Tag Archives: roast vegetables

Nonna Gemma’s Veal Scalopine

12 Aug

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

It’s common knowledge in my family that mum’s mum, Nonna Gemma (Nonna is Italian for grandmother) is bloody fantastic in the kitchen. Some of my fondest childhood memories involve following Nonna around the Preston Market to gather all of our ingredients, then going back to her house, putting on an over-sized apron, and helping her make a big fat pot of risotto, or crostoli (traditional Northern Italian biscuits), with Nonno (grandfather) watching on and telling us we weren’t doing it properly. Unfortunately for me though, Nonna rarely records any of her culinary genius on paper – she just knows what to do. So, you can imagine my excitement when one of Nonna’s recipes was bestowed upon me at my Kitchen Tea party a month before our wedding last year! And not just any recipe – one of my favourites; Nonna’s veal scalopine!
Luckily for me, I’m getting much better at cooking by instinct, because Nonna’s recipes have absolutely no quantities or measurements. They’re also written completely in Italian. Poor Sous-Jeff hasn’t the foggiest idea what he was looking at when I got ready to cook this up. Thankfully, I understood every word!


My very treasured recipe is for veal scalopine – veal pieces coated in flour, and grilled in a fry pan with garlic, olive oil, mushrooms and white wine. I also like to serve it with polenta, because polenta brings back some of my most comforting and loving childhood memories :) And I threw some roast veggies in for the healthiness factor! Given that this recipe isn’t technically a recipe, I haven’t listen everything I did and used… but here’s how it turned out…

And to my utter and complete joy, it tasted just like Nonna’s!! I guess I must have been paying more attention than I thought when I used to watch her make it! If only I’d recorded how much of everything I’d used… must make it again!

And while I took a break in typing this up to grab some lunch, Kitchen Bug decided he’d keep my seat warm and try to contribute a bit too…

Over to you guys… do you have a famous family recipe that you’ve been able to successfully recreate? Or a pet who likes to help you blog?!

Lemon, Spinach and Ricotta Risotto

23 Jul

Multicultural Influence of…

Italy



So, this gluten free thing actually really isn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. I must admit, after watching my sister stick to a gluten free diet for the past few years and listening to her complain about how crap the bread and pasta and other gluten free food is, I was more than a little concerned. But once I realised I could still eat rice, I was a lot more relieved. Take proper, good old fashioned pasta away from an Italian girl, and you have a problem. Take risotto too, and it’s just a disaster.

I’ve been eating a bit of rice pasta, which is actually no where near as horrible as I was led to believe – as long as you don’t over cook it, it’s actually quite nice! As for the risotto, I’m glad to report nothing’s changed there, I can still cook that as normal! But I felt like being a bit adventurous after stumbling upon a post from Honest Cooking – a lemon risotto with mint and ricotta. I decided to try it without the mint, and with a bit of spinach, and a side of roast veggies. Here’s how we went…

Some diced mushrooms, eggplants and zucchinis on an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkled with some basil and salt, into a moderate oven until they start to brown (about 20 minutes).

For the risotto itself, I used:

  • 1 cup of arborio rice
  • 50g butter
  • half a diced onion
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • juice from 1 large lemon
  • 3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped

First, melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat

Add in the onions and cook until they begin to become see through.

Add the rice in and stir to coat with the butter and onion mixture.

Add the wine to the pan, stirring for a few minutes until the liquid begins to become absorbed, then add in a cup of the chicken stock. Add more stock as needed, stirring gently and occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through.

Once the rice is cooked through, add in the spinach and stir until wilted.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cheeses, stirring to combine.

Next, add in the lemon juice and stir to combine, and season with some salt and pepper.

Out of the oven with the veggies, and onto the plate with it all!

Perfectly creamy, thanks to the ricotta, with a little bit, thanks to the lemon. I really loved the texture the spinach provided, and think next time for yet another texture I’ll add in some toasted pine nuts.

It was a perfectly warm and comforting winter meal – and best of all, gluten free, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything! Delicious :)

Quick and Healthy: Moroccan Style Stuffed Capsicums

22 Jul

Multicultural Influence of…

Morocco

 


Another trip to the Queen Vic Market, another few hours of inspiration to cook. There is nothing better than being surrounded by beautiful, fresh, vibrant produce, and I honestly believe there’s no where better than the market for that. While walking through the sheds of fresh fruit, veggies, meats, breads, herbs, and everything in between, an idea springs to my mind. A big, fat, roasted red capsicum… Filled with…. stuff. Not sure what yet, I’m assuming it’ll come to me as I continue my market walk. And sure enough, it does. A Moroccan inspired stuffing. Hmmm… With all of my ingredients fresh from the market, let’s see what I can concoct…

First things first, oven on 180°C, and slice the tops off the capsicums.

Into the oven they go, on a baking paper lined tray, until they start to blister, turning them every 10 minutes of so.

Meanwhile, heat a bit of olive oil in a large saucepan, and throw in some diced onion (about half a large onion) and two cloves of minced garlic, until the onion starts to soften and brown slightly.

