A simple cheesy treat!

Here's an excellent cheese recipe, good at any time, and a real treat when camping!

Whether it becomes Paneer or Ricotta or you invent your own name, you'll be making cheese!  It's easy, quick and mostly successful ;-)

Two litres of full cream milk makes about 250 grams of soft, cheesy goodness. You can use less or more milk depending on your needs.

Heat the milk in a saucepan. Stir with a slotted spoon to prevent a skin forming and to distribute the heat. Keep an eye on it! You can be guaranteed that as soon as you wander off or get distracted it'll boil over or burn.

When the milk just begins to get a little surface jiggle and appear to come alive keep stirring (not too vigorously) and add 1 - 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. If you only have lime juice, add that, or white vinegar.

Within seconds, all being well, the milk should begin to separate. At that stage, gently pull the curds to one side of the saucepan. This encourages them nestle together and helps the rest of the liquid to separate.

Occasionally my lemon juice hasn't resulted in separation of the milk into curds and whey (perhaps they weren't acid enough??) so I've added vinegar as well. It worked!

Now, gently pour everything into a muslin or chux lined sieve which you've placed over a bowl to catch the whey. You can add salt, chili, herbs or your favourite curry powder to taste, depending on how you'll be using the cheese.

Let it drip for about 10 minutes, then you can put it in a container to shape it into a round, square, or leave it crumbly.

The soft cheese is great crumbled in spicy Indian dishes, sliced and grilled for sandwiches, or used plain with fruit then drizzled with honey and cinnamon.

The best part, apart from the satisfaction of saying you made your own cheese? It's about 1/2 the price of buying it from my local supermarket, and takes less than an hour to make!

Top left: the milk is just beginning to jiggle.
Top right: we have separation!
Bottom: the curds before being pressed to shape. 

As for the whey, don't throw it away! It's great as the liquid in bread (here's a good, simple bread recipe), can be frozen for later use for sauces or failing all that, can be used in the compost.

Meatless Monday. Nutty 'sausage' rolls.

What do sausage rolls taste of and what is their defining aspect?

Commercial ones don't necessarily contain meat in any significant quantity and what meat there is, is likely to include tail, head, cheek, gristle, sinew, tongue, and lashings of fat. Of course there is the addition of a bewildering array of chemicals to prolong the "life" and make the low grade ingredients taste palatable - though I'm not sure how accurate that last word is.

To me, the defining aspect of a commercial sausage roll is the addition of gristle. It can be awkward at a party where the offerings are of the cheapest, nameless variety, to find a piece of gristle rolling around your mouth unable to be masticated. Do you swallow it, or somehow attempt to secrete it surreptitiously in a paper napkin? Almost worse is when a piece of gristle gets stuck between your teeth - never a good look when you try to fish it out with a fingernail ... and what do you do with it then?

My daughter enthusiastically shared the following vegetarian version of a sausage shaped roll with the delighted comment that a guest (a committed anti-vegetarian) came back for seconds, saying "These are soooo meaty, they're great!" and was lost for words to find out there wasn't a skerrick of meat in them.

The recipe comes from retromummy, and I can confidently vouch that they're easy to make, have great flavour and are able to deceive meat eaters, not that that was the point of the exercise, but it was interesting.

I don't understand why the mixture which doesn't look anything special in the kitchen whiz, looks remarkably like a commercially prepared sausage roll when it's cooked. The only thing lacking was the gristle - and the horrible taste.

Due to a completely disorganised day, I relented and used a commercially prepared puff pastry - next time I'll make my own non-puff pastry, using the same recipe as for the mushroom pie.

