Truffle Oil Fettucine

Again, with the pasta. I don't think it's a coincidence that I'm in a major pasta love affair. Mama Mia and Sorella Mezza Mia have been in Montepulciano for the past month, doing a fabulously immersive language course, and I suppose I've been enjoying a little italiano immersion all of my own. 

Today, I made a spelt fettucine, subtly flavoured with truffle oil. Every time I make pasta from scratch, I vow to never buy it dried again (though I always have a good quality pack in the pantry for quick dinners). 

These quantities are enough for four smallish portions. I made dinner for two kids, have equal quantities leftover for tomorrow and I experimented with drying some for another night, too. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup plain flour (I used spelt)

1 free range egg

1/3 cup truffle oil 

A little filtered water and flour extra to adjust the texture. 

In a large bowl, combine the first three ingredients. 

Mix with a wooden spoon until a loose dough forms and then upend onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead and knead again, adding water or flour as required. The dough will pull together and be springy when complete. 

Leave to rest, covered, for around a half hour. 

Section the dough into quarters. Take one quarter and form a log, then roll flat with a pin. I mean really flat - about 1 - 2 mm and translucent. Then, gently roll the flat sheet up so that you can slice it in 1cm portions (which, unfurled, make the fettucine). 

Repeat with each quadrant of dough. To cook, get a pot of water boiling and add a dash of oil and a dash of salt. Add the fresh pasta. You only need cook it for a couple of minutes. Drain through a colander, and add an extra splash of truffle oil whilst you prepare a sauce. 

The joy of this delicious pasta is that you can get away with a liberal drizzle of truffle oil and a shave of parmesan and voila, dinner in a flash. I just LOVE la bella italia! However, for my little people, I made a simple white sauce and added a crispy skinned (cooked) salmon with a good handful of vintage cheddar and half an avocado, cubed. 

Now,  if you want to dry them for later use, get the oven hot (about 200'c) then switch off, and place the fettucine strands on an oven tray and into the heat, leaving for around 15 minutes or so. Store in an airtight container or snaplock bag. 

Kipfler Ravioli

Made from scratch, pasta is deceptively simple, even without a pasta maker. You just need patience and grit to roll it super flat- luckily, my three year old brings all the muscle I need. 

I boiled four small kipfler potatoes (skin on) until they were soft, added a third cup of cream and a pinch of salt then mashed until completely combined. Leave to cool. 

Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine two cups of spelt flour with one whisked egg and around 2/3 cup of water until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a flat surface and knead with a little extra flour until it's a little elastic. 

Now comes the tough part. Roll it until it is so flat that you can almost see through it. 

Scoop a teaspoon full of the room temperature mash onto the pasta, spacing evenly, and then fold the other half of pasta over the top. I could only do three ravioli at a time on my chopping board, reserving leftover pasta as I went. 

Press down the seams using fingers or a fork and use a sharp knife to separate the ravioli. A sidebar. I have a ravioli press - a bit like an ice tray but for ravioli - and next time I would always prefer to use that. Only because these were a little too big for the kids (for grown ups, they're a perfect size). 

For the sauce, I sauteed half an onion (diced) in about 50g butter until translucent, then added 2/3 cup cream and 1/2 cup grated parmesan with a few shallots. I simmered until thickened. 

To cook the ravioli, boil a big pot of water with a dash of extra virgin olive oil and, once at boiling, add the ravioli and cook for a few minutes. Fish out gently, strain, then top with sauce and a few sprigs of rosemary. 

Fancy pants toasties

This is such a cheat's dinner- goats cheese, Parmesan and cheddar cheeses with caramelised onion.... Eaten while we were watching a movie with the kids. Yum and yum.

Faking your Baking - WRONG.

One of the blogs I follow regularly, and generally love the content of, posted a blog this morning that made me spit my muesli back into the bowl in abject frustration and disbelief. 

A photograph of some delicious looking little biscuits was published along with the promotion: Best biscuits you'll ever make - only three ingredients!

Wow. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it is. Those three ingredients? 

Packet cake mix (specifically, the cheapest you can find...)

Canola Oil 

Egg

Flavouring of your choice (Lots of people have added their two cents worth here with what they generally add - anything from jam to nutella to goodness knows what else.)

Look. I hate to nitpick here, but that is not three ingredients. It's a gazillion. Here's what's in your average packet cake mix: 

Wheat flour, sugar, vegetable fats and oils, emulsifiers (soy lecithin, 471, 477f), antioxidant (320), raising agents (500, 450), dextrose, starch, emulsifiers (471, 475), salt, flavour, vegetable gum, colour. 

