Caloundra Corporate Party Catering By Sacred Chef
Pacific Crown Helicopters of Caloundra, engaged Sacred Chef, to cater for their Christmas Party, celebrating a successful year of sales, service and aasemblage. Seventy five guests were well looked after with canapes and drinks, as they mingled under the gleaming visages of several two million dollar helicopters. Sporty red metallic birds of flight, and imposing black choppers, sat under the hangar roof, as party guests enjoyed delicious food and a fine range of festive liquors.
The Sacred Chef’s attractive waitresses were on hand to dispense cooling drinks with a smile, and to ensure that guests felt appreciated by their hosts, Pacific Crown Helicopters of Caloundra. A well illustrated barperson, with a supanova like personality, kept the patrons entertained and lubricated throughout the night.
Christmas cheer plus delicious, distinctive and divine party food made this evening one to remember, under the auspices of these shiny birds of flight. I may never be able to afford my own helicopter, but at least, on this night, I danced pretty close to a few million dollars worth of mechanical marvels. Sacred Chef Catering, of the sunshine coast, put the polish on an already highly buffed surface to reflect the pure professional poise and charm of Pacific Crown Helicopters of Caloundra.
My Spanish Omelette Pan
As I was cooking my most recent Spanish omelette, the other day, I thought about just how long I have had this pan – thirty years I think. This pan and I have made a lot of Spanish omelettes together. We are both a bit beaten around the edges I suppose, but we still make a pretty yummy omelette!
I have carried this pan in my kit bag, so to speak, over continents and across this land – a journeyman with his tools of trade, flipping peasant food that defies fashions and fads. In a simpler world one could make a living with just this single pan – bringing nourishment to the world. Romantic daydreams I suppose but the essence of cooking hasn’t really changed in three thousand years.
If you can take potatoes, eggs and oil, and create a wonderful repast for others to enjoy – then this is the primal heart of catering and cooking.
Sacred Chef Cooking School and Catering.
Spanish Omelette
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 6 potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• 6 eggs
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbs roughly chopped fresh continental parsley
In a frypan saute your potatoes in olive oil until just
tender before adding in your onions, garlic, salt and
cooking for a further 5 minutes. Beat eggs and paprika,
pepper, salt in a bowl before pouring over potatoes
and onions in the frypan. Turn the heat down
low and put a lid on pan, cook until eggs begin to set.
Flip omelette over in pan and cook the other side for
a further 5 to 10 minutes on a very low heat, Allow to
cool and serve warm or chilled with roast garlic aoli.
©Sacred Chef
Diet Refers To More Than Just What You Eat
Some of you may know that the word diet, from its original Greek origin, refers to more than just what you eat – it actually encompasses a wider meaning, more like your way of life.
Comes from Greek diaita, “a way of life, mode of living.”
So changing your diet involves more than just amending what you eat, it means changing your way of living. For those who are embarking on a change of diet for health reasons, to lose weight or gain weight, I think understanding this broader meaning can help in making your changes more successful.
You may be thinking about becoming a vegetarian, or eating more protein and less carbohydrates, and you may be looking into doing cooking classes to learn more about that culinary dietary approach. I would advise you to remember that it is not just about learning new techniques and recipes - it actually involves a whole new philosophy. A new way of thinking about food, cooking and eating – a new way of being. At this time, if you wish to be successful in your new dietary approach, you need to open your mind and your heart to something beyond what you have been and known before.
Food and what and how we eat are all intrinsically tied up with our earliest beginnings, wound up with psychological spells from our childhood. Many of you would be familiar now with the term “comfort foods,” usually simple dishes or substances that provide emotional succour, by giving us the illusion of returning us to a time when we were little children feeling nourished and safe with mummy. In fact I see many people in the community seemingly permanently locked into these childish diets. The tradesmen still consuming flavoured milk and fast foods, even well into their thirties and forties. The receptionists still eating hot chips and drinking coke for lunch. The many people who are too scared to try anything new and still basically eat what their parents served them, when they were growing up.
You have probably heard the expression, “you are what you eat!” How we eat and what we eat defines who we are, as much if not more than any other factors within our lives. If you are eating mindlessly, processed foods made in factories, then you are not bringing a great deal of consciousness to your diet. My advice is to become aware of who is making your food, as much as what is going into the manufacturing of your food. To really revolutionise the quality of your life, learn how to prepare your own food and learn about good food and real foods. Take control of your life and your body.
The Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast is a great place to learn about good food and nutrition. We offer more than just new techniques and recipes, we offer an introduction to a new way of living, which is less dependent on processed foods from the supermarket. Making your own food means it tastes a hundred million times better than anything made in some factory for money and you know what is going into it. Awareness changes everything!
