Sunday, March 31, 2024

Kanonikos Plaki

 First, allow me to apologise to the Greeks for appropriating your cuisine and possibly misusing your language - or not. I mean, I don't understand Greek so I don't actually know how wrong - or, jagged it perhaps, right that title is.

But anyway, I digress.

In a way this dish is on the way to being another Jeanie Easter tradition - I am so easily led into making everything a set pattern - but this dish ticks all important boxes for any table which will be surrounded by a variety of requirements. This is its second year of gracing the table.

It is vegan, gluten-free, low-fat, high-fibre, and tastes delicious enough for people who are scared of the words vegan and gluten-free to delight. 

Added bonus is this year I eschewed the recipe and winged it.

The basic instructions for it (as I took no pictures) is:

Soak white beans (not, however, gigantic white beans as the resident V-man doesn't trust big beans so I didn't have any even if that fact wasn't part of the equation) for a bit and then cook until tender. 

 Put the beans and about 1/4 cup cooking water into a greased enamel bowl and put on top 1/3 chopped onion, 3 chopped cloves of garlic and about a dozen tiny cherry tomatoes from the struggling vine at the back door halved. Pour 1/2 tin smooshed tomatoes over (you can salt and pepper it too if you wanted) and do a couple of stirs but not too particular.

Place in a moderate to hot oven for about 20 minutes or however long other stuff is going on.

I didn't today but would probably sing even louder if fresh parsley or lemon juice were a final touch but was delicious and declared a winner on the cold out of the fridge a few hours later by V.


Oh look - I did take a photo - from back - beans, broccoli and  steamed beans, Traditional Cauliflower Cheese, roasted pumpkin/onion/carrot/garlic/potatoes, roast beetroot in foil and roast lamb.


Saturday, March 30, 2024

The traditional Easter cauliflower

 Perhaps this is the way family folklore begins.

See, my parents are in what Dad likes to call bonus time. And of late bonus time has become a bonus in a myriad of ways including sarcasm, because the busy-ness of life has been encroaching from all areas.

Extended family health issues and work-related unspoken issues and international peace issues and bridges falling down and being a sideline party to "an adolescent and her phone" relationship and organising a road trip to see elderly relatives with other elderly relatives and I can bore myself with the soap opera that seems to surround - or at least I can spin it that way...

When in reality my life is if today is what day I will eat this and wear this and do this and watch this and from the moment that I wake up on any given day I have it prescribed and proscribed down to the timers going off advising me the next step - and writing blogs have fallen off the rigid routine.

But anyway, I went on an overnight trip to visit my folks and cook them a meal for Easter and my sister and her husband joined us.

She arrived carrying a hot potato salad and much chocolate.

I had brought frozen fish fillets from the freezer section at Aldi because I had time to do so on Wednesday afternoon - and calamari rings and carrots (is there a theme?) and corn - and (as I apologise to my sister for lack of sweets reciprocation) "the traditional Easter cauliflower".

For the Traditional Easter Cauliflower Cheese at dinner.

(Photo credit to Bush Babe of Oz)

Do you think that it will catch on?