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!

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.

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.

Braised Silverbeet

Writing this down reminds me of Michael Caton in The Castle.
"What do you call this love?"
"It's rissoles darling. Rissoles."

----------------------------------

But it's here for the days my brain is like custard and I need to stir it together without any thought.

~Braised Silverbeet~
3-4 large leaves silverbeet
1 garlic clove, crushed
slurp olive oil
1 scant teaspoon brown sugar
good pinch salt
large slurp of sweet balsamic vinegar or white balsamic condiment
chunk of butter, if you like

Wash and devein silverbeet. Finely chop the stems and leaves and keep seperated.

Heat a large heavy based pan on low, and saute garlic and silverbeet stems. When softened, add all the other ingredients and let it cook down until the silverbeet leaves are softened and the liquid is syrupy.

Serve as a side dish or eat a big pile on its own :) This amount serves 3 as a small side.

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!

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!