Popping up in my feed is pictures of people cooking amazing things – seafood, tagines, roast with all the trimmings – no one is really living on what they have in their pantry.

I’m taking a different approach and trying to use up what I have in the pantry first, cooking what I have on hand.

And it turns out, I have a lot of Quinoa on hand, leftover from now non-existent catering jobs.

As cooking is in my blood, heart and soul, I am going to work out as many ways to cook Quinoa as possible, maybe come up with 100 recipes.

So far, I have three.

This recipe was served as a side dish with last nights dinner (Building Maintenance doesn’t feel like I’ve fed him right unless there are carbs on the plate).

The next night, I stuffed it into zucchini, then baked the lot in the oven covered with fresh tomato sauce.

Quinoa with pickled lemon and parsley recipe.

Cook Quinoa using pressure cooker method, 1-part Quinoa 2 parts water, 3 minutes on high pressure.

Finely mince a 250 ml jar of pickled lemons and a bunch of parsley.

Once the Quinoa has cooked for its three minutes and the steam has released from the pressure cooker, but the quinoa is still hot, stir through the minced lemon and parsley.

Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

A friend told me recently, that in tough times make sure you have Brussels Sprouts. They will survive at the bottom of your fridge through everything.

Here’s how you cook them

To save on the typing, from now on I’m going to call Brussels Sprouts, BS.

I like to peel off any leaves for the outside that are past their best.

You can either cut a cross in the bottom of each BS or cut each BS in half vertically.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Blanc your BS in the boiling water for 2 minutes. I do less time, not more, as I like my BS still crispy. Not grey and soggy. 

Dice a couple of strips of bacon and one onion.

Heat a frying pan. Add a spoonful of butter. Melt.

Add the bacon and onion to the frypan. Fry off until the bacon is crisp, and the onion cooked.

Throw in the BS. Fry off until they start to brown.

To finish the BS off, pour in ½ cup of white wine. Add a pinch of salt, pepper and the chef’s secret ingredient, sugar.  

On this day, I’ve served mine with a rack of Wattlebank park farm lamb

Stay safe and keep cooking!

This recipe is from Olive Scott.

It was given to me by Jannette Langely when bringing her granddaughter to a Jacican kid's cooking class. 

I have changed it from imperial and metric and use whole spices, crushed where I can.

This recipe is a vegetarian version of a Worcestershire sauce (but we can’t call it Worcestershire because we don’t live in Worcester). 

Plum Hot Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

• 1.8 kilograms of plums
• 1.2 kilograms of treacle
• 28 grams of pepper, ground - you can use whole and crush
• 14 grams of ginger, ground 
• 30 grams of salt
• 900 grams of brown sugar
• 3.3 kilograms of vinegar
• 28 grams of allspice - you can use whole and crush
• 7 grams of cayenne pepper
• 110 grams of garlic, crushed

Method

1. Wash plums. Cut the plums in half and remove the stone. Place plum in a large preserving pan.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients in the pan with the plums. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to prevent sticking.
3. Boil for 1 hour or until the sauce thickens to the consistency you like. 
4. Bottle and seal. 

This is one of the recipes we make in Jacican preserving cooking class.

I love tomato season, and you get to make your year's supply of chutneys and sauces. 

I usually make 10x of this recipe at once - you will just need a bigger pot. 

Ingredients

• 1 kg red tomatoes - peeled and chopped
• 1 brown onion - peeled and diced
• 1 clove garlic - peeled and chopped
• 330 ml vinegar
• 160 grams of sultanas
• 4 cloves
• pinch (small) cayenne
• 1/2 TB salt
• 200 grams of sugar

Method

Put all ingredients - EXCEPT SUGAR -in a large saucepan. 

Heat over medium heat, stirring until boiling.  Cook until mixer thickens, about 1 and 1/2 hr hours.

Remove from heat.  Add sugar, return to heat, stirring until boiling.  Cook a further 1 and 1/2 hours until the mixer does not separate.  Stir frequently. 

Bottle and seal in hot sterilized jars

This recipe should make 5 x 250ml jars of chutney. 

This is one of the recipes you will learn to make in a Jacican preserving cooking class, depending on seasonality and availability of produce. 

Each preserving class changes depending on what is available in the Jacican kitchen garden. 

The best time to visit Jacican to learn to preserve tomatoes is from February to May each year. 

To book into a Jacican Preserving class, follow the link here. 

In 2023, Jacican is holding a one-off Tomato preserving class where you will learn how to preserve tomatoes in six different ways. Tomato Preserving can be booked through One Hour Out.