Pear, Walnut and Chocolate Cake

It's St. Valentine's Day today and the Mahjong girls came over to our house this afternoon for the weekly round of games, so chocolate had to be in the ingredients for the cake I chose to bake. I also had some beautiful Corella pears which had been in my refrigerator crisper for over a week, which is normally unheard of, so it had to primarily be a Pear cake. 

Vegetarian Lentil and Mushroom Curry with Baby Spinach or Eggplant (Aubergine)

Delicious Lentil, Eggplant and Mushroom curry

We all need a versatile lentil recipe in our repertoire that we can depend on when the going gets tough or just plain busy. I always have jars of green and red lentils on hand, and curry powder, which means this curry can be cooked at a moment's notice, even using frozen vegetables if necessary. We all know the power of pulses to provide essential protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre for our body. Lentils are also inexpensive. This is the perfect Meat Free Monday meal. When we were living in the Lakes District, in Northern England on a teacher exchange for Mr. HRK, 15 years ago, and being paid in Australian dollars and living on one wage, meat was so expensive that I introduced lentil dishes to our diet. That was the turning point for me, and I've cooked with them often ever since, along with other pulses such as chickpeas, dried peas and beans. Now I cook with them just because they are the basis of so many delicious meals like this one, and for the health benefits as well. Meat can easily be added to this recipe if you wish.

Lentil, Spinach and Mushroom Curry

Let's Cook:

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time 30 minutes

 Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup Whole Green lentils

1/2 cup Red Split Lentils

6 roughly chopped mushrooms

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced.

2cm piece fresh ginger, grated.

2 tablespoon Clive of India Curry Powder (or a good substitute curry powder)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

400 ml tin of coconut milk

1 cup vegetable stock

200g baby spinach or 1 whole medium sized eggplant

1 lemon, juice of

1/2 cup chopped coriander and extra for garnish if desired.

METHOD:

Rinse the Green lentils in a colander under cold water and pick over to remove any discoloured lentils or other matter. Do the same with the red lentils separately. The Green and the Red lentils are added at different stages during the cooking process.

On a low heat, sauté the onion in the oil for 4-5 minutes without browning. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute.

Combine the curry powder, cumin, and pepper in a small bowl and stir into the onions to coat them. I have also added a teaspoon of beneficial dried turmeric spice sometimes, which gives it a nice colour and a little more flavour, but not necessary. 

Add the uncooked Whole Green Lentils, coconut milk, and stock. Stir and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes and add more liquid if the mixture looks dry. Stir every 5 minutes during this time to ensure the lentil mixture isn't sticking to the base of the pan. 

After 15 minutes, add the uncooked Red Lentils, and the mushrooms. This is when you add the slightly cooked eggplant pieces if you are using them. 

Cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring and adding more liquid if necessary to prevent the mixture sticking to the pan.

I added almost an extra cup of water.

Fold in the spinach, lemon juice and chopped coriander just before serving.

Heat through and serve with rice or naan bread, or both.

Lentil, Mushroom and Eggplant Curry variation

It is so easy to substitute eggplant for the baby spinach in this curry.  I used one medium sized eggplant, chopped it up small chunks, and baked the pieces on a tray in the oven until slightly coloured at 180 deg. C, and almost cooked. Bake the eggplant chunks whilst you are simmering the green lentils. Or precook them and keep them covered in the refrigerator until you need them. They will finish cooking in the curry. I prefer this to cooking them in oil first before adding to a curry. However, I did lightly spray the eggplant pieces with spray on olive oil before baking so that they didn't dry out too much.

Add the eggplant chunks to the lentil dish when you add the red lentils and mushrooms according to the recipe above. The eggplant will then absorb all of the delicious curry flavours.

Cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring and adding more liquid if necessary. I added almost an extra cup of water. Fold in the lemon juice and chopped coriander just before serving.

Once you have made your curry so many other foods can be eaten with it. It is perfect just a for a meal on its own with rice and naan bread, or you can add some cooked chicken for the meat lovers, some extra vegetables, or even a poached egg on top.

Leftover curry will improve in flavour in the refrigerator to be eaten the next day. However, the spinach will just about disappear, so you could add some more next time when you reheat your curry.

