Kitchen Diary

I don’t often participate in Meatless Monday posts although we do try to have at least one meatless dinner per week. I have a husband who loves his meat. I on the other hand can do without it for days, if not weeks, on end. We have been enjoying the lovely little crop of rocket that my patio garden has blessed us with. As well as the most awesome fresh broad beans. The wind has knocked the stuffing out of the poor plants and I thought they had seen their day but this morning when I went out there I saw new flowers on them…so await another crop with anticipation! When I saw that Tandy over at Lavender and Lime had chosen rocket as her regional and seasonal ingredient for the current challenge I was rather excited at the prospect of popping out onto the patio and picking my own.  How much more regional can you get than your own front garden? And seasonal as in it is out there growing right now hehe! Now the instruction, as I understand it, is for us to actually COOK with rocket. I usually use it as a salad green, or in a delicious wholewheat sandwich with smoked chicken or cheese and tomato and basil pesto…there are endless opportunities to use this awesome peppery green leaf! For those friends over on the big continent with many united states rocket will be known to you as Arugula. I must say that Rocket sounds way more spiffish to me

When you type  rocket into the Google search bar this is what you find……

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. HAHAHA! I am SO not talking about that kind of rocket! Nooo, the rocket I am talking about is this one….(and I only found it because I had to change my search to edible rocket!!)

Eruca sativa (syn. E. vesicaria subsp. sativa (Miller) Thell., Brassica eruca L.), is an edible annual plant, commonly known as rocket, roquette, rucola or arugula. Rich in Vit C and Potassium, this leafy plant has a strong peppery taste that goes incredibly well in salads and cooking. According to Wiki it is considered an aphrodisiac.^[9]  In addition to the leaves, the flowers (often used in salads as an edible garnish), young seed pods and mature seeds are all edible. And I find that out after I just returned all the seeds to the earth!

This is what I did with my rocket – I have two varieties growing, the regular larger leaf one you see in the centre of the photo and then a small, delicate, spikier leaf that was labelled Italian Rocket at my nursery….see left front and far right of the photo

BUTTERNUT PARMESAN AND ROCKET PASTA

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 Medium sized Butternut – peeled, seeded and cut into small cubes the size of a dice

1 Red Onion – chopped

1 Clove Garlic – peeled and finely sliced

1/2 Red Chilli – seeds and white pith removed and finely sliced

20ml Olive Oil

20g Butter

200ml Sour Cream

50g Parmesan – freshly grated

50g Blue Cheese (I used Simonzola which is a mild tasting gorgonzola type cheese)

50g Rocket – washed and roughly cut if large leaves

1 packet Penne Pasta – I used wholewheat

Salt & Pepper

 
Method:

Heat the butter and oil together in a large saucepan over moderate heat.

Add the butternut and toss well. Saute until the edges start caramelizing and the butternut is almost tender

Add the onion and chilli to the pan and continue sauteeing until the onion is glazed and translucent.

At this stage bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and add the penne pasta. Cook for about 8 minutes until al dente

Add the garlic and saute very briefly, you don’t want the garlic to burn and turn bitter

Mix the sour cream and cheeses and add to the pan with the butternut. Toss all together well and turn off the heat

Season to taste

Strain the pasta through a colander, reserve about 100ml of the water for thinning the sauce if needed

Toss a drizzle of premium quality extra virgin olive oil and the rocket leaves through the pasta then add to the saucepan of butternut, together with the pasta water if you want a saucier dish.

Serve with extra rocket leaves and a grating of parmesan cheese.

My meat eater declared this a winner for our meatless days. It was more than delicious! I hope you try it yourself for your next vegetarian meal.

