The Cookbook Challenge Week 26 - Green - Spinach & Broccoli Pasticcio - 2 - $ - V

You will not beat me Cookbook Challenge! Slowly but surely I am catching up on my dishes. We've only got about 9 weeks/dishes to go. I personally have about 6 months worth of dishes to cook, so one per day should see me sorted...

This week I've got my cooking groove back on after a winter slump and lots of dining out recently. The more I go out to eat, the less I want to cook so it seems.
The following recipe from Issue 5 of the MasterChef magazine caught my eye because it was 'green' which ticked a Challenge box; I am in severe need of some vegetables; and I had a vegetarian friend coming round for tea. Perfect!

Green!

There is a fair amount of preparation for this dish but it's well worth it. The recipe said it serves 4 but we got 4 dinners (one with seconds) and 2 massive lunches out of it which was good going. However, bear this in mind when you make it because it won't freeze well.
Next time I make it I think I will roast some heirloom tomatoes to serve alongside the pasta so there is some acid to cut through the richness and give the plate some colour.

Golden haloumi goodness

Ingredients

360gm haloumi, grated
300gm sour cream (light is OK to use)
8 eggs
60ml olive oil
2 bunches spinach, washed and trimmed
500gm pasta (rigatoni, penne or anything tubular)
2 onions, finely chopped (I only used 1)
1 long red chili, seeded and finely chopped
2 heads broccoli, stems removed and roughly chopped
Lemon wedges to serve

Preheat oven to 190C degrees.
Reserve 1/4 cup of cheese for the topping (I used half a cup 'cause I like it really cheesy on top).
Divide the remaining cheese into two large bowls (make sure one is massive to fit all the pasta), then divide the sour cream into each bowl. Crack 4 eggs into each bowl, season and whisk to combine.


Heat 2tsp oil in a frying pan over a high heat (I used a wok which worked really well) and cook the spinach for a couple of minutes until wilted. Drain, finely chop and set aside.
Cook the pasta in salted water for 5 minutes. It won't be cooked, but don't panic. Drain and then add to one of the egg bowls, stir through to coat with the mixture.
Heat the rest of the oil in the same pan/wok and cook the onion and chili for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Add the spinach and broccoli and toss for 3 minutes or until the broccoli is just cooked. Add the veggies to the other egg bowl and mix well to coat these too.
You need an oven dish that is at least 7cm deep. Pour in half the pasta and make sure the pieces are all laying flat and side by side. Pour the broccoli mixture on top of the first pasta layer and spread out evenly. Add the remaining pasta to create another flat layer and then sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pasta is soft and the top is nice and golden.
Serve immediately with the lemon to squeeze on top.

Enjoy!

Reader Recipe - Cheese and Onion Bread- 1 - $ - V

Luckily this afternoon I found an email from the lovely Erica at Recycled Fashion with a recipe to share. It's lucky because I had a little bit too much sake at the fantastic Ichi Ni last night and the likelihood of me making any food worth blogging about today is not too high! Although perhaps a Top 10 of hangover food could be something worth writing about...

However, I digress. Erica has a love of op-shop cookbook collecting just like I do and she found a real gem recently - The Vegemite Cookbook. Thank you Erica for sharing your rainy day baking and photos with us!


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of milk
1tbs Vegemite (Marmite would probably do just as well)
3 1/4 cups self-raising flour
250gm grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup chopped spring onions
(Erica also added some corn to hers which I think is a clever addition)

Preheat oven to 200C degrees.
Warm 1/2 cup milk in a pot and dissolve the Vegemite in it. Combine the flour, cheese, spring onions and remaining milk in a bowl. Stir in the Vegemite milk and mix all ingredients until well combined. Divide the dough into three portions.
On a lightly floured surface make three rounds and then place them side by side in a lightly greased loaf tin.
Bake for 55-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Flea Market Finds - Passionfruit Cheese Slice - 1 - $ - V

My Flea Market Find this week is an absolute gem! The Australian Women's Weekly 100 Fabulous Cheesecakes cookbook - for the bargain price of $2 from the Salvos on Chapel Street.
On further inspection I thought I had been ripped off because the inside cover showed an asking price of $1 written in lead pencil BUT the next page showed another pencil price of $2.99 so I am happy to go with the split-the-difference two bucks.

