Just a quickie.

In my madness, anxiety and caffeine I make something that is going to calm me down.

Nothing fancy, but as described, a "flavour bomb" and reminded my dining companion of the chickpeas at the Moroccan Soup Bar (I don't know how).



Tasty nice-calm

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 leek, finely sliced
1 medium zucchini, diced (I used one of the round ones I picked up from the Slow Food market)
2 tomatoes, diced
Zest of a whole lemon, and juice from half
Olive tapanade (from the Nicola crew, slightly citrusy)
chili flakes
salt
pepper
yogurt to serve

Heat a pan on high and fry off the chickpeas with one of the cloves of garlic until brown and crispy on the outside. Remove from pan and set aside. Then, on high heat, fry off the leek, zucchini, tomato and lemon zest, seasoning with the chili flakes, salt and pepper. When done, add the lemon juice and serve with a dollop of yogurt over the top.

Indecision

Not just a good book by Benjamin Kunkle but a great way to cook. That coupled with procrastination makes for a great meal. Assuming that you have read the lead up to this, what I have just cooked really makes me happy that Spring is here.

Yes, that is right, vegetables have personalities, and I am not the only one who thinks that.

I would have taken a photo, but my camera privileges have been revoked.

Broad bean, leek and lemon risotto
Serves at least 4

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large leek, sliced, whites only
20g butter, unsalted
extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of carnaroli rice
white wine
zest and juice of 1 lemon
3-4 cups of hot vegetable stock
1 heaped teaspoon of seeded mustard (that's right)
200g double podded broad beans
30g grated parmesan
1/3 barrel of Holy Goat La Luna cheese, diced

Sweat off the onion, garlic and leek in butter and and oil. When it has become translucent, turn the heat up to medium and add the rice. Coat in oil and wait till it also becomes translucent and add around half a cup of white wine. Add the zest. Allow the alcohol to cook off for a minute and add the hot stock, half a cup at a time and stir the rice each time till you need to add more. When the rice is almost al dente, add the juice of the lemon as well as the mustard and mix through. Add the broad beans when it is a minute from being done, just to warm through as they are already cooked. When it is al dente, add the cheeses and stir through. Check for seasoning (I just needed to add pepper because the cheese is quite salty).
Eat very slowly so you don't have to start on that essay of yours.

I Just Can't Stay Away

However, there are no photos in this round.

Lots of wine was had and much of a discussion followed.

This is just what happened in between.

Pea pesto Pasta Alliteration
750g fresh peas, shelled
100g romano, grated
1 lemon
1 handful walnuts
extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

2 leeks, whites only, sliced
1 spanish onion, sliced
rice bran oil

100g rigatoni
100 ricotta

Cook the peas in salted boiling water, drain and transfer to the food processor, add the walnuts and cheese, as well as a little oil. Pulse. Add the lemon juice to taste (I used a whole lemon) and oil, season and pulse again. Taste and adjust till it suits.
Meanwhile, saute the onion and leek in a pan on a low flame with a generous amount of oil and cook the pasta in a heavily salted pot of water. Reserve some of the cooking water of the pasta when it is almost done. A minute from the pasta being ready, season the leek and onion mix and drain the pasta, add the pesto to the onion mix and stir the pasta in till evenly distributed. Add some of the pasta water to slacken the mix, if need be. Season with salt and pepper, and lemon juice if need be. Serve with ricotta broken over the top and eat with a good friend.

My Lute Came Home!

One of my dear housemates (Lute) just came back from a week in Perth. God knows why, but he's glad to be back. Our other housemate(Nek)and friend was at the Hotel Lincoln last night and I saw him on my way home, from another beer-filled/fuelled afternoon.

Ahem.

We figured that Lute had gone straight to work and he thought I would be on the Greyhound so, I called him telling him I left him a present behind the bar. As he was crossing the street to retrieve the non-existent present, I hid under the table outside as Nek watched Lute's embarrassment through the window. Then, we crept up behind him and rectified the situation with hugs.

So, after quite a bit of booze, I cooked. The meal didn't really make sense in its running order...as they don't really compliment each other, but it was "damn tasty." Oh, who's my favourite medieval string instrument?

Pea Risotto
Serves 6 as starter, or 4
I managed to pick up a kilo of fresh, organic peas at the market for five dollars and had stock left over from when I made a fresh pea and ham soup...so this only made sense to me at the time.

