Catch up post - what I have been eating and not blogging

I have been so busy cooking over the past few months that I can afford to be choosy about what I blog.  Many good dishes have been photographed and fallen by the wayside.  Today I thought I would share a few with you.  It would be a shame to forget them altogether. 

First up is a recipe that I made last week.  It is a Mushroom stout stew with mashed potato dumplings from Where's the Beef?.  Cindy was right in advising you need a bit of time for this one.  I started by forgetting to buy stout and substituting red wine.  So you see I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I tried cauliflower in it but that wasn't brilliant.  Most disappointing were the dumplings.  They were too doughy rather than fluffy.  Perhaps my leftover mashed potato had too much milk in it?  And next time I might reduce the sugar in the dumplings.  However the stew was lovely so I may try again.

A far more successful dish I made a few years back was a beetroot green and chickpea curry.  It is one of the few recipes in which I have really enjoyed beetroot greens.  So when I bought a leafy bunch of beetroot at the Coburg Farmers Market, I decided to use them in this dish.  Yet again it was delicious even though I think I altered the vegies and pulses slightly.

Quite some months ago when it was warmer I was inspired by Pinterest to make a Quinoa, cumin and french bean pilaf from In Pursuit of More.  It was full of quinoa, green beans, cauliflower, chickpeas, almonds, sun dried tomato, fried onion, mustard seeds, garlic, worcestershire sauce, spinach and parsley.  I added in the cauliflower serendipitously and served it with pizza.  I remember enjoying it but I have no desire to repeat it.  Sometimes when a meal doesn't look as amazing as someone else's photo it can be disappointing.

On the Mother's Day weekend I wanted quick healthy delicious potatoes.  I made a version of this Potato hash but without the red peppers.  It wasn't exactly what I wanted.  I enjoyed it most the next day for lunch when I mixed the fried potato with tomato, avocado and a squeeze of lemon. 

Finding myself with 2 bunches of kale after the Coburg Farmers Market, I was inspired by a Food 52 recipe for Spanish Chickpeas with Kale to make this pasta dish.  I cooked the kale more than the recipe suggested as I was kid-wrangling at the same time.  It was quite good but didn't feel different enough to other recipes I have made to post. 

I had leftover kale and chickpea pasta sauce.  I added in some roasted pumpkin and served it over soft polenta.  This was even better than the pasta.  I might have posted this if it felt like I had a method.  It was just a bit of this and a bit of that.  Sometimes that is the best way to cook.

The Coburg Farmers Market inspired me to try lots of new recipes as you may see here.  I wanted to make the most of my fresh walnuts.  They were perfect for my version of a pear, brie and caramelised walnut sandwich by Vegetable Matters.  I made a quick and delicious pesto using some potted basil in the back yard  that my mum gave me and the wild lime and garlic olive oil from the market.

I caramelised the walnuts on the stovetop using hazelnut agave.  They were good - as evidenced by us eating a lot out of the tub - yet not quite as carmelly as I would have liked nor quite as sugary as the ones at the market.  More experiments are needed.  My sandwich with pesto, pear, blue cheese and caramelised walnuts was just lovely and very posh.

One good sandwich makes others seem ho hum.  So the next day an effort was required.  I still had the lovely sourdough bread and packed it with pesto, spinach, tomato and blue cheese.  I did learn with these sandwiches that a little blue cheese goes a long way.

The rest of the pesto was spread on this pizza.  It was scattered with roast pumpkin and feta and popped in the oven.  When baked, I topped it with a generous handful of sliced sorrel.  The sour sorrrel finished it off very nicely.

My favourite way to eat the caramelised walnuts was with some strawberries and good vanilla ice cream.  I am not usually a big fan of fruit and ice cream.  This was amazing.

A while back I went through an Emily Rose phase.  I have written about her cookbook before.  Strangely enough, the more I read it the more I find to love in it and yet I have tried a few recipes that weren't right for me.  I tried a chocolate coconut slice that wasn't cakey enough for me and more recently I tried a chocolate and date cake.

I added coconut to the chocolate and date cake.  I told myself that it would then be healthy and full of chocolate and coconut.  However you may not be surprised to find I still had a chocolate and date cake not a chocolate coconut cake.  I wasn't so keen on the dates.  Perhaps because they got in the way of my coconut.  I am still seeking my perfect chocolate coconut cake.  But I do like how Emily Rose constructs her recipes.

A more successful baking experience from Emily Rose's book was her healthy banana bread.  It was full of nuts and seeds.  My main problems with it were that it was slightly damp inside and that it collapsed when I turned it out of the tin.  It was delicious spread with chocolate sauce.  Next time I will bake it slightly longer and will be more wary of silicone cake tins.  I also have a mind to try it with a little treacle because E loves treacle in anything.  Stay tuned...

Lastly is a hot chocolate that I trialled.  It seemed a good idea.  Jamie and Nigella couldn't be wrong.  Once I made it I remembered that I don't like really rich hot chocolates.  It was just too intense.  Since then I have been happy with E making me hot chocolate with a spoonful or two of hot chocolate powder in a mug of boiling water and a splash of milk.

So there you have a peek into what has not been making it onto the blog.  Lots of good food.  Not always quite right.  Sometimes just not for me.  Mostly delicious.