Semi-roasted tomatoes

I like Roma tomatoes. Use ripe but not too mushy ones.

Warm the oven at 200˚C Cut your tomatoes in half lengthwise, for the larger flat section (cross section is smaller)

Arrange them on one of those wire racks - you'll need something to catch any drips, like a baking dish.

Give the open tomatoes a pinch each of salt (draws liquid out) and sugar (slightly caramelises). Not too much - you want the strong tomato flavour. Add a pinch of dried herbs, parsley, sage, marjoram, whatever is in the cupboard.

Put them in the pre-warmed oven! turn the temperature to 150˚C. Let them roast slowly, two or more hours is fine, your taste, and depending how dry you want them. I like them juicy.

Pack the finished tomatoes with dressing, just EV olive oil, lemon, touch of balsamic (not too much) or your combination. Adjust salt and pepper.

Variation March 2020

Dust lightly with sugar, balsamic and olive oil. Salt and pepper.

Gnocchi di Patate

What a terrific little thing is fresh gnocchi!
Somewhere in my travels I heard that "Wednesday is Gnocchi Day". I think they are fantastic any day of any week. Orvieto or Lake Como maybe.
And they freeze well too so you can make a batch for now and enough for later.


Ingredients

• 4 medium sized Potatoes - either Kennebeck or Pontiacs work fine
• Plain flour - 200grams to start, but you'll definitely need more
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg

For the potatoes a ricer is good or you can coarsely mash them, but don't make a paste.
You'll need something to make the ridges on the outside of the gnocchi - one of those butter molds, or gnocchi paddle or even the back of a long-prong fork is fine.
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Method
Boil the potatoes in their skins for 15-20 minutes, then while they are still hot [but cool enough to handle] peel them. Pass them through a ricer, or coarsely mash them.

Make a well in the initial batch of flour, and break the egg into it, add the pinch of salt.
Combine the ingredients - use your hands or a spoon, but don't overwork the dough.
It needs to be combined and not too wet to the feel - keep adding flour until you have a nice combined ball of dough.
Let it rest for 10 mins.

Then, break the dough into more manageable pieces and roll a piece of he dough into a 1.5cm diameter sausage. cut the sausage into 1cm chunks. With more flour on your work surface, rub the pieces between your floured hands into little balls about 1.5cm - 2cm in diameter.

You'll get a feel here of how dry the dough is - you dont want it to stick to your hands, or the moulding device [in the next step]. Again dont overwork it - add the flour to your hands while rolling.

Once you have a little collection of dough balls, the fun starts!
Take a ball, and with your thumb, run the ball along the back of the fork to form the ridges. Set that piece aside, on a floured piece of kitchen paper or tea towel.

If they're sticking to your thumb or the ridging tool, they are too wet - use more flour!
Repeat until you use up the set of dough balls.
Then repeat the process of making the dough balls and rolling them out.

Cooking
Have your sauce ready - I like simple Tomato and Basil with garlic. But you could try Pesto [basil, pinenuts], Alfredo [cream, parmesan, parsley] or Bolognese [beef, tomato]. I think Bolognese is too heavy. Get creative!
So
In plenty of boiling salted water add a handful of gnocchi or so. Maybe just enough for two people at a time. Dont overcrowd the water. They cook very quickly and you dont want them to overcook - they can go tough or break up! They are ready when they rise to the surface of the water - scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Repeat for more batches.

Place into individual plates with your sauce, herbs and cheese. Beautiful!



EAT!!

Storage
Gnocchi can be stored between sheets of floured kitchen paper. Don't crowd them or they'll squash together.

Photos by TokMonsta

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More gnocchi from 2014 below

La fiesta española

I heard that one could buy Pimientos de Padrón from the sole Australian grower, in Maleny QLD. Having experienced the pimienty goodness in España how could I hold back?
I contacted the grower in Queensland, not knowing when the season was on, and it was about to start! Runs from November to May.
I ordered a kilo and they arrived as if whisked here on the back of a Spanish stallion! They came in a box inside a postbag, simple. Great service from the grower and Australia Post!
Link to the grower. Thanx Richard!

The Pimientos


So, I just had to cook them.
In a liberal amount of hot olive oil in my trusty iron frying pan (as they might do in Spain) until the skin was blistered. Take them out and drain on absorbent paper. Then sea salt.
Oh my god. Spectacular!

Just add salt

Of course that was not all we had - a friend was coming over so I whipped up a quick tortilla (frittata) with potato and beans, had some tomatoey beans handy as well, and a chorizo.

Beautiful! Most are sweet but there's a spicy one every now and then!

So clockwise from bottom left we have tortilla/fritatta with potato and beans, some olives, octopus, tomato and green/haricot/french beans, and paprika paste, chorizo on the plate and a tomato, cucumber and spring onion salad. Centre - the pimientos

Recipes
Pimientos de Padrón
Pick off any old leaves, wash and dry the peppers.
Heat olive oil in a frypan, to below smoking point - not too hot, but the peppers should sizzle as soon as they hit the oil.
Fry until the peppers are blistered - careful, they will pop and splutter, keep them moving but be careful not to get burnt! They are cooked in about 2 or 3 mins.
Remove from the frypan onto the absorbent kitchen paper.
Sea salt to taste [quite salty suits them]
Eat them with gusto!
Padrón is a region in northwestern Spain [wikipedia]

Tortilla, otherwise known as frittata
You could include, potatoes, asparagus, tomatoes, onions, zucchini [courgettes], eggplant, anything.
For three people use 6 eggs. I used potatoes and beans. Prepare other ingredients as required before assembly.
Slice [0.5 cm] two potatoes and boil until they are almost cooked - 5 mins. Parboil the beans separately.
Break the eggs into a bowl, break the yolks but don't mix them two much, for the marbled effect.
Fry a clove of garlic crushed and a small onion in olive oil in a frypan. I use a small one so the tortilla is quite deep - thick.
Once the onions and garlic are underway, add the beans and potato in layers, then pour in the eggs.
Cook on low heat until the eggs are almost cooked then finish them under the griller, medium. Don't want to overcook them!
Season with salt and pepper, serve with the paprika paste.
Delicious hot, warm or cold.

Beans and tomato
Top and tail two handfuls of green beans, wash and cut to 3 cm lengths.
In a saucepan bring a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to medium temperature.
Fry two cloves of garlic, but don't burn it.
Pour in a can of peeled tomatoes - clean out the can with a few tablespoons of water.
With a wooden spoon break open the tomatoes [in the saucepan] so the seeds and guts come out - the tomatoes will break down and cook quicker.
Bring to the boil but then turn it down to a slow simmer for 30 mins. Don't let it stick, stir occasionally. Add the beans and cook for 10minutes, don't overcook them.
Season with salt, pepper and a little sugar, to taste. Garnish with parsley from your garden, where else?!
Serve hot or cold.

The Harvest

The time has come!

Harvesting the crop

Perfect in its redly roundness

Pre-ceremonial carving

Still life with cheese

Scrumptious

How did we get here? Link

Palermo Street Artichokes

Palermo Street Artichokes
Carciofi Lessi Palermitani
From the Artichoke Blog - http://theartichokeblog.com/palermo-street-artichokes/

I made these today, artichokes are in season and fantastic looking!





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Later…
Well the artichokes were delicious. In the recipe you can opt to include the breadcrumbs or not. I might reduce the amount of breadcrumbs or dispense with them entirely next time around. Otherwise they were delicious.

Catering by MissChu

We had Mother's 90th birthday catered by MissChu from East Sydney.
All the dishes were fantastic!

Here's a selection from the do

Glasses waiting for the crowd

Beautiful rice paper rolls

seared salmon with green papaya salad wrapped in betel leaf

MissChu

http://www.misschu.com.au/

Salad Dressings

It has been said that it's too difficult to make salad dressings. I don't think so.

Of course there are 1000s of dressings just as there are 1000s of salads!

Basic Vinaigrette
Use Olive Oil or Extra Virgin
White wine vinegar
In the ratio of 3:1 to start, to your taste later.
Salt and pepper to taste

Variations
Now the world unfolds...
Try lemon juice instead of vinegar
• Add (just) a splash of balsamic vinegar, don't use more than 20%
• Garlic, chili, fresh herbs
• Mustard, Dijon or seeded


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Other dressings
Thai Noodle salad dressing - very zingy
For the salad use cooked rice noodles, shallots or green onions, mini tomatoes, bean shoots, coriander and mint to taste.
Add shelled cooked prawns or BBQ chicken pieces for a non-vegetarian alternative.
Adjust the dressing with the lime, sugar and sesame oil.

The dressing consists of
1 tbsp vegetable oil [olive is the wrong flavour]
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp fish sauce
Squeeze of lime juice
1 small red chilli finely chopped
2 tsp palm or white sugar, or to taste
Sesame oil to taste

BBQed Eggplant with miso

Ingredients
6 Long thin eggplants
2 tbsp Red miso paste
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
black sesame seeds to garnish

Method
Use long thin eggplants.
Mix the miso and mayonnaise together in a bowl.
Split the eggplants lengthways, so you have the two halves.
Score the inside face of the eggplants in a large cross-hatch pattern, careful not to cut too deep or the eggplant will fall apart.
Place the eggplant, open side down on a medium BBQ grill.
Cook until slightly scorched.
Remove from the heat and spread the miso mayo mixture evenly on the now scorched eggplant surface.
Not too thin but not too thick - heavily "buttered" is fine.
Return to the grill, skin side down.
When the skin starts to blister they should be done - remove from heat.
Garnish by sprinkling lightly with the black sesame seeds.
Wait for them to cool slightly before eating.

Barbecued Eggplants

This one is japanese-style

Ingredients
6 long thin eggplants
3 tbsp miso
3 tbsp egg mayonnaise
Black sesame seeds

Method
Toast the black sesame seeds until they start to pop [in a dry frying pan on low heat]
Combine the mayonnaise and miso.

Cut the eggplants in two lengthwise.
Score in a cross-cross pattern on the cut side of the eggplants.
On a barbecue grill, grill the cut side until starting to brown.
Coat the browned cut side with the miso/mayo mixture.
Return to the grill - grill the skin side until just starting to burn.
Sprinkle back sesame seeds on the miso/mayo mixture.

Baba Ghanoush

Love that smoky flavour.

Ingredients
Four medium eggplants
2 tbsp Tahina [sesame paste]
2 tbsp Olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
Salt and Pepper

Method
Take the eggplants and cut from the base to the stalk so that you have four pieces held together by the stalk end. Don't cut them so far that they fall apart - use the stalk as a handle, and keep the segments together.
On a barbecue, char-grill the eggplants until the skins is black and blistered. Remove from the grill and allow to cool.
Scrape out the flesh of the eggplants into a bowl and combine with the Tahina, Olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Try to avoid getting too much of the charred skin.
Mash the mixture to the desired texture - I like it a bit coarse, not too pasty.

Adjust the lemon, salt and pepper and serve with lebanese or turkish bread.

Pea Soup

This recipe comes from Mother. I've added to it over the years. Best started a few days before you need it.

Ingredients
Amounts are difficult to determine
0.5 kilo Bacon bones or 30cm rack smoked ribs for the stock.
Get some with plenty of meat left on them if you can
2 large onions diced
2 large carrots diced
4 medium potatoes diced
3 or 4 tsps cumin
dried peas [or lentils] soaked overnight
2 litres water


Method
The bones will have plenty of salt in them, so salt at the end to taste.
Bring the water to boil and simmer the bones in them for approx 1 hour, 2 is better.
Remove from the heat.
When cool skim excess fat from the top of the stock but retain the meat and bones.

On a medium heat ina a large saucepan cook the onions with plenty of cumin until transparent.
Add the carrots and potatoes.
Sweat them to start the cooking process.
Add the stock to the vegetables.
Add the peas [or lentils].

Bring to the boil but then reduce the heat to minimum.
Simmer the soup for another 3 hours. The soup should only just be turning over. Stir it periodically to ensure it isn't sticking on the saucepan.
Cooking it so slowly allows the flavours to really come out of the bones which nearly disintegrate - the meat falls off, the vegetables almost dissolve.
There is no need to purée the soup. Because of the long cooking time everything is almost puréed as a matter of course.

Serve with nice crusty bread on a blustery winter's day in front of the fire.
Freeze what's left for the next winter's day.

Roasted Capsicums

Ingredients
Capsicums
Garlic
Olive oil
Lemon juice

Method
Buy large red capsicums in season.
Remove the seeds and stalk structure by cutting around the stalk, and pull the inside out.

Gorgeous!

Discard the stalk and seeds*.
Grill the capsicums on a hot barbecue [or on a gas burner] until the skin is black and blistered. Turn them to blister all over, evenly.
Remove the capsicums and place in a plastic bag while still hot.
After they have cooled remove the charred skin and discard*

Dress the peeled capsicums in extra virgin, garlic and lemon juice.

Excellent as a side-dish, accompaniment or sandwich extra.

*OK in the compost

Oven-Roasted Tomatoes

Ingredients
Roma or egg tomatoes have a nicer flavour but any tomatoes will do. Ripe but not too ripe - they need to hold their shape.
Sugar
Salt
Herbs

Method
Cut the tomatoes in half through the stalk axis [lengthwise for Romas]
Arrange on a rack for the oven
Sprinkle with salt and sugar and herbs

On low heat, roast the tomatoes for 1 or 1.5 hours until the have lost moisture and dried slightly. Careful they don't burn.

Ohitashi

For two people

Ingredients
1 bunch English spinach, washed and trimmed. Not silver beet
water
sesame oil
sesame seeds

Method
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frypan until they start to pop and remove from the pan to cool.
Boil the water in a medium saucepan.
Dunk the spinach - keep it in the water until the leaves have wilted and the bulk of the leaves is reduced. Less than 2 minutes.

Place half the spinach onto a japanese bamboo sushi mat. The final shape you're after is like a little cup about 2cm in diameter, maybe 6 cm tall.
Roll the spinach in the bamboo mat and squeeze out excess moisture.

Arrange the little cup of spinach in a bowl, one per person and dress it with the sesame oil, just a teaspoon or so and the toasted sesame seeds.

Gazpacho

It's a fresh salad in a soup.

Chop tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, capsicums, keep them recognisable. Finely chop or crush some garlic. Chilli? Adjust salt and pepper.

Drown the vegetables in tomato juice, or V8.

Proportions are really individual - how many coming? Start with one each of the ingredients.

I like to have more vegetables than liquid, but some like it quite liquid