The Coochie Island Canteen

The word coochie has some sexy connotations, of the feminine variety, but this post is named after an idylic island I have been internet stalking on Australia's real estate websites. It is just off the coast of Brisbane, Coochiemudlo Island, Coochie to the locals. It has a smattering of houses, where the local kids have to catch a ferry (free) to get to the mainland schools. It's beaches are perfect: white sand azure blue ocean no concrete promenades or hired umbrellas, just a backdrop of peeling gum trees, ants and blowies and dusty paths that turn to sand that snake from backyards to the sea.

I am imagining living on Coochie, my kids playing outdoors, racing around on their bikes and flip flopping around with dirty toes and icy-poles and freckle-faced mates, hanging about the Coochie Kiosk, shells in their pockets, wet bum-marks from dripping cossies on cotton shorts. I though I might open a little canteen, (that opens Friday to Sunday breakfast through to cocktails and tunes) and get the national press (and The Selby??!!) excited by my Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern home-style cooking, the chic yet unpretentious decor (is that an oxymoron?). Queensland food-lovers will flock for a piece of heaven on the weekends - a gastro destination - they can eat, share plates, lick fingers, go to the beach for a swim or lie-down, then come back before the last ferry with salt-caked skin and oceanic smiles for a chilled beer or fizz and some really good music. It will be called: Coochie Canteen.

So there we have it - my dream. I'm starting with this blog, collecting and sharing recipes that may one-day make it on the menu. So, welcome to new readers and old alike to the (virtual) Coochie Canteen. I will try and share my favourite tunes with you too, just like the frustrated DJ I am, along with the recipes that are making their way to our plates.

Coochie may be a word for a place from where we all came - well, I am taking back the feminine in cooking - as a mother, a lover, a wife and woman - I cook to nurture, and yes, sometimes to seduce, to celebrate, to cherish, to help those I love grow.

This recipe was given to me by a beautiful woman, Handan, who is living in Manchester but is originally from Turkey. It epitomises the kind of food I love. It is familiar but exotic, hearty but not too rich, sexy but homely, comfort food that is elegant enough to impress friends with. It is a Turkish pasta recipe and goes something like this.

Handan's Turkish pasta with puy lentils, beef, cinnamon and garlic yoghurt 

for the sauce

3 tbsp olive oil
1 large brown onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
300g ground organic beef
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 bunch curly parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato concentrate
3/4 cup vegetable stock
1 cup dried puy lentils (cook as per pack instructions ie: @40 mins in water seasoned with a bay leaf, some carrot ends, celery, until firm but not crunchy)
sea salt, pepper
500g shell-shaped pasta - or other dried varieties that have a nice hollow to cup the sauce, penne would be fine

for the garlic yoghurt

1 cup Greek yoghurt
1 clove of garlic, crushed and squished with a little salt until a paste
a squeeze of lemon juice
a little splash of olive oil

method

Fry the onion in olive oil on a low temperature in a heavy-bottomed fry pan, stirring frequently until the onion is a deep gold but not burnt. Remove the onion from the pan, set aside.
Add a little more oil and fry off the ground beef - as much as you like per person - I tend to use less rather than more, 50 to 100 grams a head. As the beef begins to brown, season with the cinnamon, cayenne some salt and pepper and add the parsley (save a little for garnish). Next, add the tomato concentrate, the stock and puy lentils (you could use the pre-cooked variety from the supermarket but I would add them right at the end of cooking so that they don't get too mushy). Turn the heat up to get it bubbling. As the fat starts to rise to the top, turn the heat to very low, cover the pan and let the sauce cook on a gentle simmer for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile make the yoghurt sauce by combining the yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice and oil. Set aside.

Cook your pasta in a big pot of boiling water, seasoned with a teaspoon of salt. Cook as per packet instructions - al dente!

Once the pasta is drained add the sauce, mixing the two well so that the little shells get their fill of meaty sauce. Serve drizzled with the garlic yoghurt and some extra parsley if you like.



Ps: sorry to anyone who read this post when I was debating name changes for the blog and had rushed in to calling it Coochie Canteen - I'm having second thoughts, so it stays as is, the food diary, for now. But a new name is imminent - I need a more catchy domain name. x

Back!

Can you guess where I've been?

Holland!

Well, it was a while ago, but that's my excuse for not having posted for so long.

So, here's some of the food that's been gracing our table, starting with the best cake I have ever made, a raspberry cream cheese crumble cake - three distinct textures in one cake. The first is a springy almost chewy sponge, then dense smooth baked cheesecake topped with a golden crumble punctuated with zingy raspberries. It really is very special.

(Please excuse Instagram photos, it's my new plaything - I will get back to the proper camera soon, and Instagram does what it says - creates instant pictures, that have allowed me some spontaneity and a sense of freedom and inspiration to get back to sharing recipes on this blog)

 

Next up is a Sicilian style pasta inspired by my main man Yotam Ottoloenghi with roasted cauliflower, tuna, pine-nuts, saffron and raisins that I served with a salad of wild rocket and the last of the summer figs. I love cauliflower cooked this way - with a dash of olive oil, some salt and pepper and roasted in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. I first had it at Mr Wolf, the fab pizza restaurant and bar in St Kilda, Melbourne. I also put it into paellas and cous-cous salads, it would be great as a mezze plate topped with a garlic, yoghurt and tahini dressing.

 

 

Raspberry and cream cheese crumble cake

2 1/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
zest of one lemon
150g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
small pinch of salt
3/4 C plain yoghurt
1 egg
1 1/2 C fresh or frozen raspberries plus 12 for topping

For the cream cheese:

220g cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 C sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
Grease a 20cm cake tin with butter, line the base with greaseproof paper.
In a food processor, blitz the flour sugar and butter until crumbly, reserve one cup of mixture for the crumble top of the cake.
Put the rest of the mix in a large bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, yoghurt and egg. Mix with a spoon or spatula until well combined then fold in the raspberries.
Pour the mixture in the tin and smooth the surface to make even.
Beat the cream cheese with the egg, sugar and lemon juice, spread over the mix in the tin.
Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top and dot with the extra 12 raspberries.
Cook for 1 hour until your cake tester comes out clean.


Tuna, saffron and cauliflower spaghetti
(serves 4)

1/2 a head of a medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp raisins or currants
pinch of saffron - powder or threads
splash white-wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 red onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery cut on angle into 1.5cm slices plus leaves pick and reserved
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
250g spaghetti
50g pine nuts toasted
1 tin tuna in olive oil, oil drained
Parmesan grated to serve

Method:

Get the oven hot, 220 Celsius.
Toss the cauli in one tablespoon of oil and season, put on a baking tray and cook till golden, about 10-15 minutes.
In a frypan, warm the rest of the oil and cook the onion and celery till soft, about 8 minutes.
Add the raisins or currants and the saffron, sugar and vinegar, let it sizzle and release the pungent vinegary smell, add the cauliflower and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
Meanwhile boil the pasta in salted water until al-dente. Drain and add to the sauce along with the pinenuts, tuna and celery leaves.
I serve it with Parmesan but some people turn their noses up at cheese on seafood pasta...