Monday, September 12, 2011

Ben O'Donoghue's Lamb Kofta

Finally I have herbs hanging in our courtyard. After the high drama of moving we treated ourselves to pots and pots of herbs ready for picking and cooking. Luckily, my husband had spotted a recipe that needed stacks of fresh herbs - lamb kofta with quinoa tabouli in the July 2011 edition of Australian Men's Health.

The recipe was from Ben O'Donoghue and I have adapted it slightly. It was easily the best thing I have made this year and a great dish to try at the start of spring.

Kofta Mix
500grams lamb mince
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 onion finely diced
2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
1 egg

Mix the ingredients until well combined. Shape into rectangles the size and shape of a Tim Tam and place in a roasting tin. Roast at 200 degrees for 45 minutes or until brown and cooked.

Quinoa Tabouli
1 cup quinoa
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped basil
4 roma chopped tomatoes
Juice of one large lemon
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Rinse and cook quinoa. Towards the end of cooking time add the corn kernels to cook them. Drain the quinoa and corn and set aside to cool.

Mix the cooled quinoa, corn, garlic clove, parsley, basil, tomato, lemon juice and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve kofta and tabouli with wraps or other type of bread (gluten-free wraps make this a gluten-free meal), greek yoghurt and harissa sauce.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Kylie Kwong's fried eggs and Terrific Trang in West End

So I've been back at work full-time (after over a year of maternity leave) and we are in the process of moving house. Everything is messy and I never seem to have the time or the ingredients that I used to during the stay-at-home housewife days.

This has resulted in quick food fixes. There is Kylie Kwong's egg recipe - simple (if you use chook eggs rather than duck). I add some stir fried greens to make this a well rounded meal and also drizzle lime juice over the end dish (obviously, the Toddler has her version sans the fresh chilli).

When any kind of cooking seems like to much trouble we have resorted to and old but wonderfully consistent haunt - Vietnamese at Trang in West End. We have a long history with this place - on the night my husband and I picked up my engagement ring we shared a half bottle of Moet over some of their do-it-yourself wrap-ups. Six years down the track I've been delighted to find out that the staff are very friendly to the Toddler and the Toddler loves the food. She has tried thick chicken noodle soup, the pho, shredded pork rolls and the vegetarian fried rice. They seem to have heaps of high chairs and the best thing is that the food arrives within minutes of placing the order (important if your Toddler is one hour past sleep time or is very hungry). The serves are so big that we have never had to order extra for the Toddler - she just eats a little of anything that we have ordered for ourselves and the cost never seems to be more than $28 for all three of us.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

The year of living differently

So the carnival is over - I am about to return to work. The Toddler has spent the last year changing from of mysterious bundle to a larger-than-life personality full of giggles. I think I have changed too and am much better for it.

I have learnt that living life as if in a musical is no bad thing - randomly breaking into song in order to stop the crying is kind of uplifting and no longer caring whether people think I am crazy is quite liberating. There is also nothing like having an enthusiastic Toddler pumping the air with her fist as we sing about the Little Green Frog for the thousandth time.

I've also become pretty alternative - I've had the time to research and enjoy the challenge of building a cloth nappy 'stash' (as well as learning the lingo) and we have now switched to using soap nuts in our laundry rather than conventional soap powder or liquid. My cooking has expanded to include extra virgin coconut oil (heavenly), ghee (also amazing) and a wider range of organic grains (like millet and quinoa) in my never-ending quest to make the Toddler's food as healthy and delicious as possible.

The need to get out and about without a car (I don't drive) has also meant that I have become addicted to a daily walk with the pram and the Toddler. We've walked kilometres and kilometres singing and talking and I've learnt how to stack lots of groceries and other items onto the pram in a way never imagined by its makers.

I've become much more connected to what is going on in my corner of Brisbane. We've gone to free concerts and festivals and spent so much time in parks. I've discovered that parents should be a member of the library and that every afternoon you can find some other Toddler there to play with your Toddler (without needing to clean up the house or invite anyone over).

My time at home has let me make a special new friend who also has a Toddler and given me so much more to talk about with other friends who are going through motherhood at the same time.

Finally, this year has let me get to know the Toddler inside out and take the time to do whatever she wanted. We looked at the cat, we cuddled and we read books. We waved to strangers and we had picnics. I found out that walking into her room when she woke up from a sleep could feel like Christmas used to when I was a kid - that magic can happen in the ordinary everyday world.

