Roast butternut and pine nut risotto

This is another one of those veggie dishes that are so good you don't find yourself thinking, "All this needs is a bit of meat, and it would be perfect." Even my carnivorous elder son wolfed it down and came back for seconds!

This recipe uses coriander leaves, but sage is just as good with butternut, so try that as a variation.

Oven temperature
200C

Ingredients
1 large butternut, peeled and cut into largish cubes
1 clove garlic, crushed
10ml fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Olive oil
30ml butter
1 onion, chopped
250ml arborio rice
250ml white wine
750ml vegetable stock
Pine nuts to serve
Parmesan cheese, grated, to serve

Method

• In a large bowl, mix up about 25ml olive oil with the garlic and chopped coriander leaves.
• Toss the butternut cubes in this until they are well coated, then place them on a baking tray in the oven for about 45 minutes until soft right through and just starting to darken along the edges.
• Cut the cooked butternut into smaller cubes (when it is cool enough to handle, obviously!). Don't worry if some pieces get a little mushy. If any little bits got stuck to the baking tray, rescue them - you're going to want those babies in the risotto, too - they have a wonderful toffee-ish taste!
• Heat 15ml of the butter and another 25ml oil in a  heavy-bottomed frying pan and saute the onion until it softens and becomes translucent.
• Add the rice and stir until the grains are coated and shiny looking.
• Add the wine and stir until the liquid has been absorbed.
• Now add the stock. The proper way to do this is to add a little stock at first and then keep adding a little at a time as it is absorbed by the rice. I tend to just add the whole lot in one go... because I'm a lazy Philistine.
• Simmer until done. Don't let the rice cook for too long - it is supposed to be al dente, like pasta.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the butternut and the rest of the butter.
• Place into serving bowls and top with a sprinkling of pine nuts, a little Parmesan cheese, a twist of black pepper and the rest of the coriander leaves.

Brisket with attitude

As I took my last mouthful of delicious tender brisket on Saturday night, I looked across at my husband and said, "I forgot to take a photo!" My family has grown so used to having their food photographed before they get to eat it, that he knew exactly what I meant. But it was too late. Sorry about that.

This recipe is based on one I got from my local butcher years ago. He had these little recipe cards printed up and would hand them out to the customers when they purchased the relevant cut of meat. I must have bought a brisket from him, I guess.

Brisket is one of the cheaper cuts of beef. It is full of flavour, as so many of the cheaper cuts are. But it is also inclined to be tougher. So you should roast it at a lower temperature for longer to overcome that. Don't be tempted to aim for a roast that's still pink in the middle. Save that for the more expensive cuts.

Oven temperature
150C

Ingredients
2kg deboned, rolled brisket
10 peppercorns
6 cloves
2 bay leaves
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
60ml brown vinegar
25g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
500ml boiling water
250ml chutney (Mrs Balls for preference, if you're able to get it)
125ml sweet chilli sauce

Method

• Crush the herbs and spices together (I use a coffee grinder) and mix together with the chopped onion, carrots, vinegar, chutney and sweet chilli sauce.
• Place the meat in a large bowl and spoon the sauce over. Make sure the meat is evenly covered with marinade.
• Leave to marinate for eight hours or overnight, turning once halfway through the process.
• Remove the meat from the marinade and drain (but keep the marinade!).
• Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan and brown the joint on all sides. Transfer into a casserole dish.
• Add the boiling water to the pan to loosen up the bits and bobs from the browning, then add that to the marinade and pour over the meat.
• Cover with a lid or foil and pop into the oven for about 3 hours.
• Remove from the marinade and blot off any excess fat. Set aside and keep warm.
• Thicken the sauce with a little cornflour mixed with cold water and bring back up to the boil. You could use the frying pan for this again. Serve this in place of gravy.

Roast beetroot with rotmos

I had been married to my Swede for many years before I finally got to visit Sweden for the first time. His family hails from a tiny island off the west coast of the country, where we had a large 'gathering of the clans' the year my husband turned 40. Not purely because it was his 40th, but also because that was the year his sister turned 50, his cousin turned 40 and his Mom turned 75. I think there were a few other big events that year, but I can't remember what they were... which is a little sad, because we are now exactly 10 years down the line, which means we're in for another round of them!

Anyhoo, while we were there, my in-laws rustled up a meal that has since become a regular on my table: smoked sausages with beetroot and rotmos (root mash). So today, you get two recipes in one. Mainly because they aren't really 'recipes', strictly speaking.

