Student kitchens
Easy, delicious, healthy(ish) recipes that won’t own your budget.Archive for cheese
Snack series #1 – addictive flaky crackers
I’ve made crackers several times before,but this recipe uses much more oil and also has butter to make a flaky, crispy cracker. It uses actual cheese, and takes about ten minutes to form into dough and about half an hour to roll out. I present to you: rosemary, parmesan and sesame crackers.
The picture above has no sesame in, as I kept forgetting to add them in the rolling stage. You may be wondering why on earth I’m suggesting to bake crackers before exams. Well, firstly, it’s damn cold, and any reason not to go out (and just use the flour in the pantry) for snacks is good by me. Second, it’s damn cold, and this will get you moving about, and a good excuse for a not-all-day-break. Third, it’s damn cold, and this is a good reason to turn the oven on, and huddle around the meagre heat that escapes through the oven glass window. Fourth…well, you know me, I like baking things from scratch. It’s fun :D Fifth, you can make any flavour combination you want pretty much – I’m sure you could experiment without the parmesan, and do plain herbed crackers, or spiced crackers, or plain poppy and sesame. And lastly, they taste pretty fantastic.
Parmesan, rosemary, and sesame crackers
makes several dozen thin, rectangular inch long crackers
about 30g butter, diced finely
about 1/3 c oil
1 1/3 c plain flour (I used the equivalent wholemeal)
about 50g parmesan, finely grated
sesame seeds to taste (black or white) – I’d use about 1 Tablespoon.
Rosemary leaves (pref. fresh), roughly chopped a little
pinch salt
a few Tablespoons water
Rub butter, salt, and flour together to create a mixture resembling breadcrumbs (like you’d do for scones, but there’s a lot less butter). Add parmesan, rosemary, sesame seeds and oil, and mix to create larger clumps. Add a tablespoon of water at a time, mixing for at least a minute after each addition, to form a soft dought that holds together easily.
Generously flour your benchtop, and lightly oil as many baking trays as you have (you want at least two to make the process speedy). Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Divide the dough into six sections. Roll out a section on the well floured surface until you have a thin sheet just under 2mm thin. Make sure the dough isn’t sticking at any stage while you’re rolling it out. Transfer to lightly greased baking tray, cut into 1 inch (at the longest side) rectangles, and separate (you want about 1cm of space between the crackers. I’ve tried not separating – the outside rim of crackers will cook fine, but the centre will be undercooked. So separate, okay?
Throw into the oven and let bake in the centre rack for about 5-10 minutes (depending on your oven). You want them to be lightly golden, or if using wholemeal, golden brown. They may not be crispy-feeling when they come out, but transfer them immediately to a cooling rack and they will crisp up after about five minutes. While cooking, you can prepare the next batch, so you shouldn’t have too much idle time.
Enjoy with the best cheese you can afford, or just on their own. EDIT: Store in an airtight container to keep them crisp.
Next up: The classic chocolate chip cookie, without butter or eggs…but with plenty of deliciousness and super quick-ness! lea
Hand made tortellini
I know, I know – you’re all about to hit exams, or just got back home from work to screaming kids…and now I give you a recipe for hand made, from scratch tortellini? Well, on the plus side, you don’t have to make your own feta, but apart from that, yes: I want you to experience the joy/extreme stress of hand making your own filled pasta (If you don’t know what tortellini is, it’s a stuffed pasta that you can get at the supermarket, usually in those Frescarini packets). Why (you may be asking rather hysterically)?! Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, I am the sort of person who likes experiencing the whole made-from-scratch thing, especially with things you can easily pick up at the supermarket (like butter, or condensed milk…which I didnt post about because it turned out like dulce de leche…kinda lumpy, but still delicious). It’s fun. It gives you an earthy domestic feeling of superlative smugness, and even if you’re a dude, I think you’d appreciate the possible scoring (of whatever variety) afterwards with any female (or male I suppose) friends you have over for dinner. You don’t need a pasta machine, or a fancy pasta cutter for tortellini. An afternoon, a long rolling pin, and a bit of bench space are the only things I ask of you.
Making gnocchi a while ago has gotten me rather addicted to making things from scratch, you see. I did say it was fun, didn’t I? I guess it’s also relaxing, and incredibly rewarding. Great food for a failed exam/assignment, say. Or a stressful day. (You can see where I’m going with this, right?) So really, it’s ideal for an afternoon of calm, and even if your dough doesn’t feel right (like mine) at first, you can sit back and breezily order pizza. It’s not easy, this stuffed pastsa business, but it honestly is a good break from those hours of readings you’ve just done, and a good break on the eyeballs. Also, I lied a little because the sauce for this is just store bought pesto sauce. To be fair though, basil season is well and truly over, so sit-a-long-time supermarket stuff is the only kind left.
If you’re not convinced, you can try my ravioli made with dumpling wrappers, which doesn’t require you to make any dough or roll anything out. Then once you’re addicted, you can try this! Another recipe in my bookmarks that have inspired me to roll up my sleeves for from-scratchdom: Barefoot Kitchen Witch, I love your herb layered ravioli sheets!
