Queen of Tarts

My baby brother and I thought that it was hilarious to ask my sister if she'd like the tart for dessert when we were younger and our parent's had taken us out to a restaurant. Even though almost 10 years have passed, tart is still a word that makes me giggle and is the source of inappropriate jokes from our close friends.

Friends like Chris, who is always up for inappropriate jokes, delivered many last Sunday went presented with some delicious Portuguese Tarts that I'd whipped up for the BBQ.

This recipe is quick and easy - but don't let your friends know that ... because they look impressive and time consuming.

PORTUGUESE TARTS
2 sheets of puff pastry
2 tbsp cinnamon sugar
1 carton sour cream
3 tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp soft butter (for greasing your tin)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lightly grease your muffin tray with butter (my tray holds 12 muffin spaces).

Allow two sheets of puff pastry to defrost, before sprinkling a tbsp of cinnamon sugar over each sheet and rolling up. Cut each roll into 6 even cylinders (approximately 2.5cm). Stand the cylinder up and then flatten into a disk.

Place each disk into a greased muffin space and then bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Whilst the pastry is baking, mix together the sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla and orange zest in a bowl.

Remove the muffin tin and softly push back the pastry cases with the back of a metal teaspoon, so that you can fill each with the cream filling. Place back into the oven for 10 minutes. Whilst the tarts are baking, place the sugar and water into a small saucepan and heat on high to make the toffee.

Remove the tarts from the tray and drizzle the toffee over the top - remember to allow the tarts (and more specifically the toffee) to cool before serving.

Cevapi

Ćevapi is a grilled dish of minced meat, a type of kebab, found traditionally in the countries of southeastern Europe. They are considered a national dish in most of the Balkan countries - Croatia, Bosnia/Herzegovina and Serbia. And the other weekend Zjelka (Phillip's sister-in-law) showed me how to make them and I've practiced them one or twice since ... so I think it's time I pulled them out for one of our first BBQs of the season!

After making them 'the Bosnian way' (with Zjelka) and then gaining some 'Croatian tips' from Phillip's Mum, I think that I have prefected my recipe, which I shall work with throughout the upcoming BBQ months.

The best thing is that I know exactly what is going into this skinless sausage and I can make it as environmentally friendly/organic as I want - as well as being able to limit the salt, fat and water content (which are all normally HIGH in store bought sausages).

Cevapi

500g beef mince
500g pork/veal mince
3 rashes of bacon
1 brown onion
3 large cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh black pepper
1 tsp salt
oil

Peel and quarter the onion and place in a food processor with the peeled garlic cloves. Blitz until it is a smooth paste and then add the bacon rashes (sliced into strips) and blitz until smooth.

Add the paste to the mince mixtures and combine using your hands. Add the season and continue to kneed the mixture (the more kneeding the better - minimum 5 minutes).

To form each cevapi, take a small ball of the mixture and form into a finger length sausage about 3/4 inch thick. Repeat, placing the cevapi onto a tray covered in baking paper. Once complete, place the cevapi into the fridge for an hour.

Lightly oil the grilling surface (we used a Webber BBQ). Grill cevapi until cooked through, turning as needed, about 20 minutes.  

UrbanFood - New Acton

It had been a slow old day at the office, and I needed to escape for lunch. I felt that the sun creeping in through the Level 4 kitchen window was not going to 'brighten' my day (excuse the pun) and so I went down stairs to check out what items on the UrbanFood menu could ignite a little excitement into my day.

Some people had been complaining about the price of coffee and food at Urban Food, however not only did I find the prices fare (note: I'm orginally from Sydney) - I also found that they have a 'happy hour' from 9-10am where their small coffee is $2, medium $3 and large $4. I've been jumping on the 'happy hour' band-wagon now for the past 2 weeks and they recognise my face/know my name - so surely I owe it to them to give their lunch options a go!

