Blue Cheese and Mushroom Tart

Its Monday morning, Mr Hooper is back at school, The Boss is in bed, and I am at a loose end. I have tried distracting myself with housekeeping duties, but I am not feeling it. I have pureed some food for The Boss, which I have to say is rather tasty. A delicious combo of broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potato all cooked in a yummy vege stock I made on the weekend. I am tempted to put the whole family on the 'puree' diet, I love that there is no chewing required, and the tasty goodness just slides down your throat. I feel quite militant as I wield my electric hand mixer as if it is some kind of weapon, not a scrap of broccoli floret remains intact! I have also spent some time 'working out' this morning, while I huff and puff my way through squats, kick-thrusts and lunges I can still feel the central area of my torso jiggling...will the jiggling ever cease!

Anyway onto what we had for dinner last night, it was delish! I had a couple of lonely looking big mushrooms in the vege draw, and decided to try out a pastry tart. Teamed with some caramelised onions, this was just a perfect Sunday supper.

BLUE CHEESE AND MUSHROOM TART with caramelised onions (serves 2)

CARAMELISED ONIONS

1 large ONION sliced

1 tbspn BUTTER

2 tbspn SUGAR (I used white but I think brown sugar would improve the flavour)

a generous splash of BALSAMIC VINEGAR

SALT and PEPPER to season

a little water if too thick

Melt butter in a small frying pan, add onions and fry gently for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir until onions are well covered. Add the splash of Balsamic Vinegar and stir. Lower the heat right down and cook very gently until the onions are well cooked and sticky, allow about 20 minutes. Season. Add a little water if too sticky.

THE TART

1 sheet of ready rolled PUFF PASTRY (I used one block from a twin pack, and rolled out to the same thickness as a ready rolled sheet, about 35cm x 25cm, give or take)

2 big brown MUSHROOMS sliced thinly

a good handful of dry SPINACH leaves

the CARAMELISED ONIONS
30g-40g BLUE CHEESE




Using a blunt knife mark a border around the pastry, not cutting all the way through. The border should be about 3cm from the edge of the pastry. Smear the onions all over the pastry (within the border). Sprinkle the spinach leaves across the top. Layer the mushrooms ontop, so they cover the entire area. Drop nuggets of the cheese randomly across the top. Brush the pastry edge with some milk.


Pop in the oven at about 180C and cook for approx 10minutes. The edges should puff up, and the cheese should be bubbling. The pastry was quite soft on the bottom, but it didn't bother me, so keep that in mind if soft pastry offends you!



We had squares of this with some diced ripe tomatoes and a few slices of spicy sausage. The sweetness of the onions was just perfect with the strong flavour of the cheese, yum! I think these will make an appearance next time I need a super quick entree, they would be great made individually.

Daring Cooks....Nut Butters

The July Daring Cook's Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds and Food Network online.

I am really excited at the prospect of being a member of The Daring Cooks, this is my first crack at it, and I thought it all went very well.

The challenge was to make nut butters. I have made lots of asian style sauces using peanut butter, so I was pleased to see the challenge recipe was to make your own nut butters. I chose a recipe that required cashew butter, and the recipe goes a little bit like this....

ASIAN NOODLE SALAD WITH CASHEW DRESSING (Serves 3-4)

CASHEW BUTTER

1 cup unsalted CASHEW nuts, makes about 1/2 a cup of butter (I used my mortor and pestle as I halved the recipe, and it worked fine, you just need to put in some time and muscles grinding)

CASHEW DRESSING

1cm slice of GINGER, chopped

8 cloves of GARLIC, chopped

1/2 cup CASHEW BUTTER
1/4 cup SOY SAUCE

3 tbspn SUGAR

3 tbspn VINEGAR (I used Rice Wine Vinegar)

3 tbspn SESAME OIL

1/4 cup WATER

Hot Sauce to taste (I added half a red chilli, seeds and all)

NOODLE SALAD

225g thin RICE NOODLES

3 CHICKEN breasts, grilled and sliced

1 RED CAPSICUM, sliced thinly

1 CARROT cut into thin match sticks

4 shredded SPRING ONIONS

1/4 cup chopped CORIANDER leaves

some CASHEWS for garnishing

LIME wedge to serve

You can add any vegetables you like in an asian salad, and also use other meats such as prawns or seared beef.

The dressing was quite thick, so I would add some more water and some lime juice next time. If I didn't know, I would have thought I was eating a peanut sauce, so if you want to spend less, I would just make this with peanuts in the future. Also, Mr Hooper and I love garlic, but we were tasting it for days after this meal, so I would cut back to 5 or 6 cloves.

