Category: Vegetarian

KFC Slaw

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Serves: 6 – 8 as a side

No need to say much else except that this is pretty close to that horribly good coleslaw you get at KFC.

Thank me later.

Ingredients

8 c finely sliced or diced white and red cabbage
½ c grated carrot
4 tbsp minced onion
1 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
¼ c milk
¼ c buttermilk
½ c mayonnaise
1 ½ tbsp white vinegar
2 ½ tbsp lemon juice

Method

  1. Process all the ingredients (except the vegetables), pour over the vegetables, mix thoroughly and chill for several hours or overnight.

Swiss Cheese Fondue

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Say what you will, though nobody doesn’t like fondue.

And as a child of the 80s – growing up with parents that played squash and friends that had Rubik’s cubes – there was still plenty of a fondue hangover in my family from the 60s and 70s for me to have had my fair share.

And fair share I did.

Whilst the meat and chocolate varieties were pretty good, it was the cheese fondue my parents would prepare that my brothers and I would most look forward to; sitting around the fondue set, threading bread onto our fondue forks, covering them in the melted cheese mixture and repeating and repeating until it was all gone.

This is my mother’s recipe and I can attest to it being amazing.

I know its daggy and who knows when you can find a fondue set these days, though our parent’s generation was not entirely a culinary desert and the fondue is proof of that.

Ingredients

500gm Swish cheese, grated
1 tbsp flour
1 c dry white wine
1 clove garlic, halved
Salt and pepper to taste
6 tbsp Kirsch
Cubed French bread

Method

  1. Dredge the cheese thoroughly with the flour.
  2. Rub a fondue pot with the garlic, and bring the wine almost to a boil.
  3. Add the cheese slowly, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (in one direction only), until the cheese is melted. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. When the fondue starts to boil, add Kirsch. Serve at once with the cubed bread.

Nat’s (holiday) Espresso Martini

.Reading time 2 minutes.

 

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Eat your hearts out: this is not stock photography!
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The magic resting on ice in a mineral water bottle. Not sure where the mineral water went though not nonplussed.

Serves: 2

First off the bat, Nat wants me to remind anyone reading this recipe that she worked in a bar for five years. So that she can make a mean cocktail, refill a cigarette machine or call last drinks should surprise nobody.

So here we are in gorgeous Koh Samui, me just waking from an afternoon nap, when Nat appears with a coffee martini.

And what a coffee martini!

Literally, the best I have ever had. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just perfect.

I knew this was coming after we got some Kaluah after lunch, though the completeness and presentation was what made the whole thing so extraordinary. With an empty mineral water bottle, the Nespresso machine in our room and a bunch of Macgyver tricks, Nat delivered as good as any bar or club could.

Even better were the glasses she found under our television. I would have been happy drinking it from out of a shoe, though the glass was a real added bonus!

Enjoy! And thank you Nat. What a treat!

Ingredients

2 shots (50ml) vodka
1 shot (25ml)  Kaluah (basically 2 parts vodka to 1 part coffee liqueur)
1 shot espresso
Ice

Method

  1. Pour the vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso into a cocktail shaker.  Fill the martini glass with ice to chill and then fill the cocktail shaker (or mineral water bottle or shoe) with ice as well. Shake the shaker and shake it crazy.
  2. Empty most of the contents into the glasses and then strain the rest to get a rich froth.
  3. Garnish with three coffee beans.

Nigella’s Pea Risotto

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

How can you not love Nigella?

She is everything in food we want but dare not eat: butter, lard, bread, chocolate and cream.

Which is probably why it has been years since I last cooked this particular recipe, though memorable enough that it beat hundreds of recipes in the backlog to make it online.

The pea puree component is on another planet and you will be strong not to eat it in isolation.

Also, adding the oil to the butter apparently stops the butter from melting though in this buttery, cheesey, gooey mess of goodness, you’re not seriously going to pull back from a drop of oil?

