Vegetable Meme

Mel over at Tummy Rumbles passed the baton, and I'm taking it up.

1. Is there a vegetable you hated as a child, but came to love as you got older?

Broccoli. Ewwwwww. Even if mum dished it up smothered in cheese sauce I wouldn't have a bar of it. Now I love it, think it's fantastic, have it in everything I can think of, or just steamed in the microwave with some cauliflower, carrot, zucchini, green beans... brilliant in a stir-fry, spag bol...

2. Most underrated vegetable?

Hm, probably have to agree with TR here and go with onion. As you can see below, I roasted one for my dinner the other night and it was gooooooooood. They're such a great little thing, go with anything!

3. Name one favourite summer vegetable dish

Hm, summer vegetable dish... as in a dish that you make with vegetables in summer, or a dish that uses summer vegetables? I'm not that creative, really. Love a good stirfry, but that's not specifically a summer vegetable dish... you can eat it in summer, though... I dunno.... hmm...

4. And one for winter?

A good casserole choc-full of potatoes and carrots and beans and corn and anything else you want to throw in. Or soup: potato and leek, vegetable, pumpkin, pea and ham. Anything hot that's been cooking a while and is full of flavour.

5. Is there a vegetable you really like but don't make much yourself?

Yes - eggplant. Love it but too scared to try cooking it myself - worried it'll go VERY wrong!

ROADTRIP!!! Wagga Wagga, NSW

The Australia Day long weekend saw the boy and I heading to Wagga so I could catch up with a couple of friends I haven't seen in ages (one of them for about two years). I think the area is a good indication of exactly how dry it is further inland. In the picture above you can see the red dust kicked up from the paddocks by the wind. There is simply no green to be seen in the countryside.

As far as eating goes, I didn't try out much of the local cuisine. One night was kebabs from a local, the next was a home-cooked meal. However there was opportunity to try out breakfast.


Cache Store of Food, located at 236 Bayliss Street, was the only place that had everything we could have felt like for breakfast. Day one saw me ordering pancakes with caramelised banana and maple syrup. Quite nice. Day two I chose the eggs benedict. My only complaint was that it initially came out with a smattering of pepper all over it. I kindly pointed out that I did not want this, and in fact would be ill if I ate it. They were quite nice, and in a short time I had a replacement serve that was more than adequate. I thoroughly enjoyed both breakfasts, however I felt the prices were a little... inflated. On a rather good note, the coffee was superb.


There is actually a surprising number of things to see around Wagga. A short trip out to Junee and you can visit what is supposedly Australia's most haunted houses: the historic Monte Cristo Homestead. It is decorated in the style of the time (late 1800s), and is rather interesting, if you like that sort of thing. Which I do. One of the places I lived when growing up was actually some old goldfields from the early 1900s, and I'm always interested in the history of our country.


While we weren't graced with any spooky incidents, there certainly were some creepy places. Like the old stables. Or the box room old lady Crawley had converted into a make-shift chapel so she could go to confession in the 23 years years after her husband died where she only left the property twice in all that time.


Me being me, I befriended a local, who followed us around while we wandered. Whenever we went inside he'd wait around outside, and when we emerged he'd come running. Gorgeous li'l kitty, bet he's a hit with visitors like myself who are a sucker for a little furry face.


Another place to see in Junee is the old Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory. We didn't stay long - just long enough to have a look around and an ice cream - but it would be an interesting and informative place to spend a little time.

I recommend the Country Comfort as reasonably priced, clean, and with a nice pool for those ridiculously hot days that seem to plague Wagga in the warmer months. It's nothing flash, but quite adequate. Room service foccacia's at midnight aren't half bad either! Check wotif for any deals.

So go on - it's only a five-hour drive, not too far for a long weekend!

The ICBITE Roast Chicken. And Pumpkin Soup

I'm truly amazed how many people say "Oh, I wouldn't know how to cook a roast" - a couple of people I know have said this over the past few weeks.

