Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

It’s Friday – so instead of quizzes, it’s time for some links: * Salt & pepper: Startling photos from the BBC of a peppercorn and a grain of salt. * Using seaweed: Another great recipe from Food Stories – this time it’s mushroom, nori and wakame soup. * The easiest chickpea salad?: I love the simplicity of A Life Time of Cooking’s quick and easy chickpea salad with ginger, herbs and citrus. * Gingery mushroom salad: Delicious autumn food …

Read more 25 April, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Quinoa tagine: Over at Diet, Dessert & Dogs Ricki has been running a series on using quinoa. She’s surpassed herself with this beautiful tagine of chickpeas, olives and prunes. I cooked this during the week and it was wonderful. * Wild rice salad: I’m new to Syrup & Tang but this week Duncan posted a gorgeous looking wild rice, apricot and almond salad. * Veggie burgers: Another blog I’ve only discovered recently is Food Stories from the UK. ...

Read more 18 April, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Counter-productive TV ads: Over at Chew on This Paula Goodyer discusses adverts that poke fun at healthy habits. * Well balanced pasta: I like this pasta dish from Vegan Yum Yum. It has over three serves of vegies and looks delicious. * Celeriac chowder: I’m always a bit unsure what to do with celeriac, so I was delighted to spot Lily & Chew’s celeriac, sweetcorn and butterbean chowder. * 7 days of wellness tips: Another great link from …

Read more 29 February, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Obesity: Fascinating article on CalorieLab about the difference between Japanese and American cultures, food habits and attitudes to obesity. It’s written by Makiko from Just Hungry. There’s a follow up perspective here. * Beetroot soup: It’s been at least a month since I linked to the last beetroot recipe, so how could I pass up the opportunity to show off Green Gourmet Giraffe’s chunky beetroot soup with kidney beans? * Don’t know what to do with fish? Why …

Read more 25 January, 2008

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Yesterday I posted recipes for an easy Christmas menu. Each dish takes no longer than ten minutes of prep – so you can get out of the kitchen and enjoy the day. I’ve put together the following preparation guide – to make the day even easier: h3. The night before * Baked cod with lime & summer vegetables: prepare the whole dish up to the cooking point, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge overnight * *Roast potato, ...

Read more 20 December, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

This is a Christmas menu I developed for Life etc magazine last year. It’s an easy-summer Christmas menu. Each dish is designed to take no more than ten minutes of preparation and to keep the cook out of the kitchen. This also makes a light and healthy meal, with a few Christmas treats to follow. I’ll also post a preparation guide, showing what you can do the day before – to make Christmas day even easier! h3. The Menu …

Read more 19 December, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Food labelling: I’ve blogged about being wary of food marketers using the word natural before. This week Refrigerator Raid posted about discussions in the US of what is natural?. There’s also some good advice on choosing the best foods for you. * Mediterranean lamb pizza recipe: Should You Eat That posted a simple Mediterranean lamb pizza recipe. Pitta bread bases, covered with pesto, lamb mince and a reasonable veg component. It’s then topped off with ricotta, a healthier …

Read more 16 November, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Mental health: Finding Optimism has a wonderful series on being the partner of someone with depression. The posts are written by Anna, the wife of Finding Optimism’s blogger James. It’s a personal, but practical look at how to cope if the person you love has a mental health issue. The series starts here: the depression dialogue. * Mediterranean diet: Revolution Health has a post about the Mediterranean diet – the “behind the scenes” facts which make this way …

Read more 05 October, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• I originally saw the link to Shape of a Mother on Cranky Fitness. This is a wonderful site, giving a refreshing dose of reality about womens’ bodies after pregnancy. * After discussing the Australian proposal to offer people money to lose weight, over at Dietriffic Melanie has brought up the topic of workplace better health incentives. Do they work and are they a good idea? * Veggie Chic has posted about calling a truce with your vegetable enemies. ...

Read more 28 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Over at the Guardian blog they’ve been exploring strange food combinations. Peanut butter and cornflake sandwiches, chips wrapped in naan bread, broccoli and marmite sandwiches, people are confessing their innermost food secrets. * Trusted MD and Envisions Solutions are taking the pulse of the healthcare blogosphere. If you’re a healthcare blogger, then you might want to take part in their online poll. * Veggie Meal Plans has a beginner’s guide to worm farming. * Perfect for this time of …

Read more 07 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

A friend sent me a link to cuisine.com.au. This website is based on the recipes published in the The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and NZ Cuisine, so it includes dishes from Bill Granger, Stephanie Alexander, Lynne Mullins, Jill Dupleix and many more. It’s an easy to use, smart looking website, with lots of pictures and recipes categorised by meal, cuisine and also special diets. There are a couple of functions I really like. The What’s in the fridge? search function …

