Spicy Bean Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

I have been craving tacos since last week. During my cooking class at camp last week i asked the kids what their signature dish would be if they were on a cooking show. One boy proceeded to tell me all about these incredible tacos he would make. Since then i haven't stopped thinking about making taaaaccccos so tonight was the night to satiate that craving.

My cousin (second cousin actually) from Scotland is visiting at the moment and like me, she's very much food obsessed. This recipe is a joint creation from the both of us.

*Note- You will need lots of limes for this!
   
Spicy Beans
2 tbs. cooking oil
1 large clove garlic
1 red onion
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. cumin powder
1/4 tsp. chili powder
2 tbs. tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 large capsicum, diced
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan and add onion and garlic until fragrant. Add the spices, tomato paste, beans, capsicum and diced tomatoes. Cook on a medium heat until the flavours are incorporated. Squeeze lime juice and season with salt.

Cabbage Slaw
1/4 Red Cabbage
2 carrots, grated
handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 zucchini, grated
1 cucumber, grated
Half onion sliced thinly
Juice of 1-2 limes
1 tbs. red wine vinegar
pinch raw sugar
2 tbs. sesame seeds, toasted

Combine all the vegetables and coriander in a large bowl. Dress with lime juice, red wine vinegar, raw sugar and sesame seeds.

Goats Cheese Guacamole
1 large avocado
few sprigs fresh coriander, finely chopped
1 tbs. goats cheese
Juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Mash avocado and add all other ingredients.

Garlic Mayonnaise Sauce
1/2 cup good quality mayonaise
1 clove garlic
juice of half a lemon
fresh chives, chopped

To Serve
1 packet gluten free corn tortillas
Chopped fresh chilies or jalapenos 
More chopped limes for serving

Heat tortillas in a pan on a low heat or in the microwave and assemble as desired!

Buckwheat Porridge with Strawberry Puree and Crunchy Maple Bits

Spring has almost sprung and I can’t say how happy I am to have some sunshine back in my life. My reptile self is warmly welcoming the early change of season and basking in whatever it gives me. So far it’s been very nice.

The other week I bought some buckwheat groats and since then, have been experimenting different uses.  Today was porridge. 

Before I go ahead and talk about the recipe, I’d like you to just divert your attention to the beautiful board on which my porridge sits. 

At the beginning of this month, Cal and I celebrated the anniversary of 5 special years together. Normally, gifts aren’t on the anniversary agenda, we tend to plan exciting adventures or experiences instead so this gift came a little unexpected. When Cal handed this over he told me he'd bought this beautiful piece of Huon Pine in Tasmania 10 years ago! Not sure how it managed to slip under the radar all this time, I'd never seen it in my life. He had sanded it down and oiled it and it is now one of the most beautiful things i own.

So now that the board has been credited, here's the recipe!

Buckwheat really doesn't need all that much tampering with. It's so beautiful and nutty, i stepped away from the spices this time.

Buckwheat Porridge

1/2 cup buckwheat groats

1 cup water

1/2 tbs. apple cider vinegar

1 cup plant based milk

1 tsp. cinnamon

Soak the buckwheat overnight in the water and apple cider vinegar.

Drain and rinse thoroughly.

In a saucepan cook the buckwheat in the milk and cinnamon until the liquid reduces.

You can either keep reducing and eat the buckwheat as it is like porridge or blend it.

I blitzed my warm buckwheat in a blender for a few seconds to achieve a thicker, porridge-like texture.

Alternatively, you can make a raw version which consists of just soaking overnight and then blending. A beautiful cool version for the warmer months to come!

Strawberry Puree

1 punnet ripe strawberries

1-2 tbs. water

Blend strawberries in a blender or food processor and add water until desired consistency is reached. If your strawbs are ripe enough your won't need to add any other sweetener.

Crunchy Maple Bits

1 handful walnuts

1 handful buckwheat groats

1 handful flaked coconut

1/2 tbs. maple syrup

Dry roast the walnuts, buckwheat and coconut until brown. Pour over the maple syrup and stir through.

Enjoy this wonderful porridge in the sun!

Rosemary & Roasted Garlic Popcorn

 I love the thrill of making popcorn. Waiting with bated breath for that first.... POP! Like a ticking time bomb until a whole mine field goes off with tiny little yellow kernels exploding in to big white clouds.

