A post in four courses – main

Posted on 29 February 2016 by SJPONeill

For a healthy main, I selected what I call my Lebanese Lasagne…its real name is Lebanese Kibbeh but I call it a lasagne because it has a similar layered construction and it is easier to say in company without a lot of explanations…I got the original recipe from this great little book, from the Paper Plus bargain table about ten years ago…

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The first few times I made it direct from the recipe but found it to be a tad dry so took to adding half a can of diced tomatoes over the filling to add some additional moisture. In all fairness, the original looks quite dry too so this is just me adjusting to fit my only preferences…and it has been so long since I have made this, I forgot the tomatoes…

Here’s what I used for this dinner…

For the base and topping

3/4 cup of bulgar wheat. This seems to hide in different parts of the supermarket, even between branches of the same chain so you may have to hunt for it.

450 grams of quorn…I didn’t know what it was either but found it when I was looking for a vegetarian alternative to meat mince…it was easier to find in the Levin New World than bulgar wheat…it’s not cheap but was worth it for an experiment and I still have a little left over to try in something else…

1 large onion grated.

15 grams butter, melted

salt, pepper to flavour

For the filling

2 tablespoons of chili oil

1 onion finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

250 grams of button mushrooms as an alternative to the mince in the original recipe

1/2 cup of pine nuts

1/2 teaspoon of allspice

For the dressing

200 ml of greek yoghurt

2-3 teaspoons of crushed garlic. I used the store-bought stuff in a jar as it was there and needed to consume it

2 tablespoons of chopped fresh mint. Actually I forgot this as i was too busy chatting to my guest as I was serving up…it’s not like we have a shortage of it here.

Other stuff

1 cup of brown rice. I have oodles of white rice but have been wanting to try brown rice for a while with an eventual intention of switching entirely to it from white rice…just need to find a good (cheap) supplier…

This dish is quick and easy to make, even with the non-meat variations. I made it up the previous day in case prep time on the day was limited due to unforeseen work commitments.

Heat the over to 190 degrees

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I wasn’t sure what I would find on opening the packets of quorn mince. It just looked and felt like cooked mince…a bit of an anti-climax really…here is is mixing in with the bulgar wheat and onion…

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The other main alternative to meat mince was good old button mushrooms…I got the recipe from the Thanks For The Food blog…like the quorn, it was amazingly simple and anticlimatic. As suggested in the recipe, I fried the diced mushroom in chilli oil before following the other steps…

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Once the mushroom was mincified, I added the pine nuts, diced onion and tomato, and the allspice. I added the diced tomato to add to the distinction in flavour and texture between the base and the filling – as above though, it wasn’t enough to offset the natural dryness of the recipe. I also meant to dice and add the remaining peppers from my stuffed pepper experimentation but this was also forgotten in the flow of conversation…

I also added a dash of salt and a goodly amount of ground pepper which gave the filling a nice and occasional tang…

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Add half the base layer to a greased baking dish, before adding the filling evenly over the base. If I had remembered the can of diced tomato, it would have gone over the filling.

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Smooth the remaining base over the filling.

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Baste the melted butter over the top. Next time – if I remember – I’d like to try a final topping of non-dairy herby cheese…

Place in the oven and switch to fan bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

It’s now that I drop the rice into the steamer with a little salt. it takes about 40 minutes too as, perfect world, the lasagne and rice will be ready at the same time.

In the meantime, mix the crushed garlic, sour cream and mint together in a small serving dish. Ideally I think this should be done the night before to give the garlic and mint a better opportunity to battle it out with the sour cream flavour…

Slice up the lettuce.