Nutty 'sausage' rolls

Ingredients

• an onion
• 100gram nuts - I used macadamia, pine, almonds and walnuts. Pecans would also be good.
• small bunch of herbs - I added parsley, coriander, oregano & vietnamese mint. Basil would have been a tasty addition, but I didn't have any.
• 2 cloves garlic
• sprinkle of chilli flakes
• a grind of pepper
• 3 eggs
• 150gram fetta (apparently tofu works well too - try the firm one as the silken variety might be too damp)
• 100gram oats - I like the mixed ones (oats, barley, wheat, rye, buckwheat)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I didn't have any, so used more oats)
• 3 sheets of puff pastry

Method

• find Kitchen Whiz
• Buzz the onion and nuts
• Add the herbs and pepper and buzz briefly 
• Plonk the wet ingredients in, followed by the oats a bit more slowly and buzz till the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs and sticks together easily

• Cut the puff pastry in half
• Place sausage shaped mounds of mixture along the length of the pastry
• Roll and brush with milk or beaten egg
• Place on baking tray (I used oven paper so they wouldn't stick)
• cut into bite sized portions

Bake at 200 degrees C for about 20 - 30 mins. Keep an eye on them because they go golden ... then suddenly burn.

Pastry recipe

• 225 g flour
• 115 g butter
• 1 tblsp fresh chopped oregano
• 1/4 cup cold water - use just enough to bind
• a grind of salt

Buzz in the kitchen whiz till combined. Roll thinly, then lay sausage shaped logs of mixture on the long edge. Roll to encase the mixture, place on baking tray, brush with milk, cut into bite sized portions and bake as above.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo of the end result. My young guests were hungry and it seemed mean to ask them to wait so I could take a photo. Naturally, I then completely forgot so these have been in the frig overnight and don't look their best. But they still taste great cold with a swirl of tomato sauce or a dollop of chutney!

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Meatless Monday: Mushroom Pie Floater

Food never seems to be far from my mind, whether planning meals, or wondering if I'm out of a particular ingredient necessary for a recipe, or thinking how a meal could have been improved.

So, there I was last week without any hint of an idea what to cook for dinner when my lovely neighbour (MLN for short) appeared at the door with a bundle of dried lavender to use in the fire so we could enjoy the wonderful fragrance.

Naturally we got to sharing recipes. MLN is a great cook, and generous sharer of home grown vegetables. She also teaches people on a tight budget how to cook nutritious meals .

I confess, my eyes bulged when MLN said she'd recently taught the class how to cook a Pie Floater.

Could I have misheard? It appeared not. I checked to see if she was joking, but no, she was quite serious. I was skeptical to say the least.

My first introduction to the concept of a Pie Floater was from a South Australian drooling over the memory of eating one at an Adelaide railway station on a cold winter evening. It sounded disgusting.

This did not bode well. But MLN is honest, reliable and, so far, totally trustworthy with recipes, so naturally I had to give it a go.

Here's her version, my vegetarian offering follows.

MLN's Pie Floater
Serves 2.

Purchase a 2 pack of good quality frozen pies
500 gm frozen peas (she liked the minted variety)
about 1 cup boiling water

Cook the pies according to the directions on the pack.

Meanwhile put the frozen peas in a saucepan, add boiling water to almost cover. Cook about 10 mins. Buzz with a wand or food processor. The soup should be very thick.

Ladle soup into bowls, place the pie in an elegant fashion into the soup, swirl tomato sauce on top and enjoy.

I had to eat my unexpressed comments! I'd been hesitant to sample this culinary weirdness, but it was not only delicious, the different textures of crunchy pastry, hot meaty filling and buzzed peas were brilliant together. It was also fun to make as well as being a visual delight.

And of course, being me, I just had to tinker with the recipe the second time...oh, ok the first time too ;-)

Verdant green soup - suitable for pie floater - serves 4

• About 500 gms frozen peas
• olive oil - about 1 tablespoon
• 1 onion - chopped
• chilli
• garlic
• 1 vegetable stock cube & about 1 cup boiling water (or fresh stock) 
• slosh of white wine (1/4 cup?)

