Crustless Potato Quiche

Sun streams through the window warming my face. Gumtree shaped shadows dance across the pages of my book distracting me while I read, inspiring idle daydreams, a choir of warbling magpies my serenade and soundtrack. I’m snuggled under a fluffly red mohair blanket contemplating a nap or a walk or perhaps concentrating on the words in my book. The words win out, they usually do. It’s a lazy Sunday, the day after the federal election and change is emerging. Everyone’s tired, maybe it’s another chapter of pandemic recovery closing and the next era dawning, maybe it’s fatigue from the constant news cycle we’ve just endured.

As the afternoon slowly meanders by marked by the fall of the sun through the trees and towards the west horizon the reality of life ambles towards me. Early evening draws closer and I contemplate the collection of leftovers from last night’s gathering of friends awaiting us in the fridge.

We gathered around a long table, enjoying each other’s company, all the more aware of the joy of breaking bread together, multiple conversations dancing across the table in rapid fire banter. Plates of colourful vegetable offerings brought by our guests pass back and forth, scoops of slow roasted boneless chicken on a bed of unctuous cherry tomatoes and tender spiced lamb shank nestle alongside. Wine is shared, sloshed into glasses, it’s readiness dissected while others enjoy a variety of frothy lagers. The remains packed away we retire to the fireplace outside in the dewy night air, more laughter, more food, bowls of bubbling apple and rhubarb crumble and custard warming our hands. Satisfied sighs and bellies surround my contented happy soul, having spent a contented afternoon cooking for dear friends and family one of the greatest acts of love and appreciation I can offer.

Whilst dinner was gratefully devoured there’s always a surplus when you’re notorious for serving a heaving table. Returning to the present I reluctantly put my book down and haul myself from the couch, open the fridge, ponder the contents of the tubs stacked inside….hmm not quite enough for tonight’s dinner. Another corner of my mind is settling around memories of elections past and my parents. What they’d think of this most recent period and the weekend’s result. The fridge alarm pings….day dreaming again…back to reality. Thoughts of my mum, a tenacious hard working social worker, come to the front of my mind and inspiration strikes. Her signature dish of her later years, a recipe brought home from work scribbled on a torn envelope by one of her clients and later passed around through her own family and friends. A simple easy to construct comfort food recipe perfect for the end of week bits and pieces in the fridge and to pad out a small buffet of last night’s surplus. A contented smile breaks across my face and I get to work. Never underestimate the value of daydreaming, the power of food memories and the simple dishes that fill our recollections.

Crustless potato quiche, as Mum would call it, is super versatile being one of those meals suitable for all three mealtimes. It will work as a picnic dish, with a salad for a light lunch or dinner or even a prepared brekky or lunch box item. You can use leftover potato or cook potato especially for your quiche. Any of the ham/bacon family will work as will other smallgood like salami and chorizo. You can also experiment with the vegetables you add again leaning on leftovers from the fridge or using bits and bobs from the crisper. I’ve tweaked Mum’s recipe making it a little lighter but bulking it up for a hungry family.

Ingredients:

1 onion diced

2 garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 Tb unsalted butter

4 large eggs lightly whisked

1 cup whole milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese (any flavoursome hard cheese will work, even a mix if needed)

1 tsp salt flakes

½ cup self-raising flour

2 potatoes diced cooked to just tender. (This equals roughly 2 cups of diced leftover potatoes if you’re using leftover potato)

1 cup of vegetables of your choice (see note)

100 gm prosciutto, ham, bacon or other similar meat.

Method:

Preheat oven to 220c. Grease a 20 cm square ceramic dish or round pie plate.

Melt butter with olive in a small pan over med-low heat. Gently cook the onion and garlic until translucent. If using bacon and you prefer it cooked you can also add it here and cook it off. Allow to cool while you gather and prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Whisk together eggs and milk. Stir through cheese and sprinkle over flour folding through until just combined. Add, onion and garlic mixture including the melted butter and oil, potato and any vegetable and meat your using. Gently stir through additions and pour into the prepared dish. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown on top, set in the middle and gently pulling away from the sides. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Notes:

If using spinach for your veg addition use chopped fresh baby spinach leaves. No need to cook first indeed doing so will add moistrure.

Other lovely veg additions that work well include corn, peas, capsicum, zucchini and even cubed roasted pumpkin.

Cubed cooked sweet potato is a delicious alternative to regular white potato.

