Monthly Meal: March, Moroccan Casserole

Sneaking in at the last possible moment. Once again, I actually cooked this dish weeks and weeks ago. I just haven't managed to write it up... I've been busy distracted lazy.



Ye olde ingredients lineup.

As with most casseroles, this isn't a very complicated affair.


It starts off with a long simmer...



Veggies thrown in... and spices...



More veggies... more simmering...



Eventually everything starts coming together...





Enjoy a plateful on a bed of fluffy couscous...



And enjoy!

I'd like to say that I enjoyed this dish, I really really would. But I didn't. A lot of it was my fault, I must have been having an off cooking day. Everything could have taken longer to cook; the onions were underdone, so were the eggplants at the time of serving. It's a -very- lemoney dish and while in general I quite like lemoney things, this one was just overpowering.

I think, if I were to do it again I would really sautee the onions, perhaps in olive oil first instead of in lemon juice... and really let it sit and cook longer through all the rest of the steps as well.

The couscous was -delicious- and I'd definitely cook it again in a heart beat, although for this dish the extra citrus zest coupled with the lemoney casserole was overkill.

Ah well, always next month!

Ingredients:
Casserole:
2 small onions, peeled and sliced
2 garlic gloves, crushed
Juice of 3 lemons or limes
4 small Lebanese Eggplants, sliced
1 tablespoon Moroccan or Middle Eastern Spice mix
1 400g can diced tomatoes
1 cup of well flavoured vegetable stock
1 400g can chickpeas
Coarse ground pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves

Spicy Couscous:
2 cups couscous
2 tablespoons currants
zest from 2 oranges
zest from 1 lemon or lime
1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

What you do!

Combine onions, garlic and the juice of 2 lemons or limes in a large non-stick saucepan. Cook gently for a few minutes until onion softens. Add the eggplant and the Spice Mix and toss together for a couple of minutes over moderate heat.

Add tomatoes with juice from the can together with the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover saucepan and simmer for about 12 minutes. Add the drained chickpeas and mix in thoroughly, continue to simmer gently.

In the meantime, prepare couscous according to packet instructions. When it is light and fluffy, stir in the currants, citrus zests, olive oil and pine nuts.

Add pepper to chickpea casserole, toss through the parsley.

Serve at once on warmed plates, with warm Turkish bread to mop up savoury juices! Low-fat Greek style natural yoghurt is also delicious along with it.


Edit:
Oh! I forgot to mention, that I also substituted the vegetable stock with some left-over chicken stock made from scratch. We were trying to use up the rest of it. In retrospect, it was MUCH weaker in flavour then the boxed vegetable stock would have been. I think if it had been a bit more concentrate then it would have mellowed out the intense lemoney flavour as well; so make sure you use good strong vegetable stock too if you were to make this.

Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour this year was a pretty lonely celebration. Mum took herself off on her own to read and sleep, which left me to turn off all the lights and electronics.
I was feeling a bit too antsy to sit in the dark at home, so I decided to go for a walk instead. It was an absolutely -beautiful- night, with a great big shining moon.

This of course allowed me to experiment with some long exposure settings, and reminded me that I need to get a tripod!







Did you observe Earth Hour this year?

Honey-Iced Coffee Cake

There's something about the rainy, cool weather that makes me want to bake.



I'm slowly and without any fixed pattern, working my way through an old Australian Women's Weekly Cake and Slice book. One of my favourites in my mum's cookbook collection. She was given it when I was four years old, and there is -such- a wealth of recipes in this book.
Usually I flip through the book until a recipe seems to jump out at me depending on my mood. Some are quite complicated with lots of steps and fiddly bits. Some you just throw together in a food processor. This one was one of the easier ones ;)



The classic line-up of ingredients!



I love recipes like this; you literally just toss everything into a bowl and beat it up until smooth...



And then pour it into your pan and bake!



Bring it out of the oven all golden and brown and warm and smelling -delicious- and let it cool.
Meanwhile whip up your honey icing!



Then decorate your cake!



YUM!
I highly recommend having a slice of this for afternoon tea.
With a cup of coffee, of course!



Recipe for Honey-Iced Coffee Cake

Ingredients for cake:
3 teaspoons dry instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
125g room temperature butter
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
3/4 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup custard powder
1/3 cup milk

Ingredients for honey icing:
1 teaspoon dry instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup icing sugar (approximately)

Grease a 20cm pan and line with baking paper. Heat oven to moderate (roughly 180 degrees C).

Dissolve coffee in water, combine in large bowl with butter, vanilla essence, sugar, eggs, sifted flour and custard powder and milk. Beat on low speed with electric mixer until ingredients are combined; then speed up to medium for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and had changed into a lighter colour.

Pour mixture into pan and bake for about 40 minutes.

Let stand until cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, Melt butter in saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in combined coffee and water, honey, vanilla essence and half of the sifted icing sugar. Whisking constantly, gradually add in the rest of the sifted sugar until it is at a spreadable consistency.

Ice your cake!
Decorate!
ENJOY!

Homespun Fingerless Mitts

To soothe my soul from the socks disaster I decided to break out the unbelievable hank of local handspun yarn I managed to find a couple of months ago out and knit something up.



Simple, effortless, fingerless mittens. I knit them both up in one evening in front of the television.



And not only are these beautiful, but the yarn is so soft, the softest sheep's wool I have ever felt. It was hand-spun locally, dyed by spinner as well. Unfortunately the days the local knitting and spinning groups meet up is on a busy day and there's too much competition on the car for me to make the meetings... maybe once mum returns to the states I'll manage to squeeze it into my schedule... anyways! Back to these gloves!



omg you guys.
omg.
these gloves.

