sartoric

Another Sunday at the Bundall farmers market. The haul - tomatoes, cauliflower, English spinach, eggplants, potatoes, ginger, lemons, garlic, habanero chillies, zucchini and a pigs ear for Patch. All rather pedestrian. By contrast, last weekend we drove about 30 minutes to the Burleigh Heads farmers market, and scored - potatoes, silverbeet, leek, shredded green papaya, bitter melon, tomatoes, Thai eggplants and birds eye chillies. Nearly all the stall holders were Asian, and the produce more interesting to me. We've nearly finished all those chillies...

A beef and veggie casserole seemed appropriate for this chilly weather. The beef is chuck, the veggies are leek, carrots, celery, sweet potato and mushrooms, all slow cooked together with a fresh bouquet garni from the garden. Served with mozzarella mash and broccoli in blue cheese sauce, plus garlic bread. Followed by a slice of apple and honey cake from the book Sesame and Spice by Anne Shooter.

More Indian, the last of my homemade dosa mix (too cold to ferment properly now with winter here), basmati rice, potato masala, silverbeet with paneer, snow peas poriyal. On the side, fresh tomato chutney, sambar, fresh coconut chutney, kaffir lime pickle (an experiment, limes from our tree, it works). The meal plated, showing the typical use of sambar, spooned over the rice to moisten. Very excited, we've decided on our holiday destination for later in the year - Sri Lanka (sometimes called India lite). Yum.

Yes @blue_dolphin, it's homemade using this recipe http://vst.to/S7dWMEP although I double the chilli. Recently our huge kaffir lime tree provided an abundance of fruit, so I made kaffir lime pickles. We'll be trying them out tonight.

Yakhni pullao (basmati rice fried with whole spices and cooked in chicken stock), sesame potatoes, cauliflower curry, shredded green papaya as a vegetable, roti bread. Served with cucumber raita, lime pickle and mango chutney.

Hey BV, it's the first day of winter today, currently 14.5 C ...chilly, brrr. Your food looks fantastic!

Mostly leftovers from last night with newly made silverbeet paneer, lemon rice, and roti breads. The lemon rice uses cooked rice, so is also technically leftover. Fry a diced green chilli in oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, a few cashews and the juice of half a lemon, add rice and toss to heat through, easy peasy.

Another guest = another Indian feast. Rice in the blue dish, Keralan chicken curry, dal trevini, whole eggplant in tomato gravy, potato masala, tomato chutney, mint & coriander chutney, radish raita, kachumber, lime pickle and home style dosa. Our guest (a man with Chinese parents) found a new appreciation for Indian food.

I made this tart thing. Shortcrust pastry, parmesan, mozzarella, wilted greens (silverbeet, spinach and rocket) with slices of garlic and sultanas, just cooked potato cubes, slivers of olives and more mozzarella.

Thai green curry with fish and snow peas, curry paste from Charmaine Solomon's Thai Cooking. From the same book Som Tam (green papaya salad) and pan fried bitter gourd. We'd never tried bitter gourd before, liked it a lot.

A friend came to dinner, so Indian food was served family style. From the top - steamed rice in the blue bowl, roti parathas, aloo matar or potatoes and peas (from our garden), goat rhapsody (adapted from the excellent Tasting India by Christine Manfield),whole eggplant with tomato (also Christine Manfield), red onion raita, hot mango chutney, creamy dal with spinach, tomato chutney, lime pickle. Both the goat and eggplant dishes starred here. I used my pressure cooker for the goat, it was sooo tender, the sauce fragrant with cardamom. The eggplants are the Thai white golf ball sized guys. They were split to the stem and simmered in a spicy tomato based sauce until tender. The stems made a neat handle, better seen in this pic Follwed by shop bought barfi and ladu.

Anna is right, I meant the metal trays and dishes. You're also right, it's usually eaten with the fingers. Thali can also be served on a banana leaf, like this....

My never ending quest to plate the perfect Thali (minus the correct serving ware). Clockwise - lemon rice, fresh tomato chutney, chickpea curry, lime pickle, creamy spinach dal, cucumber raita, potato and cauliflower curry, roti, and in the middle date & tamarind chutney.

I'll add a belated Happy Birthday from down under ! What a feast you had.

Tandoori chicken masala, Bengali cauliflower curry (no onions, no garlic), creamy spinach dal from the Punjab, garlic naan, rice, cucumber raita, tomato chutney, green mango pickle.

Fettuccine rigate with pesto, a salad of rocket from the garden and garlic bread.

Now back to regular life, home style fish curry, dal, roti, rice, fresh tomato chutney, radish raita and lime pickle.

Arrived home Monday night (after a week away) to someone ecstatic to absolve all meal planning and little food in the fridge. This was cobbled together, onions, garlic, tomato, harissa and potato cooked in chicken stock with an egg on top and a spoon of yoghurt. Served with pocket bread as an outer case.

My honorary lady is a friend called Marc. The venue is in Victoria St Richmond (little Saigon) in Melbourne. They only do pho. We both chickened out and had the shredded chicken, minus the giblets, liver and hearts. I lied, they do spring rolls as well.

Another lunch, same eaters. The venue is the Black Hill Hotel, where the new owners were rapt in Mums stories of the pub from eighty years ago (she wasn't an underage drinker, rather friends with the publicans daughter). The meal was beer battered flathead for me, salmon for mama. The best meal I've had in Ballarat for a looong time.

The ladies were me and my nearly ninety five year old mother. The venue was the Ballarat Yacht Club. The lunch was pumpkin and haloumi tart with tomato relish and a salad. The view speaks for itself.

There's an Indian dish I've made with round eggplants about tennis ball size. You cut them from bottom to stem twice to make an x shaped opening to stuff with a mix including crushed peanuts, fried onion, garlic, ginger and ground spices, then simmer in a tomato type sauce. The Indian eggplants are usually striped white and purple, but it would work as well with yours I guess. It was like this one...http://indianhealthyrecipes.com/gutti-vankaya-kura-enne-badanekai-recipe/

More Indian food. Chickpea curry, mushroom curry, spicy potatoes, dal trevini, rice, naan bread. Served with mint raita, mango pickle and tomato chutney.

Thanks for that link @Okanagancook, I'll have a read later. Yes, definitely heat the pan. It needs to be hot enough that a few drops of water sizzle and disappear. The batter should be fairly runny, like pouring cream. I use a small ladle to spread the batter in a circular motion, cook for about 2 minutes then flip. There's lots of YouTube videos on the subject. Good luck ! Edited to add, she's the daughter of Meena, small world.

Yesterday I road tested my 50 cent op shop find, Flavours of India by Meena Patak (she married into the Patak empire). Pork vindaloo, spicy potatoes, snow pea poriyal, dal triveni (so called because it has three types of lentil), rice, served with pappads, tomato chutney and mango pickle. The potatoes were the star, although the snow peas were a close second. The book is a definite keeper.