Happy Birthday WHB

Where has this year gone? It seems like just yesterday that Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging celebrated its second birthday, and now birthday number 3 is upon us. This fabulous event attracts so many bloggers each week, I can see it celebrating many more birthdays to come. And now Haalo from Cook Almost Anything (at least once), a notable contributor in her own right, who hasn't missed one week of submitting something yummy to WHB, has taken on the role of overseeing this event. Congratulations to Kalyn, for masterminding this and nurturing it through its infancy. Enjoy your extra time to pursue your many other interests, and congratulations Haalo for taking over the role of ringmaster for the forthcoming year.

As a warmup for this event, Kalyn asked that each day, for three consecutive days, you left a comment on her blog as to what your favourite herb, favourite vegetable and favourite fruit is, to be in the running for some magnificent prizes. I must admit that coriander is my all time favourite herb, but my family is becoming a bit sick of it. If I had my way, I'd use coriander in everything, but they have rebelled. So I chose parsley as my favourite herb, mainly due to it's staying power, it's not overbearing, it's always growing in my garden and there are never any complaints from the inhouse diners.

For my favourite vegetable, I chose the tomato. To a scientist, this is actually a fruit. To a cook, it's a vege. Home grown varieties win hands down in the flavour department, and I'm nurturing my plants daily, eagerly awaiting to pick my first tomato on Christmas day.

Lastly, I chose the olive as my favourite fruit. Strange choice, but I love them with a passion. There are so many olive growers emerging here in Australia, so there is always an abundance of locally grown olives at hand. I have one single olive tree growing in my backyard, and sadly, I'll probably be in a Nursing Home by the time it's bearing buckets full of fruit, but I look forward to the day when I can sun dry my very own olives.

So with that combination I chose a recipe from a 2002 Edition of Gourmet which had all three of these ingredients, plus my favourite Lebanese Mougrabieh couscous.

Mougrabieh with roasted tomatoes and olives

For roasted tomatoes and dressing

• 2 pints red grape or cherry tomatoes (1 1/2 pound)
• 3 large garlic cloves, left unpeeled
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

For couscous

• 2 3/4 cups chicken broth
• 2 1/4 cups pearl (Israeli) couscous
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Preparation:

Roast tomatoes and make dressing:

Preheat oven to 250°F.
Halve tomatoes through stem ends and arrange, cut sides up, in 1 layer
in a large shallow (1-inch-deep) baking pan.

Add garlic to pan and roast in middle of oven until tomatoes are slightly shriveled around edges, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on a rack 30 minutes.
Peel garlic and purée with oil, water, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup roasted tomatoes in a blender until dressing is very smooth.

Make couscous:

Bring broth to a boil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan and stir in couscous, then simmer, uncovered, 6 minutes. Cover pan and remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes.
Spread couscous in 1 layer on a baking sheet and cool 15 minutes.
Transfer couscous to a bowl and stir in remaining ingredients, dressing, roasted tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cooks' note:

·Roasted tomatoes, dressing, and couscous can be made 1 day ahead and kept separately, covered and chilled. Bring to room temperature before proceeding.

Mougrabieh or Giant Couscous

There is only one thing I vow never to do again in my life, and that is to cook "instant" couscous. Never again will I open a cardboard box, pour boiling water over the grains, fluff and serve. I know it's easy, sometimes even half edible, that is if you add a ton of herbs or other ingredients to spice it up with, but compared to the "proper" couscous, it doesn't have a "hope in Hades" of landing on my dinner table again.

The reason I'm so vehement in my distaste for instant couscous is that I've tried the "real stuff". And it's far from being instant. Whilst not labour intensive, it's time consuming to prepare, and you need to be organised in advance. But the final result runs rings around the couscous a la cardboard. Call me a food purist, I'm easy with that. Taste and texture win hands down over convenience I'm afraid.

When I stumbled across a packet of Mougrabieh, or commonly known as giant couscous, in my local health food store, I couldn't get to the counter quick enough, fearful that someone would do a waist high rugby tackle on me, and steal my much coveted treasure.

