Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Friday, 14 October 2016

Ratatouille

Our household loves a bit of 'rat' as we call it. It's an excellent way to painlessly boost everyone's veggie intake, leftovers can be eaten cold or reheated for lunch and it's dead simple. What's not to love?



Like much of my cooking, the 'recipe' is quite free-range, but I"m sure you'll get the drift, catch what I'm throwing or even smell what I'm cooking!

Here goes:

Chop the following into similar sized pieces (helps them cook evenly)
  • 4 mid-sized eggplants 
  • About 4 zucchini
  • About 4 red capsicums
  • Button mushrooms (or not if you don't like mushrooms)
  • 3 or 4 onions - I quite like the red Spanish ones for this but brown will do as well
  • You can also throw in some rosemary sprigs and cracked black pepper (I don't use salt)
I try and keep everything touching the baking dish's base and give the pieces some space so they get well roasted, browned and a bit crispy, so spread them over two trays. If they're too crowded they can steam and be a bit soggy. 

Douse liberally with olive oil and throw in the over at 180C; fan forced if you're in a hurry. After about half an hour, give them a toss to get the other side browned. I actually don't know how long it take but allow an hour and just look at them when you think to!

The veggies all shrink a bit so once they're done you can throw them all into one dish. Add a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes and torn fresh basil or oregano leaves if you like them and they're around. I add black olives and occasionally even some capers if I'm feeling so inclined. These all give plenty of saltiness so you probably don't need to add any. (You can add feta to the cold leftovers for lunch too, which is pretty yum.)

Throw it back into the oven to get it hot again (the tomatoes cool it down) and it's ready to go!

Have it with steak, baked chicken breast, salmon - even snags, You could serve some green beans as well if you wanted - and dinner's done!

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

The school holidays


Thank god the school holidays are over! Not that I didn’t enjoy the break as much as the kids – possibly more.  A holiday from getting up at 5.45am five gruelling mornings in a row, week after week, packing lunches, despatching kids to where they’re supposed to be and getting to working looking like – well, let’s just say looking like I’ve put in the required amount a effort!

It’s been quite pleasant really. I even had two day ‘working from home’ when I couldn’t get child care, which I’d so been looking forward to, but between the cleaners mopping around my feet and kids constant fighting or telling me they were bored as I hid in their room and emailed, it was actually somewhat of a relief to get back to the office. Yet another reminder of why I work!

No, the reason I’m glad they’re over is I’ve put on about two kilos. It’s not just the holiday mode and the popcorn at the pictures, but the extraordinary cooking talent of the kids. One in particular is quite the Master Chef.

So my parents came for lunch on the first weekend and she started with grissini, wrapped with proscutto and blue cheese, baked in the oven until the proscutto  is crispy and the cheese is gooey. Yum! That was followed by roast pork with apple glaze and mash. She then threw a dinner party for the relatives-who-aren’t-related. We started with zucchini fritters on a bed of rocket, parmesan and smoked salmon, followed by parsley crumbed fish with garlic mash and wilted bok choy and finished with jellied champagne (non-alcoholic!) ice cream and berries.

A friend came for lunch and she threw together a chicken and mushroom pasta. There's been pumpkin soup for the cousins, meringues for her brother, banana bread for me, chocolate ganache in warmed croissants, brown sugar cream to accompany the desserts. And it's all soooo gooood!

Last Friday night we went to friend for pizza and she whipped up individual rhubarb and berry tarts that were so delicious I ate a second one for lunch the next day. And that’s not to mention the Oreo cookie pudding-slash-slice (her words, not mine). A recipe she made up and I’m sure accounted for a kilo all on it’s own!

Here's an example of one of her creations:


 And here are my shoes (yes, on my desk!!) trying to account for said kilos....sadly, I can't find anything higher.



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