Caramelised Onion and Feta Frittata

Ok so I lied... it's not so much frittata as it is omelet with stuff on top and not folded.... lazy frittata, if you will!

Very good for quick suppers with a salad and bread or potato of some type. Doesn't take long, you can put whatever you've got hanging around in the fridge on it, and it doesn't require turning on the oven. Win!!

As always, can be doubled, tripled, whatever... even cooked in the oven if you're so inclined! Just add 2 eggs per person.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tbs each olive oil and butter

1 onion, sliced fairly thin

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup sliced mushrooms or any other veggie you want to sneak in. I also used 1/4 cup semi-dried tomatoes

5 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup shredded tasty cheese

1/4 cup feta, crumbled

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tbsp each the oil and butter over medium-low heat.

2. Add onion and saute gently 10-15 minutes. Add sugar and balsamic vinegar about halfway through.

3. Remove from pan and heat the remaining oil and butter.

4. Turn heat to high and add mushrooms. Cook until caramelised and soft, about 5 minutes.

5. Add semi-dried tomatoes or any other veggie if using. Pour over eggs and tasty cheese. Season.

6. Turn heat down to medium and cook until mostly set - 6-7 minutes. You can pop under the grill/broiler here if you like. It isn't necessary.

7. Top with warm caramelised onion and scatter feta over the top. Some fresh herbs wouldn't go astray.

Crazy Vegas and the Deep Fried Pickle.

Two insanely amazing things happened to me when we were in Las Vegas last year.

I found out I was pregnant.

I ate my first fried pickle.

I blame/thank my dad for getting me started on the whole pickle train. He and I used to eat canned cucumber slices straight from the tin when I was a teeny little veggie, and I've been hooked on any kind ever since. I love the sweet-tartness of gherkins the best, but I'll eat any pickle I can find. I was never the one to remove it from burgers, instead I would eat everyone else's discarded goodness before they had a chance to throw them at the window or ceiling (what a waste!) or each other. I also remember once in high school my best friend and I went halves in a cheeseburger, and she very diligently also halved the lone pickle inside. Bestest friend ever!

Before I even made it to Vegas, we visited Disneyland for a day, where I found pickles in bags in among all the rest of the snack food one could purchase in the park. Just a pickle. In a bag. Ready to eat.

Veggie Dad was bordering on horrified, but I felt as though I was finally among my people.

The Pickle Fan in her natural habitat.

 If I thought that was amazing, I had no idea what was in store for me when I finally met the fried version. For an insatiable pickle fan, I was embarrassingly unaware it was even possible to fry them. And for them to taste so fricking good. While Veggie Dad played a slot machine in every casino, I gently nursed my little basket of fried goodness from one place to another. Bought from a random concession caravan at the last minute, and with a little pot of ranch dressing for dipping, I thought the pinnacle of my life had arrived. Nothing, surely, would top that moment when I first bit into a crazy-hot, crunchy-crumbed and golden fried spear into the sweet tang of soft pickle below.

Except the next day I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. The pickle was all but forgotten.

We took a bus through the desert. A bus. through the desert. And it was delayed due to a huge accident on the freeway. Desert. Height of Summer. Never Again.

Wasn't much cooler when we got here either. Fairly sure my shoes melted to the sidewalk.

So funny to see the small versions of tourist attractions.

The strip really was quite pretty, once you got around the Elvis impersonators, hammered frat boys with glowing yardglasses around their necks, families of 20 ambling along the sidewalk and ninety-five policemen.

Another highlight of the trip! I wanna be big!!

Sadly, the only way for me to indulge my fried pickle needs these days is to make them myself. Sometimes I just make a whole batch and sometimes I crumb and fry a few when I'm already doing a bunch of other stuff. I don't often eat fried things at home, so it's a bit of a treat.

Ingredients

1 jar dill pickles (or any pickles really, I find bread and butter pickle slices to be lovely and sweet)

1 cup flour

1 cup cornmeal/polenta/breadcrumbs/panko/whatever you like

1 cup milk/buttermilk or 1 egg

Any flavourings you like. I add a dash of paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. And black pepper.

Oil for frying.