A mixture of grated cheese adds flavour and is a handy use of all the small leftover bits of cheese in the dairy drawer.

Chicken Ratatouille

The days are getting cooler here. The wintry damp air is descending, windows kept closed, curtains drawn at night and fire lit. In the late afternoon as the family trickle through the front door at the end of their days they arrive cold, tired and in need of something warm in their tummies. There’s nothing more comforting after a long day at work or school than being greeted by the rich smells of dinner wafting through the door as you step over the threshold.

My family almost always respond to that first sniff of dinner with the standard “what’s for dinner?” Often in the colder months the answer will include some kind of casserole or slow cook. I prefer autumn and winter for many reasons but one of the biggest ones is the food. A kitchen warmed by a purring oven housing a pot of some kind of rich and hearty has a special comforting quality like no other.

My Chicken Ratatouille is one such dish. Garlic, capers, tomatoes and all the sweetness of vegies cooked slowly bubbling away in the oven is one of those evocative aromas that always makes me smile with anticipation both knowing how much the family will enjoy it and equally how satisfying a dinner it is.

Skipping the traditional step of browning the chicken first actually gives the dish a special flavour with meat almost poaching in the sauce below it and the skin roasting and crisping up, juices running off it’s surface and flavouring the dish further. Most importantly this little trick also speeds things up and that hour in the oven gives you a little time to hang out with the family hearing about their day.

Ingredients:

1 Tb extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves finely chopped or crushed

4 shallots peeled and halved

1 large carrot chopped in large chunks

1 small celery stick diced

1 small capsicum chopped in large dice

1 cup of cubed eggplant

1 cup thickly sliced button mushrooms

1 Tb salted capers washed

Small bunch of fresh thyme

1 cup chicken stock

6 chicken thigh cutlets (skin on bone in)

2 400gm cans of diced tomato

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c.

Warm the olive oil in a shallow oven proof pan over medium to low heat. Turn heat down to low and add carrot, celery and shallots cut side down and cook gently for ten minutes. Add capsicum and garlic and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Increase heat to med and add mushrooms and eggplant stirring for a few minutes until they’re beginning to sweat. Sprinkle in capers and thyme and cook briefly until they release their aroma. Pour in tomatoes and stock. Stir everything to combine thoroughly and bring to a boil. Gently place chicken cutlets on top so they’re floating on the veg and sauce, sprinkle with salt flakes and drizzle a little more olive oil over them. They will both poach underneath and roast on top. Place the pan in the oven uncovered and cook for 1 hour.

Serve with a a green salad and some crusty bread. You may also like a bowl of steamed baby potatoes or soft polenta to mop up the sauce and veg.

Bircher Muesli

“Order up!” Bellowed the brusque Scottish head chef on my first day of my first hospitality job. Twenty one, hands shaking, cheeks flaming under the guidance of my supervisor I reached across the pass shelf and took the large glass bowl of a creamy white gloopy concoction. It was 6.15 am and though bleary at such an early hour I still didn’t recognise what I carried out to the buffet in preparation for, soon to arrive, guests. “What is it?” I enquire. “It’s Bircher Muesli,” he barked across the kitchen, “now hurry along.” Now if you’ve ever worked in a hotel restaurant or kitchen you’ll know this exchange was not one meant with any malice on his part rather an indication of the rising adrenaline of impending service. I often reflect on this as I watch reality tv set in restaurants or cooking environments wondering if this is a tactic secretly employed by chefs the world over to build tension like a screenwriter would in a blockbuster suspense thriller or a football coach at half time wanting to rev up the team and inspire performance. At the time I was a little rattled and perhaps even somewhat shocked. My supervisor, a seasoned hospo professional from London, though well used to such shenanigans reassured and encouraged me and I in turn grew a little and became a little bit more adult as you do in your early 20’s contrary to how you perceive yourself at the time. As that morning progressed I asked what indeed Bircher Muesli was. She explained what was in it and where it had originated from and offered me a taste. Until then I’d always eaten toast or muesli with the occasional bacon and eggs, very vanilla 1980’s Australia. Suddenly a whole new world of breakfasts opened up to me as the offerings on that buffet grew that morning and indeed my curiosity piqued so too did the variety of things I enjoyed for breakfast grow from working there.

