Cashew Nut Curry and Grilled Banana Prawns with Black pepper and Curry Leaf Sauce

Now, I don't live on your typical suburban block, so when the neighbor says to me that our dinner last night smelled really good, you know that there has to be some weight in that statement! That, or there was a good stiff breeze blowing I their direction that evening!

I wish I could take a bow and say thank you, yes it was a wonderful meal, and feel like an absolute domestic goddess, but unfortunately I can take absolutely none of the credit.

You see, I was reading one of favourite regular blogs, Muppys, and saw her wonderful menu, and of course I had to copy it! Now the credit of course, as Muppy openly admits, doesn't belong with her either - in fact her inspiration came from watching the SBS series My Sri Lanka with Sydney based chef, Peter Kuravita, of Flying Fish fame.

All I can say about this menu is...... You have to try it! It is absolutely fabulous! The flavours, the aromas...... I'm salivating again just thinking about how good this meal was! It truly urge you, make the effort, source out the indigents, and give it a go. It really isn't that hard, once you have everything chopped up, it virtually cooks itself, and then all you have to do is quickly fry off the prawn the prawns.

Of course, I did make a couple of amendments, some by accident, some by choice, but check out the original recipe, and make your own adaptions. After the link I will tell you my adaptions to the recipes.

Cashew Nut Curry

Cashew Nut Curry Sauce simmering away!!!

* Changes:

Forgot to buy green chillies, - so used 1 x red chilli - heat volume was good, but if you like hotter, go with the green chilli.

Ooops, forgot the roasted curry powder as a garnish!!!

Grilled Banana Prawns With Black Pepper and Curry Leaf Sauce

Black Pepper and Curry Leaf Sauce

Changes:

Couldn't find Bombay Onions, - used purple/red onions.

Oooops, didn't do all the garnishes - had no idea what a pomelo was, and.... well I was getting hungry by this stage and the aromas had been wafting around for about an hour now!!!!  Just get those puppies on the plate!!!!

Please, please try this, you will not be disappointed! You have my word on this!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Muppy for giving me the inspiration to try this dish!!!!

Gozleme

We are lucky enough to have an organic fresh food market locally each Thursday.  Not only can we buy organic fruit and vegetables, but there are food stalls as well - Indian vegetarian food, gluten free pies and pastries, but by far the most popular is the gozleme stand.  Here the turkish ladies, come rain, hail or shine stand for hours in their veils, working tirelessly making gozleme after gozleme.  Often times you can wait for around 20 minutes for a fresh gozleme hot off the griddle!!

So what is a gozleme?  Just in case you have been living under a rock and haven't had the chance to try one - they are a wonderful hot bread/crepe/pastry concoction that is filled with spinach and feta cheese, or mince with spinach and feta, or mushrooms and spinach and feta, cooked until golden on the griddle and then served with lashings of lemon juice!  Yum!!!

I have attempted to make these in the past, and was not overly impressed with the results - I tried to cook them on the hotplate on the BBQ, so that I could cook more than one at a time - but I think my "bread" lacked consistency.  I had made a dough that had self raising flour and yoghurt.  As I have been experimenting with pizza dough lately I decided to give the old gozleme another go.  This time I made a "pizza" type dough - and the results were so much better.  Now I know that you don't commonly see gozleme with "sausage" in them, but I had some leftover sausages in the fridge so I decided to make little mini meatballs with the sausage meat and incorporate them with the spinach and feta - I must say I really liked the taste.

So here is my recipe for Gozleme


Makes approximately 6


3 cups of pizza/bread flour
2 tsp salt
7g sachet dried yeast
1 tsp caster sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water
200g baby spinach
200g feta cheese
olive oil
1 lemon, cut into wedges to serve
* meat of choice (if you wish) - either mince or sausage that has been cooked


Grease a large glass bowl with olive oil.  Set aside.  In another large bowl combine the flour and salt.  In a smaller bowl combine the yeast and sugar with the warm water and whisk to dissolve.  Leave this mixture to sit in a warm place for approximately 10 minutes, or until it is bubbly.  Make a well in the flour mixture, and slowly add the water and yeast mixture.  Use a spoon to gradually combine the liquid into the flour.  When it is nearly all combined, use your hands to mix the dough further.  Once all the flour has been incorporated, turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead for approximately 10-15 minutres, or until the dough is lovely and smooth and elastic.  You may need to add a little more flour as you are kneading, but try and keep it to a minimum.  When the dough is ready, place it in the oiled bowl, cover with a piece of plastic wrap that has also been lightly oiled, and leave the dough for approximately 1 hour in a warm place, or until the dough has doubled.  You can leave for longer if you like.