Before I proceed with the recipe details, I just want to say: you can fill your tortellini with anything you want, okay? I just provided a filling as example. If you have leftover chicken, for example, you can chop it up really small and mix it together with some herbs, chopped garlic and cream cheese maybe. Second, I want to thank Frike at Sweet Smart for this brilliant post for making pasta dough from scratch, without a machine. Though it’s a Jamie recipe, she made it a per person guide which was super appreciated! The only thing I’d possibly change is using 1/2 a cup of flour per person to start with, as my dough was quite solid. To be fair though it did turn out delicious! As with most fresh pasta you can make this ahead and refrigerate (keeps a few days) or freeze it (keeps about a month), and it will be minutes away the next time you want some.
Tortellini with a spinach, feta and red pepper filling.
serves two
Before we start, a note on rolling pins. You (ideally) want a long (25cm or longer), relatively heavy rolling pin that isn’t warped in any way. If you’re thinking of buying one, try going to a vintage store or similar, as this will save you a bit of cash and the second hand ones will not necessarily be worse than new (new cheaper rolling pins tend to be made of soft woods that tend to get nicks in them easily, and proper ones I imagine are quite expensive). Hard woods that don’t leave a dent when you press on them with a fingernail are best, as these will last you ages. Also they don’t warp as easily, so your sheets will be even and rolling will be easier. This is not the place for a wine bottle unfortunately, as you’ll be rolling a lot and I do care about your sanity.
Dough – from Sweet Smart. You can make ravioli or just plain noodles with this dough – the original site is for making fettucine type pasta (wide flat noodles)
1/2c plain flour + 1 egg + pinch salt + some water if needed per person, plus extra flour for rolling out.
Place flour in a heap on your benchtop or in a medium large bowl, making a small well. Crack egg(s) into the well, and add pinch of salt. Beat the eggs with a fork slightly, then start mixing the flour into the eggs (with fork if in a bowl, or hands if on a bench), to form scraggly doughy bits. Pour these out onto your bench now if using a bowl (yeah…I prefer using the bench to start with, so you don’t have another bowl to wash. But you can re-use the bowl for filling). Bring the scraggly bits together and knead it (press it down and pull the edges into the middle, and repeat) until it forms a uniform dough. Mine felt rock solid, but softened up later. You just want eerything to form a ball and stick together! You may need to sprinkle it with more flour if it sticks too much to your hand or a sprinkling of water if it’s too dry. Form the dough into a ball, cover, and let rest on the side for about half an hour.
Filling
1 large onion, chopped finely
3 cups packed fresh washed, chopped spinach (chop at 1 inch intervals horizontally and vertically)
1 red pepper/capsicum, chopped very finely
about 100g creamy style feta (Bouton D’or is my favourite)
a Tablespoon or so of grated parmesan or normal cheese (optional)
more salt to taste
dry or fresh chopped herbs
cooking oil (preferably extra virgin olive oil!)
Heat a very small amount of cooking oil in a large frypan on medium low heat. Throw in the onion and cook on one layer until translucent and softened (if you want you can also add some dry oregano or basil at this stage). Lower heat slightly, and add red peppers, and let cook on one layer until softened, about ten minutes. The main point of this slow cooking is to let the water in the veges cook off, and sort of caramelise the onions and red pepper to maximise their sweet, smoky flavour, without burning them to a crisp *drools a little*. (Add fresh chopped herbs now if you’ve got some) Add spinach, keeping it all on one layer, and cook until wilted and sort of dried up. Remove from heat and dump in a bowl, with the feta, and mush it all up together with a long-tined fork. You could puree it in a food processor but I personally like some texture and substance in my food. It should sort of stick together when you pick up a lump of it, sort of like mince, but not as gross (I thought it was gross before I stopped eating it, for your information!) :D
Taste, and add a little more salt if necessary.
Rolling out your dough
Take the number of people you’ve made dough for an times by two – then cut up the dough into that many portions. Lightly flour your working surface. Take one portion of your dough and roll it into a sausage shape (aim for a cylindrical sausage), covering the other portions of your dough. Start rolling your dough out, in one direction so you get a long strip (or you could do a square actually, no one is stopping you). When it’s about 3mm thick, you’re going to want to keep lifting the dough up so it doesn’t stick or snag when your roll it out. Aim for a rectangular or square shape – to do this, you can fold the curved edges in to form a rectangle or square at about 2mm thick and roll it out. Keep lifting and rolling until it’s about 1mm (1/32 inch) thick, definitely less than 2mm or 1.5mm even. Try and get it even. Now, no one said this was going to be particularly easy! But at least you can cancel going to the gym this week.
Cut the pasta sheet into evenly sized squares, about 5cm in width (just under 2 inches). If you have a long rectangle, cut it in half long-ways, and then using that width as a guide, cut it into squares then. The reason I specified a long strip before, because then you can just cut it down the middle rather than going across and then ending up with a bit at the end. Don’t worry too much if your squares are not perfect, or if they have some curved bits on, as long as you can seal your dumplings in the end, it’s all good. using the tip of your finger, brush two of the edges of each square with a little bit of water (I like to just brush crosses along the cuts on the just-cut up sheet to save time).
