Homemade Lemon Butter

I was craving some good old fashioned lemon butter all week - and the supermarket variety just doesn't cut it. So I decided to try my hand at a homemade version, and I'm pretty darn pleased with myself.

It tastes just like the flea market stall versions I used to beg mum to buy. 

I love it on toast, but I've also been digging through some recipes for inspiration on how else to use the buttery, tangy goodness. 

Any suggestions?

Homemade Lemon Butter

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup of butter (I used Nuttelex)

1cup sugar (I used Xylitol)

4 large organic free range eggs

1 tbsp grated lemon rind 

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil over a moderate heat. Reduce to a low heat.

Whisk the eggs, lemon juice, sugar and lemon rind together in a stainless steel or heat proof bowl.

Place bowl over saucepan of hot water and whisk in butter. Continue stirring until mixture starts to thicken and sticks to the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and continue to whisk for about 10 minutes, until heat has dissipated.

Transfer to a jar for safe keeping. 

Enjoy.

Figs

A bag full of these, just before they go out of season.

Perfect for this, on a cold winter's morning.

To market, to market

This is what $25 at Rocklea Markets got me this morning.

grocery bag via here

I love the markets.

Roast balsamic vegetable wraps

This would have to be my favourite go-to meal, on any night of the week.

It's easy and it doesn't matter what vegetables you use. I tend to make these the night before I'm due to do a grocery shop, in order to clean out whatever vegetables are left in the fridge.

Last night I used potato, sweet potato, zucchini, capsicum, carrot, onion, eggplant and tomatoes.

 

I sliced up all of the vegetables, spread them out in a baking try and brushed 

them with a combination of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I also sprinkled some salt and pepper and italian dried herbs before throwing them in the oven. 

The vegetables are ready when the root vegetables are nicely golden and crispy and the other vegetables, such as the capsicum and tomato, have wilted and softened.

Heap the veges onto some spinach wraps or mountain bread with a handful of baby spinach leaves and some avocado. They're also good with a sprinkle of either goat's cheese or feta or some sliced halloumi. Or a spoonful or cottage cheese - or any cheese for that matter.

Feel free to drizzle on some more olive oil and balsamic vinegar, before wrapping them up and getting stuck in.

Leftover roast vegetables can be kept in the fridge and used as a salad the next day - just add some more baby spinach.

Yum.

Barley risotto with mushrooms and goat's cheese

Over the past six years, I've gradually been able to gently (and sometimes forcedly) persuade Mitch to try a handful of foods which originally disgusted him. The most infamous incident, was when our seriously sweet-toothed family introduced him to naughty treats - we were successful to the point where he's now a bona fide dessert connoisseur. He can sniff out a cheesecake in no time.
I proudly boast to whoever will listen, that where he once turned his nose up at tuna, olives, sushi, mango and smoked salmon, he now devours them. He used to gag at the mention of avocado, but now he's quite partial to some guacamole or avo on toast in the morning. In fact there's been nothing I haven't been able to convert him to, so far.

He, on the other hand, has had no such luck in enticing me with a fork-full of my dry retch-inducing, all-time enemy - the mushroom. Whether it's a shitake, a portobello, a porcini or just a plain ol' brown one,  I've been picking tiny pieces of the slimy suckers out of my spaghetti bolognese for as long as I can remember.
Any attempt by Mitch to get me to "just try one" of his beloved mushies has always been met with the stink eye. But after all of the taste-testing episodes that I forced my husband into, encouraging him to quit his foot-stomping and to "just trust me, because they taste nice," I today decided that I owed it to him to cook an entire dish that paid tribute to the wretched fungi. Yep. After years of selfishly cooking meals for him that were completely devoid of mushrooms, I went the whole hog and cooked Ross Dobson's mushroom risotto. Mitch thought Christmas had come early and waited with baited breath as I took my first bite.

And of course, my surprised, but satisfied "mmmmm" was met with a giant smirk and a defiant "I told you they were NICE".

And they were.  

I ate an entire bowl of dark brown, mushroomy risotto and I didn't even gag. I might have even enjoyed it.  I can't say I'm a complete fungus convert, but I might just sneak a handful of them in to some future meals. 

But the mushrooms weren't the only ingredient I was experimenting with in this dish. I also used barley for the first time. Here, I used it as a substitute for typical risotto rice. It worked well, and the result was similar to that of brown rice. Slightly crunchy and nutty - not to mention nutritious. Between the barley, red wine, goat's cheese (and dare I say it) mushrooms, this risotto was very flavoursome and filling.

Warning: with the butter and cheese component, it's slightly more indulgent than the past few recipes I've posted. But I managed to cut the butter measurement, and thus the guilt, by half.

Barley risotto with mushrooms and goat's cheese

Serves 4

20g dried porcini mushrooms (I used shitake, because that's what was already in the pantry)

1 litre vegetable stock

65ml red wine

50g butter (I used Nuttelex)

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil

1 leek, trimmed and thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, chopped

330g pearl barley

400g fresh brown mushrooms, sliced

50g soft goat's cheese

a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

sea salt and cracked pepper

Put the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and cover with 125ml boiling water. Let soak for 20 minutes. Drain the mushrooms and reserve the soaking liquid. Roughly chop the mushrooms and set aside.

