After a long, long break…

At first, I thought I would be glued to the chair in front of my computer, writing about how wonderful my holiday in Europe was as soon as I am back in Sydney, when the memories are still warm and fresh. To my surprise, it has taken a few weeks to write this first post. I have been slacking off a bit, stretching the 6 weeks of holiday to 6 months while going through my holiday photos. Although the time in Europe had been a lot of fun, I felt so glad to be back to the homeliness and familiarness before I set out on a big adventure on my own. Only until I realised what I came back to seemed no longer the same as before I left. Except the return of the London Eye copycat to drag more people out to cold Darling Harbour for the winter remained unchanged.

I guess everyone find it hard to get back to the old routine after a long holiday and I remember someone saying it is impossible to ever get back to the same routine you had before holiday and you don’t have to because you won’t come back from travel as the same person anyway. I wonder if I have changed, and if anything, I hope the changes have been positive ones.

The only negative part that bothers me sometimes since my trip is that having tasted so many good cheeses in France and Italy, I keep being disappointed by the Australian cheeses I used to buy here. Now I am more careful about choosing the right cheese, then again, it you look at it in another way, I have been buying less soft cheese and trying to indulge in quality cheese every now and again since I can’t keep up with my cheese craving without breaking my bank account.

<Fig and Walnut Biscotti>

During what I call ‘Travel through my stomach’, mainly France, Spain and Italy for my culinary discovery,  I had seen, eaten and taken pictures of so much food, but what I had realised towards the end of the foodie trip was that the essence of the joy I had came from coming across interesting people along the way and sharing different cultures and ideas. Thanks to this great website, Couchsurfing, I was able to have the beautiful memories to treasure for the rest of my life and the new perception on the world, people and life. After all, my trip had turned into a journey of humanity as time went on. I will probably bring the exciting topic of couchsurfing again in later posts, something for people who don’t know about the site should look forward to, as I am planing to share  some photos from my trip for trivial food talks that connect with the adventures I had through crashing on people’s couches across Europe.

<Fig and Walnut Biscotti>

I was so lucky to be in France and Italy when fresh veggies and fruit were in abundance, especially figs and cherries were so delicious and cheap that they were a must-have for a picnic. Hmm…a fig wrapped in a slice of prosciutto.. one of the best food pairings I had found. Back in Sydney, however, figs make only a brief appearance in summer and they aren’t quite as cheap. Anyway, we have a plenty of dried imported figs available all year around, which I like snacking on for my calcium and fibre intake. So the first thing I did after I arrived at home was to stock up dried fruits and nuts for the week and bake some cookies for my sweet teatime treat. These biscotti have been approved by my French guest that I received a couple of weeks ago although she gave two thumbs up for my oat cookies- she was probably biased against Italian biscuits, being French All that talking of figs has led to me actually eating dried figs while writing this. Munch, munch…

The recipe below is a version adapted from Smitten Kitchen and I sneaked in wholemeal flour and honey.

Fig and Walnut Biscotti

Makes approximately 24 biscotti

1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup dried Turkish or Calimyrna figs, quartered
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons or 3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1/2 a large orange (I used a clementine)
1 3/4 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Allow the walnuts to cool completely

2. Place the walnuts and dried figs in a food processor and process until they are finely chopped.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula occasionally. Beat in the vanilla and the orange zest.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture to form a somewhat firm dough. Add the walnuts and figs and beat until thoroughly combined. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and chill 35 to 40 minutes or until completely firm.

5. When the dough has chilled, lightly grease a baking sheet. On a floured board, use your palms to roll the piece of dough into a log the length of the baking sheet. Place the log on the baking sheet.

6. In a small bowl, beat the egg white with a fork until frothy. With a pastry brush, glaze the log with some egg white and sprinkle it with granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (this took longer in my oven, but everything seems to these days), or until the log is lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.

7. Allow the log to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. With a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into 1/2-inch slices. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet in single layer (I always end up needing a second baking sheet in this step, as they have a lot more surface area); Return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp.

Store the biscotti in an airtight container. They will keep up to about 2 weeks.

<Conmeal and Nut Biscotti>

As I was clearing my hard drive and putting files on to my new external hard drive to save some space- you wouldn’t believe how big the size of my food folder is- I stumbled across more photos of biscotti I made a few months back when I was fantasying about sitting around at a market selling my own biscuits at a market while reading a book. I had come up with some interesting recipes for biscotti at that time and I remember this was one of the nicest combos that was incredibly aromatic with rosemary and anise fragrant and had a good crunch.

I usually use honey for my biscuits and cookies because home-made goodies are meant to be healthy, otherwise it is much easier and cheaper to just buy commercial ones. No?

