Cheat's Moussaka

Here's another good hearty winter dinner recipe I picked up from this month's Real Living - Cheat's Moussaka. 

 via Real Living

My darling Yiayia would turn in her grave if she knew I was taking shortcuts making Moussaka - but hey if it means I can eat it more often I figure its worth it.

The "cheat" is that the bechamel sauce is actually made up of greek yoghurt, fetta cheese and egg.

I love me some fetta but I have to admit I was hesitant to how this would turn out.

Here's my lamb mince and sauce simmering away.

And to cut down the washing up I used the same pan for the eggplants.

The layering begins..

And here's the yoghurt/fetta sauce on the top layer with a sprinkle of parmesan.

And 30 minutes later - Hello golden brown deliciousness!

It was pretty tasty - definitely not as creamy as a true bechamel but certainly way quicker to make. I guess the yoghurt/fetta combo could possibly be more healthy also - but its probably a slighly more expensive option too.

A Cosy Night In

What better way to spend a chilly Friday night than a massive bowl of Spaghetti Marinara (I swear that wasn't all for me) ...

... and a roaring fire?

Moroccan Fish Tagine with Almond Couscous

We received a gorgeous Emile Henry tagine for our engagement party last year so I'm always on the look out for delicious tagine recipes - and this one in this month's Real Living caught my eye since it uses fish rather than a red meat - making it much quicker for a weeknight dinner.

First I let the sauce simmer with the olives and grape tomatoes.

And then added the fish and coriander (yum!)

And then on went the lid - doesn't it look great! The fish didn't need too long at all to cook - the recipe noted 12 minutes which I think was about right.

Mmm taginey...

And a few slivered almonds and fresh coriander leaves will make almost anything look prettier!

Red Quinoa and Mushroom Pilaf

Quinoa is everywhere - since when did grains become trends? I keep reading about it - and even read that it was pronounced "keen-wa"although I kinda didn't believe it until my gorgeous friend Yas used it in a sentence over the weekend.

So when I saw some red quinoa in Woolies I snatched it up - and I went to Martha for a recipe. I found her recipe for Red Quinoa and Mushroom Pilaf - find it here.

Here's Martha's photo...

Here's me washing the red quinoa - apparently its a very important step as it's covered with something called saponin which is quite bitter.

Here's me cooking up the quinoa with the mushrooms and shallots - choose a saucepan that you have a lid for because it needs to be covered and allowed to simmer.

And here's my finished dish - it was incredibly tasty - I loved the orange pieces with the dill and it's totally made me want to use more citrus in savoury dishes.

Broccoli and Feta Pasta

This week Apartment Therapy/The Kitchn revisited one of my favourite recipes of theirs - Velvety Broccoli and Feta Pasta. I used to make it all the time back when I was a single gal because its so easy and quick, so I was excited about revisiting it again tonight.

This time I steamed the broccoli - but before I had a steamer I just used to boil it which worked fine too.

Because my little food processor is just a mini one I had to blend the ingredients for the sauce in three batches - here you can see the steamed broccoli, yummy danish feta and some basil leaves from our garden.

And a few seconds later it's a delicious creamy blended sauce!

And here it is all put together - the sauce took roughly the same time as the pasta did to cook - not too bad.

Apartment Therapy also had another interesting post Salt the Pot: Not the Pasta - which is something I did already - but I was intrigued by their suggestion to use two tablespoons of salt just as the water boils. As someone who usually just uses a pinch of salt - I thought the idea of pot water "as salty as the sea" was a little extreme - but I gave it a shot and have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Culinary Advice for the New Bride

So we visited the Old Gaol in Alice Springs which was also home to the Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame - quite a lovely little exhibit with lots of information on the women who were the first settlers of Central Australia.

Amongst their displays of early kitchen utensils and sewing machines - they had a poster featuring this little quote from The Antipodean Cookery Book and Kitchen Companion - 1895.

Mr Tchotchke was rather taken with it - and lucky for him there was a print available in the gift shop for the princely sum of 25c.

She's a pretty hard taskmaster, old Mrs Lance Rawson - no burnt dinners after two weeks? Sheesh.

And I haven't been able to get a word in edgeways about my new bonnet.

Salmon & Lentils with Avocado & Chermoula Salad

The behemoth that is Masterchef is yet to grace our TV screens this year - but with a gift subscription to the magazine I've never been too far from George's grinning mug.

I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption so this salmon recipe took my fancy this week.

I got to use our food processor for the chermoula - it's still a bit of a novelty even though I use it all time to chop up our scraps for the chooks.

A perfect avocado! They're always risky :)

I had to stop myself from picking at the raw salmon.

And this was how it turned out.

To be honest - the red lentils weren't that thrilling and even though I'd put in heaps of cumin and paprika, it was still a little on the bland side. The salmon was still delish but maybe next time I'd add a little chilli to the chermoula.

Kaisen Sushi

Oh yummo. This was Tuesday's dinner at Kaisen Sushi. Top is Mr Tchotchke's Kaisen Bento Box, and below is my Sashimidon. The edamame and fried tofu didn't last long enough for a photo.

Kaisen Sushi is at 223 Calam rd Sunnybank Hills.

Skye Gyngell's Lamb and chickpeas

Sunday nights are a good time to try new recipes - I've got a little more time and a little more patience than I do on weekdays.

I've really enjoyed Skye Gyngell's How I cook - its a lovely collection of simple recipes and the photography is so soft and warm.

Even though the temperature has only dropped a few degrees, I've been yearning to break out the slow cooker. So I chose this delicious recipe for Shoulder of Lamb with Sweet Paprika and Chickpeas.

I didn't have eight hours to let the slow cooker to work its magic, so out came the Le Creuset. It had the advantage of being able to brown the lamb on the cooktop and then go straight into the oven. (I had to replace the lamb shoulder for forequarter chops.)

Only two hours later the meat was coming away from the bones and the kitchen smelled amazing (I'd also replaced sweet paprika with smoked paprika - which I figured was a fair trade despite it being in the title of the recipe..)

I'd also replaced Skye's pretty wilted chard with some cous cous, which I'll admit isn't as aesthetically pleasing but hey a girl needs carbs.

I'm glad it held up to all my tinkering - it was easy enough, only used one pot and even tasted amazing for lunch the next day.