Sacred Chef Supports Brain Tumour Research
29th November 2011
The Sacred Chef Cooking School
Email: sacredchef@midasword.com.au
Dear Sudha,
On behalf of the No Brainer Ball Committee I would like to thank you for your generosity in supplying an all day cooking class for one person full of “gastronomical delights” which ends in a 3 course meal including complimentary wine (valued at $89.00) for our auction to raise funds for Brain Tumour Research.
We had several bidders with the lucky Winner being Christian Webber of Banksia Dental 54942424 who won this auction for $100.00. We have given Christian your details.
The auction was a roaring success with funds raised on the night of over $15,000 and the town talking about next years No Brainer Ball already. We do hope that you will continue to support this yearly event and perhaps next year book a table?
Again, thank you for your support.
Kay Ridge
Sunshine Coast Valentine Day Special Gift
Recharge your relationship with some cookery spells and make beautiful food together.
CLASSES FOR COUPLES
A Sacred Chef cooking class just for the pair of you!
Cooking can be a bonding experience – fun and inspiring too!
Share some good food secrets with the Sacred Chef and take home recipes that you made together.
Choose a menu for two in consultation with the chef.
Enjoy a delicious lunch afterwards and reap your rewards.
$178 per couple
your day includes a 3 course meal; complimentary selection of wines; take home recipe pack & goodie bag too!
SacredChef.Com Registers 20 000 Visitors
Sacred Chef Catering & Cooking School proudly announces 20 000 unique visitors!
As an online resource for recipes, nutritional information and scheduling for cooking classes, Sacred Chef, has provided people with wisdom, facts and services.
Take Control of Your Diet
One of the most empowering things that you can do in your life is to take control of what you are eating. If you are eating a lot of processed foods bought in the supermarket, then you are not in charge of what goes into your body. How much salt and fat is inside that product and what kind of fat is it? How does the chemical balance, which has been put in place by the manufacturer to preserve that product, react with your own metabolism? There are so many variables to consider when you are not eating fresh food, and equally importantly, preparing it yourself.
Learning to cook and discovering the nutritional make-up of foods can really benefit you in so many ways, including losing weight and feeling more alive. Recently there have been huge leaps in the understanding of nutritional science and how foods are processed by our bodies. The importance of certain essential fatty acids, like omega 3, and redressing the imbalance of omega 6 essential fatty acids in our foods, with too much soy, grain fed livestock and vegetable oils – all rich in omega 6 – in our diets, which is often something like 40 times that of omega 3. We are generally not eating enough oily fish, nuts and seeds in our diets today.
What is the result of this? Too much omega 6 causes inflammation within our bodies and what are some of the chronic conditions this causes? Arthritis – inflammation of the joints; cardiovascular diseases – inflammation of the heart’s arteries; strokes – inflammation of the cerebrovascular; and there is speculation that depression may be caused by inflammation of the brain. Diet/ what we eat and how we eat is the most integral factor in our propensity to develop diseases. A lot of foods in the supermarket do not address this and their prime reason for existence is to make money for their manufacturers – food technology is about durability not nutrition.
Food is your best medicine, not some vitamin pill or pharmaceutical – these are again mainly about making money for their manufacturers – otherwise they would be free wouldn’t they? My advice is take charge of what you eat and how that food is prepared. You will find it can also be highly creative and you may derive some pleasure and pride in the act of cooking a great meal – which is healthy and delicious. You can also save money along the way.
Cooking classes are a great way to discover nutritional information whilst having some tasty fun. My Sacred Chef cooking school, here on the sunshine coast, focuses on preparing food that is both healthy and delicious – you will also receive a take home recipe pack with additional nutritional notes and articles, which I wrote for magazines like WellBeing, Conscious Living and Eco Living Health Aware; plus you receive a free health magazine too!
©Sacred Chef
Every class is full of healthy information and great recipes.
www.nofreudnoprozac.org for more information about omega 3
Bland Food Blues
The sunshine coast has many unique and wonderful features that you cannot find anywhere else in Australia. Unfortunately a proliferation of outlets providing distinctive and delicious food is not one of them. There are a few special restaurants located here and there but the vast majority of commercial food outlets are serving bland and boring food. The major reason for this is that they are all buying their ingredients from the same companies – who deliver packaged, processed and usually frozen food right to the kitchen door.
Wondered why that calamari/salt and pepper squid tastes exactly the same (flavourless and spiceless) at every cafe/restaurant you go to? Well it is all prepared in the same factory and then frozen, before being distributed to outlets around the country. Despite having Mooloolaba fishing harbour on our doorstep, very few restaurants utilise fresh local seafood on their menus up this way. It’s a shame but nobody seems to care enough to change this situation. I always say every area gets the restaurants they deserve – that is the beauty of the free market after all.
Sauces and dressings are often made from pre-prepared tubs of factory produced stuff. You may as well stay at home and eat the sauces out of the jars that you purchased at the supermarket. The great majority of food on many menus, simply involves taking something out of the freezer and dropping it into the deep fryer. That is why if you have a look in the kitchen at many cafes/restaurants, there is only one or possibly two people in the kitchen – because they are not really doing any cooking, just re-heating. Despite this you are often paying over $20+ for a dish – that is not to say that many restaurants are making a great deal of money, quite the reverse as real estate/rents are way too expensive in Australia and to get anything maintained or built up this way costs a fortune. So the restaurateur is not going to pay more or go out of his way to put something special on the plate unless there is a demand for it or he or she has a real committment to that kind of thing. Did you know that around 90% of all restaurants in Australia are operating on less than 2% profit margins?
I suppose when dining out you just have to hope that the decor is pretty special.
Another solution would be to actually encourage the tiny percentage of illegal immigration we are receiving and get these refugees from Afghanistan to come up here and open some restaurants. It is a great immigration tradition and that is why our Australian cities now have such rich and diverse culinary cultures. The sunshine coast is way too “white bread” and we need some hard working first generation Australians to share their culture and cuisine with us. Enriching our communities and offering real value for money delicious and distinctive food.
Why We Eat What We Eat
As a cooking teacher, who regularly meets people through my cooking classes, here on the sunshine coast, I get to see what a cross-section of society likes to eat and feels comfortable with on their plate. It is interesting to observe shared traits amongst the groups of people, who pass through my cooking school, and it gets me thinking about the whys and why nots. I wonder why most of us tend to eat from a similarly small selection of meals, despite the fact that we now have available in our supermarkets a far greater choice of ingredients than ever before. I think about what food represents, in terms of its psychological ramifications within our lives, and whether these settings can be adjusted.
