Burrito Salad with BBQ'd Corn Salsa

In Australia, we make just about the worst Mexican food on the planet. It's usually a soggy, refried bean sloppy mess covered in cheese (Old El Paso anyone...?). Sadly this means many people think they don't like Mexican food without ever really experiencing it. I haven't actually been to Mexico - but in Canada Mexican food is everywhere and it's often fresh, interesting and delicious. Even their standard pub nachos are 100 x better than any Mexican meal I've had in Australia.

 

Like many international cuisines, I think the key to great Mexican is having a variety of flavours and textures on you plate. I started out making this burrito salad with chilli con carne as an alternative to just eating it with a big pile of rice and nothing else. These days I often omit the beef all together and eat is a vegetarian meal. Today I made it with a spicy beef kebab - therefore the word Mexican it used rather loosely with regards to the beef part of the meal, but I think the flavours still worked pretty well.

 

BBQ'd Corn Salsa

 

1 avocado

1 cob corn

juice of 1/2 lime

1 spring onion

1/4 of a red onion

1 tomato de-seeded

handful of fresh coriander

1 chilli (optional)

 

 

Cooking corn on the BBQ makes it smokey and sweet. I know some people think you need to soak corn overnight before BBQing - I don't. I just peal off the husk and put it on a low heat for about 30 minutes, turning frequently. If you rub a little oil on it, it will cook quicker, but I prefer not to. Don't worry if some kernels burn a little, it just adds more flavour.

 

While the corn is roasting away, finely dice the spring onion, red onion, tomato, coriander and fresh chilli

 

 

Once the corn is cooked, let it cool for a couple of minutes and then cut the kernels off using a sharp knife. Stir it through the rest of the salsa and then gently stir through one diced avocado and a little lime juice.

 

Spicy Beef Kebab Marinade

 

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp lemon rind

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

pinch of mixed spice

1 clove of garlic

1 spring onion

1 tsp honey

salt

 

 

Pound the chilli flakes, cumin and mixed spice in a mortar and pestle

 

Add garlic, lemon rind and spring onions to mortar and pestle and pound into a paste

 

Mix in honey, oil and salt.  I marinated about 250gm of rump steak for about an hour, then BBQ it on metal kebab sticks

 

Burrito Salad

 

BBQ'd Corn Salsa

Spicy Beef Kebab

Refried beans

Brown rice

Lettuce

Celery

Black olives

Natural yogurt

 

 

 

Tuna, Brown Rice & Green Lentil Salad

This post is a variation on a theme, salad of grains/pulses + fresh vegetables + onion + herbs, therefore it looks pretty similar to my couscous salad and chickpea salad recipes, but just different enough to keep things interesting as well as healthy! This recipe makes a pretty big salad, enough to keep you going for lunches at work for the week, or to take to a BBQ at a friends place. When I make it for lunches I make it really lean, no dressing or oil, that way it lasts longer and when I pack my lunch for the day I can either keep it super lean or put a blob of mayonnaise/dash of olive oil on it.

 

The rate determining step in this salad is cooking the brown rice and lentils. Both medium grain brown rice and French/Puy green lentils take 30 minutes to boil - so I put them in the same pot. I might be committing some kind of terrible lentil sin doing this, but it seems to work perfectly every time. Yesterday I bought some green lentils and the miss-informed sign about the bulk bin said you must soak overnight before cooking-total rubbish!

 

Tuna, brown rice and green lentil salad

 

1/2 cup uncooked brown rice

1/2 cup uncooked french green lentils

3 sticks of celery
3 spring onions
1/2 a red onion
1 red capsicum
2 tomatoes (seeds removed)
1/2 a zucchini

large bunch of parsley
20 mint leaves
small handful of coriander leaves
large tin of tuna

Place the lentils and brown rice into a saucepan with cold water,bring to boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. Testing the brown rice to confirm when it is cooked

While the lentils and rice are cooking, it's time for your meson plus!

Finely dice the onions, vegetables and herbs.

 

then add the drained tuna, I buy SAFCOL "responsibly fished, pole and line caught tuna" based on the 2011 Canned Tuna Greenpeace Guide.

