Purple Carrots & Fresh Mint

I finally got my purple carrots from the market though not the garden. There are 3 or 4 growing in the garden but that is it. Thank you local cat.

It has been a full on week with Dr’s and Orthodontists. Oversea suppliers and customers busy busy busy. Meals have been rushed because I have been late home every night.  Amazing really that we didn’t  end up with any takeaway. But the good man and I worked together and we managed to feed everyone decent food every night.

Tonight we had a beef casserole cooked by both of us. The good mans arm is out of action. So I chopped the onion, garlic and mushroom. The butcher had already cut up the meat. Then the good man cooked the dinner while I was at work and running no.1 son to the orthodontist.

So what to have with the beef casserole, mashed potatoes of course and the amazing purple carrots topped with fresh mint.

What I loved about the purple carrots was that they were purple all the way through and when they were cooked they were still a rich purple colour.

Fresh herbs growing in the garden make such a difference they are easy to grow and are there ready and waiting to be picked and added to a meal in seconds.

Intense flavors, healthy lovely food green and leafy growing in the garden.

Has anyone got a spare dog? I don’t like cats anymore!!!

Lily in Mum's garden

The cat has been back on my carrot and beetroot seedlings, the ground is all dug up and walked on and there are little presents from the cat.  I need a dog.  My carefully laid bougainvillea twigs didn’t appear to work at all.  Such is life.

It does solve one problem for me, I can plant some potatoes there. The potatoes are underground and the ground is covered in straw which hopefully isn’t very attractive to Mr Pussy cat.

Tonight we had a lovely salad of mixed leaves with rosemary and garlic dressing and a Veal Osso Buco.  I have a brilliant butcher if you live near Nerang go to Hinterland meats at Earle Plaza Shopping Centre.  The meat is amazing, this osso buco was veal not yearling so tiny pieces that cooked so well in the sauce.  It was delicious and I coated the spaghetti  with gremalata not  a traditional one tonight it was made with basil instead of parsley.

Osso Buco is perfect food for busy mums.  I cooked this on Saturday. After I browned the lamb forequarter chops I browned the veal then added a bottle of passata and about a cup of red wine.  Brought it to boil, covered and simmered for 3 hours or so until the oil separates from the meat and the meat falls off the bones.  Preparation only takes a few minutes, I cleaned up while the meat was browning.  Then it went into the fridge for a quick meal tonight.  You can double this recipe easily and freeze half for later.  So very good food for busy mothers.

Lamb Saag for busy mums.

Lamb, Silverbeet and curry spices go together so well.  Although I love to cook from scratch with Indian Spices sometimes life is busy and you want to get dinner on quickly and let it cook whilst you do other things.  (like weeding the garden getting it ready to plant potatoes, or watch a movie or read a good book.)  So I always keep some curry powder in the cupboard for days like today.

Lamb Saag

Brown lamb forequarter chops.  Slice an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Saute with a good shake of curry powder till onions are soft and everything is a nice golden color. Add chops to mix and about 1 cup of water. Cook slowly till forequarter chops are tender. They can take a couple of hours to become tender.  Take chops out of cooking liquid, add finely chopped silverbeet and cook for a few minutes. Then use a stick blender to blend the cooked silverbeet and cooking liquid together.

To serve place rice in centre of plate.  Put the forequarter chop on top of the rice and top with plenty of silver beet sauce.  Add or any of your favorite Indian pickles and chutneys for a lovely simple dinner.

Tomatoes and Silverbeet Delicious

A delicious quick and easy vegetable dish.

Saute 2 or 3 or 4 chopped cloves of garlic and some sliced onion in a good splodge of olive oil.  Add lots of sliced roughly chopped tomatoes.  Cover and let simmer till tomatoes are soft. Stir through silver beet and cover again for a couple of minutes until silverbeet is cooked.

Always tasty.  For a light lunch poach eggs in mixture and serve with a crusty Italian bread.

The secret is plenty of garlic.

Enjoy!! Thanks for stopping by RosieG.

Early Morning in the garden and the Stoved Howtowdie Recipe

I love the garden in the morning, even though its winter still there are some flowers. The Chinese orchid has just started to flower, the nasturtiums are flowering.

Tonight I cooked a Chicken Fricassee it’s an old fashioned dish but a simpler substantial tasty dish would be hard to find.  I’ts a good dish to use left over Chicken.

Saute a large onion in tbs of butter or margerine for dairy free.  When the onion is soft stir in 2 tablespoons of cornflour add milk or soy milk slowly to make a sauce.  Add a chicken stockcube and a cup of boiled water.  Add cooked shredded chicken, frozen beans or peas and corn. I put in some silver beet.    I had leftover potatoes which were quickly fried, and there it is dinner for four in about 20mins.

Click here for  the Stoved Howtowdie recipe

Soup and Dumplings

How do you make soup from scratch when you work full time and go out all weekend? It’s the same as “how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”

On Monday my butcher had some lovely young veal shanks $3.50 each.  So Monday night while I made dinner, I browned the veal shank covered it with water and let it simmer covered for about two hours. Took it off the heat and put the pan straight into the fridge. Sitting it on a wooden board.  About five minutes of effort.

Tuesday night whilst cooking dinner, I chopped one onion and a carrot threw those in. We had pumpkin so chopped a small amount extra and added that. Put in a handful of soup lentils and 2 or 3 handfuls of leafy green vegetables.  I used the beetroot leaves but you can use spinach, silverbeet, cabbage anything green and leafy.  Let it all simmer for about another hour. Back on the board and in the fridge.  About 10 mins of effort.