Next, in goes around 500g of gluten free sausage mince. Looooove it!

On top of the mince, a bit of Moroccan spice mix and sweet paprika, and cook it up until it’s brown and cooked through…

… like this!

Next in goes half a grated zucchini, and about half a cup of saffron rice (I like to put a bit of water, a bit of white wine and a pinch of saffron threads in a saucepan, and throw in some paella rice, bringing it to a boil and then simmering until it’s cooked through).

After combining that, I throw in a handful of toasted slivered almonds and pine nuts, to add a nice crunchy texture and a delicious flavour.

And here’s the finished product, ready to go inside the roasted capsicums! Easy!

Out of the oven with the capsicums – they’re not over roasted, as I need them to still stand up in the bowl; if they’re too soft, they’ll just collapse.

Spoon in the stuffing and top with a bit of crumbled feta cheese!

And that’s it! Quick, simple, yummy, and looks awfully pretty! And the bonus is, you can eat the bowl as you work your way through the stuffing! I think this would also work great with eggplant, or even a large tomato to hold it all in.

It may look like a bit of work and not so “quick,” but it actually is – you just throw everything into the fry pan while the capsicums roast, and you can cook up a whole lot of rice and leave it in the fridge for a few days, taking out what you need as you need it! And as long as you don’t use a heap of oil and very lean mince, it actually isn’t terribly unhealthy, particularly because you don’t need a heap of stuffing in the capsicum.

Over to you guys; where do you find inspiration to create something a little different in the kitchen?


Quick and Healthy: Stuffed Mushrooms and Polenta

6 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

   

Another long day at work, not much left in the fridge the day before grocery day, and another quick and healthy dinner required. And to make it even harder, I’m attempting to go gluten free at the moment. So no quick bowl of pasta or cous cous for me!

Why gluten free? For reasons that are my own, I haven’t been entirely kind to my body lately. And it is suffering for it. I’ve been feeling quick lethargic, sluggish, bloated, have put on a few kilos (which bless them, my lovely friends have been kind enough to ignore and not draw to my attention – don’t worry guys, I plan on having the weight I put on off within the next 8 weeks!) and I actually have a pimple (I never ever ever get pimples – in fact, I got teased at high school for not having any!). After some of my own research, a chat to a nutritionist, and a good hard look at Leanne Vogel’s blog “A Healthful Pursuit,” I decided to try out a month of no alcohol and no gluten. The reported benefits of a non-gluten diet include easier digestion, less bloating, improved concentration and a decrease in sugar and fat intake. I may go into my reasons behind trying this out and why I’ve been so horrible to my poor body in another post, but for now, let me know you one of my first gluten free Quick & Healthy meals…

First, turn on the oven to around 220°C, and grab 5 medium sized mushrooms, take out the stalks and cut a little more flesh out of the middle, to make little holes like this:

Next, dice up some veggies – my favourites are butternut pumpkin, zucchini and eggplant, with a few cherry tomatoes thrown in too. Put them on a lined baking dish or tray, spray a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt and herbs – I like thyme for this dish. Then, into the oven while you get everything else going.

While the veggies are going, grab 2 handfuls of baby spinach and roughly chop. Put a tiny bit of spray oil in a small saucepan and add in a tablespoon of pine nuts and toast them until golden brown. Add the spinach in and cook until wilted, then throw in a little bit of lemon zest and salt and set aside.

Heat another spray of oil in a fry pan and heat the mushrooms a little on each side.

Once slightly browned, take them off the fry pan, and put a small spoon of ricotta in the holes.

Spoon a bit of the spinach mix on top of that…

… sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top (if you want)…

… and quickly pull the oven tray out with the veggies, pop the mushrooms onto the end, turn the heat down a little, and put it back into the oven!

While I was waiting for that, I decided to quickly whip up some soft polenta, because I absolutely LOVE it! Half a cup of milk and half a cup of water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, slowly adding the cornmeal bit by bit, whisking as you go, until it’s nice and thick and yellow, trailing a little as you whisk, and coming away from the edges of the pot.

At this point, I like to throw in a small handful of grated parmesan and a pinch of salt, stir it up and spoon it onto my plate!

Out with the veggies and mushrooms, and onto the plate…

… and dig in!

The roasted veggies on the soft, creamy polenta takes me back to my childhood at my Nonna’s house, and the combination of the lemon, ricotta, spinach and pine nuts are one of my favourite -the zesty, citrusy punch with the crunchy nuts and creamy ricotta is just amazing! I know it might seem a bit time consuming, contrary to my “quick” label, but if you wash as you go, it actually is quite time efficient – by the time you’re ready to eat, all your dishes are done and you can just kick back and relax!

And over to you lovely readers – what are your current quick and healthy meals?

(*** NOTE: Not all of my next few posts will be gluten free, as I still have a few posts on the wait list to be blogged when I have time to write them up! But I swear, I’m not eating gluten in July!***)

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