Okra Surprise

01.25.2015 by Trish // 5 Comments

Until a few weeks ago, the first and last time I tasted okra it was in a gumbo I ate in New Orleans. It was about 35 years ago and it was, at that stage, one of the most exotic meals I had ever eaten.

New Orleans, 35 years ago, and I still love wearing hats!!

My husband and I were living in Fiji at the time and the Fijian and Indian food was full of flavours and spices that I had never tasted before. It definitely started me on new culinary adventures ; and when an American friend introduced me to Gourmet Magazine, I was hooked!

Even so I wasn’t adventurous enough to try making gumbo with okra, even though it was easy to get in the markets in Vatukoula where we lived in Fiji. Back in Australia it was many years before it arrived on the fruit and veg shelves of the local supermarket and by then I was put off by its reputation of being slimy and difficult. In fact when I was reading about okra before I wrote this post I came across this sentence. “Unlike harsh wheat bran, which can irritate or injure the intestinal tract, okra’s mucilage soothes, and okra facilitates elimination more comfortably, although its slippery characteristic is one many people abhor.” Mmmm, yum, I SO want to try that!

On a trip to Perth a while back friends took me to Tak Chee, a nondescript Malaysian cafe on William St in Northbridge. I often stay in Northbridge and must have walked past this place dozens of times. The food is amazing!!

Tak Chee, yummy Malaysian food, Northbridge

One of the great things about eating out and having someone else order is that you get to try all sorts of dishes that you wouldn’t usually choose, and one of their choices was an okra and prawn curry. I wasn’t too sure, but oh yeah! Yum!

When my friendly Asian lady at the local markets had okra on her stall just recently I thought right, time to bite the bullet, or the okra, it’s time to give it a go. I have got at least 50 cookbooks on my bookshelves, and I love each and every one of them, but you know, when you want a recipe in a hurry, it’s just as easy to Google okra curry and see what you come up with. And there it was, Indian Okra in Coconut Curry. It looked pretty easy, and tasty , except it has raisins in it which I hate in curries. I mean, really hate. It brings back memories of my childhood when curry meant browning some beef, adding a teaspoon of Keens Curry powder (not too much mind!) with some carrots, potatoes and peas. Despite the name curry, you could never get away from meat and three veg! Then, to make it really exotic, you added some banana and raisins. Yukkkkk!!

At the last moment I decided that I couldn’t really be bothered with all those individual spices and what I really felt like was a big fat vegetable curry. When I am in a curry hurry, I have my fave go-to, Number 45 Curry Paste, which comes from the lovely Robina at the local market. There is always lots of vegetables in my fridge so I grabbed a pile of them, including a few beans I found in a plastic bag (I wonder why I left 5 beans in a plastic bag in the fridge, why didn’t I just use all of them in the first place??? ) Now, there were no raisins going anywhere near that curry I can tell you, but out of somewhere I had an inspiration!! Inca berries. For those of you who aren’t up with the latest of superfood trends, this little beauty from the high altitude tropical regions South America is it! It will do incredible things for your body, trust me. Click the link and you will find out. Actually I don’t really know if I believe in the whole superfood thing, but I love, love, love that sharp and sour but sweet taste of the inca berry.

OKRA CURRY in a HURRY SURPRISE

Ingredients

(Sorry, this isn’t exact. I just sort of used however many veggies I thought would go with a can of coconut cream and half a can of water)

A few handfuls of assorted vegetables – I used okra, zucchini, potato, pumpkin, 5 beans and onion
2 tablespoons coconut oil
4 tablespoons of curry paste (I used Number 45, but any you fancy would do)
1 can coconut cream
1/2 can water
Handful of inca berries or raisins

Method

Chop vegetables into bite-sized pieces
Saute in coconut oil for a few minutes.
Stir in curry paste until spices are fragrant.
Add coconut cream, slosh can out with about half a can of water and stir it all in.
Add inca berries
Cook for about 30 minutes
Serve with rice, coriander leaves and a side dish of greenish banana sliced into yoghurt and shredded coconut.

I made it a couple of days before we ate it so all the favours matured deliciously. And the best of all, just as you were enjoying that silky smooth, coconut milk, curry flavour …Bam! you were hit with the surprise, an explosion of inca berry. Amazing!

I love hearing about your cooking and eating adventures, when was the last time your taste buds were hit with an explosion of flavour?

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie, billy gumbo (or what to do with the left over Christmas ham)

01.18.2015 by Trish // Leave a Comment

The Christmas tree and decorations have been packed away, the mistletoe tea towels and Santa oven gloves washed and stowed, and the left over Christmas pudding safely wrapped in foil in the freezer. All that’s left of Christmas is the extra 2 kgs sitting snuggly around my waist and hips….oh and of course, the rest of the Christmas ham.

We’ve had ham sandwiches, toasted ham sandwiches, ham with mashed potato and salad and ham with sauerkraut (home-made!) and steamed potatoes. And yes, I am a bit over ham.

