Zucchini waffles and the gentrification of the zucchini fritter

A couple of weekends ago I pulled out the last of the zucchini plants as winter has definitely arrived.

I thought I should have done this a couple of weeks earlier but to my surprise I still had a couple of zucchini wilfully hanging onto their glorious summer.

May 2017

While many talk about a zucchini glut, an abundance of zucchinis should really be thought of as a privilege. Earlier this year there was a shortage of zucchinis (courgettes) in the UK sparking the #courgettecrisis. I suspect this was heavily due to it being winter and another reminder that natural champions seasonal eating.

The zucchini is a powerhouse of versatility and adds a beautiful moistness to these waffles, aka gentrified zucchini fritters.

Seriously there is nothing hipsters love more than an appliance based food item with a craft beer delivered by drone, lamington jaffle anyone?

Zucchini waffles
Ingredients - make about 2 large waffles

• 1 medium zucchini 200g
• 1 small red onion finely diced
• 85g self raising flour
• 125ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 50g feta, crumbled
• 50g cheddar, crumbled 
• 2 tbsp chopped mint
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Grate the zucchini into a bowl lined with a clean tea towel
• Gather up the edges of the tea towel and squeeze out excess liquid
• Add all ingredient to a mixing bowl and combine
• Heat waffle iron and spray with oil
• Spoon half the mix into the waffle iron  (depending on the size of your waffle maker)
• Cook for about 6 minutes (always wise to check out your own machine's instructions)

Optional serve with poached eggs and garnish with thinly sliced red onions, basil, parsley, mint and more fetta. My secret weapon is a drizzle of agrumato a lime olive oil.

Home grown beauties

Fine dice of red onion and reserve some for garnish 

Love a good all in one recipe

You don't want to over fill it....

These are a moist waffle not dry and crisp

I took inspiration from My Year without Meat by Richard Cornish after seeing the zucchini fritter recipe. 

I recommend everyone give this book a read for more insight into where our food comes from. 

Who doesn't love egg porn???

Chow Down to Eurovision 2014 - Italy

Buona Sera tutti Ponte Galeria, a Roma Italy calling and our final country in the Chow Down to Eurovision 2014...it only seems like 8 years ago we began this journey!

Without wanting to sound like a well travelled reality cooking show contestant, this year's Italian entry is based on the time I spent studying in Italy.

I had a cute 1 bedroom flat on the outskirts of Roma, passed the sheep as some of my class mates would say. This meant that my late night drinking adventures had to happen at home as the last train was about 10.20pm.....read they didn't happen!

On the plus side I didn't find Thursday's classes as tough going as my hungover class mates from a wild night at La Radio.

The winning aspect of the location was I lived above a pizzeria, Mary Pizza, which was always a buzz with activity that I understood about 50% of but enjoyed 100% of the aroma. You can see my balcony on their website.

Most days, if I wasn't making pasta con I broccoli I would stop in for a chat with Maria (a Ukrainian girl) and grab some pizza or a kebab....which incidentally in Italian is kebab. 

As a strange fun fact it seemed every time I didn't know the name of something in Italian and would ask "come si dice....kebab?"(pointing) the answer would always be the name I knew it by. A golf jumper is a golf.

Also due to my location I could look down into the shop on a weekend from my other balcony to see when the kebabs were ready....living the dream!

Marco Mengoni sang L'essenziale in 2013 and strangely just by tweeting a quiz answer "Italy Marco Mengoni L'essenziale " I had a flood of Retweets, so I'm sure including him today won't hurt my stats!

He placed 7th last year

 

My favourite of all of Mary's pizzas was a thick fluffy focaccia base with grated zucchini and pork sausage balls, they also had a variation with zucchini and prawns. I can't wait till I go back and have some more pizza and a kebab but till then my version is pretty darn good too.



 

I have borrowed Paul Hollywood's focaccia recipe for the base, doubled it with a little extra water.