Now it is her Dad's turn. I wish him all of the fun, love and magic that I had.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Instant Polenta (or Easy Cheesy Pleasey)

I'd cooked polenta before I had the Toddler but was never really in love with it. It was the 'proper' polenta that takes an age to cook on the stove top and which you have to stir carefully and I ended up thinking that the end result was not worth the effort (or the cleaning up afterwards). When the Toddler was first starting solids (at about 6 months) I tried her on some instant polenta and she loved it. As we introduced dairy products it took three minutes to make and a sprinkle of grated cheese and some leftover vegetables at the end turned it into a lovely rich mush (as pictured) that she was guaranteed to eat. The polenta can be simmered in water or can be made more healthy by cooking it in a chicken stock.

Instant polenta has become even more popular as the Toddler's consumption of finger foods has increased. The soft mush is placed in the fridge to set. You can add all sorts of things to the mush before it sets - diced cooked chicken, vegetables, fish (though the Toddler hates it with fish) or you can stick with plain old cheese.

Once the polenta is set you can cut it into pieces to grill or bake in the oven. I've set it as a thin sheet and then cut shapes out of it with cookie cutters in order to make a gluten-free gnocchi that you can bake in the oven with cheese and a tomato sauce (this idea is stolen from 'Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant' by The Moosewood Collective and a meal that I had at a camp ground in Fiesole in Tuscany). Finally, I have also set the polenta very thin in a greased round quiche tray and then made a gluten-free pizza out of it once it had set. The possibilities are endless and this is the reason instant polenta has made it onto our hit parade at least once a week.


250 grams instant polenta
1 litre water/stock

Boil the water/stock and then add the polenta. You need to stir it the whole time it is cooking (which is three minutes or until it is thick and mushy). Add cheese or other items (so long as they are already cooked)after the polenta has cooked. Serve the mush straight up to a younger child or place in the fridge in a container to set. Two or three hours later you can remove the set polenta by turning it over on a board and slicing into pieces. If you set the polenta very thin (by using a larger container) you can cut the pieces out with a cookie cutter. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees until golden brown or crunchy (the polenta may be eaten softer than this or without being cooked again if it is easier for your Toddler).

Notes:
* The hardest thing about instant polenta is finding it - I had to go to a health food store this time but in the past I have been able to get it from the larger supermarkets. It is a pretty cheap item no matter where you find it.
* You may want to brush your polenta pieces with olive oil before you bake them - particularly if you haven't put any cheese in them.
* Leftover bits of polenta sets like concrete - wash your saucepan and stirring spoon up as as soon as you have taken the polenta out of it. Alternatively, fill the saucepan up with water and place the spoon in it so it is easy to wash up later on.

Friday, July 1, 2011

T-Bone Soup

I know this sounds wrong but there are so many reasons why this is great food for a Toddler. The meat simmers until it is tender and easy for a small mouth (with few teeth) and you make a healthy stock out of the T-bone as the same time as cooking vegetables and meat. This is for the people who want to try their Toddler out on stock but don't want to stare at the vacant eyes of a fish head or wrestle with the skeleton of a chicken.

Olive oil or ghee
1 T-bone with meat sliced in small pieces
White part of 1 leek sliced (or half of one onion)
1 clove garlic
1 carrot
1 cup pumpkin or sweet potato
1/2 cup of greens of your choice

Fry the T-bone and meat in the oil or ghee until brown. Add all of the vegetables except the greens and fry gently for several minutes. Add enough water to cover all of the meat, vegetable and bone and let simmer for one hour. Put in more water if it sinks below the meat and vegetables.

After one hour add the greens and cook until they are tender. Serve the dish by giving the steak and vegetables as finger food and spooning the liquid stock straight into their mouth.

Notes:
* One smallish T-Bone made 3 very beefy Toddler serves - you could make it less beefy and have more serves by adding potatoes, pasta or rice and adding more water.
* I enjoyed scraping the leftover meat off the bone. It wasn't as tasty as grilled steak but it was pretty good.
* Add one teaspoon of vinegar (preferably apple cider vinegar) to the stock to leach the maximum goodness out of the bones.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Neil Perry's (Dead Easy) Whiting Meuniere

Fish has always been a tough sell for the Toddler. She turned her nose up at my carefully constructed Leek and Salmon Pie and appeared to be revolted by my Polenta Whiting Fish Fingers. So I decided to get really, really simple and it worked. I don't have any pictures of the end product because I didn't think she would like it but if you imagine a Toddler waving a whiting fillet in each hand then you get the picture.

