Recipes

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto with Coriander Pesto

I had a big bunch of coriander and after a quick search around for a simple recipe I came across this one and it turned out fantastic!

Ingredients

1 litre chicken stock (or vegetable)
1 chicken thigh filet
10g dried shitake mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
400g Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
2 cups 'Aborio' rice
¼ cup grated parmesan

Pesto
1 cup coriander leaves
50g parmesan, grated
1 clove garlic, chopped
50g peanuts, toasted
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
100 mls olive oil


Method

In a food processor combine coriander, parmesan, garlic, pine nuts, lemon zest and juice. Pour olive oil in a steady stream with the motor running.

Bring stock to the boil with the dried mushrooms. Remove mushrooms when soft and slice. In a heavy based saucepan heat the olive oil. Add the chicken, leek and garlic and fry until soft. Add the Swiss brown mushrooms and shitakes and cook until soft. Stir rice into pan to coat.

Reduce heat to medium low. Add stock 1 cup at a time stirring until all the liquid is absorbed and rice is al dente. Stir through parmesan, season to taste and serve with a dollop of the coriander pesto.

Mexican Tortilla Pie

Ingredients (serves 4)

* 2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1 large red onion, finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 500g beef mince
* 1 small red capsicum, finely chopped (4 'large' ones from the garden)
* 125g can corn kernels, drained, rinsed
* 2 teaspoons Mexican chilli powder (used 2 fresh chillies from the garden)
* 415g can diced tomatoes (used 3 large tomatoes from the garden)
* 1/2 cup torn fresh coriander leaves (from the garden)
* 1/4 cup chopped flat parsley: not in original recipe (from the garden)
* 4 salsa-flavoured tortillas (used plain ones from work)
* 1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese
* 1 large tomato, deseeded, finely chopped (from the garden)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Reserve 2 tablespoons onion. Add garlic and remaining onion to pan. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until soft. Add mince. Cook, breaking up mince with a wooden spoon, for 8 minutes or until browned.

2. Add capsicum, corn and chilli powder. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until capsicum is just tender. Stir in diced tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, stirring, for 5 minutes or until mixture is thick. Add half the coriander and half the parsley. Season with salt. Stir to combine. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool.

3. Place a 6cm-deep, 20cm round springform pan on a baking tray. Place 1 tortilla in base of pan. Spread one-third of the mince mixture over tortilla. Sprinkle with 1/3 cup of cheese. Repeat layers twice with remaining tortillas, mince mixture and cheese, finishing with 1 tortilla. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

4. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is golden. Set aside for 5 minutes before removing from pan.

5. Meanwhile, combine chopped tomato, reserved onion, coriander and parsley in a bowl. Serve pie with tomato mixture.

Pesto Salmon Fettuccine

This is a great dish of you have some left-over salmon steaks in the fridge, or a very cheap family meal if you use canned salmon.

Ingredients

2 grilled salmon steaks or 1 400g of pink salmon
Fettuccine
Basil pesto (see here for pesto recipe http://kantan-cooking-sp8.blogspot.com/2010/01/creamy-pesto-chicken-penne-pasta.html)
1 cup of full cream
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Spring Onions

Method

If using salmon steaks: cook steak and remove skin and bones from salmon and gently break into large pieces.
If using canned salmon: drain salmon, remove bones and gently break into large pieces.
Cook the fettuccine al dente in salted boiling water
Whisk together the cream, sour cream, and pesto in a large saucepan.
Heat on medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
Stir in salmon pieces and chopped spring onions and continue heating until the mixture starts to simmer.
Drain the fettuccine when cooked and add to the salmon mixture with half of the cheese.
Return to heat and toss the mixture with tongs until fettuccine is coated and the mixture is thoroughly heated.
Serve with remaining Parmesan cheese, black pepper and some cut seaweed sheets.

