I've posted before about the beauty of menu planning in cuisines. Buying the same ingredients in bulk, being able to do components (like sauces) ahead because you are already in the head space for the following meals and having leftover ingredients that lend themselves to amazing combinations.

Plus, in the day in/day out rhythm of motherhood, the thought of cooking the same meals over and over makes me feel a little stir crazy.  This approach forces me to find (or create) new recipes fortnightly that I may never otherwise have had the motivation to try.

We are nearing the end of Greek fortnight and most of the dinners have been successful- Slow-cooker Lamb Salad with Yoghurt-Mint Sauce, Lamb Pizza, Jamie's Spinach and Feta Pie, Moussaka, Greek Meatballs, Souvlaki, Greek Burgers and Stuffed Eggplants still to come. I keep putting off doing the Chickpea Soup as this current heatwave doesn't lend itself to the consumption of hearty soup.

The upside is that all these meals have left us with a myriad of surplus ingredients just waiting to be created into a new and exciting meal. Slow cooked lamb, roasted eggplant, spinach, haloumi cheese, lemon and oregano. What better than a Lamb and Eggplant Risotto?

Greek Lamb and Eggplant Risotto
Serves 5

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cubes frozen spinach (approx 50 g), defrosted (or more- to your tastes)
1 eggplant, chopped into bite sized pieces
Large handful leftover lamb*
100 grams haloumi cheese
5 cups vegetable stock
1/2 lemon, squeezed (or use rind of a whole lemon for a more subtle taste)
90g Parmesan cheese
Fresh oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. (If eggplant not roasted) Turn oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place eggplant pieces in bag along with tablespoon of olive oil and salt to taste. Roast until browned.
2. Cook onion in pan until soft on low heat in approx 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add garlic when onion almost ready. Be careful not to brown.
3. Add rice into pan, stir for a few minutes until oil coats rice.
4. Pour in wine and stir until evaporated.
5. Turn heat up to medium. Gradually add stock in small batches, stirring until almost absorbed.
6. Add in spinach and lemon juice/rind and stir. 
7. When almost all absorbed and rice is soft with a slightly hard center, add in Parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate.
8. Toss in lamb, eggplant, haloumi cheese and oregano and heat through.
9. Season to taste.
10. Serve with crusty bread and a garden salad.

*For the slow cooked Greek lamb I use a lamb leg or shoulder- sear on all sides, then add to slow cooker with sliced garlic, rosemary, oregano, juice of two lemons, and some red wine. Season with salt and leave to cook on low for at least six hours. After it cools, I divide the lamb into handful sized portions and place in small zip-lock bags in the freezer for future meals. We have used it in salads, on pizzas and now in a risotto!

Let me preface this post by admitting that I've never really been very good with vegetables.

I have vivid memories of dramatically dry retching when my parents would insist that a hideous and slimy piece of mushroom be ingested. A charming habit which I have now apparently passed down to my eldest son, who is equally theatrical with his reactions to vegetables.

And then there was the forced stint in Veganism during my teen years which well and truly cured me of any lingering attachment to a plant-based diet (as well as instilling an utter distaste of Nutmeat, tofu... and let's just say 'falsified' food of any kind!)

Then I had kids.

Homemade baby food became a bit of a thing for me, and I relished in boiling, steaming and mashing fruits and vegetables of every colour... filling an entire freezer drawer with options for Eli's dining pleasure.

All of my kids loved vegetables... until they tasted the rest of the food spectrum, and it became all but impossible for anything green or leafy to pass 'Go'.

Case in point: Last night at the Open House BBQ I put on each of the boy's plates one sausage, one lone cherry tomato and a side of potato chips. Because I'm realistic like that.

Nevertheless, I still have one super meal left in the arsenal that I silently giggle with glee when serving, because it contains no less than NINE different vegetables... and they have absolutely no idea. The boys even list it as one of their favourite meals.

Spaghetti Bolognese.

It isn't your most traditional recipe, but I've found it to be the most versatile meal in my repertoire.

Once every so often, I cook up a hearty batch of the meat sauce, serve it for that evening's meal as Bolognese, and then divide up the rest of the contents of the pot into ziplock bags to be frozen.  The sauce is so versatile, it can be re-imagined as Chili Con Carne (just add a can each of tomatoes and white beans, cumin, paprika and chili flakes), Shepherd's Pie (add some red wine, worsterchire sauce, peas and corn and top with potato), filling for Meat Pie, Lasagna, Burritos... The list can be as long as your imagination.

The thrift angle of the meal thrills me as well. For a 2kg package of minced beef (for around $16.00 at Aldi), whatever seasonal vegetables you have growing or taking up fridge space you can churn out around six meals for a family of five. I'm no expert at maths, but that's a damn good deal.

The only catch is, you need a food processor of some kind, unless you want to drive yourself to insanity by chopping up all the vegetables into miniscule pieces. And then the thrill of the meal will have well and truly worn off.

It's a good one to get the kids involved in making too, as mine are always more than eager to push the button and watch the vegetables become obliterated. Or just get one to peel an onion. It will take them twenty minutes of intense concentration. I tried it on Hudson today.

