Bring out the ouzo! - Mykonos Toasted Sandwich

Idon't always plan the family meals for the week. Usually I like to buy a few things and then see what we all feel like. However, last week I had about 5 nights of meals sorted. 3 of those happened, one remains on hold in the freezer and the other, well it morphed into something else. I was all set for making my stuffed capsicums and then I just didn't feel like it. The weather was hot and dry and I felt like something light and summery. I had to use up some greek yoghurt and salad and suddenly I was taken back to the Greek Islands all those years ago. For every meal, as I travelled around the islands, I enjoyed home-made Tzatziki, wild grown tomatoes, crusty bread and usually a yeeros filled to the brim with lamb. Here is my version of those simple dishes smashed together and made into a steak sandwich. Opa!

ingredients

Serves 2 adults and 2 children

Lamb and marinade
500g lamb strips (You want large strips [see pic]. The kind you can sear on each side for a minute or two easily with tongs. Thin and small stirfry strips won't really work in this dish)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground coriander
a good grinding ground pepper
about 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped
a dash of olive oil

tzatziki
200g greek yoghurt (I like Jalna brand for its thickness)
1 small lebanese cucumber, skin on, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, finely diced
lemon juice to taste (1 to 2 teaspoons)

ripe tomatoes (3-4 slices per sandwich, very lightly salted)
baby lettuce leaves
8 slices of whatever bread you'd like to use, well toasted
butter (for the lettuce side)

how to make your mykonos toasted sandwiches

first of all, make your tzatziki. In a plastic container with a lid add the yoghurt, diced cucumber, diced garlic and lemon juice. mix well, pop on the lid and put back in the fridge until your ready.

Now wash your tomatoes and lettuce, lightly salt the tomatoes and set aside.

Pop your bread in the toaster ready to push down; or if using thicker bread then pop under the grill.

Pop the lamb strips into a bowl with the remaining 7 ingredients and give it a good toss together.

Throw a dash of oil in a pan and put it on high heat. When really,really hot pop the bread down in the toaster and then place each piece of meat in the pan. Allow a minute or so then turn over and cook for another minute or until done to your liking.

Butter one side of the toast and lay the lettuce and tomato on this half. On the other half spread the tzatziki, then lay some of the lamb strips and serve immedately.

If your unsure whether your kids will like the tzatziki you could always use less garlic or go for something else like hommus.

Pear and Ricotta Tarts with Fox Drink Water Syrup

My very good friend, Caroline and I have put together a little store on Etsy; you can find us here! If you are in need of something Vintage and Fabulous and Kitcheny, then check it out!

To celebrate our efforts in putting this shop together I wanted to create a scrumptious dessert that reflected both of us; something that we would devour in 5 seconds flat! Having recently been spoiled to a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, Caroline also made her unbelievably delicious brown sugar syrup. So I created a tart that would have to incorporate this liquid yumminess.You can see her wonderful recipe for pikelets and brown sugar syrup here. I hope you enjoy sharing the tarts with your friends and we hope you enjoy perusing our little vintage shop! (We are still to add a few more pieces but we will get there shortly, drop in and say 'Hi'.)


When I first started creating this recipe Quinces were still just in season so I have included the details for that so when next season rolls around you'll be able to give it a go too!

ingredients

For the Quince Tarts -

approx 2 quinces (you will need 1 quarter per tart), stewed and cooled. (Just make sure they are not stewed for too long otherwise they will be too mushy)
250g ricotta cheese - Perfect Italiano Brand from the cheese section in the supermarket
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons plain flour
2 sun-ripened figs (Angus Park do a pack of these that aren't dried and are very scrummy)

For the Pear and Ricotta Tarts -

2 pears, Don't peel and core them until ready to assemble - I used just ripe Josephine pears
250g ricotta cheese - Perfect Italiano brand from the cheese section in the supermarket
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons plain flour
2 tablespoons of dried currants

For the Sweet Shortcrust Pastry -

150 g Plain flour, sieved
Pinch Salt
85 g Unsalted butter, cold and cut into rough cubes
1 Egg yolk
1 - 2 tbsp Cold water
25 g Caster sugar



how to make your Pear and Ricotta Tarts with Fox Drink Water Syrup (or Quince Tarts with Fox drink Water Syrup)

*makes six 9cm diameter tarts

First of all make your pastry so you can pop it in the fridge for half an hour or until ready to use.

Put the flour, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process briefly - to make fine breadcrumbs.

With the machine running, add the egg yolk and continue to process. Add a little water until it just comes together.

If making the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then, using your hands, add the egg yolk and just enough water to bring it together.

Flatten it out as it will be easier to roll out then wrap in glad wrap and pop in the fridge.

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry between 2 pieces of glad wrap or glad bake until it's about 1/2 cm in thickness. Cut into 6 rough squares. Spray your 6 9cm diameter tart tins with oil spray(I have a tin that's like a muffin tin except it's for tarts! It was a wedding present from family, one of the best presents ever!!) and then press the pastry into each tin. Tidy up edges roughly they should look a little rustic.

