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Vegetarian fried rice

Fried rice is the ultimate comfort food and hands down, the best way to use up left over rice, as well as any other vegetables you have in the fridge.

So with some nicely crunched up rice from the day before and some greens that I had in the fridge (there is a lot of green going on in my house at the moment…), I threw this fried rice together.  I did literally throw it together – all in one wok, no messing around. My 4 year old ate three bowlfuls – directly after he looked at it sitting on the table and said (with a face full of disappointment) ‘no! I don’t want rice!’.

I have a hard time not putting bacon in everything but I resisted on this occasion and made a vegetarian version instead. It’s another great way to get greens into your little ones. As in this recipe, just chop everything nice and finely and hopefully the goodness will go unnoticed! 

You could easily add Chinese sausage, bacon,chorizo or shredded chicken if you have it on hand and I think this recipe would also work just as well with brown rice.

Vegetarian fried rice

Vegetable oil

2 tbs ginger, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 spring onions, finely sliced, plus extra to scatter on top

1 zucchini, finely diced

1 bunch of bok choy or Chinese greens, finely chopped

1 corn cob, kernels cut off

A generous handful of broccoli (florets and stalk), finely chopped

3 cups of left over white rice

2 tbs fish sauce

2.5 tbs oyster sauce

Sesame oil

4 eggs, fried

Sriracha (chilli sauce), sesame seeds and soy sauce to serve

Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium – high heat and add the ginger, garlic and spring onions. Fry gently until soft and golden. Add your vegetables and continue to stir-fry over medium heat until cooked through. I turn the heat up high towards the end of the cooking time so some of the vegetables have nice crispy edges. Add the rice to the wok and mix through the vegetables well, breaking it up as you go. When rice is warmed through, add the fish sauce and oyster sauce and continue to heat until rice is nice and hot. Drizzle over some sesame oil.

To serve, top each bowl of rice with a fried egg, sesame seeds, fresh spring onions, soy sauce and chilli sauce (optional).

Serves 4

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Make your own muesli

Over time, muesli has become the breakfast of choice in our house. The boys prefer it to porridge or weetbix and i’ve managed to get the spaniard to ditch the hot chocolate and sweet biscuits (that’s a whole other story) for a healthier option.  It was no small feat.

But after months of buying Carmen’s muesli from the supermarket and paying over $5 for 500g of muesli, I decided I’d just make it myself. It’s quick and easy to throw together, it’s more cost effective than store bought muesli and I hardly ever run out!

We eat this muesli as it is with milk, yoghurt, fruit and nuts or we soak it overnight with some grated apple, lemon and coconut water and have it as bircher muesli.

I leave the nuts out of the muesli as the kids find them too crunchy. Works for me as I prefer them toasted and crushed over the top anyway.

Muesli

4 cups of rolled oats

1 cup of millet or puffed quinoa

3/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of sesame seeds

3/4 cup of coconut flakes

1/2 cup of currants

1/2 cup of sultanas

3 tbs of chia seeds

2 tsp of ground cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together and store in an air tight container. To serve, add milk, fruit, yoghurt, honey and nuts. Here are a couple of my favourites:

  • Milk, stewed rhubarb, grated apple with lemon, mint, natural yoghurt, roasted almonds and macadamias (I smash them up in the pestle and mortar) and honey.

For the stewed rhubarb, I chop the rhubarb up into 2cm pieces and put it in a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water and a good sprinkle of brown sugar. Cook over medium heat, covered until rhubarb is nice and soft. Keeps in the fridge for 5 or so days.

  • Milk, poached pears and syrup, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts and yoghurt.

For the poached pears, I followed a Jamie Oliver recipe. I put 4 bosc pears in a large saucepan with 10 cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick, 320g of sugar and 500ml of water. I let it simmer for 2 hours and then put the pears and syrup in the fridge to let the pears take on more flavour from the liquid. The next day, bring the pears back to room temperature, remove from the liquid and then reduce the syrup a little. At this point I added a drizzle of vanilla extract. Pears will keep for 5 days in the fridge.