 

Zucchini and Pork Pizza

Ingredients for 2 large pizzas

• 1kg strong flour
• 20g instant yeast
• 20g sea salt flakes
• 280ml extra virgin olive oil
• 740ml cold water
• 4-5 pork and fennel sausages
• 3 large zucchinis
• Grated parmesan cheese (as much or as like as you like)
• Extra shaved parmesan for garnish

Method

• Add flour, yeast, salt, oil, water to a stand mixer and knead
• It will take about 5 minutes to be a smooth and elastic, very wet dough
• Transfer to an oiled container to prove for about 1 hour, Paul's tip is to use a square container as the dough will want to hold that shape. They don't call him a dough genius for nothing.
• Cook the sausage by pinching, twisting and pulling little balls from the sausage skin and fry in a frypan on medium heat
• Finely grate the zucchini and squeeze off the excess liquid
• When dough has risen, half it and stretch each half onto a 39cm x 26cm tray (sprayed with spray oil and a dusting of semolina flour)
• Allow dough to prove a second time for about 45 minutes
• Top base with zucchini, sausage and a light sprinkle of parmesan (or heavy)
• Bake in a 220°C oven for 15 minutes
• I have pizza stones in the over to assist the base to crisp
• My other tip is to remove them from the tray as so as they are cooked and not chat with friends as the steam can create a soggy bottom
• Garnish with a drizzle of oil and shaved parmesan and you could be in Ponte Galeria before you know it.

This was baked on a smaller tray so is a fraction thick than normal.

 

I adore that Emma used wonderful Italian produce to make her postcard flag! Oh to be wandering through an Italian market again.



 

Emma sang La mia Citta in Copenhagen and loving all things Italian I was a fan, even if I shouldn't show favouritism here.....

More tales from the wood panel Chinese

The 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year welcomes the year of the Horse (or whores as the BBC typo read, true, Google it).

I am thrilled about this year for no other reason than that it is no longer the year of the Snake! (Still hate them)

To accompany the Ham and Chicken rolls previously mentioned, I thought I'd recreate another authentic dish from the wood panelled Aussie-Chinese restaurants of my childhood.

Now when I say authentic I'm talking a restaurant that was more like a converted house on an inconvenient bend of the main road of East Gosford, its not quite Guangzhou.

Dome rice is the name I remember this dish by but I have no recollection whether that is what it was called on the menu.

I always found this dish magical as a kid, firstly because it had white sauce and that really should have only ever been used for vegetables. (what were they thinking??)

And secondly I had no idea of how they made the rice take on a shape, let alone fill it. I had visions of the rice being built up and around to enclose that special combination goodness. Those rice ads where the rice took on the shape of famous landmarks only further confused me.

In reflection I don't believed I was a particularly thick kid but the idea of serving an upside down bowl of rice just didn't cross my mind.

This doesn't take long to cook but there is a bit of prep at the start. It also seems like there are a million steps but it's really just a stir fry, in a bowl of rice with a white sauce but packed full of flavour and memories. 

Dome Rice
Ingredients

• 1-11/2 large mugs of basmati rice
• 2 chicken thigh fillet diced
• 200g beef diced (I had some scotch fillet)
• 2 x pinch bi carb soda
• 2 tbsp. oil (peanut/canola)
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 4 Chinese sausages, diagonally sliced
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 carrots (see note on vegetables)
• 1 zucchini,
• 1 broccoli stem
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 small thumb ginger finely chopped
• 200g green prawns (halved if large)
• 2 spring onions chopped
• small handful of sliced bamboo shoots
• Small handful of chopped baby corn
• 6-8 quartered straw mushrooms (more if they are smaller)
• 2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 tbsp. Oyster sauce
• Salt and a pinch of Schezuan pepper to taste
• a few toasted almonds to decorate

 Method

• Place chicken and beef in two separate bowls of cold water and a pinch of bi carb soda
• Allow to rest for 20-30 mins (this is what makes the meat silky tender)
• Cook the rice (I use the microwave method of 1 mug rice 2 mugs water)
• Blanch the vegetables
• Make white sauce (see directions below)
• Drain the chicken and beef separately and pat dry with paper towel
• Into a hot wok add the oil and sesame oil
• Fry off the Chinese sausage them remove just the sausage and place in a bowl
• Repeat with chicken, fry till just cooked and remove to the bowl
• Repeat with beef, fry till just cooked and remove to the bowl
• Leave the juices in the wok as this forms the base of the sauce
• Reduce the heat and add the onions, garlic and ginger stir fry until tender
• Add the meats and prawns back to the wok
• Add all remaining ingredients and
• Add about a 1/4 cup of the white sauce to the wok and combine
• Take off the heat

