Pear Salad

Because it's autumn here and this was just the thing for a lovely, sunny, bright and breezy day :)

Ingredients (per person)

A large double handful of baby spinach leaves, torn
1 beurre bosc pear (or one with similar soft texture), cubed
50g of soft feta (more or less), crumbled
1T pecans, roughly crushed
1T black cherry vinegar*
1 med-large strawberry
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Finely chop or puree strawberry with vinegar. Let steep. Meanwhile, combine all other ingredients and gently toss. Pour over vinegar, season and consume :)


Alternatives

* Good quality balsamic vinegar should be a passable substitute for black cherry vinegar.
Try walnuts instead of pecans, apples instead of pears, or parmesan instead of feta.

Recipe Swap: Quick Asparagus Galette

So we were talking the other day at work about how much we'd all like to belong to a recipe swap group, or something similar, and it occured to us that we can perfectly well do so here at work. Hence, for the next little while at least, Monday has been dubbed Recipe Swap Day.

Today was our inaugral swap, and while many people forgot (:D), there was still enough food to go around :) The theme was Spring, because the weather here has FINALLY deigned to grow warm, and my contribution, thanks to the suggestion of my husband when I was bemoaning lack of time and energy to cook last night, was my Quick Asapargus Galette, something my husband and I invented a little while ago to use up asaparagus. It's yummy, and as promised, very quick; I knocked it together in 10 mins here at school during a free period, then threw it in the oven to bake while I did Other Important Stuff.

True to all my recipes, the quantities are a little iffy. Basically, the idea is to cover the pastry evenly; use however much of each item you need to do so! :D


Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
Feta - about 50g??
Grated parmesan - a couple of tablespoons??
1/4c corn kernels (maybe less?)
2 bunches of asparagus (approximately, depending on bunch size; today the supermarket had nice big bunches with really long stems, so I only used one bunch)
A handful of fresh lemon thyme - probably a tablespoon
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Spray a shallow, small, rectangular baking dish (about 20x30cm?) with non-stick, or grease it. Lay pastry sheet in dish so that about a quarter of it overhangs each long edge.

Sprinkle liberally with parmesan and crumbled feta. Sprinkle over corn kernels. Tail the asparagus spears then lay them lengthwise on top of everything else so that they completely cover the available space. Sprinkle liberally with lemon thyme and season with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

Fold the pastry in and pinch it closed at the ends to seal it. There should be a gap open down the middle where you can see some asaparagus; this is Good. Bake in a moderate to hot oven until pastry is browned, about 25 minutes.

Serves two people as a light meal, or up to six as an accompaniment.

Fruit and Vegies: An Experiment

I'm tremendously excited. Last week a flyer came in the mail, announcing the opening of a new company that will deliver fruit and vegetables as fresh from the farm as possible to my doorstep. I like the idea of buying farm-fresh a lot; not only is the quality and the nutritional content better, but the money goes more directly to where it's needed. So this idea really appealed to me.

I did a bit of market research, and found that this company doesn't have much competition; there are only one or two other services in my area, and they're either more expensive and commercial, or specialise in fruit. Now, I'm all for fruit, but we do eat a lot more vegetables in our house than fruit.

Tonight, the box of goodies arrived on my doorstep. As well as the standard small fruit and vegie box, which claims to be sufficient for 2-3 people for about a week, I also ordered some feta cheese (which is indeed straight from the farm), and some gourmet sourdough, sourced from a local independent bakery.

In order to decide whether or not this box of goodness is actually worth it or not, my husband and I are going to do an experiment over the next few weeks. We're going to consciously test out fresh food sourced from this fruit delivery place (delivered to the door), from the local supermarket chain (5 mins away), from the discount supermarket (3 mins away), and from the Sunday food markets (30 mins away).

While cost is definitely an important factor, it won't be the be-all and the end-all. Taste and quality are important, too, as is the ability of presumably fresher food to keep for longer than not-so-fresh food. Each week, I'll make a list of the produce we have, and I'll note how long it lasts - both in terms of before it spoils, and before it runs out! And at the end of the four weeks, hopefully we should have a better understanding of where we can go in our area for really great food.

After all, don't we all want to eat really great food? :)

Sweet Potato & Feta Fritata

The Recipe
350g sweet potato, sliced
1/4c water
2tb shredded basil leaves
200g feta
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3c thickened cream


Grease a ~20cm x 30cm rectangular slice pan. Line the base and two long sides with baking paper. Microwave sweet potato (with the water), covered, on high, for 3 mins or until almost tender. Drain.

Arrange the sweet potato over the base of the pan. sprinkle with basil and crumbled feta. Pour over combined egg and cream.

Bake for about 25 mins or until set at 180C. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

The Results

This is one of my all-time favourite go-to foods. It doesn't come out quite like a quiche or a pie; it's more vegetable-y than that. But given sweet potato and feta are two of my favourite foods, this is something I could never, ever eat too much of. And, bonus, it's just as good cold, so you can take the left overs for lunch! That's if there are any left overs... :D

(Note for example the fact that I don't have a photo of the slice cooked O:))

Zucchini Pie

The Recipe

1 small-med zucchini
1 med carrot
1 onion, diced
1 block greek feta, cubed
1/4 small butternut pumpkin, cubed and mostly cooked
5 eggs
½c grated parmesan
½c oil
¾c flour
Cumin
Pepper
Oregano
Thai lemongrass & lime spice mix

Mix all ingredients. Bake in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes.