They had two lunch specials - a chicken burger and a red curry - but I opted for the fish burger on the regular menu and was knocked off my chair. It was DELIGHTFUL! It was an amazingly crispy fish pattie (covered in what I am guessing was Panko bread crumbs), dressed with rich read tomato slices and crunchy cos lettuce, topped and taled with a delicious sauce which wasn't tartare ... but had lots of dill and capers, all inside a warm crusty roll. It also came with a side of homemade crisps - heavily salted/peppered and just the way I like them.

I sat down with a free magazine on one of the bench seats (so I didn't feel like a loser eating lunch alone), and it was great being able to listen to the elemusic (another thing I miss greatly from working in private enterprise - listening to music/the radio whilst working).

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Urban Food Store and Cafe
Location: Corner of Marcus Clarke and Edinburgh Streets

About: Urban Food Store + Cafe is Canberra’s only organic cafe and wholefoods store. Located within the New Acton precinct, Urban Food Store + Cafe features a great selection of fresh, 100% certified and intolerance friendly meals, tea, coffee and sweets.

Opening Hours:

Supermarket:


Monday - Friday
7.30am - 7.30pm


Saturday & Sunday
8.30am - 5.00pm


Café kitchen:
Monday - Friday
7.30am - 2.30pm


Saturday & Sunday
8.30am - 2.30pm



Coffee & cake:


Monday - Friday
7.30am - 4.30pm


Saturday & Sunday
8.30am - 3.30pm

GreenFoodie.com.au

I stumbled across this excellent website the other day call GreenFoodie.com.au - at first I was led there from a Twitter post by @OurManCanberra about organic meat at Epic Farmers Markets, but I stayed and even signed up to become a member.

Here is a little about them in their words:

A greenfoodie is someone who cares about the food they buy and consume. We are most definitely greenfoodies and so are most of our friends and family (we will introduce ourselves properly soon). Greenfoodies are growing and popping up everywhere, spreading around the world and into every household through the organic, free-range, cruelty free, slow food movements, raw foodies, vegetarians, vegans, locavores, conscious consumers and other assorted food connoisseurs.

Greenfoodies care about the environmental, ethical, social and health implications of the way in which food is grown, how it gets to our tables and how it affects our health and wellbeing. Greenfoodies are concerned that the current food systems are broken and are seeking ways to make the world a better place one personal decision at a time. We actively seek out healthy, nutritious, humane, organic, free-range, cruelty free, locally grown, sustainable, lovingly cooked food and in the process of changing ourselves we are changing the world.

We want this site to become an active online community of assorted greenfoodies from all walks of life, sharing knowledge, experiences and yes even recipes. We welcome your feedback and suggestions and we look forward to meeting all you greenfoodies out there!!

I think this is a really excellent website that is well written and full of great local facts - not only about green food but also about; how to grow it, how to cook it and where to find it when eating out!

A Burger and Chips

Have you noticed that your burger and chips are getting smaller?? I must admit, it's been a while since I've eaten a Big Mac but it definitely seemed smaller ... and then there is that famous Aussie 'burger with the lot' from your local takeaway, which also is looking a little lack luster.

Phillip's parent's own a cafe in Woden and let's just say there is NOTHING shabby about Meika's burgers! They are huge and yet somehow she expects you to be able to devour two. I decided to fill in for a Thursday night netball team, so I needed something simple, yet a little bit fancy to quickly make once I had finished and I thought - why not a burger and chips?

A simple yet tasty meat paddie, large rustic bread roll, various salads (because I enjoy my fresh produce - which also includes freshly roasted beetroot), a twist on the chip and maybe even some onion rings...

A BURGER AND CHIPS

500 grams minced meat
1/2 brown onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
salt and pepper

3 Turkish bread rolls
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce
2 truss tomatoes
3 beetroot
Aioli or Tomato Sauce

2 brown onions
1/2 cup of soy milk
3 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp mustard powder
salt and pepper
1 cup of vegetable oil (for frying)

2 potatoes
1 sweet potato
1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp chilli flakes
salt and pepper

Before heading off to Netball, slice the onions into rings and cover with milk. Blend together the onion and garlic and then mix into the mince with chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Form meat paddies and set aside in the fridge. Slice the potato and sweet potato into large wedges and place in a microwaveable dish with the lemon (sliced in half). Wrap the beetroot individually in aluminium foil and bake in the oven on 180 degrees for 1 hour. Leave for Netball.