It seems to me that many of us retain attitudes towards foods, which were garnered in the family home when we were children; and that the apple generally falls close to the tree. If mum and dad liked certain foods and cooked these foods more often, then for many people these influences remain strong throughout their adult lives. A bit like the children, who upon leaving the nest, build their own homes in the same street, suburb or town as mum and dad, keeping extended family close. Food like shelter is a primal need and is intimately tied up with our notion of emotional security.
As we expand the concept of family outwards and it becomes our cultural heritage, food choices again are inextricably linked to our regional and national identities. Here in Australia we can celebrate the rich diversity of our many multicultural strands and this happens most often through experiencing the foods and culinary dishes of these transplanted cultures, like Italian, Thai and Chinese foods – made available by the restaurants and takeaways, which have been created by the sons and daughters of foreign shores.
We are enriched by experience when we allow ourselves to move beyond the close confines of who and what we think we are. Just as our human species is strengthened biologically when we mate and breed outside of those whom we call our own. The cross fertilisation of genes, ideas and even recipes can make us all healthier, smarter and our lives definitely tastier. Our predominantly Anglo-Saxon backgrounds, have unfortunately, cursed many of us somewhat with limited culinary antecedents and if we do not break out of these restrictive walls, then we are condemned to eat poorly and to miss out on the more sublime flavours that life has to offer.
What and how we cook is often a bit like how we make love, we learn from experience a few things and then tend to groove these moves; somewhat unchangingly. Primal activities are a bit like that, not something that we muck about with too much, and what and how we eat falls into this category. We eat to refuel, to derive energy and sustenance from food, but eating is also a profoundly sensual activity. The nerve endings and taste buds inside our mouths feel every morsel as it slides about, and we experience our food in full technicolour, sensorama – if we are lucky enough to be in touch with our full five senses of taste, smell, sound, sight and feel.
So eating is a very personal activity, it is close to who we are, and yet we often eat in public, unlike other intimate activities like sex and going to the toilet. This sharing of the eating experience in communal structures, like cafes, restaurants and workplaces is a ritualised cultural activity. We bring our own mores, likes and dislikes, to this public performance of consumption. I am always reminded of the recounted experience of migrant children in the Australian school yard at lunchtime, as the contents of their lunch boxes were reviled by the Anglo kids because of their peculiar differences. As children we often fear what is not customary and uniform, and unfortunately many of us remain in this childish state, particularly around our foods and what we consider acceptable.
When people form intimate relationships, like marriage and close friendships, they are often confronted with the need to move beyond their culinary comfort zone in a bid to cement the stability of their relationship. The desire to share tastes and flavours is sometimes paramount to couples and their ongoing sense of emotional security. I regularly hear about the compromises being made by one partner or the other, and the effect that the changes to their diets has upon them, both positively and negatively. In fact this can be a major motivating impetus in getting people to come along to my cooking classes. A bit like going into relationship counselling I suppose, with both parties hoping that the inspirational influence of a neutral teacher may magically impart some shift in the culinary status quo of their relationship; and it sometimes does.
Seafood is a commonly held culinary ‘no go zone’, among many of the people who attend my classes. I hear again and again the refrain, “Oh I didn’t know that seafood could taste this way!” Whether they had an unfortunate early experience with a bad cook or perhaps have actually never tried the said example of fish or shellfish, due to the fact that mum or dad likewise had avoided the experience and did not cook these critters at home, the fear based result was the same. We often work out who we are by declaring the things we know that we dislike, “Oh I don’t eat fish, or oysters, or mussels.” I may have made this decision when I was 6 years old but I unquestioningly stand by it today. The walls around this individual are close and in yours and their face, perhaps it makes them feel safe. Eventually however there comes a time when the individual feels somewhat cramped by their stated dislikes, and this is when they often find themselves in one of my cooking classes, either alone or with their partner.
I speculate that the adolescent or young adult who has consciously rebelled against the tastes and predilections of his or her parents, usually has developed a wider and more far-reaching culinary diet – they still may not be able to cook but they may consume more different foods. This individual has broken away from the invisible ties that bind the obedient child to the emotional strings surrounding mummy and daddy. We are all on variable time lines regarding this necessary rebellion, some do it early and some very late, but eventually we all need to break the moorings and swim free; and perhaps then taste the sea.
Sacred Chef Cooking School on the sunshine coast.
©Sacred Chef
House Therapy – Discovering Who You Really Are at Home.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A SACRED CHEF COOKING CLASS GIFT VOUCHER
Coconut Redemption Day – You Are Invited
Coconut Redemption!
The True Story Behind a Real Super Food.
Is coconut good for you or bad for you?
Is coconut fattening or not?
Research has now identified that coconut oil actually raises good cholesterol (HDL) more than it raises LDL.
Many consumers are confused about the health and nutritional status of ingredients, like coconut milk and cream – and would like these questions answered.
Mike Foale, Ex-CSIRO scientist and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture & Food Science at the University of Queensland, will answer these questions, at a public talk and demonstration to be held at The Green Kitchen Café & Organic Market, next to the Library in Maleny, on Tues 22 November 2011 at 10am.
Author of “The Coconut Odyssey’” published by the Australian Government, and inventor of the “Cocosplit” device, seen on the ABC’s New Inventors programme, Mike Foale is a leading expert on the coconut. Nutritionally and agriculturally, he has studied the coconut throughout his working life and spent years in the field, in the Solomon Islands and a vast array of countries throughout the tropical world.
Mike has been helping communities in these poorer nations, whose economies are dependent upon the coconut, through AusAID and their coconut improvement projects.
Discover how the US, through their promotion of soya beans,margarine and their negative PR about coconut fats, effectively killed off Australia’s love of cooking with coconut!
SEE MIKE FOALE DEMONSTRATE THE INGENIOUS COCOSPLIT DEVICE LIVE!
The Cocosplit device will be available for sale and is the perfect Christmas gift, for foodies!
When -Tues 22 November 2011 at 10am.
A huge range of products, derived from the coconut, will be demonstrated and onsale at the Green Kitchen Organic Market, located at 11 Coral St Maleny – next to the Maleny Library – plenty of free parking is available!
Local culinary teacher, the Sacred Chef, will be demonstrating some of the many uses coconut oil, cream, milk, sugar and flour can be put to in creating yummy food.
LEARN EAT DRINK DISCOVER BE INSPIRED SHARE IN
The Coconut Redemption!
Bios
Mike Foale was raised on a wheat and sheep farm in the Mallee of South Australia but got his first job as a coconut agronomist on a plantation in the Solomon Islands in 1959.
After nine years working out how to increase the yield of fruit from the coconut palms with fertiliser, how best to replace aging palms, and how to develop hybrids, Mike left the islands with his young family and returned to work for CSIRO in Australia on other crops. But the call of the coconut never went unheard so that Mike got involved through AusAID in coconut improvement projects in the south Pacific at a time when the coconut star appeared to be setting.
