ku·ma·ra and chick·pea frit·ters

Mmmm, crispy, cheesey vegetable goodness!

Last night we had baked kumara with steak and an awesome brussel sprout and cavalo nero dish as recommended specified by our friend Rachel.  However since I had decided to bake all the kumara in our possession so we could have them later there were three left.  I knew this wouldn't be a problem!  So tonight, with nothing much else left in the fridge we conjured up some fritters!  Hooray!  Past pie, nothing is better than a fritter.

Kumara and chickpea frittersserves 3
Left over baked kumara, perhaps 3
1/4 cup grated parmesan, plus the same agin for coating
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 400g can drained chickpeas
sal and pepper
olive oil
Preheat the oven to 180°c.
Squish all the ingredients together, bar the olive oil.  Form into patty shapes and roll in the coating parmesan.  Bake for 30 minutes sprinkled with olive oil.  Serve with your favourite sauce!

Oven Roasted Vegetable Curry

Who needs crushed beetils when you have beetroot?

 Happy New Year!  

For an auspicious start to 2011 try a vegetable curry : easy, healthy, fast and delicious.  All good resolutions.  I saw a recipe ages ago for a roasted vegetable curry (Sorry, I know not where) and made it with the idea in mind but not the recipe in sight.  Isn't that the best way?  I remembered the recipe because I thought it such a good idea to roast the vegetables to concentrate the flavours then add the sauce, so I took it further and continued to cook the sauce and finish the dish in the oven.  So easy, so good.

Oven Roasted Vegetable Curry
Serves at least 4 - depending on the vegetable volume

A selection of vegetables, cleaned, trimmed and cut into generous bite size pieces, approximately 1 cup per person, including :
Beetroot - very important for the colour!
Potato
Kumara
Courgettes
Carrots
Pumpkin
Aubergine
Capsicum
Onions
Cauliflower
Broccoli

Oil
Ground cumin, 1 Teaspoon
Ground coriander, 1 Teaspoon
Ground turmeric, 1/2 Teaspoon
Ground fenugreek, 1/2 Teaspoon
1 fresh hot red chilli, chopped
Garlic, 4 crushed cloves
Fresh Ginger, grated to give a tablespoon of pulp
A Cassia stick

400g jar tomato passata
165mL can coconut milk

Coriander leaves for serving
Plain boiled rice for serving

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Toss the harder vegetables (beetroot, potato, kumara, onions, carrots, pumpkin etc) in the oil and spices in a large roasting dish and roast for 20 minutes.
Add any softer vegetables (courgette, aubergine, cauliflower, broccoli etc), mixing well, and roast for another 20 minutes.
Toss all the vegetables again and cook for longer if they are not soft and caramelising at the edges. If the vegetables are soft and caramelising at the edges then stir in the tomato passata and coconut milk and cook until the sauce is simmering, slightly reduced and gorgeous - not long! Season to taste and serve on the rice with the coriander leaves on top.

Waldorf Salad

Waldorf Salad was created by the maître d’ of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City in the closing decades of the Nineteenth Century. First made with only apples, celery and mayonnaise, walnuts were added later but are now very much a traditional part of this easy salad.

"Waldorf Salad" was also the title of an episode of Fawlty Towers in which Basil Fawlty was unable to serve a guest his requested Waldorf Salad.
"I think we're just out of Waldorfs."
Basil says, then asks :
"What is a Waldorf anyway, a walnut that's gone off?".

So make sure you get lovely fresh New Zealand walnuts.

I like to mix half yogurt and half mayonnaise to make the dressing. Not so much for health reasons but rather to reduce the cloying-ness of a mayonnaise only dressing. Try half yogurt and half mayonnaise for coleslaw too. Also, I like to use white pepper as it looks nicer!

The ingredients are celery, apples, grapes or raisins and walnuts, with a yogurt-mayonnaise dressing, all served on lettuce. Apples are not strictly in season at the moment, but there are still nice ones to be found. A nice variation can be made with celeriac and pears, a Waldorf Remoulade if you will, and finely sliced fennel can be a nice addition when you have some.

Waldorf Salad

Serves 2

2 Tablespoons yogurt

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
A squeeze of lemon
Salt
White pepper
1 Apple, chopped

½ Cup celery, finely sliced

¼ Cup raisins or ½ Cup grapes

½ Cup walnuts, chopped

Lettuce leaves

Mix the yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon and salt and pepper together for the dressing then stir through the salad ingredients. Serve the Waldorf Salad on top of some pretty lettuce leaves.

waf·fles

Dimples!

