Roasted pumpkin, cannelleni beans with buttery garlic brown rice and broccoli

This is one of those meals that is created on the fly, you scrounge around your cupboard and fridge for whatever is left inside and you create something exciting and also totally delicious.

First I roasted the pumpkin to start the process.....


300g japanese pumpkin, skin off and cut into squares
1 can cannelleni beans
1 clove garlic, diced
2 tablespoons organic butter or ghee
left over brown rice or some kind of grain
small bunch broccoli or some greens to serve on the side


Roast the pumpkin for 25 minutes and make sure you season with good quality celtic sea salt and pepper.
Once the pumpkin is cooled a little mash it with the organic butter or ghee and add the cannelloni beans and garlic
Serve with vegetables and grain or eat as a spread with some top quality sourdough.

Don't underestimate the flavour of this, the beans and roasted pumpkin work really well together.

Cooking In Maesot

This is Mo Mo she is a karen refugee who now lives in New Zealand, sometime ago when I was staying in Maesot in Nth Thailand on the border of Burma the ladies at the Borderline Cafe and Art Gallery found out I was a 'cooking artist' !. They put on a delicious traditional burmese lunch for me it was so special and Mo Mo is a great cook and a beautiful lady dedicated to burmese home-cooking with love for her friends, family and community. Special thanks to Bec for sending me there.

Red salmon curry with broccoli, spinach dashi broth and brown rice

This recipe is very easy and contains dense nutrition it is cooked like a Chinese hotpot and I created it for my friend's son Sid who is on the autism spectrum, my friend she wanted to get a new fish recipe which was also dairy and gluten free that would give sid lots of essential fatty acids and good fats so there is organic ghee in here too. This recipe will help with providing stable energy and also help with his learning and cognitive function. We added the broccoli and spinach for extra folic acid and to bump up his vegetable intake. The dashi broth is what really brings out the flavour and denseness in this dish. Sid loves salmon so I was happy to make this dish for him he really loved it and it easy for his mum and grandmother to prepare.



1 large salmon fillet (skin off) 450-500g cut into 2cm cubes
1/2 head broccoli florets cut small
4 large spinach leaves
2 cups dashi stock ( I get mine from always organics in brookvale) and it is a spiral macrobiotic food product
1/2 brown onion (omit if pregnant)
2 tablespoons organic red curry paste
1 tablespoon ghee

Method

Saute the onion in the ghee until clear, add the curry paste and stir around until fragrant, add the broccoli and spinach and then the stock, cook for 5-7 minutes so the greens are still crisp, lastly add the salmon and cook quickly for 2 minutes so the salmon is very soft.


Also serve with a grain, we had brown rice and it was perfect.


Serves 4

Sunday breakfast

After returning home from the frenchs forest farmer markets I was very hungry so I crawled into the garden and pulled out yellow and red baby tomatoes, basil and rocket and added to the scrambled eggs. I picked up some yummy spelt sourdough rolls with sunflower seeds and topped with sliced avocado's and biodynamic olive oil. Too easy.

My kitchen

My kitchen has a small prep area but we have made it cosy, there is lots of natural light for taking photographs and a big window which looks out to a glorious green backyard and veggie garden. At times it can be challenging to work in, and friends are surprised when they drop by my kitchen, but the smells and warmth make it worthwhile and hey I'm a personal chef so can work in any old kitchen.

5 thing's to help make you a fantastic home cook.

1. good cook's knife
2. medium saucepan
3. grater
4. salad spinner
5. 3 wooden spoons

Banana, date, walnut and carrot small cakes with blackstrap molasses

These small cakes are packed with dense nutrition, fibre, iron from the molasses and flavour. There easy and sweet enough with the dates, banana and molasses, the icing is quark with maple syrup and is truly delicious. I took some to my new gorgeous friend's Lisa and Adele from the Rancan Sisters they have a brand new boutique fitness studio in Mosman with a killer view up at Bradley's Head to inspire any workout.


