Rescued by tacos

Yet another meeting, home late and my wonderful partner has cooked dinner. And unknowingly adhered to my seasonal cooking idea. (I haven't discussed it with him).

He took home cooked passata from the freezer, cooked up mince, garlic (still mums), mushrooms, grated carrot and tinned kidney beans.

We topped them with home-grown tomatoes (nearly on their way out), home grown cucumbers and market bought capsicum. I also made up some Greek yoghurt the other night (easy - cheated with the powdered stuff from the supermarket). And grated cheese.

I also needed the glass of wine.

Some meetings are easier than others. Tonight's was a hard one. I understand people being cranky with a situation, but not being rude. I think people left slightly happier than when they arrived...their manners hadn't improved though.

I also want to know why living in a $900k house makes you think you are better than other people.

New style tuna patties

Yes tuna patties are daggy. But we had them tonight and they were yum! I've created a new recipe that uses ricotta instead of potatoes (or similar starchy veg). We kept tonight's meal seasonal (unless you count the hot chips we picked up from the fish and chip shop - blame the influence of evil grandparents staying the night. Without the chips it was a very healthy, low fat meal!).

We also had steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.

Tuna ricotta patties

(serves 4)

1 wedge ricotta (from the deli)

200g tin tuna (in oil - but you can be healthy and use tuna in brine or springwater)

half grated carrot

half grated zucchini (squeezed in paper towel to remove excess moisture)

crushed garlic clove

teaspoon fish sauce

chopped Vietnamese mint leaves

2/3 cup polenta

Throw it all into a bowl, mash together with a fork (or your hands), roll into patties and put into the fridge for at least half an hour.

Then oil your pan, place patties in and cook until browned and warmed through.

Easy peasy and tasty too. (and quite cheap)

Easy Monday

I had a meeting after work tonight, so due to popular demand (the 7 year old) we had homemade pizza. The dough was from our local bakery ($4 a kilo). We kept our toppings seasonal - I'm not sure I can argue that the dough is seasonal...I don't want to be that rigid though that for months of the year we can't eat bread.

It was nice to come home and find pizzas already cooked, with mine in the oven. The house smelt great and kids were happy. I work part-time and I appreciate the help I get from my partner when my job places extra demands on me.

One of the things I want to achieve is to become better at planning my meals, saving some money and feeling less stressed about cooking when I come home from work.

Tonight worked well, both the pizza dough and the sauce were thawing in the fridge, so when my partner came home, he only had to put the oven on, chop the toppings and in they went.

Easter eggs for dessert.

When I do make home made pizza dough, I use Jamie Oliver's. It's very easy and I haven't buggered up a pizza yet.

Jamie Oliver's Pizza Dough www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pizza-recipes/pizza-dough

• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour (I use standard flour, it may not be perfect, but it seems fine)
or 800g strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour, plus 200g finely ground semolina flour
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar (I just use sugar)
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 650ml lukewarm water

(you can follow the instructions below, or whack it all in the bread maker.)

Sieve the flour/s and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place in a warm room for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now remove the dough to a flour-dusted surface and knead it around a bit to push the air out with your hands – this is called knocking back the dough. You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required. If using straight away, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want to make pizzas – this amount of dough is enough to make about six to eight medium pizzas.

Timing-wise, it’s a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want to cook them. Don’t roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few hours, though – if you are working in advance like this it’s better to leave your dough, covered with clingfilm, in the fridge. However, if you want to get them rolled out so there’s one less thing to do when your guests are round, simply roll the dough out into rough circles, about 0.5cm thick, and place them on slightly larger pieces of olive-oil-rubbed and flour-dusted tinfoil. You can then stack the pizzas, cover them with clingfilm, and pop them into the fridge.

My very basic Tomato Sauce

400g can tomatoes (or 4-5 fresh ones, depending on how big)

clove garlic, crushed

oregano

olive oil

salt

pepper

heat oil in frypan, stir in garlic for about 30 seconds, then pour in tomatoes. I use about a tablespoon of oregano, sprinkle in some salt and pepper and cook for at least 20 minutes until sauce is reduced and thickened.

