Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I love risotto. Naturally we have it a lot more often in winter but this was another one of those menu that was born out of cupboard staples and had a distinctively summer feel to it. I am a big fan of tomatoes for breakfast, so we always have at least 3-4 tomatoes hanging around in the fruit bowl.

This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s tomato, basil and ricotta risotto but naturally I lost it half way and started doing my own thing. Hey, like I said, it hasn’t turned out badly yet.

Risotto for two people who are in lurrve

1. 1 cup of arborio rice
2. 1 onion, finely chopped
3. 1/2 bulb of baby fennel, finely chopped*
4. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
5. 3 very ripe, sweet tomatoes, chopped into large chunks.
6. 3 large chunks of marinated goat’s cheese (about 80 g.) **
7. 3 tbsp of standard dressing (i.e. one part olive oil, one part balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper)
8. a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes
9. 4 large leaves of fresh oregano, thinly slices ***
10. 1 handful of fresh basil leaves
11. 1 litre of vegetable stock, simmered (I use 1 tbsp Vegeta Gourmet Stock powder + 1/2 cube of Massel veggie stock)

Dress the tomatoes with the standard dressing and set aside. Sprinkle the goat’s cheese with the chilli flakes and organo and grill for ten minutes or until golden.

Heat a glug of olive oil in a sauce pan and fry off the onion and fennel gently for ten minutes on low heat. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Turn the heat up, add the rice and fry until hot to touch. Ladle in some hot stock. Keep stirring and add the stock one ladle at a time. Add 2/3 of the tomatoes half way through. Cook, stirring and keep adding stock until the rice is soft and creamy but firm to bite in the middle.

Stir in the rest of the tomatoes, grilled goat’s cheese and the basil leaves. Rest for one minute and then serve immediately, drizzled with a good grassy olive oil. Yum.

On hindsight, really, I should have pretended that this was my Cookbook Challenge Week 7 but it’s too late. I’m going to hit post now.

* I had the fennel left over from something else, you can use celery instead.
** As mentioned previously, marinated goat’s cheese (soft and creamy) is our fridge staple (having a cheese maker for a brother-in-law does have its advantages). You can use ricotta or other soft goat’s cheese instead. Drizzle a bit of oil on it before roasting.
*** A few pinches of dried oregano is fine but hey it’s summer and I have a pot of oregano.

This is an appreciation bit for my oven

I love my oven. I don’t care if it’s a second hand bought rental oven. It’s old. In fact, it may even be called retro. But It rocks. I have had brand new oven. I have used my parent’s whiz bang oven. I have used other friends’ whiz bang ovens. But mine rocks the most. You know why?

It’s a gas oven. Get gas. Seriously. Having an electric oven is like having electric hotplates.

Two background stories: #1 We love our good bread and our bakery of choice is Purebread Bakery in Surrey Hills. They do the best bread in my humble opinion. Our top favourites are the corn sourdough and the cheese & onion sourdough. And yes, I have tried many of the famous Melbourne bakeries. Hope Farm is a close second but they only sell their bread at farmers’ market. Anyway, digressing. #2 One of my favourite Spring/Summer breakfast is a bruschetta made from the above mention sourdough bread with diced ripe tomato and fresh basil with a little bit of standard balsamic dressing.

So one Sunday afternoon I came home from shopping to find that Josh had made us lunch, which was a surprise in itself (he cooks but rarely without my prompting) but what was even more special was that he invented a whole new salad with the ingredients that were lying around the house that needed to be used up! And guess what? It was absolutely delicious. He said he was inspired by my breakfast bruschetta and he wanted to try to recreate a salad version from it. And not only those, he took photos! Have I mentioned I love this man and that he is a perfect food blogger’s spouse?

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Book: Thai Street Food by David Thompson Theme: Beans Recipe: Crunchy Omelet of Mussels

Week 4 of the Cookbook Challenge! Personally, I feel like this week is a bit of a cheat really. I did use David Thompson’s new Thai Street Food as an inspiration and a guide but I deviated from his recipe so far that it practically was something I made up. Ah well. In fact, I’m even slightly indignant about calling it ‘Crispy Omelet’ as he did because as far as I’m concern egg is an optional ingredient in this dish. I think that’s the main difference between this dish and the Fujian oyster omelet. Well, that, and the fact the mussels, not oysters, are used.

But anyway, I love Thai Street Food. At first I thought, ‘What a silly idea! Aren’t all Thai food sold on the street anyway? What’s the difference?’ Until I had a chance to really flip through the book (I mean the thing weighs a tonne! Who randomly flips through a book that weighs a tonne?) and listened to his explanation of what he meant by street food. ‘Street food in Thailand’, he said, ‘as opposed to home cooking, are those food that are eaten throughout the day as snacks and main meals where a portion is not made for sharing. A single dish food, if you like.’ and that’s when it came to me that I would never find such a book that has all of these recipes. That was when I bought it. And David Thompson signed it. In Thai. Isn’t that cute?

But back to this dish. My mum used to take me around to her favourite hoy tod vendor on the street (of course) near the market where we used to live. It was one of her favourite street vendors (mine was the khao mun gai, chicken rice, lady) She would have hers with extra mussels, no egg and with picked sliced chilli and fish sauce. No Sriracha sauce. I guess it’s one of those childhood street food memory I grew up on. I swear Australia seriously lacks street food culture. You can never be a foodie country without street food culture. No sir-ree. And drinking beer and eating chips outside a pub on a Summer day does not count. Read the rest of this entry »

Book: Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver Theme: citrus Recipe: Insalata di Strada

This post kicks off my participation in the week 1 of the Cookbook Challenge in this hot (and eventually rainy) week. First of all, allow me to ramble before I get to the crux of this recipe. I found it really hard to be doing citrus (such a winter theme) in one of the hottest Spring week in Melbourne history. And guess what? I have no one to blame but myself because it was I, who pulled the theme out of the envelope. D’oh.

So here I was, totally stuck with this theme. I’m definitely not giving in and bake orange and poppy seed cake (although I have wanted to do that, the sticking point would be I have no cookbook that has orange and poppy seed cake – actually maybe Stephanie’s Cook Companion, but I digress) because that would be too easy.

This recipe in itself was no picnic. It is, in essence, a winter salad. Its main ingredients proved difficult: Cedro lemon? Non-existent here. Fennel? Winter vegetable. Blood orange? Well, I’d be lucky to find them. But guess what? The market provided! I went through all the stalls in the market to find decent fennel (believe me when I keep saying it’s not fennel season), some new potatoes, a head of radicchio and some blood oranges. Read the rest of this entry »

I got this idea from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie At Home. It was a decent breakfast. Nothing beats bacon fat in the morning.

1. 2 eggs per person
2. 4 fat asparagus per person
3. 3 slices of mild pancetta per person

To soft boil eggs (I was fiddling with the asparagus and overcooked the eggs so the picture isn’t really of a soft boiled egg), cover eggs with cold water and bring to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat down to gentle simmer and boil for 3 minutes.

Trim back the woody ends of the asparagus and wrap the pancetta around the asparagus. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 220′c or until the pancetta is crispy. Serve.