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
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.
Sacred Chef Spanish Cooking Class Olé Sunday 25 Sept
Olé Spanish cuisine!
The Sacred Chef cooking class on Sunday Sept 25 was a full blooded delicious triumph according to participants: Elizabeth, Joan & Max – who were later joined by by Randell and sons for lunch.
Grilled Chorizo sausage with anchovy and olive tapenade; Spanish omelette made with a medley of gourmet potatoes; roast garlic aoli; local mussels in wine, chilli, tomato and garlic; panfried butterflied whiting fillets crumbed in Parmesan and breadcrumbs; king prawns sautéed in fino sherry, bacon and leeks; roast pumpkin and local buffalo milk cheese, baby spinach leaf salad; tomato and roasted red capsicum, fresh basil salad; and dark chocolate, coconut and mixed nut slice with raspberry coulis and double cream.
A thirst quenching array of wines by the glass, matched these mouth watering dishes and tapas. Good music and good company made this a lunch to remember – the anecdote, involving a large pepper grinder hitting the Sacred Chef on the top of his head, caused much laughter and a sizeable egg on his head.
Sacred Chef cooking class on the sunshine coast will feature Thai food this Sunday 2 Oct 2011.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR SACRED CHEF COOKING CLASS GIFT VOUCHER
Sacred Chef Vegetarian Cooking Class Sept 24 Another Wonderful Day
The Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking class and lunch, was another great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants. We made Thai pastries with tofu, cabbage and almonds; a delicious chickpea lemongrass and sweet potato curry with basmati rice; Mediterranean savoury muffins; buffalo milk cheese and grilled rosemary pumpkin, baby spinach leaf salad; also a glass noodle, sesame veg and fresh mint and coriander salad; plus a pure chocolate tart with raspberry coulis; and a LSA spelt rhubarb and apple crumble.
Very tasty fun and then a relaxing lunch on a gorgeous Maleny day – the wine was good and the music selection was also much commented upon as very complementary. Several attendees are seriously thinking about doing the Vegetarian Cooking Series, running for 6 weeks and beginning on the 8 of October. Cooking new dishes, discovering some new ingredients, working with local produce and having a lovely day – not a bad way to spend a Saturday.
Real Food Festival Sacred Chef Vegetarian Cooking Class a Great Success
Great fun in a warm and friendly atmosphere
The Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking class, held under the auspices of the inaugural Real Food Festival, was a great success. A dozen wonderful people attended the hands-on cooking class and gourmet lunch, and if my ears didn’t betray me, they absolutely loved it! We doubled the size of our usual class, due to the demand, and made the necessary structural adjustments to make it possible. Some very culinary talented individuals created delicious Mediterranean savoury muffins, which were gluten free, and Thai pastries with a fresh mint raita, followed by buffalo mozzarella rocket pesto thin crusted pizzas, warmed medley of olives in lime, rosemary and chilli. They then created a beautiful chickpea and lemongrass curry, served with basmati rice, and Roma tomato, fresh basil and buffalo bocconcini salad, and to top it all off they made a divine pure dark chocolate tart and raspberry coulis, which was served with strawberries and double cream.
What really impressed me about this group, and the day itself, was how well everyone got on, animated conversation flowed around the communal table and you would have thought that it was a family gathering, without the fights of course. Generous amounts of wine flowed, although all within today’s prescribed levels of moderation, and everyone expressed genuine appreciation and praise for the day. They were a great group of people.
I would like to express my thanks and congratulations to Julie Shelton and Lee Ponder, for the wonderful job they did with putting on the Real Food festival – it was a great success!
We have booked out another Sacred Chef vegetarian cooking class, here on the sunshine coast in Maleny, on the 24 Sept, and are now booking into Saturday 1 Oct 2011, for which there are still a few places left. If you want to have a truly great day, come and partake in a fun class and enjoy a yummy lunch!
Great Idea for a Unique Gift!
The new Sacred Chef Gift Vouchers are a great idea for that unique present for a friend or family member, in South East Queensland. The vouchers can be for a fabulous Sacred Chef Cooking Class & Lunch, here in Maleny on the sunshine coast. Stan Gooch, who attended our class on Saturday, said,
“Hi Sudha,
Just to thank you for the cooking class yesterday.
I really enjoyed the experience, having done several in this area, I can rate yours the best I have been to. Your course offered a more casual teaching atmosphere which for me made it a great experience, both in the making of the food and in the eating of it, as well as being in the company of a great group of people.
Thanks also to John for his efforts, for a ‘beginner’ he did a great job.
Look forward to catching up on another class sometime in the future.
