beef in blankets ... because cabbage rolls sounds unappealing

Stuffed cabbage rolls courtesy of - you guesed it - smitten kitchen.

Pretty delicious.

Not excessively time consuming.

Unfortunately not looking amazingly appetizing. Must find a way to make them look pretty.

But tasting delicious - most important feature.

Where do cabbage rolls come from? Cabbage makes me think Germany, Russia... so maybe Eastern European? No idea

Serves 4-6 generously

1 cabbage (she said savoy, but I used a normal old green cabbage - savoy would have been prettier)

2 small brown onions, finely chopped

2 parsnip, grated

2 carrots, grated

2 sticks of celery, finely chopped

500g beef mince

3/4 cup white rice

3 tbsp tomato paste

Plenty of salt and pepper

Good home-made simple tomato sauce for poaching (tomato, garlic, butter, olive oil)

Green salad to serve

Cut the core out of the cabbage. Bring a large pot of water to the boil with a good pinch of salt. Put in the cabbage, turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes. Drain the cabbage well.

Soften the onion in olive oil over a low heat. Add the parsnip, carrot, celery. Cook until soft and smelling delicious.

In a large bowl, mix together the onion mixture, mince, rice and tomato paste and season well with salt and pepper.

To make the rolls. Cut the core out of the leaves and roll up about 1tbsp of meat mixture. Try to roll it in the same way you would roll a spring roll.

Layer the rolls in a wide-based pan with a lid. They can be in two layers. Pack them in tightly. Pour in 1/2 cup of water and your tomato sauce to cover.

Put on the stove, bring to a simmer, put the lid on, and cook gently for 45 minutes. Keep an eye on it and top it up with water if it looks a bit dry. Be careful with it - burnt cabbage is horrendous.

Enjoy

take a little squid and put it in a salad (carrot salad!)

Grating. What isn't better when grated than chopped or whole? Grated cheese - better. Grated apple - better. Grated carrot - amazing. Grated chocolate - pretty tasty.

So.. grated carrot salad with middle-eastern-ish flavours and grilled squid. Pretty damn special.

Thanks again to smitten kitchen for the inspiration.

Sorry that the picture is so rubbish.. maybe, one day i will fix it. Maybe not!

Try this.

Tonight

This served 3 of us

3 large carrots, grated

2 tbsp flat leaf parsely, chopped

2 tbsp mint, chopped

100g feta, crumbled

3 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted in a pan until delicious and golden

2 large squid, tentacles included cut into bite sized pieces and scored

2 tbsp olive oil

2 crushed cloves garlic

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 1/2 tsp harissa (find it in your gourmet deli)

3 tbsp lemon juice

Pita bread and rocket leaves to serve

In a pestle and mortar combine and bash the garlic, caraway, cumin, paprika. In a small pan mix together the oil, garlic paste and harissa. Heat over very low heat until fragrant. Pour into a small bowl. When cool-ish add the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour a couple of tbsp of dressing over the squid. Marinate at room temperature for 10-20 minutes (or not at all depending on how time pressed you are).

Mix together the carrots, herbs, almonds and feta.

Fry the squid in 1tsp oil over very high heat until just cooked. Dress the salad. You will probably not need all the dressing.

Serve the squid over the salad with pita bread and rocket leaves. Delicious

very rich burnt butter, pear and chocolate cake

Thank you again to Smitten Kitchen for this recipe.

Last day at the psychiatric hospital - I needed to take something with me. I was going to go back to old faithful choco brownies, but felt inspired by the bowl of pears on the kitchen bench.

This did not disappoint.

Almost more dessert than cake.

Would be great with some cream/ice cream as a bit of a foil for the richness.

Let it cool a touch before cutting it so the chocolate can set.

1 cup plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch salt

3 eggs

115g butter

3/4 cup sugar

4 small pears, peeled and cut into 1cm dice

3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 9 inch springform tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.

Put the eggs into a free-standing beater and mix on high speed until very very thick and pale (about 5-10 minutes).

Brown the butter by melting in a medium saucepan until brown bits form on the bottom and it smells nutty (about 6-8 minutes). It will help if you stir the solids off the bottom as it starts to brown. Keep in a warm place.

Add the sugar to the eggs. Beat for a few more minutes.

As the egg-sugar mixture starts to lose volume, turn down to 'fold' and add the flour and brown butter, alternating. Mix very gently for less than one minute or until combined. Do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with the chocolate and hte pear.

Cook for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown and springs back when touched. Test with a skewer.

Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan, before releasing. It is easiest to cut this cake when cool, but delicious when warm. Dust with icing sugar.

Very delicious greek-style roasted tomato salad

Thanks for Gourmet Traveller. This salad was pretty delicious. Roast tomatoes with lemon, garlic, oregano, crushed almonds, feta, raisins.... wow

Salty feta, sour lemons, sweet raisins and beautiful tomatoes.

We had it with steak and a crisp green salad dressed with lemon and olive oil.