Filling your pasta
Grats, you’ve made it to the fun part! Using a half teaspoon measure, pick up a slightly heaped teaspoon of filling and plop it into the middle of a pasta square. Pinch two opposite corners together, and press down to seal the edges (don’t worry if your squares aren’t perfect and don’t line up, but make sure to get two opposite corners together). Then pinch together the other two opposite corners, pressing tightly (here’s a picture of individual tortellini to give you an idea). Repeat until you’re out of squares, then roll out the rest of your pasta dough, and fill ‘em up! When you set them aside make sure to keep them apart, as they sometimes stick.
Cooking
Now you’ve got all your tortellini made! Heat up half a medium large saucepan full of water on medium high heat, and bring to a rapid boil (covered). Uncover, and put one person’s worth of tortellini in the water, being careful not to splash yourself too much. You want to make one lot at a time, making sure the tortellini is all on one layer (so you could do two lots in a super large frying pan or saucepan, or have two pots boiling at the same time if you really have to have it served at the same time). Once they float to the top, let boil uncovered for about eight to ten minutes, rolling them over in the boiling water every now and then. The easiest way to test if one is cooked is to simply bite into one (after a bit of blowing so you don’t burn yourself) – there should be no solid white bits, but the dough should not fall apart easily (it’s meant to be sightly spring-y). Once cooked to your liking, fish the tortellini out with one of those large holey spoons (so you drain the water out) and plate.
Toss sauce through (I just used store bought basil pesto, but use your own stuff if you have it – I’ve got a post on making your own basil pesto, but you can substitue cashews in and other fresh herbs), and serve!
Leftovers
If for some reason you can’t finish your cooked tortellini, or if you wanted to make some for lunch the next day, keeping it in the fridge overnight is not a problem. Just add a little olive oil, and stir through (with your sauce is fine). If the sauce is quite wet (ie. tomato), leave on the top shelf in your fridge, uncovered (or cover it, but with a non-sealed lid or plastic with holes poked through). If your sauce is relatively dry (ie, pesto), cover and refrigerate. When you’re ready to eat it again, just microwave on medium high heat until heated through (to ensure even heating you can mix it a little halfway through heating).
I hope you enjoy the process as much as I did, despite worrying that I’d have to get take out considering how solid my dough was when I kneaded it together! Most of all though, enjoy eating your creation :) What are your favourite fillings? Any other advice? Comment away!
Eggplant thingee
…it’s a very sloppy, flavour-kick-in-the-tip-of-your-tongue, eggplant parmesan, but so richly textured and deeply flavoured you’ll want some bread and pasta to have with it. Also, it has cauliflower in it (which makes it less kick-in-the-tip-of-your-tongue-y). Weird, I know…but I actually think the flavours were pretty amazing. Also, this isn’t that expensive, despite the use of parmesan and shallots and garlic in this…
While it does take a bit of effort to prep all the ingredients beforehand, then take the time to bake it until the cheese bubbles and forms that perfect golden crust, it is the ultimate comfort food and worthy of your patience. You can build up your layers even more and improvise the order of the layers and how you want to build it up…the flavours are all there!
Eggplant layer bake
serves 2 as a side
1 small eggplant or 1/2 a large eggplant, sliced into 1cm slices
1/4 head of cauliflower, chopped into walnut-sized florets
salt and pepper to taste
1c grated edam or mozarella cheese
1/3c finely grated parmesan
fresh herbs to top
basil pesto (optional)
cooking oil
For the tomato sauce:
1 small onion
at least 3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 shallot, chopped finely (or use one medium onion instead of a small one)
1 Tbs capers (optional)
4 tomatoes, chopped, or a can of chopped tomatoes
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper
splash red wine vinegar
about 1/4c cream (optional)
basil, oregano
In a medium non stick frypan, heat a teaspoon of oil on medium heat. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, and arrange the eggplant slices on one layer (there may be some leftover, in which case you’ll have to do this in two lots or use a larger frypan if you have one). Let cook until the slices are golden on the bottom, then flip, and cook until the undersides are golden. Set aside on a plate you’ll eat off later (just to save you some washing up :))
Re-oil the pan, add another pinch of salt and pepper, and throw in your cauliflower florets. Let cook on medium to medium-high heat to lightly brown edges, flipping and/or tossing every now and then to ensure even cooking. Once it starts going translucent and changing to a pale green, set aside with the eggplant slices. Turn heat down to low, and ensure the pan is down to a low heat before continuing.
Preheat oven to 180C (350F), with a rack arranged at the very top. Add capers, onions, garlic, and shallots to the pan with a teaspoon of oil, and let happily cook away, stirring every now and then, until golden (you can chop the tomatoes during this time). Once golden, add the tomatoes, cream, herbs, and other ingredients for the sauce. Bring to a simmer and let cook until thickened to your liking.
While the sauce is bubbling away, you can grate your cheeses! Layer half the eggplant at the bottom, then smear with half the pesto. Sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese over (either parmesan or mozarella), then half the tomato sauce. Add all the cauliflower, then smear with the second half of basil pesto. Dump the rest of the tomato sauce on, smearing it out evenly. Distribute parmesan evenly on one layer, then layer the second half of the eggplant on. Top with the rest of the edam cheese and fresh herbs. Pop in the oven on the top rack for 25-35 mins, until the cheese has goldenified to your liking. The one in the picture was a little overdone actually, but go as golden as you please :). As mentioned before, serve with bread or potatoes or perhaps even atop some pasta.
