Greens and nuts are good for you! Not new, I know. I don’t pretend to be a dietician. Greens bring such a diversity of flavours and forms and nuts are quite filling and crunchy and versatile. Anyway, you probably don’t need much convincing.
Poelee of italian pine mushrooms and greens
I did not go unfortunately in the Blue Mountains or Bellanglo State Forest to pick italian pine mushrooms this year. If anyone lives that way, I would love to know if they are still in season and if the bushfires have affected the areas of growth! You can find those mushrooms at small markets or some vegetable stores like Harris Farm in season sometimes.
They are great in risotto and in vegetable stir fries with butter and garlic. Whatever you do, don’t forget the butter and the garlic! Check HERE for the recipe I posted.
The key in sauteed vegetables is to not hesitate using garlic and butter and to add the vegetables according to their cooking time. Using nuts to complement the dish adds a little complexity and crunchiness. You can also add a little chili.
Poelee of italian pine mushrooms, peas, brocoli and chestnuts, here served with drilled pork chops
Chocolate and nuts toasted muesli
This is my second muesli recipe. The first was with dry fruits and nuts (HERE), this one is chocolate and nuts (HERE).
Next week
Next week, I will post this recipe, my own brownies recipe. Yum! I made that recipe one day super quickly for some friends. A good brownie for me needs to be soft and gooey in the middle, not too sweet and quite chocolatey.
This is my second toasted muesli recipe. The first one was with nuts and dry fruits. This one is a chocolate and nuts toasted muesli. Not much difference in the doing really, just in the combination of ingredients. I love toasted museli with yogurt and a little milk. This is one of my favourite breakfast. I have been doing mine to be able to control the amount of sugar (I like it with only a little sugar much less than commercial toasted muesli) and the nuts of my choice of course!
This recipe uses rolled oats, seeds, nuts, cocoa and good quality dark chocolate. Feel free to adapt the ingredients.
Ingredients:
750 g rolled oats
200 g good cooking chocolate (I use the 70% Nestle Plaistowe which can now be found in most supermarkets in Australia)
2 large tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup of walnuts kernels
1 cup of whole hazelnuts
1 tsp of cinamon
1/2 cup of pepitas
1/4 cup of poppy seeds
1/4 cup olive oil (use any good vegetable oil of your choice)
1/4 cup of liquid honey
1/2 tsp salt
You could use almonds also or swap walnuts for almonds. If your taste tend to be on the sweet side, add 2 tablespoons of demanura sugar to the oat mix.
Method:
For the hazelnuts, place in a shallow baking dish at 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Then remove, and place the hazelnuts in a tea towel, wrap the tea towel around and rub the nuts to get the skins off. Once the skins are removed, chop on a large choping board with a large knive to about a quarter size.
In a large roasting tray, place the oats, poppy seeds, cocoa, salt, cinamon.
Pour honey and oil over the oats. If the honey is not liquid, put the honey and oil in a small bowl, heat up 15 seconds in the microwave. Using your hands, coat all the ingredients
Just toasted
as much as you can.
Then, bake on 170°C for about 20-30 minutes until just toasted. Every 10 minutes, use a fork to move the muesli around. You will know when toasted when the colour is slightly darker.
Once cooled down, add the pepitas, toasted hazelnuts, walnuts, and chocolate cut into little chunks.
If you want to control what goes into your toasted muesli (and also half the price of the supermarket box), you can make your own. It does not require specific equipment: an oven and a small food processor, a chopping board and a knife. You can even do without the food processor.
This recipe uses some dry fruits and nuts. Feel free to adapt the ingredients, for example you may want more nuts of various kinds and no dry fruits, or you may substitute the apricots with shredded coconut. I did not write down my first attempt to toasted muesli, it was a lot of nuts, chia seeds and coconut. One guiding rule: use (based on weight) round 60% weight of rolled oats. Commercial toasted muesli are most often 80% rolled oats.
Ingredients:
750 g rolled oats
150 g dry apricots
150 g dry figs
150 g pepitas
150 g hazelnuts
150 g raw macadamia
1/4 cup olive oil (use any good vegetable oil of your choice)
1/4 cup of liquid honey
1/2 tsp salt
Method:
With a large knife, cut the figs in strips and the apricots in small pieces up to 5 mm long
Place the nuts (macadamia and hazelnuts) in a small food processor and blend to reach small to medium size. For example, you want each hazelnut cut at least in two and each macadamia at least in four. I find that there will be some full nuts left and I will cut those with the knife on the chopping board. There may be a few whole nuts left, that’s all right.
In a large baking tray, place all dry ingredients, roughly mix.
Put the honey and oil in a small bowl, heat up 15 seconds in the microwave and pour over the mix. Using your hands, coat all the ingredients as much as you can.
Then bake on 180-200°C. After 10 minutes, use a fork to move the muesli around. Repeat every 10 minutes until toasted.
