Balsamic Mushrooms

Balsamic Mushrooms - Delicious

Every so often Ingrid and I (OK often) head out sans kids to a cafe for most of the morning. Dizzengoff on Ponsonby Road has been a regular favourite for years, in fact I have been frequenting the place for nearly 10 years and that's pretty amazing for cafe culture.
They do strong coffee and the most amazing and addictive mushrooms (LOL). No matter what I order I always get a side of mushrooms. Re-creating this dish was actually pretty easy, I think I nailed it the second time.
Now if there is anyone from Dizzengoff reading this, I know you wont want to part with the recipe but please please please let me know if I am close...

What you need (recipe for one person - double for two)
About 12 button mushrooms per person
1-2 garlic cloves finely chopped
Olive oil for cooking mushrooms
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
50mls cream
Salt/pepper to taste

How to make
Add the oil, garlic and mushrooms to a frying pan and saute for a few minutes.
Add half the balsamic vinegar to the pan and turn up the heat so it bubbles and reduces, when its reduced quite a bit, add the rest of the vinegar. Keep it bubbling but don't let it reduce to nothing.
Take it off the heat and add the cream and salt/pepper.
Reduce the heat and cook until the cream is hot - you may want to reduce it a bit more.
Pour over crunchy ciabatta bread or serve as a side dish.

So good you could easily eat two...

Asparagus

Perfect for spring

Spring is finally here. The sun is out, school holidays are underway and I am anticipating most of the foodie magazines will be featuring asparagus so thought I would get in quick to share two of my favourites recipes. The first one stems from lazy mornings, pre kids tucking in to eggs Benedict (eggs drowning in hollandaise sauce) and the second one is a dish our dad prepares when ever he gets his hands on asparagus or spinach. One is very healthy, you can eat it till the cows come home, the other however probably requires a week omitting butter out of your diet to cancel the effects!
Whatever your poison, give them ago. They look great, don't take up much time and are really easy.

If you love hollandaise in a cafe, best you don't find out whats in it, it's seriously decadent!

I have to admit, I had never made hollandaise sauce before. I have eaten enough of it but always dismissed it as being to time consuming and with the potential to not work. Writing this blog has definitely taken us out of our comfort zone and made us try new things out. This sauce is super easy. I found it in a book called "Brunch, the perfect treat" by Jennifer Donovan.
Usually Ingrid and I adapt, change and make up the recipes but for something like hollandaise, I wasn't about to even try. I have however added more lemon than the recipe suggested, as I like mine with more zest. (you could even use limes)

The only thing you really need to make this is a food processor or you could try your blender, that should work as well. 

Asparagus Spears with Hollandaise Sauce 

What you need
2 bunches of asparagus

3 egg yolks

200grams butter (YES this is not a TYPO) 

White pepper (ground not cracked) 

Juice form one l lemon (more or less, just taste

How to make

Add the 3 egg yolks to the food processor or blender with the pepper and blend for a few seconds

Melt the butter in a small pan until its bubbling (be careful not to burn it!)

Gradually and in a steady stream whilst the machine is on pour in all of the butter. 

Lastly add the juice of the lemon. 

The recipe actually says add some warm water if its too thick, mine was just perfect so I didn't need to. 

Serve warm over lightly steamed/microwaved asparagus. I microwave mine (1-2 bunches of thin stalks for about 3 minutes)

Warning - this is addictive, whilst doing this photo shoot my finger was in the bowl many times!     

The next dish is the total opposite, refreshing and lite on the calories. It looks great, is always eaten up at a BBQ.

Fresh and healthy - always gets eaten at a BBQ!

Zesty Asparagus and Egg Salad
What you need

2 bunches of asparagus
2 lemons
2 generous splashed of olive oil
2 boiled eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

How to make
Hard boil the eggs
Blanch, steam or microwave the asparagus
Cool under cold water
Arrange on a plate - tips facing the same way
Squeeze the lemon juice over the asparagus followed by the oil
Cut the boiled eggs into quarters and arrange
Season with salt and pepper.
Chill before serving

Tip - this recipe can be used with steamed spinach or silver beet. Just make sure you squeeze out any excess water from the cooking process before you dress it.

