Cause » Food
I’m Turning Vegetarian
Well ok, I’m not. That title is just a sensational attention grabbing headline. But, this week’s dinners are going to be pretty much exclusively vegetarian. The only meat products we bought at the market today were 2 snapper and some bacon (for breakfast.) We are also trying to step away from our regular carbohydrates of pasta and mashed potato and experiment with a few other “fillers.” There’s going to be beans, lentils, quinoa and perhaps some barley. I’m going to try and avoid rice as well, but I think that’s probably unlikely due to the likelihood of atleast a couple of curries.
Why you ask? Well I think our cooking revolves too much around pasta and stewy casseroles. I love them, but it’s pretty unimaginative and uncreative so placing some restrictions on the menu should help us think outside the box.
Anyway, what recipes do you suggest?
You should follow me on Twitter.A Dinner Party Menu
Tomato panna cotta with basil syrup
with Turkey Flat 2008 Barossa Valley Marsanne Vigonier Roussanne and Rolf Binder ‘Christa Rolf’ 2008 Barossa Valley Semillon
Prawns and Pipis in a light paella style sauce and sourdough bread
with Kooyong Estate ‘Massale’ 2008 Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir, Te Kairanga 2008 Martinborough Pinot Noir and Innocent Bystander 2008 Yarra Valley Pinot Noir.
Olive and rosemary encrusted lamb rack served wtih kipfler potatoes, peas, asparagus and broccoli greens
with Allies 2009 Heathcote Shiraz and Negoce 2007 Heathcote Shiraz.
Warm rhubarb and strawberry pie
You should follow me on Twitter.Spanish Style Pasta Sauce Recipe
I’m a pasta fiend. It’s my go to meal, a bit like a pizza I don’t care it’s vegetarian, meat lover, bolognese or in this case spanish style. This was a really quick light lunch – a lazy man’s paella. I was also trying to use up a heap of home-grown tomatoes, but you could easily replace with whole-tinned tomatoes.
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1/2kg quartered tomatoes
- 1 hot chorizo
- 2 roughly chopped cloves garlic
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- pinch of saffron
- salt
- pepper
- 300gm pasta – preferrably tubes, spirals or shells
- parmesan
Method
Slice the chorizo and fry it in a good amount of olive oil. Add the garlic and when it is fragrant, add the tomatoes and cook until they are soft. Mash them with the back of your spoon and add the paprika, saffron, salt, pepper and the stock. Put the pasta on to cook. Stir the sauce and cook on medium heat. When the pasta is al dente, strain and add to the sauce and cook for a few minutes.
Serve and drizzle with a bit of extra virgin and a small sprinkling of parmesan cheese.
You should follow me on Twitter.Abbotsford Farmers Market tomorrow
The monthly Abbotsford Farmers Market is on tomorrow at the Abbotsford Convent (and the Collingwood Children’s Farm). I know the produce is great (especially the dude that sells vac packed meat) and I do I find it entertaining watching all the 30 something new parent’s wearing their ultra cool colourful sneakers but it’s a bit far across town to make the trip that early. There are however a few foodie types going pretty early (around 9:30).