Directions:

1. Slice the pickles quarterly lengthwise into spears. Dry on a paper towel.

2. Dip into the milk or egg - egg will create a thicker crumb that will stay together better.

3. Dip into mixed flour, cornmeal and flavourings to coat.

4. Fry (deep or shallow) in hot oil until golden brown.

5. Eat. Faint. Recover. Eat more.

Spinach Feta and Sundried Tomato Strudel

These days, as I waddle around my kitchen in the ever-increasing heat, I am always grateful for dinners that don't take too long and can be paired with a salad. And possibly a potato of some description. The only real requirement is that they have to taste amazing, or I'm not interested. Pretty much standard for the Veggie Mama kitchen where bland food is banned!

But seriously, who doesn't love a dinner that's put together quickly and left in the oven to do its thang without stirring or watching or hovering?

Being that frozen spinach is really quite ... spinach-y ... it's not to everybody's fancy. But it's so convenient and it's packed full of nutrients that both veggies and non-veggies alike can benefit from. The best part is you can pair it with other strongly-flavoured ingredients and the result is like a party in your mouth. I particularly enjoy this soft spinach-feta-tomato combo wrapped in a flaky, parmesan-topped pastry - its so much nicer than anything you get at the shops.

This can be doubled or tripled or whatever you like, just stick your pieces of pastry together at the ends to make an extra-long roll, or bake them in little individual parcels*.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

250g frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed of all liquid

1 cup feta

1/2 cup sundried tomato

1 egg

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Milk or melted butter to brush over, and grated parmesan to sprinkle

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.

2. Mix spinach, feta, sundried tomato, egg and cheddar cheese in a bowl.

3. Spoon on to the middle of your pastry, making a long fat lump that has a narrow gap of pastry at each end, and a wider gap at the top and bottom.

4. Starting with the narrow bits, fold the pastry in. Then fold top and bottom over.

5. Place upside down on a baking tray, brush over milk or melted butter and add parmesan.

6. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and heated through.

Now there's absolutely no reason why you need to stick entirely to these ingredients, except for the fact that they're delicious. You could use fresh spinach, a different cheese, add pine nuts... anything you like. What ar your thoughts? What would you use?

*yeah, right...

Valentine's Day: Heart-Shaped Sponge Cake

A few days ago, my oven door broke off. Yes, off. A tragedy. Was my oven unaware that it was approaching Valentine's Day and Veggie Mama being unable to bake cute treats for Valentine's Day equals severe trauma?

Trauma. Capital T.

Veggie Mama does not do store-bought.

Plan B must be devised. Enter purchased sponge cake. As much as I grimaced while selecting it from the shelf and taking it home to pretty up, I actually felt quite relieved that I didn't have to turn the oven on in the middle of summer and raise the temperature of my little hot-box house by ninety-five degrees.

Please don't tell my oven. I still love him/her.

The result was the fastest and probably easiest Valentine's Day dessert I've ever made. And it was divine! Whipped cream will do that.

All that needs to be done is to cut the sponge into heart shaped pieces, sandwich together with a good strawberry jam and sweetened whipped cream, sprinkle over icing sugar and pop a berry on top. Dessert for two, fuss-free.





Happy Valentine's Day xox

Valentine's Day: Roasted Heirloom Tomato on Goat Cheese Risotto

Valentine's Day is always a Big Deal in our house. Sure we show our love all through the year, and you shouldn't need a reason to give a present and all that, but we sort of see the day as just another excuse to be kind and show our consideration and gratitude to each other. With presents. And food. Veggie Dad is grand gesture man, and I am food provider. I suck at buying presents!

We always go out for dinner, because I am obsessed with high-quality, expertly-made food and I'll take any chance I can to eat it. However. This does not stop me baking treats or coming up with a gourmet meal for the occasion that usually gets eaten the day before or after.

The beauty of this dish is that it's elegant and simple. It looks pretty on a well-laid table, tastes good, doesn't require a thousand hard-to-get ingredients, and is pretty much a one-pot dish. Leaving more time for loving!

It doesn't hurt to have a loaf of really good bread on the side, or a light salad.

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

2 heirloom tomatoes on the vine
1 tablespoon each olive oil and butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup arborio rice
6 cups liquid - stock, water, or a mixture of both simmering on the stove.
120 grams goat cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Roast tomatoes in a medium oven until cooked through and collapsing. They will be deliciously flavoursome and sweet, a perfect contrast to the salty goat cheese.

