Vegetarian Nachos

This is the second recipe in our family favourites series.  Recipes that you make, time and time again and you are never quite sure - who in the family it was, that gave you the recipe. It's also very handy to whip this dish up, because the ingredients are mainly what you have in the pantry. With all our family favourites feel free to tweak to your family's taste, we like it hot so you may want to tone down the chilli and cayenne pepper.

Ingredients

1 Medium/large brown onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Oil
1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes or half a bottle of tomato sugo sauce
2 x long red chillies, finely diced (seeds in if you can take the heat)
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (reduce to what you like)
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Packet of corn chips
Cheddar cheese, grated, as much as you like (My son Andrew tells me "you can never have too much cheese"!)

Extra Ingredients (if you have them)
Roasted red peppers, chopped
Corn sliced off the cob

Method

Heat Oil in a deep sided, heavy based frypan.
Sauté chopped onions until softened, add garlic, fry for just a minute, burnt garlic is bitter.
Toss in kidney beans, and all of the spices, stir to combine and let toast for a 5 minutes or more.
Add chopped tomatoes and stir.
Using a potato masher, gently squash bean mixture till it resembles a bubbling mixture but not so smooth as not to have some lumps and bumps.
Add any extras you want at this stage.
Heat oven grill
Place half the packet of corn chips on an ovenproof dish.
Spoon out the bean mixture over the corn chips, ensuring some ends are left not covered.
Then sprinkle grated cheese over the top.
Grill for 5-10 minutes until golden and gooey.

Serve with remaining corn chips, sour cream, guacamole and coriander.

Delicious
Mamma Marmalade

Rice Pudding Creamy and Delicious

Rice Pudding reminds me of English dinners, my Grandmothers and holiday comfort cooking.

Rice Pudding :   recipe from    Feed Your Inner Cook

Holidays often mean a fridge full of leftovers.  Excess milk can be tricky to use up easily.  

This recipe is excellent when the milk is still fine but nearing it's 'use-by' date.  
I particularly like adding a touch of ground Cardamom when the rice is almost cooked instead of the traditional nutmeg or cinnamon.  Cardamom is often called the Queen of Spices with a subtle camphor, bayleaf, minty peppery aroma.  Deliciously different.  A little pinch transforms this pudding from comfort food to exotic. Plus, it will keep for a few days once refrigerated.

Preparation                  5 minutes
Cooking               20 - 30 minutes - needs regular stirring whilst on stovetop.  

Ingredients      I have included measures for small and large sizes.

                                   Small                                   Double
Rice                              5 tablespoons (1/2 cup)       1 cup
Boiling water             1/2 cup                                    1 cup
Milk                              3 cups                                  6 cups
Sugar                          3  tablespoons                      6 tablespoons
Vanilla extract           1/2 teaspoon                           1 teaspoon
Cinnamon or nutmeg      pinch                              1/2 teaspoon
or 
Cardamom ground         pinch                              1/4 teaspoon   Increase to your taste
Method
Place rice in a large saucepan.
Cover with the boiling water and simmer rapidly until water almost evaporates.  
Stir constantly and watch it carefully. Do not boil dry. 
Slowly add the milk and stir well.
Bring to a slow boil.  Stir constantly and keep an eye on it as likely to boil over.
Reduce to a simmer.  Stir regularly.  Remove any 'skin' that forms.
Add the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon or nutmeg  OR cardamom
Stir and slowly simmer until thick and rice is cooked.  Taste to check rice is soft.
simmer until desired consistency, spoonable, but not too runny.
Allow to cool slightly and serve.

OPTIONS
variations:   lovely served with stewed apples or prunes 

Rice Pudding:  Recipe from     Feed Your Inner Cook

Plus:  Check out our earlier post for golden crust baked rice pudding
 http://feedyourinnercook.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/creamed-rice-with-golden-crust-simply.html

Enjoy!  Colleen

Chicken with Tarragon Salsa Verde

A dear friend bought me a copy of  Nigella Lawson's "Instant Italian Inspiration" and I am very grateful, it's one of those "coffee table" recipe books with beautiful photography and Nigella's chatty description of the recipes.  It never fails me, if I am seeking inspiration for something that appears simple but looks impressive and tastes sublime.

Chicken ready to enjoy, presented on a camphor laurel board from Esther & Cameron



Ingredients

4 Chicken breast fillets, skin n
2 sprigs of fresh Tarragon
Pepper freshly ground
Olive oil


Small bunch of parsley, leaves only approx. 20g
Approx. 5g fresh tarragon leaves
1 spring onion in including green section, roughly chopped
Zest and juice 1 unwaxed lemon
1 teaspoon salt flakes
6 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil


Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Place 1 tablespoon olive oil into a shallow ovenproof dish in which the breast fillets will set snuggly, place chicken in dish toss gently to coat in oil and have skin side up. Top with freshly ground pepper.  Tuck sprigs of Tarragon between chicken.

Cook in oven for about 30-45 minutes depending how large the chicken breasts are, until skin is golden and chicken is cooked, but still moist.

Rest chicken whilst you make the salsa Verde
For the sauce:

Combine parley and tarragon leaves with the spring onion, lemon zest, salt flakes and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a container you can use a stick blender to whiz into a paste, adding the lemon juice and remaining 3 tablespoons of oil slowly as you blend.  Add any juices that have come from the cooked chicken and whiz again.