Cornmeal-Nut Biscotti

Yield: about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped, blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped skinned hazelnuts
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fineley grated orange or lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar or 1/3 honey
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds
• 2 large eggs
• Egg wash made with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven, stirring occasionally, until they a lightly golden around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack (keep the oven on)

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Turn off the heat and add the orange zest and rosemary. Let cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer set on low speed, mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and anise. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. add the cooled, melted butter mixture and mix to combine. Stir in the nuts. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

With wet hands, (this really does help) form the dough into a log 2 inches wide and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the log with egg wash and bake until it is a deep golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees F.

Using a serrated knife, slice the log on a diagonal into 1/4 inch-thick pieces. Arrange the biscotti on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets and dry them in the oven until crispy, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack.

Beetroot Risotto

The long Easter weekend of indulgence has now ended, leaving me with a small bulge in my tummy to work off. I planned to do some girly shopping that I had been putting off for ages over the Easter holiday, but that didn’t happen unfortunately. Ever since I got into cooking, shopping for clothes doesn’t excite me enough to make me bother to go through the course of endless taking off and putting on clothes. Not a good sign, is it? I don’t even remember the last time I bought anything to put on my body rather than either to put in my mouth or stock up my kitchen. BUT, BUT, BUT!!!! I’m definitely going to clean out my wardrobe soon… maybe after trimming my body a bit so that I won’t get depressed when the clothes I try on don’t fit.

<Beetroot Risotto>

I think this gorgeous looking dish will help to take toxins out of my body and reset my diet. I love beetroot in almost everything, especially grated raw beetroot in my sandwiches, and I also love beetroot dip made with yoghurt. Still, the best way to enjoy everything it can offer, the earthiness and sweetness, is warm beetroot salad because you can eat a lot of it at one go. But risotto, not only the most versatile but also the easiest and the most satisfying of all cooking methods, seems to be  simply the best way to get all the goodness out of the healthy vegetable.

Risotto is one of the foods that are longed for by many on a cold winter night as comfort food along with pasta, stew, curry and roasted vegetables. I didn’t roast the beetroot this time, though, if I had had more time I would probably have because I like roasted flavour. I think it is the best to keep the recipe as simple as possible so that you don’t spoil the delicate flavour and elegant perfume  of the beetroot. The herb used here is parsley, but you can use rosemary, thyme or dill. You could also play around with different type of cheese, from feta cheese to goat cheese. To top it off I made cucumber rocket salad, whose peppery flavour seemed to bring out more of the creaminess and sweetness of risotto.

Seductive purple…. Nice to look at…Just eat with eyes….

I could have added wilted beetroot leaves on top, but I had already used them up for something else. It is quite recent that I started eating the leaves and I quite like the spinach-like taste, besides, I feel much better about not having to waste any parts.

To create this purple art for 2-3 people

You need:

1 bunch of beetroot, leaves and all
3 cloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped
30g butter
olive oil
1 ltr vegetable stock
200g arborio rice
1 glass of red wine
1/2 c grated parmesan
1/3 c heavy cream or sour cream(optional)
salt and pepper
squeeze of lemon juice

Cook the beetroots,  either roast or boil with skin on, and cool, then peel off the skin and cut into pieces. Set aside.

In a large pan, heat butter and a splash of olive oil. Sauté the chopped onion and garlic until it is soft. Add the rice, and toast for two mins. Tip in the red wine, and stir till it is absorbed. Add a ladle of hot stock, stir until it is completely absorbed, then add the next ladle, and continue in this fashion for about 15-20 mins, until the rice gets to the desired texture and consistency. Lower the heat and add cream and grated parmesan stir for 2 mins. Taste for seasoning.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the beetroot and herb, and gently fold in,  then put the lid on the pan and leave it to rest for 1 – 2 minutes, then squeeze some lemon juice and serve.

NB: I would add more stock and butter to make it creamier on a colder night.

Serves 2 generously.

Watercress Chickpea Soup

April already…time flies…. *sigh* To look at the bright side,  my overseas holiday is coming closer. *smile*

It has been quite dull and wet lately as the weather cools down. Getting into and out of bed to the chill certainly is the alarm bell telling us the season of colds and flue has arrived. I felt quite light-headed the other day and thought I was coming down with the flue. So,  instead of making lemon honey tea, which I usually do when I get a cold, this time I ate two whole raw lemon with half a dozen of crystallised ginger. Oh YEAH~ *I can see your forehead being knitted into a puzzled and then disgusted frown.* But I’ll tell you that what I had done was worthwhile, because I felt fine the next day and lucky my symptoms didn’t develop into a cold.

Although I had got through the first warning to my health, I thought it would be nice to revitalise my body going into cold and flue season. That is how this healthy tasty soup has made its appearance here.

<Watercress Chick pea Soup>

Initially I was going to put potatoes in to be on the safe side, but I didn’t have any potatoes at that time or at all times; I’m not a huge fan of them, then I saw a bag of cooked chickpeas in the freezer; as a way of trying not to use tinned products I started to cook a pot of dried chickpeas or beans and freeze them. It saves a lot of time and money, what’s the best is that it’s much fresher and healthier.

