Greek spinach pockets

Hey readers!

Chris is gone to a meeting tonight for the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, so I’m playing with dinner in the kitchen!  I’ve had a craving for these tasty little spinach pockets I used to have for lunch regularly back in Vancouver.  So, I decided to try my hand at a little recipe.  This is a Kat original, and I must say, a very tasty one indeed.  Again, sorry for the nonprecise ingredient list, but it’s kinda what I had around the house Ah well, it’s all about authenticity these days anyways, eh?

1 package of filo pastry

2 large bunches silverbeet (swiss chard)

2 potatoes, cubed

2 medium sized onions

1 block feta (I think mine was about 20cm square)

3 eggs

a handful of Italian parsley (yes ours is finally big enough in the garden to harvest!!)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Roughly shred the silverbeet (you can also use spinach) leaves and finely chop the stems.  Steam until wilted (about 5 min), and place in colander to drain and cool while you do other stuff.  Place cubed potatoes into a pot with water and boil until soft.  Finely chop onions and fry in olive oil for about 5 minutes until soft.  Get a big bowl.  Squeeze all the water out of your silverbeet and place in bowl – and then add all the other ingredients and mix well. Taste the mixture and adjust seasoning if you like.

Remove 6 sheets of filo from the package and cut them into squares about 30cm square (mine were already squares).  Put about 1/2c of mixture at the bottom of the square, fold both sides over, brush the other end with egg and roll ‘er up.  Brush the pocket with the remainder of the egg to make it nice and golden.

Place all packages on an oiled baking sheet and place in an 180 degree C oven for 20-25 minutes.

Voila!

These were quite tasty, for sure and will make a great lunch tomorrow too!  The point is not to replicate this recipe, but play with it!  That’s the great thing about having a box of filo in the freezer.  You can put just about anything in it, roll it and bake it…and it’ll look and taste pretty darn impressive.

Enjoy,

Kat

Plum jam…with lime!

Ah, it’s finally autumn…when the temperatures dip to a cool 29 degrees (yes, I am from Canada).   This also means getting out the ol preserving pot once again!!!  Because god knows you don’t want to boil 10L of water when it’s 40 degrees in your house already

Today, I though I’d take advantage of stone fruit season here in Perth.  I also didn’t want to make a huge amount of jam either, so I thought I’d see what I could do with two humble plums and one humble lime…a cost of about $2.50.

You’ll need:

2 large plums (I used some large dark ones, for the life of me I can’t remember what variety sorry!!!) – about 450g

1 lime (try to get organic or off the tree so they don’t have waxes/sprays) – zested and juiced

450g sugar

Cut plums into wedges and bring to a gentle simmer in 150ml water.

Simmer for 20 minutes.  Add in zest and juice of lime and sugar.

Bring to a rolling boil and boil for about 10 minutes or until set.  Once set, ladel into warm, sterilized jars.  Cap jars and put in a large pot with boiling water and boil for 10-15 minutes.  Remove jars and cool overnight – make sure you hear a pop when the jars seal.

Easy peasy!  The jam tastes great.  Chris said “Oh, that’s good – and not too sweet”…so there, my first review.

So let’s see…you spent $2.50 for two jars of yummy homemade jam you couldn’t buy in the shops even if you wanted to (I’ve never seen lime and plum jam in Woolies!) – good on ya!   I’m liking this small batch preserving.  You get to try a lot of combinations and you never make too much.

Enjoy,

Kat

Basil Sacrifice

If you haven’t already surmised, I love basil.  I just planned a few more seedlings and they’re looking fab.  They love the summer heat and as long as you give them some water, they’re good.  They also love containers!

But…what to do with all that ‘older’ basil?

It’s still good!  I know…PESTO!  And it’s super easy too.  You’ll need

About 60 g basil leaves

1/2 c pine nuts

1/3 c parmesan cheese

black pepper (about 1 tsp)

1 garlic clove, chopped

about 6-7 tbsp olive oil…but use your judgement

Put all the basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, black pepper and parm cheese and 2 tbsp olive oil in a food processor/blender

and blend until coarse.  Turn on the machine again and this time slowly add the rest of the olive oil until you get a lovely glistening paste.  And that’ it!

Add some salt if you like and then spoon into a sterilized jar and top with oil.  Keep in the fridge.  Or, if you’re like me, use it in a pasta immediately!  I boiled some linguine, and added some cherry tomatos from the garden, some mushrooms and some duck fennel sausages from the local butcher.