Read more 01 September, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Peanut allergies can cause people to limit their life and activities. Professor Robyn O’Hehir an allergy specialist from the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne has some simple and practical advice. * Family Therapist, Rod E Smith’s blog Difficult Relationships is a wonderful resource of compassionate and straight-talking relationship advice. * Since the beginning of July, Veggie Chic has been on a shopping strike. She’s only allowed to buy fresh fruit, vegies, tofu and milk – everything else has to come …

Read more 31 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

The latest issue of Life etc, including my regular Ten Minute Kitchen recipe column. The theme for this issue is walnuts and the recipes include: * Barbecued flathead with walnuts * Walnut & egg salad with creamy eggplant dressing * Spiced lamb with walnuts For the next two months you can download the recipes from the Life etc website. The button is in the right-hand sidebar, about half way down. If you do pick up the magazine, I’m one of …

Read more 27 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• I’m becoming a fan of Half of Me’s regular Lick The Produce section. I’ve linked to it before – hoping to inspire the vegie- and fruit-phobics out there. In this episode she tries mango, kiwi fruit and purple cauliflower for the first time. * The Guardian blog asks if you’re vegetarian and have given up meat then why do you eat so many meat-substitutes? The post is beautifully titled Hard-core Quorn. * Those of you following the “31 Days …

Read more 20 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• For all of you having problems with those afternoon munchies, Chew On This has some good advice on taming food cravings. Paula quotes research from the Journal of Applied Psychology which found “rather than actively trying not to think about the food you crave, it’s better to focus on an image of something completely different”. * Despite it’s salt content, I’m a big, big fan of haloumi – which means this dish from Figs, Olives and Wine is going …

Read more 10 August, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Today’s quicklinks is for the omnivores out there. I’ve just been responding to comments and in one answer I mentioned that one of the best meats to eat, here in Australia, is kangaroo. Kangaroo is low in fat, plus they’re adapted to living in our harsh environment and cause much less damage to top soil than cows and sheep. However, it’s still not a popular meat and I think most people just don’t know what to do with it. So …

Read more 20 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Monday is always the night I want something quick and easy for dinner. While home-made and healthy are important, I’m mostly after speed and simplicity. Some quick and easy suggestions are: * Pork&Asian greens stir-fry – although I’d probably miss out the five-spice mix and use a pack of frozen vegies * An omelette with a big pile of steamed vegetables and (if I could be bothered) oven-baked wedges * Tuscan bean soup – it may be from Sunrise, but …

Read more 09 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Yesterday’s Good Living featured easy fish recipes from Bill Granger. While there are many health benefits to including fish in your diet, people seem unsure of what to do with it. As Bill says: bq. Fish can strike terror into the hearts of novice cooks, but ironically it is probably the quickest and simplest thing to cook. If you’re a fish beginner, then why not try one of Bill’s recipes? They include a grilled coconut salmon, polenta crusted fish and …

Read more 04 July, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Family Nutritionist has a recipe for green and orange ribbons with fettucine, a lovely way to balance out the vegetable to starchy carbohydrate ratio. If you can’t get mustard greens you could use silverbeet. * I wouldn’t recommend this approach to anyone, but here’s what happens when a meat addict goes hard core vegan for one month. * I love the sound of these Turkish Red Lentil Balls – I think I’ll be cooking them this weekend. * Chew …

Read more 22 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

After my weekend cook-fest, I have a fridge and freezer full of ingredients. Last night, instead of using the roasted pumpkin in a risotto, I decided to combine it with some of the beans and barley. All the ingredients were cooked, so they just needed to be warmed in a saucepan with a small amount of water. I then made a quick dressing and dinner was ready in minutes. h3. Roast pumpkin with white beans and barley These quantities …

Read more 19 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Rain, rain, rain and more rain made cooking on the weekend very attractive. My nephew’s fifth birthday party was washed out, so Sunday was an unexpected free day and an opportunity to cook some meals and ingredients for the week ahead. h3. What I cooked Lentils: I cooked three cups of lentils in my rice cooker. I used half of them to make Quick Lentil Soup and the other half has gone in the freezer. Barley: I also cooked …

Read more 18 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

• Overseas action on junk food advertising to kids: tomorrow the UK parliament is having its second reading of a bill aimed at preventing the advertising on TV of foods high in fat, sugar and sodium before 9pm (when in theory young children have stopped watching and gone to bed). * According to Rudd Sound Bites, Starbucks in the US is about to make reduced fat milk the standard in a lot of its drinks. * I like this breakfast …

Read more 08 June, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I recently asked the question * what’s your perfect mid-week meal * and received some interesting and useful responses . I had assumed everyone would be after speed and minimal preparation, but readers also commented they were looking for ways to use up leftovers, meals to freeze and how to recycle last night’s dinner into something new and fabulous. I’m still mulling over these answers, but they have persuaded me I need to tweak my recipe categories, ...