I must say, I've become quite the expert in making popcorn. Cal and I are, you could say, slightly obsessed. Any excuse to make popcorn, we'll make it. The trend started when we were traveling in Berlin. It was the middle of winter and we were staying in a tiny little studio apartment with the bedroom as the only sitting room. Somehow we found ourselves tucked up in bed some afternoons munching down popcorn and watching movies on the laptop. Yeah i know, exciting tourists hey? It was in Berlin that we remembered how exciting and delicious popcorn was and since then we always have kernels in the house.

Today i thought i'd go a little gourmet and jazz up my everyday popcorn. Let me assure you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with plain old buttery salty popcorn, but it probably isn't all that interesting to blog about or take photos of. Hopefully i've inspired some ideas.

 The aim is to get as few unpopped kernels as possible. It takes skill.

How to cook popcorn
Ingredients:
1/3 cup popcorn kernels (will feed 2 hungry popcorn eaters)
Oil with  a high smoke point- rice bran, peanut or sunflower. I try to steer clear of canola and vegetable oils.

Put a heavy based saucepan on a medium to high heat and coat the bottom of the pan with oil. Drop in 3-4 kernels and wait. When the first one pops, add in all of your kernels and cover the pot. Keep the heat high, but make sure you shake the kernels around every few seconds or so to ensure they don't stick to the bottom or  burn. Your popcorn is ready when the popping slows and then stops.
How many are unpopped?

Rosemary & Roasted Garlic  Infused Butter
50g butter
2-3 rosemary sprigs
2 garlic cloves
rock salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees. In a baking tray place 2 cloves of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast for about 30 minutes or until soft.

In a saucepan, melt the butter on a low heat and add in the rosemary sprigs and roasted garlic cloves (remove skin from garlic), salt and pepper to taste. stir occasionally and allow the flavours to infuse for 5 minutes or so.
Strain the butter through a sieve on to the popcorn and stir to coat. Don't be afraid to add a few garlic clumps to the popcorn. It's verrrry tasty!

Perfect beer snack, movie snack, day time snack or party snack to wow your friends.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemony Drizzle

 Last market morning we met up with Luisa for our weekly shop. In her little bike basket she brought us a bag of lemons from her tree at her new place! Once again- no better present than a food present. Apparently she also grows mandarins and limes... I might have to go over and pilfer some citrus.

On Tuesday night I went for a long overdue visit to my grandparents for dinner. I can't seem to turn up anywhere empty handed so their invite was a good excuse to cook some more and blog some more. Plus, the lemons needed to be used! I've been day dreaming about lemon and poppy seed muffins for a while now. A bit of zing on a cold day! I also had a bag of poppy seeds and some gluten free flour in the cupboard that had been sitting around for quite some time - convenient.
I wouldn't usually use bought gluten free flour, but I've been testing out different variations of a muffin recipe that i always follow and it was in the cupboard so  i used it. I didn't want to use buckwheat or spelt, because they're too brown for this recipe. Normal flour obviously does the job, but if you are adverse to wheat, you could try coconut flour, oat or rice flour. Or a combination.

The Lemon Drizzle was a nice addition to the muffins too. It gave them an extra bit of lemon zing and moisture.

Grandpa told me he liked treats and grandma politely said the muffins were nice. Luisa came to dinner too and gave the thumbs up- so surveys proved success! Mum's honest approval sealed the deal. So, who wants a Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin?

Ingredients
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Makes about 10 muffins
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1 egg
1/2 cup lemon juice
rind of 1 lemon
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat egg and add other wet ingredients.
Combine all ingredients together and fill a muffin tin. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Lemon Drizzle
4 tbs coconut oil
rind and juice of 2 lemons
2 tbs maple syrup

In a pot melt the coconut oil. Add maple syrup, rind and lemon juice and simmer until the mixture reduces to a thicker syrup. If the coconut oil in the syrup solidifies before you serve it, warm it again on the stove or in the microwave.

Roasted Beetroot Dip with Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (Socca)

Such a beautiful sunny day today. I'm doing an assignment on weather at the moment where i have to compare the forecast with what actually happens with the weather. Don't think the forecast had this sunshine on the cards. It's lovely!
I've been getting a few things done this week while i've got some time off work. I got the worm farm up and running today finally.
During an afternoon walk in the park today in the sun i was pondering my next recipe-One that was not soup, salad or baked goods and one that could use up the back up of market veggies we have in the fridge.