2. Heat the oil and butter in a casserole or pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook just until soft.

3. Add the rice and cook for one minute.

4. Add a ladleful of stock and stir until absorbed. You could (should) use a glass of white wine here, but I didn't have any. Pregnant sad face.

5. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock as each one is absorbed, stirring all the while, until rice is smooth and velvety. You may need to add more water or stock (I always do, I like my risotto just about mush) to get the desired consistency. Usually takes around 20 minutes. If you're really not a fan of stirring, or don't have the time, add your ladleful and stir vigorously to help the rice grains release their starch, then let simmer. As long as you stir pretty hard every now and then, you should be fine.

6.  When done to your liking, add goat cheese and parmesan, a knob of butter and some salt and pepper. Stir until cheeses dissolve.

7. Serve with a roasted tomato on top and a kiss.

Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables

 I don't know about you, but in summer it is super-hot where I live. I'm always on the lookout for recipes that don't take too long on a steamy night, and one that I can eat outdoors with a nice cold wine* and good company. Preferably only with a fork. And that doesn't require too much washing up. I still haven't found a recipe that will make itself, sadly.

Thanks to Martha Stewart here is a very easy, quick dish that won't have you slaving over a hot stove or oven for too long, but is a little more substantial than a salad. You could really throw anything you like in, asparagus would be nice, some different colour squash... but it's hot, and I'm heavily pregnant and I just couldn't. be. bothered. That's why I love this recipe!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 zucchini
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Two handfuls grape tomatoes
1 package gnocchi
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
1 tablespoon butter
Juice of half a lemon

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and saute until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and grape tomatoes and saute five or so minutes more. You can squash the tomatoes a little as they collapse, which adds to the sauce.
3. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook gnocchi according to package instructions.

4. When they float to the surface, spoon them out with a little water and into the frying pan. Toss and add basil, cheese, butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Add a little more pasta water if it's looking too dry.

Serve with a generous helping of cracked black pepper and some extra parmesan.

Serves 4.



*Wine! Wherefore art thou, wine? A crisp white, a velvety red... a glass of port. I miss you. It's been too long. Have you waited for me? I told you I'd come back... not long now....
Original recipe here

Roast Pumpkin and Haloumi Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing.

Once upon a time I was the editor of a small newspaper in a small town. The small town had several cafes, but I frequented just one - the one that had a roast pumpkin and haloumi salad on its extensive menu. I never once deviated from this choice in all the times I went there - which is incredibly strange, as I love to try new things. I just couldn't stray. If I was to meet someone for lunch, it was to this cafe I'd go, and to my beloved haloumi I would remain loyal.

One particular day, I was racing to get the paper finished by my 1pm deadline. Deadline days didn't usually leave me much time to eat, save whatever snacks I had stashed in a drawer, or whatever lunch I brought from home, microwaved in fits and starts, and mouthfuls eaten sporadically between work. It usually went cold and I would sadly poke at it at about 1.02pm. This day though was hectic. I drank about nineteen cups of tea and tried to forget I was hungry. As soon as that deadline hit, and I saw the last page disappear into the printing ether, I raced out the door and flew down the street in record time. Which hard to do in small towns. People want to stop you and chat. Particularly when you're the editor of the very popular (and slightly controversial) paper. I am sure I may have made a few more enemies that day, but I didn't care, all I wanted was the pumpkin and haloumi salad, and ain't nothing was going to stand in my way.

I don't even remember eating it. But I've no doubt it was good.

As is this one - the salty crispness of the haloumi pairs so well with the smooth, sweet pumpkin and the lemon dressing really adds another dimension of deliciousness. Very easy to throw together, and you can add whatever you fancy to flesh it out - this recipe should just be a guide.

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped pumpkin

Several handfuls lettuce

1 can lentils, rinsed and drained well

2 ripe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes would be even better), quartered

2 packets haloumi, sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

1. Roast the pumpkin and tomatoes in a 220C oven 15-20 minutes until soft and just starting to brown, turning once. I dusted mine with cinnamon, chili and sea salt.

