A cool change … well, sort of

January 14, 2008 at 3:48 am (Uncategorized)
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Yesterday we ended our run of 40 or greater temperatures. It only got up to 37 yesterday, and today we’re headed for 38. It may only be two or three degrees lower, but it’s oh so lovely! It’s a gorgeous, sunny day outdoors, not a cloud in sight, and the air is crystal clear with no dust blowing about, in spite of the breeze. Just beautiful.

One of the commenters, a lady from Italy, mentioned that where she lives, the searing heat of an Italian summer (just as hot as an Australian summer, something many Aussies tend to forget) rarely penetrates into her kitchen because her house is built to withstand the environmental conditions. That means very thick stone walls. Great insulation and it negates the need for air-conditioning. Oh how I wish Australian builders had followed the Italian tradition of house building rather than the English tradition. Even these days, with the benefit of greater knowledge and technology, we still don’t build our houses to truly cope with the hot summers. Would you believe, but even here in very hot Alice Springs there are some houses and apartment blocks built without overhanging eaves??? Wonderful way to let in loads of hot, summery sunshine and cook the occupants. The vast majority of my neighbours run their airconditioners 24/7. The conscientious ones turn them off for a few hours in the early morning, but by 9am you can hear the hum of the machines churning all around you. I’m lucky. My house is made of brick and even has internal brick walls. It’s also surrounded by very deep verandahs front and back which means most of the rooms don’t bear the full brunt of the sun. My bedroom gets a couple of hours of sun on one corner only, so it’s not too bad. The kitchen also gets a wee bit of sun on one corner in the middle of the day, but again it’s not too bad. All this means we don’t need to use our airconditioner until lunchtime on the very hot days (if we’re at home) and it’s turned off by 8 or 9 pm (our nights are very warm, around 23 – 25 with warm breezes).

I thought with the cooler change in weather here I’d be keen to head back into the kitchen for some baking forays, but no, I’m content to just sit here and enjoy the cooler temperature, look out at the beautiful clear blue sky above the mountains in my back yard and do anything but cook. We all need a day off now and then. Apart from making the pizza for tonight, which I will do with great glee because I adore pumpkin and pizza both, I’m not cooking.

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I’m allowed to change my mind, woman is fickle after all

January 14, 2008 at 3:16 am (Uncategorized)
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Here’s an example of being flexible with my menu planning. Yesterday we ate salad for our evening meal, which I served with a platter of chilled, roast pumpkin and pototoes. Very filling. I adore cold roast potato.

Today, instead of roasting more vegetables and making the couscous dish, I’ve decided to use up the left over roast pumpkin instead.

I’m going to put them on a pizza.

I’m using flat bread (yiros or pita bread) as my base. I’ll cover it with hommus. I’m not using tomato paste as I think the hommus will taste better with the pumpkin. So, hommus it is. I used butternut pumpkin, which is very quick to cook and very sweet. But any of the good baking pumpkins would suffice, it’s all down to personal taste. I’ll sprinkle some minced garlic and freshly ground black pepper and a very light handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

The roast pumpkin will be scattered over the pizza, sprinkled with some dried rosemary and some pitted kalamata olives. I have some creamy-textured, reduced-fat fetta cheese which I’ll crumble and scatter over and amongst the pumpkin. Depending on my mood at the time of preparation, I might decide that it’s ready for the oven. But knowing me, and understanding my love for that golden brown of cooked tasty cheese, I’ll more than likely scatter a very light handful of grated tasty cheese on top (yes, reduced-fat).

Pop it into a hot oven (200C) for 12 -15 mins. Oh, when using flat bread as a pizza base, I always use a pizza tray. The bread would crisp too quickly if I cooked on the rack.

I use flat bread because (a) it tastes good, (b) it’s quicker than making my own pizza base, and (c) the quality and availability of flat bread in Alice Springs is far superior to that of pre-made pizza bases. The one exception is the Bazaar brand, but supplies of this are irregular and sell out quickly.

The only thing lacking in the pizza recipe above is something green. I think some snow peas or sugar snap peas would be delicious and the colour contrast with the orange pumpkin would be very appetizing. But I don’t have any in the fridge and quite frankly, I just don’t feel like driving or riding into town today.

If you’re a meat eater, I think some sliced chunks of roast chicken or turkey would taste fine with this, as would bacon (cut into large pieces, not small).

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Shopping & Menu Planning

January 11, 2008 at 5:19 am (Uncategorized)
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Those who are frequent visitors to my home will testify that I’m one of those people who sits down each week and writes out a menu plan for the coming week’s evening meals. That is then left on the kitchen bench (for the other occupants of the house to read and therefore not ask “what’s for tea?”) and is used as a basis for constructing the weekly shopping list.