The magic of scones…with more silverbeet, and feta of course.
What if I told you you could enjoy really fresh scones, without making a new batch, days and days after you’ve made your first batch? Whip one out in the morning, pop it into your bag, and when lunch rolls around… ding! I know I’ve already done scone posts, but they’ve almost always been yogurt scones, and these have milk and egg in instead (yes, I will open my mind to the scone possibilities), so if you have no yogurt, this is the way to go. Also…I finally discovered the fantasticness that is freezing scones. It opens up the possibility of bringing fresh home baked goodies to work or Uni and having them at PEAK freshness, without any hassle in the morning (or lining up for the cafe, grrr). Savoury scones tend to fulfil my lunch preferences too, but I will encourage linking to your favourite scones recipe – comment below with the link, with a description of what flavour it is! Go on…sharing is love.
Basic scone recipe (adapted from Bella Eats)
makes 6 large or 8 medium scones.
3/4c milk or buttermilk (guess which is better?! buttermilk, it’s always better)
1 large egg
3 c flour (use stoneground or add some wheatgerm if you want to go healthy) + more
4 tsp baking powder
115g unsalted cold butter, cubed
1/8c sugar for savoury scones, 1/2c sugar for sweet scones
1 tsp salt for savoury scones
+ Any of your favourite embellishments!
For silverbeet/spinach and feta, add 100g cubed feta and 2c packed finely chopped spinach or silverbeet (fresh) at stage specififed below.
In a medium bowl, whisk edd and milk together. In a separate large bowl, rub together (or use a pastry cutter) butter, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt if using, until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs (some lumps of butter are fine).
Dust a chopping board or work surface generously with flour. Sprinkle some flour on a relatively large baking tray. Preheat oven to 190C or 375F, with rack in the centre or the rack one shelf above centre. Definitely do all this now, as your hands will get covered in dough soon! Add embellishments to the breadcrumb mixure, then add the egg and milk mixture.
Mix together with wooden spoon or hands to form a soft, relatively moist dough. Once everything is incorporated, bring the dough onto the floured work surface/chopping board, and knead until everything is uniformly moist. Bunch the dough into a ball, and roll out (or just use the palms of your hands to flatten it out) to 3/4 of an inch thick (just under 3cm) circle.Transfer to baking tray. Cut into wedges (8 medium or 6 large, lunch-sized scones) or whatever shape your want, but don’t separate yet. Pop in the oven for 20 mins until lightly golden on the tops and bottoms. Remove from the oven, separate the scones, and put straight back into the oven for a further 5-10 minutes, until the edges previously unseparated are dry. Let cool on tray for 5 minutes before cooling on a rack. Eat warm if possible!
To freeze, wait until the scones are completely cool (but don’t wait too long, or when you unfreeze them they won’t be as fresh as they can be!), then just freeze them in a sealed container or plastic bag! They only take about an hour or 2 to defrost themselves, or you can microwave them for 30seconds to a minute in the microwave for breakfast straight from the freezer. Great for if you ran out of bread!
Favourite embellishments:
spinach and feta (makes a meal out of a scone for lunch!)
spinach and cheese *coughparmesancough*
citrus, cranberry and ginger
maple syrup
maple, nut and apple
lemon zest for lemon scones
lemon blueberry
orange zest for orangey scones
raspberry and white chocolate
date and cinnamon
vanilla bean and cardamom
cheeeeeese!
cheese and herbs (pretty much any herbs)
vege (cooked peas, carrots and corn if you’re a frozen food junkie)
chocolate chip
chocolate and cinnamon
….post your link to a favourite flavour combination!
Silverbeet(/chard) at its best. In a pie. With feta. And…more cheese!
We got a large, hefty packet of silverbeet in our produce box a week or two ago (props to silverbeet lasting this long…as a leafy vegetable, I was prepared for the worst when I gazed into the fridge). I panicked. Not only do I have bad memories of the taste of silverbeet…I have never cooked with it myself. Trying to see the positive side of things, I went with a classic, uncreative yet unfailable recipe: spinach silverbeet pie. Cheese, cheese and more cheese. To be fair, I did give it a chance on its own – I roasted the stalks, and they looked pretty…but let me advise against it in future. I’m not much of a bitter fan, you see. I like sweet, or sour, or salty…but bitter? Our bodies are designed to react to it with wrinkly noses, considering most toxic things tend to be bitter.
…Despite all that, this pie was bloody marvelous. I’m not saying you couldn’t use spinach in this…but I was quite impressed with how well the silverbeet turned out in place of it. It is a little bit of effort, granted, but oh man is it worth it. If you’re a pie newbie you can always try getting store bought pastry, cutting it into whatever shapes you can to encase the filling (which is not juicy or saucy, so you have the ultimate freedom when it comes to pie shape). In combination with onions and garlic, this is a total winner.
Yum yum spinach or silverbeet feta pie!
serves…as many as you want. Makes a 1″ thick 8″ pie.