The secret to perfect couscous is to steam it over a fragrant liquor. The semolina grains of Lebanese Moghrabieh are much larger than Morrocan couscous grains we are familiar with and they swell up to the size of baby peas, so a conventional steamer insert was easily used.

Firstly pour boiling water onto the moghrabieh, add I tablespoon of olive oil, a good pinch of salt and another good pinch of Ras el Hanout. Let sit for 10 minutes, moving the grains around occasionally so they don't stick together. This process removes some of the surface starch.

Add the aromatics to the cooking stock:

1 litre (2 pints) water
1 onion
1 hot chilli
1 cinnamon stick
10 strands of saffron
1/2 tsp cardamon seeds
2 bay leaves

Place drained couscous in the steamer, cover and steam for 2 hours, until the couscous is soft.

I then added the steamed couscous to this recipe which really satiated my Middle Eastern food cravings. Wonderful dish to serve with grilled meats or a tagine/braise. Just perfect for a cold, rainy autumn evening.


Lebanese couscous with roasted butternut squash and preserved lemon

Ingredients

1 preserved lemon
1 1/2 lb. butternut squash, peeled and seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 3/4 cups moghrabieh couscous
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preparation

Preheat oven to 475°F.

Halve lemons and scoop out flesh, keeping both flesh and peel. Cut enough peel into 1/4-inch dice to measure 1/4 cup. Put lemon flesh in a sieve set over a bowl and press with back of a spoon to extract juice.

Toss squash with 1 tablespoon oil and salt to taste in a large shallow baking pan and spread in 1 layer. Roast in upper third of oven 15 minutes, or until squash is just tender, and transfer to a large bowl.

Cook onion in 1 tablespoon oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until just beginning to turn golden. Add to squash.

Cook couscous using method outlined above. Add couscous to vegetables and toss with 2 tablespoon oil to coat.

Add lemon peel and juice, parsley, nuts, raisins, ground cinnamon, and salt to taste. Toss to mix well.

Wandering Chopsticks is this weeks host of Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging
After browsing her blog, I think Vietnamese food will fast become one of my favourite cuisines as well.

Veal Scallopini (well, almost) with Tortellini

Always being the adventurous weeknight cook, wanting something simple, quick, but not boring and bland, my thoughts turned Italian tonight. I had all of the ingredients on hand to make a speedy Veal Saltimbocca. The sage in the garden is just beautiful right now, and begging to be picked to encourage tender new leaves to grow. I love the literal meaning of saltimbocca – “jumps in the mouth”. The marriage of sage and prosciutto can definitely jump in my mouth anytime it wants.

However, teenage daughter wanted to know it this “salt and whatever” was going to incorporate pasta, something that I’ve not cooked in a while, and her cravings were getting the better of her. Well there goes my saltimbocca out the window, I thought. So, just to appease the menu requester, I opted for Veal Scallopini with veal tortellini, and just to appease the chef’s yearnings, tossed in some sage and prosciutto into the sauce. Everyone was happy, and nobody but the chef knew of the deviation to the original recipe. I quietly had my own little “jump in the mouth” party, unbeknownst to anyone else!

Veal Scallopini with Tortellini

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

750g thinly sliced veal steaks
to taste: salt and pepper
¾ cup flour
5 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cloves fresh crushed garlic
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
¾ cup dry white wine 190ml
¾ cup mushrooms sliced (optional)
1 medium diced onion (optional)
8 slices prosciutto (very optional)
12 fresh sage leaves (very optional)
1 lb tortellini noodles 500g

Directions

Pound steaks with a mallet until really thin.
Add salt and pepper and dredge in flour.
Melt 5 tablespoons (105ml) butter in heavy skillet; add crushed garlic and sauté Veal Slices, lightly browning over a medium heat; turn but once.
Remove veal to a shallow baking pan.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons (30ml) of butter to skillet and sauté onions and mushrooms, prosciutto and sage leaves (optional ingredients) for 2½ minutes.
Add ¾ cup white wine and bring to a boil.
Simmer 2-3 minutes to blend all flavours.
Pour wine sauce over veal; cover pan and bake 35 minutes at 350ºF. (176ºC)
Cook tortellini noodles until tender in salted boiling water.
Drain and rinse.
Place tortellini noodles on serving platter.
Cover noodles with veal slices, and pour the remaining wine sauce over entire dish.