Beef Lasagne

Ingredients

250g Packet of Lasagne sheets
1 1/2 cups of shredded tasty cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

Bolognese Sauce
1 tbsp of olive oil
500g of lean minced beef
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves of crushed garlic
800g of diced tomatoes
100g of tomato paste
200g of choppes mushrooms
A handful of torn oregano leaves (or 2 tsp of dried oregano)
A handful of torn basil leaves (or 2 tsp of dried basil)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cheese Sauce
60g of butter
1/3 cup (50g) of plain flour
3 cups (750ml) of milk
1 cup of shredded tasty cheddar cheese
1/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Bolognese Sauce
Heat oil in a large saucepan
Add mince, onion and garlic
Cook stiring for several minutes over high heat until meat is browned
Add remaining ingredients
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes stirring occasionally

Cheese Sauce
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat
Stir in four and cook gently for 1 min
Add milk and bring to simmering point stiring constantly
Use a small meshed strainer and a wooden spoon to smoothen out lumps
Add cheese and stir over heat until it melts

Preparation
Spray a rectangular baking dish (approx. 23cm x 33cm x 6cm deep) with cooking oil
Arrange 3 lasagne sheets over the base
Spoon 1/3 of the bolognese sauce evenly over the pasta
Spoon 1/3 of the cheese sauce evenly over the bolognese sauce
Repeat sheets and sauce addition twice more
Top with a layer of the shredded cheeses
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180^oC until cheese is golden brown (approx 15 minutes)
Cover with foil and bake for a further 25-30 minutes
Stand for 10 minutes before serving

Serve with a fresh salad or with potato chips.

Making Pasta Sauce

After giving away about 20 tomatoes I still had about 30 left over from my Reggae Roma plant so I decided to make up a couple of batches of pasta sauce to freeze.

I decided on making 4 types of sauce using around 450g of tomatoes for each lot, these being:

1. Tomato and Chilli.

2. Tomato and Basil.

3. Tomato, Parsley and Chives.

4. Tomato and Mini Capsicum.

METHOD

• Cut a shallow cross on the bottom of tomatoes.
• Blanched tomatoes in boiling water for about 1 minute.
• Chilled tomatoes in iced water for about 1 minute.
• Skinned tomatoes.
• Diced tomatoes.
• Put diced tomatoes, other ingredients into a saucepan.
• Mashed ingredients.
• Seasoned with salt and pepper.
• Brought saucepan mix up to the boil and then simmered for 2 minutes.
• Chilled saucepan in a cold water bath for 2 minutes.
• Poured sauce into labelled plastic storage container.
• Bunged into the freezer.

Pasta sauces destined for the freezer 25 July 2009

The end results!

Tomato and Basil (It was so good that I made up another batch of the next day).

Tomato and Chilli (a nice little kick although it would be better a little hotter).

Simple Tuna Bruschetta

Ingredients
* 1 loaf crusty baguette
* Garlic clove halved.
* 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
* Splash of Balsamic vinegar.
* 2 medium-sized tomatoes diced (from the garden)
* 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves chopped, extra whole leaves for garnish (from the garden)
* 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves chopped, extra whole leaves for garnish (from the garden)
* 1/4 cup fresh flat parsley leaves chopped, extra whole leaves for garnish (from the garden).
* 1/2 cup of red onion, diced
* Small tin of flavoured tuna. We use 'Japanese style' which has wasabi and soy sauce
* Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Slice the baguette into ½ inch rounds, cut on the diagonal.
2. Brush both sides of bread slices with olive oil.
3. Grill bread for about 2 minutes per side, until browned but still soft inside.
4. Rub one side of each bread slice with the garlic.
5. Combine and mix tomatoes, basil, coriander, parsley, onion, salt, pepper, tuna and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl.
6. Divide the mixture between the bread slices, garlic side up, and garnish with extra basil, coriander or parsley leaves if desired.


Herb Mashed Potato

It doesn't get much easier than this for a quick recipe to make mashed potato a bit more interesting!

Gather a few bunches of you favourite herbs, I've found parsley and chives are a good combination.

Use a food processor (or equivalent) to blend down your herbs into the consistency of a chunky paste.

Cook your mashed potato as you normally would and just fold through the herb paste before serving.

Here it's served with beef and a side salad of rocket, roma tomato and an egg.

If only I had enough room for a few cows and a couple of chickens on my balcony!

Creamy Pesto Chicken Penne Pasta

A quick and easy pesto pasta dish to make use of all of that basil you are growing!

Making Pesto
I'm not going to put in any specific quantities as I find it's best to add things in amounts to your own taste.

Ingredients
Parmesan cheese
Garlic cloves
Pinenuts or walnuts
Fresh Basil leaves (lots)
Fresh Parsley leaves (a few)
Good quality virgin olive oil
(you can also add a bit of sour cream if desired).