Cut the chicken into slices/pieces and drizzle the tarragon salsa Verde over the top and arrange on a serving platter.

Serve with baked ratatouille or favourite salad.

Wonderful!

Mamma Marmalade








Pearl Barley with Mushrooms, Macadamias and Labna

Byron Bay is a sublime part of Australia and home of “The Farm” restaurant by the Three Blue Ducks chefs who create delicious fresh food sourced from their farm or local producers. Inspired by their cookbook, here is my take on their Mushrooms and Pearl Barley recipe.  It is so satisfying and hearty – packed with flavour but not heavy.  I swapped the bread sauce for Labna, instructions in an earlier post.  Hope you enjoy!

Be sure to go to “The Farm” restaurant if you are visiting Byron Bay and also enjoy a drive into the Mount Warning region and the delightful town of Uki  including a visit to

Esther and Cameron at the Buttery for Handmade Uki treasures.  

Check out information links at end of this post

Preparation   10 minutes

Cooking         30 - 45 minutes

Serves           4 - 5 

Ingredients

Make the Labna the night before    OR  use a 4- 5 tablespoons of thick Greek Yoghurt

http://feedyourinnercook.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/labna-make-your-own-low-fat-quick-no.html

plus

250 gram Pearl Barley

600 -750 gram Mushrooms sliced preferably mix Swiss Brown or Portabello, Enoki and Oyster

Macadamia Oil – Australian    50-60 ml to stir through cooked barley ,plus splash for sauté

1 -2 shallots, finely sliced

1 lemon – zest and a splash of  juice

Baby spinach leaves – a good handful

Some flat leaf parsley – finely chopped

Mixture of flat leaf parsley, mint, tarragon or lemon thyme leaves for garnish - chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

10 -12 Macadamia nuts – chopped and lightly toasted

Method

Add barley to large saucepan of boiling water. Reduce to a simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes

Drain.  Return cooked barley to the saucepan and stir through 50-60 ml Macadamia Oil, parsley and a little salt and pepper to your taste.

While Barley is simmering: 

heat a frypan and gently toast the chopped Macadamias til just golden. Remove from pan.

Next:  add a little Macadamia Oil to the pan and sauté the mushrooms, the thick ones first.

Add the Shallots and baby spinach leaves and stir through.   

Finish with a very small splash of Lemon juice

Taste and  add salt and pepper if needed

Spoon the warm Barley into bowls.  Top with the mushroom mixture.

Dollop with a little Labna or Greek Yoghurt.

Garnish with lemon zest and the chopped mixed herbs. 

More information on

Three Blue Ducks Byron Bay  http://www.threeblueducks.com/byron/home-byron

Esther and Cameron Handmade Uki shop at The Buttery Uki

http://estherandcameron.com/pages/handmade-uki

FaceBook Esther and Cameron Uki

Tweed Heads, Mount Warning and Uki region 

http://destinationtweed.com.au/experiences/nature-eco/page/2/

http://www.ukivillage.com.au/

Happy cooking, Happy Travels and ... Happy Eating!

                                                                                   Enjoy!  Colleen

Lemon Freekah Chicken with Fetta and Kale

So good it deserves an encore!

Lemony freshness seems to pop out of this photo. All the family loved my version of a delicious Donna Hay recipe. Freekah is roasted green wheat grains which give a rich nutty flavour that works so well with the chicken and kale.  The plumped up lemony currants give it zing whilst the nuts add crunch and the fetta rounds it out with creamy saltiness.

Perfect served warm for a family dinner but equally satisfying as leftovers the next day with a green salad.

Serves 5 -6

Preparation 10 minutes

Cook             50 minutes (of which 40 minutes is simmering time)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Australian olive oil

2 brown onions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red chilli finely sliced (optional – to your taste)

1 cup freekah – rinsed well then drained

2 cups (500 ml) Chicken Stock  (Salt reduced)

2 chicken breast fillets – skinless. (250 gm).  Cut into bite size slices

¼ cup pistachios – roughly chopped

¼ cup dried currants – soaked in a dash of lemon juice to plump up

½ bunch of kale. Removed from tough stem and roughly chopped

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

200 gram fetta – crumbled

Pepper and salt – if needed.  To your taste.

½ cup mint leaves

¼ cup dill sprigs

Method

Heat a dash of oil in a large frypan. (use one that has a lid for later).

Add the sliced chicken and quickly brown until almost cooked.  Remove from pan and place in a bowl. Cover with alfoil and keep warm.  Chicken will be returned to pan towards ending of cooking.

Add onion to the pan.  Stir until softened slightly then add the garlic.

Add freekah, stock and chilli.  Stir and bring to boil.

Cover pan with lid and reduce heat and then simmer for 40 minutes.  Check and stir if needed.

If it is drying out too quickly, reduce heat slightly and add a little water.

Taste a little of the freekah to check it is cooked and not hard. Adjust cooking time if needed.

Return the chicken to the pan and then stir through the kale. 

Continue simmering the covered pan for another 5 minutes.

Stir through the nuts, currants, zest and fetta.

Taste and add pepper and salt as needed.

Top with mint and dill.

Serve.

                                              Enjoy!  Colleen