Crust - refer to my super easy, mildly healthy shortcrust
Filling
1 large silverbeet, stalks removed (or about 2 c finely chopped leaves or spinach or silverbeet), leaves finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
few drops cooking oil
200g feta cheese, crumbled
50-100g cheese (you decide ;)), grated (edam is best here, as it’s less fatty…I love fat, but when I used mild cheddar, there was a bit of oozage…ahem)
freshly ground black pepper
optional: sliced or chopped mushrooms to top
For the 8″ pie:
Make shortcrust dough, roll out to a 10″ circle. Plop carefully into a lightly greased (or non-stick) 8″ pie pan (I just used a springform cake tin). The crust will come up the sides quite a bit, don’t worry too much about that, just pry them to the edges so that there’s enough space to empty your filling into. Throw in the fridge, and get ready to make your filling.
Heat a few drops of cooking oil in a medium sized frypan on a medium heat setting. Add garlic, and fry until it begins to smell aromatic (but don’t let it go golden). Add silverbeet/spinach, and turn down heat to the lowest setting. The point here is to evaporate off as much water as you can, so you get intense flavour and nutrients preserved (rather than squeezing them out and down the drain). Stir constantly until the leaves are uniformly wilted, remove from heat, and throw in a relatively large mixing bowl, trying to arrange on as thin a layer as possible (to ensure rapid cooling and further evaporation).
Preheat oven to 190C or 375F, arranging rack in the middle (or on bottom first if you’ve got something in the middle rack already…like roast potatoes…mmm)
Return pan to the heat, and turn it back up to medium heat. Add about a teaspoon of butter or oil, then the chopped onions, and cook until the onions are golden, stirring regularly. Remove from heat, and add to the silverbeet/spinach. Mix in pepper, crumbled feta and grated cheese.
Spoon filling into your assembled pastry crust(s). Fold sides over on top of your filling (or just leave it up if you want), and top with chopped mushrooms. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, then rotate 180 degrees for even cooking, and let bake for another 20 minutes. If you start with the rack on the bottom, swap the rack to the top rack for the remaining 20 minutes of cooking. It may take up to an hour to cook in the oven, depending how thick your crust ends up being. It’s pretty much done when your crust is lightly browned (compared to when it was raw) and is hard when tapped. If making small pies, cooking time will vary.
Once cooked, remove from pan, and you can serve immediately (preferably with some refreshing salad, as this pie is pretty decadent.
Pumpkin feta and spinach thing
I seem to be making a lot of non-descript things lately. Before I go on, I’m going to brag a bit about this pie/pizza/tart. Even if you don’t like pumpkin, spinach, or feta (I’m not even going to cover the possibility of you not liking cheese), TRY this. It. Is. Gorgeous. Not only is it fantastically dance-on-your-tongue-y, but it’s surprisingly easy for a tart, and I made the dough and pressed it out in a matter of minutes. That’s right. You CAN make delicious pies on a whim.
The crust was a crispy, flaky and nutty on the outside, soft and tender where it meets the filling. Mostly it’s based on the legendary Moosewood Cookbook (from the Spinach riccotta pie crust), by Mollie Katzen. It was THE crust I fell in love with, both for its unfussy directions and totally simple ingredients which anyone should have at any time anyway (what did I say about pies on a whim?!). I’ve posted about it before actually, but I used buttermilk this time and it was in a totally different league! Also, I can’t take any credit for the elaborated method – Smitten Kitchen had a great post about pie crusts and I thank her for that dearly! However, somehow this dough turned out fabulously, without the need for refrigerating, waiting or even a food processor… anyway! Before I make it all about the crust, the filling was fabulous too.
One last thing – the reason I don’t know whether to call this a pizza, pie or tart, is that the filling is incredibly thin-layered, and the whole thing is sprinkled with cheese (heheh). But then it does use a shortcrust pastry…but it’s not really a pie because it doesn’t have a lid…anyway, call it whatever you want. The awesome thing is, this is reheatable in the oven the next day like a pizza (just bang it in at 180C or 350F, without preheating is fine, and go for 15 mins from cold oven. Check after that to see if it’s done). But also, if you want a deep dish pie, you can just use a different pan. I’ve given an outline of what the filling ingredients do at the bottom too, so you can take out aspects that don’t appeal to you. Anyway, on with the recipe!
Pumpkin, feta and spinach pie/tart/pastry pizza
makes one 25cm/10″ to serve 4-8 (it’s very filling)
CRUST
85g cold butter, chopped into 1cm-ish cubes
1c flour, plus more for dusting/incorporating later
1/3-1/2c wheatgerm – or use wholemeal flour. This is actually quite important as it gives the crust a much nicer flavour and texture
4Tbs approx ice water, cold buttermilk, or cold milk.
1/2tsp salt if using unsalted butter
With a pastry cutter or your fingers, rub the butter and flour and wheatgerm together in a medium sized bowl, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Don’t do too good a job – you want lots of small lumps of butter, with some bigger lumps not quite incorporated with the flour. Don’t freak out on me now!
Add the cold water, buttermilk (1st choice), or milk, and still using the pastry cutter or your fingers, half mix and half knead the mixture until it comes together to form a dough. You may need more milk if the dough is stiff and very difficult to knead. You can go a bit moister at this stage and incorporate more flour later easy, but you don’t want it too dry. You may get dough stuck on your fingers – don’t worry about that yet.