Combine the stock, red wine and reserved mushroom soaking liquid in a saucepan set over low heat.

Heat half of the butter (I skipped this part) and the oil in a heavy-based saucepan set over medium heat. Add the leek and garlic and cook for about 4-5 minutes, until the leek has softened. Stir in the barley and cook for 1 minute, until shiny and glossy.

Stir in the fresh and dried mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the mushrooms have wilted.

Add about 125ml of the hot stock mixture to the barley and stir constantly, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed. (This will take a little longer than cooking with risotto rice). Continue adding the liquid a little at a time and stirring for about 45 minutes, until all the liquid has been added and the barley is tender.

Stir in the goat's cheese and remaining butter (25g), until the cheese has melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the parsley. Serve immediately.

Black-eyed bean and red pepper salad with warm halloumi

For the past few years, I've bounced back and forth between a meat-free diet to one that includes a bit of flesh once a week. But one component of my diet that has always remained is pulses. Kidney beans, cannellini beans, butter beans, lentils, chickpeas - you name it, I love it. At least one meal a day is put together with at least one of the above, whether it's in a lunch or dinnertime salad, a soup, curry, casserole or dip. Lately, in my attempt to avoid preservatives, extra salt and additives, I've switched from using the tinned variety to dried ones and now I'm a complete convert.  The only extra preparation needed for dried beans is soaking them for 6-8 hours beforehand, which is as easy as throwing the required amount in a bowl of water overnight or before heading out for the day. I buy my organic dried beans from Rocklea Markets - the last variety I bought were black-eye beans and I got 500g for $4 (cheaper than tinned beans!). They taste so much better, and I feel better knowing they haven't been soaking in a tin full of preservatives and salt.

Last night we tried adapting a bean salad recipe from Wholefood Kitchen and the combination of the beans, dressing and salty halloumi is delicious - and filling.

Black-eyed bean and red pepper salad with warm halloumi

Serves 4

300g dried organic black-eyed beans

3 fresh plum tomatoes or a punnet of cherry tomatoes, diced

1 red capsicum, deseeded and diced

leaves from a bunch of fresh coriander, chopped

30ml extra virgin olive oil

200g organic halloumi cheese, diced

2tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

1tbs red wine vinegar

sea salt and cracked pepper

Put the beans in a bowl, cover with cold water and let soak overnight or for 6-8 hours

Drain the beans and cook in a large saucepan of boiling water for about one hour, until tender. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, red pepper, coriander and oil.

Heat a non-stick frying pan with some oil spray over high heat. Add the halloumi and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning often, until golden brown all over. Add to the bowl with the tomato mixture and stir in the lemon juice and vinegar. Season to taste and serve immediately, before halloumi turns to rubber.

Silverbeet and cannellini soup

With winter quickly sneaking through the cracks of our windows and doors, I've been making a lot of different soups to warm our bones. When I think about it, they're probably my favourite thing to cook. I find it relaxing, standing in the kitchen of an afternoon chopping all of the vegetables up, and watching them  bubble away in a pot full of broth. The smell of the soup and the heat from the stove always seems to spread through the house nicely.

I've been mostly using some kind of root vegetable combination in each soup, but I bought a huge bunch of silverbeet at Rocklea Markets this morning and I thought this soup would be a good way to use the leafy vegetable and top up on our greens. You can't get a more healthier soup than this one.

I dished it up with some of my left-over cous cous and cashew soda bread.

Silverbeet and cannellini soup

Serves 4

2 x 400g tins organic cannellini beans

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 leek, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp thyme leaves

2 celery stalks, diced

1 carrot, diced

1kg silverbeet, trimmed and roughly chopped

1 ripe tomato, diced

1 litre vegetable stock

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Put one tin of cannellini beans and its liquid into a food processor and blend until smooth. Drain the other tin of beans and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek, garlic and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until soft and aromatic. Add the celery, carrot, silverbeet and tomato and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, or until the silverbeet has wilted. Heat the stock in a seperate saucepan.

Stir the pureed cannellini beans and stock into the vegetable mixture. Bring to the boil and then reduce and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the drained beans and balsamic vinegar and stir until heated through. Season to taste.

Easy pumpkin, spinach and chickpea curry

In our house, we love a good curry. I've been eating minimal meat lately, gradually transitioning back to a meat-free diet, and when I'm able to put together a yummy vegetarian dinner like this curry, Mitch is more than happy to forgo chicken, beef and other meats too. This coconut curry was so, so good and extremely easy to make. Perfect for a chilly Sunday night on the couch.

Pumpkin, spinach and chickpea curry

Serves 4

1tbsp coconut oil

1 white onion, chopped

2 handfuls green beans, trimmed

4 chunks of frozen spinach

2 tbsp red curry paste

1kg pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces

1 cup water

400g can of chickpeas, drained

140ml of coconut milk or cream

2tbs chopped fresh coriander

Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook onion until soft. Add curry paste and stir for about one minute, until fragrant.

