I’ve lived in Australia for a long time now, but every so often I feel the pangs of homesickness. But the things I miss from the UK – apart from my people – are usually food based.

A good Indian curry is often hard to come by in Australia – or it’s at least different to the food I grew up with in the UK. So to calm this particular call to my heart, I cook up a feast at home.

Here are some of the other curries I’ve shared in the past that often land on the dinner table when the mood takes me.

Saag tarka dhal recipe

Perennial, popular and ubiquitous in all Indian households, tarka dhal comes in many forms. Everyone seems to have their own version.

This is my interpretation, and although it probably doesn’t follow traditional methods, it still tastes amazing. I hope no curry purists find my recipe too heretic!

To make this dish vegan, take out the butter (or ghee) and replace with coconut oil.

With my tarka dhal I also made chana masala – you can find the recipe here. 

Here’s what you need:

– 1tsp coriander seeds
– 2tsp cumin seeds
– 6-10 mushrooms – sliced
– 1/4 cup oil
– 2tsp butter + 1tsp for garnish
– 2tsp curry powder (Keen’s)
– 2tsp garam masala
– 2 bay leaves
– 1 onion – diced
– 2 garlic cloves – finely chopped
– 1 tin lentils
– 3-4 drops of liquid smoke (I love Culley’s applewood)
– 2 handfuls of fresh spinach – you can use frozen spinach at a push
– Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

1. Toast coriander seeds and half the cumin seeds in a hot pan until aromatic, tip into a mortar and allow to cool. Grind up with the pestle and set aside.

2. Dry fry mushrooms until liquid has leeched out and set aside.

3. Add oil and butter to pan (or you can use ghee), add ground coriander and cumin, whole cumin seeds, garam masala, curry powder and bay leaves. Fry into a paste until the cumin seeds start to pop and sizzle.

4. Add onion and garlic and cook until onions have absorbed the curry colour. Add the mushrooms, lentils (drained and rinsed) and the liquid smoke. Stir until well combined.

5. Add the spinach and put a lid on the pot. Cook on medium-to-low for about 5 minutes until the leaves have wilted a little. Stir the pot to combine the spinach, then cover again and cook on low.

6. When the spinach has cooked down and combined well, serve immediately or leave in the pot, covered, until dinner time and reheat for a few minutes before serving.

7. When you’re ready, garnish with a nob of butter and either allow to melt or bring to the table and melt with a blow torch for a bit of culinary theatre. This also brings a little more smokiness to the dish.

In fact, it’s the smokiness of this dish that I love the most. Traditional methods impart smoke with a piece of smouldering charcoal in a foil tray set in the pan.

I don’t trust myself not to burn the kitchen down or set off all the smoke alarms, so a dash of liquid smoke or a touch of smoky paprika will do the trick.

You notice I also use tinned lentils here. This is purely for speed and ease. I’m sure using dried lentils gives a whole different dimension to the dish, but when you’ve got a hungry Christina clawing at your back, let’s see which option you go for then!

Let me know what your favourite curry is or if you’ve ever tried cooking tarka dhal. Would love to hear about it.

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Brought to you by Cockburn’s Late Bottled Vintage Port

When Mrs Romance and I were travelling in the UK recently, we had lunch with my parents. To my surprise, my dad ordered the pâté. But then I remembered what a classic dish this is and how delicious a well-made pâté can be.

It’s not something my dad would ever have at home – mostly because it’s usually a pain to make. And if it’s a liver pâté you’re making, it’s a bit gross to make too.

But this easy vegetarian pâté recipe is not only delicious, it’s quick, simple, and not messy or gross at all. It’s the perfect marriage of Port, Stilton and spring onion, and the resulting dish has all the key flavours of a classic pâté.

We’ve also made a similar pate with Cockburn’s Ruby Soho Port and Gorgonzola cheese!

For Father’s Day each year, we always have a family get-together where everyone brings something round. This vegetarian pâté is going to be an absolute winner this year.

And between Father’s Days, I think we’ll be adding this to our occasional platters too. The silky smooth texture and umami-rich decadence of a delicious pâté add that final touch.

Deliciously easy vegetarian pâté recipe

makes about 150ml of pâté

Here’s what you need

– 55g unsalted butter

– 1 spring onion – finely chopped

– 60ml Cockburn’s Late Bottled Vintage Port

– 125g vegetarian Stilton – crumbled

– Zest of ½ lemon

– 1 small bunch of parsley – finely chopped

– Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Here’s what you do

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and sweat the spring onion until it’s soft.

2. Add Cockburn’s Port and simmer for 3 minutes.

3. Add remaining ingredients and stir well.

4. Transfer into food processor and blitz until everything is combined and liquid.

5. Pour into ramekins and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Extra idea: try other strong blue cheeses. We tried it with Gorgonzola dolce and the pâté was delicious. The only thing to look out for is if the cheese you substitute is vegetarian or not. The Gorgonzola we used was not.

