Did someone say HALOUMI?

I love you, Landmark Plaza.  You do come up with some delightful surprises sometimes, don’t you?  The day I returned to Dili after our xmas holidays and perused your many fridges, all the stars aligned.  I was meant to have this haloumi.  I don’t even care that it cost something like $13.  This relationship was meant to be. 

So, stuff the healthy crap!  Let’s fry up some squeaky, cheesy goodness and get this year started properly!

The accompanying risotto is purely a bed on which to lovingly place the bubbling, yellow, oozing cheese, so you can ad-lib as per your available ingredients.  I had eggplant, green beans and spinach and some wholegrain mustard in the fridge.  This latter ingredient has made frequent appearances in my risottos ever since my friend and former flatmate, AB, introduced it to me back in our old Juliett Street days.  I urge you to try it.  It adds some good flavour especially if, like us, you don’t have any vegetarian stock cubes lying about and/or are too lazy to make your own veggie stock, and so can only cook the rice in water.  

Fried haloumi atop a mound of eggplant risotto

For the haloumi:

2 x 1cm thick slices squeaky cheese (aka haloumi)

Drizzle olive oil

Lemon wedges, to serve

For the risotto:

1 medium eggplant, sliced about ½ cm thick (I used 3 long skinny ones because that’s all we get here)

½ cup olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 ½ cups uncooked Arborio or carnaroli rice

1 cup dry white wine

 4 cups (approx) chicken/vegetable stock OR water (try not to make it water if you can help it)

Zest of half a lemon, finely grated (optional – if you like lemons a lot)

2 tsps wholegrain mustard

10 green beans (or 3 snake beans, etc), chopped

A handful of spinach leaves, roughly chopped

1 cup(-ish) fresh parmesan cheese, finely grated

A handful of chopped, fresh herbs (e.g. parsley, basil or oregano)

Salt and pepper

First, put your stock in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.

Meanwhile, fry up the eggplant.  Make sure the pan is hot before adding about half the olive oil and then the eggplant slices, in batches.  Fry until golden, adding more oil if necessary.  Set aside.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil and fry the onion and garlic over a medium heat until soft.  Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the rice and stir to coat with oil.  Let the rice toast for a bit – it might get a bit dry and sticky on the bottom of the pan – this is ok, but keep stirring it so it doesn’t burn.

Add the wine, close your eyes and nod your head in satisfaction at the sizzle and the aroma!  Keep stirring!

When most of the wine has been absorbed, add a ladle of the hot stock while continuing to stir the rice.  And then once that liquid has been absorbed, add another ladle.  Continue this process, stirring all the while until such time as you think the rice is almost cooked – it shouldn’t be too gluggy or soft; it should still have some “bite”, but not crunch.  Also, the heat should be adjusted so that it isn’t furiously boiling, but you’ve got some good bubble action happening.  Got that?  Excellent!

Just before you add the final ladle of stock, add the lemon zest, mustard, beans and spinach.  Give it another good stir and add your final ladle.  This should finish cooking the rice perfectly.  Turn off the heat, stir in the parmesan, herbs and seasoning and then whack on the lid to rest for five minutes, while you bring out the star of the show:  The Haloumi.

Heat a small frying pan over medium heat.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and the haloumi slices.  Cook on both sides until golden and bubbling.

Now, without delay (preferably while the haloumi is still cooking), plate up the risotto to await the piping hot cheese.  Squeeze over your lemon and a grinding of pepper and eat immediately.

KAPAOW! CHICKABAH! Healthy meal number 2!

2011 is starting off with all sorts of healthy goodness!  If that lentil salad wasn’t enough for you, this one is surely going to make you glow.

It is impossible to eat a lunch of rice paper rolls and feel anything but cleansed.  And they are really therapeutic to make – you get all the ingredients prepared and then the production line can begin, with everyone taking turns to soak their rice paper and then assemble their rolls.  You can make them as simple or as decadent as you like, but try focussing your vegetables on the crunchy type.  I like a dipping sauce of traditional Thai flavours (fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and chilli) or otherwise just sweet chilli sauce.  I also add avocado, fried tempeh, tofu or shredded omelette for a bit more oomph.