Yum.   I reckon you’d pay upwards of $20 for that in a restaurant.  Let’s cost this one out, shall we? I’ll only include things with a reasonable cost, ie: pepper and 1 garlic clove are pretty darn cheap – fractions of fractions of cents.

Basil – free

Pine nuts $2 (still have 1/2 packet left over, so let’s say $1)

Parmesan cheese $2

Olive oil $1

Linguine $3

Cherry tomatos – free

Mushrooms $2

Sausages ($12/kilo) $4

So, adding that up it’s (math isn’t my strong point) $13.  That fed two people and fed me lunch the next day.

Frugality never tasted so good or was so nutritious.  I hope this changes current perceptions about eating well.

Enjoy,

Kat

Pasta Garden

When I got home today it was still light out, so I took a pot from the dish rack and went exploring in the garden for little red cherry tomatos (fun!).  Chris and I picked 20 or so, some beans and a big broccoli…oh yeah, and another zucchini (great.)

I looked at all those fresh veggies and thought, “I’ve got to make something from that NOW”.  No sense in letting those fresh veggies languish in the fridge.  I remembered this one frozen pasta dinner I used to LOVE back in my pre-gardening days.  It was called “Pasta Garden”.  I can’t seem to find an image, but it was essentially frozen veggies, frozen pasta and a white sauce packet.  I decided to try and rip it off…and I reckon I did pretty well.  Sorry about the “ishness” of the “recipe”, but I kind of just threw it together.  Garden to bowl in 20 minutes.

Bowtie pasta (I strongly recommend bowtie pasta – because it’s awesome)

1 lovely broccoli head

a few green beans

a zucchini

1 tbsp butter

1tbsp flour

1 cup of milk

some fresh thyme and oregano

1/2 c parmesan cheese

A dozen or so cherry tomatoes, cut in half

a small handfull of rocket

Put some water on for your pasta and boil until you like it.  Meanwhile, chop and steam broccoli florettes, zucchini  and beans until just tender.  In a small pot, melt butter and add flour.  Cook on medium heat until pasty and then add milk.  Cook until just about boiling – the mixture should thicken.  Don’t put the heat on tooo high, or else it will burn.  Take off the heat and throw in herbs and parm cheese plus some salt and pepper to taste.  Stir until parm is nice and melty.  At this point everything should be done.  Sooooooooo….drain pasta, return to pot and add veggies and sauce. Sprinkle with rocket and cherry tomatos and gently stir in. PRESTO!

It was super delicious – blew Pasta Garden out of the water.

Enjoy

Kat

Broccoli HO!

Hey all!  Along with the regular daily zucchini, we are now getting regular broccoli.  And it’s building up in the fridge…along with the zucchini.  Problem.

Problem solved.  This cream of broccoli soup recipe uses a crap load of broccoli (8 cups to be precise), is simple, cost effective and YUMMY.  I can attest, because I made it for lunch and it used up a whopping 2 heads of broccoli plus the leftovers in the fridge.  It’s loaded with fiber, vitamin C and all sorts of plantie goodness.

Here it is.  It’s also quick to make…I went from garden to bowl in 30 minutes (no kidding).

Enjoy,

Kat

Friday Pizza Nite

Friday is pizza nite at the Jones’!  Making your own is soooo easy, and here’s my favorite recipe for pizza dough that I use all the time from Jamie Oliver (one of my food heros!)

Good thing is is that you can top it with whatever you have lying around.  Today it’s (in the order of appearance), crushed tomatoes (we’re out of tomato sauce), fresh basil and thyme from the garden, onion, tomato, zucchini and mushroom.  Just layer it on and put in a nice hot oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is a bit golden and bubbly and the crust is golden.  Trick is to use a hot oven…and if you have a pizza stone – even better!

Mmmm Mmmm good.  I swear, you make this once and you’ll never order out again.  Oh yeah, and the whole thing cost us $0 because we used what we had at home/in the garden.  Bonus.

Garden love

 

I had a serious case of garden love today when I gathered the pickings for the night onto the cutting board for prep.  I was faced with a beautiful cacophony of home grown goodness in the form of silverbeet, summer squash, garlic , parsley and onion…all from the garden.

Our garden is starting to become diverse and productive enough not to have to run to the veggie store every second day for provisions…and that’s just beautiful, if you ask me.  All I do now is peruse the garden and pick whatever is available.  Squash is being super prolific, so I simply sauteed it with butter, onion, garlic with some salt and pepper until soft.  I then garnished it with fresh parsley and yum.  Super simple.  Super wonderful.