Vanessa 

Easter Eggs...

Happy Easter to you all and have a wonderful 4 day weekend...

What a busy last few weeks we have had. We have been shooting foodie images for a possibility of a magazine purchasing some of our shots.Raw has overtaken JPEG and I have been experimenting with my sisters F1.8 lens. Both of us have been hanging around Mitre 10 and Bunnings as well as scouring the inorganic collections on the side of the road for interesting stuff to use in our images. The men in our lives must be wondering...

Easter has come out of nowhere.

Being a teacher in my other life, the school holidays are a BIG bonus. Easter has fallen in the middle this year so as far as hols its same same.

For the Easter season, my family always get together on the Sunday to have a BBQ brunch. Mum gets delicious sausages from a secret butchers, Dad usually hits the seafood markets and its a casual family affair. Coffee is more important than chocolate!

Now we have a couple of kids in tow, this year we are planning an Easter Egg hunt in the garden. I remember doing this once, wandering around with a wicker basket collecting eggs. (Well maybe its a photo memory but never the less its etched in my mind). 

Easter food at the parents will probably be as described but when I though of this post I thought of nostalgia...

Soft boiled eggs with soldiers and Mums "Egg mashed up in a cup". Come to think of it she did "Banana mashed up in a cup" too. 

Unfortunately my soft boiled eggs were hard so plan B is documented! 

Enjoy and have a safe and relaxing Easter. 

These amazing wee sleeves were free in the egg packet - cute Easter shrinkies 

In an ideal world this image would be oozing with rich runny egg yolks

Mums "Egg mashed up in a cup" - with a twist.
All it is is boiled eggs, Greek yoghurt, salt, pepper and a touch of curry powder.   

Mum (now Nana) and her "Eggs mashed up in a cup" creation - perfect!

Homely and tasty, Perfect for an Autumn Easter at home - Eggs on toast 

Check out foodopera on Flickr as well as our Twitter feed - go on, be the second person to follow us!

Slow many tomatoes

In season: Red and yellow tomatoes

Vanessa and I are always discussing the merits of 'growing your own', we both agree that our fruit and vegetables taste better, but for all the hard slog of maintaining our gardens, does it actually save any money? I think not. All the vege we actually harvest are also in abundance in the supermarkets, even the organic produce seems cheap in season.


That's not to say, I'm about to give up on my patch, even if it looks like a bloody graveyard at the moment. The tomatoes that survive the birds, suffer an even worse fate, when Rhys rips them off their branches and squashes them through his wee fingers. 

I like that it's teaching my young boy where his food comes from?! I would love for him to go to daycare, and mention that his mum is green fingered. I do kind of enjoy being self sufficient even if it is for show, but at the end of summer when your garden starts looking neglected and sad, I start to wonder why on earth I bother.

I always end up with a huge excess of the same vegetable that excited me at the beginning but irritates me towards the end of its cycle, why oh why can't I have a garden that sprouts a few of this a few of that and repeats the cycle all year round. If anyone knows how I can achieve this let me know.

However, I have already planned my next crop, so I'm not about to give up anytime soon. I am, after all, a creature of habit. So what do you do with red and yellow tomatoes, You slow roast them, and enjoy them in a salad, on cous cous, on toast, add it to eggs and toast for breakfast, or serve them as a side for dinner.

Slow roasted tomatoes with garlic and thyme

Slow roasted tomatoes
You will need

tomatoes - as many as you got

balsamic vinegar

brown sugar

olive oil

salt/ pepper

garlic

thyme

How to make
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut tomatoes in half, sideways, leave the stalks on. Lay them out on baking tray, with pip side showing up. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle over brown sugar. Throw in some garlic cloves, and thyme.

Bake at 160C for around 90mins or until tomatoes start to shrivel. Added bonus, this dish will make your house smell like your in Italy.

Gain kid, lose weekend brunch

I haven't been out for brunch in such a long time, it used to be a regular thing before Rhys was born, how times have changed. 