Before I got started, I searched the net to see if anyone had tried the combination of watercress and chick peas, and I was glad to find a recipe on a healthy food site, which had a mixture of three main ingredients: watercress, carrots, chickpeas.

I really liked the nuttiness and heartiness of the soup. I usually make soup quite thick, not too watery. I had the leftover cold straight out of the fridge for lunch the next day, and it also tasted good as cold soup, though, I’d eat it hot. It is certainly one of the nicest comfort soups that can be  enjoyed throughout the cold months.

<Watercress Chickpea Soup>

Ingredients

a bunch of watercress, washed&chopped, stalk and all
2 cups chickpeas
1 carrot, chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
1 pint vegetable stock
olive oil
salt&pepper
Heat  olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic. Add the chopped carrot and cook for 5 mins.
Add the watercress and stir well until the watercress is mixed in and starting to wilt. Add the drained chick-peas, stock and cumin and simmer gently for 20 mins or until the carrot is cooked.

Blend the soup in a processor until smooth. Put it back into a pot and simmer further before serving.
Serve with thick Greek style yoghurt with mint. (I think mint complemented the soup flavour very well.)

Exploring the World of Cornmeal

…. and the art of DSLR photography are basically the two things that have been occupying my mind for the last couple of weeks. Before that was smoked paprika, though I haven’t shared any recipes with it yet. I’d been baking up a storm of cookies and biscottis during the absence of a camera. Not having a camera, I should admit, had somehow taken away my enthusiasm for cooking, to be more precise, the creative and artistic cooking, because I didn’t have to worry about how the food looked, without a camera to record it. The only person who had benefited from my hibernation period was “K” since he didn’t have to sit at the table watching dinner getting cold while it being photographed.   Now that I’ve got a new camera which does more amazing tricks, there will be more nights of cold dinner in the days, months or years to come. *sorry*

Last week I cooked “Polenta” at home for the first time and I was very satisfied with how it turned out. I had initially planed to make ‘Polenta pancake with grilled fruit’ for breakfast before I was offered fruit salad by my generous flatmate. So I passed on breakfast and moved on to the option of savoury cheese and basil polenta. It was the best polenta dish I had ever tasted, and will probably be until I try one in the real land of polenta, Italy.

To accompany the fabulous polenta was grilled salt pepper prawn with watercress salad, which turned out to be a great combo all together. Bitterness of the radish and watercress is well-rounded in the sweetness of the pear and honey dressing.

<Cheese Basil Polenta with Grilled Prawns and Watercress Salad>

I think ‘K’ and I got through the amount of prawns that one would over a month. Behind the scene, we had a big plate full of grilled prawns both shelled and unshelled for the hope of getting well-needed calcium for my injured foot. We ended up overeating everything and couldn’t move afterwards. That’s one of the problems of my cooking; it’s so addictive that the moment you lay a finger on any of my food, you will have a lifetime spell cast upon your tongue and be enslaved to my cooking.

Grilled Cheese Basil Polenta, delizioso!

The polenta was fairly easy to cook as you will soon find out, yet, the taste was so comforting and satisfying. I don’t see why I shouldn’t be cooking it every night, at least once a week. It would make a healthy and exotic alternative to bread or chips, served with any main dish of meat or seafood.

<Grilled Cheese Basil Polenta>

Ingredients: serves 2

3 cups (750ml) water
1 cup (170g) instant polenta
60g butter, chopped
½ cup (40g) finely grated parmesan
sea salt and cracked black pepper
½ cup basil leaves
2 cups (200g) grated mozzarella – can be reduced by half or substitute for extra 1/2 cup of parmesan
olive oil, for brushing

Method

Place the water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Gradually whisk in the polenta and cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the butter, parmesan, salt and pepper. Pour half of the polenta into a 20cm-square tin lined with non-stick baking paper and spread to smooth. Top with the basil, mozzarella and remaining polenta. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until set. Cut into squares and brush with oil. Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue over high heat. Cook until golden and the cheese has melted.

<Watercress Salad>

Ingredients: serves 2

a bunch of watercress, sprigs picked
two red radishes, sliced
1 pear, sliced
avocado (optional)
walnuts (optional)

Dressing

1 glove of garlic (just give a couple stabs and put in the whole glove to infuse the flavour into the dressing )
2 tsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs white wine vinegar
2 tsp honey

Chickpea, spinach, raisin pilaf

It has been either dull or rainy for over a week, which marks another record of unusual Sydney summer weather. The temperature surged up to around 40 degree just the week before, and one day  it dropped to a mid-low 20s overnight. Some say that the bushfires in Victoria is affecting the atmosphere, which leads to wet weather across and around Victoria. The effect of the bushfire is quite severe this year and has put many people in tragic situations , as the death toll reaches almost 200.

To change the subject, I talk with my students about food a lot during class and they response to that with enthusiasm equivalent to mine. The talk of cooking always seems endless and tickles my senses. Honestly, I wasn’t very keen on the cusine from Middle East or North Africa, in which various spices play a major role besides India. While many people pick Moroccan as their favourite flavour, it was only recently when I visited a spice shop called ‘Herbies’ that I got more interested in the cooking of those regions, although I had a pantry full of spices being a foodie on training.   The experience of smelling different spices was amazing and had an soul cleansing effect on me that day.