Wednesday night made dumplings. Added a litre of beef stock to soup, heated it up to a slow boil.  Popped in the dumplings and baked in oven for about half an hour.  Dumplings took about 10 minutes to make.  Baking the dumplings give them a lovely light scone like texture.

So there you go  Mr Coles a family of four fed nutritious food for about $5. With enough for the twins to have Friday night before cadets.

There it is wonderful tasty home made soup full of goodness and flavour. Took very little preparation because it was all done in small amounts.  You can use any kind of meat. A lamb shank, some chicken thighs a couple of pieces of osso bucco.

Cooking Greens Italian Style and the Secret to the Tastiest Pasta.

When you see older Italians on TV shows talking about food and the Nonna starts to cook  pasta, she throws the greens into the pasta and water.  Nobody talks about it, its simply what she does when she cooks the pasta. I love it, its the perfect solution for busy mums.  At the last minute of cooking toss in the greens, and there it is pasta, greens and only one saucepan.

But that is not the best secret for the tastiest Pasta. For beautiful tasting pasta this is what you do.  When the Pasta is cooked, tip it into a colonder. Pour a good slug of Olive oil or a good slab of butter  into the bottom of the pan. When its heated add 3 or 4 chopped cloves of garlic. Cook until just turning brown toss the pasta in quickly before it burns. Stir through and taste 🙂 My favorite is butter but being a dairy free household we normally use olive oil.

When I was 13  I went to France on an exchange trip for three weeks. The food was amazing every night we ate the most wonderful noodles I always had seconds it was so good. I couldn’t eat enough of them.  Then one day years later I cooked pasta,  melted butter added garlic tasted and Viola I was back in France this was the noodles Brigettes  Maman used to make.

Happiness Pasta, Garlic, Butter, Olive Oil, & Leafy Greens.

I have a confession to make…

I love fried sausages.

So if you are going to eat sausages you have got to put lots of healthy stuff with them.  This is where Chick Pea Sprouts and Rainbow Chard come in.  Another late night home meant dinner had to be quick again.

So cooked rice adapted with a Middle Eastern flavour. The Egyptians have a rice, lentil and pasta dish called Koushari.  It is an “oil” dish that can be eaten when fasting from animal products. It often contains chick peas.

A simple Koushari using cooked rice and 2 minute noodles and sprouted chick peas took about 10 minutes to cook.

Cover the base of a large pan with olive oil, Saute a large onion till soft but not coloured, add sprouted chick peas cook through to flavour the oil and the chick peas with the onion.  Cover 2 min noodles with boiled water throw the seasoning in the bin, after 2 mins drain the noodles.

Toss the rice through the onion and chick peas. Warm the rice then stir the noodles through so everything is  covered with the oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Koushari is usually topped with a tomato sauce.

Another sliced onion sauteed in olive oil, 2 or 3 crushed cloves of garlic. Throw in the roughly chopped tomatoes and about a cup of passata.  Cover and cook until the tomatoes soften and break down.  When you are ready to dish add the Rainbow Chard (silverbeet) to the pan. Cover and cook till wilted.

English Spinach, Garlic and Thyme Potatoes.

English Spinach picked from the garden needs hardly any cooking.  Place it into a heat proof jug pour water just off the boil over it, then tip it into a colander and pour cold water over. Thats it.

Last week I made Tabouli with mint and parsley from the garden.  We had quite a bit left so on my cooking night last Friday I tipped the leftover tabouli into the beef mince stirred through an egg. Formed the meat into balls.

Tabouli Beef Patties 

Because this is busy mum’s food it is prepared now. Each ball is placed on a piece of clingwrap, fold the clingwrap over the top of the meatball flatten the ball into a pattie wrap it well into the clingwrap.  When all the patties are well wrapped place them on a tray and into the freezer.  Keep them flat and separate freeze over night. Then put all your frozen patties in their clingwrap and put them into a large ziplock bag for a quick meal when like tonight there is not much time to cook.

It’s the same with potatoes, I never cook one lot of potatoes. So tonight in a hurry late home from work, tossed a sliced onion and crushed garlic into olive oil once it softened I  threw in the cooked potatoes and left it to brown nicely.

The leaves of fresh thyme stirred through gave a fresh flavour.

In 30 mins  The patties are cooked, popped  on top of the spinach and served up with the potatoes. Some raw carrot sticks and a little mayonnaise. Quick easy and lots of fresh food out of the garden.

Cooking baby Choy Sum

Choy Sum is full of flavour, it is a delicious vegetable. It grows very easily and some of the choy sum in the garden was a bit close together. So I pulled out the middle two and lightly cooked them for dinner.

2 tablespoons oil, 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 chopped small birds eye chilli, about 1/4 thin sliced purple onion, 2 tablespoons of chopped walnuts.

Heat oil, saute garlic and chilli till garlic starts to colour. Add walnuts and onion stir through oil. Add Choy Sum cover with a lid that tightly seals.  Turn off heat and let sit for a few minutes.

Check to see if Choy Sum is wilted,  Serve as a vegetable side dish with rice and a main course.

Tip: When cooking garlic in Asian Recipes cook until lightly browned.  In Thailand they cook lots of garlic in oil until it is brown and then put it in a container to use as a topping or additive to their food.