Pad Thai, part deux

Last year I came across a fantastic recipe for pad thai. We rocked it out again last night and it was AMAZING! The only difference between the original and last night's creation was that I used a little sweet chilli and harissa in place of fresh chilli. And fresh squeezed lime was a real winner, much more flavoursome than lemon, if you can get it. Enjoy!!

Save a little bit o' summer

We love our summer vege garden.  We love our winter one too, but there's just something extra-special about the fresh produce in summer - masses of tomatoes, fragrant herbs of all types and stripes, and random rogue potatoes cropping up here and there.  We've always frozen bags of excess tomatoes, for use throughout the winter months, but have been left with a surfeit of other veges (there's only so much we can palm off to others!).  

So, this year we froze even more - some bags had just tomatoes, but others had a combo of pre-cut veges, ready for a winter stirfry, casserole, mac cheese, whatever.  For example, we cut up all our excess capsicums, zucchini, spring onions and stacks of herbs, added them into the freezer bags with smooshed up tomatoes, and lay flat in the freezer.  When we want some we either defrost and use the whole bag, or snap off how much we need.  

KB used some on the weekend, to make a hot salsa to go with our salmon.  So it was the tomato-capsicum-spring onion-herb mix, to which he added a little soy sauce, some crushed garlic and a few capers.  This was all left simmering on low while the rest of our meal came together.  

So yeah, I love our vege garden.  I love being able to share the produce with friends and family too.  But I also really love knowing that some of the excess can be saved, for us to use when the weather has turned down the fresh vege machine for a bit.  'Cause there's nothing like sitting down to a meal and going, yum - this all came from just out the back door :) 

Just call 'em tasty

 Empanadas.  Cornish pasties.  Half moon pies.  Call them what you will, they're tasty.  As Shakespeare's Juliet famously said, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.  

I first came across empanadas a few years ago from my friend Kush's Mum, Clara (thanks Clara!!).  I've brought them out a few times since, sampling different fillings and sizes (chicken and blue cheese is a tasty inner, and mini bite size ones with bolognese filling are a winner for picnics, or birthday parties).  But it's been a while.  So, when I saw Rachel Khoo's posting yesterday, I thought YEAH, let's get amongst it.  I had some sheets of pre-rolled flaky puff pastry in the freezer (which, frankly, was getting freezer burnt and desperately needed a reason to be moved on!), so here we go... 

Makes 8 

8 sheets pastry (feel free to make your own if you wish, good on you - Rachel Khoo has a recipe for that if you click on the link above)

350 g potato - I used agria, nice and firm when cooked

1 chorizo, cubed

2-3 pieces of middle bacon, cut into cm pieces

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

200 g cheese, cut into cm chunks (I used edam) 

1 egg

dash milk

oil/butter for frying

1. Par-boil your potato and saute the meats with the onion and garlic.  
2. Mix potato, meats etc and cheese with plenty of black pepper in a large bowl and sit aside, to allow it to cool.  
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees (fan-bake, probably 200 degrees if not).  Prepare baking sheet by either spraying with oil, using baking paper, or both.  
4. Beat egg and milk together in small bowl. 
5. Cut out 21 cm circles from your pastry sheets (quite a lot gets wasted, you can roll these pieces back out if you want).  I used a cereal bowl, which was roughly the size circle I wanted).  
6. Place as much of the filling onto the circles as you can - this won't be as much as you think - making sure you can fold them in half and press closed.  Brush half the circle's edge with egg wash, fold over and press closed around that edge.  
7. Pierce some holes in the tops, brush tops with egg and sprinkle with some dried herbs or salt/pepper.  
8. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.  

NB: Next time I make them I'll also add a dollop or two of relish inside them.  

Java jive - DIY bronzing bars

It's a friend's birthday coming up, so decided to try something new to give as a gift - lotion bars, a solid moisturising treat.  I used the 'recipe' from Wellness Mama which also had a bronzing effect - using coffee!!  I love that coffee has yet another use - good for daily java fix, the garden and now, in my moisturiser!  

I've made two lots - one with coffee infused oil, the other with regular coconut oil and some essential oils (carrot seed, for the colour, lavender for the lovely smell).  

To infuse the coconut oil you just put the oil you will need into a small saucepan along with about half that amount of coffee grinds.  I used a cup of oil and a half cup of coffee and fresh grinds, but I don't see why you couldn't use used coffee grounds, saved from the morning's plunger.  It's just for the pigment, after all.  Simmer together on a low heat for a long time (I left it on the stove for a good couple of hours).  Once finished, remove from heat and strain through some cheesecloth, or an old tee shirt or something.  

For the bars themselves... 

