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.