This ritual works without fail during the cooler months of the year. In summer, by the time we get into those relentless and seemingly endless days of greater than 40 degree heat, the menu planning is a wee bit more haphazard.

I sit down and flip through my favourite cookbooks and notebook (I keep a book of recipes I jot down from all sorts of sources) and then write out a rough menu plan to cover either one or two weeks. I just want to ensure my pantry is stocked with all the ingredients and know which fresh vegetables I need to purchase and when. Potatoes for example, I can buy them days and days ahead of cooking them. But salad vegetables I like to buy as fresh as possible. I want them crisp and fresh, not slightly wilting.

As we’re on day 10 of more than 40 degrees, and the hot weather really has lost its novelty for me and my GERD is playing up again (nausea and reflux … lots of nausea), spending time in a warm-hot kitchen doesn’t appeal. Eating appeals, but I just want very quick, very easy, very summery recipes.

So tonight we’ll have the final remainders of that pasta bake. If we’re all still a bit hungry after a small serve each, then we have some lovely, fresh baked pesto and cheese rolls from the local bakery. They’re quickly reheated in the oven or microwave and they’ll be filling. And there’s fruit in the fridge if we’d prefer something cold and healthier.

Tomorrow I’ll do a salad, serving it either in a bowl or with some flat bread (as a salad roll). Tomorrow will be tomatoes, cucumber, fetta, lettuce, basil, parsley and olives all tossed together ( a sort of Greek salad, or maybe it’s an Italian salad, but with an Australian twist … we’re very multicultural here).

Sunday I’ll opt to roast some pumpkin, then add that to some chopped fetta, sliced red onion (pre-steeped in lime juice to get rid of the sting) and red coral lettuce. I’d have liked to use raddichio but couldn’t find any at the supermarket today. (And no, we don’t have a green grocer here, the supermarket is our primary source of fresh vegetables and fruit). I might throw in some toasted pine nuts too. Again, this salad can be served either in a bowl on its own, on some flat bread, or even with some cold, cooked noodles.

Monday I’ll go back to warm food again. Baking some potato, sweet potato (kumara or orange sweet potato) and red capsicum with garlic and assorted spices. Some mangetout (snow peas), quickly blanched, and the vegetables served up on a bed of hot couscous. The couscous will be prepared in vegetable stock, just to add extra taste. This dish can be eaten hot or cold. Both are delightfully yummy. A squeeze of lemon or lime juice is the only condiment needed. (I am tempted one day to experiment using a mix of bulgur wheat and couscous, I think the two different textures and flavours would be wonderful, but that can wait until the weather is cooler and my brain not quite so fried).

Later in the week I can do a sort of salad nicoise, with green beans, hard boiled eggs, olives, lettuce, tomatoes or cucumbers, basically anything and everything, all thrown together. Including a baked potato.

So, from the above paragraphs you can see my shopping list for today emerged with just a variety of fresh vegetables  on the list. Easy.

And the best thing is, if I want, I can change the menu plan as all those vegies would be useful in other dishes. It all depends on my mood, the weather, how many people are eating at home that night. The key is flexibility but stay inspired.

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When it’s hot, salads help

January 6, 2008 at 4:10 am (cooking)
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I know I wrote that I don’t like to eat salad all through the summer. But there are times when a salad is a very pleasant meal. As we’ve had maximum temperatures over 40 degrees these past few days, and I’ve been feeling lazy, salad has been served and happily eaten the past two nights.

My salad is a mix of panzanella or fatoush and greek salads, with the dressing courtesy of Rosemay Stanton.

Desertgirl’s Salad

crisp lettuce leaves, chopped or torn(I bought a bag of mixed cos lettuce leaves, some green, some red, lovely)

handfuls of parsley, chopped roughly (I used both continental flat-leaf & curly varieties)

fresh basil leaves, chop if large otherwise leave whole (use enough for your preference)

a few vine-ripened tomatoes, quartered, seeded, then diced

continental cucumber, sliced in half lengthwise, de-seeded lightly, diced into chunks

Australian kalamata pitted olives, halved (I use Sandhurst olives)

Fetta cheese, crumbled (I use reduced-fat fetta from South Cape, Tasmania as I find it’s creamier and not as salty)

Mix it up all in a bowl. Serve. I allow people to dress their salads individually, but here’s the dressing I’ve been using lately:

balsamic vinegar, splash of grape seed oil, juice of half an orange, some garlic. Mix.

I serve the salad either in bowls, or I often will grab some flat bread (I use Greek Yiros bread as it stretchier and most flat breads are delivered frozen to Alice Springs and tend to be brittle when defrosted. The yiros bread tends to not dry out so much.) I spread some hommus (reduced fat hommus is yummy!) on the bread, plonk on plenty of salad, roll it up and eat! By using the bread I feel I’m eating a far heartier meal than if I just ate salad from a bowl alone.