Beetroot dip and Chickpea flour flat bread came in to mind. I started to potter away in the kitchen, but decided to check quantities for the flat bread when i came across this word 'Socca'. It turns out that chickpea flour flatbread or 'Socca' is actually a thing! I'd never heard of it before. I promptly did some research and from what i've read  the origin of Socca is disputed, but it seems it's a traditional dish from  Nice in France. ALSO it seems that this flat bread is traditionally baked in the oven, then grilled and chopped roughly. So instead of pan frying my flat bread as i usually would. I've tried this whole oven Socca thing!

Ingredients

Roasted Beetroot Dip 

4 beetroots

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup chopped dill

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Remove the stems from the beetroot and cut in to quarters. In a baking tray drizzle the beetroots and garlic with olive oil and sea salt and roast for about 40 minutes. Or until soft. You may have to remove the garlic before the beetroots are done as it cooks faster and might burn.
Once the beetroots are cooked, blitz them  in a food processor with the garlic and lemon juice. Once combined, stir through the yoghurt and chopped dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Chickpea Flour Flat Bread (Socca)
1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbs olive oil plus more for the pan
1/2 tsp salt

*i've kept the recipe fairly plain because i'm serving it with the beetroot dip which has quite an intense flavour, but in other circumstances i would add things like cumin seeds or powder, paprika, fresh herbs or garlic.*

Whisk all ingredients together and let the mixture stand for at least half an hour. The longer the better.
Coat a heavy based frying pan with olive oil and place in the oven to warm.
Once the oil and pan are warm, pour in the mixture and place under the grill until the top starts to brown. Depending on the size of your pan, you may want to cook the mixture in 2 batches so you get a thinner, crispier crepe. Mine was quite thick.  Cut in to pieces and serve with whatever you want!

Chocolate, Banana & Almond Muffins

 Mmmmm... Chawwwwcklate! I was kind of looking forward to the crappy weather that was forecast for today so that i could justify a day inside baking. It turned out perfectly. I went out for coffee in the morning, the sky was blue and the sun shone on us through the window of the cafe. It felt like an early Spring day. By the time i got home, the cold front had hit. The sky had turned grey and the wind and rain had picked up. Yes! I turned on the oven.

Despite a constant craving for chocolate in winter, I've felt inspired to make these muffins since Green Kitchen Stories' posted their banana, almond and chocolate cake recipe. Their photos define 'Food Porn' and their recipes are always so creative. I've changed up the recipe a bit with a few  different ingredients and i've adapted the quantities to a standard muffin recipe that i always use! It never fails me. Sorry for the second chocolate recipe in a row. I'm sure you won't mind too much!

Standard Muffin Recipe
Makes 10-12 muffins
1.5 cups flour of choice
1/2 cup sugar or sweetener of choice
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk of choice
3/4 cup oil of choice
1 egg

Combine dry ingredients and add any other dry extras such as spices, chocolate bits, nuts, raisins.
In a separate bowl, beat egg and add other wet ingredients. Add any other wet extras such as mashed bananas, grated fruit, vanilla essence, syrups etc.
Combine all ingredients and fill a muffin tin.

Bake on 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Chocolate Banana & Almond Muffins Recipe
1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
80g chopped 70% couverture chocolate
1/3 cup raw cacao powder
1 ripe banana
3/4 cup soy milk
1/2 cup coconut oil (i used less than the original recipe because of the banana)
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup (again i used less sweetener because of the banana and chopped chocolate)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl beat the egg and mash the banana. Add the milk, oil and maple syrup and beat to combine.
Combine all ingredients and fill a muffin tin.
Bake on 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.


The photos make the muffins look a bit dry, but they were actually super moist and the chopped couverture bits melted the whole way through. Eat them warm with a cuppa! The perfect afternoon tea on a grey day.

Sunday Buckwheat Pancakes

Good morning all!
This week i was in the Asian grocer and i stumbled upon 1kg of buckwheat for $3.90. Bargain! Pancakes with the parents on a Sunday morning. What a treat!

Deceivingly, buckwheat is not actually related to wheat. In fact, it's not even a grain at all. Buckwheat is actually a seed related to rhubarb and sorrel. There's a fun fact!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup almond milk (or whichever milk you choose)
1 tsp vanilla essence

 *Makes about 6 small pancakes*

Method:

Heat some coconut oil (or butter) in a  frying pan and drop in a small ladle of the pancake batter. Cook for a few minutes or until bubbles appear on the top of the pancake. Flip and cook the other side for a minute or so.

*These pancakes are a little dense, so if you'd like them a bit more moist, add a mashed banana to the pancake batter before cooking. *

Serve with fruit, yoghurt, maple syrup, nuts, or any sort of nut butter. 

Bon Appetit!

(I should polish my cutlery!)