From the 1970s fierce competition developed in the marketplace for edible oils and massive processors in the USA sought to oust coconut as a healthy food from the market on the basis of some data linking coconut oil with serum cholesterol in humans. The value of coconut fell sharply and was in the doldrums until more detailed research identified that coconut oil actually raised good cholesterol (HDL) more than it raised LDL. Mike does all that he can to spread the word about this finding and to highlight the many other positive effects of coconut oil on human health. This great food, foundation of the healthy diet of hundreds of millions of people in the tropical world, offers much as well to the diet of all who live outside the coconut heartlands.
The Australian government published Mike’s book “The Coconut Odyssey” in 2003 (still in print), and he presented a coconut splitting device known as Cocosplit to the ABCTV New Inventors in 2007 (see details on www.cocosplit.com). Mike and his wife Pam moved to Maleny in 2009. He is presently an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at the University of Queensland.
The Sacred Chef, Sudha Hamilton, has been cooking professionally for 30 years, restauranter, teacher and caterer, he runs The Sacred Chef cooking school in Maleny, www.sacredchef.com , and is the author of several WellBeing Magazine cookbook supplements and was their food editor for five years.
The Green Kitchen Café & Organic Market, is arguably Queensland’s most dedicatedly organic outlet for food, supporting local growers and producers. Located at 11 Coral St, Maleny, it has been operating under its current management for about a year www.greenkitchencafe.com.au
For more information and interviews please contact Sudha Hamilton on 0466 281 806 or email Sudha@midasword.com.au
Smoked Tofu & Slow Roasted Tomato Lasagne with Ricotta Pesto.
Smoked Tofu & Slow Roasted Tomato Lasagna with Ricotta Pesto.
250g lasagna sheets
6 vine ripened tomatoes
1 block smoked tofu crumbled
2 cups soft ricotta
2 tbspn basil pesto
1 tbspn chopped garlic
1 tspn chopped rosemary
2 tbspn fresh basil chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tspn chopped oregano
½ cup parmesan
½ cup white wine
1 tspn sea salt
1 cup shallots
black pepper to taste
This is a slow food dish & I recommend that you devote at least half a day to the relaxed creation of this very tasty meal.
Set your oven to a very low heat 100 degrees.
On a baking sheet lay out your thinly chopped tomatoes, garlic, sea salt, rosemary & oregano & slowly oven dry for several hours. The smell that begins to emanate from these after sometime is heavenly & you begin to understand what this slow food thing is all about.
In a heavy based saucepan sauté your shallots, salt, tofu, oil & wine.
When your tomatoes are ready fold into the sauté mixture & set aside.
In a bowl fold together ricotta & pesto.
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
In a greased loaf tin or baking dish lay out a sheet of lasagna pasta, top with the smoky tofu & tomato mix, another layer of lasagna & then ricotta pesto. Repeat again & sprinkle over parmesan to finish. Cover with grease proof paper & alfoil. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until pasta sheets are cooked.
Remove & slice into serves.
Serves 4.
©Sacre Chef
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
Vegetarian Real Food Festival Cooking Class with the Sacred Chef Today
Yes today completes the Vegetarian Real Food Festival Cooking Class with the Sacred Chef, which has been a wonderful success. Once again we will be creating six or seven yummy vegetarian dishes, such as my chickpea and lemongrass, coconut curry; fresh mint raita; tomato and cumin chutney; glass noodle sesame raw veg salad; tofu, cabbage and almond Thai pastries; and for dessert my pure dark chocolate tart and raspberry coulis. $69 for a two hour cooking class and 3 course lunch – best value on the sunshine coast I think.
Then we will all sit down together and eat this vegetarian feast, with complimentary wines and mineral water. The conversations and friendly exchanges amongst the collected cooks has been a real pleasure, and yes I do think vegetarians do it better.
There are still 2 places available – so if you would like to join us – just let me know – we start at 10am today Sat 8 Oct.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast, with the Sacred Chef.
Blood Cleansing Morning Heart Starter
Ganesh god of fresh beginnings.
Wicked Juice
1 large beetroot
1 tbspn size piece of ginger
1 pear
1 green apple
1 lime
½ lemon
1 orange peeled
10 carrots.
A stimulating & evocative concoction that will put hairs on your chest, figuratively speaking of course (but I have heard a fashion whisper that hirsute is making a comeback) . The beetroot & carrot are great blood cleansers.
Drink this juice every morning for a month and you will notice the difference in your energy levels and perhaps some weight loss too!
Sacred Chef was WellBeing’s food editor for many years and wrote and read many articles about good health and nutrition.
Sacred Chef WellBeing articles click here
For more Sudha Hamilton articles www.midasword.com.au
Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast is a healthy and delicious way to spend a day!
Sacred Chef News
Hi All,
I thought that I would summarise much of the intense goings on with the Sacred Chef cooking school, here on the sunshine coast as so much has happened in such a short space of time.
We have had 12 members of the local branch of McDonalds, here on the sunshine coast, attending a Sacred Chef cooking class and lunch – which I thought was brilliant and possibly a move in the right direction.
The Real Food Festival generated vegetarian cooking lessons for upwards of thirty people, who all attended the Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking classes under the festival’s auspices. It was such a big response we are still taking bookings now, weeks later, and the classes/lunches have been a real delight – with lovely groups of people having a great day! My conclusion is that vegetarians, and those interested in vegetarian cooking, are very nice people to have to lunch. We have another vegetarian cooking class and lunch on the 8 Oct – a couple of places remain available.
The Sacred Chef was host to a number of hen’s lunches and cooking classes, which are a great way to spend a fun day with friends and family! Why not celebrate your hen’s day or night with some tasty fun?
The Cooking the Great cuisines from around the world has been in full swing now for two weeks and we have visited Spain and Thailand. These classes and the following gourmet lunches have been fun and seriously delicious. Apart from the odd bump on my head from a flying pepper grinder I have thoroughly enjoyed these gastronomic Sundays – a really great way to spend a day in Maleny.
The Sacred Chef 6 week vegetarian cooking series, concluded last Thursday evening, with Japanese slippery silky textures on my lips. I would like to pay tribute to the class members for making my last month and a half a real joy, thank you.
In between all of this cooking school activity, Sacred Chef has catered for several large wedding anniversaries and a few smaller events, with many gracious thank yous coming our way.
Coming up we have weddings booked in November and a three day seminar in late October.