So this 'fabulous' and 'easy' cookie recipe has a host of numbers and swagger of undoubtedly hydrogenated vegetable oils (designed to extend the shelf life in commercially produced cookies they are carcinogenic and have untold detrimental health impacts, and have no place in home baking)... Which makes me think the best thing about the recipe at all is, in fact, the egg. 

 

Here's what I particularly loathe about articles along these lines. It's all a conspiracy. A big fat lie designed to make you think that simple baking is impossible to do without 'short cuts' like this. Or that something like this will taste better than a more traditional recipe. What a crock! 

Do you know what I put in my cookies?  (Spelt) Flour, (Rapadura) sugar and a good quality butter - plus a little water or milk to bring the dough together. I might add some vanilla pods, or some chocolate chips, but essentially that's it. Four natural ingredients and yep, they taste bloody good. Anything that comes in a PACKET and markets itself as an 'easy' alternative to the homestyle original is bound to include a shedload of nasties that your body is better not to know about. Especially when it comes to baking for kids. 

Banana Smoothies - Liquid Lunch

My brother-in-law makes his boys a banana smoothie every morning as part of a rounded breakfast for growing kids, and therefore my Smalls got hooked on this liquid gold when we recently visited. I get asked for Smooseys pretty much every day. I will never make them every day though for the simple reason that I hate cleaning the blender. I mean it. I loathe it. It's a serious disincentive to making anything blended is that I will then have to clean it. However, it's a stinking hot day here and a liquid lunch like this was too good to refuse. And so - two bananas, manuka honey, white chia seeds, LSA and full fat organic milk, blitzed together until smooth. This is a winner for everyone in my household, but if your little ones don't like bananas, substitute berries, mangos, kiwi fruit... even just greek yoghurt and honey will give a beautiful creamy depth. 

Mushroom Gnocchi GF, Vego

This is a pretty quick and easy way to make a gnocchi for dinner. And who doesn't love those soft little nuggets of delicious savoury-ness?

Ingredients: 

Two potatoes

Approx 1 cup Spelt Flour plus a little extra for kneading

1 egg, lightly whisked, 

1/3 cup milk

For the sauce

6 button mushrooms

150g butter

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/3 cup verjuice

Peel and cube the potatoes and boil until soft. Drain in a colander and run cold water over them until they are cool to the touch. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the flour and milk, then egg, and whisk vigorously with a wooden spoon, bashing out lumps. It should be smooth and pale.

 Gradually incorporate the flour so that a loose dough forms. Turn it out onto a flat, clean surface and add a little more flour. 

Knead until it's a pliable consistency. Section it into quarters and form long snake like lines. Chop into bite size pieces and transfer to a separate plate lightly sprinkled with flour. 

Get a pot of salted water boiling meanwhile, then add all the gnocchi at once. When Gnocchi is ready, it will float to the surface. It will take a max of five minutes to cook once the water is boiling. 

To make the sauce, put butter in a large frying pan and heat until golden and frothing. Add the mushrooms and cook until browned, then deglaze with verjuice. 

Reduce the temperature to leave to simmer. Use a large slotted spoon on sieve to lift the gnocchi from the water and incorporate straight into the buttery mushies. Top with grated cheese and a little extra butter if you'd like. 

Serve topped with additional cheese. A hit in our house (though we add a good grind of salt and pepper and fresh basil leaves, and accompany it with a dry riesling, for the grown ups!). 

Satay Cous Cous with Baked Eggs

This is an easy and quick fix dinner. I made cous cous pretty much as normal, except I heated coconut cream on the stove top then stirred a whole wheat cous cous through and let it soften and swell (heat off, lid on, per normal on cous cous). Add a heap of frozen vegetables and a scoop of peanut or cashew butter, and then place in a baking dish. Dig some little holes in, crack some eggs and cover in foil. Bake at around 200'c for fifteen minutes until eggs are cooked. Serve once cooled enough for small fries to eat. 

vegan and gluten free chocolate mousse.

I have read a great many recipes for this type of concoction, and I've been so sceptical as to how it would taste. 

It was amazing! 