Alternative: omit pumpkin and feta and 1 egg, and add 1c grated cheese instead of parmesan.

Quick and Easy Vegetable Lasagna

Serves 8ish

2 cloves garlic, crushed.
1 good sized zucchini (courgette)
8-10 small cup mushrooms (2-3 inches across), rinsed
1 large carrot
1/2 butternut pumpkin (butternut squash)
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 block feta
1/3c tomato sauce
grated cheese, to top
lasagna sheets

Preheat oven to 210C. Peel and dice butternut and microwave on high for ten minutes. Fry garlic until golden. Dice the zucchini and mushrooms. Add to pan and saute until nearly cooked through. Grate in the carrot. Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, and heat through.

In a baking dish, spread half the tomato mixture. Put over a layer of lasagna sheets. Cover with butternut; mash down slightly if necessary. Crumble feta over top. Place another layer of lasagna sheets, and top with the remaining tomato mixture. Top with grated cheese and bake for about 20-30 minutes until pasta is cooked.

Let sit for five mins before slicing in order to prevent it from falling apart so much when serving :)

Butter-based Mushroom/Capsicum/Baby Spinach Pasta Sauce

I got home at nearly half past nine tonight craving something tasty and wanting more than anything to crash into bed. I'd already planned to make pasta, and lacking a brain to think of a satisfying alternative, pasta is what I went with.

What I didn't expect was for it to be SO INSANELY TASTY!!

So. Recipe. Be warned: this is not a skinny recipe :D

Serves 3.

About 100g of butter
About 2t fresh majoram
8 mushrooms, sliced
1/4 small red capsicum (pepper), diced
Tarragon
Almost 1/4 carton sour cream (er, 100g??)
Nearly 1 block feta cheese (250g?)
1 handful baby spinach/rocket mix

Cook sufficient pasta according to directions. Melt butter in a saucepan with majoram. Add mushrooms and capsicum. Saute until mushies are nearly cooked then add tarragon and salt to taste (4 grinds). Add sour cream and melt. Add feta; stir through until heated. Add spinach/rocket and stir through until just wilted.

Serve with a few fresh leaves on top and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Yum!

Super Quick Pasta

Gotta love this meal. It tastes amazing - fresh and flavorsome - and on a scale of one to ten, it's about a three in terms of effort for preparation.

1) Boil water for pasta. While that's boiling...
2) Chop up 1/4 of a butternut pumpkin (approx) into 1cm/half inch cubes. Microwave on high for about 8 mins.
3) Cook pasta according to directions.
4) Spread pumpkin cubes on a foil-covered, well greased (I use an oil spray) tray. If you're using a spray, spray the pumpkin liberally. Drizzle with good quality olive oil and sprinkle with rock salt. Grill (broil) until black around the edges.
5) Serve pasta into bowls. Stir through 1-2 tablespoons of thickened cream.
6) Cover with a good handful of grilled pumpkin cubes. Crumble feta and shred some baby spinach over top.
7) Season with a little pepper. Serve hot.

Done! Yum!

Watermelon & Feta Cupcakes

So, we had watermelon that needed to be used up, and I wanted to make some more cupcakes. Months ago I had seen a recipe that Mum had for a watermelon and feta salad, involving - oddly - watermelon, feta and pepper.

Hence, watermelon and feta cupcakes. To get the recipe I knew I needed something that allowed for a sloppy main ingredient, so I searched the web and finding a complete lack of watermelon cupcake recipes (though lots of cupcakes decorated as watermelons), settled for an applesauce cupcake recipe. Watermelon for applesauce, and voila, watermelon cupcake recipe :)

The Recipe
1/4c sugar
1/2c margarine
1 egg
1c roughly processed watermelon, including juice
1 1/2c plain flour
1t baking soda
1/4t salt
1/4t pepper
1/2 block of feta, in 1/2cm cubes.

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Add alternately watermelon and flour/soda/seasoning mix, about 1/4 at a time. Mix well between additions. Mix in feta. Fill muffin tins half to three quarters full and bake for 10-15 minutes at 180C.
Allow to cool in pan for 3 minutes, then turn out onto rack.

Icing:
1/4 container of icing sugar
1 heaped t butter, melted
1/4t pepper

Mix ingredients with enough water to make a reasonably running consistency. Dollop onto middle of cakes and allow to drip down sides.

The Results:

These cupcakes had the most beautiful, light, fluffy texture which kept beautifully – unfridged, unsealed (naughty me) they lasted 3-4 days and were still good.

They had quite a savoury taste; I think most people would prefer to think of them as savoury muffins and eat them without the icing… It would be interesting to try with more sugar and try to make sweet rather than savoury.

To be honest, the feta was good for first day but after that it went solid and… strange. It detracted greatly from the cake. Would love to try them without the feta – I think this would make them more sweet.

I absolutely adore this icing. I literally ate the leftovers by the spoonful. I really need to think of something else to try this icing with... Mmmmm.....