Han Eats

Hello my friends!

Hoping you have all had a fantastic week. I have been busy as a beaver selling many teapots! My work is holding its annual teapot festival. We have literally thousands of teapots for sale! It’s nuts. As you can imagine I am thoroughly enjoying myself being surrounded by all things tea. I even rewarded myself with a red riding hood tea for one set. It is the cutest ever! Photographic evidence will be given in an upcoming post.

It has been a tasty week on the food front. I must say I have been quite resourceful this week having avoided eating out/taking my lunch to work every day. Earlier in the week my boyfriend and I had fun making our own pizzas. Mine was heavily influenced by Miss Katey at Bonnesante. We both used pita bread as the base and Ben whipped up the pizza sauce from a mixture of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste and fresh oregano and basil. My toppings were baby spinach, onion, green capsicum, mushrooms, black olives, zucchini, baby eggplant, pineapple and some dollups of hommus on top. After Benny inhaled his pizza he commented on it being the best pizza he has ever eaten. And trust me, that is saying something coming from him (he even works at Pizza Hut).

The second photo is a delicious pasta dish I whipped up the other night. It was one of those cases where I stumbled upon a great looking recipe and happened to have all of the ingredients in my fridge/cupboard! Amazing. The recipe can be found here. I really enjoyed using tofu in my pasta sauce. The soy sauce was also a nice addition! 

Hope you’ve all been eating well. :)

Photos by my dear brother, Sam.

XO

When it comes to Marieke Hardy I tend to get a little excited. I was fortunate enough to meet her at the beginning of the year which was a very exciting experience. I think she is a wonderful human being and I very much enjoyed reading this interview with her about veganism. When I met her we chatted about vegetarianism/veganism. Maybe one day we can eat dinner together!

Click here to read the article. Trust me, it’s an entertaining read! She talks about why she became a vegan (a dare from Lyndsay McDougall, another awesome vegan), reactions to her veganism, the vegan stereotype, the way veganism has impacted her health AND there’s even a bunch of her favourite recipes and food ideas! There’s also a clip of her reviewing the cookbook Veganomicon (on the ABC’s Tuesday Book Club of which she is a regular guest), which my brother actually owns! I should cook more recipes from it.

Go on, read it!

Will be posting some of my own food pics/recipes soon. 

Han xx

Hello folks! I come bearing a delicious recipe for Mixed Nut Moroccan Rice. Thanks to my mother bear for recommending this recipe. This one is a winner. 

The recipe calls for a tablespoon of ‘moroccon seasoning’ blend which can be made easily. The following quantities make more than enough to have on hand for future makings of the rice!

Moroccan Seasoning:

5 tsp nutmeg

5 tsp ground cumin

5 tsp ground coriander

2 1/2 tsp all spice

2 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

A handy hint: if you are as accident prone as me, make a mental note not to inhale while measuring out the cayenne pepper. It will result in a coughing fit and watery eyes. But you’re probably not as silly as me.

Mixed Nut Moroccan Rice

You shall need:

2 1/2 tbs olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup slivered almonds

1/3 cup raw cashews

1 tbs moroccan seasoning blend (recipe above)

6 shallots, finely sliced

1 1/2 cups long grain rice

3 cups vegetable stock

1 whole orange

1/3 cup currants

2 tbs parsley, roughly chopped

And it all goes a little something  like this:

• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add nuts. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden. Add seasoning blend. Stir until well combined. Remove nuts to a plate.
• Add 2 teaspoons oil and onions to saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Remove to plate with nuts.
• Increase heat to high. Add remaining oil and rice to hot saucepan. Stir to coat rice with oil. Add stock and whole orange (don’t peal it or anything). Cook, stirring, until mixture comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until rice has absorbed stock.
• Remove orange. Stir in nut/shallot mixture, currants and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

DEEEELICIOUS!

Isn’t taste a strange thing? Each of us have our loves and hates when it comes to food and they differ greatly from person to person. It seems that it can often be quite a mental thing, too.

For instance, I absolutely loathe bananas. Yet, the last time I probably tasted one was at least 15 years ago. I think I am almost bananaphobic. You won’t catch me eating (let alone touching) one any time soon and yet so many people I know absolutely love them. Apart from that, nothing else springs to mind as far as absolute hates in the food department (apart from the obvious: meat, but even then as I’ve said before, I still like the taste). 

My Mum doesn’t like honey. My boyfriend doesn’t like dried fruits. My brother doesn’t like peas (and he’s vegan!). My sister doesn’t like soup (quite a broad and ridiculous disliking if you ask me, hehe). My grandpa doesn’t like cheese. My Dad doesn’t particularly like avocado, although he will eat it in a salad. I even know someone who doesn’t like chocolate! 

Anyway, I just find it really interesting that one person could eat bananas all day every day, then someone like me pretty much dry wretches at the thought.