Tag: tomatoes

Spicy Tomato Baked Eggs

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Yes… an amazing way to start Sunday.

Serves: 4

We love our weekend breakfasts and this number we whipped up last week was just awesome; so spicy, so rich, so hot.

Add a side of avocado and a good coffee and you’re off to the best Sunday morning of anyone in your street; add a French champagne and you’re talking streets and streets!

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, chopped
2 red chillis (de-seeding is optional) and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
Small bunch of coriander, stalks and leaves chopped separately
2 x 400gm cans cherry tomatoes
2 chorizo, diced
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp caster sugar
4 eggs
Oiled, grilled Turkish bread sliced to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan that fits a lid; soften the onions, chilli, garlic, chorizo and coriander stalks for 5 or so minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and sugar and then simmer for 10 or more minutes until thick.
  2. Using the back of a large spoon, make four dips in the sauce and then crack and egg into each one. Put a lid on the pan (or cover with foil) and then cook the eggs through over a low heat for 6 – 8 minutes; halfway through, scatter the parmesan cheese.
  3. Serve with the coriander leaves on top.

Burmese Pork and Noodles

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Burmese Pork and Noodles

Serves: 4

This has to be your next, healthy, mid-week meal.

It is as if you grabbed takeaway on the way home, achieved with so little prep and 30-minutes of simmering: enough to pour that second glass of wine and squint to the weekend.

We minced a lean pork fillet (using a food processor) and it was awesome. Healthy, great consistency, the whole bit.

Add the noodles, the sauces and plenty of condiments and this is as fun as it is tasty.

Should I stop?

Ingredients

2 tbsp peanut oil
500 pork scotch fillet, minced or finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
¼ tsp turmeric
1 star anise
4 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
125ml chicken stock
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
200gm dried rice noodles
50gm snow pea sprouts
Roasted and salted peanuts, chopped
Red chilli flakes

Method

  1. Heat half the oil in a wok over a high heat. Stir-fry the pork for 5 minutes until golden. Set aside, draining the liquid.
  2. Wipe clean the wok and add the remaining oil, over a medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and stir-fry for a few minutes until soft. Add the turmeric and star anise and toss to combine.
  3. Add the pork, tomato and stock. Simmer for 30 minutes until the liquid is largely reduced. Stir through the soy and fish sauces. Season with salt as necessary.
  4. Cook the noodles following the instructions and drain.
  5. Divide the noodles and pork mixture among 4 bowls and top with the sprouts, peanuts and chilli flakes.

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a recipe I pulled from the Weekend Australian Magazine by David Herbert and it is really quite good. I’ve been more hit than miss with his stuff in the past, though as far as a clean, healthy, spring salad goes, this is a winner.

If you haven’t cooked with bulgar, it is worth the effort to find it in your local organics shop.

It is less abrasive than quinoa, healthy, packed full of protein and fibre, and filling. Add the fresh herbs and vegetables and you have a salad that looks great, tastes great and is easy to prepare.

Try it with steak or lamb and you’ll be pleased you did.

Ingredients

150gm bulgar
¾ cup roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup roughly chopped fresh mint
200gm cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Seeds 1 pomegranate
3 spring onions, chopped
Juice, 1 lemon
2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

  1. Place bulgar in a bowl and cover with 500ml boiling water. Soak for 30 minutes and then drain well, removing all excess water.
  2. Combine cooled bulgar, parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, pomegranate, spring onions and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season well with the salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour over olive oil and toss well.

Penne with meatballs and fresh tomato sauce

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

I cooked a great Donna Hay spaghetti and meatball recipe a while ago. 

Though those meatballs didn’t get the tick of approval from the boys (8 and 5) simply because they were gone before the boys could get there hands on them. Given the target market for such a dish, getting such approval could be an important thing for you.

And so here is Neil Perry’s take on a classic. And classic it is.

There is nothing controversial about it and that is why the boys wolfed it down.

It is simply classic spaghetti and meatballs, a version so literally classic, that it’s great.

Sometimes, you don’t need to be fancy to be fancy.

Ingredients

25g fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra
½ small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
350g minced pork
1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Pinch of chopped thyme
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tbsp freshly grated parmesan, plus extra
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
400g penne

Tomato sauce

60ml extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 anchovies
½ tsp chilli flakes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1kg vine-ripened tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and roughly chopped

Method

  1. For the tomato sauce, heat the oil in a heavy pan. Add the garlic anchovies, chilli and a pinch of salt and cook over a low-heat for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the tomatoes and cook, uncovered for 20 minutes. Check the seasoning.
  2. For the meatballs, soak the breadcrumbs in the milk until soft and then mash with a fork.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in small saucepan over a low heat. Cook the garlic and onion for 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Set aside to cool.
  4. Place the pork, soaked bread, onion mix, parsley, thyme, tomato paste, 1 tbsp grated parmesan, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well so the mixture holds together. Form into small balls.
  5. Drizzle some oil in a heavy-based fry pan and cook the meatballs in batches. Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce to heat through.
  6. Cook the penne. Add the penne to the tomato sauce and meatballs and toss gently to coat. Divide among bowls and sprinkle with parmesan and a generous grind of pepper.

