Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce

Hi! It's been ages, actually I don't really need to say that. I have made a bunch of things and keep telling myself "I must blog that" but never seem to get around to it but here I am. I've been on holidays for the past 10 days. Well, sort of, since I did go to work for 3 days but it was fine because I got a heap of stuff done and didn't have to put up with anyone else. Unfortunately I have to go back to work proper tomorrow. I don't really feel much like interacting with people so I might end up in my separate little office on the guise of finishing stuff I didn't get done in those three days. I suppose it will depend on how I am feeling tomorrow.

It is raining here today which makes it a lovely day to be sitting here writing. I will most likely end up on the lounge reading and/or napping at some point today. Although there is house work that needs doing. I keep telling myself that I can do it later however the problem with that is that it continues to build up. Yes, you can do it later but it becomes a bigger job. Will get out of the chair and off here soon.

I started this with this Eggs in Purgatory recipe from Nigella. As I started to cook it dawned on me that it was a pretty boring recipe so I just started adding things. It turned out really well so I thought that I should sit down & blog as quickly as possible so that I remember it. One thing I did put in it was  3 smoked mushrooms. I bought a jar of them when I was on my cruise to New Zealand. That was over a year ago now and I hadn't opened the jar. They added a lovely little smoky flavour, not too much, just a hint. I will make this again. The sauce will make enough for two eggs, possibly 3. I cooked 1 egg in it and scooped it out. I will use the sauce again, probably tomorrow. Next time I would either make half the amount or, more likely, take out half the mix before cooking the egg. I would also sprinkle with chopped parsley but I didn't have any inside and it is raining out there.

Eggs poached in tomato sauce

1/2 onion, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

shake of chilli flakes

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 roasted capsicum, torn into pieces

1 zucchini, grated

125g can four bean mix

3 smoked mushrooms, chopped

400 g can crushed tomatoes

1 egg

Saute onion 1 - 2 minutes, add garlic and chilli flakes and saute another minute.

Add remaining ingredients. Cook 10 minutes.

Make an impression in the sauce and crack egg into it. Cover and cook 2 - 3 minutes. Until the white is firm and yolk still runny. I cooked a little bit too far today. Serve on toast.

Saffron & zucchini risotto with prawns

I made this for Good Friday, so quite some time ago now. I have been cooking quite a bit lately but just haven't been writing up the posts.  Things have been rather stressful lately both personally and at work and, to be honest, the last things I have really felt like doing is coming home and writing up blog posts. However I am on holidays at the moment so at least one part of the stress has eased and I hope to get some of the back log of posts up.

I have no religious affiliation so there really isn't any need for the seafood on Good Friday thing but even so it was a way of getting me to eat some seafood. Although I will admit that it wasn't really much in the way for seafood. I found the recipe for over on taste.com.au, although I didn't really follow it that much. Well, I did sort of but I didn't do the prawns as suggested. I just gave them a quick fry off rather than worrying about the rest. Yes, lazy I know.

I made the risotto in the thermomix. I am finding that I am starting to use it more now than I have previously. Although I am sure there are still plenty of things that I am doing by hand that I could use the thermomix to do. I am sure I will get the hang of using it more and more. I followed the basic risotto recipe that I did before and it turned out beautifully. 

It was all very nice but I am not sure that I would make it again. I like the colour that saffron gives to food but I am not overly fond of the taste and since zucchini has little taste of its own I think that I would have to add something with a bit more zing. Although I suppose that is what the prawns were supposed to do. Oh well, I made it and I can move on to something else seafood.

Delicious April 2013 - Warm Moroccan Carrot Salad

So, I really struggled to find something to make from this issue. There really wasn't anything that jumped out and grabbed me. No, that isn't exactly true, there just wasn't a lot that grabbed me enough to insisted that I make it immediately.

The chocolate & halva tiramisu on the cover looks really good but I don't have anywhere to buy halva. I know that I could probably make it but since I am trying to avoid too much in the way of sweets I decided that it wasn't really worth it. Plus I find it difficult to scale down tiramisu recipes much for some reason. 

