As easy as pie

I've always had a weakness for pastry, so I invented a pie that I can whip up as a quick meal for one or can use as a simple mid-week dinner party recipe.  What's particularly good in respect of the latter is that as it involves making individual pies, you can cater for individual tastes.  So when I made them for Narelle the other night I left the mushrooms out of hers : )  I've also found some low-fat pastry sheets that are a little healthier than the full fat ones (http://www.pampas.com.au/products/products.php?cat_id=1), and they only take 10 minutes to defrost so you can keep them in the freezer.

Hasty Tasty Pastry: Individual Cheese and Vegetable Pies

Serves as many as you want!

Packet of frozen individual puff pastry sheets
1 beaten egg for glazing
Filling: Any combination of vegetables and cheese that you like.  I often use spinach leaves, sliced portobello mushrooms, semi-dried tomatoes and goats cheese.  I've also used blanched pumpkin (cut it into thin slices and drop into boiling water for 1-2 minutes), pesto and kalamata olives. 

1. Set the oven to 220 degrees and take the pastry sheets from the freezer to defrost.

2. Wash the spinach, thinly slice the mushrooms and blanch the pumpkin (if you are using).

3. Once the pastry is defrosted, make cuts in the top half of the pastry sheet(s) using a 1.5cm spacing and leaving a 1.5cm border.  I've included a sketch of this below as I'm writing this from work - next time I make them I'll take a photo!

4. Layer the filling on the bottom half of the pastry, leaving a 1.5cm border. I would usually put the spinach down first, then the mushrooms, the tomatoes, and the cheese.

5. Brush the border of the bottom half of the pastry with some beaten egg.  Fold the top half over it and crimp the edges with a fork (just the three cut edges, not the folded edge).

6. Brush the top of the pastry with some more of the beaten egg and bake until golden brown (about 20 minutes).

Meals on Wheels

Sadly Thursday was my friend Narelle's last night in Melbourne before she moved to Sydney.  To mark the occasion we had dinner on the Tram Car Restaurant, that most Melbourne of activities immortalised by Kath and Kim in one of their episodes.  I was relatively dubious when Narelle suggested it a few weeks ago, but after being told by several people that it is in fact a great night out, I warmed to the idea.  It turned out to be a fantastic and very memorable night!  Food-wise it had more of an emphasis on quantity than quality, but the novelty of being in a tram lasted for the whole night - and as they keep your glass filled up at all times, you certainly leave feeling happy.  I would definitely recommend it : )

http://www.tramrestaurant.com.au/

Pub Grub

One of the multitude of things I love about Melbourne is the high quality low price food that is served in the pubs.  Some of my favourites are:

• The Napier Hotel - home of the Bogan Burger, which is not a dish I'm willing to try but damn it is funny watching people struggle to finish it - could you eat a burger that contains steak, chicken schnitzel, caramalised onions, cheese, pineapple, beetroot, potato cake, bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato?  
• The Gertrude Hotel
• Roo and wine for $11.99 on Mondays at the Edinburgh Castle
• Two for one meals at the Wesley Anne on Monday nights

http://www.thenapierhotel.com/
http://www.thegertrudehotel.com.au/
www.myspace.com/edinburghcastlehotel
http://www.wesleyanne.com.au/

Coda: NFR?

I was lucky enough to go to Coda for lunch the other week... and I think it could just be my NFR (New Favourite Restaurant).  On the corner of Flinders Lane and Olivers Lane, it's one of those semi-basement spaces where you can see the footsteps of people walking by from the windows that are set just above the pavement level of the laneway.  The menu is asian-fusion, and features a range of small to large items, including around a dozen "one-bite" dishes... how blissful, no need to pick just one entree when you can have six : )  My favourite was the spanner crab served on a betel leaf with galangal, roasted chilli and lime.  We accompanied our feast with a very drinkable pinot grigio.  And since our group was lucky enough to be shouted lunch by our manager, I'm not sure what the bill was!  Anyway, I will definitely be back to Coda for some more of their amazing food, wine and service. 

http://www.codarestaurant.com.au/

Keeping in tuna

I'm really enjoying Delicious magazine's light food sections at the moment.  Whilst I love the rich decadent recipes in food magazines, I often prefer to cook lighter dinners, especially on weeknights.  Last night Narelle came over for one of our midweek dinner catch ups and I made the following recipe which is adapted from the May 2010 edition of Delicious and which we both agreed was a really nice light meal.

Tuna Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

The Delicious recipe calls for raisins in the sauce but I left them out as I don't really like raisins in savoury dishes.  I made a two thirds batch to serve 2 people. 