I know that whiting seems expensive when you see it in the shop for $40+ a kilo but you don't seem to need much - I bought $15 worth (about 300 grams) and it provided 4 adult serves and 2 toddler serves.

This recipe is adapted from Neil Perry's 'The Food that I Love' and it is particularly good for adults and Toddlers. I love not having to use eggs and crumbs to coat the fish because it seems much more messy and involved than the below process.

8 whiting fillets
Ghee (you could use olive oil but ghee is nicer and easily available from the supermarket - see previous post for more information)
About 1/2 cup milk poured into a bowl
About 1/2 cup cornflour poured onto a large plate
Lemon, butter (optional)

Dip each whiting fillet into the milk and then coat in the cornflour. Melt enough ghee in a frying pan to cover the bottom and then fry the fish on each side until slightly brown and the cornflour and milk has formed a nice crust.

At the end you can melt some butter in the pan and drizzle it over the fish along with some lemon juice but we opted just to have the lemon juice.

Notes:
* Check for whiting bones before cooking each piece and then check again with each piece you give the Toddler.
* Lovely with roasted sweet potato chips on the side.

Top Quick Meals for Mummy and Daddy when Toddler is asleep

Shredded beef stir fried with sliced garlic, chilli and then so much broccoli and beans that you won't need to bother with rice. Finish by drizzling over a sauce of 1 part fish sauce, 2 parts lime, 1 part water and 1 part sugar. For the truly lime addicted add some lime zest to the sauce.

Potatoes baked in the oven with their skins on served with shredded raw cabbage, shredded carrot, red onion (which has been soaked in red wine vinegar for one hour to remove the acidity), stacks of shredded cheese, hot sauce and natural yoghurt.

Scrambled eggs cooked slowly in butter with fresh pepper at the end and no guilt about not eating a proper dinner.

Pasta drizzled with a sauce made out of olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan cheese. Rocket, baby spinach and/or canned tuna could also be added - just leave the whole lot on the heat long enough for the cheese to melt and the greenery to cook or the tuna to warm through.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

A Perfect Birthday Weekend

I woke to the sound of a round of applause from the Toddler at 4am in the morning and I guess if you have to wake up at that time then it is not a bad way to do it.

This was followed up by a lovely sleep in as my husband occupied the Toddler (as he does every morning). After that I was presented with my first ever gluten-free chocolate croissant. Not quite the same as the authentic gluten version but wonderful all the same. Lunch was a lovely gluten-free baguette and this was even better than the croissant - crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. My husband sourced these lovely treats made by Schar (which is Europe's No 1 Gluten Free range according to the packaging) from a Flannerys grocery store.

The rest of the weekend was filled with french cheese from Normandy, red wine from Italy and some pleasurable pottering in the kitchen to make the Toddler spelt and oatmeal biscuits (pictured). I'm finding that she needs something at morning and afternoon tea and fruit is not always the answer.

Last of all I got to make proper fish stock for the first time. Our fish store (Avanti's Fresh Seafood Market) gave me some spanking fresh heads for free when I was purchasing some whiting. This place has lovely fish and the widest variety I have seen in Brisbane - I even saw some salted cod that is used in the Basque region of Spain. The fish stock is made the same way as the recipe for chicken stock except you sweat the onion in a little butter to begin with and then add all of the other ingredients and cook for only one hour. Today we are going to have the stock as the basis for a Counterfeit Congee with whiting.
Avanti's Seafood Market & Fish cafe on Urbanspoon

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Nigella Lawson's roasted vegetables and haloumi

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with Nigella Lawson. I love her simple food ideas and the fact that she encourages people to cook well for themselves and their families. On the other hand, I am deeply envious of her good looks, intellect and charm (along with her gorgeous dining table and amazingly well equipped kitchen).

Today I copied her wonderfully easy idea of roasting an array of vegetables and then adding some haloumi cheese on top of the vegetables at the end of the cooking time and popping it back into the oven for 5 minutes to melt. I only used very small slices of the cheese because haloumi is quite high in salt so not so good for the Toddler in huge chunks.