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A cross-section after our two servings were plated…

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Plated ready to go…

A post in four courses – aperitif

Posted on 28 February 2016 by SJPONeill

A friend got onto a course north of here at short notice and said she’d drop in for tea and a catch up on her way home…she’s rather careful with her diet which put a line through some other menu options: a great reason though to explore further along the green journey…

This ‘summer’, up on the Plateau anyway, we seem to have a three to five day cycle of summer(ish) weather followed by two to three days of not-so summerish weather…Wednesday was right on the cusp of the change: I planned on summery for the menu with a less-summery option in my back pocket…

Summer lasted the whole day so the Plan A aperitif was greenlighted…this was an easy one for my as it is what I have most nights when I get home, with something more substantial later in the evening…

Smoothie group photo

The makings are all very simple and flexible: my staples are the ginger, flaxseed and coconut water: the natures of the juice, fruit and green may change depending on what is available at the time:

a tablespoon of flaxseed/linseed. This adds a nice texture to the smoothie and is apparently healthy as well. Bought a big bag for not much at Hardy’s in Taupo – keep it in the fridge.

200 mls of juice. I usually use the Keri Premium Spicy Tomato Juice but the pineapple juicy was on special so I bought a bunch of it – I suspect from the lack of floaties that it is more processed than I like so once it’s ALL gone, it’ll be back to spicy tomato juice until winter when bulk carrots are available. On occasion, I buy cheap fruit, juice it and freeze it until needed – just have to remember to take it out a few hours before smoothie time so it can thaw to a slushie-like consistency.

200 mls of coconut water. In the absence of this, just normal filtered water (no additives in our water) and I’ll also use normal water to top the unprocessed ingredients up to the Max line in the smoothie jar.

Half an apple, cored. I’m not actually sure that it achieves anything taking out the core as there doesn’t seem to be any difference to notice when I forget. It’s probably more important to remember to remove the little sticker from the outside…the same weight of pears, pineapple, or other juicy fruit also go well.

Half an orange, or a similar weight of mandarins, or tangelo. I quarter it, and cut off the peel, squeezing any remaining juice into the smoothie jar – a little peel left on never hurt anyone and I never worry about removing pips: it doesn’t hurt the flavour and the surgery wastes too much juice…

A thumb-size piece of fresh ginger. Dice this up into littler bits…I don’t worry about the skin or knobbly bits: they are get combined in the processor…

A bunch of spinach…or silverbeet, or cabbage, or other greens. I chop off the rooty bit and normally halve the length so it fits better into the jar…

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Almost ready…

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Just about forgot the flaxseed…

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Ready to go and gone…only needs about 30 seconds of processing…

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Ready to drink…although on this occasion, I decanted it out into a couple of glasses over an ice cube base…

Refreshing on a summer afternoon…

A tale of two peppers (Part one)

Posted on 14 February 2016 by SJPONeill

New World Taumarunui had bulk bags of capsicum for $4.98 last week – without really thinking about it – such a good deal, normally they are around $2 each – I grabbed a bag, with a vague vision of pizza toppings…that vague vision morphed into a notion of stuffed peppers and from there into dinner via the recipe here…

It’s pretty simple – possibly too simple…

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Drop 250 grams of mince into a pan- the recipe says beef mince and only 25 grams, but I used pork mince because I had some handy and increased it to 250 grams figuring the ’25’ was a typo…

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Cook until the mince in brown, breaking up any lump, and add a jar of bolognaise sauce – I used a jar of pasta sauce that someone had left here – I would make my own normally – and simmer until the liquid has evaporated off leaving a thick sauce… DSCF9587

Cut three peppers on half lengthways leaving the stalks: they don’t do anything useful but look good…

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Spoon the thickened sauce mix into each of the halved peppers and top with cheese – I had grated mozzarella available so used that – I think it would work better and provide an evener topping using slices of cheese…

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Bake at 180 degrees until the cheese is browned – I forgot to take a pic of the peppers as they came out of the oven – these ones have been in the fridge for a day and don’t look as good as when they were fresh baked…

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I served mine up with chunky air-fried kumara and potato wedges…tasted good but the sauce was still quite runny but very strong. I think that it needs more substance to be thicker…my next go-round will be based on this recipe which overcomes these shortcomings and also does it with red wine which cannot be a bad thing…

Pour Some Sugar on Me | The Daily Post

Posted on 10 February 2016 by SJPONeill

Source: Pour Some Sugar on Me | The Daily Post
What is your favorite sweet thing to eat? Bread pudding? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? A smooth and creamy piece of cheesecake? Tell us all about the anticipation and delight of eating your favorite dessert.

