It doesn’t get more traditional than cauliflower cheese. And no, New York Times, it’s NOT cauliflower and cheese. No, no, no.

I used yellow cauliflower, so now I’ve had white, green and yellow. Next up, purple.

1. trim off leaves, steam the whole head for about 15mins till tender
2. cut into florets, arrange in a single layer in oven dish
3. make a roux from 2oz butter, 3tbsp flour
4. add about 3/4 pint milk (I used a mixture of cream and milk) slowly, stirring constantly until just bubbling
5. add 4oz shredded cheese
6. pour sauce over cauliflower, season
7. bake at 200°C for 30-40mins until golden brown

about 2/3 loaf of sourdough bread, cut into cubes
half a punnet mushroom, roughly diced
about 12 stalks asparagus, cut to 1” lengths
2 eggs
500ml mixture of milk and vegetable (or chicken if non-vegetarian) stock, about 2:1 ratio

grease the bottom of an oven dish with butter, spread over the bread cubes
add the vegetables
mix the eggs, milk and stock together, pour over bread and vegetables, season
stand for 5-10mins for the liquid to be absorbed, pressing the bread with a spoon if necessary
bake at 200°C for 1 hr until golden brown
stand in dish for 10-15mins before seving

Adapted from simply recipes, my butternut squash was never as orange as Elise’s.

Chop half a butternut squash into 1” cubes, top with a granny smith apple, sliced. Sprinkle on a mixture of 2oz butter, brown sugar, 1 tbsp flour, salt and pepper. Top with cranberries — I had dried, which I reconstituted with some hot water. Bake at 180°C for 1 hour. I added a can of chickpeas towards the end.

Quinoa is new to me, I’ve read many good things about it. I ended up picking at it while cooking and it’s kinda addictive. As usual Elise has the perfect description,

It has this wonderful nutty flavor, that actually doesn’t need much added to it; I used to make a quick batch, pour on some flax seed oil, sprinkle with a little salt, and gobble it up.

This dish is based loosely from a recipe from 100 cookbooks. Well actually, the only things I have in common with Heidi’s recipe are the quinoa and tomatoes. But that’s the point of this recipe, its flexibility and how it’s a great use of whatever vegetables and ingredients are sitting around in the fridge.

1. cook quinoa according to instructions — simmer in double volume of water until completely absorbed, very similar to cooking rice
2. in a frying pan, heat 1 clove of garlic with olive oil, then add the quinoa
3. add vegetables — i had leftover carrots, mushroom and i supplemented them with frozen corn and spinach. Frying them all up it’s a bit like making fried rice
4. add diced baked bread cheese just before turning off the heat
5. season, and dress with red pesto
6. top with dried cranberries and roasted cherry tomato

Basically, any dried robust vegetable can be used. Use tofu, halloumi or feta in place of the baked cheese. This is a completely vegetarian dish, but it didn’t taste like it’s just vegetarian.

I saw this recipe on chocolate et zucchini and immediately thought about all the various courgettes, zucchinis and squashes that are available during the summer months at farmer’s markets.

These are small patty pan (aka scallop, aka button) squash. Only $2 for the punnet. Of course at the farmer’s market the produce are not standard shaped like what you’d get at a supermarket, and that’s part of the charm.

I topped and tailed the squash, slicing into wedges — 8 for a large squash and quartered for smaller ones. Roasted at 200°C with salt and olive oil for 30mins until slightly browned.

In the meantime I made the dressing. And here is where I deviated from Clotilde’s recipe. Instead of mint, chives and coriander I only used mint cos that’s the only one I like. I didn’t have lemons but I had limes, which I thought gave it better flavour. I chopped the mint with lime zest. Mixed with lime juice, a few capers, black pepper and EVOO. I didn’t have paprika or cayenne so I left it out. It was a bit too salty so I added a dash of balsamic vinegar.

When the squash was done, I tossed the wedges and drained chickpeas with the dressing. Oh my, very delicious!

 

This is a recipe from Donna Hay’s A New Cook. I’ve been looking for ways to use the beets I bought at the farmers market earlier this week. The beet greens recipe based on one from Elise Bauer.

• marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic rub, s&p
• scrub beets, keeping skin on, add olive oil, salt and bake at 180°C for around 40mins until soft enough for a knife to run through
• about 15mins before the beets are cooked, brown chicken in a pan and add to the beet pan to finish in oven
• wash beet greens thoroughly, remove tough stalks and chop roughly
• dice 2 slices of bacon, fry in hot pan
• add beet greens to bacon, add water, cover and simmer for 10mins until soft; season with worcester sauce and a little sugar
• when everything is ready, peel beets, cut into wedges and serve

The second time I tried it I made it with yellow beets, and added a couple of slices of fried green tomatoes. Served with red wine. On the left Old Moon old vine zinfandel and on the right a petite syrah/syrah/cab/merlot/zin blend called SNAFU.