When I flipped through the pages of this comprehensive guide to cheese-based desserts I was delighted to find a flyer for a 'handsome recipe box' valued at $6.00 that could be mine free if I was OK about 'examining' the first set of recipe cards. I really want to post it and see if I can still score the recipe card holder even though the offer was printed in 1971.

I was also delighted to see how to make an old-school biscuit base with some smashed up biscuits, melted butter and a glass. I was instantly transported back to my mum's kitchen: standing on a chair in order to the reach the table, wearing a massive apron and helping make a non-baked cheesecake (lemon flavoured being my mum's signature dish that was only busted out on special occasions).

This book basically has 4 recipes and then you just change the hero ingredient to come up with 100 variations. It's genius!

The following is my favourite cheesecake slice recipe - one of the 16 slices rounding out a century of cheesecakes fabulousness. There's a conversion chart over here should you need it.

Ingredients - Passionfruit Cheese Slice


Crumb Crust
6 oz. coconut biscuits
3 oz. butter

Topping
8 oz. cottage cheese
8 oz. cream cheese
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind
2 tsp vinegar (oh yes, you read right)
1 dessertspoon gelatine or agar-agar (the latter my modern addition)
3/4 cup cream
4 passionfruit

For the crust: Crush biscuits and combine with melted butter. Press mixture onto the base of a 7 inch x 11 inch slice tin, lined with foil. Refrigerate until firm.

Topping: Soften gelatine or agar-agar in water according to packet directions. Sieve cheeses and beat together until smooth. Add condensed milk, lemon juice and rind, gelatine/agar-agar and vinegar. Continue to beat until creamy and fold in whipped cream.
Very carefully fold in the pulp of two passionfruits and then pour the mixture onto the crumb base, spreading out evenly and smoothly.
Spread the pulp of the remaining passionfruits on top and then refrigerate until set.
Cut into slices, pour some Crème de menthe and serve after the fondue.

Enjoy!

The Cookbook Challenge Week 15 - Muffins - Savoury - 2 - $ - V

I'm running a little bit behind on this (last) week's challenge!

I'm running a bit behind on the recipes in general. There has not been a lot of cooking done in my world as of late; I have been very spoiled and taken out for loads of dinners and had a fair few meals cooked for me.
Dry your eyes, I hear you cry! Believe me, I am not complaining, merely explaining.
I decided to do savoury muffins for the challenge. I had a recipe for cheese and semi-dried tomato muffins on my refrigerator door for about 5 years that I never got around to making. The fridge konked out, the recipe got lost, but I've never forgotten the muffins.

I used Dame Stephanie Alexander's base recipe from The Cook's Companion. Her recipe can be modified to make sweet or savoury muffins and you just decide what you want to pop in them. I opted for semi-dried tomatoes, vintage cheddar and chives.
The recipe says it makes 12 muffins but once my mix was done, I decided Dame Stephie must have been into the cooking sherry because the batter looked well-short. Turns out I got 10 muffins, so I guess it depends on the size of your tins and if you add the sugar or not.

Ingredients

220gm self-raising flour
1/2 cup castor sugar (omit if making savoury muffins like mine)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil (if you are making sweet muffins, increase this to 3/4 cup)
150gm grated cheese
10 semi-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1tbs fresh chives, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Grease a standard 12-hole muffin tin, or line it with paper muffin pans.
Sift the flour and then add the sugar if making sweet muffins. In this case however, add the cheese and chives to the flour in a large mixing bowl. A nice big grind of cracked pepper and give the dry ingredients a stir.
Combine the milk, egg and oil in a separate bowl, mix well and add the tomatoes. (If you were doing berries or bananas you would add them to this wet mix instead.)
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Mix lightly until just combined.
Spoon batter into the muffin tins until to two-thirds full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden on top. Mine took about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, leave tray for a minute or two and then turn onto a wire rack to cool. Although, my version are pretty yummy straight from the oven! The sweet from the tomatoes and the salt from the cheese go really well together, and the chives give them an extra lift.
Served cold the muffins are a perfect snack on the go or a jazzy accompaniment to a bowl of soup.
Next time I make them I think I will do mini versions as they would be a great bite-size addition to a selection of finger foods.

Enjoy!