We chopped up mushrooms, capsicum and manzanillo olives (they come from Western Victoria, so I think the food miles aren't too bad). We also used Gypsy Ham - I have no idea when or where it is produced. This is also something I have to get better at which is to get the courage to ask suppliers where their produce comes from.

Day 1

Tonight, as we are in the second week of autumn, I have cooked a delicious veal saltimbocca with roasted root vegetables and ratatouille. Where I live (Melbourne), the following foods are in season for April:

Almonds, apple, avocado, banana, beetroot, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, celery, chestnuts, chilli, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, fig, garlic, ginger, grapes, green beans, hazlenut, lemon, lime, lobster, mushrooms, okra, olive, onion, oregano, papaya, parsnip, pear, persimmon, pistachio, plums, pomegranate, potato, pumpkin, quince, sage, shallots, sliverbeet, spinach, squash, thyme, tomato, turnip, walnut. (www.sbs.com.au/food/inseason/66/April)

Our veggies were bought from the Vic Market, the garlic and tomatoes came straight from my Mum's garden, the herbs from my garden.

While veal is in season in autumn, I'm pretty sure what we ate was not veal, but the next stage in development which is often passed off as veal, as we bought it from the supermarket (I didn't decide what to cook until this afternoon. One of my plans is to get better at meal planning and buy from butchers who can tell me what is in season and where the produce comes from.)

How did I put it all together?

First I put the oven on, then I prepared the saltimbocca, getting it ready to throw in the pan. I then salted the eggplant. Next step was to get the veggies ready for roasting, then whack them in the oven. I started the ratatouille, then put the veal in the pan. More through good luck than good management, it was all ready at the same time. The whole exercise took about 50 minutes, from getting everything out of the fridge to putting the meal on the table.

Here is what we ate:

Veal Saltimbocca:

I got this recipe from www.epicurean.com, which takes it from "The Silver Spoon", a fantastic sounding Italian cookbook I will buy soon I think)

Serves 4

8 slices of proscuitto, thinly sliced (no more than about 8 - 10cms in length, otherwise get four slices and halve them)

4 slices veal (I used schnitzel and flattened them out a little more and cut into half, making 8)

8 sage leaves

butter, olive oil

1/2 cup dry white wine

salt

Place a slice of prosciutto onto the veal, placing a sage leaf on top, roll up and fasten with a toothpick. Melt butter and oil in frypan and cook veal over high heat on both sides until golden brown. Season with salt, pour in the wine and cook until it has evaporated, remove toothpicks and serve. (I made a sauce with extra wine and butter; it was yum. I poured it over the veal)

This was really easy to make and the two kids (youngish) ate them quite happily.

Ratatouille

I made up my own version of this, so apologies to any Francophiles out there who think I should stick to the original. I've ordered "I know how to cook", a massive collection of French recipes, so I will see when it arrives how my recipe differs.

Half an eggplant, sliced into rings, salted 20 minutes

1 clove garlic, mashed with salt

1 half zucchini, cubed

1 small capsicum, cut into pieces

2 tomatoes, cubed.

After salting the eggplant, I squeezed excess water out and patted the eggplant dry. Heating oil in the pan, dropped in the eggplant and tossed in the oil. I let the eggplant cook on its own for a few minutes, then put in the garlic and salt, stirring. I added in 1 chopped tomato, stirring in, then the capsicum and zucchini. I grabbed some herbs from the garden (thyme, sage, parsley and rosemary, chopped them and in they went. 5 minutes later, I then added the extra tomato. Let it reduce and thicken a bit, then it was done.

Roasted Autumn Vegetables

enough for 4

1 beetroot, peeled, precooked in microwave for 5 minutes, quartered.

2 carrots, peeled, sliced into fingers

2 parsnips, peeled, sliced into fingers

chunk of pumpkin, cut skin off, cut into four 3 cm cubes

2 potatoes, peeled, halved

2 cloves of garlic with skin on

olive oil

herbs.

I also pre cooked the rest of the veggies in the microwave for 3 minutes. dried all veggies on a paper towel, put into the roasting pan with enough olive oil to coat, fresh thyme and rosemary and two garlic cloves. Put into the oven and let cook for around 30 minutes.

It was an easy meal, which my partner and the two kids enjoyed. I also liked the glass of Capel Vale sauvignon blanc semillion (ok, two glasses).