1/2 cup coconut oil 

1/3 cup beeswax

1/4 cup shea butter

15 drops essential oil (if using) 

1. Combine all ingredients (except the essential oil) in a large jar and place in saucepan with water on stovetop (DIY double boiler).  
2. Stir ingredients until they are melted together.  
3. Remove from heat and add essential oil.  
4. Pour into molds - I used silicon muffin cups.  Silicon is key, 'cause it means you can easily turn them out once completely cooled.  Once I had taken them out of the molds I put them in the fridge for a few hours, then kept them in a dark, cool cupboard until it was time to give them away/use them.    
   

Teriyaki tastiness + miso mash

I follow a couple of food blogs myself, 'cause you never know where inspiration will come from, or when it'll strike.  Jane Rangiwahia, a family connection, writes 'Reka Food' and has some amazing meals on there.  Usually very straight forward ones too, which is key on a weeknight.  Yesterday morning I saw her idea for a teriyaki chicken with miso mash and thought, yep, that's us sorted for tonight.  

The teriyaki chicken was excellent, I really enjoyed it and will be making it again.  And again, and again.  The miso mash was nice, but to be honest I think next time I'll just have kumara, or potato/pumpkin mash unadulterated by the miso.  I added some miso into the teriyaki marinade too, so perhaps it was just a bit of overkill?  

Follow the link to Jane's Reka Food for the teriyaki marinade - I added a couple of teaspoons of miso paste, and a chopped spring onion from our garden.  Also, I swapped chia seeds for the cornstarch, and it worked well.  Didn't really get thick, but coated the chicken well and got nicely sticky in the oven.  Also, I added the sesame seeds about ten minutes before I removed the chicken from the oven, so they were lightly toasted.  Enjoy!!  

Chia bro, too much

I came across this recipe for chia jam whilst perusing the latest edition of Nourish magazine at Red Kitchen.  There was an article about chia seeds and what makes them the superhero of the super foods.  I mean, if the 'superfoods' (blueberries, flaxseeds, kale, goji berries, seaweed etc) were The Avengers, chia seeds would be General Nick Fury.  

I have chia seeds in a smoothie most days (alongside berries and whatever other fruits we have in the house), but was interested to see how it would go in a jam - a jam that had no sugar as such in it, sweetened only by the berries themselves and either honey, maple syrup, yacon syrup or agave nectar.  Sweet!  

So what's gotten me going on about chia seeds?  They're 6 x higher in calcium than milk, have 3 x more antioxidants than blueberries, 3 x more iron than spinach and contain more omega 3 than salmon.  Plus good fatty acids, magnesium, potassium and a bunch of other vitamins and minerals that I can't remember.  

Ok, here you go - a (more or less) sugar-free jam, and it is tasty!  Not very very sweet, but you could easily add more honey (or whichever sweetener you choose).  

250 g frozen berries (I went with blackberries) 

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 cup chia seeds

2 tbsp honey (I used blue agave nectar) 

1. Place berries and juice in a small pot, heat through, then simmer on low for 10 minutes.  
2. Stir in seeds and sweetener.  
3. Pour into jar and refrigerate.  Yum!!

You've been hit by a smoothie criminal...

Everybody loves a fruit smoothie.  It's one of those healthy things that kids and adults actually agree on.  (I say healthy - obviously sometimes smoothies are made with ice cream, cream, syrups etc, but let's for the sake of this post just assume we're all talking about smoothies made with fruit and either milk or juice of some sort.  Ice cream is the bomb, but sort of detracts from goodness of a kickass fruit smoothie.)

In our house Harry starts every day with a smoothie before school.  His Granny makes it for him and it's more like a fruit sorbet, made with frozen berries and a tiny tiny tiny bit of milk.  Brilliant way to get the body pumping for school.  If I make a blenderful then Finn will also kick start his day with a glass of berry and banana smoothie (my preference).  And KB happily downs a glass before work.  I usually make them with banana, berries (in summer we buy/grow lots of strawberries and freeze them for use throughout the winter), milk and a little cinnamon.  

A friend recently suggested I add in some seeds and try using coconut water and almond milk in my smoothies - this combined with the fruit makes for one heck of an energy kick and by using chia seeds I'm getting an awesome amount of calcium and omega-3.  As I'm currently breastfeeding, this is very good news.  I'd recommend adding these ingredients in for anyone who could use (a) more energy, (b) a bit of immune support or (c) a full stomach for longer - less desire to snack on muck.  Have a read of Katie's post regarding chia seeds, they're little power pockets!  I like her idea of a homemade energy gel, for kids doing sport, or adults working out etc (2 tbsp chia seeds to 1 cup coconut water).    

So, at the moment I'm using (to make about a half litre of smoothie): a banana, 1 cup berries (or thereabouts), half cup each almond milk and coconut water (add more if too thick when blended), 1 tbsp each chia seeds and linseeds.  

You could use anything really - stone fruit, pineapple, orange.