You can also do it in a slow cooker, which is a double win for crazy hour!

I present:

Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 onions
5 cloves of garlic
2 leeks*
4 peeled carrots
3 sticks of celery
4 rashers of bacon (rind removed)
3 capsicums
2 zucchinis*
3 eggplants*
Handful of mushrooms*
2kg beef mince
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp sweet paprika
1 Tsp hot paprika
3 Tsp stock powder
1 Tsp chili flakes
2 bay leaves
2 cups water (1/2 cup ONLY if using slow cooker)
Salt and pepper to taste

*Feel free to substitute whatever vegetables you have on hand instead of these, and as many as you wish to add. The sauce reduces substantially even if it initially feels as if it is three quarters filled with veggies.

Method
1. Process onions and leeks to tiny pieces and toss into pot with oil. Cook on low heat until soft.
2. Process bacon, celery and carrot. Add to pot. Cook on medium-high heat until browning.
3. Mince garlic and add to pot. Cook for one minute.
4. Process remaining vegetables and add to pot. Ensure excess water from vegetables is cooked out.
5. Add the meat to the mix and stir in well. Cook until brown.
6. Add spices, salt and pepper, bay leaves and tomato paste. Stir well
7. Allow to bubble away on stove on low heat for at least an hour or more, stirring occasionally (or in slow cooker until dinner time). You will need to skim the surface of oil during the cooking period.
8. If using slow cooker, return pot to stove top prior to serving to reduce the sauce.
9. After serving, divide up remainder into ziplock bags to be frozen. I find the gallon ones from Costco are the best because they can be frozen flat in the freezer and stacked high to take up less room. 

Happy cooking!

(Sorry about my poor photographic skills with the recipe. I'm far too lazy to rearrange things when taking photos, so this is an 'as is' shoot of the meal in all its messy glory!)

Whenever we arrive at my Baba and Deda's house, after the firmly placed kisses on each cheek as you step onto the driveway, we are ushered straight into the kitchen to eat. A huge platter of fruit adorns the center of the table, right underneath the Da Vinci replica, 'The Last Supper' and the hallowed childhood framed picture of our cousin, Stephen, who was the only one of us fortunate to be born a male.

Baba reverently opens the lid of a box to reveal....Burek! I have it on good authority that back in the day, she would have created the flaky pastry delight herself, however the Turkish shop down the road provides a delectable version, so we enthusiastically tuck into that instead.

Not having the benefit of her specific recipe, I have trialled a number of versions in the past and have discovered that there are countless varieties of this dish. I've experimented with cream cheese, puff pastry and feta, then stumbled onto this recipe that is the closest to my experience of the Balkan specialty. Here is my (slightly tweaked) version.

Cheese Burek

Ingredients
500g Cottage cheese
120g Feta cheese
4 eggs
4 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 cups Greek yoghurt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 375g pack of fillo pastry
1/2 cup olive oil for brushing

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Brush two pie dishes with oil and set aside (or one large rectangular casserole dish).
3. Crack eggs into bowl and beat.
4. Add cheeses, olive oil, yoghurt, salt and bicarb soda. Mix well.
5. Arrange 1 sheet of fillo pastry on bench and brush with oil. Place another sheet on top and brush with oil.
6. Scoop a small ladel of the mixture along the long side of the pastry closest towards you. Cover the mixture with the edge of the pastry, then fold in both sides over the mixture. Continue rolling the pastry forward until you have a long, thin, cigar shape. Place into oiled dish.
7. Continue rolling pastry until you have used up all the mixture and pastry, coiling the tubes around the dish until you reach the middle.
8. Place dishes into oven to bake until top is well browned and puffed up (at least 40 minutes).

I've found that Burek tastes a lot better the day after it is baked, or if you leave it to sit overnight in the fridge before baking. It also freezes well, you can just warm it up in the oven after defrosting. My mum also reheats the leftovers in the sandwich press to get the flaky, crispiness again.

I realised recently, that although myself and my sisters are only second generation Australians, my children will have next to no knowledge about my Dad's Serbian/Croatian culture and background due to his perfect assimilation into Australia.

Upon arriving in this rugged land, he quickly found it was better to adopt the practices of the students around him if he was to ever advance or fit in. His birth name 'Branislav' became the more colloquial 'Barney' and he threw himself into mastering the language- even to the point of being escorted home by an outwardly stern policeman when he and his brother were found in the empty school library 'illegally' reading one weekend. To this day, Dad describes how perplexed and annoyed he was at being thwarted from his noble pursuit of learning!

Now, just over 50 years later, he is a successful Electrical Engineer with a perfect Australian accent and is even about to publish a book later this year. Any hint of the doe-eyed Slavic boy who wanted to be a woodcutter has now vanished.

When we visit my Baba and Deda in Sydney, I'm always fascinated by the meals that she prepares and the cooking style that she employs in her hospitality. From my limited exposure, Serbian food seems to involve either a lot of frying- schnitzels, rissoles, potatoes, eggplants or a layering cooking method for casseroles- beef goulash and chicken stew. The desserts and sweets on the other hand, are unlike any Australian type of confection- sour cherry cake, crepes, rolled pastry with walnut filling (kiflice), walnut cake, jelly and apple cake... the list goes on!

