A friend got me onto a fantastic site recently. It’s called The Healthy Chef, by Teresa Cutter. It’s now in my top ten favourite list, and I am cooking my way through her healthy and extremely tasty recipes.

Last week I cooked her gluten free bread, which is predominantly made with quinoa and chia seeds. I thought it turned out beautifully. Very tasty, and it was very easy. Some soaking, some blending, and some baking. The recipe is here, and have a good look around whilst you’re there. Like me, you may find it hard to leave.

My lunch – toasted open sandwich with sliced boiled egg with rocket. REALLY good.

Kitchen by Mike is one of those places that – up until now – existed in my head as a design and food dream. In this dream, there’s a huge, spacious – yet warm and friendly warehouse showroom, with a beautiful collection of Australian made furniture, design, art, gifts and accessories. Then there’d be a great cafe that served seasonal produce with more than one gluten free option.

Well. My dream has become reality and exists in the form of Kitchen by Mike, which is part of the Koskela company. Koskela is an Australian run business that designs and produces beautiful furniture. It’s housed in their amazing showroom in Rosebery, along with cleverly curated pieces of art, homewares and other lustworthy objects.

The showroom houses the Koskela range, and – the Kitchen by Mike. The overall showroom is a vast 2,000m2 light filled space, that feels truly beautiful when you walk in. I couldn’t stop looking up all the time – my sense of scale was tipped out of it’s usual perimeters.

Kitchen by Mike is nestled on one side of the showroom – and because everything is open plan, overlooks the furniture and homewares. I didn’t really know what to do first – eat or look. I settled on eat – as then I could look at the same time. Somehow the talented owners have managed to make this massive space feel warm, inviting and cosy. I went on a sunny warm day and it was perfect. I’d imagine on a cold, rainy grey day it would also be perfect as well.

Onto the food.

There’s no set menu – the meals are driven by market fresh produce. Whatever looks great at the markets in the morning, ends up in the kitchen. If you wanted to know, check their Facebook page which is updated with a daily menu list.

But I like the mystery of not knowing quite what you’ll eat. The day I was there many of the dishes were gluten free – in fact about 80% of them were. Mike was quickly able to fill me in on which were – which weren’t, and why they weren’t. ie; dressings, croutons etc.

I didn’t try one of these biscuits but I liked their marketing:

OJ in cool bottles with old fashioned straws.

My beautiful, fresh lunch

What do you feel like?

Hard at work and hard at lunching

A cool purple bike

Kitchen by Mike is located at:

85 Dunning Ave
Rosebery NSW 2018

02 9045 0910

They are open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast is served between 7am – 11:30am
Lunch is served between 12pm – 3pm
Coffee and sweets available all day until 4pm

For more info on opening hours, go here.

I look at this pic now and think I could almost have called this salad a rainbow salad – it has so many colours in it.

It came from a desire for a) a craving for health and all sorts of vegies, and b) to not leave the house, therefore must be made out of fridge contents. My ‘whatever’s in the fridge salad’ began with the fact I had edamame beans in the freezer. Then it grew from there.

I wouldn’t call this a recipe – it’s more of a list.

Ingredients

Edamame beans (cooked, cooled & de-podded – I used a whole 400g bag)
Steamed yellow squash (2 or 3), cooled and sliced thinly
1 or 2 carrots - julienned
1/4 red cabbage - sliced very thinly (mandolin or by hand)
1/2 cucumber – chopped into pieces (I used small cucumbers and kept the skin on)
Coriander, parsley or whatever herbs you like, roughly chopped

Dressing (also a bit free form – adjust to suit your taste)

Tamari – about a tbspn
Tahini - about a tbspn
Lemon juice – from around half a lemon or to taste
Olive oil – coupla tbspns
S&P
Japanese pepper (from Japanese supermarkets) sprinkled over the top (or crushed up chilli flakes)

What to do

Chop everything up the way you like it. Mix it all up in a big bowl – the way you like it. Whisk all the salad ingredients together. Then find a big plate or platter – salads look good on a platter I think. So plate her up. Dig in.

A beautiful stormy rainbow – Queensland style.

Chicken pie oh how I’ve missed thee….

I’ve missed it because I’ve (incorrectly) put ready rolled gluten free pastry in the ‘too hard to source’ basket. Like gluten free wraps, but that’s another post.

Well turns out it wasn’t too hard after all.

I decided to make a chicken pie on the weekend, in attempt to get the junior members of my family excited about a dinner that’s not spaghetti bog. I knew the senior member of the family would be excited, as there’s been a distinct lack of pie baking post coeliac diagnosis. I was actually going to just buy regular puff pastry, thinking I would eat something else. But then I saw a bright blue box staring right at me in a shop’s freezer. It was a gluten free puff pastry. Would my troops eat rice flour….and chia? I was sceptical.

Sceptical yes, but suddenly I really really wanted to eat chicken pie too. So I bought it. The brand was called The Pastry Pantry. They make ready rolled pastry sheets in their 100% gluten free manufacturing facility. Check out their website – there’s a good list of stockists across Australia (sorry for those not in Oz).

Recipe

My starting point for the pie was a recipe I found on the Gourmet Traveller website, by Andy Harris. I decided to omit the cream, make one big pie and add more secret colour-less vegies.  You could add any vegies you liked in. Or anything you like really. That’s the beauty of a pie.

A few cooking notes.

If I was making it just for grownups I would add chopped fresh herbs – thyme, parsley etc. I’ve omitted the 300ml of cream that was in the original recipe – if you want a richer pie then just add it back in.

