Zucchini Pie

This is one of my absolutely favourite pie recipes... not much to add, just follow the recipe. The amounts listed here are from memory, and I might adjust them in the next few days when I get around to making this again. You will need a quiche tin with a removable base (around 22 cm in diameter.)
Ingredients
Pastry
125 gm wholemeal flour
125 gm plain flour
60ml extra virgin olive oil
60 gm unsalted butter
small amount of iced water with lime or lemon juice

Filling
4 X medium sized zucchini
1/2 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup cooked brown rice (optional)
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated mature cheddar
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
black pepper

butter for greasing quiche tin

Method

1. Butter quiche tin.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
3. Combine flours with salt.
4. Rub butter and oil into flour and pull together with water.
5. Place in fridge.
6. Pour 3 tbs olive oil into large frying pan and saute onion and garlic until soft.
7. Add zucchini and continue to saute until soft and a little brown. Allow to cool.
8. Beat eggs.
9. Add zucchini (rice if using) and cheeses to egg, leaving a table spoon of grated parmesan aside.
10. Cut two thirds of dough and roll thin. (You may need to place it between plastic sheets to roll out.
11. Lay pastry over buttered quiche tin, and trip edges.
12. Pour filling onto pastry.
13. Roll out remaining pastry with any left over bits. Try and roll it out so it is a rectangular shape.
14. Cut strips with a serrated cutter.
15. Layer pastry strips over filling in a lattice design.
16. Sprinkle with parmesan.
17. Place in oven for around 40 minutes.
18. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Spanakopita

Melissa's Spanakopita in Smith Street, Collingwood, sets the benchmark for Spanakopita. (check out http://indolentdandy.net/fitzroyalty/2009/06/22/tiropita-at-melissa-on-smith-st/)
I would often see hungry people lining up outside at lunch-time waiting patiently for the Spanakopita to come out of the oven..it was worth the wait. What made so fantastic was the filo for a start, which was made by the shop, and the ratio of pastry to filling was perfect.... not too much filling.
So, I suggest to make a good Spanakopita, try making your own filo... really it's not that hard. But not something to do if you're in a hurry or impatient in the kitchen. Check out the Greek episode of My Family Feast on SBS... it inspired me to make home-made filo.
Back to Spanakopita.. and my constant catch phrase.. it's all about balance. For Spanakopita it's about balancing the spinach with the cheese...
This receipe is adapated from a couple of different sources.. remember, you can use whatever greens you want.

Ingredients:
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 eschallots (scallions/springs onions) finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs fennel seeds
1 bunch spinach or similar green, washed and stalks cut
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley
salt
freshly ground black pepper
100-200 gm fetta
3 eggs
parmesan cheese
filo pastry
melted butter

Method
1. Heat olive oil in large heavy frying pan over medium heat, and onions, garlic, fennel seeds and springs onions and sautee until nice and soft. To do this you will need to turn the heat to low.
2. Add spinach and cook until soft (around 5 minutes.)
3. Add pepper and allow to cool.
4. In another bowl, beat eggs and add feta and parmesan.
5. Preheat oven to around 180 degrees.
6. Grease the bottom of tray with butter, and layer each piece of filo, spreading with melted butter, until you have used around 8 sheets. Make sure you line the sides as well.
7. Combine spinach mixture, with egg mixture and parsley. Add salt to taste
8. Pour spinach mixture into/over filo and spread evenly.
9. Lay another layer of filo on top, and repeat the layering process with butter until you have used another 8 layers. Spread butter on the final layer.
10.Trim excess pastry from around edge and cut into across diagonally (both directions) half-way through pie. (Don't cut to bottom).
11. Bake for around 45 minutes to 1 hour until brown.

I like to cool my spanakopita a bit before eating, but this is personal taste.

I serve this with a salad of roma tomatoes and black olives, with red wine vinegar.

Pies

I love pies.. I love the way they are self-contained, with a crisp filling-proof case and that special something special inside. I often think they are the perfect portable food with treasure like appeal.
I still have pie shells I bought when I was 16 and I have tried many, many pie recipes. Most cultures have their own version of a pie, from samosas to a good ole' aussie beef pies... These are some of my favourites with recipes to follow:

• Swedish mushroom and meat roll..
• Chicken and vegetable pie...
• Spanakopita...
• Empanadas ...
  
• Tuna Empanadas ...
  
• Zucchini pie...
• Pork and red cabbage pie..
• Pide ...
  

I'm currently working on and adapating carrot and kevlograviera pie..
My tip for good pie making is to choose the right pastry for the filling: shortcrust, puff, filo, yeast etc..... and to make sure the filling is flavoured and adequately cooked according to how long it will take to cook the pastry... get the balance right.