On that occasion, they simply boiled the beetroot, and ate them with far too much butter. You could try that... only it's probably a good idea to cut back on the butter! I often roast a variety of vegetables together: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, bell peppers, beetroots and onions. You could try that, too.

But today, it's just the beetroots on their own. And this is how you do it.

Oven temperature

180C

Peeled and quartered

Ingredients

Beetroot, one per person, peeled and quartered
A little oil
Some fennel or cumin seeds (optional)

Method

• Preheat the oil in a roasting dish.
• Place the beetroot quarters in the hot oil and sprinkle with a few seeds (if you're using these).
• Roast until done (about 40 minutes), turning every 10 minutes or so.

While that's happening, let's get cracking on the rotmos. This is made on the hob.

Ingredients

Boil together

Potatoes, one per person, peeled and cubed
Carrots, one per person, peeled and chopped
Swede (rutabaga), one small, or half a medium sized one, peeled and cubed
Butter, milk and salt (optional)

• Boil up the vegetables together until they're soft.
• Mash them all up together, using a little butter, milk and salt to get it just the way you like it.

Serve with the roast beetroot and smoked sausage. Of course, if you're a vegetarian, you could just leave out the sausage, or replace it with a veggie option.

Roast parsnips

Don't be alarmed by that white substance between the parsnips in the photo. All will be revealed...

All the years I lived in South Africa, I had no idea what a person would do with a parsnip. Their Afrikaans name (witwortels) translates to 'white roots' (mind you, carrots are simply called 'roots' in Afrikaans, so it's hardly surprising), which I didn't find helpful. I never bought them, because I had no idea how to prepare them, and because I had the weird notion that they would taste like turnips, which I don't enjoy. The only time I ever consumed them was when my sister in law grated them into a soup, which of course gave me no indication as to how they would taste alone.

One of the 'bank staff' members at my very first job in the UK was appalled to discover this gaping hole in my culinary experience, and shared her recipe with me. I wish I could remember her name. Mea culpa... but we didn't work together very long.

I have since discovered there are a great many things you can do with a parsnip, but this remains my favourite, so I share it with you. My husband says 'they're like sweeties', my elder son snarfs them with relish, but my younger son is not a fan. His girlfriend is mad about them, however, but never gets them at home, so we kidnap her for dinner if I'm ever making them.

Oven temperature

180-200C

Ingredients

Parsnips (as many as you need)
Cornflour
Parmesan
Cumin seeds (optional - these were not part of the original recipe)
Oil

Method

Coated and sprinkled

• Peel the parsnips and cut them into large pieces (I usually cut them in half across the middle and then cut the fatter top part in half again, vertically)
• Steam them over boiling water for about 5 minutes until they are just starting to soften.
• While the parsnips are steaming, preheat some oil in your roasting pan in the oven.
• Make a half-and-half mixture of cornflour and grated Parmesan and coat each piece of parsnip in this. I usually use a Tupperware lunch box, in which I gently shake the parsnips one at time (it only takes a few seconds for each one).
• Pop the parsnips into the preheated oil in the roasting pan and sprinkle each one with a few cumin seeds.
• Roast for about 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides. They should crisp up nicely.
• Don't feel you can only serve these with a roast joint. They are utterly delicious with pork chops, steak, grilled chicken.... you name it!

Attack of the Kitchen Crusader Part One: Roast Tomato Pasta

Who is this Kitchen Crusader? you ask yourself.
Where does she get off imposing herself all over and up in Karyn's blog on Kitchens (that's what it's about right?)?
Why does she talk about herself in the third person?
Why is this an "attack"? That sounds dangerous and I didn't bring my mace spray.
Is she actually made out of a kitchen and goes on crusades, or does she go on crusades for kitchens (whose opinions don't really get listened to very often, when you think about it)?
What am I going to make for dinner tonight?

Hey! What's with all the questions, blog reader?
Also, boy do you jump from thought to though mighty fast. Maybe you should get that checked. It might be a sign of anaphylaxis or something else serious and medical that I know the name of, like hypothermia.
That's right, blog reading friend, I, The Kitchen Crusader, know stuff about medical conditions and other things of great intellectual wordiness. Logically, you should therefore trust everything I say and try every recipe I produce. Logic doesn't lie.

