Wild Mushroom Soba Noodles

Reluctantly, I bought the mushroom mix from Norton Street Grocers today. You do get a good range of mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, shimeji, enoki and swiss brown) but it's a bit expensive for the amount and they should know better than to keep mushrooms under gladwrap as they sweat.

This is a really quick meal to prepare.

Boil the soba with wakame for 3-4 minutes. Pick out the wakame and then refresh the soba in cold water so it doesn't overcook.

While the soba is cooking, fry some grated ginger, garlic and carrot sticks with the mushrooms. Dress the noodles with sesame oil, mirin, soy sauce and furikake (a Japanese topping). Add the mushrooms, toss and that's it. That shouldn't take much longer than 15 minutes so is a great mid-week meal.

Steamed Brussels Sprouts in Nutmeg and Cracked Pepper Butter

Like any child, I absolutely hated brussels sprouts. I don't think they were ever meant to be boiled for 30 minutes...

These days I try them every now and then but the scars are still fresh.

This is a quick way to make them. Steam the brussels sprouts for 10 minutes, toss them in the melted butter, grate some nutmeg and crack some pepper over the top. Some things to try for next time: fry some sage in the butter until it is crispy and maybe add some roasted chestnuts. I did have some chestnuts but they got a bit funky after sitting in a plastic bag for a week.

Warm Kipfler Potato and Bean Salad with Homemade Pesto

I was going to buy some packaged pesto for dinner tonight as I just couldn't be bothered but was shamed into actually cooking my fresh basil rather than using it to decorate the kitchen. Pesto is so quick and easy to make, maybe I should do it more often...

I've made this before with rigatoni but the Carbohydrate Cops complained. I don't see the problem, you can ever have enough carbs.

Fresh peas might be tastier than beans and a little chili would be nice next time.

Seasonal Veggies from Fratelli

Once in a while when I go shopping at a decent green-grocers, I remember that I should be embracing the change of weather and eating seasonally. Not only do the veggies taste better but it's probably more responsible to avoid having food shipped out from across the globe or have it sitting in cold storage for months on end.

Fratelli always have great veggies and they tell you what's currently in season. I also noticed for the first time their useful board with a long list of potatoes and their uses. My shopping bag included: broad beans, celeriac, brussell sprouts and fennel that are in season now. This is a useful list of seasonal veggies in Sydney throughout the year.

Broad beans have a really short season. Even though it's a pain to shell them, boil them and then pull them out of the second grey coloured shell, just remember that in a few weeks you'll have to wait another year before you can buy fresh broad beans again. So, enjoy them while they're here.

For tonights menu, we have: broadbean and mint bruschetta, celeriac and dutch cream potato mash, lemon and honey fried haloumi on red oak leaf lettuce. I have to go a bit easier on the honey next time and remember to give the haloumi just 2 minutes on each side. Marinating the haloumi in the 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of honey for at least an hour makes a tasty difference.

Pizza Margherita

I really like the wholemeal flour from Bronte Organics (54 MacPherson Street) - it's so much tastier than white flour. But when you are trying to make pizza dough, it doesn't have enough gluten to make a nice smooth springy dough. Next time I'll have to try mixing it with some other strong white baking flour to give the yeast something more to work with.

Home-made pizza definitely tastes better when you put a little bit of effort into making a nice sauce. The sauce was made from three 400g cans of while italian tomatoes, two large eshallots, garlic, 1 small chilli, paprika and a big spoon of tomato paste. Simmer for 20 minutes and ideally prepare it the day before.

Home ovens generally aren't as hot as pizza ovens used in pizzerias. One way to get a bit more heat is to use pizza stones or terracotta tiles place on the racks in the oven. The best results come from the pizzas that are cooked on top of one tile with a tile sitting on the rack above it since the upper tile radiates heat back onto the top of the pizza. Terracotta tiles can be bought at Bunnings for less than $5 each but I managed to crack one of mine. Maybe a thicker tile would be better.

Vegetarian Wonton and Wartip

At least a few times a year, I like to make up a big batch of wonton and wartip. The good thing is that any leftovers can be frozen and used later.

I normally use shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and chives for the wartip and I swap the chives with shallots and chinese cabbage for the wonton. A couple of eggs and some corn flour helps bind the ingredients better.

The wonton just need to be cooked long enough so that they float. The trick to the wartip is after they have browned, pour about 1/8 cup of warm water into the hot pan and cover with a lid to let it steam. This gives the wartip's pastry the chewy but crunchy texture that is so important.