Corn polenta, spelt and goats cheese dumplings with mushroom and rosemary ragu

This is inspired from a private clients menu today, we made chilli con carne with dumplings so I wanted to make a vegetarian version. It is VERY easy takes about 30 minutes but looks so impressive like you would have been slaving over a hot stove for at least an hour!


dumplings
1/2 cup polenta
1/2 cup spelt flour (demeter brand)
1/2 cup corn kernals
2 tablespoons organic milk
50g goats fetta (100 acres brand is great)
1 egg
50 g organic butter
sea salt and pepper to season.

Rub the butter into the polenta and set aside, whisk egg and milk and add to mixture stir well, add corn kernals and season with seas alt and pepper.

Roll into little balls the size of golf balls and cook in a sauce pan filled with boiling water on a medium to boil for 20 minutes
strain and set aside once cooked.

Mushroom rosemary ragu

1/4 red onion
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoon olive oil
350 butter mushrooms
1/2 bunch rosemary
1/2 cup red wine
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can passata

Saute the red onion and garlic and add the chopped mushrooms and rosemary cook for ten minutes, add tomatoes and red wine cook on low to medium heat for 15 minutes.

Serve with dumplings

Beautiful palm cove; a chef's gotta take a holiday sometime

Have been eating out in restaurants the last 4 day' over the Anzac long weekend, visiting crocodile farms, lingering in rainforests and eating fresh organic papaya, ah and chilling out in a hammock on the beach.

Vegetarian Black beans, harissa and pumpkin cassoulet

It is meant to be autumn right?

Here is a beautiful photo of a tree in my backyard which symbolises the beginning of autumn so delicate and losing it's leaves each day. But each day the temperature soars and it still feels like late summer.

On the weekend I was at a yoga ashram in the beautiful Mangrove Mountains 1.5 hours north of Sydney. The highlight (surprise!) was the vegetarian meals, I was sceptical they would be bland and free of onion and garlic, but alas I was pleasantly surprised and came home singing praises.

Here is a little delicious and SIMPLE recipe I'm big fan of a one pot meal especially in the colder months you can keep it on the stove top.

Black beans are originally from Mexico and often called a turtle bean. I soaked my beans overnight and slow cooked them but the quick version is to buy canned black beans and this recipe will clock in at 20 minutes.


2 cups black beans (soaked overnight and slow cooked for 2hours) or 2 cans black beans (amy's organics or goya brand)
300g pumpkin, cubed
2 tablespoons harissa (search recipes on this blog)
3 cups organic vegetable stock (or chicken if not vegetarian)
2 tablespoons ghee (search recipes on this blog)
1/2 brown onion large dice.

Heat the ghee on a low heat and add the garlic, stir around and add the harissa, then thrown in cubed pumpkin and stock put lid on and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat.

Serve with brown rice or quinoa.

Autumn vegetable gratin with goats curd and pecorino

Recipe

1/2 cauliflower prepped into florets
1/2 broccoli prepped into florets (make them pretty!)
1/2 fennel, sliced finely
1 garlic clove chopped roughly
300g pumpkin, diced into small squares
1 can chickpeas
1/2 cup sourdough breadcrumbs

bechamel/white sauce

2 tablespoons spelt four
1 tablespoon organic butter
1-2 cups milk

Method

Steam all the vegetables starting with pumpkin as it takes the longest then add in the other vegetables after 7 minutes
Make the bechamel by melting the butter adding the flour and whisking into a paste, slowly add the milk and keep stirring as it thickens this ca be tricky make sure you have a medium heat and if it is slow to thicken turn up the heat and continue whisking.

Put the vegetables into a glass baking dish and pour over the chickpeas and bechamel sauce.
To finish crumble goats curd and grate some pecorino on top and add sourdough breadcrumbs (demeter brand) and dot with a little butter or extra virgin olive oil. Season with black pepper and sea salt

Bake for 20 minutes until crispy,

Spelt and quinoa flake pancakes with raw apple maple flax oil compote and pomegrante

Australian pomegrantes have hit the shelves and they are sweet and succulent, I haven't found any organic ones yet but the conventional are just stunning. Historically pomegrantes have been used for women and fertility and are also a powerful antoxidant


Recipe

1 cup wholemeal spelt flour (demeter brand)
1 cup organic milk or non - dairy milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons quinoa flakes
1 tablespoon chia seeds


Whisk the egg and milk in a seperate then combine with the other ingredients set aside for in the fridge for 20 minutes

Apple maple flax compote
1 gala apple (or whatever red apple in season) grate
3 tablespoons flax oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon rosewater (secret ingredient for deliciousness)

Mix the above and set aside until pancakes are ready to serve

1/2 pomegrante freshly shucked to decorate and eat


Method

heat 2 tablesppons extra virgin coconut oil in a frypan and ladle in pancake mixture turning the batter once it starts to bubble and crisp around the edges.

As you can see from this photo to serve stack the pancakes (aim for same size and shape) and then top with raw apple and maple flax mix and decorate with pomegrantes.

Bon Apetite!