• To assemble dome
• Spray a glass bowl with oil
• Spread the enough rice to line the bowl with a thin layer (about 3/4 of the rice)

My bowl has a diameter of 22cm and is about 12cm at it's centre

My walls are a bit thicker than I would normally have them, the rice was very hot and I was hungry!!

• Fill bowl with stir fry
• Cover with a layer of rice to enclose it all, press firmly so it takes on the shape of the bowl
• Place a plate over the bowl and then flip it over
• Remove the bowl and you'll have a great looking rice dome!

Steaming!

To serve pour over hot white sauce and top with some toasted almonds or more decorative vegetables.
There were only ever 3 almonds on the top of this dish at the restaurants but live a little and add a few more, I think I have 6!

 


 


 


 

 

White Sauce

Ingredients

• 40g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 250ml chicken stock
• 500ml light milk 

Sauce Method

• In a  saucepan melt the butter
• Add the flour and stir to combine, cook the flour for about 1 minute
• Add stock and milk together in a jug (or use all milk and a good quality stock cube)
• Slowly add some stock/milk mix  while whisking to make a smooth sauce
• As the sauce thickens add more stock a little at a time, you might not use all the stock.
• While whisking let the sauce cook to thicken further for a few minutes, it should have a thick pourable consistency (but not thick enough you can cut it!)
• Season to taste

Vegetable Note:

If you have a lot of spare time on your hands or don't mind heading to the land of all things naff, you could can use various cutters to shape the vegetables.

 

The broccoli stem adds element of surprise as it is a pale green star that looks nothing like it but tastes like broccoli.

 

The zucchini I sliced lengthy ways around the outside so I got .5cm thick slices with the skin on one side for the colour contrast.

 

Blanch each vegetable separately in boiling water for about 1 minute, then  refresh in icy water.

 

 

 

Operation Work Lunch: Polka dot chickpea salad

It's time to reignite the war on terrible food with Operation Work Lunch ready for deployment.

I revisited the café where the war began and I truly have no idea how it is possible but I think it is even worse than before.

Looking at the dry brown shrivelled objects that were labelled "warm healthy salad" I almost shed a tear for the wasted potential of these poor brutalized vegetables.

While being at such a stage of hunger it would justify eating your frozen rugby teammates I did however order a ham and cheese toasted sandwich.

Not to be overly dramatic......

I would never have thought it possible to get a toasted sandwich wrong but by the time the coffee was made the sandwich was not only flattened not to less than an inch of it's life but was so squished that it could have slid under a door.

So that's it! Never again!

The key to the success of this mission is preparation, make your lunch the night before so that in the morning you only need enough time to stumble to the kitchen to pour yourself a cup of ambition.
Who doesn't love a bit of Dolly Parton?

 

Polka dot chickpea salad
Ingredients

• 400g chick peas
• 1 red onion finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 red sweet chilli or capsicum roughly chopped
• 1 large zucchini rough chopped
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin seeds 
• Black sesame seeds ( just a many as you like)
• Olive oil

Method

• In a mixing bowl add the chickpeas, onion, lime juice, sweet chilli
• In a fry pan on high add a good splash of olive oil (this will also be the dressing)
• Add the zucchini, ground cumin and cook till tender.
• Remove from the heat and let cool for about 15 mins
• Add zucchini to mixing bowl
• Add black sesame seeds in and mix through

Note on chickpeas, you can use canned or do the whole soaking over night and boiling method either works great.
Now that lunch is so much healthier, tasty and a hell of a lot cheaper!
We will win the war!!

Soupy Stars - oh great I love dahl darl soup

"It's my sense of humour that stops me going insane" Magda Szubanski's character Lynne Postlethwaite really did know what she was talking about.

