Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables with Haloumi

Morgan made scrumptious roast harvest vegetables for me last week. He was inspired by this recipe. We made it with BBQ steak, but it would work beautifully as a stand-alone dish. I've never eaten roast broccoli before, but it was truly delicious and very different to the more familiar steamed broccoli we eat.



4 cups broccoli crowns, trimmed and cut into bite-size florets
1 cup baby tomatoes
1 green capsicum sliced
1 baby eggplant sliced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
10 pitted black olives, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons capers, rinsed

4 slices haloumi



Toss broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, green pepper, oil, garlic and salt in a large bowl until evenly coated. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Bake until the broccoli begins to brown, 10 to 13 minutes.



Combine lemon zest and juice, olives, oregano and capers (if using) in a large bowl. Add the roasted vegetables; stir to combine. Serve with slices of fried haloumi.

Chicken Eggplant Cacciatore

On Wednesday I had knee surgery, so I haven't been able to get into the kitchen--and will be unable to return for a couple of weeks. But, I haven't had any troubles eating beautiful food! Tonight Morgan made a variant on this recipe for my dinner. Adding eggplant and green beans, it was really delicious, hearty and nourishing.

3 tbs olive oil
1 breast of chicken (350g)
1/2 red onion
2 shallots (small brown onions)
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 carrots, peeled, chopped
2 Mushrooms
1 Eggplant sliced
Handful of green beans
3 garlic cloves, crushed
100ml dry white wine
800g cans diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
150ml chicken stock
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
Chopped flat-leaf parsley and basil and feta to garnish

Heat the oil in a large casserole dish over medium-high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook until browned all over. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add the onion, celery, carrot and cook over low heat for 5 minutes until the onion softens. Add the garlic and mushrooms, eggplant and beans and simmer 10mins.


Return chicken pieces to the pan, add the wine and allow to simmer 1-2 minutes.


Add the tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, herbs and stock.


Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the olives and cook for a further 10 minutes.


Serve garnished with basil, parsley and feta

Eggplant Chilli Paneer

Tonight was 'using up stuff the fridge' night. I saw eggplant, corn and green pepper and immediately thought of making Mexican chilli.


However, with no cheese or sour cream to dollop on top, I made do with frozen paneer cheese and a couple of leftover strips of haloumi


Saute finely chopped onion in olive oil. Add chopped red chillies and a spoon of cumin seeds. Add 2 sliced baby eggplant. Fry for a few minutes. Add 1 heirloom tomato (diced) and 3 garlic cloves finely chopped. Add 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup stock and tomato paste (I didn't have any paste left). Add fresh or dried oregano at his point for an authentic Mexican flavour. Add some sour cream if you've got it. I used some smoked paprika and ground coriander at this point. Salt to taste.


Add 1 tin of red kidney beans


Meanwhile fry up paneer cheese. You can buy a big bag from the Indian spice store in McWhirters in Fortitude Valley. It's a great place to pick up all sorts of goodies. Keep paneer frozen in the freezer. Frozen cheese makes life so easy! :)


Fry cubes of cheese in oil and drain on very absorbent paper towel.


Add green capsicum and corn kernels to the bean mixture cook for a few minutes. Add 1/2 lime's worth of juice and diced cheese just prior to serving.


Add chopped coriander and sliced olives to serve. I served it over brown rice, but you can make it more brothy and eat with corn chips if you have them.

Calzone

Tonight we made a version of Jamie Oliver's calzone using half the dough from our pizza a week ago. It is great that dough survives being frozen. I don't know how the yeast manages it. :)


Instead of using Jamie's suggestion of 'tomato sauce', I made some using mixed heirloom tomatoes


I fried up 1 brown onion in some olive oil for 10mins and added tomatoes, 2 red chillies finely chopped, 1 stick of dried rosemary (leaves, not stalks) and 1 baby eggplant (not salted!).


I added a big knob of butter, 4 cloves of garlic, silverbeet and tomato paste.


Finally I added sliced swiss mushrooms, 1tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt & some cracked pepper and cooked slowly until the liquid mostly evaporated.


Morgan created the Calzone using shaved Parmesan and feta--we didn't have any mozzarella.


Folded over. We made two calzones. The first had a thinner crust and more filling, but fell apart a little more (pictured here). The second one was more robust (pictured below). With practice we will get the ratios right.


Into the oven on the pizza stone for 15min.


So tasty-looking.


Why go out for dinner?


Yep, it tasted as good as it looks. The pizza dough was crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. I am amazed really. The last time I ate a calzone was in NJ and it was bland and dripping in fat. What a difference this was!

Eggplant, Mushroom & Pumpkin Thai Curry

The next challenge is: eggplant! Tonight my booful husband Morgan made thai curry.

Ingredients
1 onion finely chopped
3 baby eggplant cut in slices
2 small sweet potatoes diced
1/4 butternut pumpkin diced
4 swiss brown mushrooms sliced
Marinated tofu
1 can coconut milk
Green curry paste (from a jar)
Fish sauce
Fresh coriander
Lime juice

Method

Salt the eggplant and leave to drain out the yucky bitter juices. At the same time put pumpkin and sweet potato chunks into a moderate oven for 1/2 hr.

Update: Apparently fresh, small eggplants don't need to be salted--thanks to my readers for pointing this out. I guess living for so long with old, stale supermarket produce has affected the way I approach my veges.


Pre-dinner snacks of rice cakes, re-fried beans, (tin of re-fried beans mixed with sour cream, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno, pinch of cumin) and spouted mung beans.

Saute onion in some peanut oil. Add curry paste (plus extra red chillies if you wish) and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add eggplant (well-rinsed), mushrooms and coconut milk and bring to the boil (add a few kaffir lime leaves and a spoon of palm sugar if desired). Simmer for ten minutes. Add the roast veges, tofu and fish sauce and heat through.


Serve with fresh coriander on brown rice (we were lazy and used a microwave pouch).


Eggplant triumph! :)

Cleaning up the kitchen tonight I saw the empty bags from my tofu and rice and thought I'd share them. Anyone living in Brisbane can buy these at a local supermarket.


Soyco Tofu & microwavable brown rice. It's so easy to have these long-life items in the fridge and pantry to make week day meals a breeze.