Regular readers will know that I was called up for jury duty last fortnight, but I had reprieve when no jurors were required for that period. Phew! I felt as if I was the one being let out of jail! However, it freed me up last week to look after Tess, a dear old friend of mine who needed a carer after having an Angiogram in hospital. She's 84 years old, very slight, and the procedure took a lot out of her. I drove her to the hospital at 7 am in the morning, she was there until 3.30 pm, and then I brought her home to our place for a "sleepover", and breakfast.  I drove her home, later in the morning. The Public Hospital staff looked after her very well, but both her wrists and arms were very bruised, and she was really worn out. Thankfully the hospital insists on the patients needing a carer after a procedure like this one. So, I cooked a large piece of Corned Silverside in the slow cooker, which I know she enjoys, and we ate that for an early tea with some mashed potato, mashed pumpkin, steamed beans and broccoli. Broccoli is her favourite vegetable, noted Tess. She just loved it, and because she couldn't apply any pressure to her wrists, I cut everything up into small pieces for her. Corned Silverside is always delicious, and then we have sliced cold meat for a few days. Plain food is the best when recovering after a medical procedure isn't it? Tess doesn't eat very much though at the best of times. I gave her a container to take home with enough silverside and vegetables to last for a couple of days. She was thrilled to bits with that.

The next day, Tess had recovered fairly well, and I've spoken to her each day since, but she is still tired and other friends are taking her out for small outings. I'll see her this weekend. She needs to have some non-invasive heart surgery in about 6 months' time, in Townsville, about 350 kms away, and will need to fly up there for that. This was a real wake up call for me about elderly people who have no family to help out when they need to be cared for. Even those with families will need lots of support at some time. She still lives in her own home, which she is very thankful for, but she does need a lot of support from her neighbours and friends.

Take care,

Warmest wishes and I hope you enjoy this recipe. 

Pauline x

In My Kitchen - February 2023

Before Christmas I was selected as a prospective juror for two weeks from the 30th January, 2023, so whilst trying to do my civic duty, I said I would be available if my name was chosen in the second selection, and of course it was. This meant I needed to cancel any commitments for these two weeks, so that I would be available. However, late each afternoon last week I was messaged by the Supreme and District Court to the effect that I wouldn't be required the following day, so it's been a week of just planning things day by day. Next week could be exactly the same, with no assurance that I will be required but if I am I will have to be available or risk being heavily fined. It seems a strange system, but I can't think of a better one, so next week I will be living day by day as well. That means plenty of time in the kitchen, reading a good book, playing the piano, impromptu catch ups, etc., sounds good. One week to go without being able to make any definite daily plans in advance. I have already sat on a jury panel once, have you? Thankfully mine wasn't a disturbing case, and I found the experience quite interesting.

Photo taken before the spinach started to wilt a little.

 I've made two vegetarian Lentil curries, a week apart, because the first one was so delicious. It was a Lentil, Mushroom and Spinach Curry, and I made this one when all of the flooding was occurring In Southern Queensland and New South Wales and there wasn't very much fresh fruit and vegetables available at the supermarkets or the farmer's markets because of the heat and then the rain. I bought a packet of spinach leaves and some mushrooms, which were close to the expiry date and made this curry. I always have jars of green and red lentils in the pantry, so they were the basis of an earthy and delicious lentil curry. 

Then a week later, I changed the vegetables slightly and made an eggplant and mushroom lentil curry, which we enjoyed even more, perfect for the wet weather at the time. Even though this is such a simple recipe, I'll post it on the blog soon, as I know you will enjoy it too. A simple vegetarian meal with leftovers during a busy week, is just what is needed sometimes. However leftover chicken could easily be added to it.

 

I had some leftover mashed pumpkin in the refrigerator so I made a batch of golden Pumpkin Scones from a Kent (Jap) pumpkin, just last week. Cooked mashed pumpkin keeps well in the frig. I made these ones slightly larger than normal, and the recipe made 8 instead of 10. I think a pumpkin scone needs to be on the larger side as they are so delicious with a cuppa. They also reheat beautifully in the microwave oven.  I haven't made pumpkin scones for a while, and it pays to keep in practice don't you think?

So while the scone making flour fest "in my kitchen" was in full flight, I resurrected my Sourdough Mother from the depths of the refrigerator, poor thing. She responded beautifully to being fed with just plain flour and warm but boiled water, by bubbling away happily on the warm windowsill of our North facing laundry.  I always ferment a couple of jars of the sourdough, more than I need, just in case one doesn't work well. The trick is to catch the bubbling dough just in time before it starts bubbling up through the lid of the jar onto the windowsill below. The jars really need to sit in a container in case that happens. "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble", always pops into my head when I am working with sourdough as it seems a bit witchy, even though it should be "Double, double, toil and trouble" originally from Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth. 