Makes 600g muesli

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Tempura fish tacos with lime crema and salsa

I had no idea what nixtamal and masa harina were before I decided that it would be a good idea to start making my own tortillas. It’s fair to say that from the moment I purchased my old school Mexican tortilla press (see pic below) to the time I produced my first not-so-perfect tortilla, I had learnt a little more than anticipated about this ancient process.

To cut a long story short, to make tortillas at home (unless you want to soak and grind your own corn kernals – no thanks), you need to use masa harina which is a ground version of the authentic, fresh corn dough. So I found masa harina at the local mexican shop and practised pressing my dehydrated corn dough until I had nice, reasonably thin, golden tortillas worthy of eating. And while they tasted good, I wasn’t completely satisfied with my efforts. It’s hard to admit but I think some things are just better bought.

So with La Tortilleria (look them up!) 2 blocks from my house, I now buy freshly ground corn tortillas. They make them the old style way. I can’t compete.

For now, my Mexican tortilla press sits forlornly at the bottom of the cupboard, waiting for days like today when it gets dusted off for a photo shoot.

Here are my tempura fish tacos. I’ve battered the fish but of course you can grill or crumb the fish and the result will be just as good.  It may not look like it but this is a great mid-week dinner – it’s quick to prep the salsa and crema and then you just need to cook the fish and heat the tortillas!

Stay tuned…I’m sure this won’t be the last taco post I write….

Tempura fish tacos with lime crema and salsa

For the tacos

8 – 10 flat head fillets, depending on the size (or any other firm white fish)

Vegetable or sunflower oil for frying

2 jalapeños, sliced

1 lime

Chilli sauce, optional

A few sprigs of coriander

12 corn tortillas (3 per person) or as many as you like!

For the tempura batter

I took the tempura quantities from my Toyko cookbook

1 egg

125ml very cold water

75g plain flour

For the salsa

2 tomatoes, diced

2 cobs of corn

1/2 red onion, finely diced

2 avocados, diced

1/2 cup of coriander, mint and parsley, finely chopped

Olive oil and lime juice, salt and pepper

For the lime crema 

1 cup sour cream

Zest and juice of 1 lime

1/2 tsp of paprika

A couple of pinches of salt

For the salsa, cook the corn cobs in the microwave for 6 minutes. I do this by placing the corn cobs in a wide bowl, adding about 1cm of water and then covering the bowl with a plate. Remove when done, allow to cool and then slice the kernels off. Place in a bowl with the tomato, red onion, avocado and herbs. Drizzle over some olive oil and lime juice and add a good pinch of salt and pepper.

For the lime crema, mix all ingredients together and set aside.

For the batter, crack the egg into a bowl and mix well with the cold water. Add the flour and stir roughly (I used chopsticks to do this), leaving some lumps as this makes the batter crispy. Heat a couple of inches of vegetable or sunflower oil in a wok and bring to a high heat. Dip your fish fillets in the batter, shake off any excess, and then drop into the hot oil. They should only take a couple of minutes on each side to cook through and turn a nice golden colour. Remove from the oil and let drain on some paper towel.

Meanwhile, heat a frypan over medium – high heat and place your tortillas in, one by one, to heat up. They should need a few seconds each side. When done, place them in foil to keep warm. The steam that they generate in the foil also makes them nice and soft.

To serve, throw a couple of pieces of fish in each tortilla, spoon on some lime crema, add the salsa, jalapenos, coriander, a squeeze of lime juice and some chilli sauce if you like spice!