2. Arrange the lettuce, lentils, tomatoes and/or whatever else you're using on plates.

3. Mix the lemon juice, honey and olive oil.

4. Fry the haloumi over medium-high heat until browned on both sides, a couple of minutes.

5. Top the salad with haloumi and dressing.

I only had sad little iceberg lettuce today (thanks so much, Brisbane floods/Queensland cyclone!) but I would totally recommend a nicer lettuce.

Award Season

Fer cereal! The wonderfully stylish and ever-so-put-together* Nikki from Styling You has awarded me the Stylish Blogger award, and I'm excited.

The rules go a little something like this:

1. Say thanks and link back to blogger who passed on the crown. Thanks!
2. Share 7 things about myself.
3. Award 15 bloggers the Stylish Bloggers Award.
4. Contact them and tell them that they, too, are stylish.

As per the rules, Nikki shared seven things about herself - the seven times she found herself not quite so stylish, and I'm going to do the same - the seven times I was decidedly unstylish in the kitchen.


1. The Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. Oh dear. Who makes vegetable lasagna without the vegetables? I do!

2. The Thanksgiving Stuffed Pumpkin.  Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to make a vegetarian centrepiece for Thanksgiving. She roasted the pumpkin whole without a top. It got decidedly watery. She kept bailing it out. It never seemed to brown. She spent the whole day prior making her very own veggie stock, and very own cornbread for the stuffing. It all seemed to come together ok, and she stuffed the pumpkin with it. She then roasted the pumpkin some more until it was heated through and golden brown on top. Veggie Boyfriend (at the time) told her he'd invited a few people around for dinner at the last minute. None of whom were vegetarian. They sat down and struggled through a sloppy, watery pumpkin filled with some soggy, tasteless goo in the middle. Experiment 1 = fail. A lot of mashed potato was eaten that night.

3. The Unbearably Hot Fish Curry. In an effort to branch out and use a different type of curry paste in the interests of seeing if there were any better than the one I was currently using, I bought a type I'd never tried before. I used the requisite amount, added all the bits and pieces and everything was smelling rosy. Well, curry-y. Along comes Mother in Law, whom we invite to dinner as there's plenty, and she lives alone. That's when I decided to taste the curry to see how it was coming along.

Ouch.

I put in more coconut cream, more stock, more everything.

Still ouch.

It was devastating - that first split second where everything tastes amazing, and then the eyeball-searing heat that follows and drowns out every single other thing you try to do. It no longer tastes like curry, it only tastes like burning.  We ate tiny bites with gigantic spoonfuls of rice, and I had to give up after about five minutes. MIL soldiered on, adding sour cream to the mix, and managed to eat the whole thing. Respect!

Meanwhile, I now keep an emergency can of coconut cream in the cupboard for just such emergencies.

4. The pea puree. (I know what you're thinking - how can you stuff up a puree?) I had morning sickness. A lot. I didn't want to cook, but you know, husbands need to be fed and all that. I figured the refrigerated ravioli from the supermarket would suffice, but instead of buying a pre-made sauce to go with it, I decided to serve it on a bed of baby pea puree with a lot of parmesan and black pepper over the top. In my mind, it sounded uber-delicious. In reality, it was a soupy mess with green liquid, hard little bits of uncooked pea and not-entirely-cooked-through-in-my-haste-to-stop-cooking-already-and-sit-down pasta. Tasteless. Unappetising. Husband politely said it would be nice if it wasn't soupy. For the first time in my adult life we abandoned my culinary effort and ate something else. Yay being pregnant!

5. The Marshmallow Fluff Incident. Being a fan of American food, I spotted a jar of Marshmallow Fluff in my local supermarket. I bought it and attempted to make a Fluffernutter - a Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter on white bread sandwich. One bite. Couldn't even swallow. To this day the thought makes me gag.

6. The time I made a cake and forgot the flour.  True story. I was extremely poor, and made a lot of things from scratch in regular rotation. One of these things was a banana cake, in which sometimes I'd add some chopped apple or pear. So this one day, at least the eight or nine-millionth time I'd made this cake, I creamed the butter and the sugar, added the eggs and fruit and popped it in the preheated oven. Twenty minutes later I stared at it stupidly wondering why it wasn't rising. Duh.

