Food is Medicine

"The time has come for colds, and overcoats

We're quiet on the ride, we're all just waiting to get home

Another week away, my greatest fear

I need the smell of Summer, I need it's noises in my ear..."

- Jesse Lacey

That's correct, I am still whingeing about winter. However, today I decided that since we are half way through, I need to chin up, get on with it, and embrace winter with a half glass full attitude.

Soup is best friends with cold weather. It's one of those dishes that instantly fills the stomach and warms the toes (which is important for someone like me who gets chilblaines...embarrassingly so). Tonight instead of making a depressing, stodgy casserole which would only encourage laziness and gluttony, I decided to amp up my regular minestrone soup to help me take on a sunnier disposition.

Chock a block with the greenest and healthiest of vegetables, Minestrone Verde is also probably the prettiest lookin' soup out there. Who needs cold and flu tablets when one bowl of this will set your immune system up for the whole sick season? This soup could not come at a better time - tomorrow I leave for a 5 day camping trip with my friends to the Splendour in the Grass Festival and have been slurping on this like an athlete carbo loading for a marathon as I shudder to think what a weekend of solid alcohol consumption, lack of sleep, dagwood dogs and squealing will do to my body.
Not only that, but the beautiful freshness of the soup helps in reminding me that there's only a couple more months until I can revive my body and soul in the sun once again...

Minestrone Verde with Broccoli and Feta Pesto

(any green vegetables can be added to this soup, anything works, and all measurements are variable - if you absolutely love zucchini add more, or use parmesan in place of feta in the pesto if you hate feta)


for the pesto:

half a head of broccoli, lightly blanched in boiling water for about 1 minute
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1 tablespoon of walnuts
50g persian feta

In a food processor, add the walnuts, basil, broccoli, garlic, salt and pepper. Blend until roughly chopped. With the processor still going, slowly pour the olive oil into the blended herbs to create a thick paste. Add more if it becomes too thick. Remove pesto from processor and hand stir some crumbled feta through it so you get bursts of salty feta in the pesto.

for the soup:
1/2 bulb of fennel, finely diced - keep the little green furry leaves from the top of the fennel to garnish the soup as they give added flavour
1 brown onion, finely diced
2 zucchinis, halved lengthways and sliced into small chunks 1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends removed and cut into 3cm long sticks
1 bunch of broccolini, cut into 3cm long sticks
Handful of baby spinach or bok choy
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
1.5 litres vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup water
Handful of dried spaghetti, broken in half
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh mint leaves

In a deep pan on medium heat, saute off the onions, garlic and fennel in some olive oil, salt and pepper until translucent and slightly golden. Add a dash of white wine at this stage if you like. Now add the zucchini and fry off for a few minutes as these will take the longest to cook out of all the vegies and I think their flavour benefits from a bit of browning. Now add the stock and water, and bring to the boil. Add the broken up pasta and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

In the last few moments, add the asparagus, broccolini, chickpeas, spinach, peas and fresh herbs. These bursts of green vegies give a beautiful colour to the soup and I use a lot of herbs because not only do they colour the soup but they give a delicious, fresh flavour.
Serve in bowls, with a spoonful of the pesto on top. Add some grated parmesan, serve with crusty bread and you're set. Hello summer...nearly.

Thai This

Tom Yum Thai. Thai Place. Thai One On. Tommy Thai Smile. Sailors Thai. 5 Star Thaitanic. Thainatown. Thai Me Up. Thairiffic. The list goes on...

and on....

and on....

For anyone walking around Sydney, the ever expanding love for thai cuisine in this city becomes very clear. A trip down King St in Newtown is proof in the pudding - every second address is a Thai restaurant or takeaway. Signs baring sometimes terrible but mostly amusing Thai puns litter every food hub, every suburb has "their" thai restaurant, where the locals flock to for easy and delicious grub. Some may think this obsession with massamams and jungle curries may be getting out of hand, but I love it....hell, I encourage it. Where else would I find a filling, satisfying and fresh lunch special for only $7.50, with only a mere 5 minutes between ordering time and eating?

This desire for all things South-East Asian has lead to an abundance of supermarkets and fruit and veg shops now stocking up on essential ingredients that fifteen years ago would never have existed on our shelves. Palm sugar, fish sauce, kecap manis, thai eggplant, birds eye chillis, vietnamese mint, water chestnuts, thai basil, bamboo shoots, fried shallots and tamarind are now readily available for our thai hungry population. I live in an area where there is a huge Asian population and along with this comes amazing foodstores and restaurants that offer anything and everything. I am forever grateful for this, because although I could grab Thai for dinner every night sometimes I just want to make it at home.

And so I do, and you should too.

Sticky Pork on Broccolini
(adapted from The Complete Book of Modern Asian... this book is my Asian bible)

A yummy stick pork mince served with crunchy broccolini and spicy chillies.