This pic is a little, well, unimpressive, as I hadn't done the steamed vegies yet, so it's lacking some colour, and the plate is quite bare. But hey, it's Sunday, I've worked all week and all weekend, and I haven't slept. So nyeh, work with me.

The pic above is lemon pepper roast chicken with roasted onion, pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato and potato. I felt like a roast dinner, and when I saw marinated whole chooks at the local chicken-shop I thought "yeah, I can do that". I'm sure their's might have tasted better, but I wanted to give it a go. I used a small chook - about 1kg, as I'm the only one who'll be eating it.

What you need (for two people):
1 x 1kg whole chicken
lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper
2 x medium-sized washed potatoes
1 medium-large sweet potato
1 x large carrot
2kg pumpkin
cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, to steam
Vegeta gourmet stock (I prefer the original and best)

(Before you question the quantities of sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin, finish reading the blog).

Prepare a deep roasting pan (I do this by lining it with alfoil and giving that and a roasting rack a light spray with canola oil and pouring about 2 cups of water into the bottom, the water helps keep the chicken super-moist). Place the chicken on the rack. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil and pepper well and rub over the chicken. I like to tie the legs in with butchers string (found out it's INCREDIBLY hard to buy, but thankfully my local butcher gave me a metre or so of his supply). Let the chicken sit a while with the marinade while you take care of the vegies to roast. Prepare a flat oven tray by covering it with alfoil and giving it a light spray with canola oil. Switch the oven on to pre-heat to about 180C now.

Chop up the potato (I like to leave the skin on, which is why I either buy washed potatoes, or really scrub 'em good), sweet potato, carrot and pumpkin into cubes approximately an inch square (or so...). Place them all in a large freezer bag. Add a little olive oil and a few pinches of Vegeta. Leaving as much air in the bag as possible twist the top and fold it over, to make it water-tight. Gently shake the vegies around so they're coated with the oil and stock. Carefully tip onto the oven tray and spread out evenly. Throw the chicken tray on the top rack of your oven and the vege tray on the bottom rack (obviously you need to space the racks so they'll both fit). Set the timer for an hour.

Go find a book and a nice glass of something until the timer goes off. Alternatively, you can start cleaning up the kitchen.

When the time goes off up the oven to 210C for another 15 minutes. Then remove the chicken from the oven and cover with foil for it to rest. Cut up sufficient quantities of the vegies to steam. Put them in a microwave steamer container with a little water in the base and microwave until cooked (for me, in my 850W microwave, and liking them still crisp, it's 4 minutes). Dish up the potato and sufficient quantities of the carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin. Carve/pull apart the chicken carcass and dish it up. Remove the steamed vegies from the microwave and dish them up. Et voila, your very own roast dinner!

"But what about all that leftover carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin?!" I hear you cry. Bear with me kids. First, sit down and enjoy your dinner.

Pumpkin Soup
Then mash the leftover orange vegies. Slowly add a 400g can of light evaporated milk a bit at a time and mash through. Add another pinch of vegeta stock, then throw the lot into a food processor and process until smooth. Or, if you're like me and have only a stick blender, blend in batches till it's all done.

Of course, if you want to serve this as the entree you'd need to steam the required vegies while the rest is roasting, but I did this to store the stuff in the freezer for my lunches this week. Besides, I really like the flavour the roasted vegies give to the soup.


Of course I had to lick the spoon clean once I'd dolloped it into the freezer containers... very nice, if I do say so myself. When it comes to serving it I'd add a swirl of sour cream and a sprinkle of fresh coriander. If I wanted to impress. But since it'll just be my lunch, I probably won't :-)

Oh, and if you're wondering what ICBITE means... "I Can't Believe It's That Easy"

The Age Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock

February 25th saw me making the trek out to Hanging Rock for The Age Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock. After my first Harvest Picnic experience at Werribee Park last year, and never having been to Hanging Rock, it seemed the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone: see the famous Hanging Rock, and get myself to the Picnic and, more importantly, pick up a few things that I'd seen at Werribee that I couldn't buy due to lack of funds at the time! So, after getting the Sunday off work I enjoyed a LOVELY sleep in, packed my market-trolley (you know the little fake-tartan bag on a wheeled frame), checked cash-store and off I went.