Sizzle the onion, garlic and chilli in the olive oil 'till softened. Slosh in some white wine. Add the frozen peas and approx 1 cup boiling water and stock cube (or stock) Simmer for around 10 mins. Whizz with a wand or whatever implement you have - a bit lumpy is fine. (A potato masher would work well if you don't have anything else).

Now for the absolutely amazing mushroom pie. The original recipe came from veggienumnum.com, a wonderful site well worth spending time drooling over!

I'd planned to follow the recipe, truly! But .... well, it just didn't happen that way - I didn't quite have the right ingredients, and there were some useful leftovers in the frig that needed to be used up. Here's my version.

Marvellous Mushroom Pie - Serves 4

Filling:

• olive oil or butter - about 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 large onion chopped (or 1 smallish one, or a leek)
• garlic - I used 3 very large cloves
• chilli - as much as you enjoy
• a slosh of white wine
• 2 large handfuls of button mushrooms - sliced
• 1 large field mushroom - chopped roughly
• 1 large handful of mixed exotic mushrooms - sliced (those wibbly unfamiliar ones from the supermarket unless you really know what you're picking in the wild)
• flour to thicken - about 1 tablespoon
• Stock or stock cube. I only needed about 1/2 cup
• The original recipe called for yogurt, but I had about 8 ping-pong ball sized bocconcini left over from something else, which was an excellent addition.

Heat oil or butter, add onion, garlic, chilli. Sizzle. Add wine, stir. Add mushrooms. Stir. (There seems to be a huge quantity, but they soften and shrink)

Add stock (or boiling water and stock cube) Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour on top gently and evenly or it goes lumpy, and stir to blend it in. (The keen cook will make a swishy sauce, but if you're very careful, this is fine!)

Add the bocconcini and stir till more or less melted. It should be thick. Remove from heat to cool and till you're ready to put it in the pastry.  If you're using yogurt, remove the pan from the heat first. 

Pastry: (easy - honestly!) enough for a 35cm pie dish

• 225 g flour (I used attar which mixes and rolls very easily and seems to stick together better than the standard type)
• 115 g butter
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano (the original recipe used dried thyme which would be lovely too)
• just enough cold water to bind - about 1/4 cup - add slowly as it's easy to overdo it.

I added the flour, a grind of salt and oregano then cut in the butter using two blunt knives (held together to make two blades) to make it look like breadcrumbs.

Add a trickle of water at a time and mix - it shouldn't be sloppy or too sticky.  Divide it very roughly into 1/3 and 2/3. The larger for the base of the pie dish, the smaller for the top. Roll the larger out on a floured board to fit the base of the greased pie dish. Fill with the marvellous mushroom mixture. Roll out the smaller piece and place on top. Pinch the top and bottom together. You could use a pastry brush to paint about a tablespoon of milk over the pastry. I didn't have one, so used my super clean fingers. Make a couple of vents with a knife to let the steam escape.

Cook in a 180 degree C oven for 30 mins or until brown on top.

The original recipe calls for chilling the pastry, but I was running late and didn't want to wait. It worked fine!

You'll notice that I didn't mention individual pie plates. I cut the cooked pie into quarters and collated the pie floater as above. It was stupendous, delicious, scrumptious and simply so amazing that I went out and purchased 4 little pie plates for next time... because there will be many next times!

I'm a convert to pie floaters, and now wonder at my undeniable prejudice toward this wonderful invention.

Sorry about the lack of photo of the marvellous mushroom pie floater, but you know how it is sometimes, food takes precedence over photography ;-)
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Meatless Monday - Mushroom soup

Grey soup? Bleah
Mushrooms? Yech

Whoa! It's not that bad, mushrooms can do taste good and this soup is really easy to cook.