I have been wanting a waffle maker for quite a while now, and I finally gave in. I thought (correctly!) that M, our one year old daughter would love them. And, surprisingly, waffles are a quick, easy and social breakfast for a Sunday morning. Social providing there is a plug near your dining room table.

Our plan of attack is to preheat the waffle iron in the kitchen while making the batter then moving the now hot waffle iron to the dining room once M is safely strapped into her high chair. Then open, pour, shut, cook, remove, cool and hand to M to feed herself while we repeat and indulge ourselves. Not such a long delay and since everything is happening at the table no distracting of a small child is even necessary!

I also have streamlined the batter preparation because I only have one set of beaters for my electric whisk ; we all know the order beating the egg whites and the rest of the batter has to done before folding together.

Waffles
Makes about 5, enough for 2 adults, 1 child plus some left over to freeze and reheat in the toaster for a quick snack.

1/4 cup of butter, melted
A scant cup of standard flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 small egg yolks
A scant cup of buttermilk
2 egg whites

Melt the butter, but only just, then leave to cool. Separate the eggs and put the yolks in a big bowl and add the the flour, baking powder and salt. With the clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff then with the same beaters mix the egg yolk and flour mixture adding the melted butter. Fold a third of the egg whites into the batter then gently fold in the rest. For best results use a metal spoon, but no one seems to particularly notice if I use the spatula!
Pour about 1/2 cup at a time into a preheated waffle iron. You will need to work out how hot your waffle iron should be but I set ours to about 10 o'clock, if you know what I mean!
I don't grease our waffle iron, but it is a new non stick version, so if yours is in need of greasing melt a little more butter in the first step then brush the iron lightly as required.
Serve with maple syrup. And enjoy your Sunday morning!

va·nil·la cream cheese logs

As I have mentioned G was sick on his birthday, and as I have also mentioned chocolate Guinness cake is part of the birthday tradition. So, the Wednesday prior I prepare for the G-birthday by a supermarket trip for cream cheese and a can of Guinness (most other ingredients found in house by rote). So when I find myself stocked but without cake audience I have to consider my options :

[Lucky am I that the dairy product purchased in August does not expire until the following January - is it just me or is this just a tad alarming?]

So cream cheese then, obviously the Guinness is easily dispensed. How to use? With smoked salmon? Yes, but there is only so much one can eat. So to baking I go :

Vanilla Cream Cheese Logs
makes 2 dozen

200g cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cream the cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix the egg and vanillas in lightly but thoroughly. Blend in the flour, baking powder and salt, but only until mixed - no more!

Roll into log shapes, marking tops as you like, and bake for 15 minutes or until firm and turning golden.

We find these biscuits a bit like a sweet cakey bread - yum!

Witloof and I

Two large gins, two pints of cider. Ice in the cider.

Ah, Witloof : endive, witloof, chicory, escarole. Who are you? What to call you?

Witloof, leafed; olives, sliced; watercress, picked; grapefruit, supremed; spring onions, minced; vinaigrette, creamed.

Monty : Oh, how delicious!

I : another matter entirely.

Rabbit Schnitzel

Schnitzel. One of the biggest food compliments G has given me was when he said that my schnitzel was even better than his Austrian friend Reinhardt's mum's Wiener Schnitzel. That was saying something.

[For the record the other biggest food compliment G has given me is that my apple pie is better than his Uncle Bob's mum's apple pie.]

Bless!

Anyway, when it is G's birthday I like to ask what he fancies for the weekend's festivities and augment that list with his favourites. Strangely enough, rabbit generally features on both. However this year G was sick and so was the butcher's variety ; no rabbit. But a couple of weekends later at Moore Wilson I found the rabbit - lots and lots of rabbit : fillet, loin, leg and complete muscular bodies all ready to lop. But what to do?

Now, if you have tried to cook rabbit you may also have had the misfortune to produce dry, gamey rubbish. Feel my fear. But what better way to protect from dryness than to coat in crumbs? Veal schnitzel is often a bit tasteless, expensive and hard to come by, but rabbit : flavourful, pleantiful, presentable. Hence, I present rabbit Schnitzel :

Rabbit Schnitzel
serves 4

250g rabbit fillets
50g flour seasoned with salt and pepper
1 egg beaten with a little milk
Bread crumbs

Trim the silver skin from the fillets and flatten to a uniform thinness with a meat mallet. Flour, egg and crumb the flattened fillets and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan and when at medium-high heat add olive oil and a knob of butter. Fry Schnitzels until golden on each side Keep warm in a low oven until all are cooked. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas.