Okay, I know you’re thinking, “this is NOT healthy, Maureen.  What are you doing?”  It was my birthday and I firmly believe you should eat whatever you want to on your birthday as long as you do it in moderation.  I made these potatoes for a party we had last year but there was so much food and I was so busy that I only got one bite and then the dish was empty.

As I lounged around all those months trying to feel better I thought about those potatoes and how good they looked and how much everyone liked them.  We had dinner with friends tonight but I brought the potatoes.

I even made a very tiny casserole all for myself.  It doesn’t hold much but every bite will be delicious.  This over the top decadent dish is really easy to make and you’ll feel spoiled with every forkful.  Okay I’ll admit it, I plan to eat it with a spoon so I get all the topping.

You can even start this dish several hours ahead of time by making the topping and precooking the potatoes.  Then just before your meal, put them together and toss in the oven for 50 minutes.

I peeled and sliced the yams into 3/4 inch slices and boiled them in salted water for only 5 minutes.  You don’t want the potatoes to turn to mush before you get them in the casserole dish.

Once the yams are parboiled, layer them in a buttered casserole dish by overlapping in vertical rows.  That’s the directions on the recipe I used from recipelink.com.  I didn’t follow all their directions because I put the potatoes in the dishes the best way that they fit. Some of my yams were fat and some were really long and thinnish.

Heat the cream and while it’s heating, place the precooked potatoes in the buttered baking dish.

As you can see, they aren’t very attractive at this point but wait just a few minutes and you’ll see that it won’t matter one bit.

Once the cream is hot, pour it over the yams til it just covers the top of the potatoes.  This dish didn’t call for any salt or pepper and I didn’t put any.  I did worry about that but the dish was just fine.

Put the cream covered potatoes into a preheated oven for 20 minutes at 375F.  While the potatoes are cooking, do the good part.  Make the praline topping.  I don’t know how you pronounce it but when I had this the first time I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee and it was called “pray leen” and that’s how I’ve said it ever since.

Place the topping ingredients in a bowl and work the butter into the brown sugar, flour and pecans with your fingers until well combined.  Feel free to increase the quantities of the topping because, well…  it’s the best bit.  The potatoes are there only to hold up the cream and the topping.  I’m pretty sure I’m right.

So once you have your potatoes swimming in hot cream remove the dish from the oven and sprinkle the praline mixture across the top of the potatoes and cream.  It should look like this.  See what I meant about it not mattering how you layered the potatoes?  You can’t see them under all that goodness!

Put the dish back in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.  Don’t do what I did and put 1 quart in a half quart dish.  The cream will bubble over and you’ll have to clean the oven.   However, it will be worth it because then the dish will look like the photo at the top of the page.

 

I’m sure you’re like me and you buy something for a recipe and the recipe was “okay” but not something you want to add to your recipe roster.  Several months ago I made a citrus and fregola sarda salad.  I liked it but the husband thought it was less than spectacular.  He eats anything I cook but I could tell he wasn’t enjoying it.  You know when they push things around on their plate to make it look like they’re eating.  Then miraculously before his plate was finished, he was full.  Confirmation.

So, I had half a bag of fregola sarda that I’d vacuum sealed. Fregola sarda is Sardinian pasta where it’s hand rolled by rubbing semolina and a little bit of water a bit at a time and then toasted.  I was stuck with finding something to make with it or toss it.  I hate tossing food.

I found a recipe for caramelized butternut squash (pumpkin) with fregola sarda and chermoula on Food52 and that’s where I started.  I thought it sounded good but It seemed hotter than I had in mind.  Then I went to the pantry and found 5 little pickling onions and a head of garlic.  I went to the fridge and found half a butternut squash (pumpkin), 1 1/2 sweet red peppers (capsicum) and that decided lunch.

First I roasted the peppers (capsicum) at 215C til they were blackish and placed them in a bowl and covered it with cling film for them to sweat their skins off so I could seed and chop them up.   I peeled and chopped the butternut into 3/4 inch pieces and put them in a bowl and drizzled olive oil, a tablespoon of brown sugar, kosher salt and some pepper and mixed to coat.  I placed the orange chunks of joy on some baking paper on a baking tray and popped it in the oven at 185C for about 40 minutes til it was golden brown on the edges but not burnt.  Caramelized butternut squash (pumpkin) – doesn’t that just sound delicious?  It was. Before I added it to the bowl I tasted a piece just to be sure.  It took a 2nd piece before I was totally convinced.  Heavenly.

I peeled the onions and placed them in a microwave safe dish with a pat of butter and some sea salt for about 5 minutes til the edges were just beginning to caramelize. Yum.

After I put the squash in the oven I took a head of garlic, sliced off the bottom (I know we’re supposed to slice off the top but I have better luck doing the bottom.  The cloves come out all caramelized and perfect without getting squooshed.  I took a big sheet of aluminum foil (normally I say tin foil so I don’t have to suffer with alyoomineeum because it just doesn’t roll off my tongue.  it’s aluminum where I come from, no extra i.  I lived in Alcoa, Tennessee when I was in college and they know aluminum there.  lol)  Now where was I.. oh yes.  Fold the foil in two and put a squirt of olive oil and rub the cut side of the garlic in the oil and then roll it around.  Sprinkle some kosher salt on top and fold the edges of the foil around the garlic, twist to seal and pop it in the oven at 200C for about 40 minutes.  The cut edges should be golden brown and the cloves will be all soft and sweet.

While the garlic and butternut were roasting I put half a cup of fregola sarda in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes and then drained it and placed it a dish to cool, then put it in the fridge.  Btw. when you take the fregola out of the fridge and put it in the mixing bowl, don’t use your hands.  Those little buggers stick EVERYWHERE on your fingers and they don’t shake off.  I had to flick them off with a sharp knife, rolling my eyes as I realized how silly I looked.

Once I washed my hands I went outside.  This is a big thing because it’s been raining so much around here that nobody goes outside any more.  For this salad I needed fresh herbs and we keep them outside so out I went.  Yes, I got wet.  Yes, I yelled at the dog for going in the pool – it’s green from all the rain.  We’ve had 19 inches of rain in the past week and lots more rain expected this weekend. Yes, it’s been flooding.  Yes, I’m still dry.  The pool guy was here this morning and he backwashed the pool for 15 minutes.  I did it for 20 minutes yesterday.  It’s still raining.

Anyway, about the herbs.  You could use anything you have handy.  I chopped off a pot of chives, pinched some young basil leaves and harvested some flat leaf parsley and ran back into the house, yelling at the dog to get out of the pool but not come in because he was all wet.  Thankfully he understands all of that.  He sat at the back door and asked for a bone from the freezer.  I speak dog so I knew what he wanted.  Everyone was happy.

Yes, this is Charlie.  He looks full of marrow bone doesn’t he?  He sleeps under my chair most of the time so when I need to get  up I have to trip over him.  Oh, looking at the photo I know why my headphones don’t work.  Probably need to charge them up with that cord on the floor next to the dog.  Argh.

The cat’s on my old chair over there.   It’s still in my office because it has never made it to the garage on its way to someone else’s house so the Lucy has taken it as her own.  Unless she’s sitting my chair.  My chair is black – it should have been cat hair brown.  She’s a beautiful cat but she doesn’t like anyone except the dog and he hates her. I mean she’s a cat, right?  NO self respecting dog likes a cat – that’s what he told me.  (see above about speaking dog)

The butternut was beautifully roasted, the garlic made the whole house smell good and I was getting hungry.  The cricket test match had just started so that must mean it’s lunch.

I chopped the herbs and put everything in the bowl and then (only then?) decided how I was going to dress it.  I thought I’d just know when I looked at it and it seemed to be asking for extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice with a bit of seasoning.  So that’s what I did.

THIS is when I thought it looked good enough to blog about and ran upstairs for the camera.  Sorry about no prep photos but honestly, roasted veg and garlic isn’t exactly new.  You did get the cat and the dog.  heh.

I plated it up and then called his majesty the husband who does not cook by going to the stairs and yelling, “John!!! It’s lunch!” and then waited so see if he heard me.  I don’t climb the stairs for a personal invitation — but he already knows that and he came right down.

Remember he was the one who didn’t like the previous fregola sarda dish I made so it was iffy but he loved this one.  He likes most anything that has roasted garlic or roasted onions in it.

So if it’s time to clean your fridge or pantry – make a salad.  You’ll save money and the food will be fantastic!

 

 

 

I just got home from a pre-Australia Day party where pizzas were cooked in the outside pizza oven.  It was just next door and several of us made a LOT of pizzas.  Everyone on our street was invited as well as the people across the canal we live on.  It was so nice to catch up with old and new friends.

One family from across the canal live in Christchurch, New Zealand and their house here is their holiday home.  When Christchurch had the big earthquake they lost nearly everything.  Rebuilt and then lost everything again in the 2nd huge quake last year.  Now they live in their garage while waiting for the insurance to pay off to rebuilt their house again.  How sad!

I brought this curried quinoa salad and every bit was eaten.  It’s my very favorite salad.  I call it vegetarian crack but you can call it salad.  I love it because it’s sweet, hot, spicy and delicious.

