Autumn Skirlie

This is an adaptation of an old Scottish dish. We've eaten it a lot lately in the cooler evenings, rushing into the house after 6pm five nights a week and juggling homework, vision therapy, showers and sibling rivalry... somewhere there I try to feed us more than vegemite toast and this fits the bill pretty well.

The boys love it, and reheated with scrambled eggs in front of the fire the next morning, it's pretty close to wonderful.

~Autumn Skirlie~
(serves 3 as a main with a bit leftover)

4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (or spring onions, leeks etc)
2 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1.5 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
about 1/3 cup boiling water?
1 cup tinned red salmon, drained and flaked
1 large lemon, zested and juiced (2 if they're small)
2 large handfuls spinach, washed and roughly shredded
(or any other greens - kale, par-cooked broccoli, red lettuce are all good)
freshly ground black pepper


Heat the oil on low in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and cook until transparent.

Add the thyme leaves and oats and stir well. Cook on a lowish heat, tossing every few minutes, until the oats are beginning to colour -  about 5-10 minutes.

Add the lemon zest to the boiling water and pour over, stirring well and cook a couple more minutes - the oats will soften slightly but keep their shape. Add more boiling water if needed.

Stir in the salmon, lemon juice and black pepper, then pile the spinach on top and put the lid on to steam the spinach. When the spinach has cooked down, stir it through and serve - preferrably in front of a fire!

Chicken and Spinach Pie

This is a yummy recipe I found on the ABC website some time ago from their 'Sunday Chef' program. Can't find it there now so I'm not sure who created it.
It is reasonably easy. The pastry takes a lot of punishment when being rolled out but still tasting good (pastry isn't my forte) and the cornmeal in it is quite delicious. I've made a few changes from the original.

...Chicken and Spinach Pie...

You need:
1 2/3 c plain flour
1/4 c polenta
pinch of salt
100 g butter
1 egg
2 tspn white vinegar
4 tbspn of iced water (or enough to bind)
Filling:
breasts from a cooked chook, chopped
1 bunch silverbeet or spinach, stalks removed and leaves chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tbspn butter
1 clove garlic
1/4 c pinenuts
100 g chopped pancetta or bacon
2 eggs
3/4 c of cream (or ricotta)
salt, pepper, fresh herbs like thyme for seasoning

Mix the flour and polenta. Rub in the butter. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry, mixing until binds together. Divide in 2 and chill for 30 mins (or longer is OK).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Fry garlic in oil and butter in medium frypan or large saucepan, then add bacon, then spinach. Cook until excess moisture has reduced. Add chicken and pinenuts, transfer to bowl to cool. Add eggs and cream, mix, then seasoning if desired.

Roll out pastry and line bottom of greased pie dish. Spoon in filling. Place lid over top and cut off excess. Brush with water or eggwhite and pinch sides together. Cut vents in top and bake for 45 mins. Lovely warm or cold with a green salad.

Silverbeet & Chickpeas with Chorizo

This is one of our regulars in the meal plan, adapted from a http://www.taste.com.au/ recipe; it's easy and delicious, and makes good use of that perennial garden green, silverbeet.

We ate steamed silverbeet regularly growing up, and I wasn't fond of it. This recipe, however, allows the silverbeet to become something else - the rich tomato, garlic and chorizo partner the earthiness of silverbeet well.

We use bacon instead of chorizo sometimes, and I like to finely chop the silverbeet stems and add them after the onion is cooked - they add a lovely crunchy texture, but you need to halve the amount of silverbeet if adding the stems. Spinach is interchangeable with silverbeet in this. We have also used our summer tomato reduction from the freezer - around the same quantity as a tin of tomatoes, but there's no need to reduce it any further. Thick, rich and sweet, with plenty of tomato skin and seeds for texture :)




~Silverbeet & Chickpeas with Chorizo~
2 chorizo sausages sliced (or 4 rashers bacon)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tin tomatoes, crushed
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1/2 tsp sugar
about 6 stems of silverbeet, stalks removed and shredded (or 3 stems, leaves shredded and stems finely diced)

Heat a heavy based pan and fry off chorizo over low-med heat, until crispy. Remove and rest.

Add onion and cook till soft and golden, then add garlic and cook a bit longer. (At this point add silverbeet stalks if using, and cook a little longer.) Stir through paprika and allow to fry off until fragrant.

Add all ingredients except silverbeet leaves, and simmer until it thickens.

Add silverbeet and stir through until wilted, then add back in the chorizo or bacon. Serve with toasted pide or fresh crusty bread.

The boys both scored this 10!

Pumpkin, Leek, Mint & Spinach Tart

This is several evolutions from the original recipe, which involved ricotta and far less veges. Mint works so well with both spinach and roast pumpkin.

T scored this recipe a 9.5 but D said it was minus 1000. I liked it, so poor old D will have to suffer again.


~Pumpkin, Leek, Mint & Spinach Tart~
6 sheets filo or 2 sheets puff pastry, or some alternate base, like coca flatbread
800g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut in 1.5cm dice
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
about 10 baby leeks (1cm diameter, 10cm length), cut into 2cm pieces
salt and pepper
200g fetta, crumbled
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups firmly packed, chopped spinach or silverbeet
2 tab finely chopped mint
2 tab grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine pumpkin, garlic, leeks, olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for about 20 min or until pumpkin is browned. In the last 5 min of cooking, make space for the spinach on the tray; pile it on and loosely cover with alfoil to allow it to steam and wilt slightly. Remove veges from oven and cool slightly.