3 bananas, mashed
2 carrots, grated
150g butter, melted
2 tablespoons black strap molasses (I use Spiral)
1/2 cup dates fresh or dried
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cardamon powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped finely
2 cups organic wholemeal self raising flour or use plain spelt flour with 1 teaspoon aluminium free baking powder
1/2 cup greek yoghurt ( I use barrambah organic dairy)

Icing

1 tub quark (I use paris creek)
3 tablespoons Canadian pure maple syrup

Method

In a mixing bowl put the flour and spices, stir around, in another bowl mash the bananas and add the carrot and whisked eggs.
Put the dates chopped small in with the butter and melt, slowly add the flour and butter mixture and yoghurt hand stirring and mixing well, lastly add the molasses and walnuts and again stir well until you have a thick batter. Spoon into a cupcake tin and bake on 170 for 35 minutes.

When the cakes have cooled take the quark and beat with electric beaters adding the maple syrup until it's whipped.
Take a spatula and ice the small cakes.

White Christmas (healthy whole-food version for health fanatics)

I know this is a really late blog entry and I should have written up this recipe 2 week's ago but I got busy cooking other thing's!

My boyfriend and family ate all my millet puffs and goji berry white Christmas and they couldn't believe it was a healthy version of this copha evil sweet. So here's my version.

This is the only time of the ever I ever use white chocolate in anything, I'm not a fan and it's devoid of any nutritional value but gotta keep the people happy in my cooking life! And when using a high quality white chocolate it makes this recipe super yummy.


2 blocks lindt almond white chocolate or green and blacks white chocolate
3 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil
1 cup millet puffs from abundant earth
1/2 cup goji berries
1/2 cup dried apple sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup raw pistachios
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut


Method

Melt the white chocolate and coconut oil in a bain maries, it will take a while as there is a low cocoa (fat) ratio so it will be thick add in some fat such as the coconut oil to help it along. In a mixing bowl mix the remaining ingredients then when the chocolate is thin and melted pour over. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper and press the mixture in, refridgerate for 1 hour then cut into squares and serve.

Pickled sweet cherries

If you have left over cherries on the decline in the fridge looking all sad and lonely and are wondering what do to with them (as I was) a great idea I came across in Stephanie Alexander's cookbook was to pickle them, I adapted the recipe for my own liking and now my kitchen reeks of white wine vinegar.

Cherries contain anthocyanins which can reduce inflammation, you may have seen cherry juice in the healthy food store and it is often used for gout and arthritis. They also lower blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides and they are very delicious fresh or pickled.


500g fresh sweet cherries red or yellow (yellow are not as sweet)
300g organic mountain raw sugar
500g white wine vinegar
1 star anise
3 cardamon pods
1 cinnamon stick


Method

Fill a pretty jar with the cherries (stems removed)
In a sauce pan gently heat the white wine vinegar, sugar and spices, cook for ten minutes.
Cool mixture and pour over cherries, wait one week to eat.
Will keep one year, they might just get many wrinkles.

Raspberry dark chocolate brownies

This recipe belongs to my dear friend Michal Nassi from my kitchen wisdom in Bondi, Sydney.
Michal is one clever baker, and specialises in gluten free baking, she also mentors me through any baking crisis and will help blame it on my gas oven.

It's a quick and easy recipe and waiting for the brownies to cool for half an hour after taking from the oven helps them firm up a little, great sweet for a party I recently took a batch of brownies to my friend's daughters first party and they went down a treat.

This is super sweet and a little bite goes a long way.

Health benefits from this you ask? Dark chocolate in small amounts is a powerful antioxidant it also gives you a power up if your studying or need a boost without compromising adrenals with coffee, raspberries are sweet sour and jam packed with vitamin c, and can be eaten with almost anything and good when paired with a soft cheese like marinated goats feta.

Enjoy.


150g dark chocolate
150g butter
250g panela or rapadura sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
85g flour ( spelt, rye, buckwheat or barley)
100g raspberries

Method

In a baine marie melt the chocolate and butter, taking a small bowl beat the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy, add the vanilla, hand stir in the flour mixture, lastly add the chocolate mixture and raspberries, stir gently until mixed.
Take a 28cm lamingtim style tin and line with paper overlapping the edges, pour in the mixture and bake in a moderate oven 165 (gas) 175 (electricity) for 40 minutes.

Cool then eat