Lately, I've been pondering a lot about the meaning of life! I think Douglas Adams and Monty Python have already had a few stabs at it. There's a lot of talk about it, quotes about it but has anyone actually defined it?
"Life is rather like a tin of sardines-we're all of us looking for the key." Alan Bennett
So has this anything to do with Mushroom Chilli with Lime? Absolutely!
If this meaning involves giving your body the best possible food, which in turn will keep you healthy then yes, its all part of the meaning of life, for me anyway. And it fuels the brain and gives more time for procrastinating and thinking of what the hell am I really doing here.
Hey, this is getting a little heavy.
I need to add more value to what I am doing in my later years, so it is time to get all my jobs done, things I have put off for a while, then I will have some breathing space. I have made a huge list and I am going to work through this over the next couple of months. That painting job, family history, the garden project, the photography project, the collage, that mandala etc etc.
With all that accomplished it will be time to plan the rest of my life...................!
So to start off this rather eventful week, I offer you this delicious, easy to make, flavoursome, low calorie recipe (around 200 calories). It's full of fibre, protein, vitamin C and D, B6, Riboflavin and Niacin.
Can you beat that?
MUSHROOM CHILLI WITH LIME
INGREDIENTS
500g mushrooms, sliced thickly
400g can of kidney beans, washed and drained
1 brown onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic diced
1 tablespoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground chilli or chilli flakes (more if you want it really hot)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons smokey paprika
salt and pepper
400g can chopped tomatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
handful fresh coriander, chopped
juice of 1/2 lime
Lime dressing
1/4 cup light sour cream or Greek yoghurt
ime zest and juice
Make the lime dressing first. Zest the lime and juice it. Keep the juice and the zest seperate. Put the zest, 1/4 cup of Greek yoghurt and half the juice into a small container and stir to incorporate. Now set aside.
In a large frypan add oil and bring it up to temperature. Lower the heat and add all of the spices and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Do no allow the spices to burn or they will be very bitter.
Next, add the mushrooms. Cook relatively high so the mushrooms colour up but do not release juices. Throw in the chopped garlic and keep stirring, making sure that everything is covered in the oil and spices.
Time to add the washed beans and tomatoes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander and season with salt and pepper. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for approximately 25 - 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Make sure you stir often to avoid burning.
Add the juice of half of the lime and stir in. When you are ready to serve, sprinkle the top with more chopped coriander and a few dollops of the lime dressing.
Serve with salad, rice, quinoa, cous cous, bread or just eat by itself.
Apologies for my absence from this blog for a few weeks. Needed to take a few days out to refresh my thoughts, try out new recipes and basically veg out. But I'm back, so watch out!
Thinking about a garden tour of Italy in 2018. What do you think? I've visited Italy many times, seen a few famous gardens as well as magnificent towns, cities, churches, cathedrals, markets and museums. But a holiday just looking at gardens, now wouldn't that be fabulous for a 'plant-a-holic' like myself?
On my last visit to Florence I walked the Boboli Gardens. The view of Florence from the top of the embankments was breathtaking.
I was reminded of this trip only a couple of weeks ago when I visited a dear friend in Brisbane. Over dinner - a fabulous Caponata, we discussed our very next adventure - walking trails and gardens in Tasmania - a garden tour of Italy! With these very thoughts on my return to Adelaide I grabbed my Private Gardens of Italy by Helena Attlee and an Italian phrase book. Neither of which would help if we go the Tasmanian road.
So dreams of Italy and Italian food and nudged by my restorative time in Brisbane - here is my version of Caponata.
Buon appetito!
The origin of this recipe is thought to be Spanish and the earliest recorded recipe dates back to around 1700. The thought is, that it is derived from the word Caponada meaning a kind of relish and yes the consistency could almost be classed as a thick relish. I suppose some people might serve this with meat or chicken but on its own I think it's perfect. Today, Caponata is often referred to as Sicilian Caponata or Sicilian Stew.
The flavours will be much stronger if you cook the Caponata the day before you wish to eat it. Store covered in the fridge overnight.
CAPONATA
1 large eggplant diced
1 onion finely diced
I red capsicum diced
2 cloves garlic crushed
3 large tomatoes diced
1 440g tin crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons capers
10 kalamata olives, halved, pits removed
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup water/veg stock
handful chopped parsley and oregano
olive oil
- Put a good lug of olive oil into a large fry pan and on a low heat cook onions and garlic until slightly softened.
- Add eggplant and cook until it is lightly browned and starting to soften.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, except parsley and oregano and cook on a low heat until the eggplant is very, very soft. Around 30 -40 minutes. Keep checking to ensure that it is not sticking on the bottom. Add a little more water/stock and continue to cook.
- The mixture should be nice and thick and the eggplant very, very soft. Check seasoning. If you are not going to eat this straight away, then hold off adding the parsley and oregano.
You can serve this with any pasta/couscous if you prefer, but some nice chunky bread to mop up the juices is my preference.
Now stop laughing because for many people a soggy bottom is a real problem!
Only a few days ago a friend cooked a Tomato Tart using puff pastry but she was unable to get the bottom of the tart to cook. She asked my opinion on what she did wrong and how to avoid a soggy bottom with puff pastry.
Remembering back to my first few quiches, I suffered from a similar problem, although I used a shortcrust pastry. Then I learned about blind baking.
BLIND BAKING PASTRY CASES
Blind baking isn't turning the oven on wearing a blind fold.
It is where you bake a pastry case for a short period of time of the without a filling, to ensure the bottom of the pastry is cooked through.
To stop pastry on the base rising, it is necessary to prick the pastry base with a fork, cover it with baking or greaseproof paper and fill the cavity with dried beans or Ceramic Pie Weights. The shell is then cooked for a short time without the filling.
This method allows the pastry to cook right through to the bottom layer once the filling is added.
Ok we have learned that the hard way. But does this method work with puff pastry????
PUFF PASTRY
No matter whose recipe you read, there are arguments for and against blind baking puff pastry! In fact many chefs will not use puff pastry on the bottom of a filled pie because there is no guarantee that it will cook through.
As a rule, I blind bake all pastry cases; puff, flaky, shortcrust. The only exception is if I making very small puff pastry finger foods, where the filling is completely wrapped in puff pastry - then I bake it on a high temperature to ensure it's sealed and cooked quickly.
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
I called into my local bakery 'Banana Bogie' at Belair and spoke with baker Jason Spencer. I asked his opinion on puff pastry.
One of the most important things to remember when using puff pastry, according to Jason is to make sure you cook pastry at the correct temperature; puff pastry needs to bake quickly at a high temperature, around 200ยบ or higher depending on your oven. Also, you need to ensure that your filling isn't too wet, because this can also make for a soggy bottom.
Jason stated that most commercial bakers/bakeries would use two kinds of pastry to make pies; puff pastry for the top of the pie because it puffs up beautifully, gives a wonderful golden colour to the pie and is nice and flaky when you eat it. The other end of the pie is usually a shortcrust pastry, which holds the filling in and cooks right through to the base - so no soggy bottoms. How sneaky is this???
I have the recipe for the Tomato Tart that my friend made. I decided to give it a go with puff pastry too, but I did blind bake the pastry cases. I decided to make individual tarts, because that was more useful at the time.
(I've not included the recipe, because I don't have permission to re print it.) But, guess what? No soggy bottoms!
Now you might just disagree with blind baking your pastry and that is Ok. Whatever works for you is fine. But after a few years of failures, this works for me every time.
The recipe came from a book called "Delia's Happy Christmas' Cookbook. You may be able to search for it on line. Delia Smith did not recommend blind baking the pastry for this recipe.
