Vanilla Plums, Rice, Sugar and Olive Oil

Things I have learned this week!

1. Rice contains arsenic! I am gobsmacked! Maybe you knew this already. If you are a not a big rice eater then eating small amounts of rice should be fine. However, to make it safer, soak rice in water overnight, drain the water and discard it and then use fresh water to cook the rice. Arsenic will be drawn out of the rice and into the water  you are discarding making it much safer.

2. Never use olive oil in non stick pans. Use grape seed oil, avocado oil or bran oil. This will enable your non stick pan to stay pristine for ever. Olive oil will burn on your non stick pan rendering it useless. Thank you George! ( I read this on the box of my new George Colombaris pan) How come I didn't know this?


3. Quitting sugar is like giving up smoking. The thought of it is way more difficult than actually doing it. I am on day 6 of a sugarless diet! But, I did buy a jar of Rice Malt Syrup which contains no fructose and I tried it in my coffee. It tasted OK but it wasn't sweet.

4. Sweet cooked fruit in season does not need added sugar. If you add sugar out of habit to your food, stop and think 'do I really need this'.

5. Volunteering for something takes less time that you think and is a great way to meet new people and learn about your local environment.

6. Plums are one of my favourite fruits.

So I had better let you have my favourite plum recipe that is so simple you wonder why you have never tried it before. (Ssh, it contains no sugar either)

VANILLA PLUMS

Ingredients

1 kg ripe plums, any kind will do

1 vanilla pod

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 cup water

I feel a bit of a fake posting this recipe - if you can even call it that! 

1. Wash and cut the fruit into quarters removing the seed.

2. Add to a large pan with water, cinnamon stick and the seeds from the vanilla pod.

3. On a low heat cook plums until they are soft and thick, about 15 - 20 minutes. 

4. Take off the heat and cool. Remove the cinnamon stick. 

5. Serve warm or cold with ice cream, custard, yoghurt or by themselves.

See I told you it was really easy.

Did you know? The plum is related to the almond, peach and nectarine.Plums are called 'drupes' something with a hard stone at the centre, from the Latin word 'druppa' meaning 'over ripe olive'. (I think this must be because the olive has a hard stone in the centre). If you are a linguist and know more about this, can you leave a comment please.

Phenols are also found in plums and prunes (dried plums); they function as antioxidants - plus they aid in helping the body to absorb iron. And finally they are high in vitamin C. What a clever thing nature is.

Sweet Potato, Rice and Quinoa Salad

Fires, devastation, floods and now we have Santos Tour Down Under.

Adelaide is crazy at the moment and it wont stop until April. February and March are taken up with Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Fringe Festival. Oh, and did I mention Adelaide Writers Week?  And, they have kept day light saving well into April too!

How is one supposed to concentrate on food? I suppose when your tummy rumbles it's time to consider making a beeline for the kitchen to make something fast, easy but amazingly tasty and nutritious. No time for baking, pastry making or getting out the ice cream churner!

So here is a little tip; this whole salad will take you 30 minutes to make. It's something really tasty and nutritious and with any luck you will score some left overs for another day. It keeps perfectly well covered in the fridge for a couple of days. Serve with an 'Omelette aux fine herbes' (omelet with herbs) and you have a meal fit for a queen

Sweet Potato, Rice and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

2 Sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup of low GI brown rice
1/2 cup of Quinoa - I used mixed colours; white, black, red
1 onion finely chopped
2 teaspoon smoked paprika
2teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1 cup of stock or water
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 tablespoon chopped parsley

The rice takes the longest to cook, so once the rice is on, put in your sweet potato and start cooking your quinoa.

Cook rice in whichever way you normally do until it is cooked. I usually use a rice cooker and it takes around 20 -30 minutes. I add salt to the water prior to switching it on. This is the low GI rice I found in the supermarket.

Take an oven proof tray, cover with baking paper and add the chopped sweet potato. Give the potato an nice sprinkling of olive oil and 1 teaspoon chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika and roast in a moderate oven 180º for 30 minutes or until it is cooked and browned on all sides. 

In a fry pad, add 1 teaspoon of oil and add the minced garlic and the onion. Allow to cook until soft and it is just beginning to turn brown around the edges. Add quinoa and stock or water and continue cooking for around 15 - 20 minutes until the quinoa is cooked and there is no stock left. I used Coles Tricolour Quinoa for extra colour, but you can use whichever you have available.

Take the potato out of the oven. By now your rice should be cooked and your quinoa should be ready to serve. It is just a matter of putting everything together now.

Add the quinoa and onion mixture to the rice in a nice bowl and stir together. Add 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika, the red wine vinegar and 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes. Mix together. Top with the roasted sweet potato a handful of chopped parsley and chives. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to suit. Serve.

Vegetable Biryani with Dahl

At the last Census in India in 2011, the population was assessed to be over 1.2 billion people. That is one hell of a lot of mouths to feed. You can understand then why the staple food is rice. A commodity which grows very well under Indian conditions, which has been helped by development in seed types that allows for multiple cropping periods. Rice is easy to cook. It takes up the many spicy flavours of cardamom, turmeric, ginger and coriander beautifully and gives rich deep flavours and piquant aromas.