As a side note, I might be able to help you with that question about what you can make for dinner tonight. Good food doesn't have to be fancy or expensive or time consuming. Because some of us have jobs and some of us have after-work sport and some of us have mortgages and some of us have electricity bills to pay and some of us don't have foie gras or essence of Amazonian mung bean in our fridges on a regular basis and some of us have boyfriends who bother us by wanting to take us out dates and get involved in other, trivial, girlfriend duties (and some of us don't know how to use full stops or commas either, apparently). And some of us, have all of these things. Incidentally enough, I have all of those things. I know, I'm a martyr. But really, hold your applause, I can't hear you, your monitor is in the way. And even if you don't have the incredible level of time/monetary/lack of food-fanciness commitments I have surely you believe cooking should be simple and fun, rather than painful and long-winded.

It can be hard to know what to do with some of the random stuff in your fridge, or you might have something that simply has to be consumed or used TODAY or it might actually consume you. No really.

That's where I come in, see I am a culinary action hero. Most superheroes have massive muscles and save people from burning buildings and natural disasters.
I save people from culinary catastrophes and desperation.

Examples of culinary catastrophes and desperation that I may or may not have saved people from to justify my argument:

See, super hero, I'm similar to those "saving people from burning buildings guys" but in an entirely different kind of way.

Also: if you just turned to the person sitting next to you, or near you, or if you just emailed someone and said, gee this Kitchen Crusader is lazy, she just used the same image four times and changed the words in it, then grab some empathy, Bucko, have you ever tried to make barely-decent-cartoons-in-microsoft-paint-on-a-lap-top-without-a-mouse? If you had, maybe you wouldn't be so judgmental. Also, I have a bruise on my knee, how do you feel now? You just judged an injured person. Also, sorry about the hyphens just then, they got a bit out of hand.

Anyway, onto that dinner idea I was talking about earlier.

This little, simple, super tasty roasted tomato pasta has been a favourite of mine for a while now. It requires very little preparation time and while the tomatoes are roasting you can do whatever else you want (as long as you're still in the house) because they don't need CONSTANT VIGILANCE and ATTENTION. This is the recipe I bust out when I have a stack of tomatoes that need to be used right then and there (or all they'll be good for is the bin). Also, it can be made out of little more than a tin of tomatoes. Consequently it's a massively cheap recipe, but still tastes like something special. Great for a cheap meal when people come over, or when your pantry is practically bare. Seriously, try this. I know you'll enjoy it and what have you got to lose? A can of tomatoes? Oh my.

Roasted Tomato Pasta
Serves 2

You need:

4-6 fresh tomatoes or 1 can of diced tomatoes

2 tbsp of olive oil, or butter, plus some extra olive oil for drizzling

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper for seasoning

300g pasta of your choice

Grated parmesan to serve

Optional extras (add any or all of the following to change things up a bit)

¼ cup of kalamata olives – chopped or whole (stir through right before serving)

4 shredded basil leaves (sprinkled over the top of the pasta when served)

Some slices of mozzarella, bocconcini or crumbled fetta ( mixed through just before serving)

1 small red capsicum, cut into small pieces (and roasted with the tomatoes)

You:

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Chop the tomatoes into chunks of about 2 cm x 2cm. Chuck them into a small baking dish (they need to be on top of each other, rather than spaced out) with the garlic, sugar, a good pinch of salt and some cracked pepper.

Roast the tomatoes in the oven for 30 minutes. The edges of the tomatoes should be quite brown, the roasting will have a carmelising effect. Turn the oven off, but leave the tomatoes in the oven, while you cook the pasta.

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Drain it, then stir all the contents from the tomato roasting dish through.

Serve up, drizzle a little olive oil over the top, then grate parmesan over the top.

And, incidentally, if for some bizarre reason you want to read more of this inane babble and see some more diabolically bad Microsoft paint skills... and maybe get some recipes, check out my blog.

Hasselback potatoes

Sadly, there is no lovely family history attached to this recipe - it came out of a magazine at some point. But I'm making them tonight to go with a roast chicken (yes, on a Monday night - where is it written that I can't make a roast on a school night?), and they are seriously yummy, so I thought I'd share. They make a great alternative to roast potatoes and are considerably lower in calories and fat content.

Ingredients
Potatoes - preferably the long, skinny kind (as many as you think you'll need)
500ml stock
200ml white wine
Bay leaves

Oven temperature
200C

Method

• Peel the potatoes. If you weren't able to get the long skinny ones, cut them in half lengthwise.
• Make several narrow slices into each one. In order to avoid cutting all the way through, stick a skewer through each one first, about 1cm from the bottom and cut down to that.

• Stick a bay leaf into one cut on each potato
• Pour stock and wine into an oven pan
• Place the potatoes into the pan
• Drizzle with olive oil
• Bake for about 50 minutes, basting from time to time.

You can add any remaining stock to your gravy.