Take a step up this Father’s Day

This easy vegetarian pâté recipe will be such a hit with Dad, but there are a couple of things you can do that’ll make this a Father’s Day to remember for him.

First of all, don’t just give him the pâté, turn it into a platter he can feast on all day. Pick his favourite cheese and cut meats, and plate it all up for a surprise for him.

If you need help with platters, check out our post on how to create the perfect platter here.

Secondly, present him with the bottle of Port you’ve used for the pâté – or even better, buy 2 and keep the open one!

Why use Cockburn’s Late Bottled Vintage Port?

Cockburn’s (pronounced “co-burn’s”) is a family-run winery and has been since 1815, which makes this a most appropriate Port for Dad on Father’s Day.

Also, Late Bottled Vintage Port is a superb, easy-drinking Port with amazing balance, fruit flavours, jammy textures and a long, dry finish.

The flavour profile of this Port is why the pâté tastes so good. Late Bottled Vintage Ports must be made with wine from a single year of excellent growing and harvesting conditions. The Port is then kept in oak barrels for 4-6 years before it’s bottled.

The richness, the jamminess, the boldness of this Port holds up well against the saltiness of the cheese and the spiciness of the spring onion while also adding its own depth to the dish.

On its own, the Cockburn’s Late Bottled Vintage Port completes a dinner or lunch with finesse – and a bottle of this stuff will make Dad very happy indeed!

Shop it: $29.99 from Dan Murphy’s

How are you planning on spending this Father’s Day? Do you have a special dish you cook Dad for Father’s Dad? Tell us in the comments!

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Ever since Mrs Romance found out she was gluten intolerant, we’ve been looking around for gluten-free options for her. I find it amazing – and such a relief – that there are so many alternatives out there now that are actually edible (apart from the bread – someone needs to sort that out).

A day after we’d made our first slow-cooked roast lamb and quinoa salad, we discovered that we’d made way too much quinoa. I started looking around for things I could do with all this extra cooked quinoa and found this excellent recipe on MaNouvelleMode.com for granola.

Still, this recipe uses oats, which do contain gluten. It was then that my brain did its thing. I started wondering if I could replace the oats with these quinoa flakes I’d discovered recently.

The answer: indeed I could!

Even better than that, the recipe makes a granola that’s really bloody tasty too!

Home-made gluten-free quinoa chia granola

Serves 25 – takes about 50mins

Here’s what you need:

• 4 ½ cups quinoa flakes
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 cups unsweetened desiccated coconut
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup pecans
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• ½ cup pepita seeds
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ to 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup honey
• ¾ cup apple sauce (unsweetened if you can find it)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Here’s what you do

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (325°F).
2. In one big bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
3. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients – the honey, apple sauce and vanilla – and mix it up well.
4. Gradually mix the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients until everything is well-combined.
5. Spread the mix out thinly over baking trays lined with paper. Make sure the granola is no more than 1cm deep on the tray.
6. Bake the granola for about 35 minutes – checking after the first 15-20 minutes.
7. Stir the mix regularly and keep a close eye on the granola the closer it gets to time.

**35-40 minutes should be long enough – 45 minutes if you prefer a darker granola.**

You don’t have to add this exact mix – try walnuts instead of pecans or brazils instead of almonds. You don’t need to include chia seeds either – they’re a superfood but not essential to this mix. You can even add dried fruit to the mix if you want.

Quinoa (pronounced ‘keen-wah’)

Quinoa is an ancient grain that’s packed full of good stuff like magnesium, iron, fibre and protein, so it’s pretty good for you. To cook it, stir the quinoa into a pot of boiling water – about a 1:2 quinoa-water ratio.

We usually dissolve a stock cube in the water first too. You know it’s done when little rings around each grain start to detach themselves.

You can now find quinoa flakes pretty easily in the health food or dietary requirements section of your supermarket (if not, ask them to stock it). I use them a lot for an extra dimension when I’m crumbing things!

When it’s all cooked and cooled, all you have to do is slice up some strawberries or whatever fruit you fancy, add a dash of milk or yoghurt to your bowl and away you go!

What’s in your favourite breakfast bowl? Do you have a preferred granola blend? What do you use chia seeds for? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance.

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Mrs Romance and I usually embrace a dessert and all its sugary fun like an old friend, but we’ve been trying to cut down on sugar a bit. We’ve been harbouring a jar of Nutella in our pantry for about two months now.

It’s a bit like a smoker who’s trying to give up by keeping a last packet of smokes in the cupboard.

But the thought of this cake broke us… though we were kind of looking for a good reason to crack open that jar of delicious nutty chocolaty-ness.

Before today, I’d probably checked to see if Mrs Romance had opened it – spoon clasped in my shaking hand – about a million times. That woman has a resolve of steel.

