Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The recipes

Grains:

Millet paella with saffron, tomatoes and asparagus
Wine poached pear and blue cheese risotto
Buckwheat with mushrooms and walnuts
Quinoa and millet pilaf
Wild rice
Chickpea and millet paella with Chermoula
Mushroom and soba noodle broth
Basic brown rice
Cheese and nut roast
Karen Martini's brown rice salad
Beetroot and quinoa salad
Nasi Lemak (Lemongrass, ginger and coconut rice)
Amaranth and brown rice cooked in rooibos tea

Beans & Lentils:

Mung dal with cashews and carrots
Black bean broth with greens and salsa
Socca
Perfect chickpeas
Thai chickpeas
Wine-glazed lentils
Silken tofu and green beans in a lemongrass broth
Adzuki bean croquettes
Leek and flageolet soup with tarragon
Pudla (chickpea pancakes)

Vegetables:

Stuffed zucchini flowers
Slow braised fennel with garlicky lentils
Braised celery
Braised silverbeet (chard) with coriander
Lasagne
Arame and carrot stir-fry
Tomato, corn and goat's cheese tart (quick)
Poor man's potatoes
Potato pizzas
Crushed coconut potatoes
Sooke Aloo
Braised fennel
Chard on toast
Radiant bok choy
Brussels sprouts with ginger and orange
Braised, sort-of Mediterranean potatoes
Red cabbage with beetroot, goat's cheese and walnuts
Kaffir lime leaf gyoza
Kohlrabi remoulade
Andean potato stew
Parsee scrambled eggs
Rainbow chard and feta filo pie
Spring vegetable ragout
Spring herb tart
Leek and tomato crumble
Moroccan pumpkin with a prune and shallot confit
Three eggplant curry
Kylie Kwong's pickled radishes
Roasted pear and rocket tarts
Warm oyster mushroom and leek salad
Pumpkin, fennel and olive pies
Steamed ginkgo nut and mushroom custards
Roasted cauliflower, Manchurian-style
Smoky eggplant puree
Quick cucumber and carrot pickle (incredibly addictive)
Parsley soup


Fishy bits:

Tonno di nonna fangitta
Salmon baked in parchment
Spicy fish cakes

King George Whiting, pan-fried
Banana leaf snapper parcels

Soups:

Celery leaf soup
Minestrone
Red lentil and lime soup
Potato soup with tapenade and truffle oil
Garlic and herb broth
Ricotta and matzoh dumplings for 'chicken soup'
Mushroom and soba noodle broth
Beetroot, lime and coconut soup
Blue soup
Zucchini in broth with corn and cheese dumplings
Leek and flageolet soup with tarragon

Salads:

Nepalese potato salad
An Asian mushroom salad
Lentil and beetroot salad

Fennel, blueberry and avocado salad
Purslane and potato salad
Green mango salad
Organic leaves dressed with goat's cheese

Sweet stuff/other stuff:

Lemon tart
Black rice pudding
Banana bread
Pear and spice cake
Poached quince
Cinnamon and ginger cake
Mock nougat bars
Date and nut balls
Lemon yoghurt ice
Chocolate thumbprint cookies
Marzipan solstice cake
Sugar-free marzipan
Fresh dates, stuffed with walnuts and feta
Anna Del Conte's Apple and Olive Oil Cake


Maggie Beer's baked olives
Red wine, porcini and rosemary sauce
Ricotta
Mayonnaise
Vegan mayonnaise
Anglo-Indian lemon chutney
Crumbly, buttery wholemeal pastry
Speedy preserved lemons
Coconut and date chutney
Beetroot, pear and ginger relish
Tomato pesto
Nori 'Condiment'

Spicy Moroccan Butter
Persillade
Honey and miso sauce
Tamarillo and avocado salsa
Teradot


Sunday, September 23, 2007

Why Nourish Me?


Good question.

Nourish Me grew out of a search for direction. Food, obviously, was going to have to factor in somehow, so I took a course in nutrition, studying ‘Food as Medicine’ at a local natural health college. Wholefood was my buzz word; healthy living my mantra. ‘Brown rice’, I cried, ‘there shall be no other way’.


But I love eat and love to cook. Ethics, health and good eating can, should, and most definitely do go hand in hand.


Having relaxed a little you’ll now find things like good, organic dairy, expensive but oh-so-worth-it biodynamic eggs and even the occasional piece of fish sneaking into these pages. Partly because of the children in my life, partly due to the shelves sagging beneath the weight of well over 200 cookbooks, but mostly because of the endless delights a wide diet offers, some things that were off ‘the list’ have found their way back on. Of these things I am far too fond to say good bye forever. They are now the occasional flirtation and rarely the focus of a meal.


Compelled to impart health-based wisdom as it arises, it is just as important to infuse my writing and recipes with a light hand and the right words to tempt and seduce you, dear reader, into adding some (or even more) vegetable meals to your life. There is nourishment in food, yes, but nourishment can also be found in other places.



For me, visually, the process of cooking, the tools we use and the produce itself is at least as interesting as the finished product. Often more so.


Who?

Armed with an über-useful BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts), my career has been largely based in the flogging (sorry, selling) of books for various chain and independent booksellers as well as writing about children’s literature for magazines like Good Reading and Magpies. Cooking has dominated my thoughts and ‘free time’ in the multitude of houses and flats I’ve shared for as long as I can remember. That’s why at parties, you’ll invariably find me in the kitchen – give me a prep job, a glass of something red and I’m happy. Looking back through my sketchbooks it’s hardly surprising that at some stage writing would take over – words dominate all. Words and images. Two of my favourite things.


I have two teenage step-sons, a tiny, scruffy dog, a fat cat and a partner, The Artist, who paints and draws beautiful things when he isn’t doing his day job.


Likes: A fondness for silence and solitude; birds; Twombly, Rauschenberg; growing my own as best I can; cookbooks; good sourdough, alternative grains, lentils, spices, potatoes and coaxing out the best in every unloved vegetable. Both cabbage and okra are, however, works in progress. I have a love/hate relationship with coffee. I love it; it loves me a little too much. Oh, and I love every single site you see in my list of links – go wandering and find out for yourself.


Dislikes: Plenty. But I won't bore you. Parties (unless, of course, I’m on kitchen duty), the choko and rock-solid, flavourless tomatoes in the middle of winter.


Get in touch. You can contact me at:

lucindadodds[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au


Home