Moving House Tiramisu

So half the kitchen is packed, I suddenly realise I have quite a lot of food left, and my eye catches several significant food groups – sugar, chocolate, cream and alcohol. I smile.

A small square cake tin
Left over savoiardi biscuits (dry, sugary sponge fingers)
approx 150g chocolate melts
about 250ml cream
roughly (I'm moving house remember!) 4 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 100ml hot water
sort of 100ml port mixed with 50ml water

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (about two inches of water in a medium saucepan, with the chocolate in a metal bowl sitting on top of the saucepan).

Line the cake tin with baking paper (this makes life so much easier!). Place enough biscuits in the tin to form two layers – you may have to break up some biscuits. Pour over the coffee and the alcohol until the biscuits get soft but not squishy. Pour melted chocolate over the top, and allow to cool.

Whip the cream with a bit of caster sugar (about 2 tbl) and a dash of vanilla extract. Spread over a firm, cooled chocolate layer. Serve. Several times. With alcohol (I'm moving house remember!).

A nicer version of this (when one isn't moving house) would be to substitute the cream with mascarpone, use a little Grand Marnier instead of port, and add orange zest to the mascarpone.

Four meals from one roast pork

For Christmas, we picked up 1.5kg of boneless rolled pork loin. Since there were only two of us, and we were conscious of the custard, cheesecake and triple brie to come, we managed to stretch our pork over several meals.

Roast pork and vegies
For Christmas lunch, the pork was roasted with garlic, rosemary and peach at high heat for the first 20 minutes and then a moderate heat for the remaining 60 minutes. We also filled another roasting pan with sweet potato, potato and onion. These went into the same oven at the 60 minute mark.

Pork and vegetables wraps
A small amount of the leftover pork and vegetables (just enough for taste) with some cream cheese and apple sauce were wrapped up in flat bread for a quick and light lunch.

Pork pies
Again, the pork and remaining vegetables were warmed up in the fry pan. We added 1 tsp cornflour, a little white wine (2-3tbl) and approx the same amount of water to make enough sauce to bind everything together. Puff pastry lined and topped four little pie dishes. These were baked at 180C for 25 minutes (until the pastry was brown and crispy). If I wasn't already sold on the beauty of a big single roast and it's leftovers by now, I certainly was after this dish. It was so simple and so incredible!

Pork pasta
The final dish. The remaining pork was warmed up in the pan with olive oil, and combined with sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini, shallots, fresh rosemary and white wine to make a light pasta.

A multi-cultural vegetable pizza

I think one of the most important parts of maintaining a healthy diet is eating junk food. Otherwise you'll go mad while you're munching away on a carrot stick and everyone else is hoovering up pizza.

However, while I think the type of junk food has little impact, the way it's made is very important! CUE: our vegetable pizza. It sounds mad, but just read the ingredients list and you'll see what I mean. If you use a homemade pizza base and a salt-reduced cheese, this is technically healthy! I also dare you to try the yoghurt topping!

2 tbl tomato paste

1 tsp harissa

Moroccan sausages or chorizo, cooked, cooled and sliced

2 fried Lebanese eggplants (the Lebanese eggplants are small and thin, if using the traditional larger one, you only need a small handful of sliced eggplant) 

½ roasted capsicum (red pepper)

¼ roasted pumpkin or ½ roasted sweet potato

1 big field mushroom or 2-3 smaller ones, sliced

cumin

lots of cheese, mozzarella is awesome, but plain tasty cheese is fine

The vegetables

The roast vegies we used in this recipe were actually leftovers, so ideally I would roast half a pumpkin, diced (or several sweet potatoes, diced) and a whole capsicum, cut into quarters, seeds removed, together, in a hot oven for about thirty minutes or until mellow and crispy around the corners. I would then use half of these ingredients for a salad, a quiche, a pasta etc. When the capsicum has cooled a little, peel off the skin, and when it's cooled completely, slice your ½ capsicum for this recipe into thin strips.

Slice the eggplants into thin strips. Heat 2 good tbl oil in a non stick pan, and then fry the eggplant until crispy.

The pizza

Mix the tomato paste and harissa together, and spread over the pizza base. Then assemble your vegies and sausage with artistic flair. Sprinkle with cumin. Top with cheese. Bake at 180C/350F for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is browning.

The yoghurt

approx 1½ cups Greek-style yoghurt (or natural)

⅓ bulb of garlic, minced

3-4 leaves of mint, chopped finely

½ cucumber, peeled, grated, and wrung out (to get rid of the juice, which apparently you can then drink, but I'm not brave enough)

squeeze of lemon

Yoghurt? …Trust me. Again, this makes more than you need. I use the leftovers on lamb, jacket potatoes, another pizza ('cause quite frankly, this recipe usually gets repeated a few days later!). Combine all your ingredients and then dollop over the pizza once it's baked.

Tip: allow the pizza to cool for 2-3 minutes before you cut it. This allows the cheese to harden just a little so it doesn't slide with the knife off the pizza, taking all your topping with it. Bastard.

Another light squeeze of lemon juice over the pizza also seems to help.

Fried potatoes and egg

This recipe is best with leftover boiled potatoes, but roast potatoes or mashed potato will work too. Press a fork into the potatoes to break them up a bit, then fry in a little olive oil. Add some cumin, ground coriander seeds and paprika. Push the potato to the side of the pan, so you can break an egg in the middle. Fry both sides, but only for a short while on the second side so the egg yolk will run. Serve with grated cheese and some sweet chilli sauce.

Leftovers

Leftovers are awesome. Casseroles, pasta sauces, roasts, chocolate mud cake – they always taste better the day after. Of course, some things aren't so good – wilted lettuce soggy with yesterday's dressing comes to mind. Leftovers also need to be stored correctly. Cooled uncovered on the bench, wrapped, and promptly tucked away in the fridge. And they should be consumed within a few days. If something's been in your fridge for more than a week, or you can't remember when you cooked it, it needs to be chucked!