There is some dispute over how a Biryani came to be in Indian cuisine, whether the name was originally from Persia and the style of cooking was brought to India or if the dish originated in the southern Indian states. Either way, thank goodness it has made its way into our lives and this Biryani is something worth taking your time to make.

One of the great things about cooking any kind of Indian food is the fantastic aroma it gives to the kitchen and of course yellow hands from turmeric and saffron : )

My good friend Gene, queen of Indian Cuisine, has recommended adding pumpkin (butternut squash) to my Dhal because it add another dimension, so that is what I have been doing recently. She is right of course, it does add an extra something.

I have used tinned chick peas to make this a faster recipe but if you have time you could use natural chickpeas soaked in water overnight, drained and used.

Vegetable Biryani

Ingredients

olive or vegetable oil

400g tin of chick peas drained

2 tblsp 

1 carrot chopped

a handful of green beans  trimmed and halved

2 large tomatoes chopped

1 potato peeled and chopped

200g basmati rice

1/4 cup sultanas/currants or raisons

Fresh coriander leaves for serving

3 cardamom pods, crushed

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin seed

1 onion finely chopped

3 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 tbls grated fresh ginger

1 tsp ground turmeric

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

pinch of saffron soaked in 1/4 cup water

• In a large pan heat oil, then add onions and cook slowly until they are a nice golden colour.
• Add all spices, except for saffron and bay leaves and cook on low for about 1 minute adding a tablespoon of water if they are starting to stick.
• Add bay leaves and saffron, all the vegetables and 3/4 cup of water. Cover and cook over a low heat for around 15 minutes. If the water evaporates quickly then add extra water. When the vegetables are just about cooked add the rice, chick peas, sultanas and salt and pepper. Add 11/2 cups of boiling water. 
• Mix well and cover and cook on a low heat for 20 minutes. Check to see how well the rice is cooking. Keeping the lid on tightly, turn off the heat and let it sit for another 10 -15 minutes. 
• Fluff up suing a fork.

Serve with Dahl and Yoghurt. This serves 4 - 6 people

Dahl

Ingredients

2 tbls oil
1 large onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
300g prepared pumpkin or butternut squash(peeled and chopped)
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp chilli powder
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 cup red or orange lentils washed
350ml water
salt
juice from 1/2 lemon

• Take a large pan and heat oil. Add onion and cook on low heat until soft. Add garlic and all the spices. Cook 1 minute, adding a tablespoon or two of water if it starts to stick.
• Add chopped tomatoes and pumpkin and mix well so the spices coat the vegetables. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes. Add the lentils and water. Bring to the boil, cover and on a low heat cook until the pumpkin is cooked. Add more water if it starts to evaporate too quickly. It should take around 25 minutes.
• Add salt to taste and lemon juice. 
• You can leave the pumpkin in pieces or mash it into the lentils, whichever you prefer.

Serves 4 - 6 people  Cost in total $4.50

Spanish Paella for Vegetarians

It probably seems odd to some vegetarians that a dish of Paella looks so mouthwatering. It is the flavours, spices and the rich golden colour that draws me to it, but alas it is the seafood and meat that stops me eating it.

A few years ago when I was in Barcelona, I would stand outside restaurants, nose pressed against the windows watching waiters delivering huge platters of Paella to their waiting patrons. I would search every menu to find one I could eat, but it didn't happen and I was left with a real feeling of disappointment.

Not surprising then to see my version of a vegetarian Paella here. This dish will give you the same experience flavour wise, but without the fish and meat. The original recipe that got me started was from a magazine, (unfortunately I can't reference it because I have no idea where it came from). It did included sausages and chicken but somehow the spices together sounded as though they would meld together well, so I adapted it to make it vegetarian. I love this recipe, it is so easy to make, yet it provides the full flavour of a Paella that I want.

Thank you, whoever you are, that inspired me to make this! Also, to all the Spanish people who may be offended because this is not a true Paella and think I am making a mockery out of their national dish, 'Apenado! (Gosh, I hope that's the right word).

Vegetarian Paella

Ingredients
1 tbls olive oil
1  small onion finely chopped
1 cup basmati rice - don't use any other rice
1 tsp ground turmeric
425g tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 large red capsicum, chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 small red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tin chick peas, drained
1  kumara (sweet potato) peeled and grated
100g chopped mushrooms
pinch saffron threads
100g french green beans, topped and blanched for 5 minutes
1 tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
chopped coriander
1 lemon cut into wedges for serving

• Add olive oil to a large frypan with lid, saute onion, and garlic until soft. Add turmeric and rice and cook stirring for 2 minutes. 
• Add saffron threads to the stock and stir. 
• Add tomatoes, capsicum, chilli, mushrooms, paprika and kumara and all of the stock. 
• Bring  to the boil and then turn the heat down low, cover and cook stirring occasionally for 15 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed. 
• Add chick peas, smoked paprika (you can add some of the liquid from the chick peas if you need more stock) and green beans, adjust seasoning by adding salt and pepper to taste. 
• Heat through, stirring for 3 more minutes and it is ready to serve with  chopped coriander and wedges of lemon!