Add pumpkin, beans and spinach, stir to coat in curry mixture. Stir in water, bring to a boil and then simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft and spinach has defrosted. Gently stir in chickpeas and coconut milk and cook for two minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with coriander.

Serve on a bed of organic brown rice with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Quinoa choc chip cookies

I've only ever used quinoa as a salad component, so it was fun to experiment with it as a baking ingredient.  I've been making a conscious effort to steer clear of refined sugars and instead have been using honey and agave syrup in my tea and porridge. For these cookies I used xylitol for the first time. Xylitol is a naturally occurring, low-calorie alternative to table sugar, is absorbed more slowly than regular sugar and has low GI. Instead of regular butter, I've also started using the vegan alternative Nuttelex - because it's dairy and cholesterol-free. While these cookies don't taste like your regular choc chip cookie, they're still sweet, nutty and chocolatey - what more could you ask for? This recipe has also been adapted from Ross Dobson's Wholefood Kitchen.

Quinoa choc chip cookies

Makes about 24

60g organic rolled oats

150g organic quinoa

125g plain organic flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

125g Nuttelex, at room temperature

100g demerara sugar

100g xylitol or agave nectar (or 100g demerara sugar & 100g light brown sugar)

140g good quality organic dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Put the oats and quinoa into a food processor and process until finely chopped and the mixture resembles ground almonds. Transfer to a bowl and add the flour, baking powder and bi-carb soda. Mix to combine.

Put the butter and both sugars in a separate mixing bowl and beat for 4-5 minutes, until thick and pale. Stir in the dry ingredients to make a thick dough, then stir in the chopped chocolate.

Put tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated over for 10 minutes, until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, store in an airtight container and freeze after 2-3 days.

Spanish bread salad with chorizo, chickpeas and baby spinach

This is the second recipe I've used from my latest prized cookbook - Ross Dobson's Wholefood Kitchen. It's the exact kind of cookbook I've been searching for for months and when I found it and took it home, I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Plenty of pages are already dog-eared - flagging dozens of recipes that I can't wait to make. Ross champions the kind of food philosophy I've been trying to implement in my own kitchen over the past few weeks, so it's nice to have this little beauty to refer to when meal time comes a knockin'. Wholefood Kitchen encourages the use of produce from farmers' markets, eating food when it is seasonally available and using uncomplicated cooking techniques to showcase good produce at its best. It focuses on creating healthy dishes from wholefoods, particularly beans, lentils, grains and other natural foods as the basis of its simple-yet-delicious recipes.

This tangy mediterranean-style salad was met with plenty of satisfied "mmmms" and a big thumbs up. 

Spanish bread salad with chickpeas, chorizo and baby spinach

Serves 4

Note: This recipe called for a lot more olive oil, however I reduced this and instead of frying the chorizo in oil, I grilled it instead.

4 thick slices organic sourdough bread (I used a medium rye sourdough)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

2 chorizo sausages, thinly sliced

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp Spanish smoked sweet paprika

1/2 tsp dried thyme

400g tin organic chickpeas, rinsed and well drained

250g cherry tomatoes, halved

4 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

sea salt and cracked pepper

Preheat the grill.

Trim the crusts off the bread and discard. Brush both sides of the bread lightly with some of the oil.

Add to the grill and cook until golden and slightly charred on both sides. Rub the garlic cloves over the toasted bread and let cool. Tear into large chunks and set aside.

Grill the chorizo on a tray under the grill until golden and aromatic. Throw into a fry pan on the stove top and add the onion, paprika and thyme and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add some olive oil if necessary. Transfer to a large bowl and pour in the seasoned juices from the pan. Add the toasted bread, chick peas, tomatoes, spinach and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss well to combine. Serve immediately.

Cous cous and cashew soda bread

When I came across this bread recipe I was intrigued by its use of cous cous  as a main ingredient. Cous cous is one of my favourite pantry staples, so I was excited by the opportunity to experiment with it in a new way. The result was a nutty, dense loaf that went well with a good layer of avocado and some cracked pepper.  I also tried it with some manuka honey and Mitch with vegemite, proving it's a fairly versatile bread.

While the recipe says to bake for 45 minutes, it was still slightly sticky on the inside and probably could have done with another 5 to 10 minutes in the oven.

I'll be saving the rest of the loaf to accompany some more soup recipes that I've earmarked.

Cous cous and cashew soda bread

300g plain wholemeal flour

1tsp bicarb soda

1tsp baking powder

60g organic cous cous

100g salted raw cashew nuts, roughly chopped

250ml buttermilk (or 250ml whole milk soured with 1tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Put the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, making a well in the centre.

Pour the buttermilk into the flour, along with 435ml of warm water and stir quickly to combine.

Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 20x10cm loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until risen and golden on top.

Let the bread cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before serving warm. The bread will keep for up to two days in an airtight container.