Sunday 29 January 2012

Weekend: Portuguese Custard Tarts, Borgen, and Quinoa with Caramelised Red Onions, Sautéed Vegetables and kohlrabi salad



Just us this weekend...no visitors, and no visiting.  I love having people stay but sometimes it's nice to have some down-time together, just the two of us.


I worked Saturday afternoon but met up with 'A' later at Akiport Portuguese cafe for coffee and a Pasteis de nata, Portuguese custard tart...I reckon if you're going to break your detox for a coffee, that you may as well throw in a custard tart too!


I'm reliably told by a good blogger friend that Jamie Oliver's Portuguese Custard Tart recipe that you can find here, is not only delicious, but fairly easy to make too.  I haven't tried because I'm afraid. I have very little will power where custard tarts are concerned...comfort food with too many nostalgic memories that make them very hard to resist. If I made them, I would probably eat the whole batch without much help from anyone else...


Then we cooked supper together 'A' made his famous pizza, and I made Quinoa with Caremalised Red Onions, Sauteed vegetables, Kohlrabi and Mixed leaf salad. 






Quinoa with Caramelised Onions and Sauteed Vegetables


Ingredients for two people:

  • 80g of Quinoa
  • 250ml of warm stock
  • One large Portobello mushroom, sliced finely
  • One small sweet pepper,de-seeded and cut into small pieces or thin slices
  • Two medium sized red or one large red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  • Two cloves of minced garlic
  • A stick of chard or something green, chopped into smallish pieces
  • Olive oil
  • Sea salt and black pepper

Method:

  1. Wash the quinoa, place in a saucepan and cover with the warm stock. Cook for about twenty minutes by which time the quinoa should have absorbed the stock and be cooked. 
  2. Meanwhile, drizzle oil into a frying and cook the onions until they are softly sweet and caremelly. 
  3. When the onions are caramelised, add the garlic and cook a little being careful not to burn.
  4. Add the other vegetables and sauté until tender.  Season a little.
  5. Once the vegetables are ready, add the quinoa to the pan giving it a good stir to mix in all the tasty onion and garlic
This makes a great inexpensive vegetarian supper that's quick to make. Or you could serve it with pan fried fish, or a piece of chicken.

Kohlrabi, Radish and Chinese leave salad.

Ingredients:

  • Half a smallish kohlrabi, peeled and sliced very thinly.  A mandolin would be good to use
  • A handful of radishes, topped and tailed and sliced in the same manner
  • About an eighth of a head of chinese leaves, shredded finely
  • A small red onion, sliced very thinly
  • A small green apple. Sliced thinly 
  • The juice of a lemon or lime
  • Good olive oil
  • Sea salt and crushed black pepper


Method:

  1. Combine all the salad vegetables.
  2. Season carefully and then dress with the lemon juice and olive oil.

Then finally settled down for our current favourite, compulsive television viewing. Borgen, a political Danish television drama series that we are totally obsessed with.  Two  episodes, back to back. A great series with really strong female roles. Highly recommended. 




I hope you had a good weekend too...

8 comments:

  1. Mmm you do have great food at your house - I've never really known what to do with Quinoa - but I like the sound of your recipe.

    Borgen sounds good - we are yet to watch "The Killing", another Danish Drama - it's waiting for us in its dvd case.

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    1. Hi Rel,

      I think with Quinoa, like couscous, it's what you put in it that counts.

      Borgen is compelling viewing for us. I imagine it's a pretty accurate indication of how things really work in politics today, and the kind of compromises politicians may sometimes make. It's actually by the producers of "The Killing" which I missed. We watched the US version, hopefully we'll catch up with the Danish one later.

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  2. Great quinoa recipe. I love Borgen! Birgitte rocks.

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    Replies
    1. She does! and I think it's the final two episodes next week...

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  3. Ok. So I know you said you were enjoying it just being the two of you at home ... but surely there's room for one more at your table? ie. me? ;)

    But seriously, all of that lovely food looks and sounds delicious. I have a particular weakness for quinoa, and it forms part of one of our favourite meals here. I'm looking forward to trying out your recipe.

    And as for Portuguese custard tarts ... my goodness, it's better for all of us if I just leave those well alone. I find them IMPOSSIBLE to resist! :)

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  4. I'm getting to be a bit of a quinoa boar at the moment Tracey...I've made quinoa salad at least twice this week, each time cooking extra so that I can make these quinoa patties :-

    http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/baked-quinoa-patties-recipe.html

    ...varying the ingredients each time...I will the post the recipes soon but I think I better take a quinoa break for a few days...

    And the custard tarts...I know...they should have a health warning..."addictive substance!"

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  5. More delicious food. Quinoa is one of our staples, but I'm not very adventurous with it, so it's good to see that others are. Also spotted your jar of black-eyed beans. They are my favourite beans, yet I haven't had any for a very long time. You've reminded me to remedy this.

    I've never had a Portuguese custard tart - they look very good.

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  6. I love black eyed beans, especially in Caribbean style rice and peas.

    Portugese tarts are so good...but I've controlling myself and avoided popping back to Akiport after work...

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