When you are ready to make the gozleme, divide the dough into 6 pieces.  On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out into an oblong shape, making sure that the dough is nice and thin (but not too thin!!).


On the bottom half of the oblong place your filling ingredients - here I put my *"sausage" meatballs then, topped them with baby spinach, and sprinkled with the crumbled feta cheese.  Here you can place as much as you like in the gozleme, but remember not too, too much!!  Fold over the top half of the oblong and gently squeeze the edges together to form a nice parcel.  Lightly paint the top of the gozleme with olive oil.

In a frypan that has been heated over medium heat gently place the oiled side of the gozleme onto the frypan.  Cook for approximately 4-5 minutes, or until the gozleme is golden on that side.  While the gozleme is still in the pan lightly brush the other side with olive oil, and then flip over.  Cook the other side for 4-5 minutes, or until it is golden.  It is OK to press down on the gozleme as it is cooking!!


Remove from the pan and cut into six pieces.  Serve with wedges of lemon, and lots of paper serviettes!!!

Forget the sausage sizzles, I wish they would all be replaced with gozleme stands!!  I would far sooner have one of these after the rugby on a Saturday!!!

Roast Potato, Cauliflower and Parmesan Soup with Almond & Blueberry Crumble Muffins

I saw this recipe in the latest edition of the MasterChef magazine and decided to give it a go.  The concept seemed good, roast the vegetables as opposed to boiling them in water, and diluting the flavour.

On tasting the soup last night I was a bit disappointed with it - I felt it lacked something.  I am eating it again now as I type and it does actually taste better today - perhaps the flavours have developed a little more.  I will say this though, it does have a strong cumin taste - so if cumin isn't your cup of tea - I wouldn't recommend this soup for you.

I am going to give you the recipe as it appears in the magazine - but at the end I will tell you what I would do differently next time.

Roast Potato, Cauliflower and Parmesan Soup


Serve 4-6


1.5kg (or 1 head of cauliflower), cut into florets
200g desiree or sebago potatoes, peeled, roughly chopped
1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated parmesan cheese


Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.


Place the cauliflower, potatoes, onion, garlic and cumin in a roasting pan.  Drizzle with the olive oil, and toss to combine.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.


Remove approximately 3/4 cup of the cauliflower florets from the mixture (reserve these for garnishing).  Peel the garlic, then place all the vegetables in a food processor.  Add 2 cups of water and puree until smooth.


Transfer the pureed mixture to a large saucepan, add the milk and another 2 cups of water and bring to the boil.


Stir in the parmesan cheese until well combined.


Season with salt and pepper.


Ladle the soup into warmed bowls.  Top with the reserved cauliflower.  Drizzle with some olive oil and extra parmesan cheese.

Now here is what I would do differently:

Don't add the 2nd batch (2 cups) of water - I actually think it needs milk - saying that though ,I don't know if I would add 2 cups of milk - perhaps only one - I guess it depends on how thick you like your soup.

It definitely needs a lot of seasoning - you are really relying on the parmesan to give it flavour - which if you are watching your fat/calorie content is perhaps not a great thing.  What you could do is instead of the 2 cups of water that is added during the pureeing stage you could add chicken stock.

All that aside though, it is a nice soup.  Try it and see what you think.  For the purists that love cauliflower - it may be just what you love.  For me though, it needed a little bit more seasoning.

I you give this a try I would love to hear what you think.

Now to go along with the soup I made these lovely muffins.  They make fabulous dessert muffins!

Almond and Blueberry Crumble Muffins


Makes 12 - Texas Size muffins


2 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup (firmly packed) brown sugar
150g butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly whisked
220g frozen blueberries, thawed


Crumble


3/4 cup plain flour
90g chilled butter, diced into small pieces
1/2 cup (firmly packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds 


Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (non fan forced)


Lightly spray or grease your muffin tin.


To make the crumble topping, place the butter, brown sugar and flour in a bowl, use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour and sugar.  The mixture should resemble coarse breadcrumbs.  Add the almonds.  Set to one side.


Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the melted butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla, stir until well combined.


Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin tins (the mixture will be quite stiff - using 2 spoons works well).  Divide the blueberries evenly on the top of the mixture.  Then sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the crumble mixture.


Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (make sure you don't get a blueberry!)

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes.

These are great served either warm or cold.  If serving as a dessert serve with warmed vanilla custard, or ice cream.  Yum!!

Note:  I did not use Texas muffin tins - I had recently won a 12 cup  Loose Base Dessert Pan.  This actually makes making muffins so easy - it has a removable base that you simply push up and the muffin pops out!!  So clever.  Worth looking into if you are a dessert of muffin baker!!!

Lentil, Barley and Mushroom Soup & "Leftovers"

Dear Readers it was a raining sunday afternoon,  - the house was quiet, The M.O.T.H. and "the Darlings" were out playing rugby (in the rain??) what should I do?

Do some general tidying up, the ironing, read a book???  No...... cook of course!!!  So I put on Julie and Julia and set to in the kitchen!!!  I am in the zone now - channeling Julia or I think perhaps Julie (I don't think I could ever cook like Julia Child - far too buttery for me - no Julie is more me - she set me off on this little blogging adventure!)

Mmmm what could I make?  I had made another batch of Double Chocolate Chip Cookies yesterday - so we didn't need anything sweet.  I wasn't "cooking" dinner tonight - we were having what is lovingly referred to in this house as "scraps" for dinner.  I was tired of making pizzas - or so I told them, but that was just a ruse to get them into action - I think they are all lulled into this we don't have to cook - you know the old "why buy milk when you have a cow mentality".  So what shall I make????

I know soup!!  Always handy to have some soup in the fridge - lunches during the week etc..

So off I went, pots and pans start coming out - all the while listening to the movie.  I think to myself will this ever amount to anything more than me rambling along??

Anyway I digress the reason you come to visit is to hear about the food so here is the recipe for a lovely healthy (cheap - probably around $10 to make) soup.

Lentil, Barley and Mushroom Soup


Serves 4


1 tbs olive oil
2 medium leeks, trimmed (whites only) - halved, thinly sliced and washed
250g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 x 410g cans chopped tomatoes with basil & garlic
3/4 red lentils
1/3 pearl barley


Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add the mushrooms and leeks, and cook stirring for around 4 minutes, or until softened.


Add the canned tomatoes, lentils, barley and 5 cups of cold water.


Cover and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for around 40 minutes, or until the barley is tender.  Make sure you stir occasionally to prevent the lentils and barley from sticking to the bottom of the pan.


Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  The soup will thicken on standing.


As you know Sunday night is the night to use up the "scraps" - we had some of the seasoned yoghurt left over from the Salmon on Friday night  - so a dollop of that was added to the soup!!

Now there was only one problem - "The Darlings" had come home by now, and were chanting "Pizza Night, Pizza Night" - well I hate to be the one to rain on their parade - but I gently told them - no Pizza tonight - yummy vegetable soup instead!!!  If looks could kill!!!  Unbeknownst to me they had invited the neighbour to dinner - for the legendary Pizza Night!!! oops - no pizza makings to be had in the house - what is the next best thing???

Quesadillas!!!  The old Mexican Toasted Cheese Sandwich!!  I had plenty of tortillas, I had some left over meat from the Red Enchiladas the other night, a BBQ chook, sour cream, avocado and salsa.  Quesadillas it was!!

This is my version of a quesadilla (by the way you pronounce it "case a dee a" not how Matt Moran was pronouncing the other night - he may be a chef but he doesn't know how to say it!!!

For each quesadilla you need 2 flour tortillas.  Lay one as the base - top with the meat, then cover it with grated cheese, then top with the second tortilla.  I have a pizza oven so I just press it down hard on the stone, then flip it over.  The conventional way is to pan fry it, then flip it over.

Once cooked, cut into quarters and garnish with sour cream, avocado and salsa.  

The kids loved it, there were no more rumbling about no pizzas!!!  Mexican pizzas instead!

In fact, I heard our little neighbour say yum (they were quite cute actually they were all giving me scores out of 10!!) - and so this is how we introduced our Japanese neighbour to Mexican Pizzas!!  He apparently went home to ask his mum to make Mexican!!!

Maybe I should send her my blog address???

Speaking of sending out my blog address, a friend of mine introduced me today to a friend of hers as "this is CateCanCook" - she had given my address to her friend, her friend now loves the site, and cooks meals from it regularly!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  Now I really know there is someone out there reading me!!

You never know, I may just go "viral" one day after all!!!