I also marked the Fish kofta with eggplant salad as a possibility. It sounded like something different and a bit unusual. The eggplant was roasted and combined with tomato, red onion, herbs, a lemon & olive oil dressing plus pomegranate seeds and pomegranate molasses. I love roasted eggplant. I don't have a gas cook top so cannot blacken the skin over that but I recently purchased a weber bbq so could definitely do it on that and get that smoky flavour to it. The salad has fresh coriander, parsley and mint. If you have been reading for a while you will know how I feel about coriander. I have used small amounts recently and I would probably put a small amount in this and increase the parsley to compensate. Again if you have been reading for a while you will know how I feel about fish too. I am on a bit of a mission to get more into my diet since it is so very good for you. I do like salmon and it is full of the omega 3's that are good for you but it would be nice to increase the repertoire a bit. I will get around to making this but I need to wait for a time when I can get some good fish. 

I really wanted to make Jamie Oliver's Pork Belly Buns however it was part of his "Party Pleasers" feature which meant that the recipe serves 20. That is a massive amount of servings. When you have a recipe like that scaling it back too far just doesn't work. I did think about just halving it and freezing any leftovers for later use but sometimes I have a tendency to forget about leftovers in the freezer until they get to a point of not being edible any more. So unless I have friends over then this recipe will just have to remain unmade. 

I did have a recipe for Jerk Chicken with Red Onion Flatbread marked to make. I did in fact make the jerk chicken but I was too lazy to make the flatbread. The recipe did suggest that if you didn't want to make the flatbread you could just use bought naan but I didn't get to the supermarket to buy that either. The chicken was good, although I did find the actual flavours rather overwhelming. However that could have been my fault since the recipe recommends marinading for 4 hours or overnight and, through circumstances, mine ended up marinading for 2 nights. So I am sure that would have had an effect on the intensity of the flavour. I am sure that if I had cooked it after the first night it wouldn't have been so strong. I had previously made Jamie Oliver's jerk pork belly that I loved and it was nowhere near as strong so perhaps I will give the chicken another try at some stage. 

I ended up making the Warm Moroccan Carrot Salad from Kepos Street Kitchen. I did make a few alterations to the recipe though. The original recipe called for 2 bunches of dutch carrots. I didn't have them. Purchasing at the supermarket is not an option as they are always soft and floppy, clearly beyond their best. I have never found them at our local markets either. I haven't grown any carrots for a while now so perhaps I will get some in the garden this year. So instead I used a couple of regular carrots and added some zucchini as well. I didn't have any fresh green chillis nor did I have any fresh red chillis so I used a bit of chilli paste. I didn't have, and don't really like, goat's cheese so I used feta cheese instead. I really enjoyed this a lot. It was so full of flavour and it went really well with the bbq Moroccan lamb flaps (belly/ribs) that I made that night. Well, I say made but I really should say cooked the pre-rubbed flaps that I got from my local butcher but so much flavour that I will definitely get them again. 

Warm Moroccan Carrot & Zucchini Salad

2 carrots, peeled (if needed) and cut into batons, 

2 zucchini, cut into batons 

olive oil 

1 tsp chilli paste (or to taste) 

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tbsp honey (I just poured some in) 

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp sumac (I don't have a very good one at the moment so used more) 

crumbed feta

Blanch carrots and zucchini until just starting to soften. Heat oil in pan and add carrots and zucchini and toss until coated. Add chilli paste and garlic and toss until fragrant. Add honey and cook until starting to caramelise and then season. Cool slightly and serve topped with crumbled feta. 

Marsala Pork with Fennel

On to the second of the pork recipes made last week with the pork scotch fillet that I defrosted. After searching around the Taste website for something to make with them I decided on this Marsala Pork with Fennel recipe. I used the remaining 3 pork scotch fillet steaks in the fridge for this recipe. I did make some changes. I reduced the sauce down until it was quite syrupy. In fact I think that I could have taken it down a little further to make it a bit sticky and thicker. I added about 2 tsp butter as the end of reducing the sauce to add a bit of extra richness, it probably wasn't needed but I enjoyed it. The pork was tender and the sauce had just the right amount of sweetness to it. The only change I would make next time would be to add a little slurp of cream to the sauce instead of the butter.