Chickpea, spinach, raisin pilaf

I came across this recipe and played around a bit and came up with my version. I hope you enjoy my version. ;-D It reminds a lot of Moroccan couscous dishes and Italian equivalent of rish dishes except for the different spices. “plov” or “polaf” is often considered to be one of the oldest preparations of rice which has Persian or Turkic roots. One of the earliest literary references to Pilau can be found in the histories of Alexander the Great when describing the hospitality of an Eastern Iranian provine( probably the birthplace of Alexander’s wife Roxana and geographically in modern Afghanistan).  It was known to have been served to Alexander the Great upon his capture of the Sogdian capital of Marakanda (modern Samarkand). Alexander’s army brought it back to Macedonia and spread it throughout Eastern Europe.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 225g (8 oz) basmati rice
• 400g cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 cup cooked English spinach, drained and chopped
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp ground carmadon
• 1 tsp cinnamon stick, bruised
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp grated fresh root ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 50g (2 oz) raisins
• 750ml  vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 50g (2 oz) cashew nuts, toasted
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• pepper
• fresh coriander sprigs, to garnish

Method

1. Wash the rice in a sieve under cold running water until it runs clear; set aside.
2. Dry-fry the whole spices  for about 2 minutes until they start to pop and release their aroma.
3. Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic, ginger and ground spices and fry for 10 minutes until the vegetables are golden. Add the dry-fried spice mixture to the pan with the rice and stir-fry for 1 minute until all the rice grains are glossy.
4. Add the chick peas, spinach, raisins, stock, lemon juice and salt to the pan. Bring to the boil, stir once and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.
5. Fork through the cashew nuts and coriander. Check the seasoning and serve at once, garnished with fresh coriander sprigs.

Serving Suggestion

• Personally I enjoyed a generous dollop of plain yoghurt with this vegetarian meal.

Variations

You can replace spinach with other vegetables such as carrots, zuchini, potatoes or peas for a vegetarian meal. Or you can toss through with any cooked meat of your choice.

Monarch Butterfly & Chickpea Salad

Some might wonder how I came up with the name of my blog, Butterfly Garden. There are several stories behind the naming, and the first goes back to my childhood when I was  called ‘Nabi‘  by my uncle. He had a difficulty pronouncing my Korean name correctly, so he chose to call me ‘Nabi’, which sounds quite close to my real name and means ‘butterfly’ in Korean. Coincidentally, I had a fascination with butterflies as a child and I always thought they were the most beautiful creatures on Earth, with their colourful patterns on the wings and the graceful flight  .

Another special memory with butterflies is associated with the book which I read as a teenager and I was deeply moved by. The translated short fiction- ‘Butterfly’ was the title, I think- is a narrative of a caterpillar who goes through hardship, self-doubt and endurance before finally transforming into a beautiful butterfly. Butterflies, unlike other insects, have unusually long larval life, and, looking back now, I might have empathised with the caterpillar on a cold, competitive journey in the pursuit of the beauty and dignity.  She gets pushed around, stood on, by the ruthless crowds of others pointlessly heading in the same direction, only repeating “They say there’s something up there, but I don’t know what.” What frightens and saddens her the most is finding herself doing the same as others, either consciously or unconsciously, but she never forgets what she wants – flying in freedom exhibiting the beauty of her wings.

Life is worth suffering as long as you believe that there is always something wonderful awaiting you at the end of the long, lonely journey.

The moment she takes flight into the sky with her long desired wings wide open, she realises what she’s admired and pursued all along has indeed been inside her, waiting for the right moment.

You see people who work around the clock, not even stopping for a fresh breath of air, only to get ahead of others but, sadly, to end up becoming like others. They make me think about the butterflies in the book and reflect on my own life. All I can do is to keep focusing on my true heart hoping that will lead me in the right direction, no matter how long the journey might take. Who knows? The longer the track, the more interesting things you might see along the way. I’ve never liked the idea of short distance running, I’d rather run a marathon.

You too? If that’s the case,  here I will offer you a meal full of protein and energy, which will make you last until the end of your journey. This chickpea salad is so quick n easy to make – as long as you’ve got dried chickpeas soaked overnight, boiled and kept in the fridge, ready to be thrown into any kind of salad mix you fancy at the time- or just keep some cans of chickpeas handy. Since I’m trying to go off canned food since I’ve got more time on hand, I bought bags of beans and chickpeas last week. So I’m afraid that I might need to warn you about lots of upcoming photos with beans and peas. *WARNING – Stay away from this blog if you have an aversion to protein rich food*

Chickpea Salad with Grape tomato and Capsicum

For the salad:

1.5  cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked for 20-30 mins
1 capsicum, 1 red onion, 1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced
some grape or cherry tomatoes
parsley, coarsely chopped
some iceberg lettuce

*I added some of Borlotti beans on a whim. Try a variety of beans!

