from somewhere in my imagination

Meatless Monday - Gado Gado

It’s been a while between meatless Monday drinks for me but I find myself here on a Monday with something new and meatless on a Monday so thought it might be fun to share.  So, I'm linking up with The Veggie Mama today.  If you are on the look out for some new meatless ideas make sure to pop over and check out the linky!

Big Day Out was a few weeks ago now and aside from how amazeballs both The Killers and Red Hot Chilli Peppers were the food was of a pretty excellent standard too. 

A little bit different to what I expected but it had been 17 years, count them, that’s half my lifetime, since my last BDO and I think it’s fair to say that times have changed, as have the tastes of the punters.  Or perhaps it’s just is recognition of the fact so many of were still there, half our lifetime later.

I chose my dinner from Simon Bryant’s Dirty stall, Gado Gado, it was delicious and I have been keen to recreate it at home ever since.  With a forecast maximum of 39C in Adelaide last Monday spending as little time as possible in the kitchen was high on my agenda, so this seemed pretty perfect. 

Gado Gado is essentially an Indonesian salad with peanut sauce, feel free to mix and match your veggies or add some tofu if you wish.  That would have required additional cooking so I didn’t bother, I just added an extra half egg per person to amp up the protein factor.

Gado Gado - Serves 6

Ingredients

4 Carrots, julienned

2 Red capsicums, julienned

Tin of baby corn, halved lengthways

Bag of bean sprouts, washed

250g Green beans, trimmed

Bunch coriander, leaves roughly chopped

1-2 eggs per person, soft boiled

Peanut Sauce

150g roasted, unsalted peanuts

2-3 dried red chillies, depending on how spicy you like it.  Fresh will work fine too.

2 cloves garlic

25g palm sugar (or 2 tbsp brown sugar)

Juice of 1 lime

2 cm ginger

Salt to taste

Method

Blend the peanuts, chillies, garlic, sugar and ginger with a food processor or pound in a mortar and pestle.

Tip the mixture into a small saucepan and fry over medium heat until it starts to smell good.

Add 1 cup of water and mix well, scraping up any caramelisation from the saucepan, leave to bubble and reduce but check and stir often.  Once it is getting really thick add a second cup of water and reduce some more. 

It will thicken more as it cools so be careful not to reduce it too much.  Add the juice of one lime and salt to taste.

Pile all your veggies onto a large serving plate together with the halved eggs and top with the still warm peanut sauce

Dig in

Happy Monday to you, do you have much planned for the week ahead?  I'm looking forward to finishing off some of the many many blog posts I now have in draft for here and Eat Move Explore.

Tatum xx

Zucchini with Pesto & Tomatoes

Zucchini has somehow become one of the most consumed vegetables in our house.  I have become completely enamoured with its raw power and it has grown on the whole family.

On Sunday night, to accompany our steak for dinner, I created the most amazing raw salad with zucchini as the main ingredient.  I was hoping to have some left for my lunch on Monday but between the six of us we devoured the lot.  I’m going to use the word salad loosely here too because a big bowl of this on its own would absolutely cure any pasta craving you might have with a whole lot of vitamins, protein and essential fats with a huge decrease in the simple carbohydrate department.

If you don’t have one of these veggie noodling gadgets it is simple enough to create ribbons using a peeler or show off your knife skills and simply julienne the zucchinis.  I bashed up the pesto in my mortar and pestle but feel free to use a food processor instead.

Zucchini with Pesto & Tomatoes – Serves 6 as a side or a few hungry people on its own

Ingredients

4 largish zucchinis

2 punnets cherry tomatoes

1 bunch asparagus (feel free to omit or switch for a different green vegetable because Australian asparagus is right at the end of the season and the imported stuff is starting to creep into stores unfortunately)

Pesto

1 bunch of basil, leaves picked to give  1 ½ - 2 cups

½ cup macadamia nuts

¼ cup EVOO

50g parmesan cheese cut into rough chunks

Juice of ½ - 1 lemon

1 large clove garlic

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Put all the pesto ingredients into the mortar and pestle and bash it all about until you have a consistency you are happy with.  I kept it pretty chunky for this salad.

Wash your zucchinis and turn them into noodles or ribbons, pile into a large bowl.

Wash the cherry tomatoes and throw them in, you can cut them in half if you want to.  I couldn’t be bothered.

Pile the pesto in on top

Quickly blanche your asparagus, or other green vegetable, and throw it in on top.  The heat from the asparagus will help to loosen the pesto.

Stir everything together and dig in.

So...have you tried raw zucchini before?  Are you game to give it a go?

Tatum xx

What's For Dinner? - Meatloaf Everyone Will Love

I have fallen in love with the butcher section at the chinese supermarket I go to.  They have the most amazing american pork ribs that are at least $2/kg cheaper than I can find them anywhere else in the central market.

Last weekend when I was in there stocking up on ribs for a Fette Sau inspired meal, I spied some nice looking pork mince and grabbed a kilo.  I had plenty of ideas on what to do with it but it ended up turned into Sunday night meatloaf.

I mixed in apple and fennel to give it good flavour and used quinoa in place of breadcrumbs.

It was good.  Served up with some veg it was a perfect make ahead alternative to roast with easily enough for 2 meals for a family of 4 or enough left for lunches.

Pork, Fennel & Apple Meatloaf - Serves 8-10

Ingredients

1kg Good Quality Pork Mince

1 Smallish Fennel bulb

1 Large Apple (I used a Pink Lady, A Granny would be a good choice too)

2/3 Cup Quinoa

1 Tbs Fresh Sage or Thyme

3 Eggs

1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds

Freshly Ground Pepper & Salt to Taste

Method

Rinse and cook the quinoa then spread it out and leave it to cool.  You will have about 2 cups.

Preheat your oven to 180C

Grate the fennel and apple and pop it in a large mixing bowl.

Add the pork mince, cooked and cooled quinoa, fresh and dried herbs and eggs.  Season with salt and pepper.

Mix everything together and tip into 1 large or 2 smaller loaf tins that you have brushed with some olive oil.

Pop into the oven and cook until cooked through.  Your cooking time will vary depending on the size and shape of your loaf tin.  Make sure you time things to give yourself a bit of extra time to slice the meatloaf and lay the slices on a tray for a last blast of cooking if needed.

To Serve

I made an apple cider reduction to serve with the meatloaf.  I finely chopped a small onion and cooked it in a small saucepan with a knob of butter until caramelised.  Next, I added 2 cups of apple cider and reduced it by half before serving with the meatloaf.

I served the meatloaf with some simple vegetables.  We had baked sweet potato mash together with roasted broccoli and parsnips but feel free to cook up whatever vegetables work for you.

It was a winner all around.

Tatum xx