Carrot and Potato Croquettes

I have always said that I will never ever buy a deep fat fryer.
And I stand by that statement.
However the other night when I was making these croquettes I really wished I had one.
I hardly ever have the urge to deep fry anything but these croquettes need to be fried allright.
They turned out quite well... although I managed to burn the oil after the first batch (how does that even happen?!?) and a few of them simply fell apart when they hit the oil.
It was quite the experiment that started all because I bought some japanese breadcrumbs and wanted to use them.

In the end I made two separate batches:

• Vegetarian croquettes with only potato and carrots.
• And then I made a special batch for the husband and I with garlic, bacon, potato and carrots. 

My husband was in croquette heaven.
I was relieved to have the deep fry experiment over and done with.

This is good kids food and a lovely side dish.
(but it is really hard work so don't say I didn't warn you!)

Here is the link to the recipe which I adapted to the ingredients I had at home.

Vegetable Pot Pie

There is nothing better than enjoying a vegetable pot pie in the middle of winter. It is warm and comforting and just makes me happy.

In essence I chopped up a whole lot of veggies, added vegetable stock and let it simmer for a while. Think potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, onion and a courgette. Then I stirred in maizena mixed in cold water and let it thicken a little on the heat while stirring. Dish out all the veggies into an ovenproof bowl. Next you need to cover the whole bowl with pastry (see pastry recipe below).

Place it in the oven for about 35 minutes and serve!

I found the pastry recipe on this site.

Here is a copy of the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ tsp. salt
4 Tbs. cold soy margarine, cut into pieces

Whisk together flours and salt in bowl. Cut or rub margarine into flour mixture until no large pieces remain. Stir in 3 to 4 Tbs. cold water until smooth dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill while making Filling.

Tomato and Beef Stew

Slow cooked food is good. I love a dish that requires an hour or so to cook. Just a pity I hardly ever have the time to wait that long.

Occasionally I find the time to make a stew and it is always so satisfying.

To tell you the truth I don't follow any recipe. I simply brown cubes of beef for a few minutes and then I add whatever vegetables I find in the fridge. Potatoes, carrots, onions, courgette, fennel and of course a can or two of chopped tomatoes. Some seasoning and a cup of beef stock also seems to go quite well with the whole stewing process.

Let it all simmer away for about an hour (more if you have the time) and don't forget to stir occasionally  you know, just to make sure you don't burn anything!

Serve it up with some basmati rice and enjoy the warm comfort that only a stew can provide.

Kids Food #10 - Mince and Potatoes

This is kind of a variation of a shepherds pie...  except deconstructed.

I basically used an onion, 200gram lean beef mince, a peeled and diced tomato, two peeled and finely chopped carrots, a can of corn and about 200gram potatoes.

Start with the potatoes, peel them and slice into bite sized squares.
Add to a pot of boiling water - it should take about 15 minutes at most to cook through.
Brown the mince and onion, add the carrots, add the tomato, add the corn and let it cook through. I also added a dash of worcester sauce and a squirt of tomato ketchup.
Let it simmer away while the potatoes cook.

Once the potatoes are done, remove from the heat, drain and set aside.
Now dish up the mince on a plate and add the potatoes to the side.
Serve to hungry kids!

Kids Food #8 - Pasta Bolognese

You better make sure you have a more than a few wipes nearby once you feed this to your kids. Well, that is if they are one year old and likes eating with their hands...

Stella loves food. It is a pleasure watching her devour everything you put in front of her.
As long as she can use her hands, she is happy. It also gets very, very, very messy.

I like this recipe because I used the frozen pasta sauce which I made last week.
Clever, right?

Simply dice a carrot or two and saute it in a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
At the same time, add 200 gram pasta to boiling water and cook as per the instructions. In my case it takes on average 13 minutes for the penne pasta which I like to use.
Now add some lean beef mince meat to the carrots and brown it.
Feel free to season as you like. I made this for my kids and did not actually use any salt.
Pour in the defrosted tomato based pasta sauce and let it simmer for a bit.
Remove from the heat when everything is cooked through.
If you time it well then your meaty sauce should be ready at the same time as the pasta.
Drain the pasta and then mix with the meaty sauce.
Let it cool slightly before serving to soon to be covered in pasta sauce kids.

Kids Food #5 - Sausagess

I am not such a big fan of sausages myself, but the kids really like them.
So, who am I to stop them from enjoying the odd sausage every now and again!

Add some pommes duchess from the freezer, a chopped up carrot or two and the kids' dinner is served.

I usually pop the potatoes into the oven and then start cooking the sausages in a pan over a medium heat. The carrots I boil for 10 minutes with a tablespoon of sugar, just for a little additional sweetness.
Everything should be ready in less than 20 minutes.
Slice up the sausages, let it cool down slightly before serving to happy kids.