Open a beer, cook this and stay warm one winter’s weekend lunch.

It is worth every calorie.

60gm butter
150gm frozen peas
1l chicken stock
Grated nutmeg
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
1 small onion, finely chopped
Drop of oil
200g arborio rice
80ml white wine or vermouth

Method

  1. Melt 1/3 of the butter and add the frozen peas. Cook for 2 minutes until defrosted then remove 1/2 the peas and add a ladle of stock to the remaining peas. Pop on the lid and boil for 5 minutes until soft. Puree this with 1 tbsp parmesan, 1 tbsp butter and a pinch of pepper and nutmeg. Check the seasoning and dial up the nutmeg if you so desire.
  2. Turn the heat down and melt the remaining butter and the drop of oil. Add your onion and cook for 1 minute. Don’t let it brown. Add the rice and stir to coat, turn the heat down and add a ladle of stock, cooking down until absorbed. Repeat for 10 minutes, adding a splash of wine or water if and as need be.
  3. Add the reserved peas and continue to cook for another 5 – 10 minutes, continuing to add the stock and reducing slowly.
  4. When the risotto is cooked, beat in the pea puree and the extra tbsp. of parmesan and serve.

Rockpool’s Peas with slow-cooked egg

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6 – 8

Nat and I served this as a side to Rick Stein’s wonderful Escalopes of Salmon with a Champagne and Chive sauce; we also served Rockpool’s twice cooked, thick, hand cut chips.

Rather than use tinned peas, we used frozen peas which would have reduced the intensity of the pea taste; next time, I’ll make the effort and use tinned peas. Also, rather than do the egg in a sous vide, we poached it for a few minutes.

(I’ve typed up the recipe this way, though by all means, if you have 2 hours, place your egg in the sous vide at 60c and gloat.)

This is a really effective side with no end to variations; lardons of jamon, stewed tomatoes, pecorino cheese shaved on top, mascarpone, whatever.

Better still, this dish shows you give a damn about serving dinner, complete right to the edges and sides.

Serve with steak, a braise or fish and show your guests that tinned peas didn’t in fact die in the Great War!

300g tinned green peas, drained, liquid reserved
1 egg
¼ c extra virgin olive oild (plus extra for drizzling)
1 French shallot (eschalot)
2 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove
½ dry long red chilli
180ml white chicken stock
lemon juice to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chiffonade flat leaf parsley, plus extra to serve

Method

  1. Poach your egg so the yolk will run.
  2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the shallot, anchovy, garlic and chilli and sauté until soft and sweet. Add the peas, 2 ½ tbsp. of reserved pea liquid and the chicken stock.
  3. Flatten the peas with the back of a spoon and cook until they are soft, the liquid has reduced and the mixture has thickened. Season to taste with the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Stir through the parsley and spoon onto a serving plate.
  4. Very carefully crack the egg on top. Season to taste, drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with the extra parsley.

Court’s Japanese Beans

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Don’t be stuck with boring beans again.

Serves: 4 – 6

Court(ney) is Nat’s younger sister and by some strange twist, the girlfriend of our 5-year old, Tom(ney).

Court is pretty efficient in the kitchen with a sort of take no prisoners, get-in-and-out approach to cooking. Beans are one of her specialities which ordinarily would be a pretty niche subset of cooking to specialise in, though once you cook this particular dish, you’ll understand why.

It’s awesome.

Just make sure you have the right mayonnaise: Kewpie Mayonnaise, a Japanese sushi mayonnaise that you can find at Woolies and Coles.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Canola oil
Two or three good handfuls of beans
1 tsp freshly minced garlic
1 tsp Kewpie mayonnaise
Light soy sauce

Method

  1. Heat the oil in the pan until hot.
  2. Add the beans and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to cook for 10 minutes ensuring the garlic doesn’t burn.
  3. Add the mayonnaise and continue to cook for another 5 minutes; add a few splashes of soy sauce, turn up the heat and finish off.
  4. 幸せな食事*.