I like dessert and while I am probably to be the first of the group to opt for dessert when dining out, I’m more a savoury than sweet kinda guy…that being said, this prompt could have only one response…a family favourite, our butterscotch pudding…

What really floats my boat with this one is the crunchy caramelised crust that goes so well with cream and, if available, ice cream – if you have to choose between one or t’other, go for the cream…When it is about three-quarters done the caramel flavour will waft across the living area from the kitchen, building anticipating…I normally drop it in the oven just before serving up the mains – the bake time provides just enough time to eat the main, enjoy some good conversation and let the previous course settle before serving it up…

Now, yes, I did make this one specially for this post – none of that “here’s one I prepared earlier” malarkey – and, no, it doesn’t mean that I fell off the dairy-free wagon…just jumped off to quickly check the tyres…

What you need

1 cup of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder (or just use self-raising flour if you lean that way)

60 grams of butter melted, 30 grams of butter

1/2 cup of milk

pinch of salt

1/2 cup of sugar (sounds like a lot but the original recipe demanded a full cup)

2 tablespoons of golden syrup

2 cups of hot water

What you do

Heat the oven to 180 degrees

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar milk and melted butter together.

Pour into a greased pan.

Mix the hot water, golden syrup, and 30 grams of butter together until the syrup and butter have dissolved into the water.

Pour this over the dough in the pan.

Fan bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and crusty on top.

Remove the pan from the oven and let sit for five minutes

Serve with cream and ice cream (vanilla preferred). Now, this being a (probably temporarily) dairy-free home, a couple of minor issues arose. As a part of a related programme, we had, at some time last year, replaced the the white sugar with raw sugar. Shouldn’t make a difference and didn’t but adds to the “it’s healthier” ambience of the dish…

There was also no cow in the fridge…only varieties of not-cow milk…vanilla almond milk volunteered to take the plunge and in it went…also didn’t make a difference to the finished product…a good lesson learned…

This is the most popular dessert in this household and production is only second to the dateless/sauceless version of Dinner Dates that I knock up when attacked by the late night dessert munchies…the recipe will happily feed six people and has been doubled with a good result…It freezes well and the source caramelises even more when reheated…a real winner and now done healthier…

Trio | The Daily Post

Image

What comes in threes? Submit an image for this week’s photo theme, Trio.

Source: Trio | The Daily Post

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Three burgers = company’s here!!

Treat | The Daily Post

Posted on 31 October 2015 by SJPONeill

Source: Treat | The Daily Post

This week’s photo challenge theme is “Treat,” an intentionally open-ended prompt. This week, share with us a photo of something that you consider a marvellous treat.

Doing dinner with my youngest daughter and her partner….

Any and all time with the twin terrors….

Kiwi sign outside the office…

About once a year…someone else gets a treat too…

Geeking out with my oldest daughter each once month when her Nerd Block fix arrives…

Lovely Leftovers

Posted on 15 September 2015 by SJPONeill

Friends came over for dinner last Monday night.

Our main was baby roast armadillo meat loaf with a four vege (potato, kumara, carrot and parsnip – it would have been five but I forgot about the pumpkin in the fridge – mash, and a cabbage and tomato side season with a couple of tablespoons of minced galangal from last winter’s garden. I misread my recipe for the meatloaf (modded from The Pioneer Woman’s original) and forgot to double the spices so it wasn’t as sharp as it usually is…

The galangal brings in a nice earthy flavour that is quite distinct from other spices…try some: it grow well here…perhaps a little too well as it is quite aggressive in the garden and needs to be grown in an enclosed pot. The root is similar to ginger but more fibrous – definitely something that you want to mince in someone else’s blender…

This fed four of us for dinner: Melissa took some meatloaf home for sammies and I still had enough for two more meals like this:

…finishing off the last pieces of meat loaf as sammies when I only wanted a snack for dinner on Friday night…no fish and chip Friday this week…