Recipe of the week:
Vegetarian Laksa with Tofu Laksa Paste • 4 Birds Eye Chillies • 4 Large Garlic Cloves • 2 Tbspns Ginger Chopped • 2 Stalks Lemongrass Chopped • 10 Macadamina Nuts • 1 tspn Asafoetida • 10 Vietnamese Mint Leaves • 2 tspns Ground Coriander Seed • 2 tspns Ground Cumin Seed • 2 tspns Ground Turmeric • 2 tspns Paparika • 2 Tbspsns Canola Oil • 2 tspsns Sea Salt Pound ingredient in a mortar or blend in a food processor until smooth. Store in an air tight jar in the fridge. Laksa with Tofu & Egg Noodles • 1 cup Laksa Paste • 250g Egg Noodles or Rice Noodles • 2 cups Sweet Potato Cubed • 2 cups Potato Cubed • 2 cups Tofu Cubed & Fried • 1 cup Black Fungus • 1 cup Baby Corn • 1 cup Bok Choy Chopped • 1 cup Green Beans • 1 litre Vegetable Stock • 1 can Coconut Milk • 2 cups Bean Shoots • 1 cup Fresh Coriander Leaves • 1 cup Fresh Basil Leaves In a large saucepan pour in your stock, add both potatoes and bring to boil before simmering until they are tender. Add in your beans, fungus, corn, tofu, bok choy and cook for a further five minutes. In a seperate saucepan boil noodles until just ready, drain and set aside still hot. In a small frypan saute your laksa paste for a couple of minutes before adding to your main pan, along with coconut milk and stirring in. In large soup bowls place noodles, then fresh herbs, bean shoots and ladle over laksa vegetable soup. Finish with fried shallots and serve with chopsticks and Chinese soup ladle. ©Sacred Chef
Sacred Chef 6 Week Vegetarian Cooking Class Series Concludes Deliciously
The Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking class 6 week series concluded last night in Japanese style, with a miso soup slippery with wakame, silken tofu and loads of flavour; followed by sushi nori rolls filled with teriyaki tofu, toasted sesame seeds, cucumber, pickled ginger, wasabi, avocado, spring onion, and even a few with “Love Supreme” buffalo milk cheese. Tempura vegetables were a real delight, with asparagus spears, cauliflowerets, zucchini, baby corns and more; all with that light golden crunch. An array of dipping sauces accompanied platters of these visually satisfying dishes, tamari, shoyu, red wine vinegar and chilli sauce.
The students expressed their appreciation of the weekly sessions, loving the food and the company. “What will we do next Sunday?” was the common refrain. It has been a real pleasure meeting these people and sharing my table with them, watching their enthusiasm for cooking grow and perhaps planting a few seeds, in the form of recipes, which will very likely bear fruit for them down the track. Cooking classes are a lot of fun and a great way to meet like minded people, getting to know them in a good environment. The kitchen is not a place where dissembling and disguise flourishes.
These cooking classes on the sunshine coast have been richly rewarding in the people I have met and I look forward to further chapters eventuating in my culinary adventure. Maleny is a great place to hold cooking lessons, surrounded by lush pasture and rolling green hills, it speaks of abundance and a pantry of plenty.
The next Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking class 6 week series, begins Sat 8 October, and there are still places available. So come and join me for a weekly immersion in new recipes, ideas, flavours and culinary fulfilment.
Vegetarian Laksa
Vegetarian Laksa with Tofu
Laksa Paste
4 Birds Eye Chillies
4 Large Garlic Cloves
2 Tbspns Ginger Chopped
2 Stalks Lemongrass Chopped
10 Macadamina Nuts
1 tspn Asafoetida
10 Vietnamese Mint Leaves
2 tspns Ground Coriander Seed
2 tspns Ground Cumin Seed
2 tspns Ground Turmeric
2 tspns Paparika
2 Tbspsns Canola Oil
2 tspsns Sea Salt
Pound ingredient in a mortar or blend in a food processor until smooth. Store in an air tight jar in the fridge.
Laksa with Tofu & Egg Noodles
1 cup Laksa Paste
250g Egg Noodles or Rice Noodles
2 cups Sweet Potato Cubed
2 cups Potato Cubed
2 cups Tofu Cubed & Fried
1 cup Black Fungus
1 cup Baby Corn
1 cup Bok Choy Chopped
1 cup Green Beans
1 litre Vegetable Stock
1 can Coconut Milk
2 cups Bean Shoots
1 cup Fresh Coriander Leaves
1 cup Fresh Basil Leaves
In a large saucepan pour in your stock, add both potatoes and bring to boil before simmering until they are tender. Add in your beans, fungus, corn, tofu, bok choy and cook for a further five minutes.
In a seperate saucepan boil noodles until just ready, drain and set aside still hot.
In a small frypan saute your laksa paste for a couple of minutes before adding to your main pan, along with coconut milk and stirring in.
In large soup bowls place noodles, then fresh herbs, bean shoots and ladle over laksa vegetable soup.
Finish with fried shallots and serve with chopsticks and Chinese soup ladle.
©Sacred Chef
Sacred Chef sunshine coast cooking school, have you been Sudhafed?
Sacred Chef Caters 50th Wedding Anniversary in Mooloolaba
The Sacred Chef was lucky enough to be asked to cater for a very special event last Saturday, at Alexandra Headland in the penthouse apartments overlooking the expansive eastern coastline. A fiftieth wedding anniversary is a rare and wonderful achievement, and something that belongs to two special people who have walked a long and often winding road. Congratulations to Margo, who let me know know that she was once a Hamilton, before she married her Man, a wee half century or so ago.
The Sacred Chef, and the lovely Lucy, who accompanied me on this catering bequest, were ensconced in our very own penthouse apartment and we plattered up an array of delectable canapés, whilst keeping an eye on the children – who were a little bored by proceedings, not having the benefit of experience or wisdom in such things. Our morsels of divine and delicious things were pillowed on cushions of French farmhouse buffalo cheese, made by Trevor Hart of the Cedar Street Cheesery. Oven dried cherry tomatoes and rocket pesto; grilled wafers of Chorizo sausage and tomato chutney; smoked ocean trout and pickled lemon; BBQ Thai Duck and tangy fresh pineapple. Sushi; tandoori lamb cutlets; roasted red capsicum and lime salsa; potato Parmesan and rosemary pizzettes.
Lucy walked tall and straight with her platters held high, and a smile like a promise of spring, as she invited guests to sample our wares. The ocean beckoned through the wide expansive windows and it reminded me a little of when I worked with Neil Perry at the Blue Water Grill in Bondi; all that Pacific ocean mirroring in. A beautiful ambience for a special party and days like this make catering more than just my hard work! Thank you to Leigh and Stephen for giving us the opportunity to be part of a truly lovely event.
Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast, have you been Sudhafed?
Sacred Chef Cooking School Features in Sunshine Coast Daily on Friday 2 Sept 2011
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR SACRED CHEF COOKING CLASS GIFT VOUCHER
Sacred Chef Cooking School will feature in Sunshine Coast Daily on Friday 2 Sept 2011
Recipes and information about the Sunshine Coast cooking school with the Sacred Chef will be featuring in their lifestyle section of the newspaper.
