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What the kids eat in… Russia

June 25, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, What the kids eat in... · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, recipe, salmon, vegetables

Perhaps it’s my frozen feet, but I’m back thinking about world food and looking for inspiring ways to warm my cockles. I’m figuring that a country with large chunks of permafrost might be able to give me some good guidance.

So what do the Russians feed their kids in those early years before Vodka becomes the staple diet? Well, the freezing climate and general poverty makes for a fairly grim culinary history (of course, this is just my opinion), but a fish pie or ‘kulebyaka’ is a bit of a bright spot. Traditionally it’s made with a thicker pastry, but I’ve got a great filo version that is so nice and crunchy that the kids are guaranteed not to notice the range of vegies which combine with the rice and boiled eggs to provide a complete nutritional shot.

Now, fearers of filo, I hear your pain. It can be a nuisance to work with. But if you give it plenty of time to defrost you’ll have a better chance of success. Once thawed, open it out, cover it with a clean, damp tea towel and be a bit patient. Your first one or two might not be quite so gorgeous, but they’ll still be yummy and that’s the main thing.

Crunch, yum. Crunch, YUM. Feet still cold though.

Filo ‘kulebyaka’ cigars

1 packet filo pastry
250g packet microwave rice
415g can red salmon (pink will do, but red is much nicer in this recipe)
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 small carrot, peeled, grated
1 small zucchini, grated
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, diced
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp dill
Pepper

Leave the pastry out to thaw – read packet for product specific instructions.

Preheat the oven to 190C, line two trays with baking paper.

Cook the rice according to packet instructions. Set aside leave to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, combine all of the vegies, salmon (crush any bones), eggs, zest, dill and pepper. Add in the rice and mix well.

Open the (well defrosted) filo out. Spray a sheet then fold it in half, so that it’s almost a square. Dollop ¼ cup amounts of mixture in a line parallel to the fold line. Allow about 3 centimetres free at either end. Roll the pastry around the mix. Don’t worry if you get a tear. Just keep gently rolling until you have a nice cigar shape. Squeeze the ends closed.

You can make these to this point then refridgerate until you want to cook them. Just give them a spray of oil and store them between layers of baking paper.

When you’re ready to cook them, pop them on the trays. Spray with oil and bake for 20 minutes until golden and crunchy.

Makes about 16.

128 pages, 40 projects, 85 pages of printables…

Did you see that I’ve birthed the latest Vegie Smugglers product? It’s a ‘Craft for non-crafty’ e-book. I’ve collated up all of my favourite projects and added a bunch more, covering food, fun & learning. It’s available now at the shop…

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Yule be right – the shortest day is almost done

June 20, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged celebrations, cooking techniques, fruit, kids, parenting, recipe

About 15 years ago I got really interested in Wicca. I was living in London and watching the seasons swing by. It was pretty fascinating to visit some pagan sites and become a bit in tune with nature. It made SENSE to me in a way that Christianity never has.

Of course this crazy new concept called the internet was in its infancy, so I did heaps of my research in BOOKS, with helpful chapters like “How to find a coven” and “Why were witches persecuted?”. Needless to say I never did find a coven and coming back to Australia, with the opposing seasons, it all got a bit confusing and topsy turvy.

Northern Hemisphere paganism definitely fits more nicely into the calendar year. In June, when sunk in the depths of winter depression, I always think how nice an upcoming Christmas (or ‘yule’ if you’re a witch) celebration would be. I could really use something cheery, with presents and family and food. There’s not really any need for it here in December – such an overload of good times!

For me, reaching the winter solstice is an annual milestone. I like to quietly note it. I’m thinking of including the kids in a little candle lighting ceremony this year. The tradition is to spend a minute or so in the dark, contemplating the darkest day of the year. Then light just one candle, to symbolise life being reborn (sorry, does that sound too witchy?).

At the moment week 8 tiredness has combined with winter illness to transform my children into feral creatures, so it’ll be nice to force them into stillness. Although I strongly suspect my meaningful moment will be interspersed with Mr M&P doing a fart noise, then Miss F setting half the kitchen on fire. They’re just a bit crazy like that right now.

But if we make it through, I’ll finish off with a simple dinner of celebration. You might want to too. Turkey, pork and traditional ‘Christmas’ foods are good. And finish with a dessert that pays tribute to the simple seasonality of life, like these baked apples.