Best regards,
Stan Gooch”
We do classes/gourmet lunches seven days a week – so that the recipient can choose a day and date to suit them, they can arrange to bring a friend, partner or even a small group, with them. It is a really lovely way to spend half a day here on the sunshine coast, at our cooking school
The perfect present for a foodie!
Sacred Chef Gift Vouchers are a great gift to give to those who love their food and good cooking. You can have a gift voucher made out for a gourmet meal for two, delivered or prepared onsite, or a gourmet meal for as few or as many as you would like.
EVouchers NOW AVAILABLE – Do it all online!
Vouchers come with promotional information illustrating the goods or services that they provide, making it easy for the recipient to use them!
The Perfect Birthday Present – looks beautiful; easy to post or email; can be used for up to a year!
Gift Vouchers can be for:
- cooking classes
- tarot readings with afternoon or morning teas
- a voucher for a scrumptious, indulgent cake
- dinners
- party catering
- gourmet hampers delivered
- lunch
- online recipe book
Xmas Pressie + Anniversary Gift + Birthday + Valentine
A $50 Gift Voucher for a 40 minute Tarot Reading!
A $70 Gift Voucher for a Gourmet Picnic Hamper!
A $100 Gift Voucher for a Cooking Class & Lunch!
A $150 Gift Voucher for a Gourmet Catered Lunch for Two!
A $200 Gift Voucher for a Gourmet Catered 3 Course Dinner for Two!
Ph 07 5499 9280
Sacred Chef Seeks Sacred Waitress, or Waiter, or Waitperson, even.
Sacred Chef Seeks Sacred Waitress, or Waiter, or Waitperson, even. Immediate Start Phone Today 5499 9280 or 0466 281 806.
This is daytime waiting work, some weekends and weekdays!
If you would like to work with the Sacred Chef and have the necessary attributes – some commercial kitchen experience and the ability to be quick and efficient with your hands; to think clearly under pressure and to follow instructions – then please make yourself known as we have some great jobs coming up over the next few days, weeks and months. This is occasional work and usually involves weekends and evenings.
Ph – 5499 9280
Sacred Chef cooking school on the sunshine coast, employs locals and trains them in hospitality.
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?
Due to Demand Repeat Real Food Festival Vegetarian Cooking Class on 24 Sept
Due to demand we are repeating the Real Food Festival Sacred Chef Vegetarian Cooking Class on Saturday 24 Sept
Vegetarian Cooking with the Sacred Chef
Spend a day cooking and eating with the Sacred Chef, at his sunshine coast cooking school – well-known for his divine vegetarian food.
Participants will be involved in hands-on cooking in the cooking studio, preparing 6 dishes: tapas, starters, entree, mains and dessert.
Complimentary wines and mineral water are available with lunch, plus coffee and tea. Gluten-free dishes are also included in the menu.
Participants get to take home recipes, notes, articles and nutritional information. Plus a goodie bag!
Date: Saturday, 24 September 2011
Time: 11:00am – 3:00pm (2 hours in cooking studio followed by leisurely lunch)
Location: Sacred Chef Cooking Studio
843 Maleny-Landsborough Road, Maleny, Sunshine Coast Hinterland
(opp. Reserve Restaurant just before Mountain View Rd turn-off)
Cost: $69 (includes lunch)
Bookings: Sudha Hamilton (07) 5499 9280
Conditions: Strictly limited to 6 participants
* No certified wheel chair access, but we could facilitate the participation of a wheel chair bound person.
Sweet Potato, Coconut & Mussel Soup
Sweet Potato, Coconut & Mussel Soup
- 12 local mussels
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 birds eye chilli sliced in half
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 tsp seas salt
- 1 large kumera sweet potato chopped into chunks
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp finely sliced lemongrass
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1cup purified water
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 cup chopped fresh coriander
- 1 tsp red curry paste
- 1tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp ground cummin
- 1 tsp black pepper
- dash of fish sauce
- ½ cup finely chopped spring onion
In a heavy based large saucepan place your sweet potato, stock, water, lemongrass, garlic & ginger & cook over a moderate heat for 20 minutes. In a separate pan with a lid, place your mussels, white wine, stock, garlic, ginger, chilli & over a high heat with the lid on steam open your mussels (5 minutes on the boil).
Blend your sweet potato mix when cooked & then return to the pan where you can stir in your coconut milk, red curry paste, fish sauce, cummin & coriander. Finish with spring onions & ladle into bowls. Arrange 3 mussels into each bowl & drizzle coconut cream over the top, before grinding fresh black pepper to finish.
Serves 4.
©Sacred Chef
Cooking school on the sunshine coast, with the Sacred Chef, where the coconut captures hearts and taste buds daily!
