Farmer's market, slow cooked beef stroganoff (and leftover pie)

Last Monday - the last day of my long long weekend - I put the slowcooker on and sat and relaxed. Slowcookers are wonderful that way. They cook your food while you do something else, or nothing at all.

I've been going to my local farmer's market on a Sunday, after seeing the cows on Four Corners. I want to eat ethically and locally raised meat. From my parents' property or from the farmer's market. So while I've eaten meat out at restaurants (and spent a full week vegetarian), the only meat I've cooked has been my parents' lamb and local beef from Family Farmed Meats. I also try to buy my fruit and vegies from local grocers - so good to support them, and much tastier!

The market is lovely - in a shed at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds every Sunday from 9.00 am - 1.00 pm. It has fruit and vegies, baked goods, meat, honey and cheese.

 L'Artisan Cheese from Timboon is amazing. Seriously :)

 

 I bought the triple cream brie, the big white one. It's soft, creamy and strong. Better than any supermarket cheese!

 Michael's breaky barbie is fantastic! He has a small menu but so tasty! The hot chocolate is wonderful.

This is the best breakfast ever - poached egg with polenta, fried bread, a salad of greens, fennel and cabbage, topped with beetroot in yoghurt, celeriac and lentil purees. ♥

So, I used the meat I bought at the market, along with some vegies bought at the market and my local grocer to make the stroganoff.  Carrots, beans, mushrooms, eggplant, tomato, capsicum, sweet potato and pumpkin (kindly cut by my grocer due to my thumb). I loved the sun through the window as I took these photos.

I got by with a little help from my friends - convenience seasonings. These eliminated the chopping - my thumb was too sore. And the slowcooker seasoning pack adds lots of flavour.

 Here's the beef. So tasty, and great value.

 All in the slowcooker. This was about six servings.

Towards the end of cooking, I added sour cream and also cooked pasta bows for serving. It was so very yummy!! I had it for dinner once, and two lunches in the week.

I still had a pot of leftovers, so I reheated it on Saturday night and made it into a pie. I love this pot - so vibrant :)

 My pastry was a little broken.

 I pieced them together in the pie dish and hoped for the best.

 And the topping! Not a pretty pie, but a good use of leftovers!!

Accidentally gourmet mustardy duck pasta

I worked up a hefty appetite this strenuous afternoon, filled with sitting on the couch in my jama pants and woolly jumper, reading newspapers and blogs and watching the ABC's 24 hour news channel. So with the lack of pre-packaged foods in my cupboard, and my jama pant situation preventing me leaving the house, I had to 'cook' something. I call this 'Carly's Mystery Cooking Foray'. It could have ended in tears, but it ended up surprisingly tasty. You too can foray into the mystery. For I am sharing the recipe!

My mystery ingredients were pasta (not a mystery), butter, duck rillettes and dijonnaise. The last three ingredients were the first I pulled from the fridge.

It's so easy I've abbrev. the recipe (ie - cut and pasted it from Facebook).

1. Cook pasta in m/wave for 5 mins. I cooked 1/2 cup elbow macaroni. 

2. While pasta cooks, reach into fridge, blindfolded if you like, and grab three items. I chose butter, duck rillettes (potted duck) and dijonnaise. Cut a teeny bit of butter off, about 1/2 cm cubed, and spoon one heap each of dijonnaise and duck rillette (no fat) onto a tiny plate made in a small country town given to you by your parents. Mix around with spoon or knife.

3. Drain pasta and stir in the 'sauce' - the hot bowl will cook it. 

It tasted creamy and mustardy. Accidentally gourmet. Yum!

I didn't take a photo of the end product, as I didn't predict its success, but it looked a bit like mac and cheese, but with mustard seeds through it. This is a pilfered picture of mac and cheese.

Try it with other mystery ingredients. May not work well with anchovies, chocolate sauce and chutney though ;)

Ladies of the 4 Ingredients fame, look out.

Frugal cooking - vegetable curry

With food supplies affected by natural disasters, the price of bananas at a shortage and costing $12 per kilo, and the milk wars in the big supermarket chains, it's really important we continue to support our local grocers and farmers. Eating well doesn't have to be expensive though.

Last night I made a kick arse healthy vegetable curry for less than $7 (for three serves) and most of my ingredients were bought from the local grocer or from my parents' garden. All ingredients were in my fridge, freezer or pantry.

I chopped a clove of garlic and one onion (from grocer), and softened these in a small bit of olive oil in a ceramic pot on the stove.

Then I put all these things in the pot:

These organic carrots were on sale from my grocer - a bunch for $1.50. This is half a bunch and I chopped them roughly.

I had four spears of corn (from grocer) that I used in a stirfry last week. I chopped them in half.

Mum gave me a few fat white zucchinis from the garden. I cut this in half lengthwise, and in half again and sliced it.

I used half a tin of chickpeas and the end of a piece of ginger.

And about six dates, chopped in half. Dates from Coles.

I used up a small amount of frozen peas - also from Coles.

And some Greek yoghurt (Coles) - about two tablespoons. I hardly ever eat flavoured yoghurt. The thought of the artificial 'fruit' and sugars that go into flavoured yoghurts scare me.

The curry sat on low heat for an hour. I spiced it up with a mix of cumin, coriander, sumac, sesame, salt and fresh chilli (from the jar). It smelt so delicious.

And this is the end meal, served with rice. Tasted very yummy and so healthy too. It was sweet and mildly spicy and really comforting