TTL Mystery Socks

So, I completed a pair of socks today...



And I hate them!!

I don't hate them for their colours...



I don't hate them because of the pattern (Through the Loops Mystery Sock's!) in fact I'm pretty proud of that bit which I'll explain further in a moment...



In fact there's nothing about the socks themselves that I don't like. I hate them because they're completely different, and it's all my fault for not paying close enough attention!



This photo shows the differences between them the clearest.
I had started these over a year ago; when Kristen Kapur was first releasing the different segments of the pattern.(*) I had chosen to try the "hard" version of the pattern; that is the one including the two beautiful cable patterns.
Because she is a wonderful and clever woman, Kristen had released different sizes; each pattern tailored to the different amount of stitches on the needles it required.
When I started knitting these socks, I can now see that I must have gone with the smallest size (because I have small feet). I completed the sock, celebrated my cleverness at figuring out the pattern and managing to be more then competent taking on the "hard" version over the easy... and then promptly hit the Second Sock Syndrome(**), put it aside and in my stash it lay as a Work In Progress for months to come... until the beginning of this year, that is, when I had a massive airing of my WIPs and decided that before I start something new, I should finish up some of these in-progress.

Unfortunately I had lost my original print-out for these socks somewhere along the way (as well as all the notes I end up writing on my patterns). The pattern is free online though, so I just re-printed and happily went on my way. "Logically" I cast on with the Large size for the second sock (because I have big ankles) and happily went on my way knit, knit, knitting.

And on down the leg... and then I hit the heels.



Uh oh! Now, I know what I had done to the first sock wasn't the heel flap that went with the pattern; I didn't like how the pattern one looked, so I decided to go with another I knew of. But when it came around time on the second sock I had no idea which pattern I had gotten that pretty slip-stitch heel flap pattern from(!!!) So; just wanting to get it done and thinking nobody would be looking at my heels anyways, I just went with a generic version and marched onwards.

Turned the heel.. knitting most of the foot.. admiring once again how the cables are coming together when.... WHAT THE!!?!!?!11



I only JUST THEN noticed that the patterns for the small and large sized socks were so completely different. On one pair the cables come right up next to each other, and on the other there's always a strip of the lacey bit in between the cables.

AUGH!!!!

By that point I'm almost at the toes, and so the thought of ripping it ALL THE WAY back to the beginning and starting again is far too daunting, so I just finish. But unfortunately now it just makes me angry to see them(!)

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about them; I'm trying to embrace their individualities (some people pay lots of money for mis-matched socks!), accept that other people will simply not notice (hey, I did!) and just focus on what I DO like (LOVE the colours! And the yarn is so soft! And the pattern (individually) IS so beautiful...)
But right now, it just ain't working...

I'm half tempted to give them away to a friend with short feet who won't mind their differences as much as I do right now... any takers?


(*) For those who don't follow the craft, a "Mystery Knit Along" is when a designer releases a pattern bit by bit over a period of time (typically a new segment every week), and us crafters following along have no clue what the final design will look like (except that we know it will be a sock/scarf/gloves/etc.) It's LOTS of fun!

(**) Second Sock Syndrome - when all of your energy and enthusiasm for the project gets thrown into knitting the first half of a pair (socks, mittens, etc.) and when it comes to knitting the matching pair... you're over it and can't work up the enthusiasm to do it!!!

I'm still a little bit surprised to see my strawberries still producing, but every now and again when I check on them in the mornings I'll find a sweet little red gem waiting to be plucked and eaten. Even after all this rain!

I've forgotten to mention that the reason I might be missing out on Monday postings is because I've gone back to school... part time at least. I'm doing a Certificate II course of Horticulture through the local TAFE. Just one day a week (Mondays). I'm doing the nursery and gardening focus (there's landscaping and parks/gardens as well). I'm enjoying it VERY much. I'm going to have to make a serious attempt at learning all of the botanical names of plants though, and I'm finding that especially daunting; I'll try and start with what's in my garden already, so perhaps I should say I'm surprised that my Fragaria ananassa is still producing this late in the season(!)

Making Pesto

What does one do with a glut of basil from their garden?

Why, make pesto of course!!

I had no real recipe, I just picked off all the basil leaves; I have sweet and purple basil here.

I can not begin to tell you how good this smelled!

Garlic and pine nuts...

and of course parmasan cheese!

Blend it up very well...

Don't forget the olive oil! Lots of it!

And finally give it a freeze in little homes; pack them away in an airtight container once solid, they should keep for a while!

I made another batch using macadamia nuts instead of pine nuts because I had that much basil to use up!

If you don't want to freeze your pesto, store it in an airtight container, but make sure you have a layer of olive oil on top.

Enjoy!

I've been enjoying pesto for breakfast (on toast with some sliced tomato), for lunch (spreads on sammaches!) and for dinner (spread ontop of grilled eggplant with tomato sauce, or stuffed into hollowed out cherry tomatos with cheese! ) Delish!

Colour + Colour: Weeks 8 and 9

Playing a bit of catch-up, this should bring me up to date with the challenges going on over on Color + Color on Flickr!

Week 8's challenge was "Silver and Green"

(With a bit from the previous week "Red and Silver!")

The current, week 9's challenge is "Green and Tan"

Sunset

When there begins to be too many grey and dull days in a row, I find it's important to remind myself that my world can be full of colour as well.