Spring soup with green garlic

Spring soup with green garlicHomegrown green garlic bulbs

I’ve been watching a bird make a nest in our lemon tree through our kitchen window. First I made sure it wasn’t a nasty Indian myna (it turned out to be a more benign but still imported suburban blackbird), then thought to myself, this is going to be good viewing – a touch of David Attenborough in our own backyard. Continue reading Spring soup with green garlic

Baked barley

Barley, tomato and vegetable stew

My husband can make a pot of homemade baked beans with his eyes closed – the beans are soaked and blanched; mixed with onion, tomato, spices. After hours of cooking, the end result is tweaked with honey – white beans suspended in a rust-red liquor. These were a breakfast staple at our old cafe and my husband still tends towards making a mega load, filling lots of containers for the freezer. We pop them out every so often at weekends … Eating them on top of melted cheese toast, scattered with plenty of chopped parsley, takes me straight back to having our first baby. Those were hungry, busy, yet beautiful days, and I remember eating this for lunch, sometimes with one of us with our little girl asleep in the Baby Bjorn, the odd bean landing on her head! Continue reading Baked barley

Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons

Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons

We got a bag of beautiful organic baby beetroots in our Friday box of fruit and vegetables, and I set to thinking about all the things I love to do with beetroots. Sri Lankan beetroot curry and borsht are on the top of my list. But when it’s a matter of gorgeous baby beets, I think it’s best to keep it simple and do as little as possible, in what has become known in my head as ‘Italian-style beetroot’. Continue reading Beetroot salad with spinach, egg and dukkah croutons

Chilaquiles

Tomato chilaquiles in the pan

Working on an introduction to a Mexican cookbook a few months ago has sent me off on a new cooking adventure. The world of Mexican food is big and there’s a lot to cover, and the cookbooks I now have in my collection are hardcore – full of exotic, hard-to-come-by ingredients and strict cooking techniques. Mexican cuisine has always seemed interesting, but also a bit difficult and daunting to really do properly – so much easier for me to ramble into Asia, the Middle East, Europe, even Africa, for endless inspiration … But slowly I’m wrapping my head around Mexican food, cooking some great new things. I’ve realised I’m not just adding a new dish to my big list of favourite things to cook, but a whole new category. It’s been so exciting and I’m not nearly done yet. Continue reading Chilaquiles

Smashed cucumber salad

Smashed cucumber salad

My vegetable garden seems to have a mind of its own. This summer it decided that tomatoes and basil would not be the frontrunners. Instead it’s been the cucumbers and spring onions, and just when I was about to give up on them, our super slow beans finally started producing. While technically this is my garden, I feel like I’m really just along for the ride and am happy with any result – as long as there is one! Continue reading Smashed cucumber salad

Pumpkin and quinoa patties

pumpkin quinoa patties 1pumpkin quinoa patties 2

Fritters and patties are big at home right now. It seems a quirky developmental stage our children go through; a unique thing that happens in our house like bum-shuffle crawling and oh-so-late walking! (Our little boy is 20 months old and has just taken a few steps! But he generally prefers to scoot about on his bottom, wearing all his pants to threads.) Continue reading Pumpkin and quinoa patties

Vietnamese pancakes

Vietnamese pancakes with bean sprouts, herbs and lettuce

My four-year old daughter is learning the sounds that letters make. L – luh – is for ladybird. D – duh – is for dad. V – vuh – is for Vietnamese pancakes! I grinned from ear to ear when she said this. I love that she worked it out by herself, but even more so that she’s as enthusiastic as her slightly nutty mother for this delicious meal that we’ve started eating at home. Continue reading Vietnamese pancakes

Stuffed flatbreads

Pumpkin walnut and silverbeet feta fillings for flatbreadsGraters, illustration by Katherine Bird

Sometimes life goes so fast you completely forget to take photographs. Or you feel too giddy with the experience to stop to write anything down.

Pulling the back off our house two years ago and embarking on our renovation was like this. My husband worked his butt off through winter rebuilding as fast as he could, while our then-1-year-old daughter and I got on as best we could in our draughty half-house with its bathroom in a tin shed in the backyard. Continue reading Stuffed flatbreads

Tomato sambal

tomato sambalingredients for tomato sambal

The last month of autumn might seem the wrong month for thinking about tomatoes. Happy days of tomato and chive sandwiches with different coloured cherry tomatoes from our garden are well and truly finished, and there are no more meals accompanied by our favourite zucchini, tomato and basil stew. Continue reading Tomato sambal

Eggplant, tomato and basil pasta

Eggplant, tomato and basil pasta

The veggie garden is looking decidedly bare and wintery now that I’ve finally pulled out the tomato bushes and collected the very last ripening tomatoes. It’s the end of a process of watching the garden build up and up in a frenzy over summer – the plants growing taller as the weather gets hotter – then watching things come down again piece by piece as the sun slips back in the sky and it starts getting chilly. Continue reading Eggplant, tomato and basil pasta