Smoothies

Celery Pea and Mint

Soup

Slice the onion and garlic. Cube the pumpkin. Add the onion and garlic to a pan on medium temprature and cook for a few minutes till clear. Add the cayenne for a bit of spice. Add the pumpkin, stock and lemon grass, reduce heat and cook for 20-30min until the pumpkin is soft. Remove the lemongrass and blend with the coconut milk. I like the re-add the lemon grass and store for a few hours or overnight to let the lemongrass flavours develop through the soup. Easy and delicious.

Slice the onion and garlic. Cube the pumpkin. Add the onion and garlic to a pan on...

Coconut Lemongrass Pumpkin Soup

Breakfast Banana 

Condiments

I've been experimenting with pickled things recently. Why? Because I freaking love pickles. And I want to understand the Harry Potter wizardary that goes into making them.

I can't give you precision measurements... why? becuase I was stupid and didn't measure them. This was an experiment. It worked. But out of the Beetroot, onion, radish, carrot, cucumber, zucchini. The Onion, Radish, and Cucumber were the best! They held their texture well. The zucchini was a bit soft and the carrot & beetroot were too firm.

I did try apple cider vinegar and a plain white vinegar. The apple cider clearly one. It added some depth and wasn't as harsh as a standard vinegar.

With cheese these pickles were a success!

I've been experimenting with pickled things recently. Why? Because I freaking love...

Pickled Things

Baked Things

This is my really novice approach to bread baking... theres loads of room for improvement but even still I love the outcome.

I'm undecided yet if this step if necessary. But I like to awaken the dried yeast by placing it in lukewarm water. Either use the water you'll end up using. Or as I did in the photo I used 160ml (about half the total water) of warm water from the tap and a tiny pinch of sugar as food for the yeast.

Here I barely combined the ingredients. I attempted kneading for about 1 min. Then it was too sticky and I didn't want to do what I did years ago when I last attempted making bread which was adding more and more flour. So I stopped and let it rise. They say it should double in size. I'll find out in time how to knead properly but you know what, this worked.

Once it rose I smooshed it with my hands to push the main gas from the yeast out. Then popped it in a bakeable casserole pot. Then let it rise again.

This pot baking is one trick I do know. By cooking it in a pot it keeps the moisture from the bread around the dough while it bakes. This steam gives it an awesome crust. Fancy pants bakeries have steam ovens. House holds have casserole pot ;)

The result is at the top. I should have included a photo of the bread slathered in butter while still steaming after the bake... I'll do that next week while baking.

This is my really novice approach to bread baking... theres loads of room for improvement...

Basic Bread Recipe

Dinner

I'm not really sure what goes in an authentic dahl (currently at least). But this ticks so many boxes. Cheap, tasty, quick to prepare. And vegetarian with a tonne of tasty vegetables.

Cook off the onions for a few minutes. Chuck all the spices in to cook them out a little. Add the stock and the rest of the vegetables then let it cook out for maybe an hour. Super simple.

I'm not really sure what goes in an authentic dahl (currently at least). But this...

Lentil Curry Dahl Thing

I've been enjoying this on simple rolled oats and yogurt.

The origonal recipe called for vanila (1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste) but I don't bake enough deserts right now to warrent having it about. So I subsituted it with star anise. It's still delicious.

Roughly chop the rhubarb and pop it in a pot along with peal star anise sugar and water. Put on a really low heat and simmer for 15-20min. The rhubarb will fall apart and almost disolve. 

It's got a wonderful acidic quality. You don't need much of it, but you'll want to conteract that acidity with sugar.

Rhubarb Compote

Chop onions garlic and capiscum. Doesn't really matter how thick. Put some olive oil in pan and bring it up to a medium heat. Add onion and garlic for a few mintues till transparent. Just trying to take the picante out of the onion and garlic.

Add all the spices and cook for hmmm maybe 2 minutes. It really depends how hot the pan is, if it's super hot maybe a minute will do.

Finally add the capsicum and tomatoe. Cook out the acidity from the tomatoes. Once it's cooked maybe 10min or so pop in the eggs and goats cheese or any cheese you have on hand.

Chop onions garlic and capiscum. Doesn't really matter how thick. Put some olive...

Shakshuka

Leak & Potato Soup

This was a delicious alternative to a chicken or bacon based pasta. It still has the same depth. 

Fettuccine (or whatever pasta you prefer)

Bring a large pot of water to the boil for the pasta. Roughly chop the leak, mushrroms and garlic, saute with butter on a low heat in a medium sized pot.  When they start breaking down add the cream and salt and pepper to taste. If you put the pasta on first at this point they should be nearly cooked, you can add a few table spoons of the pasta water to the leak mushroom mixture. The water has a lot of starch from the pasta and as the water reduces it can thicken the mixture. Lastly put in some parmesan cheese to taste.

You can reduce the heat of the sauce if you're wating for the pasta to cook. When the pasta has cooked drain then add to the sauce. Through in the spinach and use some tongs or spoon to turn all the contents together. The spinach will wilt and the pasta will coat in all the delicious sauce.

Serve in a bowl top with sundried tomatoes and some flakes of parmesan.

I didn't add any freash herbs but some parsley or chives would have worked well taking the dish to the next level.

This was a delicious alternative to a chicken or bacon based pasta. It still has...

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