Next, grab a bowl and whisk the ricotta, plain flour, egg yolk and caster sugar together until smooth. Stir through the currants (or figs). Pop into each pastry lined tart tin then top with thinly sliced pear (or quinces). Pop in the oven for 20 - 25 mins, until pastry is cooked and mixture is set.

Leave to cool in the tins for 5 - 10 mins (before then it will be too tricky to get them out unless of course you are giving each person their own individual tart in a tin - that would look kinda cute!)

Pop on a plate and drizzle liberally with the delicious Fox Drink Water Syrup. Enjoy!

spring-a-ding-ding - Sweet potato, chickpea and risoni salad

Chucking fresh herbs in a salad, especially when you've grown the herbs yourself, is one of the best things! This is my favourite salad and I know that there are many salads similar to this one but I can honestly say I threw this one together out of desperation when I was pregnant with my first child. My cravings consisted of anything fresh: fruit, salads, asian broths - I had never been so healthy in all my life! One vegetable though I ate practically everyday was sweet potato. I couldn't get enough of it. So, this salad was born and we still LOVE it. Whenever there is a touch of warm weather I always throw it together for a quick and easy meal. There are no hard and fast rules with this dish, just make sure everything is beautiful and fresh and it will definately take you to a sunny place!

ingredients

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
half piece of butternut pumpkin (if you like), peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
1 zucchini, chopped into 4 pieces
1 spanish onion, peeled and chopped
1 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup risoni, cooked
1 bunch coriander
1 bunch parsley
1 lemon
salt and pepper
extra virgn olive oil

how to make your sweet potato, chickpea and risoni salad

Pre heat your oven to 180C. Chop up your vegies and throw on a baking dish and drizzle with some extra virgn olive oil. Pop in the oven for about half an hour. You'll need to check them every now and then as the cooking time depends on what size you have chopped your vegies.
Heat up a frying pan gently with some olive oil and throw in your chopped spanish onion. Sweat over a low heat until very soft. Now pop a pot of water on the stove over a high heat. When boiling add your cup of risoni. (You could omit risoni and use cous cous instead)
Back to the onion, add the cumin and give it a stir until fragrant then throw in your chickpeas and heat through until soft.
When risoni is cooked, drain. Grab a large bowl, throw in: the onion,chickpea mix,the vegies and the risoni. Now throw in your roughly chopped herbs, some salt and pepper to taste and a good spritz of lemon juice. Give it a good toss, check seasonings and throw in a serving dish. voila!

Beautiful served warm straight away but also yummy cold the next day!

The last day of Winter - Casserole Ruby Lou

With the weather surprising us with its warmth we have been having friends over for BBQ's (allready!). This last weekend some friends brought us some amazing AC Butchery snags (Goat; Turkey and cranberry; chicken and rocket and good ol'beef)How I have missed them!
I threw together a few things: some roasted root vegetables, caramelised onions, a pumpkin, chickpea and risoni salad and a salad made up of little treats from our garden. When the weekend was over and I had to think about what I was going to put together for a mid-week meal I noticed that I still had a mountain of Ruby Lou spuds to get through........The evenings are still chilly at least. The perfect excuse to create another casserole.

ingredients

1kg of beef chuck steak, cut into large chunks
5 pickling onions, peeled and halved
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped into chunks
8 - 10 Ruby Lou potatoes, halved (or you can use any potato that keeps it's shape after slow cooking)
1 cup of red wine (I used Hippies Shiraz but you could use any red wine you love)
1 and a half cups beef stock
1 x 800g tin tomatoes
2 large sprigs rosemary
about 8 peppercorns
300g button mushrooms

how to make your casserole ruby lou

Pre heat oven to 180C
Pop some oil in a large pot and put it over a high heat. Add the steak in 3 batches, browning the meat and then putting it aside until all cooked. Turn the heat down a little and throw in the spuds, carrot and onions until softened. Pop the meat back in and add the wine, stock, tomatoes, rosemary and peppercorns. Bring to the boil. Once boiling, throw it in a casserole dish, cover it with foil and bake for 2 hours. After 2 hours, throw away the foil, chuck in the mushies and cook for a further 45 mins.

Serve it with broccoli spears and red wine. Perfecto!

B-Day - Nan's Moussaka

Every Sunday, when I was growing up, all the family would head over to my grandparents place for lunch. We always had something delicious, usually a roast and if it was your birthday you got to choose whatever you wanted. Some people liked roast chicken, others roast lamb but me, I LOVED Nan's Moussaka.
The best part about making this dish is cooking the flat chips of potatoes. So heavenly. You can almost eat your fill while making it!

ingredients

1 brown onion, finely chopped
500g mince
approx one kilo of potatoes (you may need more or less depending on the dish you use)
1 egg
1 and a half cups milk
salt and pepper, to taste

how to make my Nan's Moussaka

First of all, get a large frypan and warm up some vegetable oil. Peel your potatoes and slice them into large rounds (not too skinny) Fry them both sides until browned nicely. Set aside onto some absorbant paper then place in the base of your ovenproof dish. Now get another saucepan onto a burner and fry your onion in a little olve oil. When softened add your mince and turn up the heat. Keep stirring, makng sure you get all the lumps out. Meanwhile keep doing your chips as you'll need enough for a top layer too. When the mince has been browned off, place over the bottom layer of potatoes, then place the remaining cooked potato chips over the top of the mince. Now whisk your milk, egg and salt and pepper together. Pour over the whole dish. Finish off with a sprinkle of salt and pepper over the potatoes and bake in the oven for 30 - 40 mins until the egg/milk mixture is set!