Arriving at about 11am on the crisp and cool morning seemed the perfect time -- no large queue to get in, but took almost no time to gather a group of 10 to take advantage of the group concession entry price. Making a mental note that I wanted to catch Tobie Puttock and Glenn Hood's cooking demonstration at 12.30, I started on my rounds of the stalls.

So much to taste. So many wonderful flavours. Pure orange juice from Mildura oranges. Delectable wines from around the region. Caramel-filled churros. Superb meat pies. My poor taste-buds had no idea what was happening, but they were loving it!

After watching Food Safari that week and seeing gozleme covered, I realised it had been months since I'd partaken of this particular delicacy. When I'd made my way around far enough to see the gozleme caravan I figured it was a prime opportunity to reacquaint myself. A general splashing of lemon juice on my serving and I was set to dig in. I tried several times to take a picture that would look as good as it tasted... but it surely ain't a pretty meal. By now it was time to head back to the cooking demonstration tent and nab myself a seat.

I caught the end of Sabrina Parrini's "Little Kitchen" demonstration. Wow, if I had kids, and money, I'd definitely be giving her a call. She was great, the food smelled fantastic, and it looked like the kids helping her were enjoying themselves. But once the kiddies had cleared from the tent the slightly more mature foodies quickly filled the available seats.



Tobie and Glenn took to the stage with a couple of the kids from Fifteen. I'm sure I wasn't the only one in the audience shocked by Tobie's new haircut -- no more lovely curls, it looked like he beat me to the shave! The team did two quick dishes - a carpaccio of tuna with cured lemon and chilli dressing and a black russian, yellow roma and cherry tomato salad with fresh buffalo mozzarella and basil. It all looked fantastic. I was close enough to be able to smell the herbs they were using. And the hunk of tuna they had - WHOA! Anyway, it was informative, made to look incredibly easy, and fairly entertaining all at once, so can't complain.

Continuing where I left off I ended up almost fair and square outside The Chocolate Shop.


These slightly odd-and-naughty-looking goodies were worth every darn cent. They were absolutely disgustingly decadent, and I'd have them again in an instant. For a few dollars you could have either a skewer of strawberries or a skewer of marshmallows run through the chocolate fountain. Of course, since I couldn't decide between the two, I had one of each! As far as desserts go, they were horribly indulgent, and thoroughly enjoyable. Thankfully I had packed a container of wet-wipes in my trolley, and they certainly came in handy when it came to cleaning myself up afterwards. Certainly not something I'd enjoy eating often, but DAMN, for a treat I couldn't have chosen much better.

Not long after this I came to the end of the stalls, and discovered my feet were quite tired of carrying me around. After a quick detour to pick up some chilli, lime and pomegranate piquant from Wildings Pantry Essentials, some passionfruit and lemongrass Fruitsoda concentrate, and a bottle of Gapsted Victorian Alps dolcetto and syrah wine, I was ready to go. All told I was home, I think, by about 3pm. All in all, a great day, and home in time for a nana-nap in the afternoon.

Can't wait for the next Harvest Picnic on November 25 back at Werribee Park.

Updating....

Well, it's been more difficult than I thought to get sponsorship for the World's Greatest Shave. It seems that many people won't sponsor me purely because they don't want me to shave my head! Come on everyone, support the Leukaemia Foundation and give me a good excuse to give my beanie and hat collection a good workout.

In other news, a terribly bad, horrible, nasty, generous, lovely lady who shall remain nameless gave me something yesterday that will keep me entertained for many months to come, particularly during winter. I'm planning to make use of it this weekend, and will be sure to blog the results.