You don't need a recipe to follow - just make sure you have vegetables from a number of different colours. We used beetroot, pumpkin, purple onion, tomatoes and a few potatoes. On the side we had a simple dip made out of very finely sliced mint leaves, natural yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice. This was great finger food for the toddler - even though she ended up with pink hands from the beetroot.

Notes:
* If using Beetroot it is a good idea to roast them first with the skins on and add them back into the pan just before you add the haloumi on top. If you don't do this you run the risk of all of your vegetables being pink (which may be a good thing depending on what your toddler is like...).
* This wouldn't freeze well but could be reheated the next day. We ate all of it in one go.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Eating everything in the kitchen

It is official. We are moving in 4 weeks and it seems like a small army will be required to move the huge amount of Toddler toys and clothes. Also, the cat will require her full collection of scratching posts and chewed fake mice at the new digs. All of this means that I have resolved to pack as few food items as possible. It seems absurd to carefully transfer 100 grams of flour or 1 jar of anchovies but, equally, I can't bring myself to throw any food away.

This has led to an unprecedented amount of kitchen creativity as I struggle to use all of those purchases that seemed like such a good idea at the time (like Liquorice Tea and at least 5 different jars of red curry paste). As a result the Toddler has been feasting on the following in the past week:
* Claudia Roden's Tagine of Lamb with caramelized baby onions and pears (to use up spices and rice),
* Buckwheat and potato spaetzle (noodles) with a tomato sauce (to use up some of my 8 types of flour), and
* An adaptation of Moosewood Restaurant's Egyptian Lentil soup in Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special (to use up lentils and spices).

I've reproduced the recipe for the soup as it is the easiest of the above dishes and I have also been asked by a number of people for a basic lentil dish that kids will actually eat.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped white part of leek
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
4 garlic cloves chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
5 cups water
1 cup dried red lentils
1 cup chopped potato

Step 1: Heat the oil in a soup pot and gently sweat the cumin, turmeric, leeks, garlic, onion and carrot for several minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients and bring the soup to a boil.

Step 2: After the soup has boiled bring the heat down a little so that it gently simmers and let it do this for about 15 minutes or until all of the vegetables are cooked.

Notes:
* Makes about 6 adult serves and is very cheap to make.
* Freezes well.
* Some lemon juice stirred through to taste at the end also makes this nice for an adult.
* The Toddler loves this soup with a bit of natural yogurt stirred through at the end (obviously don't use yogurt if you are avoiding lactose).
* The soup could be pureed completely for a baby who is not eating lumpy food yet.
* If you wanted to make it a bulkier soup you could add 1/4 cup of rice at the same time as you add the water.

Friday, June 17, 2011

A Proper Chicken Stock

I don't believe in making chicken stock and stowing it away in the freezer in tidy portions and I think any recipe which only calls for 1/2 a cup of stock can probably have water added instead. This means I never feel tempted by the (salt laden) supermarket stock and when I go to the trouble of making a stock I do it properly and use it for the next three or four nights.

For example, this week we had roast chicken and then the next night I made a chicken stock. Half way through making the stock I ladled some out directly into a risotto. The next night we had a light minestrone based on the stock (made in about 20 minutes) and the day after involved a batch of double chicken polenta (eaten soft and then later on baked in the oven to make crunchy squares). Finally, the Toddler had some pasta, pumpkin and broccoli simmered in the last of the stock for her dinner tonight.

The above sounds very strident but I intend this to be a message to the Toddler when she is grown up - make your own stock for you and your family or don't bother making recipes that require it.

2 onions
2 carrots (tops and tails as well)
2 sticks of celery (leaves as well if you have them still)
4 cloves roughly chopped garlic
Organic chicken carcass or whole organic chicken - you can use the leftover bones from a roast dinner or you can poach the whole chicken in the stock. I could give you the usual lecture about why organic chicken is better but the truth is that once I cooked a non-organic chicken stock that ended up with a lot of black foam and this freaked me out so much that I have never tried to do it again.
Approximately 1 cup of old veggies lurking in fridge that need to be used up - old spring onions, broccoli, leeks, beans, snow peas, cababge - just don't use the nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes etc). This is optional but there is nearly always something of this description that needs a home in the stockpot.
10 peppercorns
2 or 3 bayleaves, several sprigs of fresh parsley, thyme or oregano. This is also optional but good to add if you have them.
1 tablespoon of vinegar (preferably unrefined apple cider vinegar)

Roughly chop all of the vegetables and place everything in a deep stockpot together. Pour in enough cold water so that everything is covered and almost bring it all to the boil. Bring the heat down a little but so the stock gently simmers and let cook for up to 6 hours - 2 will do at a pinch. Add water during the cooking time if vegetables or bones become uncovered.