P.S. Today is the birthday of my wonderful husband.

Beef Mince Curry and Rice - South African Style

Mince curry and rice is a dish that I grew up on.

Now, this is not a curry in the Asian style. No, this is true South African 'cuisine'.

I must admit that I do not remember all the ingredients of this dish, so as usual I kind of winged it a little.

In a nutshell I sauteed an onion and crushed garlic in vegetable oil and added a tablespoon of curry powder. Then throw in the beef mince (500gram) and saute until it becomes nice and brown. Add some chopped tomatoes, chopped potatoes and then a can of carrots and peas.The next step is to add a cup of hot water and stir it all together until it forms a bit of a sauce. Season to your liking. Let it simmer gently for 10 to 20 minutes.

Make the rice while the curry simmers away. My preference is always for basmati rice, and that takes about 18 minutes to make. Add some turmeric or curry powder to the water in which you cook the rice if you want to give it a bit of colour.

Serve the curry with chutney, sliced bananas and a side salad.

And there you have it, my quick and improvised South African curry and rice.

A Quick Red Thai Curry

A busy life calls for quick and easy dinners.
That is when a curry can be a lifesaver.
Ready made curry paste, coconut milk, pork (already cut neatly into bite size pieces), a big carrot (sliced), one courgette (sliced), basmati rice and you should be able to have a meal on the table in 30 minutes.

Start by making the rice as per the instructions on the packet.
Then heat up a little bit of oil and add a few tablespoons of red curry paste to the pan. The more you add, the hotter it will be!

Now add the pork and stir fry for a few minutes, then add the vegetables and stir fry for about 5 minutes until they are tender. Now add the coconut milk and leave everything to simmer for about 5 more minutes.

Easy, easy, easy.

Ginger Carrots a la Naomi!

My friend Naomi made her son's favourite side dish while they were visiting us.

It is called ginger carrots.

The dish is very easy to make and a winner with the kids!

Take three large carrots, peel and slice diagonally.
Heat up two or three tablespoons of butter and add the carrots.
Sauté the carrots for a few minutes then add some ground ginger, a table spoon of brown sugar and mix well.
Sauté for another 5 minutes at most, just until the carrots are tender but not soft.

Serve up as a side dish and enjoy!

A very basic vegetable soup

In sticking to my mission of using up the ingredients in the house, I emptied the fridge and found a whole lot of vegetables. I decided to make soup.
Plus it was raining outside and a hearty warm soup just felt right.
This soup is pretty basic though, and I must admit that there are probably a lot of other ingredients that I would have liked to add... but alas, I made do with what I had.
I am not going to lie, this soup needs quite a bit of seasoning and I personally found it a little bland.
Another day, another meal done so I am not complaining.

Ingredients:
One head of broccoli
Half a cucumber
Two shallots
Two cloves of garlic
One tomato
Three carrots
One potato
One litre of vegetable stock
One tablespoon of vegetable oil
Seasoning

Method:
Peel the shallots, garlic, carrots and potato.
Chop up all vegetables.
Heat up the oil in a large pot and add all the ingredients except for the vegetable stock.
Saute for a minute or two then add the stock.
Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.
Blend or serve it as is with whole wheat bread rolls.

I tend to blend the soup because I am more likely to get Heidi to eat the soup that way. In fact, I think this soup will probably be better eaten as is since it will have more texture. The choice is yours.

Tip: Add a can of butter beans to vegetable soup - yummy!

Pumpkin, carrot and ginger soup - interesting, no?

So I didn't quite make it to the supermarket today... that meant improvising.
Soup for dinner seemed like the easiest thing to do.
In fact, I believe that you can make soup from just about any vegetable.
Today I had some pumpkin and carrots and my husband got childlike excited when I mentioned that the soup is going to be quite orange.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups pumpkin
2 cups carrots
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 litre vegetable stock
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
some finely grated ginger

Method:
Finely dice the onion and the garlic
Heat the oil and then saute the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes until softened
Peel the carrots and the pumpkin and chop into roughly the same size pieces
Grate the ginger (not much is needed) and make some vegetable stock (I use a cube for about a litre of water)
Add the carrots, pumpkin and ginger to the pan and saute for a minute, then add the vegetable stock.
Let it simmer away for about 30 minutes until the carrots are nice and soft
Blend and serve up with some lovely wholewheat rolls.

This recipe made one bowl each for the three of us... and next time I will double the ingredients so that there is enough for a second helping.

Note: I only used ginger since I happen to have some in the house. In fact, I am not sure if ginger really works with the rest of the ingredients but my husband seemed to really like it. Use it, don't use it - you decide!