Caponata (Mooshy)

tonight i cooked something i saw on a TV cooking show (everyday italian - dont know the presenters name but she has a nice smile and great .... - the cameraman told me)

it was really pretty simple easy to cook and tasty (and very cheap to feed a family of 4 in the scheme of things)

as it happens - one of my blog buddies had this as a family dish. it was called mooshy but to all intents it is the same



when it was being cooked there was actually no recipe provided but i have guessed it - it seems to work (sue and i had it tonight and it was good - with red wine)

so here is the recipe and method as i described it to my Mooshy friend:

Hows this? I just watched a cooking show on fox – everyday Italian – before reading your email where the chef cooked caponata (moosh). Her recipe was:

1 stick of celery (sliced)
1 eggplant (big dice – 1” cubes”)
1 red capsicum (big dice)
1 large brown onion (small dice)

She heated a non stick pan so she didn’t have to use too much oil (which eggplant would absorb). She put in a couple of tblsp of olive oil and cooked off celery while she cut up eggplant, then capsicum and onion adding them to the pan. As she put in the vegies she seasoned with salt. Then she added 1 can of chopped tomatoes, Simmered for 20-25 mins, added 3 tblsp of currants and a little cracked pepper and cooked for 5-10 mins then she added some red wine vinegar (looked like about ¼ cup) and 2 tblsp of sugar and cooked for another 5 mins or so. As she said you could add any kind of capsicum you liked or use different veggies in season. She used it as a topping for a sandwich – toasted bread rubbed with garlic, with some bocconcini and then the moosh.

tonight the Caponata was served on Ciabatta toasted, rubbed with garlic (1 clove sliced in half and rubbed on all pieces of toast (4), the toast was on the plate and EVO was drizzled on it, then the Caponata and then a sprinkle of Italian Flat Leaf parsley. In addition, a good wedge of italian buffalo mottzarella was served.

Sue was not overly keen on the cheese, but i liked its mild, chewy texture with the Caponata.

still head chef

i havent posted here for a while but i am still the head chef in the house. i havent had as much time to cook new dishes because i have been working part-time but i got a couple of new cookbooks (N Perry - Balance and Harmony and G Locatelli - Made in Italy) recently.

I am cooking a seafood dish from the neil perry book tonight.

Stir fried Red Emporer with asparagus and enoki mushrooms. it looks real easy (see below). simple ingredients cooked quickly.



I will try to remember to photograph the finished result.

the finished product (obviously the photos are not stylised like they would be for the book):



tips and tricks:

this dish is so easy to prepare, very quick to cook and so tasty it is worth the try. Buy good fish (the red emporer was fantastic). Peanut oil "burns/smokes" so you need good ventilation. As neil said, dont overcook the fish - it took about 1-2 mins to brown and then it only took another 2-3 mins to cook through. 500gms of fish fed two people nicely.

Giorgio Locatelli's book is a fantastic read (bought it on Saturday) with some great recipes. Cant wait to try to cook some of them. If you are into food books this is worth buying

asparagus and shitake omelette

the recipe for the following dish was provided to Gourmet Traveller Magazine (Nov 2007, Pg42) was provided by Aaron Carr from Vasse Felix Winery in Margaret River.

the dish has three main elements - a pickled cucumber salad, a black bean and ginger broth (i added some spring onions) and a shitake mushroom and asparagus omelette. It was easy to prepare and easy to cook and it was "YUMMY".

the picture in the magazine:



the picture as cooked - it was served in the wrong plate (i poured the sauce all over the floor on the way to the table - gosh idiot)

redeemed - smoked salmon dish saves reputation

after yesterday's first i played it safe and made a very simple (like yesterday's stir fry was supposed to be) smoked salmon dish with a fresh salad.

I made a white sauce to go with the salmon which i found in a book called "Salmon" by Dumont Monte (easy and very tasty addition - but not if you are weight watching due to the creme fraiche and cream).

I used smoked salmon, but i rolled it into a log and lightly seared it to add a different texture and flavour.

the salad recipe came from the web

Smoked Salmon Salad Recipe

Smoked Salmon Pieces (Olympic Peninsula Alder Smoked Salmon)
Romaine Lettuce (Chopped)
Roma Tomato Slices
Mushrooms (sliced)
Avocado (slices or chopped pieces)
Scallions (green onions) chopped
Feta Cheese
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning
Fresh Ground Pepper
A really good Caesar dressing


This is very simple! Take your romaine lettuce and cover the plate or bowl.
You can make the salad any size that you want.
Next, put on all the toppings one by one.
Start with your smoked salmon, the tomato slices, mushroom slices,
avocado, feta cheese crumbled over the top, and scallions.
After all of your toppings are in place, grab your spices
and sprinkle each one over the entire salad (to taste).
When you are done with the spices, add your dressing on top and serve!!!
You can even set all of your ingredients out for your guests to create their own salad!!!
That is one of the great things about this salad…
you can add or delete any item that you want and put as much of each ingredient that you want.