Method
Blend all ingredients in a food processor adding the oil a bit at a time until thickened and combined. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl several times during processing.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Penne Pasta

Ingredients
Penne Pasta
Barbequed chicken or chicken thigh fillets
Chicken stock
Mushrooms
Pesto
Parmesan cheese
Cream
Salt and pepper

Method
Cook pasta until al dente
Cut chicken into small pieces (brown in a pan if using thighs)
Add chicken, mushrooms and stock into a pan and bring to a simmer
Stir through pesto until combined
Add cream and return to simmer
Stir through parmesan (simmer until chicken is cooked for thighs)
Combine pasta and sauce to serve
Season with salt and pepper
Serve with additional parmesan

From start to finish takes only about 40 minutes!

Mentaiko Pasta

This is a very simple, fast and tasty dish, as long as you don’t mind eating fish eggs! In saying that though the taste is very subtle and if you weren’t told what it was I bet you wouldn’t have the slightest clue.

Any decent Asian supermarket (particularly Japanese stores) will stock mentaiko.

Ingredients
Butter
Mentaiko (Cod Roe)
Lemon
Spaghetti
Some leafy greens: Rocket works best and I throw in a bit of Ruby Chard for some extra colour.


Method
While the spaghetti is cooking:
Wash and dry your leafy greens
Defrost the mentaiko (1 ovary will do for 2 serves)
Put some butter and mentaiko on a plate
Top with drained spaghetti and leafy greens
Squeeze on some lemon juice
Toss well to mix through the lemon juice, butter and mentaiko

Rocket and Ruby Chard

Mentaiko

Butter and Mentaiko

Ready to Serve

Ready to Eat

Creamy Smoked Salmon and Caper Pasta.

Ingredients

Pasta of choice
Spring Onions.
Extra-virgin olive oil.
Garlic cloves, crushed.
Pure cream.
Lemon.
Young Rocket, Swiss Chard or Spinach leaves etc.
Salted Capers, rinsed.
Parmesan Cheese, grated.
Smoked Salmon, cut into strips.

Method

- Cook Pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water.
- Drain Pasta and return to saucepan.
- Heat Oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.
- Add Garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add Cream, Capers and Spring Onions.
- Simmer, uncovered, for 3 to 4 minutes or until cream is slightly reduced.
- Add Cream mixture and Parmesan Cheese to pasta. Toss to combine.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Top with Smoked Salmon and young Rocket, Swiss Chard or Spinach leaves.
- Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan Cheese.
- Add a generous squeeze of Lemon.
- Lightly toss to combine.

The Return of the Sun!

Winter in the summertime, the great 2009 cull, dramas at school, split shifts at work and the birth of our son, all did their part in putting spending time in my veggie garden well and truly on the back-burner for the last couple of months.

Only my herbs, some snow peas and one very poor looking tomato plant survived the extended neglect and now that the sun has decided to peek around the edge of the building again it’s time to get back into it.

I spent a good hour yesterday sweeping and scrubbing the tiles and junking lots of sickly plants and getting set up. I may have been a bit advantageous this morning but the garden now has new plantings of:

Buk Choy
Pak Choy
Cucumber
Snow Peas
Basil
Reggae Roma Tomato
Rocket
Swiss Chard
Radish
Garlic Chives
Mini-Capsicum

Now if only the rain would go away and let the sun come out in full force!

Cherry Tomato: Unknown

Cherry Tomato

What: Unknown Self-Seeded Cherry Tomato Seedling.
Where: Medium black container
When: 4 January 2010

Sown in: Mixed Potting Soil
Fertiliser: Blood and bone

Advertised Germination: Seedling.
Actual Germination: Seedling.

Advertised Maturity:
Actual Maturity:

This seedling is a self-seeded survivor that I rescued from the wild....

9 January 2010

This plant is doing well after a feed of liquid fertiliser and has a few flowers on the way already.

17 January 2010

This plant died a slow death due to a lack of sun.....

March 2010

The Great Summer Cull of 2009

The lack of sun at the moment has really put the brakes on my token dietary supplementation efforts.

In despair I have put a number of plants out of their misery including:

3 x Eggplants
6 x Snow Pea Vines
1 x Row of Spring Onions
1 x Row of Rocket
1 x Row of Swiss Ruby Chard
2 x Containers of Bok Choy
2 x Zucchini plants
1 x Chilli plant

Now I am down to just my herbs, a couple of cucumber vines on the way out, a zucchini plant that isn't showing much promise and a couple of tomato seedlings. It's a very sad looking balcony at the moment but on the plus side it gives us a bit more room to hang out Boudi's cloth nappies....