The full English used to be the staple for breakfast on a Saturday even if we stayed at home. The bloke used to do some mean poached eggs, with the softest centres on five grain toast, and it would set me up for the rest of the day, not to mention get me over the hangover.

Well hangovers (fortunately) seem to be a rare occurrence these days, but still I kept thinking, its all too hard, with a little one running around. . . well I was determined to find a way to bring it back, my aim was to use one dish (ok and a small pan for the spinach) but create a simple yet impressive dish, that required minimal dishes, and this is what I came up with.

Also perfect if you have guests for brunch. (Do people do that these days?)

Baked eggs on spinach

for 2

You will need

4 cubes of spinach (frozen, you know the type you get with the spinach cubes)

4 eggs

4 tbsp cream

salt/ pepper to taste

1 tsp butter

2 tsp Parmesan

Method

Defrost spinach, and place in a pan with butter. Add salt and pepper and saute. Place spinach in ramekins. Crack two eggs on top of each ramekin. Add 2 tbsp of cream to each ramekin. Sprinkle one tsp of Parmesan on each and bake for 15mins at 180C or until golden. Crack pepper on top and serve with five grain bread.

what do you do with a giant zucchini?

The adventures of Rhys and the giancchini

We left for our camping holiday, after giving the garden a full soak, thinking what a nice surprise it will be to come back eight days later to a plant full of zucchini's. But we never expected the prize winning door stop that confronted us.  So what do you do with a giant zucchini, courgette or is it now a marrow?

Well my son thought whoooheeee, tackle, drop and roll, and had so much fun weight lifting it around the garden. How do you explain to a 15 month old, that his new favourite toy is soon to be lunch.

The word marrow, conjures up images of, well, bone marrow, so I'm calling this bad boy, giancchini and I thought to make full use of the whole thing, I grated it and turned it into fritters for lunch with the neighbour and her three kids. Result!

Perfect for an unplanned lunch and got the thumbs up from the kids, but sadly, Rhys keeps looking for his friend.

Gianchini fritters
made around 16
1 extra large zucchini (4 medium or 6 small) grated
1 red onion
1tsp garlic (diced finely)
3 eggs
10 tbsp flour (plain) approx enough to make it into a batter
salt/pepper (to taste)
coriander or parsley (chopped)
lemons/ limes (for garnish/ squeezing on top)
Oil for frying

Method
Grate the zucchini, and leave to sit in a colander, squeezing out the extra liquid (there will be lots!) add salt. In a bowl, add onion, garlic, eggs, pepper. Mix. Add grated courguette and freshly chopped herbs. Add flour to make a batter. Spoon into medium hot pan, 3 - 4 mins each side or until golden. Add more herbs for garnish and serve with sliced lemons or limes.

Breakfast Granola

Who would have thought there was such history behind the names Granola and Muesli?

Initially I thought the name Granola just sounded better however as it turns out the Australian Sanitarium company trademarked the name Muesli as a contemporary invention! Granula was invented by Dr. James Caleb Jackson in 1894 at a prominent health spa, Mr Kellogg got on the band wagon and to avoid legal ramifications changed the name to Granola.


Meanwhile...
In 1900 Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner introduced it for patients in his hospital. He was also inspired by a similar dish his wife was served up in a hike in the Swiss Alps. Today most Muesli comes in a box and is full of fat and sugar to mention expensive. Making your own is so easy and you can add what ever you want!


Seriously get stuck in and give it ago, it also makes a lovely gift.





Breakfast Granola
You will need...
Approximately
4 cups jumbo oats
3 tablespoons of coconut
3 tablespoons of pumpkin seed
3 tablespoons linseed's
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup syrup such as maple, golden, butterscotch
3 tablespoons dried fruit (optional) IMPORTANT - Add dried fruit after baking


All you do is mix everything together and put into a baking dish and bake at 200 degrees for about 15 mins. Keep checking and re-mixing but stop when you have the colour you like - I like it a bit burnt and crunchier.


It crisps up on cooling. Serve with yoghurt or steamed milk and stewed fruit.
You can change the grains and seeds as you please and you can also add brown sugar instead of syrup or even butter instead of oil.
Healthy or decadent - the choice is yours...