 

 

Once the rice and lentils are cooked, drain and rinse with cold water. Allow to cool then add to the rest of the salad.

 

 

And you're done

 

 

Today's lunch, tuna, brown rice & lentil salad with a boiled egg, some black olives and capers!

 

Banana, walnut & date wholemeal muffins

My new found excitement for wholemeal flour has taken me back to baking. I find cooking with wholemeal flour pretty intimidating, probably because I've eaten some rather bland, dense and dry wholemeal things in my time. On the flip side, I've eaten some really delicious wholemeal breads and pastries too... So down the rabbit hole I go... This recipe was easy and the result was moist and delicious!

My foray into wholemeal baking begins with  muffins! This recipe is from an awesome vegetarian cook book I bought while in Canada, called ""New Vegetarian Basics" by Nettie Cronish. It's full of recipes I would never think to create on my own.

This muffin recipe is more or less identical to the one in this book, except; (1) I added more walnuts (1 cup instead of 1/2 cup); (2) I didn't have cinnamon or all spice, so I used 4 tsp of mixed spice, instead of 2 tsp cinnamon & 1 tsp all spice and (3) she uses 1/4 cup molasses and 1/4 cup maple syrup, both of which are pretty expensive in Australia, so I used 1/2 a cup of golden syrup instead.

There are three tricks to baking a perfectly yummy muffin; (1) always mix your wet and dry ingredients separately; (2) when you combine the wet and dry - don't over mix the batter because it will make your muffins tough and dense and (3) keep a close eye on them in the oven, being careful to not over cook them and dry them out. I'm a big fan of testing regularly with a satay stick.

 

preheat your oven to 190 degrees

 

Ingredients

2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup wheat germ

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large)

1 cup soy milk (full fat)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg

1/2 cup golden syrup

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

 

 

Take two bowls

 

In one bowl mix together the dry ingredients

(flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda & mixed spice)

 

In the other, whisk all the wet ingredients

(milk, bananas, oil, egg, golden syrup)

 stir the wet into the dry until it's almost all moistened

 

 

add the dates and walnuts - I cut mine very roughly, so my muffins were rather chunky!

 

stir until the batter is just combined

 

 

Spoon the mixture evenly into 12 greased muffin cups (I greased the tray with a little extra canola oil), bake at 190 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes (until cake tester comes out clean).

 

cool in pan for 3-5 minutes then cool on a wire rack

 

 

Enjoy at your leisure

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

This is by far one of my all time favourite recipes! It's pretty close to Luke Nguyens Char grilled pork neck with vermicelli noodles, classic street food fare. Instead of pork neck, I used chicken thighs. In the past I have made with pork neck and also using rump steak, both worked really well. I prefer chicken thighs over breasts because; (1) because they taste better; (2) they are fatty and juicy and hence (3) more forgiving when BBQ'ing

As I've said previously, what constitutes "free-range" according to standards in Australia is not always what I consider to be "free-range". Since moving to Western Australia, I've started buying Mt Barker free range chicken. My favourite thing about Mt Barker Chicken is their website clearly outlines their free-range standards, which includes how they define access to free range -

"At least 50% of the building sides must open to allow chickens access to the free range area for new farms, and RSPCA Approved Free Range Standards for existing farms. Birds must have access to the range as soon as they are reasonably feathered and at the latest between day 21 - 28."

Which is far more generous than the free-range standards suggested by other regulatory organisations. At the end of the day, short of driving out to the farms and having a look for myself, you have to take a leap of faith and chose a chicken supplier if you want to eat chicken. So I vote with my dollar and buy Mt Barker free-range chicken!

Before I begin with the recipe - a quick note on the salad dressing: because it's easier, I usually eat my salad with a little fish sauce and a squeeze of lime. If you want more dressing, I recommend making a nuoc chum dressing, I found a recipe for a really good one here. Try to make it a few hours or a day before to help the flavours mix and the garlic to pickle a little.