Carly Slocumb
Austin, TX

However, i left the salad dressing and the herbs off and served the fetta on the side so people could serve themselves if they wished to.

For desserts i have made a simple fruit salad (can be eaten alone or with icecream) for later.

Seems i have restored my standing as "head chef". Whoopey for me

Major Failure - Lemon and Ginger Chicken Stir Fry

I have just cooked (last night) the first meal i have ever thrown away. I cooked this chicken stir fry (out of a Donna Hay mag) to the recipe but it was simply inedible. It tasted really bitter - like set your teeth on edge bitter. In the end we had a mix of things for tea - toast, cold baked beans, tin soup.

So how did this happen i wonder. the recipe is so simple it would seem impossible to stuff it up unless the ingredients were off. The chicken was fresh, the garlic and ginger were fresh, the lemon was fresh (but it could have been part of the problem). the only non-fresh ingredients were some chicken stock and some oyster sauce.

Personally, i think the lemon played a major role. I sliced the lemon with the skin on because it did not say to peel it, but if i ever tried this again i would peel it first i think.

Oh well - lesson learned. Recipes are not infallible. Its always good to have a stand by.

mea culpa

sorry anyone who actually came here looking for an update. i have been head chef here since the last post, but i have not had a camera or the inclination to post. doesnt mean i have turned out crap meals i assure you.

so - tonight i actually did a cheffie kind of thing (and there are no photos or complaints - they dont dare - sorry).

It as a "salmon stack" with a rocket salad (leftover salad no less) and some oven roasted asparagus.

what did i do?

i prepared a meal for 3 people (it took 30 mins total - no kidding). This meal could easily been made for more people (with a few more ingredients and a little more prep time and tools - particularly molds) as follows:

- took a bunch of asparagus (15-20 pieces) and broke the stems off where it was natural. as they say - bend them and they will break. I then seasoned them with a good splash of EVO and a pinch of salt and pepper and put them in an oven for 15 mins at 200c

in the meantime i did the following:

- made a mix of capers (2-3 tablespoons), cherry tomatoes (i used about 10 - chopped), eschalots (3 - medium sized but you could easily use one medium sized red onion finely sliced and then chopped) which i seasoned with 1-2 tblsp of evo and a good pinch of sea salt and a good sprinkling of pepper (like 10 rounds of your usual pepper shaker)

- got a couple of metal molds (cheffie things) and stacked layer by layer the following - smoked salmon (any good quality of the shelf variety), one or two rocket leaves and the mix . Once i completed each stack i drizzled them with some EVO and a little seasoning. in the end i had a 3 layer salmon stack which was about the height of you thumb and the same width around.

- when it was finished our plate had the following on it:

a smoked salmon stack
~5 spears of warm asparagus which is finished off with 1-2 tsp of lemon juice and some extra salt and pepper
a salad (ours was rocket, pear, goats cheese and a drop or 2 of balsamic), in reality it could be anything.

in the end there was nothing left and not a complaint in the house. I served my own with a nice crisp white wine (the girls are not drinking today) but i reckon this meal would have gone down well with any bubbly or even a chilled red (rose)

in the end - i dont care what you you drink or eat with it

this blog is still going despite my strike elsewhere

the food in the house over the past few weeks has been modified as we are in a "sureslim" moment.

In someways, dieting makes food easy and in others its makes it increasingly complex.

last night there were 5 of us and we had Burritos. yep out of a pack, in fact 2 packs. it was relatively simple. cut up some meat (in this case a mix of turkey and thigh chicken), prep some vegatables, pre-cook the meat, use the sachets to make the sauce (only i needed to add some additional water and some tomato paste to make it taste edible), make a quacomole and microwave the "bread". those on SS ate meat and salad "au natural" and those not on SS used the "bread".

Tonight i got some nice fish - Robinson's Sea Perch - and simply dusted it with flour, dipped it in 1 egg whisked and pan fried it (in a little EVO/unsalted butter). It was served with salad and some eggplant which had been cooked on a hotplate (with a small amount of EVO, salt/pepper) and then baked in 200 c oven for 30 mins. some of the eggplant was crispy (on top) and some like melted butter (on bottom).

Overall the dinner went down well. the fish cost $32 and the salad was perhaps another $10 total. there was 2 serves of fish/salad left over so each meal that was eaten cost about $7 and it was restaurant quality without the "sauce".

No photos to prove it but take my word.

PS - over the next few weeks (until 16 Sept) i will be away and not head "chef" so expect a break and come back later if you choose.