* Happy eating.

Nat’s Vegetable Jalfrezi (Indian Style Stir Fry)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

Being boring and healthy, we had a fridge full of vegetables. Brussel sprouts, squash, cauliflower, boring. The plan was to prepare them, steam them, hold our breath and eat them as quickly as possible with some tandoori salmon and rice.

But no amount of being boring or healthy deserves three servings of steamed, untouched vegetables. Not even wine can make up for it.

So borrowing from a jalfrezi recipe we found online, we invented our own stir-fry of vegetables, Indian style.

There is no limit to the vegetables that could be used. Carrot, cubed potato, peas, eggplant, you name it. Served on toast or had cold as I did the next day at work, this takes boring and healthy to amazing and healthy enough and that seemed like the right place to be for us.

And served with some BBQed tandoori salmon and brown rice, this was just heaven.

(We also had a wine because life is short.)

Cook up the latest in Nat’s repertoire and thank her later.

Ingredients

1 onion, thinly sliced
1 c julienned bell peppers (capsicum)
2 c cauliflower florets
2 c brussel sprouts, quartered
2 c squash, quartered
1 c diced tomato
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp white vinegar
1½  tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method

  1. Steam the cauliflower, brussel sprouts and squash for a few minutes until just cooked through. Drain and submerge in cold water.
  2. Heat ½ tbsp oil in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat’ add the onions and bell peppers and saute until they turn slightly golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the pan and once hot, add the cumin seeds. Stir and then add the tomatoes and cook until they go mushy.
  4. Add the paprika, garam masala and salt. Mix well. Add the onion-pepper mixture and the reserved vegetables (brussel sprouts etc).
  5. Add the ginger and vinegar and heat well until the vegetables are fully cooked through. Test for seasoning and spice and serve!

Green salad with simple vinaigrette

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This is a really simple yet really vibrant salad I whipped up today. It looks – and is – so healthy.

I served it with grilled, tandoori chicken and potatoes which I sliced thinly, salted and oiled and cooked until golden in the oven.

What a winner of a Saturday lunch!

Ingredients

1 butter lettuce, leaves torn
2 cucumbers, brunoise cut
6 spring onions, whites thinly sliced
1 avocado, brunoise cut
Small bunch of basil, thinly sliced
Bunch of asparagus, blanched, refreshed and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Vinaigrette

2 cloves garlic, mince
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp heaped wholegrain mustard
1 tsp heaped honey

Method

  1. Combine the salad ingredients.
  2. Whisk together the vinaigrette.
  3. Combine and serve.

 

Skinny Hummus

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a spread

When I first looked up a low(er) calorie hummus, I searched ‘skinny hummus’ and received only results from a company called Black Swan who has trademarked the term. No recipes.

So in calling this hummus skinny hummus, I may be infringing on their trademark. Though any publicity is good publicity for robbydogcooks.com, so I’ll run with the title until such time that they call me.

Anyway as far as hummuses go, this is a really neat recipe. I added a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (instead of the water as per the recipe), though next time I’ll go with the water; the oil adds to it, though not as much as being able to smugly tell people it has no oil.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 x 400gm can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
¼ c fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sweet paprika (to garnish)

Method

  1. Add all the ingredients except the paprika to a food processor. Process until smooth in consistency.
  2. Transfer to a bowl, garnish with sweet paprika and enjoy!

Café Green Salad

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a really sweet little vinaigrette with the addition of the soy.

To the greens I added thinly sliced radishes and snippets of chives, though you could really do anything and it would be amazing.

Served with a steak w/ black olive butter, some sautéed mushrooms with garlic and a smashing mac and cheese. You can imagine the smiles and red wine cheers!

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
Small splash soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Salad greens

Method

  1. Whisk together the ingredients except the greens to make the vinaigrette. Taste for seasoning.
  2. Dress the greens with the vinaigrette.