Reflecting on this I’m reminded how the maturity of our taste buds can be like markers for the passage of time and indeed our own maturity. Our willingness to try something new that we may have previously thought we disliked or in fact had never heard of transcends from the table and kitchen to our greater lives if we’re lucky and we look beyond toast and coffee both literally and metaphorically.

Historically bircher muesli was created by a swiss doctor in the early 20th century. Traditionally it was made with oats nuts and fruit soaked overnight in apple juice and boosted with fresh grated apple in the morning. Originally intended to be a nutrition packed breakfast for ailing patients in hospital it remains a dish you can load up with all the essentials to get your day started well. You can make ahead in jars ready for a quick breakfast in the morning and indeed make a few at once given they keep well in the fridge for a few days. The recipe below is my concoction I make and keep in the pantry having it ready for mixing at night ready to go rather than lots of measuring and mixing each time. To make things a little easier I use dried apple which plumps up nicely overnight and marries well with the spices. Alternatively, my mixture can also be eaten well as a traditional natural muesli unsoaked with Greek yoghurt or with your favourite milk or milk alternative poured over with some fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

3 C rolled oats

¼ C LSA (linseed, sunflower and almond ground up and mixed. I use this one for bonus points. You could replicate it by whizzing 2 TBs of chia in a grinder, blender of stick blender to chop it up and make it palatable if unsoaked)

¼ C slivered almonds or your favourite nuts chopped up

¼ C oat bran

¼ pumpkin seeds

½ C dried apple chopped into small pieces

1/3 C shredded coconut

¼ currants

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp of fresh nutmeg grated

¼ tsp ground ginger

Method:

Combine all the above and store in a well sealed contained.

The night before eating add 1/3 C of your homemade natural muesli mixture from above. Place in a jar and just cover with your choice of milk and stir. Add 100gm your favourite yoghurt (I use Greek for myself but my son prefers vanilla Greek) and stir well. Seal jar and and place in fridge overnight. Top with fresh fruit and a drizzle of honey and serve. You can pop some fruit in the jar the night before if you have a busy morning ahead for grab and go convenience.

Corn and Potato Chowder

Do you still have your wisdom teeth? We’re a family with none now. Our youngest had his removed last Friday. As a parent it was a strange experience stepping through the doors of the very same, very small suburban hospital in which mine were extracted 33 years ago, albeit with a different surgeon thankfully. Day surgery in covid times is very different from what we’re used to, forcing a brief check in and more perfunctory goodbyes. These days a wisdom teeth patient is returned home hours after their surgery where parents don their Florence Nightingale persona and care for the ‘patient.’ Part of this was catering for the long list of eating do’s and don’ts. Lots of soft food, very little texture, acid and colour. It’s been a stretch. I peeked early with Sophie Hansen’s Winter Sun Soup from her book In Good Company, full of flavour, ginger, garlic and turmeric for healing. From there it went downhill quickly, the menu featuring such sterling culinary offerings as overcooked pasta, eggs for days and fluffy white sliced bread. Then I remembered this old favourite. Thankfully the weather is cool in the evenings here now as the seasons turn. Likewise in the northern hemisphere with cold weather lingering you too may be nursing a ‘patient’ in need of something to fill a belly and heart with a big warm bowl of the best comfort there is…soup.

Potato and Corn Chowder is a bowl of goodness to nourish the body and soul. It’s all those comfort flavours, starchy filling potato, smooth rich cream and sweet corn. It’s delicious served with warm crusty bread, hot buttered toast or just a sprinkle of a flavourful cheese like parmesan or gruyere. I like a dollop of sour cream on top because there’s never enough creaminess and a sprinkle of bacon at the end adds a little hit of texture and saltiness.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

1 TB extra virgin olive oil

3 rashers (approx. 150gm) of bacon chopped

1 leek white part chopped

1 garlic clove finely choppe

1 celery stick finely diced

25 gm butter

1 TB plain flour

1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

2 cups diced peeled potatoes (roughly 2cm dice)

Generous pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

1 tsp of chopped fresh thyme

1 Ltr chicken or vegetable stock

2/3 C thickened/pouring cream.