Lay the base on a flat tray and curl the edges up to hold the filling. If using filo, spray with olive oil between layers. Bake for a few minutes to help cook the base.

Combine the eggs with 2/3 of the fetta and spread over the base.

Layer the spinach over the egg mixture. Sprinkle over the mint. Arrange pumpkin and leeks on top, then crumble over the remaining fetta and sprinkle with parmesan.

Reduce heat to 170 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes or until egg mixture is set and all is golden brown.

This would work well as a cocas/pizza topping.

Neverfail Vegetable Muffins

The original recipe for these surfaced in my consciousness at a bush BBQ about 30 years ago, but since it is in imperial measures it must be a bit older than that. I've seen it in so many places since; it would be fascinating to know the origins and how it spread across Australia...

I haven't come across anyone, man, dog or child, who won't eat these :)

~Zucchini Slice~
12oz zucchini, grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 rashers bacon, chopped
1 cup grated cheese
1 cup SR flour
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs, beaten
black pepper

Mix zucchini, onion and SR flour, until veges are "coated" in flour. Mix in bacon and cheese, then stir through oil and eggs until it's all well combined.

(Original recipe says - Pour into well greased tin and bake in mod oven about 30-40 min until firm.)

But I like to make muffins b/c they freeze well for school lunches, and use less power to cook - Spoon into silicone muffin trays and bake in a moderate oven (about 150 degrees) for about 15 minutes. Turn tray around at 10 minutes and check if they're cooked by poking a knife into the centre.

Remove from oven and leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire racks to cool.

Variations :

Silverbeet & Corn
replace zucchini with :
4 leaves silverbeet (deveined & chopped finely)
1 tin of corn (drained)

Leek & Semi Dried Tomato
replace zucchini, onion and bacon with :
2 leeks, washed and finely sliced
6 halves of semi-dried tomato in oil, sliced
2 tab chopped parsley

Substitutes :
you could probably substitute whatever you wanted into this, in the way of veges, or meat instead of bacon, or different cheeses, but I'd recommend that the ratios of flour:eggs:oil be left somewhat similar to the original.

Spinach & Pinenuts Coca (Flatbread)

There is a spinach glut in our garden right now, so we tried this for dinner last night, and it was delicious and simple - and used lots of spinach ;)

Coca are a type of Spanish flatbread pizza. The recipe was adapted from Moro East by Sam&Sam Clark.

This is their flatbread recipe for the coca base :

~Flatbread dough~
225g unbleached strong white bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
150ml tepid water
1 tablespoon oilive oil

I mixed and kneaded the dough in the breadmixer and took it out before it rose; then allowed it to rise for 2.5 hours (probably too long but we went out visiting and returned late).

They make their dough by placing flour and salt in a bowl. Dissolving yeast in water, adding oil, then pouring this mixture a little at a time into the flour, mixing constantly. When all is mixed, knead for 5+ minutes until it is elastic and smooth. Leave to rise 1-2hrs in a warm place until doubled in size.


~Spinach, PineNuts & Anchovies Coca~
4 tab olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tab fresh oregano, chopped
around 500g spinach, washed, dried adn chopped
handful pinenuts
crumbled fetta
anchovies, sliced into thin slivers lengthwise

Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium, add the onion and cook until golden. Add oregano, then spinach, and stir through until it is all wilted. Set aside to drain in a colander. (the original recipe then added 50g currants plumped in water)

Heat the oven to its hottest setting. Line 2 baking trays with paper, or flour lightly.

Divide the dough into 4 balls and roll each out on very thin, to around 20cm square, on the baking trays. Spread the spinach mix over the top, lay the anchovies across, as much as you like, then scatter pinenuts and fetta. Press the mix down onto the dough with your hand and drizzle a bit more olive oil over so it doesn't burn.

Bake for 10-15 mins until it is crispy and brown underneath and the pinenuts are golden.

This was very good, but you could leave out the anchovies or use salty olives instead, and probably use whatever topping you like - very good for using up garden greens and leftovers from the fridge!

Beetroot & Haloumi salad w Walnut dressing

We had this again last night with a few variations - salted green olives instead of capers, and no haloumi. Still delicious :) And with the beetroot in our garden swelling larger and spinach threatening to shade out all else, it will be around a little more over the next few months.

So here it is again :

~Haloumi & Beetroot salad with Walnut dressing~
6 large beetroot, trimmed
500g haloumi, drained
2 tabs olive oil
100g baby spinach leaves, washed and dried

Walnut dressing
1/3 cup walnut halves
1/2 cup drained capers
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 garlic clove crushed
salt & black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Wrap beetroot in foil and place in roasting pan. Cook for an hour or until tender.

Place walnuts on baking tray and cook in oven about 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Set aside to cool.Chop walnuts coarsely; place in a bowl with capers, garlic, oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. (I would leave out salt as it is quite salty already, and I left pepper out of the kids' portions as they don't like it).

Remove beetroot from the oven and cool for 10 minutes or until you can touch it. Use gloves if you don't want beetroot stain on your hands (I don't bother), and slip skins and stems off. Slice beetroot into thick slices.

Cut haloumi into slices - I like about 3/4cm, but whatever you prefer. Heat oil in non-stick pan to high heat. Cook haloumi in batches, until golden brown on each side. Cut into smaller fingers when they are cooked.We served this on a big platter and ate with out fingers - but you could serve individually. Lay spinach on plate first, then layer beetroot and haloumi and drizzle dressing over the top. Serve immediately.