But I do love a good jambalaya, so that’s where my last batch of chopped ham ended. Every time I make jambalaya, that song “Jambalaya(On the Bayou)” takes up residence in my head and won’t leave. In the end I thought I may as well just give in so I headed off to You Tube to really indulge. I just love You tube, you learn so much that you din’t know you needed to know. I actually didn’t know that Jambalaya was originally a Hank Williams Snr song, my favourite has always been Creedence Clearwater Revival, although I am quite fond of The Carpenter’s version. Anyway I chose one which happened to be karaoke version with the lyrics printed on the screen. “Yay,” I thought, “sing-along”!🎤 “Jambalaya, and a craw-fish pie, billy gumbo”…….OMG, you’ve got to be joking. For 40 years I’ve been singing billy gumbo, 40 years, and it’s wrong ! Now I’m not sure what I thought billy gumbo was, maybe cousin Billy’s gumbo recipe, I don’t know, but actually it is ‘fillet gumbo’. Thanks to Wikipedia I found out that fillet gumbo is made with filé powder which is ground sassafras leaves. So there you go!!

No, it's not billy gumbo! — No, it’s not billy gumbo!

My daughter told me that what I had done was called a mondegreen (If you aren’t a follower of Spicks and Specks and don’t know what this means, click on the word, you can read all about it) And here I’m the one that’s the teacher and should know all that stuff!

Anyway, back to jambalaya. This delicious mixture of meat, vegetables and rice is a Louisiana Creole dish, a sort of a cross between Spanish paella and jambalaia which is a provençal dish. Jambalaya, like most creole dishes, starts with the ‘trinity’ of celery, peppers and onions. I usually use ham or a smoked sausage, but chicken can also be used, or all three if you like. Shrimps and oysters are also popular. Creole seasonings typically include paprika,cayenne pepper, dried oregano, thyme and garlic .For a great creole seasoning recipe you can’t go past the best Creole chef, Emeril Lagasse. The original dishes used white rice but I use brown rice and it’s just as tasty.

For quite few years I have been using this recipe from epicurious, one of my fave food websites. This recipe here is the original and I pretty much did it as it says but without the chicken, and I added some okra which I am just learning to use. Instead of the cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce (which I don’t think is like our good old Heinz or Rosella tomato sauce) I just used a couple of cans of diced tomatoes and sloshed the cans out with some vege stock I had in the fridge.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Jambalaya with ham and prawns

JAMBALAYA

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
3 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, minced
4 oz extra-lean smoked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
5 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced
1 large bay leaf
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
3/4 cup brown rice, uncooked
1 1/2 lb medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped into bite-sized pieces

PREPARATION

Add oil to a large nonstick saucepan. Over medium heat, sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper and celery until onion is translucent.

Add parsley, ham, chicken, bay leaf, and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring often, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add tomatoes (with juice), tomato sauce, and 1 3/4 cups cold water. Gently simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

Pour rice into the pan and stir well. Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, 45 minutes or until rice is cooked and absorbs most of the liquid.

Stir in shrimp and cook 5 minutes more. Remove bay leaf. Season to taste with cayenne pepper and salt.

HAM HASH

This is another great way to use up the Christmas ham. The original recipe is Corned Beef Hash but it is just as delicious using ham. The recipe is by Adrian Richardson from Secret Meat Business and is found on the LifeStyleFOOD website. It’s very easy and I am always sort of surprised when it comes out of the pan looking so good.

INGREDIENTS

4 large red-skinned potatoes, half boiled, grated (I don’t par boil the potatoes if I don’t have time and it still turns out ok)
1/2 red onion, finely dice
1/2 bunch spring onion, finely chopped
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
500 gms ham, finely diced
olive oil
salt & pepper

* I add a couple of eggs because it never seems to me that it would stick together, but it probably would

PREPARATION

Place the diced ham in a large mixing bowl. Add grated potato, red onion, spring onion, parsley and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix with your hands until well combined.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Using a spatula, press the corned beef mixture into a flat cake, and cook until the mixture is browned and crusty on the bottom, about 10 minutes.

Flip the cake, and continue cooking until the mixture is browned and crusty on other side, about 8 minutes.

Transfer to a plate, cut into wedges and serve with bacon and eggs. (That’s what Adrian says, we think it is deliciously yummy just as it is!)

I love both of those recipes, I hope you give them a try. In return I’d love to hear what you do with your left over ham.

The rise and fall of kale

01.11.2015 by Trish // 4 Comments

You’ve got to feel sorry for kale. A couple of years ago she was the star of the show, all crinkled and shiny in her dress of green, tossed into a salad here, whizzed into a smoothie there. High in fibre, iron and a myriad of vitamins, kale was proclaimed to be a powerhouse of nutrition and the ultimate in detox. And yes, I was a believer. I too worshipped at the altar of the green goddess – I stirred strips of it into stir fries, steamed it to go with stews, crisped it into addictively crunchy chips in the oven. I even tried drying it outside with some cherry tomatoes on a particularly hot summer day but I dont think that was very successful. I was never fond of it juiced, the taste was too strong and bitter and the fibres clogged up my juicer and made it difficult to clean.