For the dressing:

1 garlic, minced
1 Tbs olive oil
1-2 tsp sesame oil – add 1 Tbs of tahini if available
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to season

This may or may not serve 2 big eaters as a main, but will definatelybe enought for 4 average people as a side salad.

Tofu Haloumi Salad

People tend to associate tofu with Asian cooking, which is natural since tofu was originated in Asia. Nowadays, more and more westerners are turning their attention towards the health benefits of tofu or soy based food. However, how they eat tofu seems to be limited to a few dishes with deep fried bean curd or a bit of tofu floating in miso soup. Tofu, bland on its own, can bore a lot of people who haven’t develop their taste for it. I, on the other hand, growing up on tofu,  have various ways of eating tofu; off the top of my head….

Fresh tofu or egg coated and pan fried tofu garnished with spring onion and toasted seaweed and drizzled with soy sauce

Fried rice with fried crumbly tofu and egg

Fried tofu braised with sweet soy sauce or spicy soy sauce

Tofu and vegetable dumplings

Tofu pancake

Tofu burger patties – try making meat patties mixed with tofu

A variety of soup dishes with either hard or soft tofu

Satay Tofu – my all time favourite

The list goes on…..

Today, looking at a white block of tofu, I thought tofu and haloumi had a lot in common, then the idea of faking haloumi with tofu came to my mind. To copy the saltiness of haloumi, I coasted the nicely cut tofu squres with a reasonable amount of sea salt and left them to get all the water out of the tofu so that it would be nice and firm when cooked, and has the salty taste. I pan fried the tofu slices until golden and crispy and topped each with a bit of brie cheese to give a cheesy flavour to it. Top them on the bed of salad, a good mix of rocket leaves and some grilled eggplant, carrot or any vegies you can get hold of at the time, and drizzle a generous amount of extra olive oil and sprinkle some nuts, pine nuts or sunflower nuts or whatever nuts you have on hand.

I bet you will easily be  fooled by this fake haloumi.

All about Spanish

I can’t believe I’ve written only one post on tapas while it is the sort of food that I cook very often and enjoy most – I’ll be cooking more of it as summer comes. That might be the reason why I don’t feel any significance of it, I guess? Scarcity drives up value?

The annual Latin Fiesta was on about a month ago at Darling Harbour. I feel luck to live so close to all kinds of events, and I did even more over the festival period because I could had Spanish tapas bar set up at home and walked down to the water front for a dance and came back home and went dancing again. Eat n Drink n Dance, then Drink n Eat n Dance… *What a way to live!*

Garlic Prawns & Salmon Croquette

I’ve been to all of the Spanish restaurants on Liverpool st, which is known as Spanish Quarter. I haven’t ventured out far enough to know good Spanish places outside the city, but I’ve been told that a Spanish restaurant in Surry Hills has been voted for the best. Well, that’s something I look forward to trying. Many people associate a Spanish restaurant with high price and small serving, which I agree. Obviously, it’s not a place for romantic dinner for couples, rather somewhere for social gatherings – somewhere to have fun. Most of the restaurants of the sort are pretty noisy and tables are so close to each other.

But there IS a Spanish place you could go to even for a nice dinner for two. It’s called ‘Miro Tapas Bar&Restaurant’ on Liverpool st, and it’s an underground place that can be easily missed if you don’t know where you are going. It’s a quite low key place with simple interior, not much to look at, but I think that also makes the place so welcoming and lovable. I first stumbled across this place a few months ago, and I’ve been back there many times with friends, but I haven’t heard anything bad said about the place yet. They seem rather surprised by the quality of food and such personal and attentive service, which can be missed out in busy, posh places.

I’m not sure where my obsession with Latin culture, but I suspect that my love for Latin dance plays a big part when it comes to my Latino fever. It’s social, romantic, fun and passionate AND it can be quite sensual and addictive! Talking about this reminds me to take a Latin dance class, which I’ve been putting off for so long that I don’t think I will have time for it before Christmas.

My favourite menu at the restaurant include BBQ Chorizo with caramelised apple, calamari strips with pesto , BBQ portobella mushrooms with capsicum salsa, spinach sautéed with pine nuts& sweet cream sauce, tuna croquettes and plenty more. Of all, spinach and calamari dishes are those I order over and over again. But this post is my new recipe – smoked salmon croquettes with pumpkin and capers. How does that sound? As soon as I had it, I instantly picked up the plate and was about to head down to Spanish Quarter to showcase my creation to the restaurants there, but looking back, I’m glad I decided against it in the end, otherwise I would have been pestered by reporters interviewing me for magazines and papers. I’m not quite ready for such fame yet. I want to enjoy my life of ordinariness as much as I can before I eventually ride on fame. *20 seconds of self-indulgence*

For my delicious salmon pumpkin croquettes
(I don’t remember the exact measurement, and I don’t think it really matters. Just follow your hidden culinary instinct, then you’ll be fine!)

pumpkin (butter nut preferred), grated
smoked salmon
onion
garlic
capers
lots of herbs – dill, parsley
lemon juice
salt&pepper to season
breadcrumb

Mix the ingredients together and crack one egg into the mixture
Roll and shape it into balls (for deepfrying) or any shape you’d like – a flattened oval shape is easy to panfry
Coat each balls with breadcrumb and fry in a pan

Enjoy with squeezed lemon juice!

