Bean burritos on Monday

I wish my kids would enjoy eating beans other than canned baked beans. I personally thought these adzuki beans -- cooked with red capsicum and lotsa garlic -- were delicious but the kids only ate the requisite couple of mouthfuls. Oh well, at least they eat all the vegies and Tom loves the brown rice.

There is also an action shot of me cooking dinner... a classic 5 pm gossip with a girlfriend which makes all the difference while salad spinning.

Sunday night dinner

Nigella (Lawson) let me down tonight. I used her recipe for one-pan chicken and though I liked all the ingredients, I disagree with the one pan! You place chicken on top of cubed potatoes, quartered red capsicum, red onions, and -- count them -- 16 unpeeled garlic cloves. I found the result tasty but too oily from the chicken fat. Next time I'd put them in separate dishes. The roasted red capsicum was a treat with the potatoes, and the garlic cloves were divinely soft and sweet, to squeeze out onto the chicken. My kids love garlic... they each had 6 cloves and were disappointed there weren't more!

The salad was baby spinach leaves, baby Roma tomatoes and avocado.

My new wok!

Our old wok died. We got it as a wedding present, 10 years ago, so I figure that's a decent lifetime for something used several times a week. So I went and got the BMW of woks, thanks to a recent sale: a Danish-made Scanpan. It's big, it's heavy, and it's so non-stick that when I put the vegies in it they almost flew across to the other side of the room!

I'm reasonably happy with my new rice cooker. In particular I'm glad I got the more expensive kind that has the lid that seals tightly. But reading about the BMW of rice cookers -- Zojirushis -- I do wish mine had a brown rice setting because mine doesn't do it as perfectly as I like, i.e. distinct, chewy but non-mushy grains without starchiness on the outside. This batch was better because I followed the instructions in the Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook for extra water and an hour soaking time.

The tofu was braised with mushrooms, soy sauce, mirin, garlic and ginger. My kids prefer it braised to baked -- I like both, but sometimes crave the crispy outside of the baked.

Good morning to myself!

My friend's mom (well, mum) says 'Good morning to myself!' when she does something which is relatively tedious in the scale of life but still it makes you happy every time you look at it. I say this every time I see my (drum roll please...) newly organised pantry!!! Isn't it beautiful! And yes, Mom, the spices are alphabetised.















On the left side of the top shelf, I've got rice (brown, Basmati, Arborio, sushi); legumes (red and green lentils; adzuki beans; 9-bean soup mix); and grains (millet, cornmeal, polenta, barley) in stackable containers. On the right side, I've got sauces, condiments, stock, and canned fruit.




On the left side of the next shelf, I've got my oils (extra-virgin olive, canola) and vinegars (Balsamic, apple, rice); garlic in a bowl; lots of stock cubes; and extra bits (coconut, sunflower seeds, apricots, barley). On the right side is all my spices on a Lazy susan. Behind are cans: tuna; beans (refried, chickpeas, red kidney, cannelini); tomatoes (paste, crushed, pizza sauce, prepared sauces).

Good morning 2

On the left side of the next shelf is bread (rolls, tortillas, crumpets, and usually breadmaker bread); spreads (peanut butter, vegemite, honey, jam); nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts); dried fruit (currants, sultanas); and crackers (corn thins, wholemeal, Vitabrits).



Now on the left side of the next shelf we've got breakfast cereals (Weetbix, muesli, oatmeal, Oat Flakes, 4-grain Cheerios). On the right, a basket of pasta and noodles as well as a basket of breakfasty things (rolled 4-grain flakes, millet puffs, barley flakes, brown rice flakes).




On the bottom floor I've got vegetables (onions, sweet potatoes, pumpkin); bread mixes; juice and mineral water; and my trusty slow cooker.




There we go. I feel we are good friends now that you know my pantry intimately!

P.S. Baking stuff in drawer

P.S. All my baking ingredients (flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder etc) are in a drawer under the counter I usually make bread/cookies/cakes on. I like that I can see all the ingredients from above, plus it reminds me of the flour drawer my Grandma had in her farm kitchen, in which she stored all the ingredients to make homemade bread every week.

Too much information?

I hesitate in posting this as it seems quite mundane but I think I would be interested -- in a Mrs-Beeton's-Household-Hints-kind-of way -- in other people's grocery purchases! And remember, I've been home all week with a sick family ... grocery shopping was my first exciting outing for the week! This was a HUGE grocery shop for me. I have been cleaning out my pantry and eating odd meals from mysterious things found in its recesses... and now have replenished it. I usually go to the grocery store about once a month for the basics. Then every week I go to the produce markets, to get fruit and vegies; natural foods from the bulk store there; and meat and fish sometimes. Then I pick up dairy and extras from the small (and slightly more expensive) local grocery store across the street from the school.

For American readers, A$1 = US$0.75. You'll probably have to click on the picture (thus downloading a bigger version) in order to read it. Have fun.