CLASSES AVAILABLE SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!
Cooking Great Cuisines from Around the World – a 4 week series
The Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast, is the perfect place for hands-on cooking experience in our well equipped cooking studio, here in Maleny. Fun learning in beautiful surrounds, overlooking the Glass House Mountains, and even better you get to eat what we make in relaxed comfort after the class.
For a great day of sensuous experience and stimulating learning in South-East Queensland, the Sacred Chef cooking school is the ideal outlet for those that love their food and cooking. You will be introduced to local produce, made here on the sunshine coast, like silky smooth buffalo milk cheeses and other great organic ingredients. Coffees, wines and exotic fruits are all to be sampled at the Sacred Chef cooking school in Maleny.
Classes are:
- 2 hours in the cooking studio hands-on
- apron & knives provided
- leisurely lunch follows each class
- fine wines by the glass
- take home pack of recipes & notes
- articles & food philosophy
- complimentary magazine
- goodie bag
- cooking class attendees at lunch
Imagine a day where you get to learn all these wonderful new recipes, with some helpful guidance, laugh and cry (in the presence of a few onions), share stories about kitchen triumphs and disasters in the company of fellow cooks, produce seven sensational dishes, before sitting down to one of the best lunches you have ever had. A glass of wine in hand, the delicious aroma of freshly cooked culinary creations and the appetite of the truly deserved.
Purchase a Sacred Chef Gift Voucher for your cooking class and arrange a suitable time & date when you are ready!
The perfect foodie gift!
5499 9280
Sacred Chef Vegetarian Cooking Class at the Real Food Festival Saturday 10 Sept 2011
Maleny’s premier cooking school
Cooking school only one hour’s drive from Brisbane
Sunshine coast hinterland cooking school for budding masterchefs
Cooking school for him and her on the sunshine coast, south east Queensland
The Sunshine Coast Cooking School presents the Sacred Chef
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Cooking is a dance of creativity
Sacred Chef's Ganesh
When I enter my kitchen I am often excited. I can be enthused and filled with purpose, as I have usually been brooding upon a brew or ruminating over a recipe. The gestation complete I have my pallete of colours and flavours clear in my mind’s eye. I begin to move quickly, running my knife over a steel, aligning the chopping board, pulling pots and pans out of cupboards. The clatter of stainless steel and a good deal of banging and crashing about signals my intentions to the household. The cooking dance is about to begin.
Rhythm is important to me when I am cooking, finding the right pace of movement as I chop, sauté and stir. A whirling dervish in the kitchen with the eight arms of Ghanesha, flipping pans, opening oven doors, adding ingredients, decanting, plating and all the rest. Cyclone Sudha and the west winds of a culinary storm – I often need to rest myself along with my meats before consuming anything I have cooked.
Sunshine coast cooking school with the Sacred Chef, where learning something new is fun and tasty too!
Turmeric & Coriander Panbreads
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup yoghurt
- 1 cup LSA mix
- 1 tbspn ground turmeric
- 1 tspn ground garam masala
- 1 tspn salt
- balck pepper to taste
- 2 cups chick pea flour
- 1 cup buck wheat flour sifted
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 1 tbspn canola oil
- 3 cups soy milk
- 1 cup chopped fresh coriander
Whisk eggs, yoghurt & spices together before adding soy milk, oil & the remaining ingredients. Beat batter to a smooth consistency & ladle into hot crepe pans. Flip & cook until golden brown on each side. Stack on a plate.
©Sacred Chef
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef, where everyone is welcome and good food is abundantly served.
Diet a Way of Life
The Greek root of the word diet is diatia, which refers to a way of life toward wellness, and is more than just a regime of eating do’s and don’ts. It understands the link between how you live your life and what and how you eat. Epicurus the Greek philosopher of BC 341-270 stressed the importance of eating with friends, and I personally know that when I eat with good friends that I eat with a greater degree of joy and dont eat as much as when I eat alone. Good conversation and the sharing of gratitude for a well prepared dish is the reason why, I think, that we first started eating out at friends places and restaurants in the first place. The level of noise in most restaurants in Australian cities has taken much of the joy of keen conversation away, above the ‘night club’ yell, “how’s the steak?” Where we eat and how we eat impacts on our digestion and therefore ability to benefit from good food. Dishes in restaurants have to be designed to excite and rise above the clamor of the hustle and bustle of busy eating houses, they are therefore usually rich and high in sugar and fats. How do you get noticed in a crowded room? By being extra spicy or so sensual that I melt in your mouth. The ambience within restaurants is part of a cyclical fashion trend and I am confident that it will shift again, away from the current din.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef, where the ambience is perfect for conviviality and a life affirming pleasure in good food!
Redeeming the Coconut
The Cocosplit team’s Mission Statement: COCONUT REDEMPTION
These two words acknowledge that coconut as food was, from the 1960s, presented to the world by the marketers of competing food oils as a danger to heart health in spite of its role since antiquity as a key component in the diet of tropical coastal communities.
Since the unqualified attacks on the value of coconut in the diet, independent research into the complex world of dietary fats and oils has exonerated coconut..
The Cocosplit team (Mike, Richard and Owen) is dedicated to join the many others who promulgate the many benefits of coconut in the diet, rebutting the wrongful claims that are still being made by competing marketers. Likewise many diet and health professionals in importing countries are not yet fully aware of recent research findings about the particular benefits of diverse dietary fats and oils.
The principal purpose of the Cocosplit team is to provide this simple yet remarkably effective tool, Cocosplit, that gives simple direct access to the juice and kernel of the mature coconut. Tools for extraction of the kernel from the half-nut complete the “do-it-yourself” kit for preparing fresh coconut to eat direct or process further.
Links are provided here to many other web-sites, opening the door to a wide range of reports on coconuts, coconut juice and oil, and their many potential health benefits.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
The Sacred Chef recommends the Coconut Splitter as a fantastic kitchen tool to facilitate greater use of the true superfood – coconut!
Weekly Cooking Bliss
Being part of a weekly series of cooking classes is a unique pleasure – as you build your relationship with the cuisine, the chef and your fellow attendees, watching your cooking improve, getting to know the ingredients and your new friends in the kitchen. Then sitting down to a truly delicious lunch, of which you have helped create, and enjoying the flavours, textures and the satisfaction of the fulfilled artist. Food tastes better when you have done something to earn the pleasure.
Coming along each Sunday and being surprised by a collection of new recipes, ingredients and local produce, to work our magic upon, is a stimulating experience. There is usually plenty of laughter in the cooking studio too, as everyone attempts unfamiliar techniques for the first time, this is the fun of a hands-on cooking class. Camaraderie soon develops between attendees and harmonious working arrangements begin to flow toward the creation of good food.