Spinach Rice Rolls with Feta & Sunflower seeds

Bonus tapas that I made on a whim…. Confused by its look? I played with the recipe in my head and replaced filo pastry with rice paper, and pine nuts with sunflower seeds. Still, they tasted great. It’s sweetened with raisins and flavoured with nutmeg. All it’s missing is ‘Bechamel sauce’-onion flavoured white sauce- to go with it. Yummy :-9 (looks like I’m licking my lip?)

Because It’s Pretty…

One of my favourite ways to enjoy a Friday night is to drink wine with cheese and olives while listening to music. I’m starting to notice that the number of glasses of wine I get through in one night grows the way the number of candles on my birthday cake does.

Last Thursday I came across a cosy wine bar called ‘Taste on Sussex st‘ with elegant interior design. Live jazz playing, it was very charming and a feel-good place ‘Old meets New’ kind of design, which I like- high glass ceiling and glass walls giving the views of modern office towers, dark wood furniture, tiled carpet and French style wooden door separating the candle-lit sitting area from the bar. It is a shame that I don’t have any picture of either the place or the cheese platter I had that night. It was served, on a VERY thick heavy marble board, with finest French cheese, , unusual thin crisps, grapes and raisin-caraway rye bread, which teased my palate so much that I searched for the recipe to make some for myself.

While searching for some photos of the newly discovered wine bar, since I didn’t have any, I was surprised to learn that it was short-listed for 2008 Interior Design Awards. It seemed like a nice coincidence that I had left this post in draft unfinished and that led to finding unexpected information about the bar, which I was going to show off to the world at some point. Oh, well, before I even got the chance to do it, its unique design had been proven by experts whose opinions would possibly be more creditable than mine. It’s shame, though, that it didn’t win the first prize!

After seeing the winner of the award, I thought this place should have won. I’ll leave it for you to judge. You can compare it with the following place.

Winner of 2008 Hospitality Interior Design Awards (VIC)

Below is another place on the short list, Paddington Inn Hotel. There are more on the list, but none that I recognise, probably because they are not in Sydney.

Paddington Inn Hotel

I can’t end my post without mentioning a single word related to food. So here goes my story.

I ordered a case of wine from Hunter Valley a few days ago, and I’m getting impatient waiting for it to arrive at my door. I’ve become an expert at whipping up instant little snacks for spontaneous opening of wine or surprise visitors. Each time I get amazed by how many dishes you can create with very few ingredients, and it is almost like a magician’s conjuring trick. They often taste better than any other dishes that would take more than an hour to make.

Mushroom&Bacon Baguette w/ White Truffle cheese

The charm of the little angel food is, first, its artful look, so eye pleasing. Another charm is that you can drag your eating time to as long as you have a drink in your hand and don’t have to feel guilty to have dinner or naughty dessert later on. *my secret to the 6 hour non-stop eating*

Call me greedy, pig or whatever you would please. I don’t feel ashamed to claim that I love eating and food is my reason for living, whereas others eat to survive. My hope is to eat as many varieties of food as possible before my taste buds finally give way.

Looking at the photo makes me feel like whipping up some olive tapenade with anchovies I bought yesterday. Whoa, lucky I’ve got some lovely brie too. Hope you have a good weekend and eat yummy food.

I’m going to the Festival of Winds at Bondi this Sunday. I can feel summer poking its head around the corner by the announcement of the event.

This post might have sounded odd to some people who know me. *:-P* I was surprised to find this post sitting in drafts myself.

Vanity Breakfast

There is a cafe called ‘Concrete’, only three blocks from my place, that has the most interesting breakfast menu although it isn’t as extensive as some people might expect. However, they seem to put bigger emphasis on the quality and presentation of the food, so you are guaranteed to be leaving the place so satisfied each time that you can’t help but to brag to your friends about it – just like what I’m doing at this very moment. I’m always excited about their specials, which change every week.

They make really good coffee, too, which is important, and my other favourite is ‘Pineapple&Mint Whip‘ as a refreshing beverage.

Most of dishes are served with sough dough, when necessary, rather than normal crusty bread – a little consideration for our health. *sweet* The chefs are flexible about making changes for your preferences, and service is speedy and attentive, so you feel really welcomed there. If you’re sick of the same boring breakfast menu, roll down to the corner of Harris st and Pyrmont bridge rd this weekend. And be ready to say ‘Thank you’ to me. *@-@*

Ovenbaked Egg (chorizo&roasted capsicum&spinach)

Every mouthful was so enjoyable. I loved the salsa that came with it.