Happy Birthday to all those other Virgos out there!

I heart lemon and passionfruit marmalade

After making the Tangello and Clove Marmalade it got me thinking about other citrus fruits; what other combinations would work? My thoughts turned to lemons. The juice is used a lot in jams but you don't see it used as the core ingredient very often. So then I thought about what would "go" with lemons. I'd need to add a lot of sugar, I knew that, but I didn't want that to be the sole flavour of the marmalade. Wondering around the fruit market I spyed some rather beautiful looking passionfruit. Of course!

I am sooooo happy with the way this marmalade turned out. My Hubby loves it too!


This recipe makes 2 small jars or approximately 500ml.

ingredients

2 eureka lemons (they have no seeds. If you can't find them then you will need to remove seeds as you slice), cut in half lengthways, then thinly slice
750ml water
3 cups white sugar
2 passionfruit, cut in half and scraped, juice and seeds kept


how to make your lemon and passionfruit marmalade

When you have sliced your lemons pop them into a plastic container. Add the water and leave overnight (Approx 8 hours) or if you don't mind the texture of the rind then soak for about 3 hours. I have to say I like it both ways!

When ready to use pop the mix into a large heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil. Then simmer on a highish heat for 20 minutes. Now add the passionfruit pulp and 3 cups of white sugar. Bring to the boil then have on a mid simmer for about 20 - 30 minutes for the mix that you only soaked for 3 hours or if you soaked it overnight then it will only need simmering for about 10 - 15 minutes.

Wash your jars and keep them in hot soapy water in the sink until ready to use then rinse in hot water (don't dry them) and then place in the mcrowave, one at a time, for 1 minute. Have the lids in a saucepan of water on the stove on a rolling boil.

You will have to watch that your marmalade doesn't catch on the bottom and burn. Stir it every now and then to check it and pop some small plates into the fridge. When you think it may be ready or you are unsure just test some jam on a cold saucer. If it's ready it should thicken up, gel and wrinkle when you push your finger through it. When ready, ladle into your jars right up to the top, pop your lids on tightly and then you can do one of two things: You can place them into a saucepan of water, ensuring the jars are well covered then bring to the boil and boil for 20mins to create a vacuum. Check jars that a vacuum was created. OR
Once you've filled the jars turn them upside down until they have completely cooled. The old women of Tuscany use this trick which does work really well too however if using this method I would keep the marmalade in the fridge once it had cooled down.

Beautiful with croissants. That tart taste cuts through the butter perfectly.

fast food - winter garden burger

This is one meal that can be made fast! and it tastes YUM. When it comes to burgers I don't mind beetroot or cheese or even pineapple! but a few years ago I had some mince in the freezer, in the fridge I had some sad looking cherry tomatoes, some limp spinach,a few mushies on the edge and in the pantry a couple of rolls to use up. I'm sure we've all done this at some point - not wanting to make the trek to the shops so we search out the Kitchen to see what we can create?
What would MacGyver make under these circumstances?

Make sure you have everything chopped and ready to go as it's all cooked on the fly and ready to devour in about 5 minutes. I kid you not! enjoy.

ingredients

1 burger per person

120g mince - per burger
some grated carrot or turnip or zucchini or nothing, it's up to you - per burger
salt and pepper and chopped parsley, to taste - per burger

2 large flat mushrooms, chopped finely - per burger
1 sprig of thyme - per burger or to taste
4 - 5 cherry tomatoes, scored at one end - per burger
5 or so pieces of baby spinach or english spinach - per burger

1 egg - per burger
bbq sauce
butter
rolls

how to make your winter garden burger

Have 2 saucepans ready to go - one with oil the other with about 1 - 2 tablespoons butter. Score one end of each of the tomatoes. chop your mushies. Cut your rolls in half and get them ready under the grill. Take your egg(s) out of the fridge. Wash and seperate your spinach into individual pieces. Throw your mince into a bowl and add some grated vegetable, if using. Add your salt, pepper and parsley to taste. Give it a good mix then make into patties. Turn the heat on for the saucepan with the oil to about medium. Wait till it's hot enough then add your patties. Now put on the other saucepan on high heat and throw in the tomatoes. Turn on the grill to low. Turn your patties when they have browned nicely on the bottom. Throw in the mushies, some salt and thyme with the tomatoes, keep stiring. Crack your eggs next to the patties, use rings if you don't want to mix the 2. Add the spinach to the mushies and tomatoes, keep stirring. Everything should be ready by now. Take out your rolls and butter them. Top one with bbq sauce. Place your pattie on top of the sauce, then the egg. On the other half lay the spinach, the mushies and then top with the tomatoes. mmmmmmm, burger.