Fish Chowder in 30 minutes

I am on a diet. Well I am kind of on a diet. Basically I am eliminating excess in the hope I may shed the wobbly bit that jiggles away roughly where my waist once was. I am easing into things by initially removing daily pudding from the menu. Mr Hooper is sad, but with constant reassurance that he 'will be ok' he seems to be coping, we have at least survived day 1 of operation diet.

With my diet in mind I realised I need to increase the amount of fish we eat. I have never been very creative with fish, when ever I buy it I think about doing something fancy, and always turn back to breadcrumbs, cooked in a bit of butter with a wedge of lemon. I constantly return to this method because it is yummy, and suits any kind of fish which is handy for those on a budget. Fish is a hugely important ingredient in our diet, it provides a fabulous source of Omega 3, oily fish more so, but white fish too can increase your intake. Because I am currently taking care of The Boss's nutritional needs I have become very aware of my own dietary needs, and Omega 3 is something I think I need to eat more of. It is meant to improve visual development as well as language, comprehension and cognitive function....who would have thought!

I have never made Chowder before, but I thought this recipe looked so simple that I would give it a go. It only took about 30 minutes, so whats not to love.

Fish Chowder adapted from Ruth Pretty's Favourite Recipes

1 tbspn BUTTER

3 rashers rindless BACON (diced)

1 large ONION (diced)

1 BAY LEAF

2tbspn FLOUR

1 large or 2 small POTATOES (peeled and diced)

2 stalks CELERY (finely diced)

1 tsp WHITE PEPPER

2 1/2 cups WATER

1/2 cup of MILK

1/2 cup of CREAM

300g firm flesh white FISH diced (I used Tarakihi and it worked well, you could also use Groper or Cod)

1/4 cup flat leaf PARSLEY (chopped)

1 tspn SALT

Melt butter over a medium heat. Add the bacon, onion and bay leaf, cook until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally.

Add the flour and combine well, stirring for a couple of minutes.

Add the potatoes and celery, stir and coat them with the onion mixture. Keep stirring to prevent sticking on the bottom of the pan.

Add the water and pepper, cover and simmer until the potatoes are cooked but still holding their shape. This can all be done in advance, you can set the pot aside until your ready to finish the chowder.

Pour the milk and cream into the saucepan and stir until hot, but not boiling. Don't allow the chowder to boil, you need to watch it quite carefully from this point. Add the fish and parsley, stirring frequently, heat the chowder until just before boiling, until the fish is cooked. Depending on how big your fish chunks are, this should only take a matter of minutes.

Add the salt to taste and it is ready to serve. We had ours with delicious buttered toast, which I highly recommend.

Roasted Mushrooms and Feta

Today is going to be quick recipe, and one that we have eaten two times already this week, because I LOVE it so much. There's not really much of a recipe, the key ingredients are big brown flat mushrooms and feta cheese, any additional ingredients are a bonus, and can be added in if you happen to have them.

So you want to pop your big mushrooms on a baking tray, I normally do one large one per person or a couple each if the mushrooms are smaller. At this stage you can smear the gills of the mushroom with some pesto, crushed garlic or seasoned oil. Then crumble chunks of the feta so the gill area of the mushrooms is filled up. Then they are ready to roast. Depending on the size of mushroom they take about 10 minutes at about 180C. I like my mushrooms to be quite meaty, so don't allow them to get too soft. Liquid will bubble up, I just tip that off before serving. The feta holds its shape, but goes wonderfully creamy.

We eat these mushrooms with anything and everything, this week we had them with some crumbed lamb cutlets which was just delicious. They work great with barbequed meat, roast meat....any kind of meat. They are also fab for a quick lunch with some thick buttered toast.

These mushrooms are rich in flavour, and would be great if your serving a vegetarian, they are so quick to make, and aren't too bad on the fat scale either.

I am going to be back to normal next week, so expect an exciting recipe from the random selection, I am hoping it won't be anything to do with pastry!

Have a fab Friday!

Best of the week....Seared Spring Onion Sauce

Today I tried to put one of my weetbix into the coffee plunger. I am all for experimenting in the kitchen, but I suspect a plunged weetbix would not be very good, and certainly not a suitable replacement for my beloved morning coffee. So it would appear I am tired. Tired I may be, but I did wake up in a celebratory mood, The Boss has stopped waking three times in the night, he is now waking at 4am, which in my new found world, is something to rejoice. I hate to think what I was eating for breakfast when he was waking at 10, 1 and 4!