Ingredients: 

• Garlic, of course
• Chilli, naturally! 1 small killer one if you're game, or a shake or two of dried
• Potatoes, 3-4 small, roughly chopped. I left the skin on - fibre is good for us
• Onions, 2 small, again roughly chopped - peeled because onion skin doesn't taste good
• Mushrooms, a few generous handfulls, roughly chopped. Wild would be good if you're confident you know what you're picking. Note: Please be extremely confident if you harvest wild mushrooms. People die slowly and painfully from organ failure when they get it wrong. 
• Salt and pepper. A pinch of the first and a grind of the second. 
• Butter, a small dollop
• Wine, a decent slosh
• Stock or a stock cube. Possibly a cup or two, maybe a bit more 

• Yogurt for topping
• Parsley or coriander to add colour

Method:

• Melt butter (it tastes nicer than olive oil in this soup) I use salt free
• Add onion, garlic, chilli, s & p and stir till it smells wonderful
• Pour a glass of wine, check quality, slosh some in the pan - by this time, the smell is heavenly
• Add potato, stir while you sample the wine again. You may need to add a bit more if it's evaporated too fast 
• When the potato has softened a bit add the mushrooms and stir
• Add stock to almost cover the veggies. I didn't have any fresh so used a chicken stock cube and boiling water
• and that's pretty much it. Bring to a simmer, enjoy the wine then buzz the soup enthusiastically carefully so it doesn't splatter all over the kitchen which is a real pain to clean, especially when it dries and gets baked onto the stovetop.

Enjoy with a slice of wholegrain toast. I think this soup would be good with brown lentils. Next time I'll rinse a handful and add them at the same time as the mushrooms. Please don't use the canned variety, it's so easy to use dried ones and then you know there aren't any additives.

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the first bowl and had to go back for seconds to get a photo ;-) See how the coriander makes it look less boring. Arty types will manage to make the yogurt look elegant - I was more interested in functionality! A sprinkle of paprika would also look (and taste) good, or for the real fire lovers, some fresh chopped chilli.
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Meatless Monday Recipe. Spinach Pie - of sorts

ROAST PUMPKIN, SPINACH AND RICOTTA PIE

Serves 6 - Hah! I don't think so! You could stretch it that far if you have a large salad or other vegies to accompany it which I didn't.

Prep time - 15 minutes ... not the way I cook ... I started by wandering outdoors and picking the spinach (or silver beet because that's all I had) peered in the frig wondering which beer would complement the meal best, then poured said beer, (home-brew: Mexican Cerveza for starters) composed and sent an email ... you get the picture.

Cooking time - around an hour from the time it goes into the oven - that would have been more or less accurate if I hadn't changed the recipe. There's the extra 1/2 hour baking the pumpkin first though, so you need to factor that in.

Ingredients -

• Half a large butternut pumpkin (750g) cut into a 2cm dice. I only had 1/2 a golden sweet potato and 1/4 Japanese pumpkin. It was fine. It just needs to be a dense pumpkin, and not one of those watery, airy ones.

• 2/3 cup light olive oil (or vegetable oil) Light!! I don't think so, first cold pressed for me. I used less though.

 • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

 • 1/2 teaspoon salt

 • 1/4 teaspoon pepper

 • 2 brown onions, sliced

 • 2 cloves garlic, chopped ... Only 2! Tut, tut, 4, 6, 8 or so is fine. It depends on how closely you'll be working with people the next day really.

 • 100g baby spinach ... I used more silver beet (Swiss Chard?) because that's what I had. Next time I'd probably double it I think, or even add some parsley or coriander if I didn't have enough other greens.

 • 6 eggs

 • 1 cup self-raising flour ... I used 1/2 wholemeal, 1/2 white. I could have added a spoon of soy for extra oomph.

 • 1 cup grated tasty cheese

 • 250g tub ricotta ... I used 500g because that's what I'd bought and I didn't want any leftovers.

Next time I'd also add some chilli and roasted pine nuts.

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan forced.)

    Grease and flour a 24cm spring form cake tin. (I used kitchen paper and ignored the greasing. I think any sort of pie dish would be fine).