Now, sprinkle a generous amount of flour on a large chopping board or clean work surface. Scrape out all the dough, and begin to knead. Here you’ll get lots of the flour in if it’s a wet dough, which is fine. Once it forms its own shape easily and stops soaking up flour vigorously, shape it into a ball. Set aside, grab the bottom of your tart pan, and brush it very lightly with oil and then very lightly with flour. Plop your ball of dough on, sprinkle the outer rim of the work surface outside your tart pan base, and roll your base out, flouring every now and then to prevent it sticking to your rolling pin. Another option (if like me you don’t know where on earth your rolling pin has suddenly disappeared to) is just to press it out with the palm of your hand – shouldn’t be too hard if your dough is moist enough. You want the crust to overlap your base by the height of your tart pan. Once rolled out, pick it up carefully (you may need to slide a fish slice underneath to dislodge it), and plop it into your tart pan rim. Then tuck your sides in neatly, and if you like the ridged edges, lightly nudge your crust against the edge of your rim, so that it sort of sticks (Don’t worry, it’ll unstick during baking to reveal the pretty ridged edges).
In terms of which order you make the crust and filling in, it doesn’t matter too much. If you’re a traditionalist, you know that pie crusts should be refrigerated. If so, you can make the crust first, pop it in the fridge while making your filling, then bring it out once your filling is done. Or you can make your filling first, let it cool while you make the crust, and prevent it from heating your crust…see, either way is fine!
FILLING
1/3 of a medium sized pumpkin, peeled, and roughly chopped (some bits will be dinky, but the max sized chunk should be 1″)
1/2 an onion, chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
pinch fresh oregano
handful of fresh spinach, washed and ripped to shreds
100g feta cheese, cubed into 1cm cubes (or replace with pinch of salt + roasted cashews)
1/4c finely grated parmesan (or replace with chopped roasted pistachios)
1/2c grated cheese (edam, mild cheddar) of your choice (or replace with 1/3c raw pumpkin seeds, which will roast while pie cooks)
salt and pepper
cooking oil
Heat a medium sized non stick pan on medium heat with about a Tablespoon of oil, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Add your onions (when pan is cold is fine), and wait until they start to sizzle. Stir them around a bit until they begin to turn translucent. Add pumpkin, cover, and let cook for about 2 minutes. Here you can prep some of your other ingredients to save time. Uncover, flip (or jerk the pan forwards quickly and immediately pull back to “flip” the veges), and re-cover the pan, letting the pumpkin cook for another 2-3 minutes. Uncover, and let all the steam evaporate, then add garlic, and stir occasionally. The pumpkin should eventually have some golden flecks on it. Once it is easily crushable with your spatula or fish slice, turn off heat, remove from heat, and add oregano. Mix through, and then let cool (if making the crust last, you can let all the things cool now). Preheat oven to 200C or 400F, with a rack in the middle or if using the middle rack for roast potatoes, arrange a rack on the bottom for the tart.
TO ASSEMBLE & COOK
Scatter half the spinach over the crust, then add the pumpkin mixture, spreading it evenly. Add feta cubes, the rest of the spinach, and finally, sprinkle over the parmesan and third cheese. Sprinkle freshly ground black pepper over. Slip onto the middle rack if baking nothing else in your oven, otherwise, on the bottom rack. Let bake for about 15 minutes (check at 10 if your oven is fast or fan forced) on the bottom rack, then re-arrange the rack on the top rack and bake for about 15-20 minutes, until cheese is golden brown.
Serve with a fresh leafy salad or roast potatoes (new potatoes roasted are….so…good)
Filling guide:
The pumpkin adds a little sweetness, and the addition of garlic and salt makes it sort of smoky tasting. Cooked the way specified above (ie, covering the pan) will retain a lot of moisture so the pumpkin will be creamy rather than powdery.
Spinach erm…really just adds some colour! There’s not much of it in the pie, so you can double the amount if you want extra veges.
Feta – mainly saltiness, but also pungent cheese-ness! I like Whitestone feta, which is usually available at NZ supermarkets (it’s a south island brand), as it’s not greasy and keeps its shape well.
Onions – added sweetness and smokiness once caramelised
Oregano – I dunno, it just tastes nice damnit!
Garlic – do I really need to explain this one?
Other cheeses – also self explanatory…baked or grilled cheese is just amazing.
A three-cheese almost-lasagne
On perusing the pasta aisles recently, I realised that lasagne noodles are in fact more expensive than regular pasta. You get less (which I suppose makes sense, because you don’t use as much), but for some reason, you pay more for this. I scratched my head, and instead just decided to go with the spirals I had at home…and man, am I glad I did. This has got to be the best stumbled-upon thing I’ve made up on the spot, EVER, and it is packed with vegetables (ok, so it also has considerable amounts of cheese, but seeing as there’s no mince, your heart should come out alive), garlic, and onions. Seriously, don’t be concerned. It’s pretty cheesy, but not dripping in the stuff. How could you go wrong, right?
