Corned Beef Curry

This was something we had often as children, to use up the leftover corned (or other) beef. It's sweet and salty comfort food. The approximate recipe is something like this :

~Corned Beef Curry~
2 double handfuls of cubed cooked corned beef
slurp olive oil
about 1 tablespoon Keens dry curry powder
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced in rounds
1 stick celery, sliced
leftover veges, eg capsicum
hot water to cover
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dessert spoon brown sugar
1 large handful sultanas
1 green apple, cored and diced
flour and water to thicken

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan or frypan and fry off the onion, carrot, celery and any other veges. Add the curry powder and stir through.

Cover with hot water, add salt, sugar, sultanas and apple and allow to simmer for about 20 min. Add the meat and allow to simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

At this stage you can turn off the curry and leave to sit until ready to thicken before serving; the flavours will develop if it sits a while.

Before serving, reheat the curry till simmering; mix a tablespoon of flour to a paste with a little water and stir through; stir whilst simmering for several minutes to cook the flour and thicken the curry.

Serve with rice and lemon juice. This quantity is approx 4 smallish meals.

Zucchini baked with Fetta and herbs

This is an adaptation from Paul Gayler. We ate it a lot last summer, and have just begun to bring it to the table again with the glut of new season zucchini. He makes it with a yellow tomato sauce which I didn't care for, so we eat this on its own, as a side, or as a delicious leftover the next day.


~Zucchini baked with Fetta & Herbs~
8 small to medium zucchini about 2.5cm thick (or the equivalent - this is particulary good with golden button squash)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
100g crumbled fetta
2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
black pepper

If you wish to follow Paul Gayler using small baton-like zucchini, slice off their ends and remove the centres with an apple corer (easier than it sounds). Or if, like me, your zucchini have grown past baton size or are the round type, halve and scoop out the flesh. Either way, chop the scooped out flesh into a small dice.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add shallots, garlic and zucchini flesh, then cook down until tender and a little reduced. Turn into a bowl and cool a little, then add the cheese, breadcrumbs, herbs and pepper and mix well. Extra herbs are always good.

Par cook the zucchini shells in the microwave if you wish (I do this as my oven is a dud and seems to burn without cooking). Stuff baton zucchini with your fingers and a teaspoon, or the large halved type by piling the filling high.

Paul then grills the oiled and stuffed batons under a hot grill, and this is quite delicious, but generally I bake them in a moderate oven for a while until they are nicely browned and smell good.

Chilli Apple Jelly

This is only a mild heat, so add more chilli if you wish. I like it with avacado on thick toast, or with cheese. It would make a good glaze on roast meat or veg too.


~Chilli Apple Jelly~

3.2kg cooking apples
2 cups lemon juice, plus pips
lemon rind in strips
2.5L cold water
about 2.8 kg sugar
5 teaspoons chilli flakes

Roughly cut up the apples - skin, core and all. Add water, lemon juice, rind and pips. Bring to the boil in a heavy based pan, reduce the heat and simmer until the fruit is pulpy.

Pour the fruit and liquid into a "bag" made from tying up the corners of a clean cheesecloth or old linen teatowel, and hang to drain over a bowl until it stops dripping, about 3-4 hours or overnight. Do not squeeze the bag to force juice out, or the jelly will be cloudy.

Measure the juice and allow 250g sugar and 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes for every 250ml of juice. Place the juice, sugar and chilli flakes in a clean heavy based pan. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to a slow boil and skim any scum off the surface - a lot of the chilli flakes will come out with the scum but the flavour will remain and there will still be enough to look pretty. Allow to boil for 15-20 minutes or until it jells on a cold plate, skimming regularly. If you let it boil too long it will begin to caramelise and you'll have toffee flavoured chilli apple jelly.

Remove the pan from the heat and leave to settle for a few minutes. Bottle hot in sterilised jars and store in the dark. Refrigerate after opening.

Jules' Chicken Soup

Jules' version of chicken soup, for me to remember :

Fry off minced garlic and ginger and onions in olive oil.