Beautiful sourdough bubbles

I mixed up the sourdough for the bread, and then left it to rise slowly in two large bowls overnight at room temperature. I have just baked two loaves, a large hi-top loaf and a smaller loaf. The air conditioning is on during our heat wave, so it's perfect conditions inside for this dedicated baker. These loaves don't have the large holes like the round artisan loaves, as I used a lower hydration recipe, which works well for a standard loaf of sandwich bread. I didn't add any glaze or flour dusting to the surface of this loaf, so it is quite rustic in appearance, but tastes great after it has cooled slightly and is fresh out of the oven. I have made round artisan style loaves before, using the high-hydration method, which are great to have if visitors are coming over.

The smaller loaf today from the second dough mix. Different lighting also?

January included the Lunar New Year celebrations, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit, and whilst we don't get involved in any actual celebrations where we live, I was obviously influenced by all of the fun and publicity at the time. I made a Chinese Omelette for dinner one evening, named Egg Foo Young. I deconstructed it and made a very tasty pork filling to sit inside the omelette. It was a lot of fun to make with all those bean sprouts, and delicious to eat. Egg Foo Young was created by economical Chinese kitchen cooks to use up meat and vegetable leftovers, as was Fried Rice. It's very versatile as well.

It was also Australia Day on the 26th January, amid quite a lot of controversy about what it should really be named and on which date it should occur. The day before we enjoyed some Crystal Bay Prawns on a sandwich for lunch as the easy accessibility to fresh seafood here is one of the food highlights of living in our great Southern land and North Queensland. The prawns are farmed in the Hinchinbrook Channel near Cardwell in Far North Queensland and are sometimes sold at the supermarket. Australia Day is always very laid back. Good friends, P & J invited us over for an Australia Day meal in the afternoon which was delicious, with beautiful seafood to enjoy and homemade Aussie pavlova for dessert.

I purchased a new Australian cookbook, simply called Dinner. I've been wanting Nagi Maehashi's cookbook for ages as I often try her recipes and she has built up a very reliable reputation with her everyday recipes here in Australia, and overseas too I believe.

I agree wholeheartedly with her five non-negotiable rules in the kitchen, and would like to add one more to the list please Nagi.  If cooking with wine, keep a glass for yourself to drink, tee hee.

I made a simple Chicken stir-fry using Nagi's special stir fry sauce, and also tried her Tip on tenderising the chicken, Chinese style. It was delicious. It was extremely hot outside last night, even at 7 pm, still around 30 deg. C, so I cooked the meal inside in a frypan, rather than in a wok which we usually do on our outside gas burner. It was still delicious. This photo is before I added Nagi's magic sauce. Even though stir fries are considered fairly common place these days, I'll post the recipe later so that I can find it easily when I am travelling, and also for your interest if you don't have her book. My stir fries often involve chopping up whatever vegies I have on hand, adding some sliced chicken or beef, some herbs, and then adding some soy sauce and a little oyster sauce as well. Quick and easy. I took this stir fry to the next level by actually following a recipe.

Chicken, snow pea, capsicum and carrot, and a special stir fry sauce about to be added.

That's all folks for now. Thanks for dropping by. I'd love to hear from you, so if you do read my latest IMK or any of my posts, you can leave an anonymous comment at the end in the Comments section if you wish.  Anonymity is guaranteed. And if I happen to know you personally, just type your first name at the end of your comment and say hi, and that would be great.

This is my February submission to the #IMK series hosted by Sherry from Sherry's Pickings. Each month bloggers from around the world gather to share what is new in their kitchen.  I don't buy a lot of new merchandise for my Kitchen, mainly food ingredients, but I love cooking and baking. I hope you enjoy some of my recipes and stories.

Cheerio from very tropical North Queensland,

Pauline x

Pork Egg Foo Young (Chinese Omelette)

Healthy Egg Foo Young is a delicious Chinese omelette which was created by the economical Chinese kitchen cooks to use up meat and vegetable leftovers, as was Fried Rice. Most Chinese restaurants generally have omelettes on the menu, and they are also delicious as a takeaway, however you can easily make them at home, as a welcome change to the normal cheese and herb omelette.