The Best Seed I've Ever Sown：ボーディ

On Wednesday morning 25^th the wife had a bit of a show on one of her pads and told me that she thought Boudi （ボーディ）　would be coming soon. At about 9:30pm that night she woke me up to tell me that she thought her waters had broken and by 10:00pm she started feeling some contractions. Because her waters had broken we had to go straight into the hospital for a check-up to make sure everything was OK and we were there from about 11:00pm until about 10:00am on Thursday morning 26^th with my Mum arriving at the hospital around 6:00am as the second support person for the wife.

As the wife wasn’t contracting regularly and there were no other complications we were able to go back home and were told to return to the hospital at 6:30am on Friday the 27^th for her to be induced if she didn’t start contracting more regularly in the meantime. My mum stayed with us that night and we all managed to get a few hours sleep (even though the wife was contracting she was still able to get a little sleep!). We were up early and the wife was feeling good but still not contracting regularly so we decided to go to the hospital a bit early at 5am to help the wife settle into her birthing room before the serious business began.

Once the midwife hooked her up to the inducement drip and a bunch of uncomfortable monitors and she started to up the dose, the wife started to contract a lot more strongly and regularly and Mum and I worked hard to support her as best we could. For a while the wife was standing up and squatting during every contraction but we managed to talk her out of continuing that in order to save her legs! The midwife found that Boudi wasn’t in the ideal position and got the wife to lie on her side during which time the wife asked to try some gas to suck on during her contractions which by this stage were getting quite strong. The wife was quite vocal during her time on the gas but Mum was worried that she would break her teeth on the mouthpiece so the wife agreed to stop using it. She said that it didn’t do much to help her pain anyway!

The midwife came back in to check on how the wife was going and was happy with her stage of dilation and Boudi’s position and so the wife was able to get on her back instead of her side. The midwife stayed to give the wife a quick lesson in pain management through breathing which she mastered in about two contractions and from that point on through all of the contractions to come and all of the pushing until Boudi was out, she barely made a noise and required no other medication for pain!!! The wife even managed to have a bit of a nervous laugh during a break between contractions when Boudi’s head was all but through. Once Boudi’s head was out, I helped turn and lift him on to the wife's chest and we all had a tear in our eyes listening to him screaming. We were surprised that he was so clean, he had really long soft fingernails and so much hair! It was 2:37pm on Friday the 27 of November.

After Boudi had a suckle, the wife was taken away to surgery to have an epidural and to get her 3^rd Degree Tear cleaned and stitched up. Ma went home and I was left with Boudi in the birthing room for about 20 minutes until we were both moved into a woman’s ward room to wait for the wife to get back from surgery. I set up her and Boudi’s clothes and other stuff in the room until one of the midwives came to check Boudi’s temperature and found that he was a little bit cold. To help bring his temperature back up he was placed skin-to-skin onto my chest which was a great father-son bonding experience for us. We were both a little unsettled for a while as he was scratching my chest with his long fingernails and trying to latch onto one of my nipples! He soon got tired of that and gave up and we stayed like that until mum returned from surgery.

Everything went well with the wife’s surgery and I stayed with them in the ward until about 9pm. Over the next few days I spent from 8am to 8pm with them (except for between 12:00pm and 2:00pm during which time there are NO VISITORS allowed) until we were finally cleared to go home at 4:00pm on Monday the 30^th December 2009.

ボーディ

Inspirations and Daydreams

We’ve been back in Australia for almost two years now but there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of how great it would be to head back to Japan. We do have plans to move back in the future but as we are eagerly awaiting the birth of our first child it won’t be for a little while yet.

I first became interested in vegetable gardening as a young child of about 10 (I believe) after a regular holiday trip to our house by my Scottish Grandmother. She immigrated to a farm plot in Bathurst, Australia from Scotland as a young Post-WWII wife and mother and knew the benefits and need to be semi-self sufficient in regards to the feeding of oneself.

Of course as a 10 year old boy I was mostly interested in getting muddy and playing with a few worms, but together we managed to set up a small veggie plot in which we planted corn, radishes, beans, beetroot, carrots, strawberries and a few herbs. I kept up the maintenance of my little garden after Nana had returned home but was always too impatient and picking things early. The veggie patch soon gave way to make room for a wooden half-pipe ramp and my newly found skateboard obsession though......

I never thought much about gardening from that point on although strangely I always maintained an interest in watching ‘Landline’ for some reason, which is a weekly Australian agriculture and farming programme and I later went on to University to study aquaculture. Stranger still, I developed quite a good pair of Blue Thumbs working in the aquaculture industry specialising in the growing of phytoplankton for use as live feed in hatcheries for the farming of prawns/shrimps for a number of years before heading up to Japan.