Just had to share.

Enjoy,

Kat

 

 

 

Simple is beautiful

And that, ladies and gentlemen, describes tonight’s pasta perfectly. It’s why I’m gaga about Italian cooking – high quality, fresh ingredients simply prepared - luscious.  All you need is some pasta (I use Barilla because it doesn’t stick like the other brands), italian sausages (or whatever suits your fancy), some red capsicum, some olive oil and some fresh basil from the garden.

If you don’t have fresh basil at the moment – well get cracking!  All you need is a pot, some potting mix and seeds (all you can get from Bunnings of a nursery).  If you don’t want to wait get a seedling.  Basil likes sun, warmth and water – perfect for the upcoming summer.

Anyways, cook the sausage and get the water boiling for the pasta (I like to generously salt the water for tasty pasta).  When sausage is done put aside and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.  Wipe out the pan and fry the capsicum (diced) in some olive oil.  At this point your water should be ready for pasta.  You see where I’m going with this, don’t you…your pasta and capscium should be ready at the same time!!!  At this point,  drain the pasta put back in the pot, then add the cut up sausage, capsicum and fresh basil (chopped).  Drizzle more olive oil and add a touch of salt, if you like.

Then…cablamo!  Yummy Italian pasta night in about 20 minutes!

Bag O’ Apples

Our local fruit and veg shop has this section called “reduced produce”, which I frequent, of course.  Here you can get a bag of delicious assorted pommes for cheap

Was that $2.99 for like 10 apples?  Cheap as!

What you do with said apples is your business, but may I suggest a delectable apple “strudel”, which I put in quotes not to offend my German friends.  This “strudel” is as easy as 1,2,3…all you need besides your cheap as bag of apples is a box of filo pastry…like this!

Also a lemon you may or may not have ‘stolen’ from a neighbouring tree, some brown sugar, cinnamon and sultanas (if you like), oh and some butter (of course)

Preheat oven to 175 C

1.  Peel, core and chop 3 apples.  Sprinkle with a bit of lemon juice to avoid browning.  Throw in 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon and a handful of sultanas.  Now, I don’t like my desserts too sweet, so feel free to add more sugar…just taste and adjust to how you like it!  That’s the beauty of doing it yourself…you get what YOU like!

2.  Unwrap your filo and remove about 6 paper thin sheets.  Lay these down on a cookie sheet.  Melt some butter in the microwave and drizzle over the filo.  Place the mixture on the filo like so.

Fold over the edges and roll up into a filo package filled with apply goodness. Make 4 or so slits on the top with a sharp knife – these help the steam escape and also help you to cut it without making a messy mess.

3.  Put in the oven for about 25 minutes, or until you can smell the apples cooking and the top is browned.  Ready for some food porn…oh yeah, I know you want it…

See, three steps (or so)…Remove from the oven and let cool for a bit…then tuck in!  Yum!  Great for breakfast too, if I do say so myself.

Enjoy,

Buy a whole chicken

I used to be a breast girl…you know, I used to buy 2 chicken breasts from the supermarket to      throw in my curry/stir fry/etc etc that night and pay $15 for the privilege.  No longer!  We now   buy a whole chicken…which costs me just as much and gives me 2 breasts, 2 legs, 2 wings and STOCK!  How’s that for 14 bucks.  Deboning a chook is pretty easy…deboning a chook *properly* is probably more difficult.  Just take a sharp knife, pull each leg away from the body and cut it off…same with the wing.  The breasts come off remarkably easy if you just follow the contours of the bones with your knife.  After  removing the legs, wings and breasts, huck the remainder of the bird into a freezer bag or use right away for stock.

Stock (like everything else) takes infinitely better when home made.  And it’s ridiculously easy.  Just throw the remaining bones (with some meat attached for flavour – I remove the fat too) into a large pot and almost cover with water.  Throw in a roughly sliced up carrot, onion and some celery tops if you have them.  I like to put in a couple of bay leaves and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  If you have fresh herbs…toss them in!  If not, you can use the dried italian herb mix just as well.

Bring it to a boil and let simmer for 4 hours.  Skim the fat off the top, pour it into some recycled jars (almost full but not quite), cap and put in the freezer.  Now you’ve got fresh home made stock on demand…Alternatively you can freeze in ice cube trays and just pop one or two in your rice to give it that extra burst of flavour.

I hope you see how buying a whole chook can save you money and make your cooking a whole lot tastier.  It takes a bit of extra time…but just a bit.  But, it’s totally worth it

Enjoy,

Kat