METHOD:

In a large heavy based saucepan warm olive oil on medium heat and fry off bacon pieces until almost crispy on edges, it will keep cooking off the heat. Remove bacon with slotted spoon keeping oil and juices from bacon in pan. Turn heat down to low and gently sauté leek for five minutes stirring frequently to prevent browning. Add corn, celery, garlic, thyme and nutmeg and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add butter, melt and stir through vegies to coat. Sprinkle in flour and stir to combine thoroughly and cook off flour for a couple minutes. Pour in a small amount of stock whisking to combine with the vegies and roux ensuring there’s no floury lumps. Tip in potatoes and remaining stock stirring gently to combine. Bring to a simmer still over medium to low heat. The liquid should reduce and thicken to a consistency of a soup that’s simmered for hours. Simmer for 40 minutes stirring occasionally to prevent sticking on the bottom but go gently to keep the potatoes in shape. When ready to serve, stir through cream, and stir lightly to combine but still carefully for those little spud cubes.

Serve with a sprinkling of the bacon and top with a dollop of sour cream and or grated cheese such as parmesan or gruyere.

Porcupine Meatball Curry

There’s a lot to love about camping holidays, particularly at the moment. Long days in the sun, swimming, exploring and generally relaxing. Reading books at leisure in the shade of towering old gum trees while the waters of a river or creek gentle bubble by, no chores to draw you away or distract your mind and hands. All this vacation utopia until the tummy rumbles, the one task that follows you everywhere. Now don’t get me wrong I actually enjoy the challenge of a campfire cook and creatively throwing together what’s in the camping fridge but I also enjoy the break and have employed the greatest camping hack ever!! In the week or so leading up to a trip I have a bit of a cook up and vacuum pack meals. Portioned in just the right amount and sealed up for easy and safe packing in the fridge, dinner becomes as complicated as choosing and warming up.

In doing my pre-holiday cook this time around, I tried to think of something new using some old ideas. If you grew up in Australia there’s a whole lot about this recipe that will be familiar. The alchemy of three ideas into one my Porcupine Curry is pretty easy, healthy and can be turned up or down for little palettes or older ones.

PS: This holds almost no semblance to anything evenly remotely authentic but if you love a curry you’ll most likely still enjoy it.

NB: I promise no porcupines were harmed in the making of this dish. 

Ingredients:

1 kg Mince Beef (Any minced/ground meat will work though)

1/3 c uncooked rice

2 tsps grated ginger

2 tsps grated garlic

1 heaped tsp curry powder

1 ½ tsp salt flakes

2 tbs ghee

1 onion sliced

1 c beef stock

2 Tbs Indian style curry paste

1 700gm bottle tomato passata/sauce (the Italian style)

100 gm frozen spinach (vegies sorted)

1 Tb peanut butter

Method:

Combine meat, uncooked rice, ½ the ginger and garlic, curry powder and salt flakes in a bowl. Work with your hands to thoroughly combine. Doing this well, squeezing the mixture through your hands activates the proteins making it sticky enough to amalgamate without additional ingredients like egg and breadcrumbs. Form into balls the size of golf balls or small passionfruit and pop in the fridge on a plate in a single layer to firm up while you make the sauce, we’re not going to brown them.

Heat a fry pan big enough to hold all the meatballs in a single layer over medium heat. Melt/heat ghee until beginning to bubble. Add onion and fry gently over low heat until soft, moving around occasionally to prevent browning, around 5 minutes. Add remaining garlic and ginger and fry 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Turn heat up to medium-high and add curry paste and fry off until also fragrant, 3’ish minutes. Add tomato passata and frozen and spinach, stir to combine until spinach is broken up. Allow sauce to simmer after this for 5 minutes until it’s gently bubbling. Stir in peanut butter until thoroughly broken up and combined. Turn heat down to a gentle simmer and gently return meatballs to the pan in a single layer. Gently spoon sauce over balls to ensure they’re all coated in sauce, cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. This is when the meatballs will start to cook and firm up allowing you to be able to stir later. After 15 minutes remove lid and allow to simmer for a further 45 minutes. This is when the magic happens and the balls will grow little porcupine spikes as the rice cooks in the moisture. Some rice grains will escape and float in the sauce, this is totally fine and delicious. Serve with additional rice and yoghurt and other yummy Indian style accoutrements.

Notes:

If you want to turn the volume down on the spice try using a milder style curry paste before you add less paste to maintain the delicious curry flavour and balance. I’ve used a korma paste in the photo but it’s fine with all styles. The curry powder in the balls doesn’t really add to the heat so start with the paste if you want a milder dish.

If you’re using minced/ground chicken go gently placing the balls in the sauce as it’s a much wetter product. Resist the urge to add an absorbing ingredient like breadcrumbs as this will absorb the sauce and affect the rice cooking well.