2. Toss the pumpkin cubes with oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper and roast in a baking tray for 30 minutes or until soft and golden brown.

3. In a frypan over a medium heat, saute onions and garlic in 1 tablespoon olive oil (and the chili if using it). I use a regular saucepan for something like this because it tends to escape messily when you get to the next stage.

4. Take the pan off the heat and toss the spinach through. The spinach will wilt a little. Put the pine nuts in now.

5. In a bowl, beat the 6 eggs. Add the remaining olive oil and mix well. (I forgot to add the extra olive oil, it didn't seem to matter) Add flour and whisk until there are no lumps. (It's quite thick, like a batter, probably because I forgot the extra olive oil and used wholemeal flour.) Stir through the cheese and season with salt and pepper.

6. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and lower the temperature to 180C (160C fan forced). Toss the pumpkin through the onion spinach mixture. The spinach will wilt further.

7. Place half the vegetable mixture in the base of the cake tin and pour half the egg mixture over. Shake the tin to make sure the egg sinks all around the vegetables. Put the other half of the vegetable mixture in and top with the remaining egg mixture and jiggle it to settle.

8. Dollop the ricotta over the top. Using a spoon burrow down a little so that there is some ricotta nestled inside the pie as well... This was a bit of a challenge because I'd decided to double the ricotta. It worked though, and made a lovely deep snowy topping.

9. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and firm in the middle.

Because I'd tinkered with the recipe, it took a lot longer to cook through. At least an hour, possibly more. It eventually became a glorious golden brown and went really well with a bottle of Toohey's Old. This spinach pumpkin ricotta pie would be nice with baked potatoes and coleslaw.


*If you have a child who refuses to eat meatless food, add some bacon or chopped up chorizo sausage when you're cooking the onion

I copied the recipe some time ago, and don't know where it originally came from. 

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Meatless Monday Recipe - Pesto & Pasta

What to do with the mounds of coriander that were wilfully neglected whilst on holiday and to my surprise and delight, flourished?!

Coriander Pesto

• a bunch of coriander - about 5 x 30cm of stalk length with lush leaves. Strip the leaves, rinse and spin around in a tea-towel to get the water off. Best done outdoors if there is a lot of water - you don't want the kitchen floor to be dangerously slippery
• 2 or so cloves of garlic (quantity depending on who you'll be working with the next day - more if you want to offend)
• a squeeze of lemon juice (a half lemon was on the bench looking at me forlornly, I don't usually add lemon, but it worked well in the recipe)
• a *small handfull of pine nuts ... or pistachio/almond/cashew - are all yummy. I roast them in the microwave - 1 minute on high, then shuffle them about, then another minute and so on till they smell scrumptious. Resist attempting to eat them straight out of the microwave - they're dangerously hot. It's possible to roast them in the oven or in a frypan - no need to add oil - keep an eye on them as they burn suddenly and taste horrible if they're burnt.
• a sprinkle of chilli - fresh would be better, perhaps 1/2 of one of those tiny mega hot ones
• a good slosh of olive oil - I use first cold pressed - Aussie of course!
• a grind of pepper
• salt isn't necessary

Buzz in a kitchen whizz or with a buzzy wand Bamix kind of thing.

• now add a *small amount of grated parmesan or similar - buzz again. It should be a consistency that is safe on a biscuit. Not so thick that you cut it with a knife, and not so sloppy that it runs down your fingers and dribbles onto your clothing.  

*Quantities: small handfull is about the size of a small hens egg or what fits into the cupped palm of your hand... as long as it's a small hand

Next: I'll cook up some wholemeal pasta, maybe add a tomato or two, possibly some well cooked chick peas and a very generous dollop of this pesto. I'll possibly top it with some plain yogurt, but maybe not.

Leftovers freeze well in tiny containers or ice cube trays. Do I need to point out if you use ice cube trays they'll need to be REALLY well washed before you use any future ice cubes in a G&T or whiskey.