The conversation at lunch, after the class, is often thought provoking and what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to eat really good food, drink some fine wine, and share the stories of kitchen triumphs and tragedies. Like all seekers of glorious adventure, and passionate artisans, we risk ignominious failure and this is sometimes the bitter-sweet fate of the chef. Better to live one crowded hour, after all.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
5499 9280
Cooking the great cuisines from Around the World begins Sunday 25 Sept 2011 for 4 weeks.
Spring Food Recipes
Spring Food
By The Sacred Chef.
Published in Eco Living Magazine
Celebrating spring is very much about the birds and the bees, sowing seeds and enjoying the fecundity of nature. So what foods stimulate the arousal of life inside us by their essential chemical make-up and perhaps by their shape and form? Eating well – beautiful organic food presented naturally and eaten after some blood pumping exercise is the first step. Food tastes so much better when you have a healthy appetite for it. Don’t eat out of habit. Don’t eat the same boring thing every day. Don’t eat if you are not hungry. Food like love making is better when it is special. Food is an essentially visual art medium, like painting it is an arrangement of form and colour on the plate. Glistening green spears of asparagus with a dollop of basil, macadamia nut and honey mayonnaise; freshly shucked oysters alive in their sea salty liquor; ripe red strawberries perfect in their natural state; a salad of warm artichoke hearts, goats cheese, fresh figs and baby spinach leaves; or a tangle of fettuccine slippery with extra virgin olive oil, cherry tomatoes, chillie and chunks of ocean trout. Each dish can be a moment of poetry involving all the senses – what other art form do we literally consume. Let the smears on your serviette be a testament to the abundance of your life.
Zinc is one of the most important minerals to be aware of in relation to our libido and fertility levels. It helps maintain sperm count and levels of testosterone in men and in women it is involved in a healthy menstrual cycle; it is vital for cell division during pregnancy. Zinc is also needed for the parts of our brains that activate our sense of appetite, taste and smell. Oysters are packed full of zinc as are fish, green leafy vegetables, lean meats, nuts and pulses. Organic veggies have higher levels of mineral content than those grown with chemical assistance. Why not grow your own organic veggies? Spend a weekend digging in a patch and readying the soil for sowing – you will be amazed when green things start sprouting and you will feel a quiet pride when you first serve the progeny of your garden. The taste, oh the taste will blow your mind. You get the complete package – exercise by honest toil to build appetite, pheromones from perspiration to attract the opposite sex, superior nutritional value from organic produce and the best flesh for taste and colour.
Avocadoes were known as testicle fruit by the ancient folk in Central and South America. They are rich in phytochemicals and are linked to lowering cholesterol. Their creamy texture, gorgeous colour and reputation as an aphrodisiacal food make them an ideal ingredient in dips, salads and wraps. Three quarters of the avocadoes’ which we consume in Australia are of the Hass variety – with distinctive purple black skin and oval shape. Other varieties are the Shepard – green skin with golden buttery flesh and the only avocado not to turn brown once cut open – it is available from Feb to April; Reed – green skin when ripe, round shape and peaks in November; Sharwil – smaller pear shaped avocado with a rich nutty flavor, winter/spring variety; and the Wurtz – a smaller winter avocado grown in Queensland. Try spreading avocado, a good local honey and cracked black pepper on some lightly toasted sour dough rye bread for a delicious and nutritious start to the day.
Tropical fruits are pretty much sexy per se – things that like to grow and ripen under the sweaty equatorial sun. Biting into beautifully coloured fruits that explode in your mouth and send streams of juice running down your chin are experiences to surrender to. Fresh pineapple slices are particularly like eating sunshine and of course mango is the queen of the slippery fruit affair. These fruits are full of antioxidants, vitamin C and a diet rich in them can make you feel vital and youthful.
©Sacred Chef
Appeared in Eco Living Magazine
Excerpt from Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin Books ISBN 9780143038412
Holy of Holies – Perfect Pizza in Italy
“Pizzeria da Michele is a small place with only two rooms and one non-stop oven. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from the train station in the rain, don’t even worry about it , just go. You need to get there fairly early in the day because sometimes they run out of dough, which will break your heart. By 1pm, the streets outside the pizzeria have become jammed with Neapolitans trying to get into the place, shoving for access like they’re trying to get space on a lifeboat. There’s not a menu. They have only two varieties of pizza here – regular and extra cheese. None of this new age southern Californian olives-and sun-dried tomato wannabe pizza twaddle. The dough, it takes me half my meal to figure out, tastes more like Indian nan than like any pizza dough I ever tried. It’s soft and chewy and yielding, but incredibly thin. I always thought we only had two choices in our lives when it came to pizza crusts- thin and crispy, or thick and doughy. How was I to have known there could be a crust in this world that was thin and doughy? Holy of holies! Thin, doughy, strong, gummy, yummy, chewy, salty pizza paradise. On top, there is a sweet tomato sauce that foams up all bubbly and creamy when it melts the fresh buffalo mozzarella, and the one sprig of basil in the middle of the whole deal somehow infuses the entire pizza with herbal radiance………”
Recipes
A different kind of sexy is the feeling you get sliding a warmed spicy olive into your mouth.
Warmed Kalamata Olives in Infused Oil
Into a fry pan over a low heat pour 2 tbspns of extra virgin olive, then chop up a lime & 6 cloves of garlic and a piece of ginger, a sprig of rosemary, a cinnamon quill and add this to the warming oil, before adding in 3 cups of Kalamata olives. Stir through for 5 minutes and add salt & pepper to taste. Serve on a platter.
Salted fresh pineapple is a great way to serve the tangy flavor sensation of fresh ripe pineapple. Choose a ripe pineapple by its aroma, if you can find one that has not been too dulled by refrigeration, and cut it up into bite sized pieces and lightly salt with a special sea salt freshly ground down in your mortar and pestle. Accompanied by a fresh lime soda or a cold beer — and heaven is right there on that tropical island inside your taste buds.
Fresh Asparagus Spears dipped in Basil, Macadamia Nut & Honey Mayonnaise
Whole free range egg or egg yolk mayonnaise with a teaspoon ofDijonmustard ;
3 Tsp honey
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 cup fresh basil leaves torn
½ cup roasted macadamia nuts
1 ½ cups extra virgin olive oil drizzzled in slowly.
Freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste.
Whizz it by hand or in the blender adding in your oil slowly as you go.
Lightly steam or blanch your asparagus spears and serve accompanied by your tangy mayonnaise.