Hot Sweetcorn Cake w/Salmon

Veggie Work in a revolutionary form

Scrambled Egg w/Leek&Goat Cheese

This is my favourite! Naughty Italian Breakfast!

Layered with corn fritter, everything is fried, and the crispy potato was so irresistible. It is definitely food for a hangover.

Grilled haloumi salad with roasted pumpkin, pine nut and rocket, which isn’t featured here, is also good.

Since I’m doing an eggy breakfast post, I might as well show you my strange creation. It may look like omelet to you, but in fact, it is a spinach egg hot mousse. What is interesting about this is that it is not fried or baked. It is STEAMED in a rice cooker. The spinach in here is also blended with eggs, giving the nice green color and smooth texture. I can picture you wondering ‘How does that work?’ If you are interested in trying  out this method, I will give you the secret trick.

Hot Spinach Steamed mousse

Next weekend I’m going to explore Balmain area as I heard there were a good cafe and bakery to try. I will let you know how it went. *Can’t wait!*

Lebanese Gozleme

If you go to any festivals or outdoor events in Australia, your chance of coming across a Turkish Gozleme stall is 100%. Yeah, right, it’s THAT common. It’s normally old Turkish ladies in a traditional white dress generously splashing oil around while flipping over the yummy thing – nice and greasy.

As there are maths times tables that people know by heart, in cooking people also follow some formulas. Spinach, for instance, is often combined with feta and salmon with cream cheese or capers. Do we follow such rules without questioning them because they are the best match or we are so accustomed to them that we simply can take a risk of, to say, mixing spinach with cream cheese? Whatever your answer is, more and more people are becoming adventurous with food theses days. On a Gordon’s TV show a few weeks ago , a grilled curry prawn dish served with chocolate dipping sauce got Gordon flying off the handle. What was wrong with the dish? It sounded alright to me. I’ve seen steak or chicken with chocolate sauce and apparently it is the most popular sauce in Mexico. So why not with prawn? I’m going to try prawns with chili chocolate sauce one day and prove Gordon wrong. *can’t wait*

You all must know by now how much I love using Lebanese bread in my cooking. It is just so so so convenient and versatile. It makes good substitutes for pizza base, pita bread, tortilla and naan. Especially, I often make kebabs by wrapping whatever I have in Lebanese bread for quick lunch – and I toast it with some cheese when I have enough time, and it is like eating pizza rolled up. The best thing about a kebab compared to a sandwich is that you can fit more in and feel like you are eating two sandwiches.

A new item that has been enjoyed by many visitors to my place is this. Ta tah~~

Spinach Feta Gozleme with Lebanese Bread

So should I call it Lebanese Gozleme?

So easy, hassle free, and SO YUMMY!

Excellent as party finger food or appetiser or tapas

Version 1:

1. Saute silverbeet or English spinach and garlic with a little bit of butter, white wine and salt&pepper-silverbeet preferred

2. Divide Lebanese bread into two layers by pulling carefully along the edge.

3. Spread cooked silverbeet and feta over the first layer and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella cheese and place the other layer on top

4. Heat a frypan without oil and toast til crispy.

Version 2:

1. Do the same as 1,2

3. Spread some hummus over the second layer – it makes Gozleme thicker and moist ,and gives middle eastern flavour

4. the same

Nancy’s Food Collections

Just a small collection of dishes I made in the remote past. My initial plan was to publish them one by one whenever I get a chance. But as time goes and more new dishes come along, I find it hard to go back to old folders. Because, firstly, my new work looks better as I’ve been trying to learn photographing skills to present my dishes better, and secondly, I have moved on to simpler cooking style from the one that three meals are stuffed into one dish. Still, I adore my old babies and some of them cry out to see the world whenever I see them squashed in disorderly old folders. So here they are. I might find some time to write about each dish in the future, but for the time being please enjoy their looks.

Western

Chicken Mushroom Penne               Salmon Spinach Spaghetti

Pumpkin Spinach Feta Bread             Turkish Gozleme

Seafood Paella Pumpkin                 Sun-dried tomato Risotto

Spicy Bean Nachos                 Spinach Hot Mousse

Eastern

Oriental Fish Soup                         Tofu Stir-fry

Seafood Korean Pancake                     Kimchi Roll

Tofu Green Curry                     Fish Masala / Tofu&Veggie Korma

Move your mouse over the photos, and a link will appear if there is a recipe for them. Or if you are interested in any dished in the picture, give me a yell, then I will post the recipe immediately. Thanks.

Nancy’s Hot Sauce

I got a bit of extra time this morning and decided to dedicated the time to my blog. My internet usage is nearing the monthly limit and I’m trying to use offpeak time for more usage. In this day and age, having to worry about the internet cost is nonsense, but it’s the reality. *disappointed*

But there is something that gives me morning delight – Avocado with Hot sauce!