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Come into my kitchen!

January 6, 2008 at 2:21 am (cooking)
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Hello!

Don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here it’s 39 degrees outside. That’s Celsius. For the non-metricated, 39 is very hot! Well over 100F. Obviously it’s summer. Most of Australia just has hot to very hot summers. But here in the desert we get very hot to extremely hot days, for days on end usually. However, I shouldn’t complain. The 2007/2008 summer has, so far, been very mild.

It’s not mild any more though. And it’s hard to be inspired to cook, let alone plan healthy nutritionally balanced meals for yourself and or the family. Especially if you’ve come home to a hot house after a long, hard day at work. A lot of people will simply eat salads, day after hot day. Generally served with barbecued meat if they’re not vegetarians. I like salads. But not every day. A lot of people will order take away, but that’s costly and can blow out most people’s budgets if done too often.

So how do you stay inspired?

First, you have to recognize that summer is hard work. It is okay, I believe, to resort to using frozen vegetables or jars of ready made sauces (but try to choose sauces that are not overly processed). Keep your meals simple. And no, you don’t need to serve more than one course. Dessert can be passed over to become a late supper, and is probably best to serve chilled fresh fruit, sliced thinly and presented decoratively on a small plate. Looks divine, looks artistic and appetizing, but it’s healthier than a pudding.

Secondly, look to cook books or DVDs of your favourite cooking shows for sources of new recipes and motivation to get into the kitchen. This summer I bought Rosemary Stanton’s new book, healthy eating for Australian families. What a wonderful and truly inspiring book! Thank you Rosemary! For those who are unaware, Rosemary Stanton is one of Australia’s best known and respected nutritionists. You can trust her nutritional information to be scientifically accurate. Very important for those of you looking to adopt healthier eating patterns and lose weight. This book is not vegetarian, but there are a number of vegetarian recipes in it.

My other source of inspiration has been Nigella Lawson. My daughter gave me a copy of Nigella Express for Christmas, and I had already borrowed from the library a copy of Forever Summer. Nigella? Yes, I know many of us associate Nigella with decadently rich and choclately recipes BUT do not be so quick to judge. The vast majority of her recipes are very healthy, and those that aren’t can usually be easily rendered healthier with simple substitution of ingredients.

I don’t always need to religiously adhere to the recipes. I’m happy to experiment and change ingredients here and there, especially if the end result is healthier and vegetarian.

Does your supermarket publish free food magazines? Woolworths and Coles in Australia both do, and their magazines can be great sources for new ideas and recipes for the jaded cook.

So, armed with cookbooks and magazines, you now need to to allot yourself some leisurely time to read through and enjoy fantasizing about cooking. For those who work full time, you’re going to have to do this one weekend, just give yourself a couple of hours. Make yourself a coffee or cold drink, a snack and take books and a notepad and pencil into your favourite sitting area. Relax, read and enjoy.

In summer I also try to ensure I cook meals that will have left-overs so I don’t have to cook every night. I love to cook but I don’t like having to cook. There is a subtle difference.

I do up a meal plan each Saturday. It will cover a couple of weeks, and on it I’ll note if anyone is going to be away and not need feeding. I won’t always stick to the menu plan, but it’ll be there as a guide, primarily for shopping purposes.

I buy fresh fruit and vegetables twice a week. But when I was working full time I had to scale back this to just one big shop, on a Saturday morning with the crowds. I by far prefer shopping at a more leisurely pace, doing the main groceries once a fortnight or every three weeks, and fruit and veg twice a week.

Clean out and organise your pantry cupboards. In my current kitchen I don’t have a proper walk-in pantry. It’s appalling! I’m back to the old-fashioned kitchen cupboards which aren’t at eye height. The top cupboards are too high for me, so everything goes into the bottom cupboards. Which makes it very important to keep it organised and tidy so I can see at a glance what I’m short of when I’m writing out my shopping list, or looking in for inspiration.

How hot’s your kitchen at dinner time? Does it cop the fierce setting sun? My kitchen’s lovely in the mornings, gets a bit of sun around lunchtime and then stays constantly warm for the remainder of the day. My preference, in summer, is to pre-prepare my evening meals so they’re cooked, covered, in the fridge, ready to pop into a microwave later in the evening. The exception for me is when I am preparing salads. I much prefer to do those at the last minute, or no earlier than an hour or two ahead.

If your kitchen is dreadfully stifling in summer, is there somewhere else you can chop the vegies and cook? Those outdoor kitchens so popular in Australia these days are a wonderful invention.

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