Symbolic, easy and most importantly, delicious.

Baked apples

For each small/medium apple, you will need…

1 tbsp currants
6 hazelnuts (or 2 tsp hazelnut meal)
2 walnuts
1/4 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp Amaretto liqueur or brandy would also be nice (you may want to leave this out of the kid’s ones)
1 tsp treacle

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Core the apple. Slice around the circumference to avoid it bursting during cooking. Place it in a baking tray (I use a loaf tin lined with baking paper).

Mix all of the other ingredients together and fill up the empty centres. Drizzle some water (about a 1/4 cup should do) in the tray to help them cook.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until soft. Serve with icecream.

MAKES 1.

PS My husband is constantly telling me that if I want my biz & blog to be more successful, then I need to self promote more. He says I need photos of myself everywhere. But I HATE having my photo taken. So I’m compromising with my Winter-solstice, self-portrait.

Self portrait (before I light the candle).

Happy solstice to all!
x

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Dad is fun. Mum is mad.

June 4, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, Red meat · Tagged cooking techniques, educational, feeding the family, freezer, recipe, vegetables

I’ve become the ‘writing lady’ at my kindy reading groups. Each week, armed with white boards, markers and plenty of patience (I stay firmly focused on getting home afterwards to a cup of tea and a sit down) I teach rotating groups of 5 year olds (the groups rotate, not the children) how to write beautiful sentences. Unlike my verbose writing style, I’m finding at this stage that their sentences are much more statement-like. Stating truths and myths from life as a kindy kid. It’s pretty interesting. Fact.

Today they had laminated sentence starters that they had to copy down and then they got to finish off with whatever words they liked. Conversation starters like, “I can…”, “I went…”, “My family…”. And of course “Dad is…”, and “Mum is…”.

Without fail, Dad was fun. Every time. Sometimes fun. One was funy. Another funne. One other funee. But always upbeat, jovial, joking, FUN.

Generally, Mum was mad. One mum was nortee (naughty). One mum was sad.

Now, I’ve noted in my own life, that dad is fun and mum is mad. So perhaps it is a universal truth. What do you think, is this the case at your house? Or maybe the genders aren’t important and actually it’s the primary caregiver that has the shits most of the time and whichever parent arrives home in time to read a book and have a cuddle at bedtime finds it much easier to remain AWESOME.

Or perhaps it was just a morning for clichés. Even without overhearing each other, the same word patterns got repeated again and again. Pretty much all the kids had also apparently been shopping or to the zoo on the weekend (“I went…sopig”), and they all like treats (“I like… pinc cak”).

Which seems like a perfect segue into food clichés, except we don’t cast such a negative connotation on them if we call them ‘classics’, which is what this beef stew is. It’s a slow-cooker classic, bubbling away for 8 hours in its glorious simplicity. I’ve been trialing a bunch of fairly similar ‘casseroles’ and this is my current favourite. This version (based on a Women’s Weekly recipe) is gluten free, but if you prefer to toss the meat in flour before you brown it, feel free – you’ll end up with a thicker gravy. If you don’t, make sure you pat the meat with paper towel to dry it off before you chuck it in the pan.

Before I could photograph it, it was eaten or frozen…

Beef & vegie slow cooker casserole.

1.5kg chuck steak, cut into large chunks
Olive oil for frying
2 large brown onions, cut roughly
2 large (or 3 smaller) carrots, peeled, chopped into thick rounds
3 stalks celery, chopped thickly
2 medium parsnips, peeled, chopped into chunks
1 swede, peeled, chopped into chunks
4 cloves garlic, crushed (use fresh garlic)
¼ cup tomato paste
400g can diced or crushed tomatoes
1½ cups beef stock (Massel brand is gluten free)
2 Bay leaves
Half a bunch of thyme
1 zucchini, sliced into rounds (optional)
8-10 button mushrooms, sliced (optional)

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium/high heat. Once hot, brown your meat in batches, turning to seal all sides (yes, this may take 20 minutes or so to get through all of the meat, but the flavour will be AWESOME, and you can chop up the vegies while you’re doing it). Tip each batch into a 5.5ish litre slow cooker after it’s done.

Add more oil then fry off the onions, carrot and celery for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic for another minute (add it later so it doesn’t burn). Tip into the cooker.