Read more 30 May, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

This was my dinner on Tuesday night. Richard was out and I wasn’t in a big cooking mood, but I still wanted something tasty, healthy and home-made. This salad fitted the bill. The original recipe prescribed tinned lentils, but I already had some dried to use up. Rather than fuss around cooking them on the stovetop, I thought I’d try cooking them in my rice cooker. I used one part lentils to three parts water, added a pinch of …

Read more 08 February, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

When the hot weather hits I found myself craving rice paper rolls. When it’s 36°C and humid, the last thing I want is turn the oven or hot plates on. Which makes this recipe perfect. We’ve been eating these a lot. I generally prepare the filling and dipping sauce, put the dried rice papers on a plate and put out a bowl of warm water. Then Richard and I can sit there, soaking and filling our rice papers and …

Read more 02 February, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I’m finally getting back to my dinner party menu . On the night I had twelve people for dinner, including one person who can’t eat wheat (but is okay with spelt) and another friend who is lactose intolerant. For the main course I made two of these tarts. They’re vegan and I used spelt flour for the crust. I’d love to say I came up with this recipe, because it’s inventive, full of flavour and really adds to the …

Read more 04 January, 2007

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Onions are one of the staples of our diet – well they’re certainly one of the staples of mine. We always have garlic and onion in the house and I would say about 80% of the things I cook, are started by sauteeing together these two ingredients. Their rich intensity adds so much flavour to even the simplest of dishes. Onions are also extremely good for you. They contain the flavonoid quercetin , which has antiinflammatory action. It inhibits …

Read more 29 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

We had risotto for dinner last night – this beautiful pumpkin and cinnamon risotto. I started with a recipe from Rose Gray&Ruth Rogers’ River Cafe Cook Book Green * and made a couple of tweaks. I’ve been quite intrigued by this recipe for a while and after my recent experiment with chermoula risotto , I decided to give it a go. The combination of cinnamon, chilli and oregano gives the risotto a beautiful, rich flavour. It’s not super-hot, with the …

Read more 28 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Great summer recipes from Bill Granger in yesterday’s Good Living. I particularly like the vietnamese style salad, which could be turned into a light meal by adding some cooked tofu, chicken or fish. The pork burgers are quick and easy, plus the watermelon granita is a summer dessert that’s lower in kilojoules than ice-cream.

Read more 22 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

This post is part of the Spice is Right, this month hosted by Habeas Brulee and it’s all about mixing up spices from one region, with recipes from another. My recipe is a chermoula risotto, which seems like a bizarre combination, but works very well. Chermoula is a Moroccan spice mix, made up of cumin and paprika, along with garlic, lemon juice and fresh coriander. I’ve been thinking about making something with chermoula for a while. Then my “organic …

Read more 15 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

When I lived in the UK I thought corn only came from a tin. Sure it was a vegetable and it grew somewhere, but I didn’t know you could buy it in another form. Only when I came to Australia did I realise corn came on cobs and tasted really, really good. Fresh corn is now one of my favourite vegies. As well as being a beautiful colour, it’s so juicy and sweet. I love it barbecued, cooked in the …

Read more 14 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I had a wonderful dinner last night. It was just me at home, so I wanted something quick, easy and tasty. Plus I had some tofu, bok choy and asparagus in the fridge and wanted to use them up. I’ve been playing around with Google Coop over the last few days – setting up some specialised search engines for finding healthy recipes and good health information. Rather than googling the whole world, you can select a group of sites …

Read more 10 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Last night my kitchen was a MESS. One lazy night, followed by one late-home (and therefore cooking late) night meant the stove top was a mess, the dishwasher was full until overflowing and it seemed like every single pan and piece of cutlery had already been used. However, I was home early, which meant I had time to cook and clean up, which made this recipe from Albion Cooks very attractive. While it does take about an hour to …

Read more 08 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I’ve been cooking a lot with split peas over the last two weeks. While I favour split mung beans when making dal, Richard always uses split yellow peas. Some time ago he went through a dal-making craze and and we ended up with a cupboard full of the little critters. Trouble is, I’m not a huge fan, so two large jars of yellow split peas have been stuck at the back of the cupboard for quite some time now. I …

Read more 02 November, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Fritters are a great way to make vegetables a bit different. If you struggle to get your daily vegetable quota, or find it impossible to get your kids to eat vegies, then fritters are a good option. They don’t really look or taste like vegetables and don’t have an obvious vegetable texture. They can be “sold” to kids as burgers, something all kids recognise (certainly in Australia). Fritters are also quick and easy to cook – grate some vegetables; ...