Add chicken stock** with some herbs - parsley, lemon thyme etc - and bring to a simmer.

Add pearl barley and puy lentils or French green lentils.

Add finecut carrot, celery, other root veg, potato. Simmer a while.

Add corn, beans, squash etc. Simmer a little more.

Add shredded spinach or silverbeet, and shredded roast chicken meat. Simmer another 10 min or until the barley and lentils are soft.

Serve. Great with a little sesame oil drizzled across the top. Or shredded hot salami crisped in the frypan.

** homemade chicken stock - cover roasted chicken bones, or bones from a home-roasted chook, with water and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until any shreds of meat are falling off. Remove the bones and pick off any meat. Discard the bones & strain the stock. Finely shred the meat and return to the strained stock.

Yoghurt Banana Blueberry Cake

Adapted from a taste.com recipe. I've reduced the butter and sugar and added blueberries and coconut - and left it un-iced. We have a local blueberry farm where you can pick your own, and will be growing our own next season, otherwise I wouldn't use them. The yoghurt makes it tangy and the bananas keep it very moist.


~Yoghurt Banana Blueberry Cake~
80g butter
120g sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
200g plain yoghurt
200g plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
large handful of blueberries
2-3 tabs shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a ring tin with baking paper (or butter and flour if you wish).

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time and beat well. I add a little flour with the eggs to stop the mixture curdling.

Mix the bananas and yoghurt together. Sift flour, cream of tartar and bicarb. Fold these two mixtures alternately into the butter/sugar/egg mix.

Fold through the blueberries and pour into the prepared cake tin. Sprinkle over the coconut and press in lightly.

Cover loosely with alfoil and bake about 30-40 minutes. Check for done-ness and leave the foil off for the last 5 minutes of cooking time, to brown the top. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Eat warm or cool. Freezes well.

Mather Street Tuna Pasta

The boys helped me create this recipe when we lived at Mather Street. T was only 4 but he chose what veges to add, and the result was delish.


~Mather Street Tuna Pasta~
6 single handfuls dry spiral pasta (can substitute cous cous)
4 large broccoli florets, cut small
1/2 large sweet potato, cubed into 1cm squares (sustitute pumpkin/zucchini/squash)
1 large tin tuna in oil
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 finely sliced scallions
handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
black pepper
(parmesan to serve)

Cook pasta and drain cooking water into large serving bowl to warm the bowl.

Steam the veges, drain oil from tuna, then combine all ingredients in the (empty) serving bowl and toss well.

Serve with plenty of grated parmesan.

Roast Tomato & Chickpea Salad

This recipe is very quick, and at the height of summer, when tomatoes and basil are at their peak, it's delicious. It's a great side dish, or a quick main with some extra veges and heavy bread to serve.


~Roast Tomato & Chickpea Salad~
2 punnets cherry tomatoes, or equivalent other tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas, drained
150g fetta
large handful basil, torn

Cut tomatoes in half (or quarters if large tomatoes) and roast until they collapse.

Mix through chickpeas, fetta and basil and serve while warm.

Grandma's Tomato Sauce

~Grandma's Tomato Sauce~

10lb tomatoes
2 large onions
4 large unpeeled green apples
2lb white sugar
2 cups brown vinegar
5 dessert spoons salt
1 small tsp cayenne (about 1/2 tsp for mild, 1 tsp for bitey)
1 tsp ground cloves

~Cut tomatoes, onions and cored apples into chunks.
~Place all ingredients in a large pot (this quantity is about 7-8L at the start and reduces to around 4L) and bring to the boil. Simmer until sufficiently reduced (ie as thick as you like).
~Use a stick blender to puree while hot, or cool and puree in blender/FP/Moulinex. Take the seeds and skins out with a seive if you like, but we don't.
~Reboil for 10 minutes, sterilise all your bottles and equipment, then bottle, seal and cool.

Makes around 4L and will keep in the pantry for a year or more. Refridgerate after opening.

This is great for making the most of the summer tomato glut. Our onions have come in around now too, but we bought the apples.