Add more oil and fry off the parsnips & swede for 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat, splash in a bit of stock to loosen all the yummy stuff stuck on the pan and and also tip this into the cooker, along with the rest of the stock, tomato paste & tin of tomatoes plus the herbs. Mix everything in, set the cooker to ‘low’ and leave for 8 hours.

If you’re out all day, then don’t worry about adding in the zucchini & mushrooms, but if you’re home after 6 hours, add these in, give everything a mix and leave it for another 2 ¼ hours (this extra cooking time makes up for you lifting the lid).

MAKES ENOUGH FOR 4 ADULTS & 6 KIDS

Have you got a link to a slow cooker recipe? Add it below – I’m going crazy with mine at the moment and am on the lookout for some tried and tested awesomeness.

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Get the machines to do the work (cause I’m guessing you’re pretty busy)

May 31, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, ideas, kids, mealtime, recipe, vegetables, vegetarian

The MACHINES will do my work!

Have you noticed a bit less Vegie Smugglers chatter lately? I’ve been a bit scarce, having just started back into magazine land, working on a 6 month, part-time contract. A two-day a week job doesn’t come along every day, and I would have been an idiot to say no. I should be able to do it and keep VS running as well, with no discernable difference to you guys (maybe a few more spelling miztakes).

Heading back into the traditional workforce means that my CV gets updated, there’s enough cash to get the gutters fixed, the kids finally get to join their friends at after-school care and I’m plonked back into the time-poor, stressed, parenting cycle.

I used to work three days a week, so two should be easy, right? Sigh. I’m slowly getting back into the swing of it, but getting everyone out of the house by 7am is stinging a little.

At least the kids are a bit older now and night-times aren’t the disaster zones that they used to be. There’s nothing quite as harrowing as picking up toddlers at 6pm (lets not even discuss how bad the guilt levels are when your child is the last one to be collected), getting them home (singing songs the whole way, so they don’t fall asleep in the car), washed (mid-tantrum) and somehow fed (banana, anyone?). These days I have a bit more time before their behaviour turns rancid, but without a hot, daycare-supplied lunch, I’m more on the hook for providing a decent dinner each night.

So I’m turning to my fabulous kitchen machines to help me out. I’ve just bought a slow-cooker (I never had the space to store one before I moved to a house) and so far I’ve made beef stew, Italian casserole, pulled pork, chicken mole and poached pears! I need to tweak these recipes, but will try to post one or two of the best soon. And I’ve had my rice cooker working overtime. With my love of rice, I’ve always found this gadget to be extremely worthwhile. I’ve got a slightly fancy one with a sauté function. If you do too, then HOORAY, this recipe is especially for you (although you can still make it without)…

Pilaf. Fun to say and good to eat.

Cauliflower and cashew pilaf

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 1/2 cups cauliflower, finely chopped into tiny bits
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods (give them a smash with the back of a knife)
1/2 tsp cumin powder
3/4 cup brown rice, rinsed
1 1/2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
4 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 carrot, peeled, grated
1/3 cup sultanas
2/3 cup cashews, roughly chopped

Heat oil in the rice cooker (on the sauté function, if it has one). Add the onion, stir then cover for two minutes. Add the cauliflower and spices; stir then cover for another two minutes.

Add in the rinsed, drained rice and the stock. Stir well, cover and leave the cooker to do its thing on the regular cook setting.

Once done, add in the carrot, sultanas and cashews, mix and leave on the warm setting for 5-10 minutes.

Cook this the day before work (cool quickly and refrigerate), and then you can reheat it (topped with frozen peas) and fry up a couple of cutlets to pop on top. Delish!

*NO RICE COOKER? Cook everything in a saucepan, as described. Cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer until the rice has absorbed the liquid & is tender.

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From the suburbs to the world in just over an hour

May 8, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Fish, Food experiences, News, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, fish, parenting, recipe, vegetables

I’ve got yet another awesome parenting moment to share with you (I do like to make you all feel better about your own efforts)… I went to pick up my daughter from her friend’s house at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. Was offered champagne. Had to admit that not only would I love one, but that I’d already had a couple, whilst on a playdate with my son, which had started at 10am. Bad look? Much?

It’s been nearly 8 months since THE MOVE and I’m having trouble keeping up with the partying pace of the suburbs, but I must say I’m having a great time and I’m wondering why I struggled raising kids in apartments for so long when there were spacious blocks, sunshine, beer (and champagne) fridges and HOBBIES to be enjoyed out here.