8 beautifully ripe tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic, skins left on and bruised

7 strips of lemon peel

Large handful of oregano, bruised in your hand

3/4 cup raisins

3 bay leaves, crumbled

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp fennel seeds, crushed roughly in the mortar and pestle

Large handful of feta cheese, crumbled roughly

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp roughly crushed roasted almonds

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the tomatoes into a baking dish that gives them a nice snug fit. Tuck the garlic, herbs, lemon peel and raisins underneath and in the gaps between the tomatoes. Any herbs or raisins sticking up will get quite crisp so try to tuck them away. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle over the fennel seeds and season generously with salt and pepper.

Put in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the tomatoes are starting to collapse and smell beautiful. Remove from the oven and arrange on a serving platter. Crush the garlic out of the skins and mash into the sauce. Pour the sauce over the tomatoes and then sprinkle with almonds, feta and the juice of half a lemon.

These would be good with crusty sourdough bread and salad for lunch.

chocolate sandwiched Anzac biscuits for the long weekend

These are good, really really good.

Sandwich together regular Anzac bickies with chocolate icing.

I accidently used 1 tbsp treacle and 1 tbsp of golden syrup instead of all golden syrup. I like the result.

I made 84 biscuits, so 42 sandwiched little darlings.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp treacle (or use all golden syrup)

1 tsp baking soda mixed with 1 tbsp warm water

1 1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup SR flour

Preheat the oven to 140C. Line 3 baking sheets with baking paper.

Mix together the oats, coconut and SR flour.

Melt the butter, sugar and syrups in a separate bowl in the microwave. Add the bicarb mixture and stir, it should fluff up.

Add the wet to the dry mixture and stir well.

Shape teaspoonfuls into balls. Press down with your fingers to flatten. Leave about 1cm between them to spread.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden.

Sandwich together with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Icing

Put in a bowl 2 tbsp dark cocoa, 1 cup icing sugar, 1 tbsp softened butter. Pour over about 1 tbsp boiling water. Stir well. Add more water or icing sugar to get a thick, but spreadable icing.

Suck out the brains prawn curry with home-made chappathis

Craving satisfied.

Now that I no longer feel like curry I can start thinking about other foods. Or can I? This was so amazing I think I could eat it every night of the week.

Please leave the brains in your prawns when you cook them. Then when you eat them (with your hands) rip off the head and suck out all the sweet prawny goodness.

Thank you Jamie Oliver - I love this curry.

You only need half the sauce to serve four people. Freeze the rest for another day.

Feel free to substitute grilled chicken or fish or vegies for the prawns. But please try the prawns as they are seriously good. And make sure you suck out the brains.
3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp brown mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

3 long green chillies, seeds removed and finely sliced

2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, chopped roughly

1 handful of fresh curry leaves (now plant a curry tree - you won't regret it)

3 onions, whizzed in the blender until roughly chopped

2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

6 very ripe delicious tomatoes, whizzed in the same blender until roughly chopped

400mL coconut milk

16 very delicious fresh tiger prawns, unpeeled

Serves 4

Put the oil in a large pan over high heat and then pour in the mustard seeds. When they start to pop add the chillies, ginger, fenugreek and curry leaves. There will be some spluttering and spitting. Fry for 2-3 minutes or until deliciously fragrant.

Add the chopped onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until starting to go golden. Add in the turmeric and chilli powder and fry for a minute. Now add the tomatoes and coconut milk. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until a nice thick consistency, like thickened cream.

In a separate pan heat a tbsp oil. When very hot add the prawns. Cook for 1-2 mins on each side or until coloured. Pour over half the hot curry sauce (freeze the rest for another day). Put a lid on it, make sure it is simmering and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the prawns are just cooked.

Serve on a plate with chappathis. Do not give people a fork - give them a finger bowl instead.

Chappathi

This is a rough recipe. You really need to do it by feel.

1 tbsp olive oil

Generous pinch of salt

~1 1/2 cups flour

Warm water

In a bowl mix the olive oil, salt and flour. Gradually add warm water and mix with your hands until you get a soft dough. Knead gently for 2 mins.

Preaheat a dry pan over high heat (or bbq or grill pan). Rip off walnut sized pieces of dough and roll until nice and thin and vaguely circular. Place into the hot pan. Cook until bubbled up and starting to blacken slightly. Turn once and cook second side until blackening. Remove from heat and if you are feeling indulgent butter generously.

No excuse for not making these - everyone has flour, water, salt and oil in their house.

rosy pink poached quince (without any rose in them)

I found quinces at Wray Avenue last week. They needed a good week to ripen up. I was also avoiding cooking them as so many recipes I found said you need to cook them in excess of 12 hours. 12 hours watching one dish? Not going to happen.

These poached quinces were really special served with double cream.

They could also replace apples/pears in any recipe once poached like this. Think quince crumble, quince tart, quince pie.

To stop the quinces browning, put them straight into water and sugar liquid as soon as cut.

5 quinces, peeled and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 1/2 cups of sugar

4 1/2 cups of water

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

Put all ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil. Put the lid on, lower the heat and simmer gently for 2-3 hours or until very tender.