I made a number of changes to the fennel part of the recipe. I had a large fennel in the fridge so I used that and sliced it up. I didn't have any of the yellow squash so cut a zucchini into thick wedges. I also added half and onion thinly sliced and sautéed until soft before adding the fennel. Finally I added some canned cherry tomatoes which I squashed up. I really enjoyed this side dish. I sometimes find that the fennel flavour can be strong and overwhelming but this was quite subtle and I really enjoyed it. However, I think that without the onion and tomatoes I may have found the flavour different. I liked it my way. 

Delicious: July 2011 - Crumbed Lamb Chops with Roasted Greek-Salad Vegetables

It seems like it has been a really long week and I am having trouble unwinding tonight. I was hoping to get to bed early tonight but I wasn't tired earlier. I am finally started to feel a bit sleepy now so hopefully I will get this typed up quickly and then be able to get some sleep. 

This would have to be my favourite recipe that I have made out of this issue of delicious magazine. I really, really loved the roasted greek-salad vegetables. I have made them twice since as well. The lamb when with the vegetables perfectly. I used some lamb loin chops rather than the frenched cutlets. The only reason was that the loin chops were half the price of the cutlets. I really liked the lemon zest in with the breadcrumbs. It was also a really easy meal to make. I can see this one entering into rotation on my menu planning. 

Crumbed lamb cutlets with roast greek-salad vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
• 3 roma tomatoes, halved (I used a punnet of cherry toms) 
• 2 red capsicum, roughly chopped 
• 3 zucchini, halved lengthways and thickly sliced 
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped 
• 1/3 c olive oil (I used garlic olive oil) 
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 200 g feta, chopped 
• 1/2 c kalamata olives (I used pitted ones) 
• 1 tbsp oregano leaves, plus extra to serve 
• 1 c dried breadcrumbs (I used panko breadcrumbs) 
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 8 French-trimmed lamb cutlets
• 1/4 c plain flour, seasoned 
• 1 egg, lightly beaten 
• lemon wedges, to serve

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 200 C and line a large baking tray with foil.
• Toss vegetables and garlic with 2 tbsp oil and 1/2 tsp dried oregano. Season. 
• Spread on the tray and bake for 15 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. 
• Add feta, olives and oregano leaves and bake for a further 5 - 8 minutes until feta is golden. 
• Meanwhile, combine crumbs with zest and remaining 1/2 tsp dried oregano. Coat lamb first in flour, then in egg and crumbs, shaking off any excess. 
• Heat remaining oil 2 tbsp oil in a fry pan over medium-high heat (I used grapeseed oil). 
• In batches cook lamb for 2 - 3 minutes each side for medium-rare or until cooked to your liking. 
• Place lamb cutlets on a serving platter with rated vegetables, lemon wedges and oregano leaves.

Zucchini & Asparagus with Feta, Olive & Harissa Dressing

Now that it is winter and the frosts are here the zucchinis have, of course, stopped producing it is nice not to have to wonder what to do with the new lot of zucchini picked from the garden. The most popular recipe over at Taste for the last few years has been this Zucchini slice. It is a good way to use up some zucchini plus it can be frozen. It is great hot and cold. I also regularly make the zucchini & mushroom crumble I posted about in yesterday's post. However, there still remains a lot of zucchinis left over to use. 

Not too long ago I got my hands on several bunches of asparagus when it was on super special. I had apparently not had enough of the zucchinis over summer as I also bought some of them too. So in need of a way of using them up I turned to the net to find a different way of using them. I came across this recipe over at The Wednesday Chef. I made a few changes to incorporate the asparagus and for my own tastes. I was really please with how it turned out plus it gave me a chance to use some more of the wonderful harissa that I got from ideli.com.au. I will definitely be re-purchasing it when I have finished this jar. This recipe will also be going into the regular use pile.

Zucchini & Asparagus with Feta, Olive & Harissa Dressing 

Ingredients: 

• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp harissa paste
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, finely diced 
• 1 zucchini, sliced into batons
• 1 bunch asparagus, cut into pieces the same size as zucchini
• Handful Kalamata olives, pitted and diced 
• 1/4 crumbled feta
• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp mint, chopped 

 Method:

• Combine lemon zest, juice, harissa, garlic and olive oil in a bowl.
• Steam zucchini and asparagus until cooked to your liking, I prefer it to still have a bit of crunch. 
• Toss the vegetables in the dressing.
• Top with olives and feta and serve.