Purple Congo Gado Gado (say that 10 times quickly)

When I went to write this the monitor died, then the flash card wouldn't read and the computer said the disk had been corrupted. Needless to say it has taken a bit of the joy out of blogging fixing these problems. Don't you just hate computer problems? They're so boring and time consuming, and that's putting it nicely. I wish my card would stop messing with the dark side. I bought a new card reader but I think the disk is the problem so wasted some money as well.  The good news is I did manage to rescue my pictures, of which there were many, using some free software. I have no association with this business but if you have similar problems I can recommend using Mini Tool Power Data Recovery. The software is free for the first 1GB of rescued data. It was amazing how it even found pictures I had deleted from months ago (handy to know for the accidental delete) and it was quite user friendly.

A recent harvest wrestled from the earth.  Some of the carrots are becoming firmly wedged and I am reminded of a story about a turnip. I loved hearing my mum tell this story as  a child, all that pulling and effort. There has been the odd snap at our house - an unscrewing action seems to work better

credit http://www.childrenstory.info/childrenstories/thegreatbigturnip.html

There is much enthusiasm for digging for potatoes at our house - the little one climbs over everyone to get in on the act. These are Kipflers and Purple Congos which taste like a yummy normal potatoes and are not at all sweet, despite their rich colour. Amazingly these tough old beetroot that were going to seed still tasted good when grated up.

 

Home made Satay sauce, noodles and free range eggs. Did you know if you play dodgem cars with your eggs in the saucepan (shaking them so they bang into each other) they peel much more easily? - first time I have tried this trick and it worked a treat! (One got broken by the big Bowerbird before we used the ricochet technique).

Last year I talked to our kids at school about eating a rainbow and it really struck a chord with my own children. The littlest comments on how she will make a rainbow on her plate frequently. We managed a good part of the colour spectrum in our Gado Gado, It was interesting to see how each family member arranged their rainbow. I am in love with the Puple Congos for their colour alone.

 (LittleBowerbird)

 (Papa Bowerbird)

(Mama Bowerbird) 

(Big Bowerbird)

Only the middle bowerbird's rainbow is missing - that's because it's dominant colour was white and not so exciting.

We made Gado Dado in December with our harvest but this one is definitely prettier.

Cooking with Mozzarella

 After making my own mozzarella cheese I needed to find something to do with it.

Lunch - Sour dough baguette with pesto, tomato and Mozzarella. Would be better with home grown tomatoes but they're a long way off.  Still utterly delicious.

Dinner - Pizza - the most obvious use for Mozzarella


Bread-maker Pizza Dough Recipe - put on dough setting, makes 2 pizzas.  While the breadmaker is going check the dough is forming a ball and add a smidge of flour or water until it looks right.

2 teaspoons dried yeast

3 cups bread flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/4 cups water

When dough is ready, heat oven 200C. Push out dough onto 2 oiled pizza trays (kids love doing this).  Topping: add pesto, mushrooms and small amount of tasty cheese. Cook 10 mins then add mozzarella, finish cooking when crust is golden brown (another 10 mins approx). Add fresh pepper and chives. Served with home grown rocket and freckle lettuce. We also harvested our first spring broad beans, small and sweet, the kids are mad for them.

That was yesterdays dinner, then as we still had cheese left, and they were so loved, we  made more pizzas tonight. The big one had a mozzarella and pesto sandwich for school lunch. Just one small block of mozzarella to go.

Look at these happy smiles. The mozzarella was fresh and milky in flavour, more creamy when cooked than supermarket mozzarella and it didn't really stretch.  I loved it.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, especially if you like birds.

Satay Fried Tofu

My partner works near lots of Vietnamese Grocery stores, they sell the best stuff and are so cheap! I love wandering the isles and wondering what all the different ingredients are used for.  This week, on request, he brought home some fried tofu. Tofu, like many things, tastes best fried.  I like it other ways but fried is my favourite. You can fry it yourself but the experts know what they are doing.  I hate frying, all that oil and spitting.  When fried, tofu becomes wonderful cushiony cubes that readily absorbs flavours. Freshly fried it has a lovely crunch - you can quickly refry the fried tofu in a hot pan with a tiny bit of oil. Bowerbird dad cracked the pack when we were having chicken wraps this week as he doesn't eat chicken, yummy sweet chilli tofu wrap instead.


Back to using up the leftovers in the fridge (like yesterday),  we had an open pack of tofu that I would hate to waste and 1/2 a jar of Laksa paste lurking in the door. The fussy boy is at camp so great timing to cook something he'd hate.


Visited the garden and brought back - leek, silverbeet, celery and coriander - forgot the broccoli but we did eat a mountain of it with pasta yesterday.  Got distracted finding weeds going to seed that urgently required pulling and returned to kitchen 1/2 hr later.  Rice cooked and keeping warm in the rice cooker, a great tool for vague, garden obsessed people.


Fried leek and garlic (3 big cloves) from last years harvest.  Added mushrooms (sliced) that were getting a bit old (the big one had the genius of looking for what needed using in the crisper), celery (chopped) and silverbeet (sliced stem removed)- big one helped stir.  Made hole in vegies so I could fry Laksa paste to bring out flavours - then stirred together.  Added tin coconut milk (light - tasted just as good), kecap manis (sweet soy 1tbspn), peanut butter (2 tbspn) and tofu. Cooked until hot.  Served with fried shallots, peanuts, chopped coriander and chilli.  Also cracked the Fijian chutney gifted to me earlier this year, for minding goldfish whilst their owners were in Fiji - thankyou Susan. Lovely tangy tamarind spicy flavour to have with the creamy curry.

What to call it?  Satay Fried Tofu 


Another hit with the family, a bit spicy for little one so she had tuna rice, big one loved it. Have packed for Bowerbird dad to take to work tomorrow, I have a hard time convincing him to save money and take lunch due to all the great food on offer in his neighbourhood.

I fell asleep putting the little one to sleep today so had more energy to make a nice tea - didn't tick anything off my mental lists though.  Still no seeds planted, no painting done, crazzzzzy mess downstairs. Tonight little one snuggled into dad and fell asleep.

Sushi and bean-curd thingies

This is a Sunday post listed after the Monday post, it's a bit of a back to front sort of week.

Kids helped make sushi on Sunday, I gave them all the bits and they put them together.

Big sister teaches little brother what to do. 

Fillings: arborio rice (had no sushi rice) seasoned  with rice vinegar and sugar, salmon, cucumber, carrot and avocado. Pickled ginger and wasabi on the side.

 Spreading the rice

 Thought I'd make a sort of Inari to go with the sushi.  I found this expired packet of bean curd wraps in the cupboard.  Googled for ideas but found very little info.  I had no idea what to do with it which is why it had been sitting around forever.  I love going to Asian Grocery stores and perusing all the interesting ingredients, this one opens out into a giant paper like sheet.  I cut it up with scissors into small squares. Simmered squares in water vinegar and sugar for 2 seconds, it then became very soft and malleable. Little one decided she liked it at this stage and kept stealing pieces.

I then used them like rice paper rolls and rolled the sushi ingredients inside, even the fussy middle child ate them. Think I'll be getting another pack of dried bean curd, was fun to play with and less fragile than rice paper.

Kids did a very professional rolling job!