Baked Mediterranean Risotto

This baked risotto comes from the "Food Challanges" textbook put out by sanitarium. It differs from a traditional risotto as there is no endless stirring and ladelling involved. The ingredients which include arborio rice, boiling water, tinned tomatoes, vegetable stock powder, margarine and mushrooms are placed in an ovenproof dish, stirred, covered and placed in an oven for 40 mins. A yellow capsicum is placed alongside in the oven. By the time the rice is tender, the skin of the capsicum is blistered enough to be peeled and sliced. To serve, stir through fresh spinach leaves, roasted capsicum strips, parmesan and feta cheeses.

The risotto had a wonderful flavour from the stock powder, roasted capsicum and cheeses and was nicely moist due to the tomatoes, water and margarine.

Fish Tacos

This recipe comes from Anthea Paul's Girlosophy cookbook. The fish is marinated in cumin, chilli powder, garlic and olive oil. It is served with pico de gallo,
home made coriander pesto and garlic crema (sour cream, garlic and lime juice). It is served with regular yellow shells and taco shells made from blue corn (another kosher find).

Making the salad and pesto was a palaver but my main criticism of the recipe was that the accompanying photo did not match the ingredient list in many ways. There is avocado in the picture of pico de gallo but avocado is not in the recipe. Similarly in the cabbage salad (not pictured) there is pawpaw but again, not in the ingredient list.

Home Made Wontons

Imagine my delight at discovering kosher wonton wrappers! This recipe came from delicious magazine in an article about chef Liz Egan. The filling is mainly veal mince, water chestnuts, dried and soaked shitake mushrooms and coriander. According to the article it makes 80 wontons. However, we had a bit more mince so it made about 100. A number not truely appreciated until you have to fill and fold 100 of those little packages.

These were then steamed using a bamboo steamer placed over a wok for about 10-12 minutes. Then serve as an appetiser with sweet chilli or soy sauce (or a combination of the 2). In hindsight this operation was a slight palaver. Not hard but very fiddly. Probably won't be making them again for sometime, especially with about 50 in the freezer.

Any left over filling could be used to fill spring rolls or turned into burger patties.

Ye Olde Cookery Treats

Last week we had a school camp trip to Tasmania. We travelled over on the "Spirit" and visited many places, the highlights including Port Arthur, Hobart and the Cadbury chocolate factory. In Port Arthur when you get admission to the grounds you also get a playing card to decide your fate in the museum. My crime was idleness and for that I was sentenced to assisting with cooking duties.

The pictures show the type of food usually served to prisoners and the different levels of entitlement ie whether you ate gruel for all three meals or could experience life's little luxuries of salted meat and soap.

Cumquot Jelly

Not jelly wiggling on a plate. More like what the Americans call jelly. Like jam. This is my second foray into cooking with cumquots. The first was a marmalade which was a palaver involving peeling and deseeding the little buggers. Jelly is a breeze by comparison but next time I'll be using the sugar with added pectin to make the process faster.

Potato Gnocchi

Potato gnocchi is made from old potatoes (read: the big dirty brown ones), flour, egg and water. The process of making then took quite some time, but they are extremely fast to cook, provided there is a pot of boiling water on the stove. The sauce was an out of the bottle affair, briefly heated in a saucepan and the gnocchi stirred through.

Processwise, peel and cut potatoes into eighths and boil until extremely tender. When potatoes are soft, press through a metal sieve using a wooden spoon. Add sifted flour and egg and knead into a soft dough. Divide dough into thirds and roll out into a sausage shape. Cut at interval of 2-3cm. To pattern, press lightly against the smallest side of a grater (the one used for zesting). Alternatively, use the back of a fork to make indentations. Then drop carefully into the aforementioned boiling water and remove after 60 secs when they float to the top. Voila, authentic potato gnocchi!

Inside out sushi

Though not my first attempt at sushi, it was my first successful attempt which included buying sushi grade rice, vinegaring it with rice wine vinegar, and following a recipe to make it inside out. This comes from super food ideas magazine and I halved the recipe. You need a bamboo mat covered with cling wrap. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the cling wrap. Then top with cool vinegared rice and toppings - I used grated carrot and some tinned tuna mixed with some mayo. Other possible fillings include avocado, cucumber, fresh salmon, spinach etc. Then cover with a sheet of nori (toasted seaweed) and roll carefully to ensure the cling wrap is not inside the sushi. Press firmly within the bamboo mat, then slice and serve. The recipe made 3 large logs. One for eating then and there and the other 2 for school lunches the next day.