Recently, I've been trying to incorporate a lot more of Baba's style of cooking into my repertoire, reminiscing with the kids about my memories of eating these meals when I was a child. I find the method of cooking so therapeutic in its' comfortable, flowing rhythms and when you add the nostalgia of a buried culture, the experience becomes almost mystical.

As the savoury flavours waft into the air and I stand over the bubbling pot, I imagine my grandmother when she was my age, and wonder about her mother and the mothers before that, each cooking a similar dish.

Last night it was Serbian Chicken Stew with Dumplings. It is such a simple recipe, but the hearty flavours of the sauce are so warming and complex, and incredible when absorbed into crusty fresh bread.

Serbian Chicken Stew with Dumplings

Stew
1 onion
5 potatoes
400gm chicken thighs
1 tbsp Canola oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Vegeta
1 tbsp sweet Paprika
Pinch hot Paprika/chilli
1 cup water
Fresh parsley

Dumplings
3/4 cup plain flour
1 egg
100 ml water

For Dumplings
Place flour in bowl, stir in egg and slowly pour in water until dough comes together. Mix until well combined and dough is elastic. Leave to rest while you prepare the stew.

For Stew
Chop onion and place in pan on low heat with the oil.
While onion is cooking, peel and chop potatoes into bite sized pieces and place on top of onions.
Cut up chicken in pieces and place on top of potatoes.
Sprinkle salt, Vegeta and paprika over chicken.
Pour over water and cook on low heat for 1 hour.
When potatoes are cooked, drop teaspoons of dumpling mixture into the broth. Leave cooking for a further 15 minutes.
Let stand for a few minutes before serving. Sprinkle with fresh parsley.
Serve with crusty bread to soak up the juices.

This recipe is based upon this recipe and slightly modified and translated for metric measurements.

Apologies for my amateur food photography- I'm trying to learn and practice in the brief period of time before a hungry family demands it to be plated up and on the table!

We moved five cubic meters of dirt today from the nature strip into four newly constructed veggie planter boxes in the backyard. 

Some of the family very kindly came over to help out and the insurmountable mound was diminished to a level field in a remarkable space of time. Even Hudson got into it, taking his job very seriously... until he couldn't be bothered walking all the way and ended up dumping tiny piles of dirt in random places along the driveway. 

 

When the cold had seeped from our bones and we had discarded muddy gumboots and jackets and substituted them for dressing gowns and snuggly onesies (or in Eli's case- a rashie- don't ask me why), it felt like the perfect time to bake.

 

My baking secret is pretty much this: type into Google 'best -insert relevant food- recipe' and choose the one with the best and most reviews. This infallible path has led me to my basic cookie recipe that I then get creative with, depending on what ingredients in the cupboard are lending the most inspiration at the time. 

Today it was marshmallows and macadamia nuts. Nothing says warm and cozy like the toasty smell of marshmallows and these cookies became gooey parcels of crunchy sweetness best consumed piping hot out of the oven. 

I find that the more crumbly and barely held together the mixture is, the better the cookie, as pockets of butter and brown sugar burst forth while baking and bubble out to create a dark caramel. 

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Chocolate Marshmallow Macadamia Cookies
(Makes approximately 30 cookies)

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water
1/2 cup of cocoa
2 and 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup chocolate chunks
1/2 cup marshmallows, chopped
1/2 cup macadamias, chopped

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugars.

Mix in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

Add salt and then bicarbonate of soda mixture. Stir together.

Combine sifted flour and cocoa and mix until just together. Add in chunky ingredients. Mixture should be still crumbly. 

Grab small handfuls and shape into rough balls. Place on baking paper on a baking tray. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. 

Enjoy with a piping hot coffee...or smeared all over your face alongside a glass of warm milk. 

This recipe is adapted from this very popular chocolate chip cookie recipe over at www.allrecipes.com.

A little while ago we borrowed a book from the library- 'Apple Cake: A Recipe For Love'. It is the charming story of Idea and Alfonso and his quest to win his love's heart, through baking.

The book is remarkably specific in terms of his recipe, so we decided to try it out.

We choose three apples, one green and two red. Chopped them up and set them in water while we made the batter. 

 

We beat two tablespoons of butter with a cup of sugar.  Added two eggs (with a touch of shell, thanks Eli!), a cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt (from the mundane salt shaker, not harvested from the ocean like Alfonso's).

We added some bitters (three wishes- one bitter, two sweet) and blew kisses, then sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top. 

The smell permeated our kitchen, just as it lured Ida away from her book. Before long we were tucking into warm and crumbly apple cake. It was delicious! Who would have thought a children's book could yield such a delectable cake.

Despite the magical book having been returned, we have now made the cake three more times, including with the addition of jelly. At least if I have a memory blank, we can now refer to this post for future cooking reference. Thanks Alfonso!