stuffed squash

dear Suzie Q, thankyou for the enoooooormous zuchini you found in your garden patch (it was 2 feet long – seriously!)

in view of your kind donation, and because you asked me what the heck anyone would do with that much zuccini, here’s the recipe. it’s completely made up, and so you should feel free to change it a bit, a lot, or throw it out entirely and make something else like zuccini patties.

hope you’re enjoying the leftovers for lunch…

what

1 overgrown zuccini that is too big for normal cooking (we used to call these a ’squash’ when i was little)
500g mince (i used pork & veal mince)
1 large carrot
2 celery sticks
1 very ripe tomato
1 onion
1 cup of wholemeal flour/oat flour/breadcrumbs
herbs (i used garlic, basil, chives, sage, tabasco) and seasoning to taste
1/2 cup of tomato juice
olive oil

how

heat your oven to 200 degrees c, and get out a baking tray. cut the zuccini in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. if the zuccini is too long and you have to quarter it, leave some seeds at the cut end to form a ‘wall’ to stop the stuffing from spilling out.

chop the onions, carrot, celery and tomato into very very small pieces, and saute them in a good dash of olive oil with the garlic, herbs and seasoning until soft.

put the raw mince into a bowl, adding the flour/breadcrumbs, tomato juice and a tablespoon of olive oil. toss in the cooked vegetable mix, and stir until thoroughly blended. the mix should be sticky and clump easily, not runny or dry. this is your stuffing.

spoon the mince stuffing into the hollowed-out zuccini. form it into a little heap on top of the zuccini, and use it all up.

bake for about 20 minutes or until mince is cooked. serve with some salad.

something different?
use a different mince meat (or even poultry, fish or tofu if they float your boat);
change the vegie combo, eg. mushrooms and eggplant, or pumpkin, sweetcorn and fetta;
change the seasoning, eg. coriander, basil, ginger, lemongrass and soy or fish sauce

a pizza base that works

in some towns, you just can’t get a decent pizza. then it’s time to make your own.

the foundation of any good pizza is a decent base. this one works quite well in a domestic oven, if you turn it up very high. i’d love to try it in a real wood-fired brick oven some time. i tore it out of a weekend newspaper a very long time ago, and it appears here with some small adjustments.

give the dough enough time to rise, in a warm place. make sure you use a decent quality flour; i find a plain flour packaged by an independent supermarket group is fine. it’s much better than an expensive flour with a bunch of vitamin additives in it that i inadvertently used once, with disappointing results.

toppings are a matter of taste but as the original recipe says, more is definitely less. i’d add that fresh is best, too.

what and how:

1 sachet dried yeast (approx 7-8g)
200ml tepid water
1 teaspoon sugar

combine these in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes or until the mixture froths up.

2 1/2 cups decent quality plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tblsp olive oil

put these in a large mixing bowl; add the yeast mixture and combine first with a wooden spoon and then your hands til you get a ball of dough.
knead the dough on a benchtop until it’s smooth (at least 5 minutes).
grease a large bowl and place the dough in it. cover (clingwrap is good) and place in a warm spot. leave to rise for about 30 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size.

(now is a good time to prepare your toppings. turn your oven on to at least 250 degrees C, or as high as it will go.)

tip the dough back out onto the bench and punch the air out. divide into 2 or 3 pieces, roll and shape them into thin bases.
dress the pizzas, pop them in the oven until cooked (about 8-10 minutes) and you’re hot to trot.

lazy snags & vegies

dear t,

oh boy. you know that i like to cook, i LOVE to eat, but i’m also lazy. there are not enough hours in the day, and you have to prioritise!

this is a great recipe to throw in the oven when you get home, so you can get on with more important things. half an hour or so later, voila! it’s done. (nice to bring the leftovers to work, too)

what
thick sausages, good quality* - 2 per person (or as desired)
a selection of vegetables suitable for roasting, cut into small / medium size
(recommend: potato, pumpkin, carrot, beetroot, parsnip, zuccini, button squash, onion, fennel, tomato, garlic)
1 x tin crushed tomatoes 
fresh rosemary (one spike per 2 sausages)
olive oil
seasoning to taste

how
heat oven to 180 degrees
cut vegies and toss in olive oil
arrange sausages and veges in the bottom of a shallow tray.
add rosemary (or other herbs of choice) and season.
pour can of tomatoes over the lot.
bake for around 30 mins or until done.
if you’re very fussy about the look of the sausages, turn them over after 15 minutes.