Still, with highs come lows, and Monday did roll around. Not only was the washing not done, but neither was the shopping, the nurofen box was empty and the kids were HUNGRY since all we’d managed for dinner the night before was boiled eggs.

I’m still trying to catch up, which is why it’s taken so long to post up this congee recipe. Over on facebook, some were intrigued and unfamiliar with congee, which is eaten by over 2 billion people throughout China, Asia & India. Basically it’s a rice soup, affordable to make and fantastic comfort food. The name, texture and additions change depending on the region.

In Japan it’s called Okayu, served thick, with eggs & grilled fish. Koreans eat juk, of course served with kimchi and the Indians call it kanji, a runnier version, served with lentils and chutney. Throughout all of these cultures, it’s commonly given as a first food to babies. Pretty similar to rice cereal after all, but a hell of a lot tastier.

My version is a cultural hybrid, quite thick, and cooked until the rice is breaking down but still has some texture. I use it as a carrier for small cubes of fish. But if your kids will fuss over that, then shredded cooked chicken (even a BBQ chicken) will be a fantastic variation.

Perfect for babies, the elderly, the sick (and hungover).

Fish & corn congee

¾ cup short-grain rice
6 cups good-quality chicken stock
3 tbsp shaoxing wine (Chinese rice wine)
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
125g can creamed corn
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
White pepper
300g boneless skinless firm white fish fillets, diced
¼ red capsicum, seeded
125g can corn kernels

Sliced spring onions and coriander sprigs, to serve

Rinse the rice well under running water, drain and add to a saucepan with the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 50–60 minutes until the rice is soft and breaking down. Stir regularly to avoid sticking.

Add the shaoxing wine, soy and oyster sauces, creamed corn and ginger. Add white pepper to taste.

When this is nice and hot, add the fish and vegies and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes until the fish is just cooked through.

Serve the congee topped with spring onion and coriander.

SERVES 2 ADULTS & 2 KIDS

Vegie Smugglers complete lunchbox planner

You can now buy the complete VS lunchbox planner for just $9.95!

Have you all seen that I’ve updated the Vegie Smugglers shop? And newly available is The Complete Vegie Smugglers lunchbox planner – which is a snazzy 92 page e-book, combining all of the term planners into one place for a bargain price of $9.95. Unlike my cookbooks, which only ship in Australia, you can buy my e-books worldwide! Click here to grab one.

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Fifty shades of red (the best way to smuggle… raw tomato)

April 12, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, News, The best way to smuggle..., Vegetarian, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, recipe, salads, vegetables

There are some current trends that I’m managing to avoid. One Direction, orange jeans, and MKR have been easy to skip. The Fifty Shades of Grey e-book though, piqued my interest as soon as I heard it classified as ‘mummy porn’. Realising that I’m their target market and determined to do my best to stay up with the trends I downloaded it IMMEDIATELY. Admittedly around page 40 when first introduced to the ‘playroom’ I had second thoughts. I don’t want to seem like a prude but I’m a bit of an Elizabeth/Mr Darcy kind of a girl and 480 pages of bondage wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind. Still I’ve done my best and have gallantly just finished book 2. I’ve stuck with Grey and Annnnaasssttaaaaassssssia through romps in bed, in the boathouse, on boats and in the playroom (eeewwwwwww).

As a way to spend some time, it’s somehow reminding me of a sexed up, book version of ‘Escape to the Country’ – I’m glued with promises of the next scene, the next escapist fantasy, a new reception room (where of course they will stop for a dalliance). Basically a bunch of absorbing snippets that compile to make a vaguely dissatisfying whole. At the end I’m feeling slightly hoodwinked and not sure why I’m spending any of my life consuming it.

Anyway despite posts on porn film food, and an admission that I had inadvertently introduced my toddler to internet nudity, this blog is supposedly about good food, not erotica and the real point of today’s post is to tackle a tricky ‘best way to smuggle’ – raw tomato.

Unlike other vegies that are easy to sneak into gorgeous meals (like spinach, mushrooms & cauliflower), raw tomato with its high acid content is pretty tricky to hide. While the kids like a mushed up raw tomato pasta sauce, gazpacho isn’t quite floating their boats just yet. And hiding it raw can be tricky, so my best option is to dress is up, Fifty Shades style, with a delectably kinky dressing.

