King Street kitchen

Hey Christina Street, a great first contribution. It sounds like there are some unusual chefs at Wareemba Avenue Kitchen. And it is good to see the  Douglas Street "Kitchen hands" making an entry onto the blog in concert with Hunter street.

Mushroom pasta for two, a quick and yummy pasta around two key ingredients, mushrooms and butter. I like to make this with a few different types of mushrooms but last night only had the ordinary champignons, around .5 kg.

Slice the mushrooms. Also prepare some sort of onion, any kind, yellow, red, green or leek. Last night I used leek. Heat some olive oil in a saute pan until hot, add onions and toss lightly, put in the mushrooms and toss till coated, leave heat on high until first mushrooms start to brown then lower the heat. Add salt and pepper. Add a good pinch of dried chile flakes. If you like using wine, a good splash of a white at this stage goes well. Then turn off the heat and allow to sit.

For pasta papperadelle is great or fettucine. The trick is to not use too much. 100 grams is plenty for two people. Prepare pasta.

When it is nearly done, reheat the mucshrooms and add a GENEROUS (don't skimp) chunk of butter and allow this to melt.  Drain pasta thoroughly and add to pasta and stir until heated through.

Turn into serving bowl and add a generous covering of parmesan cheese and chopped continental parsley. Some good bread is handy for sopping up those juices. The smell of this pasta dish is fantastic!

Wareemba Avenue Kitchen - Quick Moroccan Chicken

Thanks Christina St Kitchen! The Potato Wrap Bread looks great!

Last night in the Wareemba Avenue kitchen I was left to my own devices and I whipped up a quick chicken tagine while Bern and Val were out taking an evening stroll. First I browned off an onion in a little oil and added Moroccan seasoning mix to release the flavours. Then I added about 3 single chicken breasts cut into larger pieces and sealed that off.

Then came a tin of tomatoes, a couple of carrots cut into larger pieces, some zucchini and a little bit of chicken stock to make up the sauce.

I let it cook on the stove top for about 20 minutes waiting patiently, with lovely smells wafting, for the other members of the wolf pack to get back. The recipe worked very well and my first attempt at using the tagine produced delicious results! Bern had some couscous which looked lovely (and I had it without ... trying to cut out all pm carbs).

I am definitely going to try this one again and do some more experimenting with my tagine. I didn’t realise that you could use your tagine for a quick meal and thought it was more for “cook all day” type recipes. I even have some mince out for tonight and am going to try some Moroccan style meatballs. Hopefully Valerie won’t slack off and I will get some help (though I am not sure how easy rolling meatballs is when you don’t have opposable thumbs). I will let you know how it goes!

Christina St Kitchen

Since we found this recipe online it has been a family favourite. We use this wrap bread for any turkish/greek or indian meal. It is soft and holds a wonderful selection of yummy meats and salads. Tonight it is with a stack of felafel, hummus, tomatoes, spanish onion and tatziki. Delish! (we generally double this recipe)

Potato Wrap Bread

3+ cups plain flour

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 mashing potato, boiled and mashed

1 tsp salt

2 Tbs veg oil

1 tsp instant yeast

2 Big bowls for mixing

Place 2C flour in one of the bowls and pour the boiling water over and mix in thoroughly. (will make glue - don't be scared) Set it aside.

In the second bowl mix the mashed potato, 1C flour, yeast, salt and oil till you get a doughy mass.

Once the flour/water mix is cool enough (but still quite warm) to be bearable and won't kill the yeast, put the two mixes together and knead till smoother. (we are very lackadaisy with this bread. depending on the flour sometimes it is beautiful and sometimes terribly dauntingly sticky) NB use oil on your hands as opposed to flour

You will end up with a stiff, sticky ball. If it is way too sticky, add more flour before you leave it to rise. It is an oddly sticky dough though. Cover it and let it rise for up to 2 hours (1 or less is standard at our house)

Use a tray with sides and pour a little oil in the bottom to coat the base. shape tennis ball sized balls out of the dough and line them up in the tray. You can then roll them out and stack ready to cook or roll and cook in sequence. I try not to use flour at all in the rolling out process, but use baking paper and keep oiling my hands. I use two dry pans at the same time or they do really well on a flat dry bbq plate. Roll them out till they are about 5mm thick. Cook on each side till they begin to bubble up and if you peek under they will be brown in patches.

As they are cooked stack them in a pile on a wire rack. They will stay soft and warm.

Felafel

(you have to plan ahead for these and soak the chick peas overnight)(tinned does not work)

1 1/3 C dried chick peas soaked overnight

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs baking powder

1 Tbs cumin

1 Tbs ground coriander

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 garlic clove - crushed

2 T chopped parsley

juice of 1 lemon

Whiz it all together till chopped but not pureed. Squeeze into balls (3cm diameter?) Shallow fry in veg oil.

Quick Hummus (stephanies)

1 tin chick peas, drained and soaked

2tsp cumin

juice of 2 lemons

2 big cloves garlic

good sprinkle of cayenne

ground black pepper

salt to taste

Whiz, taste, adjust to your liking.

Douglas St and Hunter St - Semolina Pastry

Today Cecily and Amanda were cooking Makrout, a Maroccan treat, at Hunter Street. This is another simple and unusual pastry - 3 ingredients, no rolling and unlike most pastries it likes to be handled.

Makrout is a a filled semolina pastry. For the pastry mix 1 cup of semolina with 1/3 cup of melted butter and just enough rosewater of orange flower blossom water to be able to form the mix into a stiff pastry. The pastry is easiest to handle if left to sit for 20 min while making the filling.

Filling could be any mix of dates, apricots, figs, almonds, pistacho nuts etc whizzed with a little sugar, cinnamon and some rosewater or orange flower blossom water - again this needs to be a thick paste. Make small balls of this mix. Take a tsp of the pastry, flatten into a disc and shape around the ball. Bake at 170C for 15-20 min until firm. Roll in icing while hot.

Any leftover filling can be made into fruit balls by rolling in coconut.

This pastry could be used in the same way for savoury options with fillings such as spicy mashed chickpeas or meat filling. The filled pastry can also be shallow or deep fried.




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Hunter St Kitchen

I am so impressed with our gen y bloggers! How clever and competent! Pasta sauces..frittatas...yum!

Fatima fared much better in the King St kitchen than the Hunter St kitchen! Those little fingers looked great.

Last night I became inspired whilst cooking as Rick Stein was on the telly. I enjoy the way he links food with memories of past meals and experiences, literature and the aromas which surround him.

 I made some zucchini and chic pea fritters which were pretty bland but another quick way to embellish a plate.

I mixed one tin of chic peas, drained and smashed; onion; zucchini; self-raising flour; lemon zest; dill; salt.

They were pretty bland actually. Needed more spice.

Wareemba Avenue Kitchen - Hakuna Frittata

What do we do when we have a hungry man and not enough chops?? Why whip up a yummy Frittata using the beautiful free range eggs delivered by one terrific father!!

Valerie and I first whisked Dad’s eggs up. Look at how beautiful and yellow they were. All that green grass certainly does the trick!

We then added what we had in our fridge and pantry – baby roma tomatoes, English spinach asparagus and a potato. A sprinkle of parmesan on the top and voila! A beautiful healthy dinner with chops on the side and some steamed veggies!!

Jamie Oliver would be proud of our healthy - less than 30 minute meal!

King St Kitchen pics