We first saw this ‘No-Bake Nutella Cheesecake’ on the lovely Sam’s site The Annoyed Thyroid and decided to give it a go. We did alter the recipe slightly, just to make it gluten free.

Gluten-free Nutella cheesecake

Here’s what you need:

• 250 grams gluten-free biscuits
• 75 grams soft unsalted butter
• 1 x 400 grams jar Nutella (at room temperature)
• 100 grams chopped toasted hazelnuts
• 500 grams cream cheese (at room temperature)
• 60 grams icing sugar (sifted)
• Springform cake tin (approx 8″ / 20 cm across)

Here’s what you do:

• Prepare your cake tin. I line the bottom and sides with baking paper so it’s easier to remove the cake later.
• Place the biscuits in a food processor with the butter and 25g of the hazelnuts. Blitz until it starts to form clumps and looks a little like damp sand. You can also add a tablespoon of Nutella but our biscuits already had a filling so this wasn’t necessary.
• Press the base mixture into your cake tin and press down evenly with the back of a spoon. Place it in the fridge to chill.
• Next, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together and then add the remaining Nutella. Make sure the mixture is well combined.
• Place the Nutella and cream cheese mix over the base in the cake tin. Smooth the top with a spoon and scatter hazelnuts on top.
• Leave the cake to set for at least 4 hours but overnight is better. Serve straight from the fridge, and I recommend using a cold, wet knife to cut the cake to get perfect slices.

This is going to make just about the best Christmas dessert ever known. And I only say ‘Christmas’ because it’s the closest excuse time-wise for me to eat as much of this cake as I can get my Cookie Monster-esque hands on!

What’s your favourite indulge cake you like to make? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance.

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Most people hit Katoomba for the obvious stuff. You can see the Three Sisters, ride the funicular railway at Scenic World or maybe take a bushwalk down the Giant’s Staircase and into the Megalong Valley. But there’s a lot more to this funky little mountain town.

As you walk down the main street, you start to see the alternative lifestyle its inhabitants live. The Co-Op is so far from what you’d find in the big smoke of Sydney, it’s kind of a spin-out.

Everything in here is organic and free range, and you weigh everything yourself before you go to the checkout. People actually trust you – isn’t that weird?

The range of goods we found in this little shop was impressive too. Things we’d have to search high and low for in Sydney. Spices, herbs, grains, cooking oils, fruit, veg… even baked goods!

Definitely head here – even just for a nose around. It’s a friendly little emporium of home cooking, and you’re just down the road from a hatful of cool cafes. Once you’ve made yourself hungry enough from looking at all the produce, you’ll be thankful for that especially!

The Blue Mountains Co-Op
Ha’Penny Lane
Katoomba
+61 (0)2 4782 5890
www.bmfoodcoop.org.au

Images by Mrs Romance.

The post Things to do in The Blue Mountains – Katoomba Co-Op appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

Now, however, I’m hooked! What’s weirder still is that this soup’s not only gluten free, it’s vegetarian – and potentially even vegan.

It’s also the easiest soup you’ll ever make… unless it’s from a packet. A couple of tins, an onion and a packet of corn chips and you’re set. I always like to add a couple of extras to a recipe, but that’s all you really need.

Here’s what you need:

Serves 4-6

• 1 large onion roughly chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped (optional, but only just!)
• 1 tin white, berlotti or butter beans
• 1 tin kidney beans
• 1 tin chopped tomato
• 1 750ml jar of tomato passata
• 1 tin of creamed corn
• As much chilli as you want (or none at all), finely sliced
• 1 tomato – optional – chopped
• Tablespoon olive oil
• Pinch of salt
• Bag of corn chips
• 1 cup of grated cheese – optional

Here’s what you do:

1. Heat the oil and cook the onion and garlic until soft.
2. Add the sliced fresh chilli and cook for a couple more minutes.
3. Pour in the tin of chopped tomato and jar of passata and tin of creamed corn.
4. Leave to simmer for an hour… or until you’re hungry!
5. When you’re ready to eat, add the beans to the soup and simmer for another 15 mins.
6. Pour soup into bowl, sprinkle with cheese, add corn chips on top and sprinkle a bit more cheese.
7. Grill until the cheese has melted.
8. Enjoy!

Here’s another idea:

You could make it into a meaty nacho soup by adding mince.

On the flip side, not adding cheese makes this completely vegan.

Note:

If you want to use cheese but want to keep this recipe vegetarian, please check the ingredients for which kind of rennet is used. If it just says ‘rennet’, it’s probably animal derived. Our favourite is a New South Wales cheese called Nimbin, who use vegetable rennet.

As I love spicy food, I also added a teaspoon of hot chilli powder, a dash of hot chilli sauce and a dash of Tabasco. With four types of heat, this was a bit too much for Mrs Romance – but I was in my element!

Images by Mr & Mrs Romance.

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