My hubbie concocted this quick salad and my kids LOVE it. Dolloped into wraps, and onto burgers – it’s been a real success. And yes, before you email me with outrage, I know that it has SUGAR in it (the irony is not lost on me that porn will make none of you irate, but sugar is akin to the devil). It melds with the balsamic and cuts through the acid. I have no qualms about the sweet content – anything that gets mouthfuls of vitamin rich, raw tomato into my children’s tummies is just fine with me.

Laters…

Dressed up, with somewhere to go.

Adam’s ‘dressed up’ tomato salad

8 roma tomatoes (or equivalent quantities of cherry, grapes or vine tomatoes)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
Salt & pepper (be generous – they are essential to balance out the sweet/salty combo)

For the adults: chopped parsley.

Chop the tomatoes finely, pour over the vinegar, sprinkle the sugar, season generously and stir. Garnish with parsley if you like.

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Please help Vegie Smugglers, my child only eats…

April 11, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Vegie smuggling techniques · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, ideas, parenting, recipe, vegetables

Four thumbs up for Vegie Smugglers... hurrrahhhh!!!!!

For the sake of entertainment, I usually keep this blog deliberately light and fun, figuring that healthy food is best delivered with good times. But today I’m going to be serious. No truly, not a single joke, not a single bad pun. Why? Well over on the Facebook page I’ve had a recent influx of pleas for help from parents desperately bound and beaten by food wars with their children. I help where I can, but thought it timely to write a post on strategies to help solve your mealtime dramas. I’ll cover some basics and finish up with a real world example of how to apply it all.

OK! Let’s start with some basic vegie-smuggling thoughts and strategies…

1. It is possible to get your children excited about eating vegetables.
2. You have to tempt them with delicious smells, sights and flavours.
3. The techniques you need to do it are simple.
4. Commitment is needed from the parents – change isn’t always easy.
5. BUT! You’ll be so pleased that you made the effort once you’ve created a new habit of happy mealtimes.

Let’s look in detail…

1. Believe that you can make the change in your family.

I’ll be the example. Two horribly fussy kids. One ate only pasta, fruit & cheese, the other only meat & potatoes. Both now happily eat (nearly) anything. It’s possible. You can do it. And then you can start a fabulous blog and write gorgeous cookbooks.

2. You are going to tempt and lure your kids.

With food that smells great while it’s cooking, looks great when they sit down and is SO delicious when they take a bite that they won’t want to reject it.

3. Simple kitchen techniques can turn it all around.

Prepare ingredients wisely and introduce them to your family slowly.

I encourage you to do whatever you need to do to introduce new vegetables in a positive way. While I’m not a fan of hiding cooked and mashed vegies (too many wasted nutrients), if this is the only way they will be currently tolerated, then this is the place to start. My preference is to smuggle vegies by grating them or chopping them finely. Peel things like zucchinis first if your kids have a vehement hatred of green bits. Gradually the kids will become more tolerant and you will have to do less and less to hide stuff. The end goal of course, is to have children (and husbands) who happily accept everything.

Smuggle & don’t smuggle.

My recipes contain a combination of visible and invisible vegetables. Dinners serve a dual purpose – sneak in enough invisible vegies to solve the immediate nutrition concerns, and also present visible vegies to get the kids understanding that healthy food is part of the everyday.

Often food is a power play. Kids will pick out the visible stuff and think they’ve won the war. That’s fine, because the rest of the dinner they’re eating is also full of healthy stuff, so really you’ve won (keep your smugness to yourself). Getting a picky kid to happily sit and eat a chunk of cauliflower will take time. While you’re waiting for that miracle, you can relax knowing that their nutritional needs are being met.

4. Tackling change with your kids is tricky and requires patience and commitment from the parents.

Your child is not going to go from eating plain pasta to lentil soup overnight.

But you can serve their pasta with a dish of roast capsicum sauce to dip into. Soon, you might be able to serve the sauce on top. Then you can add some grated carrot. Gradually you’ll be able to work your way outwards, incorporating more and more ingredients and flavours.

It’s essential to keep your menus interesting (and new).

Please don’t serve the same thing every week. When parents say, “they only eat…”, it means that they’ve been browbeaten into only serving those things because they can’t deal with the dramas of trying to serve anything else.

The early days of introducing new foods can be tough. You need to persevere and get to the point where the kids are used to variety and unfamiliar food items. Get them used to leaving their food comfort zone and avoid the “I don’t eat that” food battle.