Then a couple of years ago her star began to wane. Kale Salad appeared on the wrong side of ‘Hot or Not’ food trends of 2014. Instead of bean sprouts, kale became the butt of jokes about vegetarians and I began to see articles such as “The Dark Side of Kale” and “Three Reasons Not to Eat Kale”. Reports emerged that kale contains small amounts of substances that can have a ‘goitrogenic’ effect, meaning they can affect the function of our thyroid gland. Aghast I read of the 88 year old woman who developed thyroid problems after eating 1.5 lbs (680g) of kale a day.

I began to imagine my life without kale, but just in time I remembered the quote from that Marigold Hotel movie ‘Everything will be alright in the end, so if it is not alright it is not the end.’ Determined to find my happy ending I read more. Apparently the nasties, while active in raw kale become non-active with cooking,

and actually if your thyroid is healthy they are are not even very nasty. I know I have a healthy thyroid because I had it checked out when I was sure that my thyroid was the reason my size 12 jeans were becoming a tad tight!

Another reason kale got some bad press was because it can be hard to digest, particularly the curly type. But I have to tell you I am so excited about my newest kale discovery which I found on a post on my favourite food blog, Nutrition Stripped – Massaged Kale. Every time I mention this to friends or family they get the same raised eyebrows, amused look on their face and I am not sure what is going through their minds. I assure you there are no scented candles and essential oils here. Unless you are talking about olive oil, which is essential, along with a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

A squeeze of lemon juice and a slurp of olive oil

Then you just get your hands in there and start massaging. After a few minutes the fibres start to break down and the kale becomes all shiny and bright green, and starts to lose that slightly bitter taste that kale can sometimes have. You leave it stand for a while, anything from half an hour to the next day, and then throw in your fave salad ingredients and dressing. Just don’t forget to adjust the seasonings on your dressing.

Massaged kale, feeling relaxed all over!

The first time I made a massaged kale salad I just added strips of avocado and sprinkled with hemp seeds – delish. Even the non-believers were impressed!

The next morning I served it warmed slightly, added the mashed left over avocado, topped with a poached egg and served with a spoon full of home-made pesto. One of my best breakfasts ever!

Unlike most salad greens massaged kale lasts for a few days in the fridge, so I can make up a heap at the weekend, take it to work and have it with a can of tuna, crumbled feta or chopped boiled egg for protein.

So, kale lovers, how do you like your kale? Love to hear from you.

Xmas 2013 Recycled

01.05.2015 by Trish // Leave a Comment

What is in this? — What on earth is in this?

Put up your hand if you know what this is? We’re talking Christmas 2013 leftovers here. Now keep your hand up if you have ever had something like this pushed to the back of your fridge, or poked away at the bottom of your freezer.

Left over Christmas Pudding from last year — Oh of course, that left over Christmas Pudding from last year!

Yes, you know what I am talking about. It’s the left over Christmas pudding.You never eat as much pudding as think you are going to, even if it is smothered with the sauce of your choice (orange sauce for me!)because you are too stuffed with turkey.

Of course, the most delicious way of all to serve it is fried in butter and served with cream for breakfast on Boxing Day. Oh, that sizzle as you place the the slice of pudding into the butter bubbling in the pan, that smell as the pudding starts to caramelise, the satisfying dollop as you spoon the cream over the top, the crunch of the crispy fried fruit as you take that first bite……..

IMG_8445_2 — Fried Christmas pudding and cream

So, back to the left over Christmas pudding. You know what happens then – you wrap it in foil and pop it in the fridge to finish off, maybe next week or the week after. But it really is too hot for pudding in summer so you decide to keep it until the weather cools down, by which time it has worked its way to the back of the fridge.

Somewhere around mid-year when you are cleaning out the fridge you find it and unwrap gingerly, not sure what’s in it. Oh yes, you think, I’ll have that next week. So you wrap it in fresh foil and pop it at the front again, when it once again works its way back, forgotten once again.

This year I got really close to using it. A friend Perth was due to visit with her husband, and as she had been my guinea pig for various Christmas pudding recipes I decided it would be just the thing for dessert one night. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it at the last minute so it got put back in the fridge.

Around November when you clear out the fridge in preparation for the festive season you find it again, and finally dispatch it to the compost with a sigh…….

But wait, not this year, no siree. I have just the thing for left over pudding. One of the reasons I always have left over pudding is because there are actually only 3 people in my family who like it. My daughter says it is such a tease that Christmas Pudding always smells so delicious and tastes so gross!! So this year I decided I would reconstitute my left over pudding into three small ones.

Reconstituted Christmas Pudding

Take the left over pudding and crumble into a bowl. Sprinkle extravagantly with the liqueur of your choice and leave until you are ready to boil.

Grease small pudding molds and line with baking paper. Fill with delicious pudding mixture and boil for an hour in a pot of water, making sure you don’t boil the pot dry!!

And there you are, ready for Christmas 2014 with a minimum of fuss!

I would love to hear from you. What do you do with left over Christmas Pud??

Oh, and btw, it is now post Christmas 2014 and I still have those three cute little puddings wrapped in foil in my fridge, they will be just the thing for when I need a quick dessert for three!