Frozen broccoli!

Oven roasted frozen Broccoli from "The Kitchn"

(Tastes better than it looks!)

The secret here is to preheat the baking sheet and cook the broccoli at 

high heat, ensuring it roasts instead of steams. When the frozen florets 

hit the hot baking sheet, any ice on them will quickly evaporate and the 

florets can begin to brown. Once tender, topping them with Parmesan and 

finishing them under the broiler allows for a bonus level of caramelization. 

A big squeeze of lemon juice brightens it all up. It’s frozen broccoli like 

you’ve never had it 

before.

SERVES4

PREP TIME              5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 to 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (16-ounce) bag frozen broccoli florets (do not thaw)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher (coarse) salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 medium lemon, halved (or juice from a bottle, where 
• 1 Tbl = 1/2 lemon)

• INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Arrange one rack in the middle of the oven and one rack in the 
     highest position, 

     then heat to 450°F. Place a rimmed baking sheet 
     in the oven while it's heating.
  2. Combine the broccoli, olive oil, salt, and a few grinds of pepper in a 
     large bowl and 

     toss to coat. Carefully remove the hot baking sheet 
     from the oven, add the broccoli, and spread it into an even layer. 
     Roast on the middle rack until the broccoli is tender and beginning 
     to brown at the edges, 15 to 18 minutes.
  3. Remove from the oven. Switch the oven to broil (or stick under a
     grill 

     if you don't have 

     a broiler!). Scatter the Parmesan evenly over 
     the broccoli. Return to the oven and broil on the upper rack until 
     the cheese melts, 1 to 2 minutes. Squeeze the juice from one 
     lemon half over the broccoli and toss to combine. Cut the other 
     lemon half 

     into wedges and serve 

     alongside the broccoli. 

  RECIPE NOTES

  Storage: Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the 

  refrigerator for up to 3 days.

  
  

  Note: I used eight florets for the four of us as we had a number 

  of vegetables on the plate and i didn't want to overface our guests 

  who eat very little. That works too. Also, I didn't use a lot of 

  parmesan (grana pedano, my favourite) and forgot to finish with the 

  lemon juice but it didn't seem to make a great difference. 

  A long story for such an easy recipe!

Sweet Potato Soup

Great winter warming dish -

Easy and lekker!!

If you make it the day before, it gets even better.

Try it. 😄

A dip and a spread

recipes will follow...

Olive, walnut & parsley spread
(Vegan)

Sundried Tomato Dip

(Cream cheese based/Neufchâtel)

Pumpkin Soup

Iris made this soup and shared a pan with us. We all liked it so much, and we made it ourselves this time with the big Fall pumpkin we got from Trader Joe's for $2.99. I'll share how I adapted it below.

I cut our medium pumpkin into long segments and used a small knife to cut out the stringy innards and seeds. I used a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Since it's sold as a carving pumpkin, it had a fairly thin skin and minimal innards so it was not difficult. Sugar pumpkins are firmer so the technique in the recipe may be more suited for them. 

We separated the seeds, rinsed them off, tossed them with a little melted butter and salt, and roasted them at 300 F for 45 minutes. They were delicious! Ella said they tasted like popcorn. Healthier too!

Once the pumpkin segments were cleaned, we cut them into large chunks, arranged them on a baking sheet, sprinkled oil over them, then roasted at 350 for about 45 mins to an hour, until a knife went in easily and bottom parts were brown and started caramelizing. 

Instead of shallot, I used a brown onion.  One other thing I changed was that I added 1/2 tsp ground cardamom. I used the whole can of light coconut milk and more broth & water because there was so much pumpkin. That's it! We ate this with corn bread.

Mushroom roulade

This is so old*, I couldn't find it anywhere. Thankfully, Julie still had it!!
I've posted it here so that I don't lose it again.
Thanks, Ju!

Btw, I always put the cheese on top rather than in with the mushrooms (as well?) - looks nicer, otherwise it's so pale.
Also, I always sauté onions with the mushrooms and possibly garlic; I'm sure that's much nicer!

(*it's so old, it's typewritten!)

Turmeric Lemon Rice

Jon loved this recipe (from Costco Connection, n.b.!) and thought I should share it with you...
[photo to follow]

Ingredients:

180g Basmati or other rice
Salt to taste
27g sesame oil [how much is 27 g of oil, for goodness sake!!]
Pinch of asafoetida
2g black mustard seeds [have you ever tried to weigh out 2 g of something?!! - try a small handful and crush them in a mortar]
30g [or sm handfull] of raw [or any other kind of] peanuts
1 stem of Indian curry leaves [or daon Salam? or bay leaves, I used 2]
1 serrano chilli [or whatever you have in the freezer, in my case], cut into strips
2g turmeric powder [see above!]
10ml fresh [or bottled] lemon juice 
Zest of half a lemon, optional
15g chopped fresh coriander leaves [or not, Nicole!]

Method:

Bla-bla-bla... make rice. 

In a small pan, heat the oil just slightly and add a pinch of asafoetida.
Add mustard seeds and let them sizzle for 5-10 seconds [!] then add peanuts, curry leaves, and serrano chilli. Fry for about 30 seconds, add turmeric and remove from heat.
Stir spices and add to rice, along with lemon juice and zest.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves [or not!].

Serves three. I usually use 60g rice per person but you might not find it enough. 

Mary Berry's [Yummy] very best apple dessert cake

"I've been doing this special and remarkably easy recipe for years. The apples can be windfalls or even shrivelled ones left in the fruit bowl. Serve warm with ice cream or crème fraîche as a dessert, or with coffee in the morning as one would a Danish pastry, again warm, dusted with icing sugar."

SERVES 6

TOTAL TIME

1 hour 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 225g (8 oz) self-raising flour
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• 225g (8 oz) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 150g (5 oz) butter, melted
• 350g (12 oz) cooking apples, peeled and cored
• 25g (1 oz) flaked almonds

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/Fan 140ºC/Gas 3.

Lightly grease a deep 20cm (8in) loose-bottomed cake tin.

Measure the flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract and melted butter into a bowl. Mix well until blended, then beat for a minute.

Spread half this mixture into the prepared tin. Thickly slice the apples and lay on top of the mixture in the tin, piling mostly towards the centre. Using 2 dessertspoons, roughly spoon the remaining mixture over the apples.

This is an awkward thing to do, but just make sure that the mixture covers the centre well as it will spread out in the oven. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

Bake in the preheated oven for 1¼–1½ hours until golden and coming away from the sides of the tin.

Made this for Carin and Bernie last week and I loved it. So even if you don't, I'll have it here for future reference!!