Chacarero

Pebre (Chilean hot sauce)

I made this sauce using this recipe. SO delicious. Yum yum yum!
 

Wholemeal Cheese and Herb Damper

A damper is somewhat like a scone. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the difference is. It's a rustic quick bread that was probably cooked over the campfire or something romantic like that. Mine was cooked in an oven. The recipe is from a 'MasterFoods Outdoor Cookbook' I got at the second-hand place next to the dump. I've changed a few things, but not much. SO yum.

Cost: Nuffin for me - I had all the ingredients in the pantry

Makes: 6 pieces

Ingredients:

• 1 C white flour
• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• pince or two of salt
• 40g of butter (I used light olive oil spread)
• 3/4 milk (I used non-fat)
• 1 C shredded chese (I used colby cuz it's what I had)
• 2 T white vinegar (I used rice wine cuz that's all I had)
• 2 T mixed herbs your choice - I used oregano, chives, and kawakawa (aka bush basil)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190C/380F (I'm guessing on this one, look it up!)
• Sift dry ingredients, including spices
• Add butter and mix til you've got a fine, breadcrumby type texture
• Mix in cheese
• Dump vinegar in milk
• Add enough milk mixture to make a easy to handle dough
• Place on lightly greased baking sheet and pat into a nice round shape, 2cm tall
• Score into as many pieces as you'd like (I did six)
• Pop in oven and cook for 25 min or until damper sounds a bit hollow when you tap it

Note: this doesn't really require any additional butter when you serve it. It was perfect just as it came out of the oven. Also, if you've never cooked with kawakawa before, be warned that it does leave your tongue a little numb. Not unpleasantly so. But just don't freak out if your mouth feels a little curious after using this fantastic native New Zealand leaf!

Pumpkin Curry in a Pumpkin!

This was one of those recipes the grocery store has by the front door. I, of course, modified it a bit. SO yum. And eeeeeasy. 

Cost: around $10.00

Yield: hhhhhhhhheaps!

Ingredients:

• 1 smallish round pumpkin (4lbs or so)
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 cub cubed firm tofu
• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• curry sauce (make your own, or cheat like me and use a 410g can of pre-made. Lazy!)
• fresh garlic & nutmeg to taste
• salt, pepper and cilantro to season  (if desired)

Method:

• Cut lid off pumpkin and scoop out seeds
• Pierce outer skin of pumpkin and set in pre-heated 180c/350f oven for 10 min
• While pumpkin cooks,, saute onion and garlic until soft. Then add tofu and broccoli for a few min. Then add your curry paste/sauce/spices. Note: I used a can of Korma sauce. Mmm. You use whatever rocks your boat. If you make your own sauce you want enough to fill a standard soup can, and it should have a thick-ish consistency.
• Take the pumpkin out of the oven and stuff with filling. Put lid on and pop back in oven for 45-60min or until pumpkin is soft enough to pierce with  fork. 

To serve:

• Remove from oven and let stand 5 min.
• Slice pumpkin like you're slicing a cake.
• Put one slice of pumpkin on plate and surround with filling.
• Season with salt and pepper and garnish with cilantro.
• Note: I served this over coconut rice (basmati rice cooked with 1/2C shredded coconut. Yum!)

Soo good. And as you can imagine, it's ripe for experimentation. The idea to add tofu was at the suggestion of the other Jack to give this dish a protein boost.