Read more 13 October, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

As I’ve said before , mid-week I love a one-pot meal. To be able to make a healthy, quick meal and only dirty one saucepan, is a good thing. Which makes risotto a good option – everything goes in together, to make a beautiful rich and creamy textured meal. However, for me, most risotto recipes just don’t include enough vegies. One way round this is to serve it with a salad, but sometimes I just want one bowl of steaming …

Read more 29 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I’m gradually making my way through the glut of eggs , by adding them to salads, making lablabi , having them for breakfast and so on. My latest Lettuce Deliver box contained the first asparagus of the season, which is always an exciting addition – tangible evidence that summer is on its way. To celebrate, I put together this little concoction, which really lets the asparagus shine. The bunch of asparagus was quite small, so I bulked it up …

Read more 28 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

I love cooking. Spending some time concentrated on beautiful ingredients and making a meal that both tastes good and is also healthy, is how I unwind. However, like most people, during the week I don’t want to faff around too much. If I can make something in 30 minutes and more importantly make minimal mess, then I’m happy. The ultimate mid-week meal for me, is one that contains all my food groups, including plenty of veg and most importantly, can …

Read more 26 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Annatto seeds – have you ever heard of them? Well I hadn’t, until this month’s Tigers&Strawberries Spice is Right challenge, called Back to School. The aim is to use a new spice, one you haven’t tried before or don’t know a lot about. My highly technical spice selection process involved going to my favourite spice shop, starting at the beginning of the alphabet and picking the first spice I hadn’t heard of, which didn’t take long as I discovered annatto …

Read more 16 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Since cooking with wattleseeds for the Spice is Right food blogging event and then finding lots of other ways to use them, I’ve been thinking more about Australian native spices. While I regularly cook foods from around the world, I’ve never used these home-grown flavours and spices before. I’m comfortable cooking Indian, Italian, Greek, South American, North African and yet I don’t know where to start with foods that have been grown and eaten in Australia for thousands of years. ...

Read more 12 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

As I mentioned, I have a lot of eggs in the pantry at the moment. For the next three weeks I’m going to be eating a LOT of eggs. Which is fine, because I love eggs, plus . . . they’re very good for you. Here is the first of my egg-fest recipes h3. Hard boiled eggs in red lentil curry sauce Serves 4 This is an Anglo-Indian recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible. I’ve simplified the …

Read more 09 September, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Australian bush foods are always something that have intrigued me, but I’ve never really known what to do with them. This month’s Spice is Right is about using a locally grown spice in combination with fresh and local produce, in a dish that reflects the flavours of home. This month I was in the mood for experimenting and thought it was time to try out something new – a native spice. Many of the bush foods and spices are unique …

Read more 16 August, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

They say pride comes before a fall. Having confidently talked about how good legumes are for you and how easy they are to cook – I now have to blog about what to do when you’re distracted while cooking chickpeas and end up boiling them into a mush. Whups. I was at home yesterday and foolishly thought I’d multi-task by cooking a batch of chickpeas while working. However the distractions of work, phone calls and emails, meant I forgot …

Read more 03 August, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

One thing I love about blogs is the way they connect people. Different countries and cultures share interests and experiences via blogs. For example in the food blogging community there are a whole series of events, where participants cook and photograph food, all based around a theme. One of these food blogging events is called the Spice is Right and it’s hosted by Barbara at Tigers&Strawberries. The latest theme ingredient is chillies and this is my entry. Chillies are …

Read more 16 July, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

Since reading Jocelyn’s post about cabbage dal over at She Spills the Beans, I’ve been slightly obsessing about making this dal. I love, love, LOVE dal and we’ve always got a few tubs of it in the freezer. While I often include silverbeet in my dal and despite being a huge cabbage fan, I’ve never made dal with cabbage. After receiving reasurrances from Jocelyn about how good it was, I decided to make some over the weekend. This was …

Read more 11 July, 2006

Posted by kathryn in Recipes: main dishes

What a cutie, this is a Barbara pumpkin and she appeared in my last Lettuce Deliver box. I was intrigued, as I’ve never heard of or seen Barbara pumpkins before. To me she looks like a cross between the shape of a butternut and the colour and markings of a jap pumpkin. On the inside she was a rich orange colour, much stronger than a butternut. Richard’s been calling her Barbarapapa since she arrived. I’m not sure I’d …

Read more 05 July, 2006