1 thick slice of day old sourdough or ciabatta, crusts removed, torn into small pieces
150ml milk (I used rice milk)
500g tuna fillets, trimmed and cut into 5mm cubes
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons grated pecorino or parmesan
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 teaspoon caster sugar
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. 

2. Soak the bread in the milk for five minutes, then lift out and squeeze it to remove the excess liquid.  Discard the milk and place the bread, tuna, herbs, cheese, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Mix with your hands until well combined (I recommend wearing food preparation gloves for this bit).  Add the egg and mix well, then form into 12 meatballs.  Place on an oiled baking tray, brush or spray with oil, then bake for 15 minutes until firm and lightly golden on the bottom.

3. For the sauce, add the oil and garlic to a pan and heat until the garlic is fragrant.  Add the tomatoes, parsley, sugar, salt and pepper,  bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes until it has reduced slightly.

4. Add the meatballs (browned side up) and simmer for a few minutes until warmed through (you don't want them to start falling apart though).  Divide among 3 to 4 bowls, scatter with pine nuts, and serve.

Sydneytastic

Had a fantastic time in Sydney last weekend visiting Julie and Bel, and of course there were lots of great food moments to record!

Julie and I started the weekend with the Bronte to Bondi coastal walk, which has to be one of the best urban-based coastal walks in the world.  The surf was HUGE, and watching the aquamarine waves roll in from our clifftop vantage point was entrancing.  We rewarded ourselves with beautiful thin crust pizzas at Bondi Pizza (http://www.bondipizza.com.au/) before walking at a somewhat slower pace back to Bronte... I probably should have ordered the small pizza but I just couldn't resist...

On Saturday night Bel had booked a table at The Bentley in Surry Hills (http://www.thebentley.com.au/).  After a very bizarre moment where the maitre d' accused us of cancelling the table earlier (all we can think of is that he mistook Bel's phone call letting him know she'd be 10 minutes late for a cancellation instead???) we were able to start enjoying the creativity of the Bentley's chefs.  After having the worst duck of my life a few weeks ago (see one of my earlier posts!) it was fabulous to have the best duck ever.  It's definitely inspired me to give cooking it a go.

And on Sunday Julie to me to Adriano Zumbo's patisserie (http://www.adrianozumbo.com.au/).  Before you die you have to go there!  His sweet creations are like poetry on a plate... but edgy, off-centre and slightly surreal verse, complemented by eye-popping colours.  The cakes are almost architectural, with layers of texture, density and flavours that you would never think to use together.  We bought a bag of macaroons (including Kalamata Olive and Pumpkin Risotto flavours) and three cakes: the Black Pearl, the Ginger and the custard tart.  I wish I had written down all the the ingredients of Black Pearl - from what I can remember, there was pear, liquorice, and perhaps basil, which sounds inedible but it was delicious.  Kind of like a twisted lemon meringue pie, it had a biscuit base topped with layers that included crunchy pear, maybe a basil jelly, and green and black tipped meringue on top.  Zumbo, I'm in love with your patisserie!

This one's for Miriam!

I had a long-distance phone call with my beloved friend Miriam tonight.  Over the years Miriam and I have lived together in three different houses, including in our first place out of home when we were poor uni students.  The flat in question was a crumbling villa on a slightly dodgy street, but we loved it.  Back then our flat of four people survived on a weekly grocery budget of $80 (in total, not each), which just blows my mind now when I think about it.  We even had to spend $5 of the money on a taxi home as none of us had a car to bring the groceries back in! 

Anyway, Miriam has always been a fantastic supporter of my food obsession, and cooking for her is a joy.  We even used to have a deal where if I cooked dinner she would clean the shower (my most hated cleaning task), ha, it made cooking for her an even more attractive proposition.  Unfortunately now that we are living in different countries we can't make the most of this mutually beneficial arrangement, but at least I can send her a recipe via this website.  Miriam, it was what I was making as we were talking on the phone, and it's gluten free!  I made it up from random ingredients in my fridge, so I didn't measure anything.  If I make it again soon I'll repost the recipe with more exact ingredients and perhaps some variations.

JULY 2011 UPDATE: Miriam came to visit me this month, so I finally got to make this for her, yay!  And I have now updated the recipe with more precise quantities.  And we have decided to call it MIMELLONI.

Pasta-less Pumpkin and Goats Cheese "Cannelloni" AKA Mimelloni

Serves 2 - the perfect amount for Sarah and Miriam!  A variation is to roast instead of boiling the pumpkin (cut it into small 1cm squares and roast them until golden brown).  I have also made a version with spinach instead of pumpkin - just add a bunch of chopped spinach to the pan once the red onion is cooked, wilt it down, and squeeze the excess moisture out.  