plate up (gawd) and serve with a good mustard and some chutneys.

experiment
omit the tinned tomatoes
add more ‘delicate’ vegies at the 15 minute point, eg. brocolli, cauliflower
use in-season seasonings – check your garden for coriander or basil, oregano or sage for a change 

* i choose sausages from the lyneham butcher in canberra because they are excellent quality meat, have several rustic styles in their massive selection (tolouse, traditional italian and chorizo) and seem to have almost no fat. i once saw them described as being ineligible to be termed ’sausages’ as their meat content is too high… but i’m sure that’s just a rumour.

broad bean snack

spring is broad bean season, and reputable fresh food purveyors have mounds of them. at the farmers market last saturday i was stuffing handfuls of fresh broad beans into a bag, when not one but two people came up to me and asked what i did with them.

were they kidding? fresh broad beans are delicious! you don’t have to do much at all. try it for yourself.

choose beans with firm, bright green skin and smaller beans where possible – they are more tender. if you’re motivated, broad beans are easy to grow, even in a small garden plot.

this recipe is a very simple way to enjoy their flavour. the key is speed – if you boil or fry the beans for too long, they grow floury or the skins become tough.

the recipe also conforms to my mantra, “bacon makes everything taste better”. I mean, just about every civilised culture on earth has their own version of bacon, right?

to feed: 2 people, as a snack or entree.

1/2 kg broad beans, unshelled
approx 200g piece of speck or kaiserflesch)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sea salt
pepper

shell the broad beans; chop the speck (or kaiserflesch, or other bacon variety) into small chunks.

boil water in a saucepan; heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan.

fry the speck until half cooked; as it continues to cook, boil the beans until soft (about 30-90 seconds – the smaller or fresher the beans, the less time they need).

drain the beans in a colander and run under cold water to refresh.

drop the beans into the pan with the now cooked speck; toss for 30 seconds. as you do this, drizzle in a little good-quality olive oil, a good dash of balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

serve up immediately! yumyumyuuuummmmm.

variations: try a chorizo sausage per person instead of the speck.

warm chorizo & bean salad

dear Miss K, I’m glad you still use this one – thanks for reminding me about it. iit’s a bastardised version of a recipe i read in a magazine in a cafe about a hundred years ago; i scribbled the recipe onto a napkin but of course lost it long since. it used to be a fave because it’s embarrassingly easy to make but tasty and good. tips: always keep a can or two of canellini beans in the cupboard. don’t forget the tomatoes.

(and if you like this, when winter comes try out the soup version…)

the following quantity is for 1 person; multiply quantities by number of hungry guests.

1 chorizo sausage, diced

1 can canellini beans, drained

1 large ripe tomato, diced

good sized bunch of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

tbsp good quality extra-virgin olive oil

1-2 tbsp red balsamic vinegar

coarse-ground pepper, to taste

fry the chorizo in a dab of oil in a non-stick pan until browned. add the tomato and beans, and gently cook until warm. stir the parsley through, then add the oil, vinegar and pepper. serve immediately.

try these variations:

use leg ham instead of chorizo (a good option after christmas when you’ve got to do something with all that leftover ham!), or indeed any other kind of preserved sausage or smoked meat

try another kind of white bean, eg. butter beans

substitute the parsley with fresh basil for a completely different flavour

sweet potato & pork curry

ingredients for sweet potato & pork red curry

dear Miss J, I hope your curry night goes well this weekend. since you are taking a curry to a dinner party, it needs to be one that will travel well, so we might give the green chicken curry a miss. this one is dead simple (if you use a store-bought paste), tasty and a bit different than your average curry. you can eat it for days afterwards.

 

 

 

 

 

500g belly pork strips / pork spare ribs with minimum bone – just make sure the meat has some fat on it. you can make it with lean pork but the result is pretty grim.