I served it Lone-Star styles (if you’re a New Zealander, you’ll know that Lone Star does HUGE meals, which no female would be able to finish) with roast pumpkin and potatoes, but this is fine (and certainly substantial enough) on its own (which is great, because you’ll have less to clean). Ok, so you’re still reading, but still you’re probably wondering: what on earth IS it, then? I guess it’s a layered three cheese vegetable pasta bake, but that’s really quite wordy, so if you have any name suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Just to pimp this some more: As well as smelling absolutely drool-inducing (this is the dish vegetarians should use to convince carnivorous friends that they do indeed have a life), this is so much easier than lasagne, as you don’t have to carefully place the noodles on a single layer or anything. You get more for your dollar, and you don’t have to end up with left over pasta that you’ll only ever use with lasagna, because you’re using spirals (or whatever other pasta you want) which are much more versatile. It’s a win win win.
The recipe, already!
Three cheese layered vegetable pasta bake
serves two on its own (generously, as the cheese makes this quite filling).
I’ve put a * by the ingredients where you could easily try another vegetable in its place (suggestions at the bottom of this post), just to make things more versatile.
250g pasta (half a bag), any shape is fine, just not spaghetti-style noodles or cannelloni.
1 small eggplant, sliced into 1cm slices
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (divided)
string beans, snapped into 1″ lengths (about 1c)*
4-5 mushrooms, thickly sliced*
1/2 an onion, roughly chopped
optional: pinch dry oregano
100g feta, cubed
1/4c finely grated parmesan (optional if you’re on a really tight budget)
2/3c grated cheese (edam is a good choice)
cooking oil
salt and pepper
Start some pasta cooking in a saucepan (no need for oil, just salt).
Meanwhile, heat 1/4c cooking oil in a large non stick frypan on medium heat, and arrange the eggplant slices into the oil on one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cover, letting cook for about 2 minutes (you want the bottom to be flecked with golden brown bits and the tops to have started going translucent). Flip all the slices, add a splash of water, and quickly cover again, letting cook on the other side for a further two minutes until they are also flecked with golden brown. Uncover, add 3/4 of the garlic, and stir, mixing the garlic through. Continue adding splashes of water to get the eggplant to get mushy-ish, and stop adding water a minute before they’re cooked (they will have shriveled up a bit and changed from being white on the inside to brown). The garlic should not be burnt (ie, should not go darker than a golden brown colour). Transfer the slices to a baking dish with relatively high sides (a round 20cm dish is fine), keeping the eggplant all on one layer. Try to scoop out as much of the garlic as you can from the pan.
Preheat your oven to 200C or 400F, arranging a rack on the top third of the oven. Add a tablespoon of oil to the still hot pan, and add the onions. Cook until translucent and the edges start to go golden brown, then add beans, oregano, and garlic, and cook for about a minute before adding mushrooms. As soon as the mushrooms are coated in the juices and oil from the pan, turn off the heat, and let them sit in the pan.
Sprinkle the eggplant slices with 1/3 of the parmesan and regular cheese, and 1/4 of the feta. By now the pasta should be done. Turn off the heat on the pasta, and using a slotted spoon, scoop out about a half of the pasta and dump it on the cheese-covered eggplant slices. Don’t worry if there’s a little water that gets in, that’ll keep things moist. Top the pasta in the baking dish with all the beans and mushrooms from the pan, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the parmesan and regular cheese, and 1/4 of the feta. Spoon on the second half of the pasta, and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Pop in the oven for about 20-30 mins, until there are golden flecks on the melted cheese top. This can be served all on its own as a complete meal…and you won’t regret it later!
Other vegetables that could taste awesome with this:
peeled cubed pumpkin – will require a longer cooking time though
chopped tomatoes
broccoli florets – will require slightly longer cooking time (about a minute)
marrow or zucchini/courgette slices
fresh spinach – will require no cooking in the pan, just layer directly
squash – will require a longer cooking time
If you want to up the protein (you evidently are a carnivore :P), add some pine nuts in there. Seriously yum.
Mince patties with that extra little something…
I have to confess, these are of Will’s creation, not mine, but they got my parents’ seal of approval and they were never fans of mince patties before these came along. They’ve got cheese and egg and curry powder to make them a real flavour bonanza, and even as a non-red-meat eater I have to say, I was tempted. Best of all, there’s not really any extra effort involved (as compared to your average patties), and you won’t have to rush anywhere for the ingredients.
Will’s mince patties
a guide
a man-fist-sized bit of mince (lamb or beef, just ensure it’s not too fatty)
grated cheese (just enough to speckle your mince with pale yellow flecks)
an egg
several good pinches curry powder
about 1/4 c breadcrumbs (wholemeal if you want some fibre)
half an onion, finely chopped
salt n pepper
cooking oil
Mix up mince, onion, cheese, curry powder, salt n pepper, until combined. Stir in the egg until well combined, then stir in the breadcrumbs until you get a moist but soft-dough-like mixture. Roll up golf ball sized chunks into balls, flatten a bit, and cook on a lightly oiled frying pan (or bbq) on medium heat, until cooked both sides to your liking. Serve up with some spring onion.