I bought one of those large butternut squash — this one is about 4.5lbs. One half I’ll use to make butternut and chickpea salad with tahini, the other half I used to make butternut squash soup. It’s a pretty standard recipe, the addition of a tart green apple tempers the sweetness of the squash.

I pre-roasted the butternut to give it additional flavour, and par-boiled a carrot

In a pan heat a little olive oil, add a couple sticks chopped celery, the carrot, half a green apple and the butternut. Add chicken stock and simmer till everything is soft. Season and blitz till smooth.

I threw in a dollop of yogurt cheese (my sour cream substitute) for appearance.

This is a recent Recipe for Health at the New York Times. Very simple to make and a great pasta substitute.

Slice a zucchini (courgette) into thin ribbons using a potato peeler so they look just like fettuccine. Sauté in olive oil for a few minutes. Remove before they get soggy. Season.

This can be eaten as is, or the recipe recommends adding tomato sauce. I ran out of red pesto and didn’t have jars of sauce handy so I chopped up a ripe tomato and mixed it up with a little balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning so it had a salsa-like consistency.

Easy to make, tasted great. I had it cold the next day and it tasted even better.

This recipe is adapted from orangette who adapted it from the absolutely fantastic casa moro cookbook. I actually have the first moro cookbook, and it looks like I should get the second one too.

Pumpkin and squashes are high on my favourites list. Creamy soup, roasted as side dishes or as a substitute for mashed potato, there’s nothing that beats the chill of winter than a warming, welcoming squash dish. The tahini adds a touch of arabia to the proceedings, and lifts it up beyond just a warm pumpkin salad.

for the salad Cut squash into 8 lengths, keeping the skin on
Dice 3-4 carrots to small, easy to cook pieces (or parboil them first)
Season with olive oil, minced garlic, salt & pepper and mixed spice — the recipe calls for allspice but I didn’t have that
Roast at 200° for 25mins until soft
At the last 5mins or so chuck in a can of drained chickpeas to warm them up

for the tahini dressing Whisk together 2tbsp tahini, 2tbsp lemon juice, finely minced garlic and sea salt
Add water to dilute
Add extra virgin oilve oil and whisk to a thick consistency
Season to taste
I found it too lemony so I added a few drops of sesame oil and a small pinch of sugar

assembly After removing vegetables from the oven, cool a little
Toss everything in tahini dressing and serve

red or yellow peppers
tomato
prosciutto
anchovies
mozarella
garlic

Halve the peppers, keeping the stem but discarding the seeds.
Drape a prosciutto slice inside cavity
Scatter herbs (majoram or oregano), sliced garlic
Halve or quarter tomatoes and sit inside pepper
Sprinkle with chopped anchovies
Drizzle with olive oil, season and roast at 200°C for about 35 minutes until pepper is soft
Arrange mozarella in pepper, return to oven to melt the cheese
Serve with baby spinach, sprinkle over parmesan (if available), olive oil and seasoning.

Note: don’t use proscuitto and anchovies for a vegetarian version. Substitute with mushroom or add some feta cheese.

4 large carrots
3 tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
3 finely chopped shallots
Italian seasoning

Brown all ingredients with a little olive oil in a medium oven for 45 minutes. Then transfer the whole lot into a pan, deglaze the roasting tin with water, add stock from and simmer for an hour. Let the soup stand overnight. Blitz, add milk, season and keep warm.

Gram taught me this. It’s more of a cabbage lasagna than the typical stuffed cabbage.

Half a head cabbage, or a small cabbage
Brown rice
Minced beef
1 can chopped tomato
1 can tomato soup

Blanch half a head of cabbage until soft, then line the bottom of a baking dish.
Cook rice — I used brown rice. Let to cool, then combine with minced beef. Season and spoon half onto cabbage leaves.
Combine chopped tomato with tomato soup, diluted with water. Add to filling.
Line more cabbage on filling.
Spoon over rest of filling and sauce, leaving some sauce for topping.
Add top layer of cabbage, then rest of sauce.
Bake in oven for about 1 hour at 180°C, first cover with foil then remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking.

3 potatoes
4 carrots
1 small cauliflower
handful of cherry tomatoes (cos I had some leftover)
1 can coconut milk
garlic, shallot
a packet of green curry paste
frozen vegetable stock I made a few weeks ago

It looks a little watery, like a porridge actually. The cauliflower disintegrated overnight and the paste probably got overwhelmed by the creaminess of the coconut milk. But by gosh it’s HOT!! I sprinkled a little mint on top — I suppose I should be using Thai basil or parsley (no coriander, I don’t like coriander) but I didn’t have any of those. Besides, it’s my own mint, from my window box. Accompanied by roti prata that I fried from frozen.