Don’t be put off by the tough times.

Not every new meal will have your children dancing with joy. Sometimes they will refuse food and they will have to go hungry. This is unpleasant. But hold firm – I never cook a second meal for my kids. If they’ve genuinely tried something (not trying is NEVER an option – our deal is TWO big bites) and they don’t like it, they can have some bread and butter or a banana. They won’t starve. It just means that they’ll be hungrier (and hopefully more open-minded) tomorrow. Hang in there, you will crack them.

5. And it’s worth cracking them.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to sit having a happy mealtime with your children, watching them munch away on something adventurous. It’s a battle worth fighting, because you are giving them a gift – a love of good food and healthy eating habits that will last them a lifetime.

So here’s our real world scenario from Zoe…

“Hi, my 3 year old son is a very fussy eater, the only things he eats are – pasta, schnitzel, nutella, cream cheese, butter sandwiches, it’s been like this for nearly a year, how do I change it.”

Start with what he does eat and work outwards.

He likes pasta. So try this orange sauce – serve it on the side the first time if necessary. Move onto a bolognaise. If he likes the bolognaise, try it in toasties and pop it into baked potatoes. Then move onto cannelloni or lasagne.

He likes cream cheese. So make these salmon pikelets (leave the green stuff out first time) and coat them with a generous slather of cream cheese as a lure.

He likes bread. So try these oat & banana pancakes, or these cheese puffs, or this okonomiyaki, or this frittata. You’re trying to break his narrow-minded approach and get him eating a wider variety of stuff. Then push further and further.

He likes schnitzel. So try this healthy schnitzel in a wrap. Add a bit of vegie dip.

And the nutella? Well, I’m really sorry, but that has to go. Remember, from now on, the parents are dictating the menu. Nutella offers you very little nutrition and keeps his palate trained to sweet stuff. Kids are still allowed to love treats and eat chocolate, but not everyday.

Once he’s making progress and eating a wider range of healthy stuff, surprise him with this beetroot & chocolate brownie. No one says food can’t be fun.

So I hope that helps. Remember, if you’re having ongoing concerns about your child’s health, please see your doctor. I’m a mum, not a nutritionist and can’t give any sort of medical advice.

And with a disclaimer given, I will just whisper from one parent to another, that Vegie Smuggling works, and you should try it. And it’s not just me; you can read testimonials here, about what other parents have to say.

Back to poo jokes next week, promise.

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Rice v. pasta

March 27, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, Ham/pork, News · Tagged cooking techniques, feeding the family, mealtime, pasta, vegetables, zucchini

My first job was waitressing in an Italian restaurant.

The things I remember most about it were never remembering which way the coffee machine dial turned off (no-one ever told me ‘righty-tighty’), the embarrassment of returning to a table where I’d just been to admit that I’d just forgotten what they’d just ordered and one really busy night, after a quick loo break, running through the kitchen back into the restaurant with the back of my skirt tucked into my stockings.

Generally then, it’s safe to say that I was a crap waitress and the whole experience was vaguely traumatising.

For years afterward I didn’t touch pasta. And if I was held at knifepoint and ordered, “you must choose only one main meal carbohydrate for the rest of your life” I would happily marry rice and leave pasta, cous cous and potatoes behind forever.

Perhaps it’s karma then, for all the incorrect orders that I took, that my kids love pasta. I think nearly every kid in the whole wide world does. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that if your kid hates the stuff, they are weird. WEIRD.

Nutritionally, there’s nothing in pasta to get excited about. I’ve even seen it called BAD CARBS. Well said. Mind you, white rice falls into that category too so I guess my argument for rice is baseless and quite prejudiced. Did I mention that my kids don’t care about any of that and that they still LOVE PASTA? They do.

And so it’s been sneaking back into the house over the last few years. It’s still only once a fortnight or so, but now even I am a bit partial to a bolognaise or smoked salmon, dill & lemon or this spaghetti carbonara. On the scale of smuggling success, it’s fairly low, there’s little room to hide anything, but I still cram in spring onions and long strips of zucchini which just meld in(to the bacon fat).

It’s worth sharing, as it’s pretty much the only dish I’ve trialed this year that resulted in TWO EMPTY BOWLS, which is my version of THREE HATS, only better, cause there’s nothing to scrape before stacking the dishwasher.

The pasta will win tonight.