Why does avocado taste so so so nice with hot sauce? Have you tried avocado with jam? I know people who eat avocado with fruit jam as if it was fruit. Hang on, I’m confused now. Is it fruit or vegetable? I’ll google it later. I just did, and it says it’s fruit. Surprise, surprise~. Can you make avocado jam then? *confused*

Americans created Tabasco – it is the most widely spread throughout the world- New Zealand has the mouth burning ‘Kaitai Fire’, which is hotter than Tabasco. A Kaitai fire bottle has a warning sign for those who might underestimate its hotness. Its speciality is the green kiwifruit hot sauce and it is really really hot!

And Australia has ‘Nando’s’!! It is made of South African chili called peri peri pepper, in other words, bird’s eye chili. Nando’s has fuller flavour since it has more ingredients and spices added.

One day when my Nando’s was running out I attempted to make my own Nando’s by mixing all the ingredients written on the bottle. And it wasn’t bad at all – although it wasn’t hot enough.

So I named it ‘Nancy’s’. My partner said he liked my hot sauce better. He should say that, shouldn’t he? *smile*

The secret of Nando’s out. No more mystery. Try to make healthy, additive free hot sauce in your kitchen, to your preferred heat. I hope I don’t get sued by Nando’s.

Ricotta Ricotta!

Even people who can’t stand the smell and taste of normal cheese would love ricotta, I bet. It is similar to tofu in many ways – both are pure white, full of protein, nearly zero fat, soft creamy texture, mild flavour.

Despite the similarities, I haven’t thought of eating ricotta the way I do tofu – cooked with soy sauce or chili – until now, maybe that would be my next experiment. I’m sure if I google ‘ricotta with soy sauce’ I will get hundreds of results, though. There are a lot of interesting recipes out there these days.

One of my favourite way of enjoying ricotta cheese is to put a generous amount on toast with honey for breakfast, *mouth watering*, or just eat it by itself as if it were yoghurt, enjoying every spoonful of it, especially baked ricotta from a deli.

As a Sunday breakfast treat, I made an omelet with asparagus and ricotta. It is not an ordinary omelet that you crack whole eggs into a bowl and mix with other ingredients all together. My omelet making involves the effort of whisking egg whites separately- it feels more like baking. I don’t make the extra work to get an omelet that has a look of really thick fluffy clouds and smooth sponge cake texture.

More more ricotta, please~~~

Maybe it’s how omelet is normally cooked. But I don’t recall having any fluffy bouncy spongy omelet ever. There is another benefit in that method. If you have more mouths and not enough eggs, it will help to stretch out the meal.

<Fluffy Omelet with Asparagus & Ricotta >

I had it with garlic rubbed baguette, and with the flavours of asparagus and ricotta enhanced to perfection by the garlic flavour, I had to close my eyes…

*I was in heaven*

Stuffed Capsicum with Spinach-Mandarin Salad

I have something for stuffed vegetables. I think they look pretty, exotic and natural. It shows a bit of extra effort and thought you put in, so it’s easy way to get extra points. *cheeky smile* You can fill vegetables such as a capsicum, tomato, zucchini, potato, eggplant… the list goes on.

But I like it for a practical reason. If you have leftover rice and some old vegetables cry out to be used, you can just throw them all in a pan and turn them into a nice filling. With the addition of herbs and spices it will be made into a gourmet dish. It is also a pretty healthy way of eating all the vegetables.

I think the most common filling is rice with some minced beef or bacon and tomato salsa. This recipe is created with lentils for people who don’t like meat so much.  Lentils give a bit of meaty texture and colour to any dishes.

<Baked Capsicum stuffed with lentils>

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 capsicum, halved (1each if you like)
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1stalk of celery, diced
I can tomatoes
2 cups lentils (fresh&cooked or canned)
2 Tbs olive oil
a splash of red wine
1 egg
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
salt n pepper
parsley
carrot, diced – optional
parmesan -optional

Prepare the capsicum by cutting in half and removing seeds
Preheat the oven to 180′C
Cook onion, garlic, celery until soft, and add tomato, lentils and cook further
Add spices, salt, pepper, then egg
Fill capsicum with the mixture, drizzle some olive oil and bake for 30-40 mins
Serve with grated parmesan if desired

* if you like it spicy, add some dried chili or chili powder when you cook the vegetables.

Try that healthy meal with this Popeye salad

Everyone knows how good spinach is for health. It’s full of iron and calcium. But apparently the iron content of spinach was mistakenly reported ten times higher than its actual value during 1930s. Even if so, spinach has many other nutritional benefits including cleaning the liver and preventing night blindness.

The best way to get the most of calcium and iron in spinach is to eat it raw with food with vitamin C. So I came up with this recipe.

<Spinach Salad with Mandarin and Orange>

Ingredients

baby spinach
orange, mandarin
kalamata olives
cucumber
almond or pine nuts – optional
spanish onion – I didn’t have any at that time, so I used spring onion. It matched well, too.
dressing – red wine or balsamic vinegar with olive oil or lemon mustard dressing or any of your choice