The Kitchen is one place you really do need a sense of humour mainly so that when you are wrestling a 20kg Turducken that won't fit into the pan at 2am Christmas morning, you can laugh and find a bigger pan rather than collapsing to the floor crying.

That has always been my philosophy to cooking, as long as you don't waste food and nobody dies, just have fun with it.

Thinking about the origins of this recipe made me think about just how much foodie comedy is around. From cooking show parodies such as Posh Nosh or the politically incorrect Audrey Gordon to Jamie Oliver talking dirty on YouTube (I'm sorry to be so immature)

Catherine Tate's food critics Janice and Ray inspired a dinner party menu which included a "cheese sandwich with grapes", "soup made from dried shit..ake mushrooms" and yep I even made curry from a goat..."from a goat" and this in Melbourne. The best part was watching the unsuspecting guests as each course come and they realised it all seemed a bit familiar, till one guest exclaimed " YOU dirty bastard!"

Coralee and Ross from Big Girls Blouse (the best comedy series ever) are the inspiration for this soup. I was at uni studying opera when the series aired and this skit rang so true as we were all about boob tubes and lycra, and that was just the blokes!

Being at uni we all had our turn at vegetarianism, more economics than ethics so dinner was often dahl and a group of theatrical peeps are certainly not foreign to Darl!
It felt like it was written for just us.

Poor AB has often been heard sighing "Ahhh, show people!"

Oh great I love dahl darl soup
Ingredients:

• 375g red lentils (1 packet)
• 4-5 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 brown onions, diced/chopped
• 2 shallots (or just 4 onions) diced/chopped
• 1 thumb of ginger, grated
• 3-4 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 long red chili, finely sliced
• 2 large zucchini, roughly diced
• 2 tbsp. garam masala
• 1.5-2 litres stock (vegetable or your choice)
• Chopped coriander and chilli to garnish

Method

• Rinse lentils well in cold water till water runs clear.
• When chopping the vegetables you want them to be on the smaller side as this soup isn't going to be blended.
• In a large pot on medium heat add the oil
• Add the onions, shallots, ginger, chilli, garlic
• Let the onions soften for about 2-3 minutes
• Add the zucchini and stir through
• Add the garam masala and coat the vegetables
• Add the stock covering the vegetables
• Add the lentils and reduce heat to low
• Cook for about 25 minutes till lentils are tender and melting into the soup, at the ten minute mark stir the soup to make sure the lentils don't catch
• You may been to add some more water or stock
• Garnish with chopped coriander and chilli that can be stirred through the soup
• Optional non vegan addition is a fried egg purely for the yolk porn

 

 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Albaina

Përshëndetje (hello) and welcome to Albania.
In 2012 Rona Nishilu took to the stage with Suss and for 3 minutes I was memorized. While there were a mired of jokes about her hair and the screaming I sat transfixed as I witnessed a moment of true musical artistry, and I wasn't even a judge on The Voice.

It just goes to show while I love all the bells and whistles and reveals of Eurovision it is hard to beat a stand and deliver out pouring of emotional vocal gymnastics.
Well unfortunately it wasn't that hard to beat she came 5th. Today I have keep the same simplicity in the cooking with my variation of the Albanian Turli Perimesh or mixed vegetables.

My Turli Perimesh
Ingredients

• 2 brown onions
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 large red capsicum
• 2-3 Lebanese eggplants
• 3 yellow squash
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
• 1 zucchini
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Basil to garnish

Method

• Chop all the vegetables into roughly the same size, leave the tomatoes whole
• Add olive oil to a fry pan over a medium heat
• Add the onions and garlic and sweat for a minute or 2 without browning
• Add the eggplant, squash, zucchini, capsicum and tomatoes
• Cook the vegetable till on medium to low heat till they are tender and the tomatoes are bursting.
• If the pan gets too dry add a splash of water or stock
• Season to taste
• Serve with an extra splash of olive oil and garnish with basil leaves  

Adrian Lulgjuraj & Bledar Sejko will bring Identitet to Sweden this year.

Fat i mire!