I am also submitting this to Ruth, for this week’s Presto Pasta Night #237  I’m surprising myself by being so on the ball   

Enjoy the rest of your week,

browniegirl xx

Hellooo there from down by the bay! There is nothing spring like about the weather today, well the whole week actually, so I have spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking. We had a wonderful holiday and rested and relaxed to our hearts content and have returned fresh and ready to work again. I have a LOT of work to catch up, but thats generally what happens after you have a break. Top of my list of course is working with the last of the ClemenGold fruit that I have and developing some more delicious recipes. The first one on my list has to be this one…the most deliciously dense, moist and fruity ClemenGold Cake. WOW! This is a winner and something that you should all try. Its really easy to make and is quite sublime!

COLLEEN’S CLEMENGOLD CAKE

Servings:  8 – 10 slices

Ingredients:

250g Whole Blanched Almonds (OR finely ground Almonds if you have them on hand)

6 Extra Large Free Range Eggs

5ml Baking Soda or Baking Powder

230g Sugar

4 ClemenGold (total weight between 375 and 400g)

2ml Salt

For the syrup: (Optional but delicious)

Juice of 3 ClemenGolds (about 150ml)

60g Sugar (I used Agave Crystals)

5 Cardamom Pods – bashed slightly

Method:

Wash the ClemenGolds well then place in a saucepan and cover well with water

Bring to the boil over medium heat, cover saucepan and boil gently for about  an hour until the fruit is tender

Allow to cool then remove the tiny green stem bit and discard. Cut the fruit into halves then blitz the fruit (peel and all) with a handheld stick blender or food processor to make a puree. Set aside.

Turn the oven on to 190^oC and spray the base and sides of a 23cm springform cake tin. Line the bottom with baking paper

(Omit this next bit if you already have almond meal)

Place the almonds in a dry frying pan and toast over a medium heat until the aromas start wafting up from the pan and the nuts are turning lightly golden. Keep agitating the pan and tossing the nuts so they don’t burn on the one side. Cool almonds a bit then grind finely

Sift over the baking soda and salt and mix into the almonds

Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, fold in the almonds and then the ClemenGold puree

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes then turn the oven down to 180^oC cover the cake with a sheet of aluminum foil and continue baking for another 15 to 20 minutes. Test with a skewer to see if it is done in the middle. The skewer should come out clean

While the cake is baking for the last 15 minutes or so juice the ClemenGolds and add to a small saucepan with the sugar and cardamom pods

Boil rapidly for a few minutes to reduce and form a thickish syrup

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven pour the hot syrup over the cake. It will all absorb.

Allow cake to cool completely, in the tin, on a cooling rack then turn out onto a plate, dust with some icing sugar and serve with a dollop of crème fraiche, mascarpone, Greek yoghurt or vanilla ice cream

Although delicious once cold, the texture and flavor of the cake improves overnight so bake this the day before for maximum flavor

The syrup poured over the cake is an optional, but extremely delicious, extra

 Just look at that bright orange colour that comes out in the cake and in the syrup. You just don’t get colour like that from other citrus!! It brings instant sunshine into my heart every time. Sadly the season is over now in South Africa so the waiting begins for Autumn and Winter 2012! Who knew I would wish my life away for a little, perfectly round, bright orange, sweet, intensely aromatic citrus fruit??

And the beauty of this cake is that those with gluten or dairy intolerances can eat it as it is totally dairy and gluten free! What a bonus!! It has no butter….I would say this cake should be classified as Low GI  

Tandy, over at Lavender and Lime Blog is organizing a Secret Santa event for bloggers world wide. If you would like to participate in this lovely event then do go over and read this post and let her know that you would like to play! The idea is that you give your details to Tandy and she will randomly allocate another blogger (in the same country if possible) that you will send a secret gift to for Christmas.  The more the merrier Christmas will be…so head on over and join in the fun. I think its a fabulous idea!! Well done Tandy!

If you are participating you can put this very cute Santa hat onto your blog as a widget using the following html code….

[<a href="http://tandysinclair.com" target="_blank"><img title="" src="http://tandysinclair.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/c2a9-secret-santa.jpg?w=150" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>] 

Have an awesome weekend!

browniegirl xx