"Cannelloni"
1 large eggplant
1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil (I use olive oil spray instead)
1 cup of pumpkin chopped for boiling (or roasting as noted above)
Salt and pepper
60g of goats cheese (or you could use ricotta or feta)
1/2 red onion
1/2 cup of grated pecorino or parmesan cheese

Sauce
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves garlic of, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano (you could use fresh, and add with the tomatoes)
1 pinch chilli flakes (optional)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh parsely, chopped (optional)

1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar
Salt and pepper

1. Cut the eggplant lengthwise into 1/2 cm slices, spray or brush with olive oil and grill each side until they start to brown.  You want the slices to be soft enough so you can roll them up, but not overcooked as they will fall apart.  Once you are done with the grill, set the eggplant aside and heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Cook the pumpkin in some salted boiling water until tender.  Season and mash.

3. Finely chop the red onion and sautee in a little oil until soft and add to the pumpkin.

3. Add the olive oil, garlic, oregano and chilli flakes to a saucepan.  Heat gently until the garlic becomes aromatic then carefully add the tomatoes (they can spit when they hit the oil) and the sugar as well as the parsley if using.  Simmer for two minutes then season with salt and pepper. 

4. Spread half of the tomato sauce in a 20cm x 20cm baking dish.

4.  Lie a slice of eggplant horizontally on a plate, spread the middle third with goats cheese, add some of the pumpkin mixture, then roll up and place cut side down in the dish.  Repeat with all the slices, pour the rest of the sauce around the "cannelloni" and sprinkle with the pecorino or parmesan.  Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted and golden.

Enjoy Mim!!!

Pan fried gnocchi with pumpkin = delicious autumnal goodness

I haven't watched as much of this season's Masterchef as I would like to, even though episodes are available on-line (http://www.masterchef.com.au/).  However I did see the episode where the contestants had to cook Matt Moran's pan-fried quail with gnocchi, roast pumpkin, brown butter and sage.  Quail's not really my thing but I was interested in the pan-friend gnocchi.  I asked my friend Bridie who is an amazing chef (and who has answered many of my cooking questions over the years!) for her gnocchi recipe as she has wowed customers and food critics with it before.  Her main hint was to use desiree potatoes, and I found some great organic ones at the South Melbourne Market.  I then found that the latest Delicious magazine has a recipe for gnocchi where the potatoes are baked rather than boiled, so I incorporated this technique into the recipe - it resulted in wonderfully light fluffy potatoes.  For the rest of the recipe I added some pan-fried pumpkin, rocket, walnuts and blue cheese.  Narelle brought the red wine and we had a great autumnal dinner!

Pan-fried Gnocchi and Pumpkin with Rocket, Walnuts and Blue Cheese

Serves 4

For the gnocchi:
1 kg desiree potatoes with the skins on
2 cups salt
1/2 kg flour
salt and pepper
100gm butter
3 egg yolks
Olive oil
 
For the rest:
500g pumpkin, cut into 1cm cubes
2 T cooking oil
1/2 cup walnuts
150g blue cheese
2 cups rocket
Olive oil
 
1. Spread the salt on a baking tray so it is about 1cm thick.  Prick each potato several times with a fork and bake at 180 degrees until tender. 
 
2. While the potatoes are cooking, blanch the pumpkin cubes for approximately 3 minutes in salted boiling water. Refresh in ice water and then drain.
 
3. Toast the walnuts in a frypan until golden.
 
4. Once the potatoes are cooked, allow to cool a bit, cut in half and scoop the potato from the skins.
 
5. Mash the potatoes and put through a potato ricer if you have one.  Season with salt and pepper and add the flour, melted butter and egg yolks to form a soft dough.
 
6. Spread the dough on a floured board, knead a little and then divide it into 6 pieces.  Roll each piece out until it is 2cm thick and cut into 2cm pieces.  Place on a single layer on a tray and set aside.
 
7. Boil the gnocchi for one minute.  You don't need to wait for all the gnocchi to float to the top like you do with store-bought gnocchi.  Refresh in iced water, drain and then toss with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
 
8. Heat the cooking oil in a fry pan, fry the pumpkin 'til golden, then remove and fry the gnocchi 'til golden. 
 
9. Divide the rocket onto 4 plates, and add pumpkin, gnocchi, walnuts and crumbled blue vein cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil.

Forget cheese on toast ... quesadillas are the ultimate melted cheese experience.

