Baby Octopus & Chickpea Salad

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"But where's the chorizo?" asked the husband.

Not the first time he's uttered these words, mind. (I once dared make a seafood-only paella - apparently one of the great culinary sins of our time, judging from the look on his face.)

Men and meat! They wish it could adorn every meal, don't they? And I think they particularly love Spanish food because it's the one cuisine that legitimises the use of seafood and meat in the same dish - a culturally acceptable version of 'surf 'n' turf'.

Feel free to enjoy this recipe with or without the chorizo. (Though I suggest adding it for the sake of domestic harmony - or just because it's also very tasty.)

1kg baby octopus, cleaned (ask your fishmonger)
1 can organic chickpeas
handful of rocket leaves
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
1/4 cup fresh oregano, chopped
1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 punnet of very sweet cherry or grape tomatoes
1/4 red onion, very finely sliced
1 chorizo sausage, sliced and pan fried

Slice the chorizo and pan fry pieces in a dry pan (no need for oil). Set aside. Preheat bbq or griddle pan. Wash octopus and pat dry with paper towel. Slice each octopus in half lengthways and toss in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper and the finely chopped garlic. Cook octopus on grill or bbq for a minute on each side (possibly even less - be mindful, overcooked octopus is inedible!)

Combine herbs, rocket, tomatoes, chorizo and chickpeas in a bowl and toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper and juice of half a lemon. Add cooked octopus and chorizo and mix together, drizzling with some more olive oil.

Vegan Palak Paneer

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I did promise a nut-free chicken korma recipe a while ago except I'm still experimenting (last attempt yielded an inexplicably fluorescent yellow hue!)

In the meantime, here's a vegetarian contribution - a classic Indian spinach curry. If you can eat dairy, go ahead and cube up some paneer. To keep it vegan, you can add some lightly fried tofu pieces. But if that's not your thing (and quite frankly, it wasn't ours - it makes the photo look more authentic but we enjoyed the curry far more without it), steamed/boiled waxy potatoes cut into cubes would also be delicious.

1 block of firm tofu, cubed and lightly pan-fried in oil OR 2 cups of steamed waxy potato, cut into cubes
1 large bunch of spinach, washed
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
piece of ginger, about 1/2 inch, grated
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
3/4 cup tomato puree
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
salt to taste

Blanch spinach in a large pot of boiling water. Drain then blend in a food processor to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in pan and fry onions until translucent.

Add the garlic, ginger, green chillies and turmeric and fry for about a minute.

Add the tomato puree and fry for another minute.

Add spinach paste, tofu or potatoes, garam masala, salt and water then bring to the boil.

Serve hot with steamed basmati rice.

Grilled Radicchio

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I'm afraid my new year's resolution to eat more seasonally, and therefore sustainably, is off to a shaky start. Radicchio is normally harvested in winter, however given the unusually cool start to our Melbourne summer (it even snowed, you know!) I declared its discovery at the grocer this afternoon "unseasonably sustainable".


It was a head of very pretty radicchio and I immediately thought of grilling it on the bbq, something I have never tried. I think the Treviso variety is more suited to grilling, though it was delicious all the same - the bitterness mellowed by the chargrill and the final dressing.


But I promise to wait until winter before buying it again.


1 head of radicchio
2-3 cloves finely chopped garlic
a few tablespoons of olive oil then more for drizzling
1/4 cup chopped parsley
lemon juice or some good quality balsamic vinegar to finish
salt & pepper to season


Cut the radicchio into quarters or wedges, depending on the size of the head.  For the Treviso variety (elongated), cut them lengthwise. Brush all over with a mixture of olive oil and finely chopped garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place on a medium-hot grill or bbq.  Grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a serving platter. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle parsley and finish with fresh lemon juice or balsamic vinegar.

Chocolate & Raspberry Brownies (vegan, gluten free)

dairy free, egg free, nut free, vegan, gluten free

Gooey and intense and very chocolatey, with a hint of tartness via the raspberries. The perfect brownie, really. Vegan and gluten-free too! Beware though - without the addition of a couple of binding eggs, they're in danger of complete collapse. Best kept refrigerated and you must have cooled the pan for a good hour or two in the fridge before attempting to cut them. They would definitely improve their shape-holding capacity if you cooked them 5-10 minutes longer...but as most of us know, an overcooked brownie is a travesty, so don't even think it.

175g coconut oil
200g dairy/nut-free chocolate (eg. Kinnerton), in pieces
1/3 cup organic cocoa powder, sifted
2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup apple puree or 2 egg replacers
3/4 cup plain flour or gluten-free flour, sifted
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 160 C. Lightly grease an 18cm square cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Place oil and chocolate into a saucepan over low heat and stir until the butter and chocolate have melted. Remove and set aside to cool slightly. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add cocoa, brown sugar and vanilla and mix to combine. Stir in apple puree/egg replacers and flour. Gently fold in raspberries.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for approx 40-45 minutes or until the cake starts to come away from the sides of the tin. Cool in the tin and then in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before cutting into squares. Dust with pure icing sugar before serving.

Gluten-free Shortbread

dairy free egg free nut free vegan gluten free

Gluten-free! What a minefield. The growing interest in the allergy-friendly baking section at Elwood Market meant that sooner rather than later, I had to cater for our coeliac friends. I'll admit to feeling a bit apprehensive. Apparently gluten works in mysterious ways so while one substitution can work perfectly in a recipe, it will fail dismally in another. Luckily shortbread is practically gluten-free anyway....so this turned out very nicely without much effort. Phew!

1/2 cup maize cornflour (some cornflours are wheaten so check ingredients)

1/2 cup pure icing sugar

1 cup rice flour

180g dairy-free margarine, chopped

Sift the cornflour, icing sugar and rice flour together. Add chopped margarine, and mix with hands until a soft dough forms. Chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180 C and line two baking trays. Roll out dough to 5mm thick, sprinkling lightly with cornflour (it's quite a wet mixture, so I also rolled out onto baking paper to prevent it sticking to the board). Cut into desired shapes and bake for approximately 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before storing.

Election Cupcakes

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Gloat post alert:

AS SEEN ON ABC TV!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/11/27/3078260.htm

My home-made, wish-i'd-spent-a-bit-more-time-on-them cupcakes got their 15 milliseconds of fame. I made a hurried batch for the Elwood Primary School fundraiser during election day recently in Victoria. So hurried in fact that when the usual issue arose of red icing refusing to budge darker than pink, I decided to add a drop of black colouring.  You can't make red out of pink. If you add black to pink, you  just get darker pink. I already knew this. And still, in my bleary-eyed state, I did it.

Early indicator to the result of the election, I believe.

Never mind, I thought - no-one will notice, or care, right? Well who should be skulking around the school doing vox pops at the polling booth but ABC TV.  After a few encouraging words to the cameraman by my husband, they took some footage. Unbelievably, it didn't end up on the cutting room floor - but closed the community piece on the 6pm news!

The winning cupcake