Coriander Pesto is also scrumptious with cold hard boiled egg, as a sandwich base with some kind of sustainable fish, with cheese or simply as a 'how do I stop eating this' dip on flat bread or bikkies.

**NOTE: This is one of those embarrassing foods that leaves little green bits between your teeth. Be warned!

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Meatless Monday Recipe: Carrot Soup ... sort of.

I'm sitting here licking my fingers and peering into a cold container of leftover orange soup trying to remember how I made it.

Hubby and I had both purchased carrots (because they were cheap) on two consecutive days and hadn't noticed an overabundance of orangeness in the frig. It had turned cold (where did Summer go?) and making carrot soup seemed to be the order of the day. You can use up a lot of carrots in soup!

Ingredients (possibly)
1 Onion chopped
Garlic (lots)
Chili (of course!)
Carrots 500gm? scrubbed and roughly chopped (or more if necessary to make space in the frig for other things)
Pumpkin (whatever was in the frig - possibly 500gm) peeled and unenthusiastically chopped
Sweet potato (a chunk as big as your fist) Less enthusiasm for chopping now, very random chunks.
left over Red Capsicum (it adds a lovely colour) sample as you chop.
Tomatos (the cacky cheap tasteless ones can be used at a pinch - about 8, but less is fine) very half hearted chopping by this stage.

...and what else? Possibly some white wine, (one for me, one for the soup) maybe some cumin, definitely a smidge of salt and pepper, and a vegetable stock cube or frozen chicken stock. Just enough to cover the vegies or it's too watery. I imagine if I'd had a stem of broccoli I'd have added it too and any sad looking leftover vegietables that could have been slumping forlornly at the bottom of the crisper. And there would have been a few bay leaves, parsley, and oregano ceremoniously added and plucked out at the end of cooking. Oh, there was a very soft apple sitting on the bench, it got chopped up and plonked in too.

Method
Put a small glug of olive oil in a large saucepan, heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic and chili. Stir till sizzling. Toss in assorted chopped vegetables, let them sweat and sizzle then add the heated stock - just enough to cover.

Let it bubble away gently for a 1/2 hour or so. When you can squash a piece of carrot against the side of the saucepan, it's ready to be buzzed with a kitchen wand.

Add a dollop of yogurt and enjoy!

What would you have added (or not)?
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Meatless Monday Recipe :)

- adapted from a recipe in Tamara Milstein's "Soup"


This is a really easy recipe and very filling :)

Our neighbour's vegie garden

Indian Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup


60 g ghee
2 Tablespoons ground coriander (sounds a lot but is fine)
500g carrots grated
500g tomatoes chopped
3 Tablespoons sugar (less is fine)
4 Tablespoons vinegar (I used white, but apple cider vinegar could be nice)
1 medium cabbage sliced finely (1/2 a largish one was ok)
4-6 cups vegetable stock


Heat ghee, add coriander, stir.
Add carrots and tomatoes, stir over heat till softened.
Add sugar, vinegar, a smidge of salt and pepper and some of the stock, then buzz till mushy. Keep on low heat.
Add the rest of the stock and the cabbage and enjoy a glass of wine (or beer) while you wait for it to get soft - about 30 minutes or so - when you're on the second glass of wine (or beer) remember to check to make sure it's bubbling along merrily.


Serve with a dollop of yogurt and a grate of nutmeg. I added some precooked brown rice which was scrumptious - I might try a few lentils next time.

Bug free, healthy, prolific - why doesn't my garden look like this?

And why, I hear you ask, did you cook a cabbage soup in the middle of summer? 


It had turned chilly, and our lovely neighbours had appeared at our back door laden with gifts: tomatoes, cabbage and assorted greens. There's only so much coleslaw one can eat in a week before you start looking for something a bit different! Soup was ideal.
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