The Typical Foods that Australians Love to Eat

 I've been "flat out like a lizard drinking all day", but I wanted to write something about typical Aussie food today and a few slang expressions just might get thrown in as well. Aussies, except for vegetarians and vegans have always loved a good beef steak, and throwing a lamb chop on the barbecue, as well as the prawn. Sorry but I refuse to call it a shrimp, despite Paul Hogan's best intentions to "throw a shrimp on the barbie". However, now it seems that delicious seafood is very popular and is more affordable than red meat, depending on where we buy it. A high percentage of us are favouring seafood at Christmas time now, instead of chicken and pork, it's easy and it's fresh. To mark the day I'm not going to mention just yet, I bought enough fresh prawns today from the supermarket to make a prawn sandwich on very fresh bread and butter, I adore seafood, even more that Mr. HRK. I was raised by my Mother to love it, as she grew up by the beach in Central Queensland with access to lots of lovely seafood. Give me a plate of fresh oysters, Queensland Mud Crabs, and prawns, and I am in Heaven.

These Crystal Bay prawns, which I bought this morning, were farmed in the pristine waters of the Hinchinbrook Channel near Cardwell, in Far North Queensland, and made a delicious sandwich for lunch today, after being peeled and cleaned of course. Many are being sustainably farmed, and sold at quite reasonable prices in supermarkets. However if you like to eat them with a delicious seafood sauce, I have a few favourites to suggest. This is my Seafood Cocktail with Marie Rose sauce.  My mouth is watering at the thought of it. Long live the Prawn Cocktail, with fresh oysters on the side.

Vegemite is 100 years old, and is a black spread like Promite, that Aussies have been trained to love almost from the cradle. None of us can remember when we first tasted it, but it's always been in the refrigerator. Many a Mum has dipped her finger into a jar of vegemite while they are eating it spread on toast for breakfast and given their young child a taste even before they started on solids, just so they would grow up loving it, and most of us do. We've all grown up being "happy little vegemites". It celebrates everything fun and unique about being an Aussie. One of the amusing things we love to do with overseas visitors, is to give them a taste of vegemite on toast just to see their reaction. Even though we eat Australian made Weet-bix most mornings for breakfast during the week, it's often vegemite on toast that is my first food craving for the day, along with a cup of tea. Now that is an honest confession from a foodie. 

Vegemite, the brand, is celebrating 100 years this year, such an Aussie icon. Besides having it on toast, we love to add it to savoury mince dishes, beef stews, and Mr. HRK insists it's his secret ingredient when he's cooking. Pizza companies have now developed a frozen vegemite pizza, to be released soon. Mr. HRK will be trying that out, he loves making pizzas.

The Royal Australian Mint has released a Vegemite edition of the $1 coin which will feature a piece of toast with vegemite smeared on it. Some Vegemite stamps are going to be released as well. Vegemite is a trademark of the Bega Cheese Limited, we've been to BEGA.

So what else do we Aussies hold dear to their hearts as favourite foods? Weetbix has always been around as a breakfast cereal, we've been eating them since we were kids. After all, Aussie Kids are Weet-Bix kids, well they were, I'm not so sure now. It's a totally Australian product made by Sanitarium, and besides eating it for breakfast, it has been used as a basis for biscuits and slices and Rum Balls at Christmas, oh yes Rum Balls. I dare not mess with that recipe, or there will be a family revolt.

Recipe can be found at: HAPPY RETIREE'S KITCHEN : Christmas Rum Balls and Chocolate Rum Truffles (happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com) As far as I'm concerned, these taste great at any time of the year, and made with lots of Queensland Bundaberg Rum of course.

The LAMINGTON is the national cake of Australia, that's fair dinkum. There I've said it, it's a big claim, but true.  It is a slab of sponge cake cut in large squares, dipped in chocolate and sprinkled liberally with desiccated coconut. It was first invented in Queensland with the first recipe appearing in the Country Life newspaper as early as 1900. The story goes that it was created by a cooking accident at work by a maid-servant to Lord Lamington, the very British eighth Governor of Queensland.

Many of us who have had children attend primary school in Queensland, participated in Lamington Drives at the school, which were a major annual fundraiser, and a very messy experience. All the slabs of cake that had to be cut up into squares, all the runny chocolate icing in large bowls which the cake had to be dipped into, and all those trays of coconut which the chocolate covered cake had to be rolled in. I'm sure we wore gloves, but you can imagine that it could get quite messy. I think it turned me off actually making Lamingtons. I prefer to buy them now from a very good local bakery, but recipes are available if you want to give them a try. They really are delicious, but the cake has to be like the real sponge cake that lamingtons are traditionally made from. That's the secret. I've ordered a dozen chocolate lamingtons for tomorrow, it's traditional, I had to. We'll share them with neighbours and friends. There are plenty of varieties to choose from now, pink ones, ones with cream and jam in the middle, ones coated in hundreds and thousands and various kinds of sprinkles, the list is endless.