After it has cooked, strain off the vegetables and bones and store in the fridge or freezer.

Notes:
* According to Jude Blereau in 'Wholefood for Children' the vinegar is added to 'help draw all gelatine and minerals from inside the bone'. She indicates that stocks (and particularly bone stocks) are incredibly nourishing for young children.
* Don't be tempted to use add hot water to the pot - the point of the stock is for the flavour to be gradually drawn out.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Friday Food Frolic - Jackpot Noodle Toowong

The Toddler and I have fallen into the habit of eating out for lunch on Fridays. I want to enjoy this lovely age when everything about eating out is fascinating and she can't get out of the high chair by herself (so the potential for chaos is limited).

Today we went to Jackpot Noodle Toowong for the second time and can't wait to go back. There are not many establishments which have so wholeheartedly embraced the idea of the Toddler being my food companion. The staff literally run to get the high chair and are very helpful with bringing extra plates and drinks of water. This means that all I have to bring is the Toddler and a bib.

This week we had the vegetarian fried rice and the deep fried chicken. I ate the lovely crispy (and salty) skin and made sure that the Toddler only had the very inner part of the moist chicken flesh. The vegetarian fried rice is full of vegetables chopped very finely so it was easy for her small mouth. Being fed with chopsticks rather than a spoon seems to delight the Toddler and she attacked the food with a particular relish that I haven't seen at home.

What makes this a great toddler restaurant is the relaxed sense of fun about the place. Today a total of five different cooks came out in shifts to eat their lunch at the table next to us and the Toddler adored them all. They clucked with amazement when she demonstrated how she feeds herself and they also kept her endlessly amused by pulling faces and waving.

At the end of the meal the staff didn't care that we had wreaked utter devastation and left rice and chicken everywhere. They waved off my attempts to clean up with a single napkin and made me feel that they wish everyone would enjoy their food so much that they tip a large portion of it onto the floor.

All in all it was the making of a very special memory for me and (hopefully) for her it suggested that food is just as much an enriching social activity as well as a biological need.

Menus and locations can be found at http://www.jackpotdining.com.au. Jackpot on Urbanspoon

Monday, June 13, 2011

Rainbow Gratin

It is cold and wet and I'm feeling lazy. I want a one-stop-shop type of meal that can cook in the oven while the Toddler sleeps and I sink into a huge hot bath with a book and a cup of tea. The answer is a potato gratin that has been jazzed up with some sweet potato and spinach as it takes almost no time to prepare (particularly if you skip the step of peeling the potatoes).

The recipe is adapted from Nigel Slater's in Tender Volume 1. I love the simplicity of using just cream and the lack of faffing about with a cheese sauce. This dish is one of the Toddler's favorites and she shows her appreciation by giving me a round of applause with her greasy hands.

The picture shows the gratin served with some beef leftover from the night before.

700 grams waxy clean waxy potatoes
300 grams peeled sweet potato
Handful of washed baby spinach
2 cloves garlic
Butter/Ghee for coating baking dish
600ml cream
Freshly cracked black pepper

Step 1: Slice the cloves of garlic in half and rub them around the inside of the baking dish. After this, grease the baking dish with the butter/ghee.

Step 2: Slice the potatoes into slices as thick as a $1 coin (Nigel says as thick as a pound). Feel free to peel them if you want but I prefer to leave them as is because most of the nutrients are under the skin. Slice the sweet potatoes a little thicker because sweet potato cooks more quickly than normal potatoes. Place a layer of potatoes and then a layer of sweet potato in the baking tray. Follow with the handful of spinach and then layer the remaining potato and sweet potato. Sprinkle pepper as you layer and pour over the cream at the end.

Step 3: Bake in an oven of 160 degrees for 1 and a half hours to 2 hours. The top should go brown and golden and the potato cooked through.