Sundried tomato and cheese bread
…It’s like having pesto IN your bread. With bread this flavoursome, you won’t need any dips or sauces, which is a great time and money saver. This bread is slightly adapted from the parmesan and sundried tomato loaf in Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day (sigh…such a great book). If you’re a basil pesto fan, try fresh basil leaves in place of sundried tomatoes, or use basil pesto. Either way, you can imagine how amazing this smells – tangy yet salty, the perfect bread for a picnic if you dont want to take half-opened containers of pesto (ahem…which leak). The recipe below if enough for 3 large-ish loaves, or 4 littler ones, and thanks to the artisan bread technique, it’s easy to have the dough on hand for plenty more, with half the effort.
I have to admit I was tempted to try and make this healthier by adding wholemeal flour, but boy am I glad I didn’t (shhh). This was so heavenly soft, and without melting any butter either.
The crust is nice and crisp, which is so nice for bread that has a cheesy aroma.
Cheese and sundried tomato bread (based on the vermont cheddar bread in Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day)
makes 3 large-ish loaves or 4 smaller ones
2 3/4 c water, at body temp.
1 Tbs salt
1 1/2 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 Tbs yeast
6 1/2 c all purpose or high grade (bread) flour, plus lots more
1 c grated cheese (edam or a mild cheddar or similar)
1/4 c grated parmesan
sundried tomatoes, chopped
Mix first four ingredients in a large bowl, then add flour. Mix flour in without kneading, adding up to about a cup of extra flour if it doesn’t come away from the sides of the bowl at all when the dough is pushed up against the sides of the bowl. Add cheeses, then keep mixing until the dough is uniformly moist. Cover (not airtight), and leave somewhere that’s at least 21 degrees C (room temp), for 2-5 hours, until the dough is doubled in size and the surface of the dough is almost flat.
Divide the dough roughly into 3-4 equal size portions, and put each in a box except one and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Or you can refrigerate a portion if you’ll use it within the next 4 days, but I don’t recommend this as the dough sometimes ferments and tastes a bit yeasty if left for more than 2-3 days.
Using one of your portions, dust it with flour, as well as a board. Knead to incorporate it into a ball, stretching the surface of the dough and feeding it back into itself.
To make it in your loaf pan (thanks to Smitten Kitchen for posting the technique!): Stretch or roll out into a rectangle, and scatter with chopped sundried tomatoes. Roll the rectangle up, stretching and pulling the dough as much as you can without breaking it. Seal the edge with your fingers, and fold the top and bottom ends into the centre of the roll, ensuring the length is approximate to your loaf pan. Drop into a lightly greased metal loaf pan, preferably non stick.
To make it into a round loaf: Seal the bottom, and let the dough ball sit seam side down.
Let rest and rise at room temp. for 40 minutes (1 hour if you’re using defrosted dough). After 20 minutes of resting, preheat your oven to 230C or 450F, with a rack arranged in the centre and bottom. Put a small metal pan (roasting or brownie pan) on the bottom shelf, and a baking stone if you have one on the centre rack (if making a round loaf).
After resting, pop round loaf onto your baking stone or your loaf tin onto the centre rack, and quickly at the same time, add about a cup of water into the empty metal pan on the bottom shelf*. Close the oven door quickly, and let bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, rotating halfway for even browning. If the top of the loaf is already brown 15 minutes in, reduce the temperature to 180 or 160C or 350F. Take out when the top is a darkish golden brown, and sit the loaf on a rack to cool (or in the pan for a few minutes, then pop out onto the rack). Serve warm or cooled.
Note: I don’t recommend salty dips or pesto with this bread, as it’s already relatively salty. If you can’t bear to eat it plain, use unsalted basil butter or cream cheese or something similar.
*This method helps to make the crust nice and crisp, as does using a baking stone/pizza stone.
When using frozen dough: let defrost completely, preferably overnight, then knead on a floured board and continue from there.
Easy cheesy potato thyme warm salad
Do not cringe at the word salad, for there are no fiddly leaves in this bar some thyme. I don’t really need to try and sell this to you, as it has butter, parmesan, thyme and potatoes (and erm…nothing else, actually…although you could add salt and pepper if you like your potatoes like that). Yes, all the good things in life. Now, I know not everyone is a fan of parmesan (whether it’s the rotting socks smell of it or the price tag for a decent chunk), but it’s not at all rotting-socks-like in this at all. It’s simply there for the cheese factor, a mild flirt on the side…don’t worry, it won’t try to abuse your nose. It won’t even abuse your pans! (I say this after having roast potatoes stick to my roasting pans even if I all but deep fry them in the oven…)
Now you can use any herb you like, it’s just that I’ve developed a liking for parmesan and thyme starchy things. Especially crackers or biscuits.
Parmy thyme ‘tatoes
No recipes here! Just get as many potatoes as you want to eat, wash and de-sprout them, chop them into 1 inch chunks, and boil them with some dry thyme until a fork inserted goes in without a hitch (or if you’re truly spastic, just goes in without too much resistance). Drain well, throw into a bowl, and while still hot, chuck in as much butter as you think you can handle. Grate over some parmesan (again, use your judgment), and mix it all up. Taste, and add salt and pepper or more parmesan if necessary. Don’t worry if things start crumbling a little, either. If you have fresh thyme, use it as a garnish.
Works with any potatoes, but I’m guessing they’d taste best with new season baby ones. Enjoy!