7. The homemade ravioli that sorta kinda didn't get cooked before we ate it. Again I hear you ask: "huh?" Let me qualify by saying I was pregnant, and suffering from baby brain in the extreme. I found myself skipping steps in recipes I knew by heart, completely by accident. I would drive around for ages until I realised I was twelve kilometres in the opposite direction. I'd go to the supermarket to get bread and would come home with coffee. I left the hair straightener on twice in one day. Et cetera and so on.

The scary thing is that I'd never get that nagging feeling I was forgetting something, or that something was off. I was blissfully unaware even when on the verge of burning the house down. So it was this day I was making a ravioli. A delicious filling went lovingly into wonton wrappers and sealed prettily. Layered beautifully with cream and garlic and fresh tomato and lemon and parmesan and into the oven it went until bubbling and golden brown.

Sitting down to eat, raving over the flavour and how easy the recipe was. Chewing. Chewing. Wondering why the texture was weird. Wondering why it kind of tasted raw. Wondering how I could possibly forget the entire step of boiling the ravioli first. Isn't that what you DO with pasta? boil it?

I won't miss you, baby brain!


Ok now I'm supposed to give this to 15 other bloggers, but a lot of y'all have this already. So I've decided to give it to a random number of blogs I love that have started up in the last year. I love them all for many and varied reasons - writing I'm jealous of, cooking I want to eat, that sort of thing. So without further ado, here are my recipients:

Martyr-hood

The Ambiguity Report, Maybe

Suburp

Maid in Australia

Keeping up with Lucy

The Recipe Binder


PS please tell me your kitchen disasters so I don't feel quite so bad....

*This is true, as I've gone to her house unnanounced and she looked gorgeous. Truly a style star!

Vintage Lane - Cherry Ripe Slice from the Harston CWA Recipe Book

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This little gem of a cookbook was once owned by my great-grandmother, and was given to me after my nana died. I couldn't make the interstate funeral, so my mother brought me back some of her aprons and all the cookbooks she could find. This one has all the recipes for slices and baked goodies I remember eating when I was a kid in the '80s, when it was the thing to do to bring a chocolate mint slice or tupperware container of honey joys to a potluck or backyard barbecue. And it was the thing for me to do to hover around the table and gorge on as many of them as I could...

Oh, hey Granny!

This book is dated October 31, 1981 and the foreword congratulates the Harston CWA members on 25 years' service to the community, and mentions that this cookery book is hoped to be a "challenge to the experienced and an aid to the newly-weds".

My favourite part of the book is this: an aid to good people everywhere.

Disgusting, yet helpful...

Something for everyone

I've said it before, but I'm totally bringing back the word "luncheon" to describe the midday meal. And I get a little excited when something is termed "savouries"... this book gives recipes for curried eggs, savoury tuna slice, toasted cheese sticks and a "desperation dinner" - meatballs in savoury sauce with potatoes on top... all stuff you'd normally find in a pantry.

Other highlights include boiled chicken loaf, rice a riso casserole, braised rabbit, golden syrup dumplings (yum!), jelly slice, and pickled zucchini.

This page looked especially popular:

Mmm flour that's as old as I am...

Casting my mind back to those barbecue tables all those years ago (ahem), the standout favourite for me was the Cherry Ripe Slice. Therefore, it's vitally necessary that I re-live those wondrous moments...

Recipe: Cherry Ripe Slice

Ingredients:
1 lb malt biscuits
2oz chopped glace cherries
1/2 teaspoon cochineal
1 tablespoon caster sugar
3oz Copha
1/2 lb coconut
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp almond essence

Directions:

Grease a 7" x 11" swiss roll tin and arrange a layer of malt biscutis in the base. Melt copha and mix in remaining ingredients, blending thoroughly, spread over layer of biscuits. Top with another layer of biscuits, pressing them firmly into mixutre. Ice with chocolate icing when set, cut into small squares. Cherries and almond essence may be omitted OR replace evaporated milk with 3/4 cup condensed milk and cut out caster sugar.



I totally forgot the caster sugar (but it didn't seem to make a noticeable difference), and only used one packet, or 250g of the malt biscuits. Nor did I grease the tin, but did put down a piece of greaseproof baking paper. Still tastes just as I remember it!