Japan is a country of contrasts on so many levels, not the least of which is the difference between the city and the country. I lived in Nagoya City (the third largest city in Japan) but one of my many jobs involved my taking a 40 minute train trip out of the city. Within 10 minutes on the train out of the city the concrete jungle gave way to rice fields and areas where just about every square metre of land that could be utilised to grow something edible was farmed.

My wife’s family owns a large orchard in Nagano where they commercially grow apples and pears and also watermelons, peaches and numerous vegetables for their own consumption. We would often take trips to Nagano during the various harvest times and help pick a few boxes of fruit.

Here we are in the family orchard in Nagano picking apples in Autumn and pears in Summer.

As a family we would also go on daytrips to surrounding farms during the year to partake in the eating of various fruits and vegetables. Here we are with our Nephew and Niece in Shizuoka gorging ourselves on strawberries.

Over time I started to feel a bit guilty returning to my city apartment and back to the life of a voracious consumer in Japan. On our return to Australia I was determined to get back into vegetable gardening even though I knew we would be continuing a life as apartment dwellers.

I think I’ve done alright so far with my little plot here on our balcony in Australia but I can’t stop daydreaming about a house in the country in Japan, getting down and dirty in a ‘real’ veggie garden and trading in my Blue Thumbs for a nice Dark Green pair!

Improved Apollo Tomato

Tomato: Improved Apollo

What: Yates Improved Apollo Seeds
Where: 3 x yogurt containers.
When: 22 November.

Sown in: Mixed Potting Soil
Fertiliser: Blood and bone.

Advertised Germination: 10-12 Days.
Actual Germination: 8-10 Days.

Advertised Maturity: 12-14 Weeks.
Actual Maturity: 28 weeks.

I thought I had saved a bunch of seeds from the previous Reggae Roma Tomato plant but despite searching high and low I couldn't find them at home and couldn't find any seedlings at the local nursery where I got the original plant, so I have decided to branch out and try another variety. "High Yielding" it says, but can it beat the 60 tomatoes I got from my first Reggae Roma?

2 December 2009

10 December 2009

I've moved the best two plants into two self-watering containers.

27 December 2009

Both of these plants suffered badly from a lack of sun combined with excess water, however I chopped them off and side shoots just might salvage them yet.

17 January 2010

This plant took off from side shoots several times only to die off again.

February 2010

I persisted however and ended up with some very messy main stems (that's a random Bok Choy plant on the right).

March 2010

I'm glad I stuck with this plant as although it it quite messy it has taken off in a big way in the last month and is starting to produce fruit.

10 April 2010

This one is now over 7ft tall and at last count had 50 tomatoes on the way.

29 April 2010

I returned home from 10 days holiday to find this plant suffering heavily from being over-watered. I tried to salvage it but in the end I picked off all of the Tomatoes as the plant was on it's last legs so to speak. Even after all of the dramas this plant has been through I still managed to harvest just under 4kg of Tomatoes from it! I put all of the green tomatoes into a plastic bag with a ripe red apple and they all started to colour up nicely.

May 2010

Dirty Black Summer: Winter in the Summer Time.

Yes you read that correctly and it is official, Summer is going to be my Winter and this is despite summer here on the Gold Coast having an average temperature of 24.1 C - 75.4 F!

We moved into this apartment last year in March and we had plenty of sun back then, but now I have quickly seen my small plot go from getting around 6 hours of fierce sunlight per day to getting about 3 hours of weak sunlight just before it gives way to the moon.

I can only assume that the slight seasonal change in the daily wondering of the sun has been just enough for it to catch the edge of our building and making it MIA for the better part of the day…..

Unless I can convince the building manager from the adjacent apartment to erect a massive solar reflector for me there’s not much I can do except consolidate what I’ve got for the next three months and start making plans for the return of the sun in Autumn.

I don’t like my chances though………

Garlic Chives

Garlic Chives / Nira

What: Seed (Yates).
Where: Small Black Pot.
When: 7 November 2009.

Sown in: El'Cheapo Potting Mix.
Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface.

Advertised Germination: 10 - 21 Days.
Actual Germination: 10 Days.

Advertised Maturity: 8 Weeks.
Actual Maturity:

27 December 2009

Getting there, I reckon another month and I'll be happy to start harvesting.

17 January 2010




February 2010




10 April 2010