Pistachio Dukkah

oh boy do i love this stuff !

i had dukkah for the first time about 10 or 12 years ago at christmas dinner with friends

i loved it straight away !

then a few years ago, my friend kel and i found it at the markets 

yum yum

we have talked about how easy it must be to make
but just never made it
until last week !

i went to visit kel for her 40th birthday weekend celebration extravaganza !

we made dukkah

i'll never buy it again.

Here's how we made it ...

1/4 cup sesame seeds
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 cups pistachios (buy the ones already taken out of the seeds !)
salt
pepper
olive oil
turkish (or your choice of) bread

So ... dry roast (in a frying pan) the sesame seeds til golden. Tip into the food processor. Dry roast coriander and cumin seeds til fragrant. Tip into food processor. If the pistachios aren't already roasted and salted, dry roast them and add a bit of salt. Tip into food processor. Add pepper. Process til chunky ... see photo !

Serve with olive oil and bite size bread chunks.

To eat ... dip bread chunk into olive oil, then into dukkah ! Enjoy !! YUMMMMM !!

I'm making this again tomorrow for Christmas Eve with the family !!

Kale, Avo & Asparagus Salad

I have kale growing out my ears in our garden ! I've done the Roasted Kale a number of times and last night tried Khrista's Raw Kale and Avocado Salad for the first time. It is DELICIOUS ! I can't wait to make it again ! In fact, I might be making more for my lunch today ...

I changed it a bit though ... I made this to serve four.

A colander full of kale from my garden, stems removed & shredded
A punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, chopped
Asparagus, 2 bunches
Olive Oil
Juice from 1 small lemon
Sea salt, to taste
Sesame seeds

Put the kale in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice and sprinkled with salt to taste. Now get your hands in there and massage it a bit. This softens the kale (and according to Khris, makes it tastier and easier to digest)

Saute asparagus in a bit of olive oil til cooked to desired tenderness.

While that is cooking, chop your tomatoes and avocado and mix into kale leaves.

Top with sauteed asparagus and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

YUM YUM YUM !

Ruth's Potato Pizza

A friend of mine had been telling me about her favorite pizza ... I decided one night to give it a go. It was yum, although our rosemary seemed a bit bitter so we added some fresh parmesan cheese ...

It is dead simple.

Pizza dough ... we used a whole wheat, thin crust that I make in the bread maker.

Top that with a drizzle of good olive oil, thinly sliced potatoes, a nice salt and plenty of fresh rosemary. Bake ... ours took about 10 minutes in a 200C oven.

Sprinkle with freshly grated Paremsan cheese !!

PS ... if you're wondering why I didn't post the second half of my two week menu, it's because I never shopped for it so we never ate it !! It's been a total FLY BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS week and I've hated every minute of it !!! Two week menu planning when I have to shop weekly (because of fresh ingredients needed) is not going to work for me !!

BUT ... I got an iPhone4 this week and I have downloaded some cool apps and I'm going to start using them to get more organized !

AND ... a cool thing I did yesterday ... I was wandering around the shop after work, trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I NEVER DO THAT !! NEVER EVER !! Couldn't think of anything. Pulled out the iPhone, opened my Whole Foods Market app and found this recipe, bought the ingredients, made the dish and am thrilled with this new option for disorganized shopping !

Lemon Rosemary Carrots

I've been trying to find new ways to use rosemary as we have an enormous bush of it in our garden ! The other night I had 1/2 a cauliflower, decided to roast it but needed another veg as that wouldn't have been enough. I had carrots so went with that. I just threw them in a baking dish (with baking paper on the bottom, of course !), squeezed the juice of 1/2 a lemon on them, added a bit of olive oil, a few cloves of sliced garlic and then heaps of fresh rosemary. Unchopped. Just pulled off the branch ! Baked for probably 15/20 minutes. And it was soooo tasty ! I'll be doing carrots like this more often ! Much more often !!

Antonio's Garlic Potatoes

The other night for 'date night', I planned a roast dinner.
I did lamb in the crock pot. I cooked it according to this recipe, but only did the lamb.
I also did Australian Roast Veggies.
Potato, Pumpkin, Onion and Garlic .... oh man, do I love roasted garlic !



We had a bit of a dilemma though ...
it was date night which doesn't involve the kids !
Roast veggies are best eaten hot
so I couldn't really feed them to the kids
first and then eat ours an hour later.

I put my thinking cap on and thought "Ahhhh yes, Antonio's garlic potatoes !"
I whipped some up for the kids ... and served them lamb, garlic potatoes on a bed of baby
spinach and rocket, with a quickie greek salad ... tomato, feta and kalamata olives.



How to make the potatoes. Peel Em. Chop Em. Fry Em. Seriously ... Olive Oil. Garlic Salt.



I did a little video because you have to hear the sizzle !

Tangy Olive Salad

This was a tangy little salad that I think would be fabulous as a bruschetta ...
on top of a nice piece of toasted turkish bread !!

I enjoyed it the other night as a side dish to tortilla espanola.
Rory thought it was a bit tart.
The kids ... well, my two are such little troopers.
They really do eat everything I put in front of them with very little complaint.
I was surprised to not hear one complaint about the raw onion in this ...
Alia did ask if the red stuff was tomato or capsicum.
Once she knew it was tomato, she had no other issues !!

I used this recipe as a base but adapted it because I couldn't find fresh parsley and had fresh chives in my garden ... Also, I used olives with pimento in them ... next time I won't.

Here's how I made it this time ....

1 cup green olives
1/2 a red onion
a few small spring onions
fresh herbs
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tomato ( I may add two next time)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

Chop tomato, onions and herbs and place in bowl with olives.
Squeeze the lemon into the bowl ... preferably using your handy dandy citrus press.
Pour salad onto a plate add olive oil and pomegranate molasses.

Serve ...

Champinones Al Ajillo aka "Garlic Mushrooms"

I am posting this recipe since I took the photos and wanted to post the recipes, but my cousin Pam did all the leg work, typing and emailing them to me since I forgot to copy them while we were there !

Champinones Al Ajillo

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound mushrooms, stems trimmed, brushed clean, whole if very small, or cut in 1/4-inch thick slices
4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced ~ We definitely do more !!
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 Tablespoons dry (fino) Spanish sherry
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon paprika, preferably Spanish style
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon minced parsley

Heat the oil in a skillet until very hot and stir fry the mushrooms and garlic over high heat for about 2 minutes (I've found that the mushrooms soak up the oil very quickly, so I usually add a bit more). Lower the heat and stir in the lemon juice, sherry, broth, paprika, red pepper, salt, and pepper. Simmer a minute or two (may be prepared ahead and reheated right before eating), sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Pimientos de Padron - aka "Dancing Peppers"

Ok ... here we go.

Recipe number one for Spain ... a month late but too bad ... I should get through all of them before the end of Feb. Don't worry, I'll be doing Indian as well ... I'm cooking the first one on Sunday !

So ... here's what you need for this simple and delectable dish.

Olive oil
Little Peppers (see photo !)
Coarse salt - I used Himalayan Rock Salt

1. Heat oil in large skillet over high heat until very hot.
2. Add whole peppers (I chopped the stems off) and fry until browned on all sides.
3. Remove from skillet; drain on paper towels.
4. Sprinkle with salt.
5. Serve.
6. Try not to eat the whole plate without sharing ! I dare you !!

Have you got a great Spanish recipe you'd like to share ??
Post it to your blog and then come back and leave us a comment - we'll stop by and check it out !

Or if you'd prefer to share Indian ... we've got a Mr. Linky up for the month of Feb !!