Pumpkin risotto

So I started with a whole Jap pumpkin last week. I used half for the roast chicken dinner; a quarter for the chicken noodle soup; and eeeek I still have a quarter left which I used to make this risotto. Oh man I love this cookbook... checked out for the second time from the library which is usually a hint I should buy it for myself. This is the same cookbook where I got the recipe for beans and rice which worked perfectly. And here, this pumpkin risotto worked perfectly and was easy. I sauteed a chopped onion in the rice cooker for 2 minutes, then cooked the Arborio rice for about 4 minutes. Then I dumped in the stock (water + a cube) and chopped pumpkin, set the timer for 20 minutes (it won't turn off because risottos are more liquid), and ouila, after a quick stir, risotto!! It was delicious -- the pumpkin melted and formed an oozy orange starchy liquid to bind the rice. Perhaps not your perfect, stand-and-stir-at-the-stove-for-30-minutes risotto, but quietly, I've never been able to tell the difference between the dumping and stirring varieties. I topped it with Parmesan cheese last night, but today at lunch I'd run out of cheese and it was good with chopped avocado instead.

OK, I'm sick of pumpkin now.

Chicken noodle soup

Everyone (except for me) is sick this week... really sick with a flu virus. I battled it with lots of sleep, citrus, liquids, and Ease-a-Cold (preventative tablets with Zinc, vitamin C and echinacea)... and I was only mildly tired and chilled. Whereas the rest of the family has had terrible fevers, pains, chills, sore throats. So I'm lucky. Except I'm sick of everyone else groaning. Ooops you've discovered my secret: I'm a Bad Mother. I have no patience when others are sick. Sigh. But hey I made them chicken noodle soup! And jello!

I'd been saving leftover chicken carcasses in the freezer for a while and used them to make a very rich broth (as per Betty Crocker, I discard the initial vegies used to make the broth, then add lots more fresh ones later). I'd read a medical journal article PROVING that chicken noodle soup improves the immune system, and their recipe had sweet potato and pumpkin in it (probably the vitamin A is great for the immune system). So in addition to the other vegies of potato, onion, lotsa garlic, carrots and celery, I added a quarter of a Jap pumpkin. I let it cook until the pumpkin completely disintegrated, making the stock a lurid orange-y yellow with a lovely sweet flavour.

Homemade muesli

I'm cleaning and organising my pantry right now and decided to make some homemade muesli with bits and pieces which I've discovered. And of course Anna is my #1 helper. She chopped up dried apricots and dates and mixed with the rest of the ingredients: oat and barley flakes, oat bran straws, linseed-sunflower-almond meal, coconut, and a generous pile of almonds whizzed in the food processor into big chunks. Quite delicious. I've come around to my spartan husband's ways and prefer the muesli untoasted. Usually they add more fat and sugar when they toast (bake) the muesli anyway.

Leftover shepherd's pie

Peter made this shepherd's pie, based very loosely on a Nigella recipe, and out of leftovers from the roast pork dinner. He chopped up the roast pork and mixed with some extra vegies and canned tomatoes, then topped with roast potatoes on one side, and roast pumpkin on the other side. It was pretty good... especially the roast potato side.

Roast pork

I had a friend come play with me after school; she conveniently has a son and daughter matching my own, so the kids were happy too. I needed something for dinner which I could just toss into the oven so I could get on with the chin-wagging. And in my local shops I spied this pork roast pre-marinated with mustard and sun-dried tomatoes. Well it was easy -- just a toss into the oven indeed -- but I personally didn't like the flavourings and tenderizers, eeew. It tasted fake and chemical to me. But everyone else liked it. Served with roast potatoes and a salad with lettuce, tomatoes and red capsicum.

Baked beans and vegies

A midweek meal: can of baked beans heated with leftover lamb roast; toast; steamed broccoli and carrots; mushrooms sauteed with spring onions and garlic; and raw red capsicum. Am I going a little overboard this week with lots of little bowls of different vegetables?

Mexican beans and rice

This one-dish meal is from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, which I've gotten from the library again -- it's so good I might have to buy it for myself. Add 1 cup rice and 1 cup stock to the rice cooker and start the cook cycle. Then saute chopped red capsicum, spring onions and garlic, then tip it into the rice cooker along with a drained can of beans, a can of chopped tomatoes and spices (oregano and cumin and chili powder). I wish I would have had tortillas to wrap around the rice, but instead the kids put it inside taco shells and the adults just ate it plain. Served with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and avocadoes; yogurt; and chilli sauce for the oldies. Coriander would have been good too.

I often serve lots of little bowls of vegies for the kids to choose from -- they seem to eat more if there's a variety and they can choose the amount. My son's friend who came for dinner the other night was amazed that there was an entire bowl of carrot sticks on the table. His father said they always put a serving on their kids' plates instead of the kids serving themselves and the novelty factor was pretty exciting for him: woo-hoo!

Rice heart and flower

Upon my request, DH brought these rice molds home from Japan. I don't think you're officially meant to use sushi rice (just plain leftover rice) but that's what I have tonight. I mixed in the leftover salmon, rinsed the molds with cold water, and Anna compressed them to make delicious, dense rice "balls" that hold together and are easy to eat for kids. They will be morning tea for the kids' lunch box tomorrow.

I've got a great cookbook with every imagineable rice ball recipe... one of DH's colleagues sent it to me. I've made rice balls with chopped and shredded vegetables (carrot, capsicum and cucumber); salmon or tuna; or leftover teriyaki chicken. I would like to try some more recipes sometime.