Chicken with harissa and tomatoes

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

We are backwards when it comes to cooking effort throughout the week.

My understanding is that Monday is that day when you should keep it super simple; first day back at work and last thing you want to do it spend two hours in the kitchen.

Whereas for us – well me at least – nothing could be better than spending time in the kitchen on a Monday night, free from the shackles of ‘the man’. Easy dishes are instead left for later in the week when you’re priorities are changing; it’s almost Thursday, you’re organising the weekend, the latest Batchelor has been uploaded to TenPlay for streaming.

No time to cook.

Which is where this sweet little number comes in.

I know it looks simple and it is. I know it looks a bit too simple, though it’s not.

Served with some steamed green beans and some baby potatoes, wow. Indeed, anything you served this with – from couscous to a green salad to polenta – would only make it more amazing; once the tomatoes break down and combine with the oregano and harissa, you have one tasty – and healthy – meal on your hands.

Whether you do it Monday or Wednesday, this is a tick.

Ingredients

4 skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp harissa
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
250g pack cherry tomatoes
Handful olives (kalamatas or similar)

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200c. Put the chicken in a medium roasting tray, then rub with harissa, oil and oregano.
  2. Cover with foil and roast for 5 minutes then remove the foil and add the cherry tomatoes and olives to the tray. Roast for 10 minutes or more until the tomato skins start to split and the chicken is cooked through.

Mussels in Tomato Basil Wine Sauce

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This is a pretty classic dish and I put it up mainly to remind you that you do not cook nearly enough mussels and should rectify that.

Mussels are cheap, healthy, tasty (well, the sauce) and easy to cook.

Mussels also look pretty fancy and give the impression you have gone to some effort with some level of skill to boot.

We didn’t have these with crusty bread which would have been awesome; though we did make a cracking green salad (asparagus, avocado, cucumber, butter lettuce and a great dijon/white wine vinegar vinaigrette) and some simple, twice cooked potato wedges.

Really fun and really tasty.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
2 large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1.5kg fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
Warm crusty bread to serve

Method

  1. Heat olive oil in a large pan over a low-medium heat and gently cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes until coloured. Turn up the heat and add the wine and tomatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer for another 10 minutes.
  2. Add the mussels, cover and cook for 3 – 5 minutes or until mussels open.
  3. Remove the mussels into serving bowls and stir the basil through the tomato sauce. Season and ladle over the mussels.
  4. Enjoy.

Sirloin Steak in a Tomato and Caper Sauce

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This recipe is from Delicious magazine and it did well to get cooked and typed up.

I have one of those Country Road bags completely full of recipes pulled from different magazines and newspapers and with so many cookbooks and recipes online, it is a rare lucky-dip into the bag for the occasional lunch or dinner.

Anyway, pretty glad we picked this one.

Easy, healthy, tasty and definitely worthy of typing up.

Served with a parsnip mash (with cumin, cayenne, nutmeg and walnut oil) and some steamed beans.

Yum!

Ingredients

¼ cup olive oil
4 x 150gm sirloin steaks (we used porterhouse)
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
Small handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus extra to serve
400gm can tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano

Method

  1. Place 1 tbsp oil in a frypan over a high heat. In batches, sear the steaks for 1 minute on each side and set aside.
  2. Reduce heat to medium then add the remaining 2 tbsp oil to the pan. Cook garlic, anchovies, capers and parsley, stirring for 2 – 3 minutes until the anchovies melt.
  3. Add tomatoes and oregano and simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until thickened.
  4. Reduce heat to medium. Return steaks and any resting juices to the pan. Cover the steaks with the sauce then simmer for 6 minutes for medium-rare.
  5. Serve sprinkled with parsley leaves.

Oliver’s Guacamole

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: Oliver

In a cooking blog that is meant to discover and inspire, it might seem a little odd to put up a guacamole recipe. According to Google, there are 2.380 million of the recipes out there and so it is safe to say that we don’t need another.

Except that it wasn’t until recently when I had a fresh guacamole and then made my own batch at home that  I remembered just how awesome guacamole is. It is so spirited and exciting and fresh. And so healthy that the top result about guacamole in Google describes it as almost ‘superfood’.

I’ll run with that!

Also, this blog being for my boys so that they have a bunch of tested recipes to cook for their friends and family, Oliver (8), the eldest who is really picky and plain about food, demolished this guacamole. By itself, he would never touch avocado, red onion or coriander… or any of the ingredients.

He would just eat the corn chips and be done with it.

But he will eat this guacamole by the bucket and that is a great way to get great foods into him.

It is also why it’s called Oliver’s Guacamole.

Enjoy it like he does and go all in with the flavour!

Ingredients

Avocados
Red onion, minced
Garlic, mashed with salt
Lime Juice
Cumin
Tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
Salt
Coriander leaves
Plain corn chips

Method

  1. Mash the avocados roughly with the lime juice.
  2. Mix through the remaining ingredients except the coriander and correct the seasoning.
  3. Garnish with the coriander.