In a food processor, I mixed a whole, ripe avocado with two bananas and 1/3 cup of carob powder (the recipe called for raw cacao but I am a carob fiend from way back and, as this was for my birthday, I indulged my own little tastebuds). I also added a tablespoon of manuka honey. Blitz it until it's really smooth and airy, set it in the fridge. Now, I topped it with this awesome organic yoghurt that is seriously just so creamy and rich (yet miraculously natural and low fat and low sugar), and some fresh strawberries. If you have kids coming for a party, this is such an excellent option for a treat. Next time I make it for my smalls, I'm going to whip through some peanut butter (keep in mind I'm trying to chub up my petite little miss sweet any way that I can). I will never again sceptically frown when I see avocado and banana parading as dessert substitutions. 

Fast Food Alternatives

Fast food as a regular inclusion in anyone's diet is, in my opinion, the devil. Regularly feeding it to children makes me depressed beyond words. It's like foisting upon your kids a ticket to adulthood diabetes and obesity before they can even have an informed say in the matter. There's the obvious factors for concern- too much sodium, sugar and animal fats- not to mention that most of the food has so many air miles attached to it that what nutritional value it originally held has been eroded and lessened as a result of excessive refrigeration time. The foods are inherently addictive by design. ...I understand the appeal of it, especially when you're time poor and plainly knackered. I'm not saying I never eat fast food. But for me, and my family, it's maybe a thrice per year event- no soft drinks, just something small. I hate that there are so many people who get fast food for their children habitually, for example weekly. There are so many options that are quick, easy and far more nutritionally beneficial for small fries (pun intended). Weary minds are prey to those drive thru fast food outlets or supermarket ready meals and parental minds are unstintingly weary.

Here's my unnecessary disclaimer. I love to cook. I make no bones about it. Fast food is not a trap I will ever fall into because, from a point of sheer self-interest, it would deny me the pleasure of preparing true food. Real food. But I know not everyone feels like this. For many, cooking is a chore. I put this in the category of shocking, but true, revelations. If cooking is a chore, it makes it just so much more tempting to go for the "easy" option. But there are some options that are just as easy and far more nutritionally sound and less damaging.  It's a matter of arming yourself with a few tried and tested recipes that your kids enjoy and you can whip up with relative ease.

 So here we go- a list of impending doom/fast food alternatives.

1. Always have some dried fruit or unsalted nuts (if your child is of a choke proof age!) in a sealed bag in your car and/or handbag for unexpected delays. If you're stuck in traffic or a child's swim lesson has run late, this will tide them over until you get home. Keep it as unprocessed as possible- not crackers or biscuits or lollies. Natural. Nutritious.

2. Pasta. Keep a good quality dried pasta in the pantry (I love whole grain spelt) and a tin of organic tomatoes, or a good quality pasta sauce- ideally one made for children as this will have lower sodium. (However, in the time it takes to boil pasta, I am able to sauté onions and garlic, add tinned tomatoes, herbs and simmer to make my own sauce.) But store bought is fine.

3. Eggs. Boil them. Poach them. Scramble them. Add some frozen veggies and make a frittata. It's a three minute meal and kids love it (generally).

4. Frozen ham and cheese sandwiches on a whole grain or rye bread. Make them up and freeze them in batches of ten. Press them in a sandwich grill and voila, dinner in a min.

5. Tinned tuna with Greek yoghurt and grated apple. Sounds honky, tastes yum.

6. Tins!! Tinned no-salt-added beans. Tinned sardines. No tins that have meat and are shelf stable, no tins with produce from countries whose food regulations you aren't familiar with. 

7. Frozen veggies (Australian, please). Microwave, add a knob of butter and a grate of cheese. If you have a salt fiend on your hands then salt it lightly, or use a Parmesan to give it a depth.

8. Toast. Simple toast. Vegemite. Honey. This is still far preferable to take away.

9. Savoury muffins. Make them in batches and freeze in cling film. 

10. Rice. This takes a bit longer (15 for white and 25 for brown). But if I decide to do rice on a night when our schedule is out of whack, I pop the kids in the bath before dinner. Cook the rice according to absorption method and then add some grated cheese and sultanas, diced tomato if you have any to hand, or frozen veggies or tinned tuna.

11. Fruit. Yep. Just fruit. My kids (like most kids) love fruit, and I don't see a single problem with giving them a bowl of fruit. Watermelon, banana, apple, orange, mandarins, strawberries, whatever you have. If it's slim pickings for fruit, add some dried fruit and sliced cheese. Platter style eating just lets them get their continental-Europe on! Add a glass of milk and you have a pretty rounded meal for little tummies.