Notes:
* To make the adults only version (as Nigel intended) omit the sweet potato and spinach and add 300 grams potatoes.
* This won't freeze but you can pop any leftovers in the fridge and gently reheat (at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes) the next day.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Success with two new tastes

Falafel
For Friday night fast food my husband and I turn to packets of falafel mixture. These are about $2.50 and if you follow the instructions there is only 10 minutes of work and 40 minutes of baking before you have lovely nutty balls which taste awesome with grated cheese, natural yoghurt and lashings of hot sauce.

As we were snacking on leftovers on Saturday morning we discovered that the Toddler is also a fan of the cold falafel. I'd never bothered to offer them to her before because I thought that they would be too spicy. I was surprised at how much she enjoyed these nuggets of chickpea goodness and will be making them for her very soon. I was also amazed at how she calmly broke each falafel in half in order to get to the soft middle - proving once again that the Toddler intuitively knows what she likes and how to eat.

Ghee
Ghee is butter with the milk solids, water and salt removed. For years I have cooked Indian but ignored the advice in recipes to use ghee rather than butter or oil. It seemed like too much trouble to buy and I assumed that it was unhealthy. All that changed after reading 'Wholefood for Children' by Jude Blereau (my new favorite cook book - buy it or put it on hold in the library - it is divine). This book explains the health benefits of ghee for small children and as a result I finally purchased some from a standard supermarket for the princely sum of $5.50. I added one teaspoon to a serving of lentil and vegetable dal and it gave the dish a lovely rich flavour that the Toddler appeared to respond to (she ate more of the dish than she did yesterday when it didn't have any ghee). I can't wait to use this new fat in more recipes but I'll keep it away from the food for the adults in the house - I have a feeling it could be addictive!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bread for beginner eaters and cooks

There is no reason at all not to make your own bread. It is simpler than a lot of the complicated dishes that people try to cook after watching Masterchef and the rewards are endless - it saves money, the product is better than anything from the supermarket and there are no preservatives. You also get to feel smug every single time you pull a loaf out of the oven.

The secret is getting the right ingredients - you don't need a bread maker but proper bread flour and decent yeast are necessary. I order my ingredients online and this is very convenient and cheap.

I chose spelt bread as the Toddler's first because it is low in gluten and high in protein (making it easy to digest and good for growing bodies). In this case, the healthiest loaf that I have made has also turned out to be my husband's favorite. My Toddler will eat as much of it as I give her - sometimes we have to hold it back back so that she eats her vegetables first.

450 grams white spelt flour (you can use wholemeal spelt flour if you wish)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/3 cup water (cold or room temperature - not warm or hot)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plain or Greek yoghurt

Step 1: Mix all ingredients together until combined. Cover loosely with a cloth and leave at room temperature for at least twelve hours. I like to do this step at night after dinner as it results in fresh bread for dinner the next day. The only important thing with this step is to get the right consistency - it is a very wet dough and will not form a neat ball but it should not be as wet as a pancake batter. Add more flour or water as you think necessary.

Step 2: Check the mixture. It should have slowly risen to almost double its size. Once this has happened, gently pick up the dough and stretch it gently into a rectangle and then fold it like a letter. Repeat this motion a couple of times until the dough has deflated back down to its original size. Place the dough into a loaf tin or other container that you are going to bake it in. I like to line my loaf tin with baking paper to make the whole operation easier. Cover the baking container with a cloth and let the dough rise again until it is roughly double in size (I find that this usually is by mid-afternoon if the second step occurred at breakfast time).

Step 3: When the dough is roughly double in size crank your oven up to its maximum heat. After it has warmed up place your bread in the oven and let it cook at maximum heat for 10 minutes and then drop the temperature down to 220 degrees. This gives the yeast one final chance to spring the bread up as high as possible. Bake the bread for at least 30 minutes in total and when it is very brown on top and there is dull thud when you tap the base then it is ready to be placed on a rack to cool down completely before consuming.

Notes:
* This is a forgiving recipe so don't sweat it too much. Whatever you do it will still taste better than anything you buy and your results will get better as you go on and learn more.
* This is a wet dough - it will stick to your hands.
* This bread is best eaten as soon as it has cooled but is nice for several days afterwards.
* Babies who are teething love the crusts or pieces which have been dried out in the oven.
* The Toddler loves this bread with a mixture of yoghurt, grated cheese and carrot. She also loves banana toasted spelt sandwiches for breakfast (pictured).
* Feel free to experiment - this dough makes excellent pizza and is also great if you add some dried fruit and bake in little muffin tins for fruit buns.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Counterfeit Congee

This is not so much a recipe but a pathetic attempt to copy the soulful congee that you get for next to nothing in simple asian establishments. The end result is simply not the same (possibly because I haven't even bothered to look up a recipe in order to make it properly) but it is tasty, healthy and enjoyable. Better still, it can be made with what you have in the house and in one pot.