On returning from Netball, cover the microwaveable dish with gladwrap before place the potatoes into the microwave and cook for 15 minutes on HIGH. Begin to heat the vegetable oil for frying the onion rings and heat a non-stick frying pan for the meat paddies.

Add the cornflour, mustard powder and seasoning to the onion rings and mix to make a batter and make sure that the onion rings are adequately covered. Make sure the oil is hot enough, testing with the end of a wooden spoon, before frying the onion rings in batches and draining on paper towel.

Cut the Turkish bread rolls in half, prior to toasting. Whilst they are toasting you can also cook the meat paddies - once cooked, you can assemble your burger as desired with sliced lettuce, tomato, beetroot and your choice of sauce.

Once the meat paddies are cooked, add a little extra oil to the pan before adding the potatoes. Season the potatoes with chilli, pepper and salt and then serve when the outsides are golden and crispy.

Recipe Swap: All things Cabbage

Before I begun this month’s recipe thing I googled ‘slaw’ – ‘cause I know ‘coleslaw’, but ‘slaw’ isn’t really used that often (or at least around me) here in Australia. Slaw is a noun – short for coleslaw – basically shredded cabbage. Ok, I thought … cabbage, cabbage, cabbage … well shredded cabbage, more to the point …and what popped into my head? Phillip’s Mum!

Milka loves cabbage – Sarma (Cabbage rolls) are a staple diet of the population in Croatia. In a recent survey 97% of women over 25 regularly eat stuffed cabbage. Stuffed cabbage with ground smoked pork is a firm Croatian favorite at Christmas – although we normally are eating it for Easter (as it is cooler than our Christmas which occurs in the summertime). But it’s not just Sarma … she loves all things cabbage - although we are coming to the end of cabbage soup season (which I am secretly happy about), it also means that she will stop making one of my favourites: a delicious, winter-warming side dish made from Sauerkraut.
Sauerkraut directly translated from German: "sour cabbage", is finely shredded cabbage that has been fermented. It has a long shelf-life and a distinctive sour flavor, both of which result from the lactic acid that forms when the bacteria ferment the sugars in the cabbage. It is therefore not to be confused with coleslaw, which receives its acidic taste from vinegar. (Thanks Wikipedia).

She makes her version of the dish with kidney beans, but I know that Phillip won’t eat it if I put beans into it, so here is my version of hot shredded cabbage – some like it hot!

Hot Shredded Cabbage

750 grams of sauerkraut
2 brown onions
2 rashes of bacon
6 slices of hot salami
2 tbsp paprika
½ tbsp vegeta (because it wouldn’t really be Croatian without it!)
½ tbsp of chili flakes
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Empty the sauerkraut into a colander and drain out all of the liquid. Wash the sauerkraut under running water, three times before draining and setting aside.

In a medium frying pan (which has about 5cm sides, because it will be easier to flip and mix everything), heat your olive oil and add your finely sliced onion, bacon and salami. Fry off until the onions are translucent and then add the paprika, chili flakes and vegeta.

Add the washed sauerkraut to the pan and toss, toss, toss. You don’t really need to cook the sauerkraut – you are just heating it through. Season with salt and pepper and then serve.


End Notes:
Apparently this is a bit of a peasant dish, and you can really add what ever meat you have on hand. Phillip’s mum normally adds speck. Speck is a distinctively juniper-flavored ham originally from Tyrol, a historical region that since 1918 partially lies in Austria and partially in Italy. Speck's origins at the intersection of two culinary worlds are reflected in its synthesis of salt-curing and smoking. (Thanks Wikipedia). The differences between speck and bacon include different time lengths of smoking, the technique of curing it, and the fact that speck cures for a longer period of time than bacon does.

Serve it pork (roast pork is delicious) and a side dish of mash potatoes with lots of butter and garlic and another side dish of designer lettuce and spring onions dressed with lots of olive oil and apple cidar vinegar. Another option is sausages and roasted beetroots – don’t judge it until you try it!