Rice paper rolls

Rice paper rounds (about 3 or 4 per person)

Thin rice (vermicelli) noodles

A selection of crunchy vegetables cut into batons such as carrots, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts (the freshest you can get)

Roasted peanuts or cashews, chopped

The rice paper can be soaked in cold water (no need for hot) until it becomes malleable.   The noodles will need to be soaked in hot water until soft, and then drained.

Arrange all ingredients on a platter and get ready to roll.  When rolling, may I suggest that you do not try to put in too much filling – your roll will simply fall apart.  And if you plonk it approximately one third from the bottom and side edges, you should have big enough flaps to fold over.  He he.  Flaps.

For this particular lunch I also made a mango salad.  It was going to be a green mango salad, but the green mangoes I bought were unexpectedly ripe inside, so it was quite sweet and mushy, rather than tart and crunchy.  It was still pretty good though.  Ooh, and the other thing I’ve started getting into here in Timor is finely sliced lime, rind and all, used in Thai-style salads and sambals with lots of chilli and salt.  It’s surprisingly good, especially if you are a big fan of limes like I am.

Mango salad

2 firm mangoes, grated/shredded

5 red shallots (the small ones), finely sliced (can substitute eschallots or red onion)

½ punnet cherry tomatoes, halved and squashed

½ a lime, very finely sliced

1 large red chilli, finely sliced

A handful of roasted peanuts, chopped

Fish sauce, to taste

Lime juice, to taste

Palm sugar, to taste (if you're using ripe mangoes you will not need much sugar, if any)

Chuck all ingredients into a big bowl.  Give it a stir, making sure the fish sauce, lime juice, chilli and sugar give a good sweet/sour/salty balance.  You know the drill.

Salad can now be part of the assembly line for THE HEALTHIEST LUNCH IN THE UNIVERSE!

A New Year’s salad to get you off to a flying start

Welcome to 2011!  Nice to see you again!

I’m back in the beach shack after a lovely xmas break in Sydney, where I managed to eat almost as many laksas as there were days in the holiday.  I was a little light on the baklavas this time – much to my utter disappointment – but managed to get my fill of sweetness by way of some homemade coconut cookies (a present from my nephew), a few too many Ferrero Rochers, and copious amounts of pudding, custard and ice-cream.

Needless to say, I have been looking forward to getting back to the simple life again – home cooking in a place with limited food resources is certainly one way to do it.  To help us along, yesterday I planted some new seeds in the garden - sweet corn, eggplant, cucumber, bok choi, basil, rocket, coriander and dill.  I'm looking forward to watching them grow and, eventually, eating them.  Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.  It's the rainy season in Timor at the moment, so we don't need to worry too much about watering the garden - we just need to hope for a little sunshine from time-to-time.

So, with all this veggie planting yesterday, I fancied a vitamin-laden dinner last night.  After a quick consultation with Stephanie* I came up with this very simple and tasty salad.  The lentils and spinach gave me the super nutrition that I was craving, the sultanas added a welcome sweet surprise to every few mouthfuls, the anchovy and feta was nice and salty, the pine nuts gave crunch and the beetroot, tomato and carrot made it look pretty.  Don’t be fooled by the long list of ingredients though – this was really quick to make and allows for much improvisation.

Lentil and Spinach Vita-Salad

1 cup brown lentils, soaked for 2 hours (reserve 1 cup liquid)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 anchovy fillets (optional)

1 handful sultanas

1 bunch spinach leaves, torn

1 carrot, grated

2 medium (or a punnet of cherry) tomatoes, chopped

2-3 baby beets (fresh or canned – doesn’t really matter), chopped

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Drizzle good olive oil

Handful pine nuts or walnuts, toasted

Black pepper and, if not using anchovies, salt

Approx 1 Tbsp goat’s feta per person, crumbled.

Fry off the onion and garlic in a frying pan over medium heat until soft but not coloured.  Place the anchovies over the top of the onion and leave for a minute or two – they will “melt”.  Chuck in the sultanas and then the lentils with the reserved liquid.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are al dente and liquid has absorbed.  Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly.

Stir in the spinach leaves – how much they wilt will depend on how long you leave the lentil mixture to cool – this is a personal thing.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients, leaving the feta till last to crumble over the individual serves.

Can be eaten warm or cold.

* As in Stephanie Alexander’s cooking bible, The Cook’s Companion.