12. Cous cous. This is quick, and kick arse, not to mention fantastically easy. Flick the kettle and get some water boiling. Put about 1/2 a cup of cous cous in a bowl, top up with approx a cup of boiled water and a glug of olive oil, then place a plate or lid on top of the bowl to let it steam. This will take a couple of minutes. While that's happening, prepare veggies or meat or tofu of fish to toss through- eggs are fine too. Cous cous with grated cheese- delicious.

13- muesli! Porridge! Cereal! A great meal for any time of day is a whole rolled oat with milk, banana and some LSA sprinkled on top. It doesn't get easier than that!

14- For really fatigued little bodies: smoothies. Banana, strawberries, yoghurt, milk, some oats and honey, LSA... It's a quick and filling solution when nothing else is working.

15- vegetable mash. Any veggies you have, in a big pot of boiling water for around ten minutes. Drain water out, add butter and milk, chopped herbs if you have them, grated cheese- you're done. Sure, this one takes a total of fifteen minutes, but only three of those involve doing anything more than watching a pot boil. That's got to be less hassle than changing lanes, driving through a narrow entrance, ordering over a staticky comm system, fishing out coins or cards, paying, receiving and then doling out meals and re-entering traffic.

Look. I'm a food idealist. And my food ideals don't always translate to the rigours of parenting. Case in point. Before I had kids, I strongly believed I would always, and I mean without exception, prepare dinners en famille, en masse. Well, the reality is that my kinder are often fed, bathed and ready for bed before my husband arrives home, and the last thing I feel capable of is retaining order whilst trying to eat. My yummy dinner and glass of Pinot is the reward I give myself for a very hard and long day's work. 

One of the ideals I can't shift though is that food is a sacred joy. A privilege to be enjoyed, a delight to be savoured. The idea of crappy food, grabbed on the run and eaten in the car whilst en route is abhorrent to my inner foodie. These meals are hardly haut gourmet, but they are about three tonnes better than anything you'll get from a drive thru window...

Just remember that this isn't about ticking all of the nutritional boxes, it's about avoiding total food demons on a night where you might otherwise succumb to temptation, and ease. Kids do not need to have fast food as a regular component in their diet. Their palettes are forming. Their preferences are being informed. Every meal is an opportunity to guide them so you can be confident they'll grow into adults who make the right nutrition decisions. Make good food an instinct for your kids. It's a gift.

Simple fare.

One of these days I'm going to take note of my bread recipe as I make it. It's one of the recipes in my arsenal that I use most frequently, and therefore I do it by feel. I always use spelt flour these days, for two reasons. My mil is gluten intolerant and so it's easier to always use a flour she can tolerate so that I don't get confused. But I also think spelt is just easier and more gentle on the digestive system, and as a diabetic, I find it has a much more tolerable affect on my BGL. 

I mix spelt flour with yeast, rapadura sugar and tepid water, mix until a dough forms then leave to rise. Then, I knock it back, shape it and leave it to prove again (beneath a clean, dry tea towel). I got this going while the kids ate Brekkie, popped it in the oven about an hour before I wanted to serve their lunch. Forty minutes later it was done, and they were enjoying avocado on freshly baked bread. Warms my heart!

Party Time

The virtue of having a nephew with a birthday in early January is that we are almost always visiting as a hangover from NYE, and therefore get to celebrate with him. This year, his mum talked him down from his request of a batmobile birthday cake and delightedly urged him towards a storm trooper head instead. My nephew is quite the foodie and for the second year running he requested a raspberry and ricotta cake to make the shape... Love him. There were also Star Wars cookies that we made (using spelt flour and minimal sugar), and "death star" bliss balls. I do love a good party.

Morning Muesli

We just spent a week with one of my sisters and her family. It's always amazing to see how children grow and mature when they're put in the hot house environment of concentrated family time. My sister has three boys, two of them older than my two, and one younger, so you may be able to imagine the sheer volume and exuberance of the play!! My three year old now has a healthy obsession with "trashies" and "skylanders". It's adorable. In addition to this prep-aged toy indoctrination, my children are obsessed with muesli. Not just any old store bought mix of oats and nuts, either.  My sister and her husband make their own muesli and it packs an extreme nutritious punch. I had no option but to get their recipe and scoot out to the shops the day after we returned so that I could whip us up a batch. Oats, LSA, additional linseed, white chia seeds, amongst other things, topped with organic yoghurt and diced poached apples, it is a delicious way to start your day. And end it, too, for that matter - we've substituted this as our dessert and it is just a heavenly treat to look forward to.