1-2 red sweet potatoes – there should be more potato than pork

1 onion

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 pkt red curry paste (mild/medium)
1 tin coconut milk
fish sauce
palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 lime
1 bunch of basil
optional veg: a handful of green beans, or a small zuccinni
basmarti rice

 

thai basil

all ingredients available at your average supermarket.

slice the onion into thin strips, and chop the pork into bite-sized pieces. peel the sweet potato and cut into chunks.

in a saucepan, fry onion and pork in a little oil until browned. add 4-6 heaped teaspoons of red curry paste (to taste) and fry gently. add chicken stock, bring to the boil then simmer for 30 mins. add sweet potato chunks, and a little water – enough to just barely cover the food. cover and simmer for another 20 mins. pork should be tender and sweet potato soft.

remove the lid and allow the liquid to reduce a bit, then add in the coconut milk, and stir through. add the chunks of beans or zuccini. allow to heat and just simmer very gently for a further 10 minutes – the sweet potato should be starting to disintegrate and thicken the sauce. during this time add about half a tsp each of fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the curry and stir through – taste and adjust as necessary (if too sour, add sugar; if too sweet, add lime; if too bland add a dash of fish sauce.) depending on the curry paste you’ve chosen, you may not need to add some or all of these three condiments – so the taste test is important.

roughly tear the basil leaves and stir a handful through the curry. remove from heat, and serve with basmarti rice (or grab the saucepan and head off to your curry night).

chili con carne

I’ve never been to the Americas and so freely admit this may not resemble the real thing. It is, however, a good and easy comfort dish that sticks to the ribs. It can be made by the least kitchen-savvy and freezes well.

 

chili con carne will never win any beauty prizes - but it will please the stomach and warm the heart. Close your eyes, and eat up.

Miss K, you rang me from the supermarket last night because you’ve lost track of the version we wrote down once a few years ago. I thought I’d have to make it again to accurately recall the specifics – until I remembered the recipe was borrowed by the Inverell Community Health staff for their Winter Warmers Cookbook. And I just happen to have a copy. How odd is that?

 

 

500 grams lean beef mince

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 large zuccini, grated
1 – 1 1/2 cups beefstock
2-3 cloved garlic
salt and chilli to taste (suggest 3 dried chillis)
1-3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 heaped teaspoons each of cumin and garam masala
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 x 375g tins kidney beans

brown rice for 4 people
optional for serving: grated cheese and/or sour cream

heat a generous amount of oil in a large saucepan

when the oil is warm, add spices and fry for 30 seconds. add the onions and garlic, then the mince. fry until mince is brown.

stir through the tomato paste, then add beef stock and grated vegetables. bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cover.

simmer for about 45 minutes. in the meantime, cook the rice.

drain the kidney beans and add; bring back to a medium simmer and cover. simmer for 10-15 minutes.

serve chili on a bed of rice. feeling fancy? add a dollop of sour cream and sprinkle with grated cheese.

chorizo and bean soup

believe it or not, this is based on a recipe for a salad i saw in a Vogue Entertainment magazine while sitting in a cafe about 6 years ago.  you admired it over lunch, so here it is.

1 can roma tomatoes
1 can canellini beans
2 chorizo sausages
1 onion
garlic to taste
6 mushrooms
an extra vegetable: choose from 1/2 zuccini, a couple of cauliflower florets, a handful of green beans
good handful of flatleaf (continental) parsley, chopped
olive oil
white wine
water

chop the onion and garlic finely.

cut the chorizo into small chunks (suggest you quarter each sausage lengthwise, and then chop).

crush or chop the tinned tomatoes.

drain the beans and cut the mushrooms and your random extra vegetable into rustic chunks.

fry the onion and garlic on medium heat in a dash of olive oil until clear, and then add the chorizo and fry until it browns a little. Throw in a dash of white wine to deglaze.

add the mushrooms and random extra veg and allow to soften briefly.

add the tomatos, and enough water to create the soupy consistency you like best.

bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 20 mins.

add the drained beans, and more water if needed, cover again and simmer for another 10 minutes.

add chopped flatleaf parsley and stir through, and remove soup from heat. Serve.

Feeds: at least 2 hungry folk

Notes: You can add salt if you like, but it doesn’t really need it. Ditto for bread. Sorry there’s no picture. Next time I make it, I’ll add one.