Serves 4

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Pesto, sausage & kale pizza with chilli

Have you ever noticed that keeping your fridge in order is a full time job? You have to keep it well stocked so you’re not running to the supermarket every 5 minutes, but not so well stocked that vegetables are slowly turning to mush in the bottom of your crisper. However it’s no good having a well stocked fridge if you can’t see what’s in there. Everything needs to be reasonably visible and logically organised so you know what needs to be eaten first and what is in danger of being thrown out (and therefore needs to be cooked quickly!). Nothing hurts me more than looking in the fruit and vegetable drawer to find that one of the cucumbers didn’t make it… into the compost it goes.

So when I get home from the market, wrap my herbs up in a damp tea towel and put them in the fridge, I promise myself that I will use them up well before they turn to green slime. This week when I noticed my basil going a little brown at the edges only a couple of days after buying it, I knew pesto was the only way to save it.

I didn’t have any pinenuts, so I used walnuts instead, and I thought I’d add some kale that I had left over from this yummy salad. The great thing about pesto is that it keeps well in the fridge, or can be frozen, and can be used for many different things. I’ve used my pesto in pasta, on fresh bread with ham, tomato and mozzarella or to give extra flavour to soups. I’ve also used it on pizza as you have here!

Kale, basil and walnut pesto

1/4 cup walnuts

4 tuscan kale leaves

1 bunch basil, leaves picked

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3/4 cup olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 cup tightly packed parmesan reggiano, grated

Salt and pepper

Place walnuts, basil, kale and garlic in a food processor and blend for a few seconds. Add about half a cup of the oil so you have a nice loose pesto. Scrape your pesto out into a bowl. Mix in the lemon and fold through the parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.

Pesto, sausage and kale pizza with chilli

1 quantity of pizza dough or pizza base

2 tbs kale, basil and walnut pesto

1 tbs cream, optional

1 x pork and fennel sausage, removed from it’s case and broken into chunks

1 red chilli, thinly sliced (I left the seeds in for more heat)

A handful of kale, thinly sliced

1/4 of an onion, thinly sliced

1 ball of buffalo mozzarella

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees or turn the BBQ on to high heat (I cook pizza on a pizza stone in the Weber).  Roll out your pizza dough and spread the pesto over the base. I add a tablespoon of cream aswell just to help thin it out a little but you can easily do without it.

Add the sausage, kale, onion and chilli to the pizza and break over the mozzarella. Cook in your pre-heated oven/BBQ until cooked and golden.

Makes 1 pizza, adjust quantities accordingly to feed more people!

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Green soup

It was Saturday night, we’d been out all day and I was a feeling like I could have fallen in a heap when I got home after being on my feet all day with a 6 kilo baby attached to my chest. But I had little people to feed, and after a lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches I wanted to give them a good dose of vegetables as well as have dinner on the table quickly.

Soup is great for those nights when you don’t feel like cooking much but still want something hearty and satisfying. This particular night, I had bits and pieces of green vegetables in the fridge that I needed to use up (hence the slightly odd quantities in the recipe) and this green soup came to life. The boys gobbled it up and I felt happy knowing that their little bellies were full of goodness.

Green soup

Olive oil

1 leek, sliced

2 sticks of celery, sliced

1 clove of garlic, sliced

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

Half a cauliflower, broken into florets

A good handful of broccoli florets

1/2 a swede, diced

3 asparagus spears, chopped

A handful of kale, sliced

1 1/2 zucchinis, sliced

Chicken stock

A handful of parsley

Goats cheese, yoghurt or cream to serve and some crusty bread

Heat a little olive oil over medium heat then add the leek, celery and garlic and saute until soft. Add the tumeric, cumin and coriander and stir. Add the remaining vegetables (except the parsley) and stir for a couple of minutes. Add enough chicken stock to almost cover the vegetables. I tend to add less stock than I think i’ll need as you can always add more at the end (but taking liquid out is a little tricky!). Bring to a boil and then simmer until vegetables are soft. Add the parsley and puree soup with a hand blender.

Serve with your choice of goats cheese, yoghurt or cream and season with salt and pepper. Don’t forget some crusty bread.

Serves approx 6

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