Sunday, August 28, 2011

my organic balcony garden starts producing

Apart from the strawberries we've been enjoying for a couple of months now and the organic basil, marjoram, sage, thyme, rosemary and tarragon that have been adding great flavour to our dinners I'm excited the organic beans and san marzano tomatoes are now bearing fruit:


Prosciutto Wrapped Potatoes

Use the best quality small potatoes available, wrap each potato in a thin slice of prosciutto, place in a glass or ceramic oven proof dish with a little sunflower oil to prevent sticking. Cook in oven at 425 for 30 - 40 mins or until cooked through.

Prosciutto wrapped potatoes with BBQ wild sockeye salmon and heirloom tomatoes dressed in olive oil  & kosher salt.


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Green Sausage Don - a kinda fusion


I was drawn to these sausages at Wholefoods because of their vivid green colour from all the kale packed in them. These are healthy; made with unmedicated chicken and very low in fat. There's nothing Japanese about the sausages but for some reason I wanted them on sushi rice. This is a pretty quick meal to put together and you can easily substitute any meat or protein for the sausages.

Thoroughly wash 3 cups of short white rice. Place in a large saucepan and add 3 cups of water. Cover tightly and bring to a boil. reduce the heat, leave covered and simmer for about 12 minutes until all the water has gone. Remove from heat and leave to stand, covered, for about 10 mins. This will produce much to much rice for two. Refridgerate the leftover rice in a sealed container to use in the next day or two.

While the rice is cooking place sausages on a hot grill. I used a George Forman.

Dissolve 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt in 1/2 cup rice vinegar.

Thickly slice 1 zucchini and 2 tomatoes. In a bowl combine 1/4 cup sesame oil, 1 tablespoon tamari and 1 tablespoon mirin. Allow zucchini and tomatoes to marinate in oil mixture for 5 or 6 minutes.

When cooked remove sausages from grill, keep warm and grill the zucchini and tomatoes.

Put rice in a non-metalic flat bottomed dish, a pyrex baking pan is ideal. With  a flat spatula, or rice paddle if you have one, make cutting motions through the rice to both breakup clumps and cool. Lift the rice and turn it over but do not stir which will break the grains. While cutting add the rice vinegar mixture a little at a time, you may not need to use it all, the rice shouldn't be too wet.

Serve the sausage on top of the rice with the zucchini and tomato on the side. Drizzle a little of the marinade over the zucchini and tomato.