Spaghetti Carbonara

3 eggs
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
400g spaghetti
2 tbsp olive oil
250g bacon, rind removed, large areas of fat removed, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 spring onions, sliced
2 zucchinis – use a peeler to slice into thin pieces, then cut vertically so that you have long spaghetti-like strands (whether you leave the skin in or discard it is up to you and what you need to do to get your kids to eat it).

Whisk the eggs in a small jug, mix through the cheese. Set aside.

Now do two things at once…
1. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and cook spaghetti according to packet directions. Drain, drizzle over half the olive oil and mix through (tongs makes this easier).

2. Heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan, add the bacon and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the spring onions, garlic and zucchini and stir until the zucchini starts to wilt (about 2 minutes).

Return the drained pasta to the saucepan, pour over the vegies and use the tongs to mix a bit, then pour over the egg & cheese mixture. Combine quickly, season and serve, topped with optional parsley, pepper and extra parmesan.

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You big tart

March 20, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Sweets & treats · Tagged celebrations, cooking techniques, feeding the family, fruit, recipe

Serve with ice cream (low fat of course)....

Fruit desserts are great, aren’t they? Especially when they’re full of a stack of visible fruit and you can totally pretend that the copious amounts of sugar, fat & gluten are mere triffles in the overall scheme of things.

And so it is with this Bill Granger tart – but so pretty it is and so easy to make. And delicious too. I love Bill’s recipes. They’re simple, and generally they work well. He recommends plums and orange juice in his recipe, but I was short of them, so here’s my version…

Plum (and other stuff) jam tart, from Bill’s Basics

100g unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup caster sugar
Just over 1 cup plain flour
¼ cup almond meal

Topping
800g fruit (I used 6 plums, 2 soggy nectarines, and topped them up with frozen berries)
½ cup caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp water (Bill uses orange juice, which would be great, but I didn’t have any)
Lime zest (my addition)

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 23 or 24cm springform cake tin.

Stir together the butter & sugar. Sift over the flour and a pinch of salt. Stir to form a dough. Press into the pan, bake 15 minutes until golden.

Sprinkle the almond meal evenly over the cooked base.

In a large bowl, mix the fruit, sugar, cornflour, liquid & zest. Pop over the pastry and bake 30-40 minutes until set. Cool before serving. (I ate this both warm, at room temp AND cold – all delicious).

Serves 8-10

Hot, happy buns this Easter

March 6, 2012 · Filed under All recipes, Food experiences, News, Sweets & treats · Tagged brunch, celebrations, cooking techniques, feeding the family, fruit, recipe

The other day Miss F asked me why it is that Hot Cross buns are so cranky.

Fair comment really. And not one that reflects on my poor teachings of Bible fundamentals (I send them to scripture each week, after all). No, I’m going to cut myself a bit of slack here and blame the supermarkets for the collapse of Christian teachings in our society.

So maybe I never did mention the significance of the whole ‘cross’ thing on hot cross buns, but how on earth are my kids supposed to link these treats just to Easter when they’ve been on sale since last New Year’s Eve?

Still, I do like the idea of a fruit bun with attitude, don’t you? Just sitting with friends in a plastic bag, being angry and dour.

Of course I promised to rectify the situation and create some hot happy buns to balance out the emotional quid pro quo.

The cheeriest (and most secular) hot cross buns.

Hot Happy Buns

Don’t be afraid of cooking these – they actually really easy and fun. A nice thing to do throughout a weekend day with the kids.

1¼ cups warm milk
2 x 7g dry yeast sachets
¼ cup caster sugar
4 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp salt
60g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 cup sultanas
¾ cup other dried fruit (I like a mix of currants and dried apple)

Paste:
2 tbsp plain flour
1½ tbsp water

Glaze:
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp boiling water

In a small glass bowl or jug, whisk together the warm milk, yeast and sugar. Leave for 10 minutes somewhere warm and draught-free.

In a large bowl, sift the flour and mix in the spices and salt.

After 10 minutes the milk mixture should be frothy (if it isn’t your yeast may be too old). Mix in the butter and egg. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Sprinkle over the fruit as you go, until it is evenly distributed throughout the dough. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm and draught-free place for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until doubled.

All puffed up and gorgeous.

Grease a large rectangular baking tin. Punch the dough (yes, truly, punch it) to deflate it. Knead for another 2-3 minutes. Divide into 15 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and pop it into the tin.