off some of the starch?).  Mix rinsed rice with garlic, ginger, turmeric, salty and pepper.  
3. Melt butter in large frypan or pot.  When sizzling layer half the rice mixture, peas, chicken + marinade, followed by the remaining rice.  
4. Pour over stock and bring to the boil.  Once boiling cover and reduce heat to low for 20 minutes.  
5. If liquid not reduced after 20 minutes, remove cover and increase heat - let it burble away until reduced to a risottoy-looking meal.  
6. Serve with coriander and almonds, and a little extra yoghurt, if you like.  

NB: Photo credit must go to Annabel Langbein's food photographer - I forgot to take one! 

When the moon hits your eye, like a big shepherd's pie, it's amore...

Monday night.  Hunger is high.  Desire to do cook is low.  Who you gonna call?  Mince (busters).  Mince to the rescue!  

Monday afternoon, to be precise.  I decided to make a large pot of bolognese mince, figuring we could do any number of things with it when it came to dinnertime, with relatively little effort (as by dinnertime Mondayitis has usually set in).  We could have spaghetti bolognese, make a lasagna, eat with rice (or nachos!!), make a shepherd's pie...  

That's when it hit me - we had some hash browns in the freezer too.  Easiest meal EVER for the kids (and we actually made one for us too) - upside-down shepherd's pie, with a sour creamy cheesy top.  

The key to the mince is to secret as many veges as you can into it - this batch had the usual onion, tomato and garlic, but also grated carrot, grated beetroot, finely chopped celery and some diced mushrooms.  Throw a later of peas in when making up the pie and you've got a vegeful meal for little ones and big ones alike.  

1. Make batch of mince (about 500 g mince will do, bulked up with whatever vege you like.  I like to cook ours with a combo of tomatoes (frozen from summer, or a tin), chicken stock (a good cup), worcestershire and BBQ sauces and tomato paste.  
2. Place a layer of frozen hash browns on bottom of dish you're going to use (a lasagna dish works well).  Scatter a later of peas over this, followed by a good layer of mince.  
3. Mix together grated cheese and sour cream.  Spread this over mince.  Scatter with a little more grated cheese (to fill any gaps).  Sprinkle with seeds (I used chia and sunflower).  
4. Bake for about 30 mins (or until golden and bubbling) in oven at 180 degrees celcius (160 fan-forced).  

NB: Finely chopped broccoli would also work really well in this - just scatter along with the frozen peas.  

smokey pumpkin zuppa zuppa

Pumpkin soup is awesome.  Soup, in general, is awesome - pea and ham, vege, chicken, chicken noodle, chicken and corn, minestrone, leek and potato (oh yum, one of my all time favs, especially with some bacon in it!!), chicken-peanut-blackbean (now that's got to be an upcoming post, it's amazing)...  But pumpkin soup is a personal fav - my grandma, Fran, would make it every time we went there for lunch.  Or dinner.  Sometimes for afternoon tea...  For years it was her thing - there was always some freshly-made pumpkin soup and toast in the offing.  Now, ordinarily I like to make a fairly traditional pumpkin soup as my base, and then add some curry paste (usually green, or laksa) and coconut cream.  Yum!  However, I've been on a bit of a paprika kick lately, so when I saw an Annabel Langbein recipe for a smokey pumpkin soup I thought I'd give it a go (with a few amendments, to suit what I had in the kitchen).  Buon appetito!!  

1.5 kg pumpkin/kumara (I about 1.2 pumpkin and two medium orange kumara)

1 - 2 onions

12 button mushrooms (they were desperate to be eaten!!)

olive oil

1 tbsp each paprika, ground cumin, fennel seeds

1.5 L chicken stock (this made for quite a thin soup, so perhaps 1 L if you want it thicker)

2 tbsp harissa (I like Julie Le Clerc's for Sabato - can buy this is kitchen stores, some supys)

salt and pepper, to taste  

1. Cut pumpkin and kumara into chunks.  Cut onions in half and remove paper.  remove ends of mushroom stems.  Place all on roasting tray, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with spices.  Roast for about 40 minutes at 200 degrees celcius (until cooked through and starting to go golden).  
2. Put veges and stock in large stock pot.  Heat through gently.  Add harissa and salt and pepper.  Blitz with wand, or in food processor.  Heat again until hot enough to eat.  
3. Serve with dinner rolls, toast with butter, little garlic breads...or refried leftover yorkshire puddings (oh yeah!!!!).