50g butter
1 brown onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 1/2 cups Carnaroli rice
1 splash of white wine
3-4 cups hot stock (recipe follows)
200g freshly podded peas
Zest of 1 lemon
50g grated Romano cheese

Melt the butter in a pan and saute off the onion and garlic over a low heat. Add the rice and turn the heat up when the onion is translucent and coat the grains in butter. Allow them to become translucent. Pour in the wine and allow the alcohol to burn off and add the stock a little at a time, when it is absorbed and the lemon zest. I didn't salt it yet because the cheese is coming and the stock I made was with a smoked ham hock, so was already quite salty.
When the grains are almost al dente, add the peas and allow them to cook. When it is all done, stir in the cheese and check for seasoning. Serve with lemon to squeeze over, if desired.

Stock

I usually collect all my vegetable off-cuts in the freezer and make big batches of different stocks when I feel the need to be a grandma.

1 carrot, cut into 3 pieces
3-4 stalks of celery, cut to same size as carrots
1 onion, cut in half
the green part of leeks
1 broccoli stalk (just cos I had it)
3 black peppercorns, crushed
2 fresh bay leaves
1 smoked ham hock

Place all ingredients into a pot and cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours, skimming the scum when it rises to the top. drain the liquid and discard the vegetables. Eat the ham hock as you wish. I put it in a soup after separating it from the skin, and in sandwiches once it had cooled. Freeze remaining stock.

Tofu Scramble
Serves 4
For some reason, I felt the need to cook tofu not like a slant eye in my tipsy state.

1 block of firm tofu, cubed
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 spanish onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 heads broccoli, diced
2 red chili, diced
balsamic vinegar

Fry off the tofu till it is golden and the moisture has come out. Set aside.
Saute off the garlic, chili and onion in a neutral falvoured oil, like rice bran, and add the leek and broccoli, seasoning to taste. When almost cooked, return the tofu to the pan and splash a generous amount of balsamic over it and let the vinegars cook off and allow to caramelise for a few minutes. Check for seasoning again and serve with a heavy, grainy toast.

I didn't take any photos, because by the time this was all cooked, we were drunk.

Special Edition Brunch Bash 2008

Actually, it wasn't that amazing, but the reason why it has the "2008" attached to it is because of how special edition I was.

Special edition= nice way of saying stupidly hung over...over hung and under moist.

I'll stop.

But, you know your friend loves you when you stumble home and ask them to make sure you don't fall asleep in the shower after walking around town in a bra as a top and they end up sticking their fingers down your throat. You see, apparently you were suffering a little too much in the way of spinning rooms and lack of food and they thought the only way to rectify that would be to press the eject button next to your tonsils.

I'll stop there.

But, apparently, after naked vomiting, there was stupid laughter coming from you. Yep, still drunk.

So, in the afternoon, when you looked outside and saw that it was an amazing day where the trees were singing and the birds were swaying, and you felt a little empty, you decide to cook a Brunch/Linner for your friend, housemate and yourself. You just had to make do of your ingredients.

However, unlike your counterparts, you swapped the second espresso for a beer and a couple of Advil. Goddamn, that dog was hairy.

Silverbeet
1/2 bunch of silverbeet, ribs diced, leaves sliced in 1 inch thickness
1/2 clove elephant garlic, minced
salt
1/2 lemon

Wash the silverbeet very well, and fry the ribs first in a medium heat pan, salt generously and add the garlic. Add the sliced leaves and add a few drops of water. Cover to steam and when it is ready, squeeze lemon juice over before serving.

Pathetic guacamole
1 avocado
1/2 spanish onion, diced
1/2 clove garlic, diced
tobasco
salt
pepper
lemon juice

Dice the avocado and combine well with the onion and garlic, mashing the avocado slightly but not turning it into mush. Season with tobasco, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

Mushroom, Leek business
1 large leek, washed and sliced, white part only
200g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 elephant garlic clove, minced
salt
pepper
balsamic vinegar

In a pan on medium heat, add a generous splash of oil and start cooking the mushrooms, when they start to sweat, add the garlic and leek, salting slightly and adding a generous amount of pepper. When everything is a minute from being ready, add a glug of balsamic vinegar and allow the vinegar to cook off and caramelise.

I served this all on some decent bread, toasted with the guacamole on top, with a poached organic egg. The silverbeet and the mushroom/leek thing was on the side.

It is preferable if you have 3 sets of newspapers, a balcony and good company on a 25 degree day.