1 tablespoon peanut oil
500g minced pork
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/3 cup kecap manis (thick, sweet, Indonesian soy sauce - subsitute for soy sauce which isn't as sweet so more sugar may need to be added)
1/2 cup lime juice
2 star anise
3 tablespoons fried shallots (you can buy these in jars in Asian specialty shops)
1/2 cup roasted and roughly chopped peanuts
2 big bunches of broccolini, steamed lightly
a handful of fresh coriander leaves
2 birds eye chillies, sliced thinly

Stir fry pork in peanut oil for a few minutes until brown. Add the garlic and ginger.
Meanwhile, in another smaller pan, combine sugar, fish sauce, kejap manis, lime juice and whole star anise. Keep heat on low until the sugar dissolves. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes until it's thick and has reduced a little bit.

To the pork, add the coriander leaves, roasted peanuts and chillies. Add a dash of soy sauce to the pork for seasoning. Arrange broccolini on a plate and mound the pork mixture ontop, remove star anise from sauce and pour over the pork and broccolini. Top with fried shallots, some roasted peanuts, some coriander leaves and extra chillies if desired.

Trout and Thai Basil Stir Fry
(adapted from Anna Gare)

A ridiculously easy stir fry with melt in your mouth trout, delicious aniseed-like Thai basil and crunchy water chestnuts. Don't be afraid of using trout - it is very similar to atlantic salmon but has a more toned down subtle flavour and great texture.

1/4 cup peanut oil
3 brown shallots, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 birds eye chillies, sliced
1 small knob of ginger, grated
3 cups Thai basil leaves (some supermarkets but most fruit and veg stores sell this)
1/2 cup roasted and chopped peanuts
400g trout fillets
1 packet of bean shoots
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon kecap manis
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 can of water chestnuts, drained

Season trout fillets and grill skin side down in a very hot pan for about 3 minutes. Pop in a pre-heated moderate, oven for another 4-5 minutes. The trout should stay raw in the middle as it will continue to cook when added to the stir fry. Remove and leave to rest while you get on with the stir fry.

Add peanut oil to aa wok on high heat. Add shallots, garlic, ginger and chillies and fry off for a few minutes. Add the sauces and lime juice. Chuck in the bean sprouts, water chestnuts, thai basil and peanuts. Flake the trout into smallish chunks and add this to the stir fry at the very last minute. Garnish with extra thai basil, chilli and peanuts.

**I serve these dishes with jasmine rice that is steamed along with a knob of ginger and a few whole star anise just for added fragrance.

Crunch Time

Breakfast is my absolute favourite meal of the day. If I don't have something in my belly within half an hour of waking, I am one grumpy person, and that's why I make the effort when choosing what to eat to break my fast. While I love a smeared serving of vegemite toast, and am quite partial to the good ol baked beans, cereal is definitely where it's at; I've eaten enough porridge for all of England and then some. However, muesli is the perfect choice for any day. Healthy, delicious and filling.

I love muesli, so much so that I don't restrict eating it to purely before midday, I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch, afternoon tea, mid brunch lunch snack and dessert. While there is a huge variety of muesli on offer on supermarket shelves, none of them successfully hit the spot for me. They're either loaded with sugar and way too sweet, or, while claiming to contain almonds actually only have 5 slivers of the nuts. The worst is when the ingredients are themed - "Tropical Muesli" is blasphemous.

And so after a long battle with these supermarket fakes, I have developed the perfect blend. I have two recipes that I swap throughout the year - toasted and untoasted, which depends on my laziness. There is a large place in my heart for the toasted muesli, which contains literally any tasty nuts, seeds and dried fruits I can get my hands on. It was the first recipe that kickstarted my foray into homemade cereal years ago, so now it's your turn. Save some money and your tooth decay by making your own muesli, you will never look back!

Toasted Muesli

3 1/2 cups whole rolled oats

2/3 cup almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pepitas

2 tablespoons flax seeds

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup juice (any juice...I like apple but sometimes use guava nectar)

3/4 cup sultanas

1/4 cup dried cranberries (craisins)

handful of chopped dried apricots

6 dried figs, chopped up

1/3 cup brazil nuts

1/3 cup walnuts

Preheat an oven to 160 degrees celsius. Mix all ingredients (not the dried fruits) together and lay out on 2 baking trays that are lined with baking paper. The juice is needed to prevent the oats from burning, so even though the mixture may be a bit wet and clumpy, just break up any clumps to make sure it bakes evenly. I find that if you try to fit the mixture onto one tray it will end up cooking in one huge mass and will come out like a ball of porridge. The mixture needs to be spread out so that each individual ingredient gets roasted. Bake in the oven for about 15minutes until golden and crunchy, making sure to take the trays out and mixing the muesli every now and then to ensure an even roast.

Leave to cool and mix through the dried fruits... et voila, homemade crunchy delicious muesli!