This week I found a fabulous recipe in my beloved Stephanie Alexander 'the cook's companion'. What a wonderful book, it is literally the A-Z for cooking. This recipe is incredibly simple, and used a method I had never thought of employing.

SEARED SPRING ONION SAUCE
4 SPRING ONIONS, finely chopped (I creep into the green bits, as I like the colour, but its up to you if you prefer using only the white section)
1 tspn FRESH GINGER, finely chopped
1 tspn GARLIC, finely chopped (that's about 2 cloves)
1/4 cup light vegetable OIL (I use rice bran oil and it works just fine)
1/4 cup SOY SAUCE
1 tbspn rice wine of dry sherry (I have neither, but threw in some rice wine vinegar)
1 tspn SESAME OIL

Mix the spring onion, ginger, and garlic in a heat proof bowl.

Heat oil until just smoking hot and pour it over the contents of your bowl. There will be a brilliant sizzle as the oil hits the bowl.

Stir, and add the remaining ingredients. The oil does separate, so have a whisk handy to give it a good mix before drizzling.

We had this sauce drizzled over some poached chicken and steamed asian greens with a bit of rice and it was delicious. Mr Hooper commented that it tasted very 'authentic', which translated, means it tasted like a stir fry from the local Chinese take away. I think that it is a huge compliment to the recipe, as we both love a good stir fry from the local Chinese take away! This could be our takeaway replacement, as its cheaper and MSG free, something I am happy to give up (even if it makes food taste awesome!).

I think this sauce is going to be super versatile, next time I am going to toss it through some egg noodles and serve with grilled prawns...YUM! Let me know how you served the sauce so I can add other combos to my repertoire.

Have a fab Friday!

Best of the week, for all you stew lovers...Moroccan Beef Stew with Apricots

This weeks best is a Moroccan beef stew, I am going to say it is the best stew I have ever made, a big call I know, but I was literally licking my plate, which is not something I would usually stoop to for stew, that kind of breakdown is manners is usually reserved for my pudding bowl. I never went to Morocco while I lived in London, but it was on my list of to do's, which sadly never got done. So I shall take my stew and perhaps the latest Sex in the City film, and try not to feel too hard done by. However, I can tell from what I have already seen that I might be over the Sex in the City thing. I spent years clinging to the fabulousness of the show, I loved the promiscuous attitudes of the characters and the amazing clothes. But sometimes great things must come to an end. I thought the first movie was OK, but in my new found limited free time, I don't think I can bring myself to spend it watching over 2 hours of a sequel......perhaps after wine number 2 I might think differently. Not that I am currently allowed wine number 2, even wine number 1 fills me with guilt. The Boss hasn't complained yet, but if he grows up to be raging booze hound I will be prepared to take a small amount of responsibility!

So to the stew (for 2 plus one school lunch), I found and modified a recipe on ifood.tv, I made this the conventional way in the oven, but a slow cooker would do the job as wel. You are going to need...


about 500g diced BEEF, cuts such as chuck, gravy or shin are great, and very economical
1/4 cup FLOUR
3tbs vegetable OIL
1 large ONION, chopped
3-4 cloves GARLIC, chopped
2 large CARROTS, diced
1 can whole or diced TOMATOES
1tsp ground CORIANDER and CUMIN
3/4tsp ground GINGER
1/2tsp TURMERIC
1/2tsp SALT and BLACK PEPPER
1/4tsp CINNAMON
1 1/2 cups of beef or chicken STOCK
2tbs HONEY
2 CINNAMON STICKS
1 cup dried APRICOTS



Heat the oven to 160C. Roll the beef in half the flour and brown in small batches using the vegetable oil. Add more oil as you need it, our pan is of the pretend non-stick variety so I need a bit more oil. Transfer each batch to a heavy oven proof dish and set aside. (Sorry for the distracting carrot photo, this is the first time I have ever grown a carrot that actually looks like a carrot, isn't it beautiful!)


Add the onion, carrot and garlic to the same pan and gently cook until soft, this will take about 5 minutes. Scrap the pan to get all the tasty bits left behind by the meat.


Stir in the coriander, cumin, ginger, turmeric, salt, bp and ground cinnamon, over a medium heat, stir until the spices have become deliciously aromatic, about 30 second to a minute should do it. Add the remaining flour and stir.