Warm Salad of Artichoke Hearts, Chorizo, Goats Cheese and Spinach Leaf Salad
4 Globe Artichokes Steamed Peeled and halved
1 Chorizo sausage grilled and sliced
120g fresh goat’s cheese served at room temperature
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 bunch asparagus steamed
3 cups baby spinach leaves
3 Romano tomatoes sliced lengthwise into quarters
Dressing – ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
sea salt & black pepper to taste.
Begin with the warm artichoke hearts and asparagus, cover them with dressing before gently arrange dobs of the goats cheese amid the slices of Chorizo, tomatoes, parsley and spinach leaves on a platter and lightly toss before serving.
©Sacred Chef
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
The Pleasures of Food
Pleasures of Food
By Sudha Hamilton
Published in WellBeing Magazine
I have always been passionate about food. It has, in fact, been a cornerstone of my existence. I recognised the signs early on, when I did not come off the bottle (alas breast feeding was out of vogue at this time) until I was about four years old, and I made quite a commotion about it then. That warm white milk spurting forth from that rubber teat was obviously a sensual and nourishing feed. Following that I remember a wonderful meal that mother used to make me, consisting of warm runny soft boiled eggs mashed up with torn crustless fresh white bread, the merest splash of milk and salt and pepper, mmmmm.
Ah food…it is a heady mix of psychological spells wound up in tasty matter. Foods that comfort us, foods that excite us and foods that calm us down. Our palate and our attachments to certain foods are I think all born of a time when we inhabited a yeasty humid world of milk sops and wet nappies. Textural considerations are of utmost importance when discovering dishes that provide us with inner sensual happiness: viscous soups and sauces, gooey eggs and soft steaming scoops of mashed potato, or balls of sweetened sticky rice and slippery steamed dim sum.
Eating food is pleasure and filling the empty tummy with something very scrummy is best. Pleasure. Is it a universal primary motivation? Or is it simply the avoidance of pain? Is hunger, once satisfied, the end of the matter? Or do we seek to enter that satiation by choosing just what we put in our mouths? The pursuit of pleasure: to achieve sensual gratification. Is it inextricably linked with our need for nourishment? Babies must have succour and must be touched to survive, and thrive to adulthood. Food in my opinion is not just fuel and not simply the sum of its parts. It is more than a list of kilojoules, fats, carbs and proteins. Like love it must be made pleasurable to do its work well.
Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) states: “The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. The flesh receives as unlimited the limits of pleasure; and to provide it requires unlimited time. But the mind, intellectually grasping what the end and limit of the flesh is, and banishing the terrors of the future, procures a complete and perfect life, and we have no longer any need of unlimited time. Nevertheless the mind does not shun pleasure, and even when circumstances make death imminent, the mind does not lack enjoyment of the best life.” However, perhaps Oscar Wilde put it more succinctly when he said, “Pleasure is the only thing to live for.”
Has my passionate relationship with food ever got out of hand? Yes. I was a fat child for a couple of years, and I paid the price with my slim, bordering on acetic father, ridiculing me whenever possible about my new found weight. Lolly addiction was a real problem for me at this time, as my mother, who did not enjoy making cut lunches, would endow me with forty cents tuckshop money and I would invest it at the corner shop in a large white paper bag stuffed with mixed lollies. I would share these with my best friend at the time, and he would entertain me with half his lunch, which consisted of sliced white bread sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. So as you can see my flirtation with food as pleasure flourished a long time ago. Trips to the dentist, despite all that fluoride in the water, were far too common.
Appetite and control
Appetite – the desire to eat until one is full, or to eat a certain kind of food; to experience a particular feeling as that substance slides down your gullet. Control or denial – the decision not to satisfy that desire and to go without, or to distract oneself by exercising; having sex or working. Or to appease or tease, by allowing only one mouthful, or two or three mouthfuls, or just a homoeopathic dose of your bodies desired dish. The sins involving food and the bible’s condemnation of gluttony inhabit us culturally and permeate all realms of our western civilisation. The way fat people are ostracised in our communities and portrayed in popular media as sad laughing stocks, and perhaps we all secretly feel that our derision will inspire them to lose weight and return to the company of the slim.
Can you remember the power of the lolly? Or do you have children who have reignited your experience with this over whelming obsession with these sugared jewels? The startling variety of colours, shapes and flavours. Surely these are the building blocks of taste experience for us all, as we sit quietly on the footpath outside the local deli sucking upon that first lozenge of truth. Milk bottles; musk sticks; bananas and sherbets, cobbers, raspberries, snakes and jelly babies, just to name a few of these highly desirables. Of course these addictions were managed in a cloak of normality, whilst competing at sport and doing homework, but always at the core of the pleasure principle was the lolly… and for me pleasure was life. I remember going to visit my maternal grandfather who was a doctor and lived in another geographical state, and he had a huge jar of jelly babies on top of the fridge. I thought this was great as we didn’t have anything like this at home and he was a doctor after all. Such was the alluring power of the lolly that it permeated even the highest levels of society.
Later, working in a liquor store I came upon that same phenomenon again; but this time for adults. Shiny bottles of spirits and wines were their lolly equivalents. I could feel their hardly suppressed excitement as they fingered the bottles and read those colourful labels with gleaming tiny gold and silver medals stuck to them. Alcoholics; drug addicts and sugar fiends we are all dependent on the balance between our appetites and controls, and the psychology of our passions. What did the Buddha say, “that all life is suffering and suffering is caused by desire.”
What about the neurological pleasure systems in the brain? Michael A. Bozarth from theUniversity ofNew York’s Dept of Psychology says “Neurological research has identified a biological mechanism mediating behavior motivated by events commonly associated with pleasure in humans. These events are termed “rewards” and are viewed as primary factors governing normal behavior. The subjective impact of rewards (e.g., pleasure) can be considered essential (e.g., Young, 1959) or irrelevant (e.g., Skinner, 1953) to their effect on behavior, but the motivational effect of rewards on behavior is universally acknowledged by experimental psychologists.
Motivation can be considered under two general rubrics—appetitive and aversive motivation. Appetitive motivation concerns behavior directed toward goals that are usually associated with positive hedonic processes; food, sex, and wine are three such goal objects. Aversive motivation involves escaping from some hedonically unpleasant condition; the pain from a headache, the chill from a cold winter’s night are among the list of conditions that give rise to aversive motivation.”