Vegetarian Note: If you want to make this salad with tofu, I recommend using fresh tofu with a nuoc chum dressing made with vegetarian fish sauce.

Alright, now for the cooking!

First thing to do is marinate the meat. Luke recommends marinating 2 hours to over night, but last night i only managed an 1 hour, which still worked really well.

 

Meat Marinade (straight from Luke)

6 white part spring onion, finely sliced,pounded into a paste
2 tablespoons sugar (I used brown)
1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a mortar and pestle pound the whites of the spring onions, chopped garlic and sugar

then add the fish sauce, honey, pepper and oil

 

I made it using 4 chicken thigh fillets roughly diced. I don't worry too much about how I cut the meat because I use metal skewers, meaning I can thread a single piece of meat two to three times regardless of its dimensions.

 

 

Second toast your peanuts in the oven or under the griller/broiler. I only say this because I keep forgetting until right at the end and it drives me crazy! Keep an eye on them because they burn easily - roughly chop when done.

 

Third cut up all your salad ingredients

lettuce

spring onions

mint

coriander

red onion

carrots

tomatoes

cucumber

Fourth, put the meat on the skewers

Fifth soak the vermicelli in hot water for about 5-10 minutes (I buy them already bunched in individual serves to save tiny pieces of noodle flying across the room) test them to see when they are done, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Sixth put your chicken on the BBQ to cook. I cook mine on a Weber baby Q. I cook them pretty slowly on a low heat to prevent the marinade from burning and to give the fatty chicken thighs time to render down.

Seventh while you are waiting for the meat to cook, assemble the salads, palace the vermicelli on the bottom and then add the salad and herbs

 

Eighth, once the chicken is cooked, you are good to go!

finish off your salad with roughly chopped toasted peanuts, chilli, a squeeze of lime and a dash of fish sauce (or nuoc chum if you so please)

 

Seriously, if I had chose one food to eat for the rest of my life, I think this would be it...

Wholesome wholemeal toast



I was raised on wholemeal bread and as a child I always found it boring. On the rare occasion a loaf of white bread made it into our house, it was consumed within hours. It's no surprise I've been compensating ever since, often through my love of Italian breads and sourdoughs. I know wholemeal bread is "better" for you. I know some people even consider white flour as "poison". Considering I'm such a health nut you'd be right in questioning why I indulge my childish white bread desires at all. It's pretty simple, if you don't want to think too much about something, you generally don't.

 

This has all changed, thanks to reading Michael Pollans brilliant book, "In Defense of Food". Just one of the thousand thought provoking ideas contained within this book concerns the lack of health benefits in refined grains. The process of refining wheat,  making your brown flour white, removes the bran and the germ, taking fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals and goodness knows what else with it. So according to my "whole egg philosophy" eating white bread and white rice is equivalent to eating two minute noodles! As far as your high fibre or omega 3 enriched white breads are concerned, once again - how can you honestly think refining something, then adding back the handful of things nutritional science considers important (not to mention the 10 other things they add to it to keep it on the shelf longer and taste as much like white bread as possible, because that's what consumers want), will have the same health benefits as eating the unrefined wholemeal bread in the first place.

 

None of this is really breaking news. My big revelation in all this is that white flour is basically empty calories. I assess all foods based on whether or not I think the calories are worth consuming. For example, there are many high calorie foods I love and eat without guilt, like chocolate, cream, mayonnaise, cheese, chicken thighs etc. On the flip side I think hot chips are okay, but I don't get too excited about them,  so generally I only eat a couple (because I know they are pretty high in calories and I'd rather eat something else).

 

In a very long winded way I'm tryng to explain that the way I view white bread has shifted. I now consider it in the same category as a packet of two minute noodles or a lamington. I like lamingtons and two minute noodles, I eat them, but not every day.

 

To finish up, during winter I usually eat porridge for breakfast, occasionally switching to toast when I can't face the porridge, here are some recent wholemeal toast breakfasts I've had...

 

An egg with (real) butter and heinz baked beans, with a cup of ceylon
orange pekoe tea with soy milk.