Crispy Tempeh with Grilled Tomatoes & Garlic Mushrooms
Crispy Tempeh with Grilled Tomatoes & Garlic Mushrooms
- 1 block tempeh cut into 12 fingers
- 4 ripe roma tomatoes
- 12 small button mushrooms sliced
- 2 cloves garlic finely sliced
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- squeeze of lemon juice
- dash of soy sauce
- dash of extra virgin olive oil
- canola or light olive oil for frying
Start with your grilled tomatoes as they will require the most cooking. Slice tomatoes in halves sprinkle with sea salt & extra virgin olive oil & place under griller for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile in a saucepan with olive oil & over a moderate heat sauté your mushrooms & garlic for 5 minutes. Before this is complete heat up your fry pan with some canola oil & shallow fry your tempeh fingers until gold & crispy. Return to your mushrooms & finish with dash of soy sauce, lemon juice & black pepper. Arrange your grilled tomatoes on a plate, sprinkle with black pepper & fresh basil. Add to this a spoonful of garlic mushrooms & 3 crispy tempeh fingers. Serves 4.
©Sacred Chef
Vegetarian cooking classes on the sunshine coast, with the Sacred Chef are a tasty way to transform your eating habits and to feel more alive!
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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Journal Weekender Interviews the Sacred Chef
Quest Newspaper’s Journal Weekender interviewed the Sacred Chef about his Vegetarian Cooking Class as part of the Real Food Festival on 10 & 11 Sept 2011
When did you fall in love with food and cooking?
I remember being drawn to restaurants and exotic menu items as a child, trying things like snails and steak tartare when I travelled to Paris with my mother on a trip away. I had this desire to experience great food and was very aware of just how bad Australian food was in the nineteen seventies. I started cooking in high school, doing home economics – which was also a great way to meet girls at the time. I started in restaurants when I was seventeen and was soon the sous chef at Zorba the Buddha vegetarian restaurant in Sydney’s Taylor Square, in the early nineteen eighties.
What’s the first dish you can remember making?
I think something out of a Margaret Fulton cookbook – probably a spinach pie or a quiche. I know that I made so much butternut pumpkin soup in my early years, cooking in restaurants and cafes, that I stopped making it for about 20 years.
What is your background in vegetarian food?
I started at the Rajneesh Meditation Centre as the commune chef, moved to their restaurant in Taylor Square, managed their cafe in Oxford St Paddington, before moving to start Doc Dinkum’s Natural Cafe in Willoughby, Laurie’s Vegetarian Restaurants in Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Randwick & Bondi before starting my own vegetarian restaurant in King St, Newtown called Rude Rumbles.
What is your favourite vegetarian dish?
I am currently doing a lot of tapas – goat’s cheese and tapenade grilled crostini; roasted red capsicum salsa, buffalo mozzarella and rocket pesto pizzettes; leek and tomato Spanish omelettes.
I also love Thai salads with crunchy raw veg, glass noodles, mint, chilli, fresh lime and toasted seeds and nuts.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about vegetarian food?
That it is an either, or, situation, when in actual fact 95% of all cuisines are about preparing vegetables, with the cooking of meat and flesh generally being for special occasions. Traditionally most people could not afford to eat meat every night, and whether it be French, Italian, Lebanese, Japanese and so on, these cuisines are rich in recipes for the preparation of grains and vegetables. Now we know, that it is far healthier to eat a diet with a wide array of vegetables, legumes and grains, so it is in everyone’s interest to learn how to prepare these ingredients.
Our diet, unfortunately, reflects the industrial approach to food manufacturing we have taken in the west and we eat too much fast food because we are inundated by its advertising. We need to understand that market forces will not, and do not, take into account our required optimal levels of nutritional health, and we are paying dearly for it, in health costs in our hospitals; when it is too late. Heart disease and bowel cancer, are our top two killers, and they are a direct result of our poor diets, in conjunction with our increasingly sedentary lifestyles.
What’s the one thing you hope people take away from your Real Food Festival cooking class?
That preparing meals with vegetables is both easy and very tasty – that you don’t have to miss out on meat – rather you can add in lots of delicious dishes made with sensational vegetable produce. It is a mind set thing, more than anything else, we all get stuck in doing the same old things in the kitchen, that maybe mum used to do, and we need to realise that the world has changed. There are now hundreds of fresh ingredients available, that were not previously available in our parent’s generation, so we need to source good quality vegetables and try new ways of preparing them beyond meat and three veg. Cooking classes are a chance to tap into some information and inspiration, get enthused about being alive, eating, drinking and creating something beautiful.
Thanks Lisa!
Cooking school on the sunshine coast with the Sacred Chef, where everyday can be an opportunity to celebrate being alive!
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.
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
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