Add the tomatoes, liquid stock, honey and cinnamon sticks. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to the dish and stir to combine with the meat, cover with a lid or foil. Pop in the oven and leave for 2 1/2 hours, or so. I like to give it a stir every now and then. The ideal scenario is meat that will fall apart when pressed with the back of a spoon.


Once cooking time is done stir in the apricots and put back in the oven for about another 30 minutes, or until the fruit is swollen and soft.


I like my stew to be rich and thick, but if you prefer stew of a thinner consistency add some more water when you add in the apricots.









Serve the stew with some buttery couscous and green beans.

I love stew, and find it so economical, let me know your favourite stew, I am always keen to try different recipes.

We are off to another pot luck dinner this weekend, it may seem like this is the only social activity in out lives, and in truth without the occasional pot luck dinner we may never leave the house! Now I must go and decide what to cook, we are watching the All Blacks play so I think a sporting theme may be in order.

Best of the week....Corn and Coriander Pancakes

As I draw towards the end of my first official week of blogging, I am feeling quite reflective about the future prospects of busy peas. If anything it will be very handy to have an on line record of all my fav recipes but I hope that it will eventually be a useful source of scrumptiousness for others as well....so I will persist, Rome was not built in a day (corny I know, but as I said I am feeling reflective!).


So to remain true to the 'Rough Guide' Friday is dedicated to a meal that featured as a highlight from the culinary week that was. This week it has to be the corn pancakes we had for dinner on Wednesday night. Now Mr Hooper is a hard man to please (bearing in mind he is content to eat ham and cheese sammies every single day of his life), and when I asked for his feedback he said they were good, but would be better if I took the corn out, which would essentially make them a pancake, which would mean eating pudding for dinner, which would please him very much.

I love pancakes, and have modified a pancake recipe a little to create these delicious savoury treats....


1 cup self raising FLOUR
1 cup BUTTERMILK
2 EGGS
1/4 cup POLENTA
1/2 tspn BAKING SODA
1/2 cup chopped CORIANDER leaves
1 tspn fresh CHILI, deseeded and sliced
pinch of CAYENNE PEPPER
1/4 tspn SALT
1 can whole kernel CORN drained
40g melted BUTTER




With a whisk, mix everything together in a bowl except the melted butter. Just before you start cooking the pancakes, add the butter and whisk until well mixed.

Warm the oven up and have a tray ready to put the pancakes in while you cook them all. Add some butter to a frying pan and melt, don't let the pan get too hot as you will end up with black pancakes. Spoon mixture onto a well buttered frying pan, wait till bubbles appear and then flip. You want them to be a lovely golden colour.

If you don't have polenta in the pantry, just leave it out, I found it gives the pancakes slightly more texture and bite, but they will still be tasty without it.

We ate these with some strips of streaky bacon, cooked until crispy....divine! Along with a salad of baby spinach leaves, tomato and red onion. These would also be fantastic as miniature pancakes served as a nibbly snack before dinner, topped with perhaps a dollop of sour cream.


I can't wait for my random recipe to be selected tonight! Have a fabulous Friday.

Weekend Randomness......Lovely easy caramelle with ricotta, basil and black olives

So the recipe was selected, Lovely easy caramelle with ricotta, basil and black olives, care of Cook with Jamie, by Jamie Oliver. There was no turning back, I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves and get elbow deep in flour......I confess I have made pasta once before, without much success, it was about 3 times too thick and an official disaster. So when Mr Hooper announced the recipe, I was filled with dread. But I was determined to get it right, I got into the Italian Mama zone and started cracking eggs.


I found Jamie Olivers' recipe for pasta very good, and easy to follow, I think its best you go straight to the link for instructions from a pro. They are based on using a machine, and I used my arms, so my one tip is to roll, roll and roll some more, you want to be able to read a newspaper through the sheet, especially for pasta that is to be made into a parcel. I broke the dough into small lumps, as I was using my large wooden chopping board, so was limited on space. I also found this blog on Ciao Chow Linda really useful and very detailed.


The filling was delicious, and really easy to make.

To make 4-6 serves you will need...

250g RICOTTA (the recipe calls for buffalo, but my supermarket didn't have this)
a large bunch of BASIL, leaves picked
1/4 of a NUTMEG, grated (1/4 tsp of nutmeg powder would suffice or to taste)
a small handful of BLACK OLIVES pitted and chopped (about 10)
2 handfuls of PARMESAN CHEESE, grated
SALT and BLACK PEPPER to taste
extra virgin OLIVE OIL

Finely chop the basil leaves, reserving the small delicate leaves for garnishing. Put half this chopped basil into a bowl with the ricotta, nutmeg, olives and half the Parmesan. Season to taste and add a splash of evoo (I have been watching way too much Rachel Ray!), and the filling is done.