Hedonism then appears to be something that we should understand. The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary defines hedonism as “belief in pleasure as the highest good and mankind’s proper aim”. Personally I have been a big fan of hedonism and have lived my life as hedonistically as possible. However, having been brought up in a Christian /Presbyterian household, where hedonism was given a pretty bad name, it was necessary to throw off the shackles of the church’s wowserism and to embark single mindedly upon the pursuit of pleasure. I imagine that many people reading this have felt similarly about their lives in terms of giving to themselves and grasping the true meaning of ‘charity begins at home’ – and in my case the kitchen.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of cooking that I have found is making up new dishes. When you are cooking everyday for hundreds of people, and although often making batches of the same dishes, it is in my nature to want to break out and try something completely different. I was at this stage in my own little restaurant cum takeaway and like many young people I found pleasure in novelty and variety. I had one particular customer, who by tacit arrangement, would receive whatever I could challenge myself to come up with. A dish or plate created right then and there with no prior thought, and as luck would have it, he would often arrive at the busiest possible time during service. I would be swearing sweating and smiling, and making haste with the pans. Usually the result would be rather good, and although frazzled by the experience it was ultimately rewarding. Creativity can be a hard task master, especially when you operate out of chaos. Cooking is however one of the few great arts that you physically put inside yourself, try eating a painting for instance.
So food has always been important to me and although when I first began cooking professionally I had not really recognised that, as I always thought that it would be something I would do until I found my true vocation. Cooking was not the supposedly glamorous job, that it is perceived to be today. Then, no, it was just another trade but I found it to be a very satisfying one. It was essentially creative once you had mastered technique, each day I would be challenged to come up with new and diverse dishes. Regular trips to the produce markets would have me coming across vegetables that I had never seen nor heard of. What does one do with a box of Kasava? Well here’s one fromAfricato get you started:
Kasava Cake
Ingredients:
3 cups (or 2lbs.) grated kasava or manioc root
1 cup shredded frozen fresh young coconut
1 12 oz. jar of Macapuno Balls
1/3cup evaporated milk
1 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
1/3cup. whole milk
1/4tsp salt
1/2cup white sugar
3 eggs
1cup light brown sugar
1tbsp melted butter
Mix everything together, and bake in a buttered 9 X 13 inch pan for 2 hours at 325 degrees.
Other pleasurable delights…
Sudha’s Baked Spinach Pie
2 bunch field spinach washed and bottom stalks removed
2 med brown onions diced
½ cup strong white wine
4 large cloves garlic minced
1 Tsp ground cumin
1 Tsp ground coriander
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups fresh ricotta
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 free range eggs lightly beaten
1 cup chopped fresh basil
½ cup chopped fresh oregano
1 cup chopped walnuts
12 sheets filo pastry
½ cup melted butter
Sauté your onion, garlic spices in olive oil until translucent, cook in wile lastly before setting aside. Steam or blanche your spinach until just done immerse in cold water to stop the cooking process and then gently wring out excess water and chop into smaller segments and add a squeeze of lemon juice or a teaspoon preserved lemon rind finely sliced. In a large bowl mix together spinach, cheeses, egg, herbs, walnuts and your onion sauté and salt pepper to taste. I often add a little splash of a good quality soy sauce here and to most dishes really. In an appropriate baking dish spoon out your filling before laying sheets of filo pastry and brushing every second one with melted butter. Bake until golden brown in a moderate to hot oven. Serves 6-8.
Pumpkin and Pistachio Nut Soup
1 ripe butternut pumpkin peeled and chopped
2 large brown onions
1 Tsp minced fresh ginger
1 cup dry white wine (optional)
4 large cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
½ Tsp ground cumin
1 cinnamon quill
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ Tsp ground coriander
1 cup peeled pistachio nuts
2 cups chicken or strong veggie stock
2-3 cups purified water
1 cup watercress
1 cup pouring cream (optional)
In a large heavy based saucepan sauté your onions, garlic, ginger and spices in olive oil until translucent adding your wine in a few minutes before they are ready. Add in your pumpkin, stock and cover with water and continue to simmer for at least 40 minutes. In a blender blend your remaining ingredients with the cooked pumpkin and onion mix, leaving your cream if desired to whisk in by hand at the end. Serve with a sprig of watercress, a few sprinkled sliced pistachios and a dob of sour cream and fresh black pepper.
Oven Dried Tomatoes
Doing these at home will fill your house with an irresistible aroma that will have you salivating against your will. Hedonistic terrorists could use this process in their battle against the forces of parsimony. This operation will take a considerable amount of time and consumes quite a bit of energy/electricity or gas, so you get maximum slow food brownie points and I recommend that you do a big batch at one time to conserve energy and because they are so delicious you will kick yourself if you only do a few.
Lots of tomatoes (Cherry Tomatoes or small Romas)
Corn of garlic
Bunch of fresh rosemary
Bunch of fresh oregano
Bunch of fresh marjoram
Salt and pepper to sprinkle
Set your oven really low to around 80 degrees Celsius. Slice your tomatoes in half or quarters depending on size but smaller is quicker, place on baking trays sprinkle with finely sliced garlic, chopped herbs and salt and pepper and bake or dry for around eight hours. Serve on fresh crusty Italian bread with the finest extra virgin olive oil and your favourite cheese.
Savoury Mediterranean Vegetable Muffins
I made these muffins recently to take along to a night of chanting for Guru Purnima day, an Indian religious festival celebrated by those in the Hindu faith. I took along a journalist friend, Chris, and he enjoyed them so much that he has been haranguing me ever since to include the recipe in one of my columns.
11/2 cups plain flour
2 cups SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
5 whole 60g eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sauted chopped onion
1 cup roasted chopped red capsicum
1 cup grilled chopped eggplant
½ cup black olives pitted and chopped
1 cup pecorino grated cheese
1 cup crumbled fetta
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Grease muffin trays at least 12 muffin spaces. Sift flours, spices, baking powder into large mixing bowl and rub in butter to form a bread crumb like consistency – can do this in your mix master if you like. In a separate bowl beat your eggs, milk and add in cheeses, gently pour this into your big bowl of dry ingredients and fold remaining ingredients in to form raw cakey base glug with visible chunks of vegetable. You may like to stir in a further splash of extra virgin olive oil for consistency. Spoon into muffin trays and bake until golden brown and cooked through for about 40 minutes check with skewer.
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef
For more recipes and food articles www.sudhahamilton.com
What will you be doing this Christmas?
Heart of Gold
What will you be doing this Christmas? Will you be sitting down at someone else’s table or will you be dancing around your own kitchen in prayer for a tender bird or at least for the presentation of a sumptuous feast? Summer can mean hot times in the kitchen, often with the added strain of several seldom seen relatives out there in the living room staring uncomfortably into space. Again my advice is don’t over do it, keep it simple, most people are there for the company and good cheer, not for elaborate fine dining. Our warm weather suggests small amounts of food that zing on the palate. Things like dips and exotic chips, marinated olives, grilled seafood, crudités, and finger foods of all persuasions, are guaranteed to please, especially when accompanied by a superior liquid refreshment. May your mantra be – relax, enjoy and allow it to happen organically, meaning don’t impose too many uptight rules of engagement, give life a chance to unfold unpredictably, it’s the secret to actually having fun.
For more Sacred Chef summer madness click here
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