If you're looking for a fuss-free meal that makes you feel cosy and snug in a snap, this dish is for you. Buttered pasta is a favourite at our house, and it's one of the first things my children learned to make on their own.
Think of it as the butter version of the Italian Aglio e Olio (spaghetti with olive oil and garlic). It has just 5 ingredients and minimal prep. While we tend to use spaghetti or linguine for this dish, I wanted to take our new organic penne pasta out for a spin, and it works beautifully!
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It's hard to beat a nut-laden curry.
Whether it's a cashew-rich Korma or a traditional West African Peanut soup, nuts incorporated into a spicy sauce always makes for a sumptuous and satisfying meal. I love this take on a classic Thai Red Curry.The addition of sweet potato and peanuts works so well, it's like it was meant to be. I'm keeping things simple by using a quality, shop-bought red curry paste. Feel free to make a paste from scratch, or just use your favourite brand of pre-made. I used our fresh, made-in-store peanut butter and the flavour and texture of the end result was unbeatable. Growing up, I was the designated cook in our small family from about the age of 14. My dad's New Zealand roots means he can never have enough sweet potato (or kumera) and he'd be very happy eating it with every meal! I learnt to come up with a wide variety of sweet potato recipes. This one remains a firm family favourite. We hope you love it too! A note about fresh coriander: I always use the long green stalks of the coriander, not just the leafy bits towards the top. Finely chopped and fried off with your other aromatics like ginger and garlic, coriander stalks add so much depth of flavour. Remove and discard the very bottom roots, give the coriander a good wash under the tap as dirt gets trapped in the stalks. Reserve the leafy parts for garnish and finely dice the green stalks. While tabbouleh traditionally uses cracked wheat (called bourgal or bulgar), ours calls for millet. This not only makes it gluten free, it really shows off millet's capabilities of absorbing flavours beautifully whilst staying fluffy and light. This is an important factor, because so often Sydney summers mean that our salads don't maintain their vibrancy after half an hour spent on the picnic rug or BBQ buffet. Not so with millet tabbouleh; it maintains that freshly made quality for longer.
You'll also notice this Tabbouleh recipe asks for za'atar. It's by no means a traditional Tabbouleh ingredient, but I find it really lifts the whole thing and delivers depth and interest. So come on a little millet adventure with us. When cooking queries regarding millet were recently brought up by two separate customers on the same day, we thought it might be a sign to serve our customers up a millet recipe. Or maybe even two!
Millet porridge is a common breakfast in several countries. It's also used as a high protein, nutritious alternative to rice, pearl barley and couscous. One of the conversations we had with a customer was about how to properly cook millet porridge. Some people find that the end result is a little firm, even after cooking thoroughly. After some trial and error, I think I've cracked the code. Huddle up: There are two methods that give you a satisfyingly creamy porridge, albeit with differing textures. The first method involves leaving the millet grains whole, but soaking them overnight before then cooking them for about 20 to 30 mins. It's basically the same method I use for steel cut oats, and the result is similar- a robust bowl of goodness. The second method is quicker and gives you a smoother, silkier porridge. You simply put the raw millet grains in a food processor, blender or coffee grinder and whiz it until the grains are much finer - about halfway to being a flour. Then you cook it in milk and water for 15 minutes. This is my preferred method, and the one I use below, but you might find you prefer the whole grain version. Dear Villagers, I was inspired to make this recipe because of TikTok. Before you judge, let me explain, justify and defend my actions. We noticed recently quite an upswing in the number of customers coming in to stock up on medjool dates. Being nosy, we asked why, and learned that there was a recipe trending on TikTok for Snicker Dates. It was a simple recipe that involved stuffing a medjool date with peanut butter before dipping it in melted chocolate.
As a self-proclaimed queen of whole food snacks (I used to make sweet treats for cafes around the Inner West) I decided to make some. There's much to love about this kind of whole food treat, They usually involve a small number of ingredients, they're quick to make, and you don't have to worry too much about exact amounts - it's a more relaxing cooking experience when you can be a little loosey-goosey with weighing and measuring. Me being me, I made a couple of small changes to the recipe. The main one is the addition of cacao butter. While the TikTok recipes all called for dipping the dates in either straight melted chocolate, or adding a little coconut oil to the chocolate. The (small) issue with just melted chocolate on its own is that it sets hard, and you lose a bit of that decadent mouth feel that you get biting into a chocolate bar. And that is why some recipes include adding some coconut oil. The inclusion of coconut oil helps the chocolate melt better and set better, while also preventing it from going super hard and brittle. But coconut oil has a polarising taste, and I know a lot of kids in particular who aren't keen on it. Hence I decided that cacao butter would be a better option. It not only improves the meltability and the texture when set, but the subtle, rich flavour and aroma adds tenfold to the chocolate bar experience we are trying to create. I decided to add a touch of cacao butter to the peanut butter too, to give the peanut butter a creamier, more velvety mouthfeel. Being that there are 6 ingredients, and the recipe is done and dusted in 30 mins, I guess you are wondering why such a simple recipe is so long and wordy… Please don't be alarmed, I promise you that it is indeed very simple and we are not about to put you through a Masterchef Pressure Test! It's just that each simple step is harder to explain in words than video. Feel free to omit using toothpicks - your Snicker Date Bites will be a little wider and a little flatter, but just as delicious. One final thing before we jump in and get cooking: In my opinion, it's the salt and crushed peanuts that make these babies sing. Don't skip them! |
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