Following Yesterday's Theme Today it's Different Ways with Vegies

After yesterdays theme of 5 ways with Fish, and as I didn't cook anything exciting yesterday I thought I might give you some ideas for vegetables.

Sometimes vegetables can be boooring ! and difficult to think of new ways to cook them, so here are my suggestions.

These ideas cover the foodie globe.

Italian Idea - Asparagus. Toss in olive oil and grated garlic. Griddle on a hot griddle pan till griddle marks appear. Squeeze over then juice of 1 lemon. Remove from pan and serve immediately. You can also do this with whole mushrooms.

Asian style beans - Top and tail fresh beans. Blanch in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove from water and drain. Heat 1 -2 tbsps peanut oil in a wok or frypan till hot add the beans and 2 -3 peeled and flattened cloves of garlic.

Stir fry for 1 - 2 minutes or until the beans start to brown, add 1 tbsp oyster sauce, stir to coat. Remove from wok and serve.

Italian Grilled Vegetables - Thickly slice - about 1 cm - capsicum, zucchini, red onion, eggplant and mushrooms. drizzle with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp of chopped herbs, like oregano, parsley or rosemary and a grated clove of garlic.

Heat your griddle pan or BBQ till hot add the vegetables cook till grill marks appear on both sides and the vegetables are tender.

If some of the vegetables cook before the others remove to a serving platter.

When the vegies are cooked and on the platter drizzle with a little more oil and the juice of a lemon.

These vegetables are good even at room temperature.

Indonesia - Gado Gado.

Arrange on a large platter

- steamed 1 cm slices of potato, hard boil eggs, peeled and sliced into 1/4's, strips of capsicum red or yellow, fresh beans topped and tailed, snow peas, string removed, slices of cucumber

To serve make a satay/peanut sauce

http://cooklikeina.blogspot.com/2011/11/satay-chicken-my-all-time-favourite.html

I hope this has given you some ideas next time you are faced with a fridge full of vegies and no ideas how to cook them.

A Simple Supper - Welsh Rarebit

Now I must admit that I don't usually start cooking food late at night, but last night I was starving. So I got to thinking what could I cook that was quick filling and didn't make to many dishes. The idea came to me what about Welsh Rarebit.

The dish originated in 18th century Britain. If you put a poached egg on top it becomes Buck Rarebit.

Not many ingredients all melted together in a small saucepan, then placed onto toast and grilled.

A word of warning even though the sauce is thick when it goes under the griller it turns very liquid and some slides off the toast, so make sure that you cover your tray with baking/parchment paper.

This recipe is enough for 2 slices of toast. Older dryer bread is best at it doesn't soften to much.

Welsh Rarebit

3/4 cup grated tasty cheese, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 tsps worcestershire sauce, 2 tsp dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 dessertspoon butter, 1 dessertspoon either white wine, beer or I used verjuice, 2 slices bread

Place bread on a tray covered with baking/parchment paper. Grill one side then turn over top with sauce, return to grill. Grill until bubbling and the sauce has started to brown. Carefully remove from the grill. Place toast onto a plate a scrap any sauce on paper onto toast. You will find by the time you sit down and let it cool so you can eat it the sauce will set a bit which makes it a bit easier to eat.

Sauce - Place all ingredients in a saucepan stir over heat until melted.

Now next time you get the munchies and want something quick and tasty think of Welsh Rarebit.

Pasta Frittata

This is an idea I have had for a while, but I usually don't have a lot of pasta leftovers to make it. I suppose I could cook pasta especially for it, but as most frittatas are based on using leftovers it doesn't seem quite right some how.

Now if you would like a more eggy frittata you could add more eggs, but I found that 6 was enough to set all the ingredients together.

You can use what ever vegetables that you want, I just used what I had in the fridge. You could also add more bacon or even use ham. If you what a vegetarian one you could leave it out all together.

Pasta Frittata

4 cups cooked pasta, 2 cups chopped vegetables - I used a bunch of asparagus, 1/2 red capsicum & frozen peas - 1/2 cup grated parmeson, 1/2 grated tasty cheese. - plus extra grated cheese for the top - 6 eggs. salt & pepper to taste. 4 rashers bacon

Preheat the the oven 220.c

In a bowl mix together the eggs, 2 cheeses, salt & pepper, using a fork.

Remove the rind if any, then cut the bacon into 2cm pieces, place into a frypan that can go into the oven, add about 1 tbsp oil, when the bacon starts sizzling add the vegies stir 1- 3 minutes or until they start to soften. Add the pasta toss around to distribute the vegies and bacon evenly. Remove from the heat pour over the egg mixture.

Lower the heat and return the frypan, leave on the heat until the edges start to sizzle and you can smell the egg on the base starting to cook, this takes about one minute.

Remove from the heat sprinkle with the extra cheese place into the oven check after 10 minutes, mine took 15 minutes to cook. The egg should be set and the cheese should be melted and golden.

Remove from oven carefully, don't forget that the handle will be hot. Slice and serve.

You could serve this with some crusty bread or a salad. It is also a good dish eaten lukewarm, also it is terrific to take on a picnic.

Quinoa Burgers - Greek Style

Why Greek Style, because I served them with a deconstructed Greek salad on Turkish bread.

What is quinoa (pronounced keen-wah ) it is a grain like crop that is very good for you containing essential amino acids like lysine and and good quantities of calcium, phosphorus and iron. Also it tastes very nice, with a slight nutty flavour.

I got the original idea from a Martha Stewart recipe, then adapted it to my taste and the ingredients I had to hand. Note the recipe stated that you need 3/4 cup of water to cook the quinoa, it actually needed 1 cup to cook the quinoa properly.

http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/greek-style-quinoa-burgers-recipe?backto=true

The recipe was enough for 8 decent sized patties. You could even serve the burgers without the turkish bread, but with a large sized greek salad.

Quinoa Burgers

1 cup water, 1/2 cup quinoa, 1/2 medium or 1 small carrot, peeled, 3 small spring onions, with dark ends removed, 1egg, 1/4 cup plain flour or breadcrumbs, 6 button mushrooms, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground pepper, 1 tbsps ground cumin, 1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, 1 400gm tin beans, drained - any sort I actually used chickpeas, 1 very small can corn kernels, drained

To serve - Turkish bread, ciabatta bread, rolls or even thick slices of country bread.

Greek salad - lettuce, thin slices of cucumber, thin slices of tomato, feta, crumbled, thin slices of red onion

Dressing - enough for 2 burgers - 2 tbsps yoghurt , 2 cloves garlic, grated, 1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix together.

Bring the water to the boil, add the quinoa, reduce heat and simmer 10 12 minutes or until cooked. Remove from heat and let cool, about 2o minutes.

Cooked quinoa

Chop the carrot in half lengthwise then into 2 cm pieces, chop the spring onions into 5 cm lengths. While the food processor is running drop in the carrot and spring onions, process until finely chopped. Turn of the processor and add remaining ingredients Pulse until all the ingredients are combined. Form patties and place into the fridge to set.

Finished mixture, it doesn't look good, but is was very tasty.

Heat 3 - 4 tbsps olive oil in a frypan, brown patties on both sides and until centre is hot. Approximately 4 minutes per side. Remove and place onto paper towel.

While the patties are cooking slice the turkish bread in half then layer lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion, then the patties - 2 per serve - drizzle some dressing on top.

Pop on the lid then eat and enjoy. Note Mr CLI found it easier to eat using a knife and fork, because I had made them so high.