Kalyn's weekend herb blogging lands in the lap of Cate from Sweetnicks and my secret herb ingredient is sage. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Simply spaghetti

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging travels to Germany this week, to be hosted by Claudia from Fool for Food. I only wish my grasp of the German language extended beyond "dunkeshein" , "guten tag" and "gesundheit", so I could enjoy some of her wonderful looking recipes.

Spaghetti marinara is my chosen dish this week, and apart from the obvious parsley sprinkled throughout, you're probably wondering what seafood and pasta have to do with blogging about herbs and vegetables. Well...the recipe called for a jar of roasted tomato, garlic and onion pasta sauce. I didn't have any, but I had lots of homegrown tomatoes, several garlic bulbs and of course onions. Roasting the tomatoes brings out their rich, sweet flavour, and of course roasted garlic is just the most delicious tastes I can ever imagine. Once roasted and caramelised, I blitzed them all together in the food processor. This made a thick, almost puree-like sauce, just perfect for adhering to the pasta and seafood mix. You could add some olive oil to make this paste more like the consistency of sauce, or even some tomato paste for extra colour and flavour.

Spaghetti Marinara

375 g dried spaghetti
2 tblsp Chilli oil
450 g fresh seafood marinara (or frozen but fresh is best)
737 g bottle of oven-roasted garlic, onion and tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
Lemon wedges to serve
Garden salad to serve

Method

Cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well and return to pan.
Meanwhile pre-heat a large non-stick frying pan over moderate heat, add chilli oil (you could use plain EVOO if chilli's don't agree with you). Add marinara mix, cook stirring for one minute. Remove from pan.
Add sauce to pan, bring to boil, add marinara mix and simmer, stirring for 3 minutes or until seafood is tender. Remove from heat, stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper.
Add marinara mixture to hot pasta. Toss lightly to combine. Serve with lemon wedges and a garden salad.

A High Noted Dish

Summer has arrived, and with a vengeance. The days leading up to 1st December have been record breaking, scorchingly hot temperatures, so not much has been happening in my kitchen as far as innovative meals are concerned. A steak on the barbie with potatoes and a tossed salad has been pretty much my limit in the past couple of weeks. Not only has it been too hot to eat outside, but our outside guests this year are in plague proportions. I'm talking flies....sticky, baby bush flies that are so persistent and thick, one could easily inhale half a dozen whilst trying to eat. The drought has been blamed for the extreme numbers of flies this year, because the dung beetle numbers are down, so the breeding cycle for these pests have been given a free run this year. And when you think of where most of the breeding is occurring, i.e. animal excretion, swallowing the odd one just about makes you retch.

So after that little biology lesson, and my annoyance at not being able to enjoy summer meals outside, I've decided to stick to inside meals this week, and pray that the important dung beetle starts to populate again.....soon....very soon.

This is an Italian sounding dish, very apt since Simona from Briciole is hosting Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging, however it is an American dish named after a famous opera singer, Luisa Tetrazzini, who thrilled Americans at the turn of the last century with her wonderful voice.

There are many differing versions of this recipe, but I chose one from The Food Network by Giada De Laurentiis, a chef you either love or hate. It's really an operatic version of chicken and mushroom pasta.
Chicken Tetrazzini
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
12 ounces linguine
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup dried Italian-style breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Spread 1 tablespoon of butter over a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish. Melt 1 tablespoon each of butter and oil in a deep large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the hot pan and cook until pale golden and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate to cool slightly. Coarsely shred the chicken into bite-size pieces and into a large bowl.

Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon each of butter and oil to the same pan. Add the mushrooms and saute over medium-high heat until the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates and the mushrooms become pale golden, about 12 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme, and saute until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the bowl with the chicken.

Melt 3 more tablespoons butter in the same pan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, cream, broth, nutmeg, remaining 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, and remaining 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Increase the heat to high. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the linguine and cook until it is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 9 minutes. Drain. Add the linguine, sauce, peas, and parsley to the chicken mixture. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta and the mixture is well blended.

Transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir the cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the pasta. Dot with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes.

WHB #103 - Creamy mushroom and chicken fettucine

Haalo, from Cook (almost) Anything...at least once is the host for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging event number 103, has been so lucky travelling around Italy for the past few weeks, tasting the freshest Italian cheeses and indulging in fine wine and food, that she has made me green with envy. I was in Italy 3 years ago, but sadly I didn't have the appreciation for food back then, as I do now. Just another good reason to go back there, yes?

Pasta is on the menu this weekend. However it isn't the traditional Italian tomato sauce base, but more of a French inspired creamy chicken, mushroom and tarragon sauce. French tarragon has a hint of aniseed to it's flavour, not as distinctive as fennel though, and when tasted raw, it leaves your tongue slightly numb, which is a sure indicator that it is really French tarragon, and not it's lesser cousin, the Russian tarragon.


Ingredients for two servings
500 g mixed mushrooms (wild and cultivated)
2 large chicken breasts (no skin), cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup of cream or creme fraiche (or half and half of both)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tblsp chopped fresh tarragon
2 cloves of minced garlic
pinch of salt
freshly ground black pepper
Fettucine pasta

Method
While pasta is cooking, heat oil in large pan and fry chicken until golden and tender. Remove from pan. Add garlic, then mushrooms and cook until nearly done. Return chicken to pan, then add the cream, herbs and seasonings. Bring to low simmer until cream thickens into a rich sauce. Drain pasta, saving some of the pasta water (if sauce is too thick), add pasta to chicken and mushroom mixture. Extra herbs, or in my daughter's case, freshly grated Parmesan, can be used as a garnish for serving.

Gnock, gnock, gnockin' on heavens door

Lynnylu from Cafe Lynnylu is this month's host of Hay Hay It's Donna Day #14, and she has chosen gnocchi as this month's theme ingredient.

I've only made gnocchi once before, and although I was quite proud of myself, it tasted like the old home made "glue" we used to make as kids, referred to as "clag", which was just a mixture of flour and water. So when Linnylu decided gnocchi was the theme, I thought now is my chance to try again.

This time, however, I went for a ricotta based gnocchi, based on this recipe from Jaden's steamy kitchen. I'm not sure if it was the mouth watering picture that drew me like a magnet, or Jaden's hilarious explanation of how she learnt to cook. Either way, I had great fun making it, and the family (minus my recently converted vegan daughter) devoured them off the plate. So what was supposed to be a "light" meal, turned into an entree for three. Kudos to Jorj, who adores gnocchi and who used to demolish a wheel of brie or camembert in record time....she never had a single one of these luscious little pillows.

Pan-Fried Lemon-Ricotta Gnocchi

1 cup	whole milk ricotta
1/2 cup	freshly grated parmegiano reggiano (plus extra reserved for garnishing) (I used parmesan)
1 large	egg yolk
1 tsp	lemon zest (use a microplane grater) (plus extra reserved for garnishing)
1 tsp	kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt) (I only had sea salt so used a good pinch of that)
3/4 cup	all purpose flour, sifted
1 tblsp	chopped parsley (plus extra reserved for garnishing)
1/2 tsp	finely minced chilli (or red pepper flakes) - adjust chilli based on your tastes
2 tblsp	clarified butter (or just butter, but the clarified butter works much better) (I used Ghee, which of course is clarifed butter)
1 tblsp	olive oil