Now you are ready to fill your parcels. Cut the pasta into 10cm x 6cm rectangles. Place a teaspoon of filling in the middle and brush the edges lightly with water. Roll up and pinch hard at each end to secure. Keep on a flour-dusted tray in the fridge until you need them. Cook as fresh as possible. We guessed that Caramelle means it looks like a lolly in a wrapper, and it does...Italian Candy apparently.















So now its time for the sauce. You will need...

2 knobs of BUTTER
OLIVE OIL
2 cloves of GARLIC, peeled and finely sliced
400g of the ripest TOMATOES, halved, deseeded and roughly chopped
BALSAMIC VINEGAR
the rest of the chopped BASIL


Gently heat the butter with a splash of olive oil in a saucepan. When the butter gets foamy, add the garlic and the remaining chopped basil, wait a minute and then throw in the tomatoes. Bring them to the brink of boiling and then turn down to a gently simmer for 5 minutes, until the tomatoes have softened. Taste and season, add a dash of balsamic vinegar. The sauce is good to go, it will smell so splendid, nobody will be able to resist salivating in anticipation.


Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the caramelle gently, cook for 2-3 minutes. They should all be floating. Scoop them out carefully with a slotted spoon, I was too scared to use a colander for fear of dismantling my wonderful little packages. Put the pasta into the sauce and gently toss about, throw in the last handful of parmesan cheese, give it one more gentle shake and pop on the lid. By the time you have filled up the wine glasses and grabbed some plates the meal is ready to serve. Sprinkle with the little basil leaves for delicious perfection.



I don't have a photo of the finished product, my photos of food once the sun has gone down, look horrendous, so I don't want to put you off. But take me word for it, this was delicious.


If you have a spare afternoon, I think everyone should have a crack at pasta, it is not as hard as you think its going to be, and my under arm dangle is way less dangley because of it.

Pumpkin Soup on a Wet, Windy Wednesday

We are creeping into the depths of a very wet and miserable winter here in Auckland, and I can't think of anything I would rather eat then a delicious bowl of pumpkin soup. I like my pumpkin soup simple in flavour and velvety smooth in texture. I will make pumpkin soup with any type of pumpkin, whichever is going cheapest at the supermarket, although this recipe does work very nicely with a butternut squash.

I attempted to grow butternut squash this year, and I initially got a wonderful flurry of perfect pear shaped fruit on my vine, to my horror I only have one resilient little butternut squash that survived. But no time for mopping, I have taken this blessed offering and created a batch of soup for the freezer, all is not lost.

As part of my blog I am going to include some basic nutritional information on each recipe, hopefully this will be a useful tool when it comes to deciding how well behaved or rebellious you are feeling! All values are approximate, and are to be used as a guide.

For the soup you will need....

• 800g Pumpkin (Butternut Squash is ideal but not essential, sweet potato or kumara is also pretty good)
• Olive Oil to drizzle
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 Garlic Cloves, chopped
• 50g Butter
• 1 Lt Chicken or Vegetable Stock
• 250ml Cream (milk works well also, if you are keen to make it a leaner dish)

To Serve...

• 200g Parmesan Cheese
• Parsley

Peel and cut the squash into cubes, spread in a roasting dish and drizzle with olive oil, roast at 180C for 20 minutes.

While the pumpkin is roasting, in a large saucepan gently soften the onions and garlic with the butter. Take care to use a low heat and avoid any browning.

Once the squash has roasted for 20 minutes, add it to the saucepan along with the stock, bring to the boil Add the cream or milk and simmer for 20 minutes at a low heat.

Once the pumpkin is perfectly tender, process in a blender until glossy and smooth.

Serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and some chopped parsley if you would like a splash of colour. Season as desired, with salt and pepper. With or without hot toast this is truly a scrumptious soup, so please enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

Butternut Squash offer a great source of Vit A, Vit C, and Potassium. They are also a source of Niacin, Vit B6, Thiamin and Vit E, who needs energy drinks!

Per 100g this recipe has the following approx nutritional content:

Energy 473kj

Protein 10.1g

Fat 11.8g (This would be more like 9.0g for full fat milk or 8.3g for skim milk, and it is still really good!)

Sat Fat 6.0g

Carbohydrate 13.6g

Sugar 3.9

Sodium 278mg