I have been cooking from an early age, and try to cook most nights, but Sunday is usually my day in the kitchen, I love experimenting with flavours, colours and presentation. I'm going to share with you some of my favourite recipes and secrets in the kitchen, and some of my life experiences too.
My first secret, which is not such a secret if you have had the pleasure of dinner at my place, is that I have a Thermomix. It makes my life in the kitchen so much easier. If you don't know what a Thermomix is, google it - basically a kitchen all in one (but J doesn't agree as it won't cook his steak), it chops, grinds, mills, sautees, steams, boils etc, in short the major benefit for me is it helps on two fronts - eat fresher, and cook faster. I think eating fresh is something that started from my upbringing where we ate lots of good fresh meat, eggs and vegetables straight off the farm. Fresh food just tastes better. Cooking faster is also really important as there is never enough hours in a day, and I will admit we eat takeaway far more often than we should at home (we try to pick healthier options, like our local Vietnamese noodle soup place in Glenroy), but it would be even more often if it wasn't for my Thermomix. To be honest I really should cook at home more often now, and now I have it in writing I promise I will make more of an effort - its always easier to make promises to yourself if you say it out loud (or in this case write it down)! Speaking of promises to myself, I have also signed up to Michelle Bridges 12WBT, starting in August, so there is no time like the present to get into some new habits.
My first recipe I'm sharing is something I use in heaps of my meals - homemade vegetable stock. Making it yourself is so simple, and it doesn't have all the additives and preservatives of store bought stuff. I do mine in my Thermomix but you could cook it all up and do it in a food processor with the same result. This is a great opportunity to use up all the veges and herbs that are filling up your fridge that you use one little bit of then don't know what to do with the rest, you don't have to stick to the veges below. Also I am cooking without onion and garlic more these days as I have found they don't really agree with me, but you could add them if you prefer...
200g celery, roughly cut
2 carrots, roughly cut
2 tomatoes, halved
2 zucchinis, roughly cut
Handful of parsley
Handful of coriander
150g rock salt
1 tbsp oil
Place all vegetables into the Thermomix bowl (or chop smaller and put in a large pot large pot) and chop for 10 seconds on speed 6. Add salt and oil and then cook for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1 (if using a pot, bring to boil). Pulverise by slowly turning the speed dial to speed 6 then for 1 minute on speed 9 (or blend in food processor). It will be green and very salty! This should make enough for one container for the fridge and one for the freezer (it doesn't completely freeze because of the salt), although it keeps for a couple of months in the fridge, so if you use it as often as I do you can just keep it in the fridge. 1 tablespoon concentrate it same as 1 stock cube. I use this in soups, risottos, sauces and all sorts, its a must have basic.