I had a great weekend which consisted of dinner and drinks every night at cheap and cheerful places which produced some wonderful dishes (and one terrible one!).  Friday night we started with drinks at the Canary Club (www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/canary_club) and finished with dinner at Ants Bistro in Chinatown (www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/ants_bistro/map), which has been a relatively regular Friday night haunt for me over the last couple of years.  Julie, if you read this, I think they've changed the chef!  The Kung Po prawns are no longer deep fried and are way less spicy - although it actually makes for a better dish, as I think the removal of the batter and the need to engage in a chilli eating contest to consume it means one can concentrate on the flavours instead. 

Sunday night we had a slightly odd night in Richmond at the Royal Saxon (http://www.royalsaxon.com/) and the Cherry Tree Hotel (http://www.thecherrytree.com.au/) - the first being a very lowly-lit bar to aid the meat market attendees in looking their best for each other, and the second being totally overlit - white walls and bright lights do not make for a great night time venue!  We finished with dinner at Minh Minh (www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/minh_minh), where the tofu with lemongrass was divine and the duck in plum sauce was inedible (note to self: never eat deep fried duck again).

But the best food was on Saturday night at De Los Santos (http://www.delossantos.com.au/) on Brunswick with Narelle, Ngaio and Robyn.  I just looooove tapas and DLS didn't dissapoint.  We had piquillo rellenos (piquillo peppers stuffed with persian feta and preserved lemon served with smoked eggplant puree), ensalada maíz y queso (a salad of roasted sweet corn, witlof, spinach, spiced almond salad, grated sheep's cheese, red onion and sherry vinaigrette), bola de queso y patata (pan fried potato dumplings with toasted pine nuts, brandied raisins and olive oil) and quesadillas - the ultimate mexican toasted sandwich.  The latter reminded me of a phase I went through a couple of years ago when I would make a stack of quesadillas for dinner, so I've dug out the recipes I used to make, including a cheese-free one from back in the day before I discovered I could eat goats and sheeps milk cheese (since cow's milk is not my friend...).  I'm also looking forward to trying a few more variations to add to my repertiore, so Ngaio you'll have to remind me what fillings you use when you make them!  I'm also going to experiment with the cooking techniques - you can cook them in a fry pan or in the oven. 

Potato-filled Quesadillas

As this recipe doesn't have cheese to bind the quesadilla, it may be easier to cook it in the oven.  Next time I'm going to make a fresh tomato salsa to go with it.  Serves 4.

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 large floury potato, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
1 cup vege or chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Eight 20cm flour tortillas
Optional garnishes (I usually go for the tomato): 1 cup sour cream, 1 seeded and chopped tomato, sliced jalapeno peppers

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Line two trays with baking paper.

2. Heat the oil in a medium frypan over a medium heat.  Gently fry the onion slices, stirring often, until they are golden.  Add the potato cubes and cook for one minute, then add the stock and cook for 8 to 12 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the liquid has been absorbed.  Season with salt and pepper. 

3. Place four tortillas on the baking sheets, and add a quarter of the potato mixture to each, spreading it evenly (but leaving a 1.5cm gap at the edges otherwise it will fall out when you flip it).  Top each with a tortilla, press down and spray or brush with some olive oil.  Bake for five minutes each side (I'll admit, it's not the easiest thing in the world turning them over!) or until lightly browned and hot all the way through.  Serve by cutting each into eight wedges.

Corn, Bean and Onion Quesadillas

Next time I make these I'm going to try finely chopped fresh chilli instead of chilli powder, and maybe I'll add some chopped fresh coriander too.  With the corn my view is that fresh is so much better than frozen if available; it's not hard to cut the kernels from the cob and boil them for a couple of minutes and it's so worth it.  On the flipside, I do usually go for canned beans rather than freshly cooked!  Serves 4.

Eight 20cm flour tortillas
1 cup of cooked corn kernels
1 cup cooked kidney beans
1/2 cup paper-thin slivers of red onion
2 cups grated cheese
1 teaspoon chilli powder
Sour cream (optional)

1. Evenly sprinkle four of the tortillas with one quarter of the corn, beans, cheese and chilli powder, leaving a 1.5cm gap at the edge.  Top each with another tortilla and press down to help them stick together.

2. Heat a large ungreased frypan over a medium heat.  Cook each quesadilla for about 4 to 5 minutes each side until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are starting to get brown flecks.  If the tortillas are a bit dry when you buy them you can coat the pan with a little olive oil spray.

3. Cut each quesadilla into eight and serve (with sour cream if you like).