 

honey and ricotta

 

Smoked salmon, ricotta, tomato, capers and spring onion

 

Tomato, cheddar cheese, olive oil salt & pepper

 

Miso Soup #2

Lunch today was miso soup for one. Nothing like a big bowl of miso soup to fill you up without making you feel too full. Lucky for me my vegetable garden is producing abundant sugar snap peas and silverbeet, (or swiss chard) both of which make great additions to miso soup. I used the same base as previous miso post (except I forgot the mirin) and this time I added..

 

Silverbeet

Sugar snap peas

Soba noodles (~45gm dried)* this is pretty low carb

3 dried shiitake mushrooms

 

First you have to do is boil the kettle and cover your dried shiitake mushrroms in hot water. I weigh them down with a smaller plate to ensure they are submerged properly in the water. They take about 20 minutes to soften. After they are done, cut off their hard stems and dice or slice them as you please. I like their strong flavour so I chop them pretty roughly. I think that the more refined Japanese palate would suggest slicing them finely.

 

To make your soup, bring about 2 cups of water to boil in a saucepan. The soba noodles I use only take about 5 minutes so I put mine on to cook around 15 minutes after soaking the mushrooms. While the noodles were cooking I added some miso paste (~1 & ½ tbl) and instant bonito (~1-2 tsp) to the water, pushing the paste up against the side of the pot to help it dissolve.  The exact amount of miso paste and bonito that you use is down to personal taste. If you want it salty and strong, add more. If you want light and not so salty, add less. It’s pretty simple.

 

After 3 minutes add the sugar snap peas and chopped mushrooms. 2 minutes later the noodles should be cooked. Turn off the heat and add the silverbeet (roughly shredded with central white steam removed) and you're done.

 

(if I'd had a diced spring onion or two it would have been close to perfect!)

 

Roasted Cauliflower Salad - 1st attempt

One very memorable food experience in Canada was visiting the Rocket Bakery in St John's, Newfoundland after my hike to Signal Hill. I had a black bean burrito with a side of roasted cauliflower salad that was out of this world (my phone was flat, otherwise I would have included it in my Canadian highlights post). It was so good I am determined to add it to my cooking repertoire. I wrote down the ingredients I could recognise, red onion, cherry tomatoes, garlic, mint, capers and roasted cauliflower and googled it when I got back to Australia.

The only recipe I could find was posted by The Shiksa in the Kitchen, apparently it's an Italian recipe ! Who knew! Mine is pretty close to hers, except I added mint + tomatoes and I didn't have any olives... she has a very detailed step by step instructions about how to cook the cauliflower that I did not strictly follow. It turned out really tasty, but not quite the same as my Rocket experience. I added way more herbs which made it almost like a low carb tabouli and the cauliflower in mine was quite soft. At Rocket it was brown and carmelised from roasting but still firm, almost crunchy. I'm going to blame my crappy oven and my slightly overcrowded roasting trays. Maybe next time will put the oven on a really high heat, or maybe grill it and not add the minced galic (because it will most certainly burn). My first attempt was as follows...

preheat the oven to 180 degrees C

 

Chop half a cauliflower into small, even sized pieces.

 

 To reduce the amount of crumbly cauliflower bits at the end, a good trick to cutting your cauli is to start with your knife cutting down into the solid steam and once you reach the bulbus part of the floret, gently twist your knife (by rotating your wrist) to allow it to break apart into more cohesive bunches. 

 

 

mix the florets in a bowl with 2 cloves of minced garlic and  a generous splash of olive oil. Lay flat on some oven trays and place in a 180 degree C oven

 

while the cauliflower is roasting cut up the rest of your salad ingredients.

 

1/2 a red onion finely diced

2 tbl capers

2 tomatoes deseeded and diced

small bunch of parsely finely chopped

10-15 mint leaves finely chopped

juice of 1/2 a lime

 

Like the Shiksa says, the parts of the cauliflower in contact with the oven tray caramelise the most efficiently. I checked on them every 10 minutes, each time giving it a little stir. In the end, I cooked mine for about 30-40  minutes.

 

 

mix it all up with the juice of 1/2 a lime and you're done!