The only cooking takes 9 to 10 minutes and that’s just putting the quinoa into boiling water and then straining the water off.  Bingo.  There IS a bit of chopping but seriously, how hard is that for the best salad in the world?  That’s what a lovely English gentleman said to me tonight as he got on one knee and begged for the recipe.  Okay, he was pretty tanked at the time so maybe it’s really NOT the best salad in the ENTIRE world but hey, he could be right!

Start by making the salad dressing.  Mix extra virgin olive oil (the good stuff) along with the white balsamic vinegar.  Then add one long red chilli finely diced, the ground cumin, ground coriander, cassia bark or cinnamon and the teaspoon of freshly grated ginger.  Mix well and set aside so the flavors combine well before dressing the salad.  Cassia is also called baker’s cinnamon.  It’s a bit like cinnamon light.

Next, cook the quinoa.  The recipe calls for one cup of quinoa and I just happened to have both red and white in my pantry so I cooked half cup of each.  I think it worked really well.

Boil 2 cups of water in a saucepan, add a pinch of salt and toss in the quinoa.  Cook for 9 or 10 minutes or until the grains are soft but not mushy.  Strain the water off and set aside to cool.  I put mine in a bowl and tilted the bowl and turned the fan on.  It only took a few minutes for it to cool enough to put in the fridge.

Quinoa is a grain-like product originally from South America where the Incas felt the crop was sacred.  It’s good for you too as well as being gluten free. It’s got more protein that other grains, it’s slow digesting with a low GI and polyunsaturated fats.  It’s got lots of calcium, iron and Vitamin B.  It really IS good for you and not only that… it’s part of the best salad in the world!

While the quinoa is cooling, it’s time to start chopping and gathering all the ingredients.  Nothing worse than getting half of something made only to find out some son of a gun ate the dried blueberries you were saving for this salad.

Finely dice the capsicum (green peppers, sweet red peppers or sweet yellow peppers).  I used all three colors just because I love a rainbow salad.  It looks healthy to see all the colors.  Then finely dice a red onion. Finally finely dice a half cup of celery.

Remove the leaves of the parsley and coriander (cilantro) and roughly chop and that’s it for the chopping department.  The rest is just measuring.  It’s 1/2 cup of sultanas or raisins, 1/2 cup cried cranberries, 1/2 cup dried blueberries, a cup of frozen baby peas (thawed) and a cup of unsalted peanuts (save some for garnish).

Take out the bowl of cooked quinoa and toss in all the chopped ingredients and stir to mix.  Then add the dried fruit and stir again.  If you’re going to eat the salad right away, add the peanuts, then add the dressing and garnish with coriander (cilantro) leaves, finely sliced chilli and reserved peanuts.  If it’s going to be a while til you eat the salad, it will keep undressed for up to 4 days.  Just add the peanuts and dressing and the salad is wonderful.

Here’s the recipe.

 

 

 

It’s been a very long haul but I’ve come through the uncomfortable bits and I’m on the other side of all the health issues I had.  The holidays are over and the weather is warm and sunny and I can’t wait to get in the kitchen and create more orgasmic food!

Imagine going for what seemed decades on only raw food?  Bed rest, sleep and a rainbow of veggies and here I am, nearly brand new.  LOL  Okay that’s bit’s a lie but I do feel immensely better.

I’ve watched a LOT of television and a few weeks ago I watched a guy make Chicken Kiev and thought, “why have I been buying these at the butcher or frozen all these years if it’s that easy??”

So I decided I’d cook one for my long suffering husband.  It WAS easy.  I didn’t plan to blog about it so I only have one photo.

You start by getting your chicken breast.  Traditional Chicken Kiev leaves the first wing bone on but that’s not how mine came so I didn’t worry about it.  Put the breast between two pieces of cling film (plastic wrap) and hit it with a meat mallet or rolling pin but do it gently.  You want to flatten the chicken but it’s already dead so a gentle nudge is all it needs.  It needs to be flat enough to wrap around the garlic butter and have all the butter enclosed.  Add salt and pepper and set aside.

Once that’s done, mix softened butter – but you don’t want it so warm that it’s nearly melted, only soft enough to work the garlic and parsley in.  Mix well and form into a log.  I think the next time I make it I’ll put the butter mixture in the freezer after the log has been made. I think it will make all the rolling, dipping and rolling much easier.

Place the log on the back side of the chicken breast and wrap it like you would a parcel.

Roll it in flour but be careful not to unwrap it as you roll.

Then roll in beaten egg, again don’t let it unroll.

Finally roll it in fresh breadcrumbs that you’ve added salt and pepper to and place in a frying pan with a little bit of oil and it needs to be hot enough that the chicken sizzles when you place it in the pan.  Cook til the chicken is golden brown all around.  You’ll love it.