Waste not, want not…

Dinner Dates

Posted on 19 September 2014 by SJPONeill

I had an attack of the late night sweet munchies a few nights ago and wanted something quick and simple to satisfy the urge. There has also been a large jar of dates in the pantry that has not been getting much attention recently and the last thing I need is a jar of time-expired dates…

The winning contender was this recipe from The Whimsical Wife…

Ingredients:

The Pudding

10-12 dates, roughly chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp Boiling Water

1/8 tsp Baking Soda

11/2 Tbsp Butter

1 1/2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1 Egg (originally this was one egg between two desserts but was too dry)

1 Tbsp Walnuts, roughly chopped

The Sauce:

4 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Butter (originally only a teaspoon but not caramelly enough)

4 tablespoons of cream (originally this was only a teaspoon of milk or cream but this led to a sauce that was more fudge than sauce – the extra liquid makes all the difference).

Method:

Place the chopped dates and water in a large mug and microwave for 50 sec until the dates are softened.

DSCF8748 Add the Bicarb soda and let it sit for 30 seconds before mashing the dates roughly with a spoon.

DSCF8749 DSCF8751 Add the butter and place again in the microwave for 10-15 seconds to soften and melt.

DSCF8752 DSCF8753 Add the sugar, egg, walnuts and flour and mix to combine thoroughly. The original recipe called for only half the walnuts and for these to be sprinkled on top – I think I get a better result mixing more walnuts throughout the mix.

Place in the microwave on a sauce for 1 minute. It may need a further 10-20 sec to finish it off completely, depending on your microwave.

For the caramel sauce, place the the sugar, butter and cream into an ovenproof ramekin and microwave for 20 seconds.

Remove and stir and repeat another three times.

Shake the sticky date pudding from the mug into a dessert plate, and add ice cream.

DSCF8755 …and cream and drizzle the sauce over it all. you can see from these pics of my first attempt that there simply isn’t enough sauce to be useful…

…and that it is quite fudgy…not the desired effect at all. I didn’t have any cream handy for this go-round so it was even drier…

…whereas my modified version has a rich caramel sauce that soaks into the sticky date pudding and mixes with the cream…

Finished!!

Definitely a keeper but very very very rich – even I could only eat this maybe once a week at most…the pudding itself is a lot less gooey than the other similar cake in a cup desserts that I have tried so I intend experimenting with it further to see how it goes in the chocolate, banana and golden desserts in a cup that I have played with previously…

Banana bread in a cup

Posted on 31 July 2014 by SJPONeill

Start with a big mug and a long spoon…

It’s been a while since I visited my 30 Cake in a Cup Challenge…I either haven’t had the late night munchies, or when I have, hadn’t had the makings…The stars aligned the other night when I found some bananas frozen in the freezer…

I found the recipe at Pass the Sushi…I couldn’t see what to do with the extra teaspoon of sugar on the original recipe so I left it off and it doesn’t seem to have hurt it at all…

The makings

3 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon milk
1 ripe banana, mashed

The making

In a bowl, or right in the mug, whisk flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and soda.

Add egg and combine until just incorporated with dry ingredients.

DSCF8633 Mix in vanilla, oil, milk and mashed banana.

Pop into the microwave for 3 minutes.

It will seems to go a little crazy…

…but will turn out OK…

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A tad plain alone…

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…but more social with ice cream…

First impressions were good, tastes much like a butterscotch pudding with banana instead of golden syrup…think it’s a keeper…

Happy Dinner

Posted on 24 July 2014 by SJPONeill

After quite a few weeks of rice-based dinners, I’ve gone a little conventional for a while…O also participating in a taste test for tomato sauce and, quite frankly, tomato sauce and rice are not the happiest of combos…

To provide a consistent taste testing environment for the next eight (of ten) days of testing, it’s sausages for dinner…Having forgotten that I had applied to do this testing, the cupboard was a little bare but tonight they had some chicken and tarragon sausage packs on special at the service station that also acts as out closest dairy…very nice with corn fritters and a couple of eggs…simple and tasty…