'Bush Tomato' aka desert raisin aka yakajirri (Solanum Centrale)

I am not a bush foods expert. I know very little about bush foods.. I have cooked with bush foods a few times (bush coconut, bush potato, bush banana, wattleseed) and eaten a bit of flesh (witchetty grubs, goanna, emu, bush turkey, kangaroo, turtle - under sufferance) and raw foods (bush apple, bush banana, bush tomato, yakajirri...) I have even purchased Peter Latz's 'Bushfires & Bushtucker', and am wondering why I didn't make better use of my 7 years in Yuendumu... possibly preoccupied with Indigenous media matters..
But now I am starting to take a culinary interest.. wondering what bush foods could be used in cooking or replace other ingredients....
I am pondering the yakajirri.. known as the 'Bush Tomato' by bush foods industry pundits, but by locals in Alice Springs and beyond by a miriad of names: desert raisin, bush sultana, yakajirri... etc.. I have read that this fruit, is one of the most important foods for Aboriginal people in Central Australia. Looking not unlike a sultana, its flavours are typical of the complexity of Australian bush foods.. It's sweet and bitter with an amazing after taste..
I tasted a roasted parsnip and bush tomato soup at Olive Pink last year.. and it was a wonderful homage to this food.
You also find bush tomato in condiments like: bush tomato chutney, bush tomato dip, there's a Sticky Bush Tomato Balsamic..

I'm about to try adapt some recipes for this ingredient. I am wanting a recipe that celebrates the bitterness and sweetness of this fruit, and I am tending towards Italian, as usual. Not just because I know and love Italian cooking, but because the Italians celebrate bitterness... radiccio, chinotto... I'm sure there's more..
So, my intention is to try out Yakajirrin in panneforte and a Roman ricotta cheesecake. Right now, I'm soaking some in a sugar and pomegranate syrup to see what happens to the bitterness... Watch this space for more reports...

Let's get it right:
What is sold in shops as Bush Tomato is not the bush tomato I've eaten on the side of the road around Yuendumu back roads. This was a fresh green fruit (Solanum chippendalei), locally known as a bush tomato, in contrast to the 'Bush Tomato/aka/Desert Raisin/Yakajirri I have written about... But, it seems, for the sake of consistency one name must dominate... and so we have Bush Tomato. A point of interest I discovered today, is that the Solanum chippenadei is now officially called the Tanami Apple.

Orecchiette & Broccoli

This is a new favourite of mine which I've been working for at least the last 12 months. A couple of tips.. only cook this if you have good (preferably organic) broccoli and the real deal Orecchiette (little ears or ear lobes), or you make your own.
Ingredients
150- 250 gms Orecchiette (ear lobe pasta)
Salted water
Broccoli (around 350 to 500 gms)
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
Anchovies (small tin, roughly chopped)
Red Chillis
2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
Parsley (flat leaf)
Black pepper
Parmesan to serve

Method

1. Bring salted to water to boil in large pot and add orecchiette.
2. The next step depends on how you like to eat your pasta (al dente) and you like to eat your broccoli. Basically you add the broccoli just at the end of cooking your pasta. They both need to be cooked to your taste at the same time.
3. Strain.
4. At the same time.....
5. Heat 2- 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil in large pan or pot on a low heat.
6. Add crushed garlic (2-3 cloves) and anchovies and continue to cook over low heat.
7. Add chopped chillies.
8. When pasta and broccoli are cooked add to pan, with black pepper and roughly chopped parsley.
9. Serve with parmesan.

For those with fussy children who refuse to eat wonderful things such as chillis or anchovies.. take a portion size out of the boiled pasta/broccoli and add butter, and serve with parmesan. This seems to do the trick

Slow cooked Borlotti Beans with Nutmeg

The ultimate in slow food cooking, this recipe needs to be started at least a day and a half ahead of eating it.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup dried borlotti beans
6 rashes of prosciutto, roughly cut
4 cloves of garlic
freshly grated nutmeg
bay leaves
Salt or grated parmesan to taste

Special Utensils
A ceramic or cast iron enamel pot with a good fitting lid.

Method
1. Soak borlotti beans in cold water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Drain.
2. Set oven to 150 degrees celsius.
3. Place oil in bottom of pot.
4. Crush whole garlic with the back of a knife and put in bottom of pot (still whole or in large chunks), followed by strips of prosciutto.
5. Grate at least a teaspoon of nutmeg on the bottom.
6. Place beans on top and bay leaves.
7. Pour enough cold water to come just above the beans.
8. Place pot in oven and cook for around 6 hours. Let beans stay in oven until the oven is completely cool. Wait at least another 12 hours before eating, although if you're really hungry you can eat them straight away.

Salt to your taste, or use parmesan cheese. Great with fresh chunky bread or as an accompaniment to meat or polenta type dishes.

Persian Love Cake Adapted...

As I said in my earlier June posting on 'Nutmeg', this recipe has been adapted from a recipe in the September 2008 issue of the Australian magazine, Gourmet Traveller. I tried the original, which to my taste was way too sweet. I then remembered a Greek style baked tart my mother would make with honey, eggs, yoghurt and of course nutmeg. I adapted the original recipe, and I reckon it's heaps better.. but that's me commenting on my own recipe.. and I'm biased. Enjoy.. both the cooking and the eating.
Ingredients
360 gm (3 cups) almond meal
110 gm (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
120 gm unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
400 gm Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 to 1/3 cup pistachio, coarsely chopped

Method
1. Heat over to around 180 degrees celcius. Butter a 26 cm springform cake tin, and line it with baking paper.
2. Combine almonds, sugar and butter and rub together. Spoon half the mixture in tin.
3. Mix together, egg, yoghurt, honey and nutmeg with a spoon whisk. Gradually add to dry mixture and whisk gently until smooth.
4. Pour mixture into cake tine, and sprinkle pistachio nuts around the edge.

5. Bake in oven for between 35 and 40 minutes and cool completely in pan before serving.