1 cup of any type of rice except brown (I believe you can buy special rice for congee but I have used heaps of different ones including arborio, sushi and basmati).
5 cups liquid - Use leftover Asian vegetable stock from yesterday's post or normal chicken or vegetable stock or water. If you use water, you can go crazy and add a couple of whole peeled but slightly bashed garlic cloves and pieces of peeled ginger (the size and width of a dollar coin) and simply fish them out before serving.
Vegetables - combination and amount to suit your toddler's taste and what is in your fridge - peas, corn, broccoli, snow peas, carrot, mushrooms are all good options. We went alternative today and included sweet potato.
Some protein (optional) - quarters of boiled egg, or cooked chicken are a good idea.

Place the liquid and the rice into a big saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and lit simmer briskly until rice thickens and makes the water cloudy with its starch. Feel free to add water if necessary and keep cooking it until the rice nearly dissolves. The end result you are aiming for is a thick soupy mixture - a little like porridge.

You can cook the vegetables one of two ways:
* by placing them in a steamer that fits on top of the saucepan, or
* by placing them in the actual liquid and rice after the mixture has been simmering for about 5 minutes.

Once the congee has reached the desired consistency, place in serving bowls and add vegetables (if they have been steamed separately) and any cooked protein you would like. For a toddler who likes finger food, leave steamed vegetables separate so there is something for them to eat with their hands (my toddler also liked eating the congee with her hands but that is another story).

For any adult sharing the congee offer the following garnishes to make it more interesting:
* finely sliced spring onion
* peeled and finely sliced young ginger (give the old and gnarly stuff a miss), or
* sauce of 2 parts lime juice, 1 part fish sauce, 1 part sugar and chopped chilli to taste. I keep freeze dried sliced chilli on hand - with a dash of hot water it reconstitutes and can be added into recipes that call for fresh chilli and I don't have to worry about getting chilli juice on my hands and stinging my toddler when I touch her.

This recipe makes one adult serve and four generous toddler serves or enough for two adults and two toddlers. It can be frozen (without the adult garnishes).

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Deconstructed Asian Noodle Soup for the Toddler with a Tummy Bug

The Toddler had (for reasons that I am too polite to mention) lost a lot of fluids in the last 24 hours. I needed to give her something that was liquid and soothing but full of garlic and ginger...and it had to be fun. When you have been at home sick for two days straight then the food has to double as entertainment before the next sleep for recovery.

I adapted the Asian Soup Stock recipe from Moosewood Daily Restaurant Daily Special by the Moosewood Collective. After making the stock I poured several ladles over some vermicelli noodles and, after the noodles had cooked, draped them on on her flat eating tray along with a few pieces of carrot that had cooked in the stock. The noodles were great for playing with and slurping up but in the end it was spoonful after spoonful of the warm gingery broth she wanted (or perhaps she just liked sucking it out of the white china soup spoon).



10 cups water
2 leeks or onions chopped
2 carrots chopped
4 celery stalks chopped
5 chopped and peeled cloves of garlic
4 cm square (roughly) of peeled and sliced ginger
5 whole black peppercorns
5 dried shiitake mushrooms (optional)
Vermicelli noodles (as much as you would like to serve)

Bring all ingredients except noodles to the boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer gently for 1 hour. Place noodles in a bowl and pour enough broth to cover. Stir occasionally and wait for noodles to cook through. Serve.

Notes:
* The recipe makes far more stock than you need for one serving. After straining out the cooked vegetables, freeze the rest or convert into an easy meal for older children/adults by adding cooked chicken or sliced and steamed vegetables after the noodles have 'cooked' in the stock. Seasonings like soy sauce, fish sauce or freshly chopped chilli and lime juice will make it more interesting for more sophisticated palates.
* The recipe would be even better with a few pieces of organic chicken like wings, drumsticks or all of the bones from a roast chicken dinner added at the start. If you do this, cook the stock for a lot longer - up to three hours.