The lamingtons in the photo above were bought from the supermarket today, and are actually a good size for children to eat. They are white cake coated in chocolate icing and rolled in coconut, however they don't taste as good as the bakery product which is larger and with a softer cake. However these are quite affordable for many families and capture the spirit of the lamington for Australia Day.

Call us strange, but something else we love to do here Down Under is eat the humble pumpkin when cooked, in many ways, and at any time of the year. It is such an earthy and economical vegetable to eat whether baked, boiled, mashed, or made into sweets. Not many other countries in the world grow it and eat it like we do. 

Some of you will remember my Pumpkin Scone recipe from International Scone Week last year, but I just checked my blog recipes and I have cooked quite a few pumpkin cakes over the years too.

Here's a batch of Aussie Damper scones just out of the oven.

Did I say damper? Real rustic damper is what we love to cook in a cast iron Camp Oven over a fire when we go camping in the bush. Eating it hot with butter and smothered in Golden Syrup is a must.

The Camp Oven cooking the damper in the smouldering coals of the fire. Hot Coals must also be placed in the lid of the pot.

Damper Ingredients:

2 cups SR Flour
Pinch of salt
Water

Let's make Damper:

• In a bowl, add 2 cups of self-raising flour and a pinch of salt
• Slowly add water from the jug and mix gently with a wooden spoon until the ingredients start to combine and form a dough
• The dough now needs to be mixed together, not kneaded. Using your hands, yes your clean hands, cup the ingredients in your hands, and slowly work the dough until you get a nice round damper shape.

Back to the pumpkin recipes.

Rosemary Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

Golden Pumpkin, Olive and Zucchini Loaf

And this is one of my all time favourites, Pumpkin and Apricot Fruit Cake. We love a good fruit cake.

There are more but you can find them I'm sure if you feel inspired.

Many of the classic Aussie dishes have a British, Irish or Scottish origin, Meat Pies, Apple Pies, Hearty stews. Fair shake of the sauce bottle, who doesn't love a good pie?

I can hear you saying, what about the famous Aussie Pavlova? The Pav smothered in fresh cream is a favourite dessert here in Oz, and we definitely claim it as our own, however our friends across the ditch in New Zealand, also hold it dear. Anyway it's a debate that still hasn't been resolved, and might never be. Here's the link to my pavlova recipe. In an ideal world, fresh passionfruit would have been added to this pav as well.

Pikelets are a popular morning tea treat here, something like mini pancakes, but served with jam and cream, or Golden Syrup, another Aussie favourite,  they are always a winner. The Aussie sheep shearers love 'em, and they are entrenched firmly in shearing history. I love whipping up a quick batch of pikelets and so do kids.

What I've written is just the tip of the iceberg, as we Aussies love our food, however we must remember that many can barely afford to put a meal on the table, and need help from charities working in those areas. We are so fortunate here to have such a diversity of foods, spices, herbs and cuisines to choose from.  I've listed some of the typical Aussie foods here, but we have such a rich history of immigration in this country, resulting in a diversity of cuisines to choose from.

What are you eating tomorrow my friends? A BBQ is always popular, or will you be laying back and enjoying some seafood? What are your Aussie favourites? I couldn't possibly mention all of them.

For my overseas readers, Australia Day has become very controversial and political, with a change of name and date being proposed because of the history associated with it. There I've mentioned it.

Anyway, have a good one.

Warmest wishes

Pauline

Leek and Stilton Quiche

Leek and Stilton Quiche is typically a British style quiche, mainly because of it's signature ingredients, Leeks and Stilton cheese, and will be a memorable dish for a special occasion. It is quite rich, but oh so delicious. Stilton is the creamiest and tastiest of all blue cheese varieties, with the most amount of fat, but doesn't contain any gluten. To be honest, I've never eaten much Stilton before, even when we lived in England for 12 months, but now it is readily available in Australian supermarkets, at a very reasonable price. To be authentically Stilton, it must only be made in the English counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire. It's been that way since 1996, as Stilton is a protected Destination of Origin cheese.

Beating the Heat with a Summery Mixed Bean Salad

 

Dear Friends, Reach into your pantry, hunt down that tin of Mixed Beans, and whip up this simple bean salad. This salad serves 4-6 people. If you are doubling the quantities, use a red and a green capsicum, as the two colours look attractive and give a nice contrast in flavours. I just love the tang of this salad in Summer.