Method
1. Combine ricotta, parmegiano, yolk, zest and salt in large bowl. Mix well. Sprinkle half of the flour on the mixture, gently turn with spatula a few times to incorporate. Dump mixture on clean, lightly floured countertop. Sprinkle remaining flour on top of the mixture. Gently knead with your fingertips, just bringing together the mixture until flour is incorporated through. This only should take a minute or two. Any longer and you will be over-kneading. *If you are using skim milk ricotta - you may have to use more flour, as there is more water content in skim ricotta.
2. Divide dough into 4 parts. Take one part and roll into a long, 1" diameter log. Cut gnocchi into 1" pieces. You may use your wooden doobie-bopper or tines of a fork to get those pretty grooves that will eventually disappear after frying anyways. (I happened to find a "doobie-bopper" at the local trash and treasure market last weekend. I'm pretty sure it's what's known as a butter pat, for making homemade butter, but I now call it my gnocchi groover)

3. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Add butter and olive oil. when butter is just lightly browned, add gnocchi in single layer. Fry on one side for 2 minutes, flip. Add chilli. Fry other side for 1-2 minutes. Timing really depends on how big/thick your gnocchi is. Do a taste test - do you taste flour? Not done yet. Serve with a sprinkling of lemon zest, parmegiano and parsley.

Chicken Basil Pesto Pasta

Presto Pasta Night, an event organised by Ruth at Once Upon a Feast, is turning 21 this coming Friday, so I just had to come to the party with Chicken Basil Pesto Pasta, and to congratulate PPN on reaching its majority.

This is one of the easiest weeknight meals to make, as with a lot of pasta dishes, but it is also a family favourite.

Freshly made basil pesto is best, but my supply from the freezer sadly ran out ages ago, so I'm using a storebought one. I'm going to plant twice as many basil plants this year, if the rainfall we're having now lasts until the summer. It's bucketing outside, but we are still on water restrictions until our reservoirs and water catchments start to get back to an acceptable level.

Jorja likes her variety just plain without any salad, as shown above.

I, however, like mine with slightly more upmarket, topped with tomato and avocado.


1 kg chicken thighs, trimmed of fat, and sliced into small chunks

2 cloves of minced garlic (or to taste)
3-4 tblsp basil pesto (or to taste)
500 mls thickened cream
olive oil
Dried pasta
Freshly grated parmesan

Bring plenty of salted water to the boil. Add pasta and whilst that is cooking, brown chicken in oil until golden (you may have to do this in batches to stop it from stewing)
Add garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes
Add pesto and fry for 1-2 minutes
Add the thickened cream, and simmer gently, don't let it boil
Add a good handful of the grated parmesan

Drain cooked pasta and add to the chicken mix. Serve topped with additional grated parmesan, and/or tomato and advocado. Pepper to taste.

What's for dinner Jorj?

Parenting certainly has it's ups and downs, and with teenagers, there can be more of the latter than the former. However, when something finally happens that makes you proud, the downs are somewhat insignificant. After all of the nurturing and caring for them over their growing up years, the roles are starting to reverse at last, and now I can say "what's for dinner?" the moment I wake up each morning.

When my girls were growing up, cooking never interested them. I wasn't one for "baking" as such, although they often requested Anzac biscuits, only so they could eat the raw dough before it was put in the oven.

Last night, my youngest daughter, at the ripe old age of 18, insisted on cooking dinner. As we all know, the cooking part is enjoyable, watching a bunch of raw ingredients simmer into something edible. It's the preparation and the clean up that become a chore.

Jorj leans to the vegetarian side of eating, not enjoying red meat, but can eat anything with chicken and pasta in it. So the recipe was chosen, and she "created" a vegetarian pasta bake, made with wholemeal pasta, carrots, leeks, celery, basil and tomatoes. Chicken was omitted because I didn't have any!

Her chopping technique needs a bit of practice, and her cleaning up routine needs a LOT of practice, but the pasta bake was delicious. Now if only I can encourage her to take one more step on the path of domestication, and get her to "clean up her room". My job as a parent would be complete then.