For me this is a weekend dish where I have time, rather than mid-week. If you’re stuck for time you could always try using a store-bought BBQ chook.

These quantities below would probably feed around 4-6 adults in one setting, or a whole pile of kids. Leftovers were great the following day.

Ingredients

3 – 4 tbsps olive oil
2 or 3 medium chicken breasts, skin off (I used approx. 650g of chook)
3 rashers bacon, finely chopped
1 largish clove garlic - crushed
Few sprigs thyme
1 medium brown onion, peeled and chopped
2 or 3 leeks – white parts trimmed and finely sliced
2 celery sticks – chopped
1 zucchini – peeled and diced finely
3 large potatoes – peeled, boiled and diced
1 cup chicken stock (you may like more)
1 – 2 cups milk
2 tbsp GF flour
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
GF puff pastry sheets (I used 3 big squares)
Olive oil – to baste the finish pie with (the notes on the pastry box recommended olive oil rather than an egg wash – I went with the oil and it was good)

To serve: I did a rocket and finely sliced apple salad – just with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and S&P. Took 46 seconds to assemble. Or thereabouts.

What to do

Before you start: crank the oven up to around 190 degrees.

Cook the chook: in a bowl, mix about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil together with the thyme sprigs and crushed garlic. Add the chook to the bowl, and mix it all around, seasoning it with salt and pepper. Roast the chook in a medium oven (around 180 degrees) until cooked. Mine took about 40 minutes as they were kinda plumpish. Remove from the oven once cooked and allow to cool. They need to cool down enough to allow you to shred them without burning your fingers. Once they aren’t too hot to handle, shred into small to medium sized pieces into a bowl. Set this aside for a bit.

Before you start on the insides: If you’re using a frozen puff pastry like I did, get it out of the freezer to allow it to defrost completely before you start using it.

Make the insides: heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large saucepan or frypan (needs to have decent sides on it) and cook up the onion, bacon and leeks. Cook for a few minutes, then add in the celery and zucchini. Cook until all the vegies are nice and soft. Then add in the flour, mix it up really well and cook for about a minute or two. Then very slowly – a bit at a time – add the chicken stock. Once it’s all in, the mixture should start to thicken up. Add in the milk – again really slowly, with continual stirring. You don’t want flour blobs. No siree. Adjust the amount of liquid if required – I ended up adding extra water as the mixture needed it. Depends how oozy or thick you want your filling to be. Once you’ve got the consistency you’re happy with, add in the potatoes and chicken, and continue to simmer. Again adjust liquid levels to suit. Season to taste, then take off the heat and set aside to cool down.

Assembling the pie: I’m issuing a disclaimer up front here, to say I’m not a pastry/pie expert. I’m a designer who is quite good with her hands – that’s about my only qualification with working with pastry. So to assemble my pie, I lightly oiled a pie dish. I then cut one big pastry circle to fit the base of the pie dish. I then cut 2 long rectangle pieces and pressed them around the sides. There was a bit of overhang around the top. Next – I gently spooned the innards in. Then it was time for a lid. Another slightly bigger circle – and pressed it’s edges into the side pieces. I then cut some narrow long pieces – about 2 cm in width, and pressed this all around the top – like a raised edge. I used a very small amount of water on my fingers to seal or glue the edges together. Then press a fork into the raised edge – keeps it all nicely together plus is a cool pattern. Decorate the top with some cool shape – I chose a heart. Was thinking of olympic rings but time wasn’t on my side. Brush lightly with olive oil then she’s ready to cook.

Cooking time: mine took about 35 minutes to cook and brown up. At the advice on the puff pastry packet, I checked the pie regularly. Like in 10 minute intervals to make sure it wasn’t burning. Take out once it’s golden brown, and serve whenever ready with a simple salad and a nice drop of chardy.

This is the recipe I make when I head north, up the coast for a break with my buddies. There is a fair bit of preparation involved, which is why it’s good to make this on a holiday where you aren’t under the usual weeknight dinner pressures. I also find it’s best made near an ocean – either on a sultry summers night where you can smell the salt in the air, or equally nice is a rainy, cold lunchtime after a good dunking in the sea. The recipe is kind of a morph of two – part Lonely Planet food guide and some other Spanish cookbook who’s name I’ve forgotten. One of the recipes had rabbit in it – I’ve modified mine to suit non-bunny eating tastes.

Paella originated in Valencia (also the home to beautiful oranges) in the mid 19th century. According to Lonely Planet, it was the men that used to make the paella, after working in the fields and orchards. They ate paella together and chatted about bullfighting, farming and women. The dish varies from village to village, and city to city, as I experienced during my travels through Spain.

These days I’m pretty sure we women folk are allowed to make it.

Recipe

These quantities are estimates based on making one paella, feeding around 6 adults. If you have hungry surfers around and some kids, you might want to up the quantities a little. But get a couple of pans going – rather than stuff everything into one. Speaking of pans, it is handy to have a paella pan (also known as a caldero). It can assist with even cooking and helps create the crust on the bottom. You can then eat it straight from the pan. My pan is by Paelleras el Cid, and it is most revered. If you don’t have one, just use a big flat frypan, or a dutch oven (I still can’t type that without thinking like a 13 year old school boy [or 44 year old man]).

Back to cooking techniques. Use a heat source as big as your pan. If you’re on a stove top, straddle the pan over 2 burners. You’ll need to rotate the pan to ensure the heat is distributed evening. A BBQ also works really well.

Here’s 2 pans going at once – on 2 fairly big burners (keep watch on plastic handles). Just double the quantities if you need two paellas.

Another tip – try and find the best quality rice you can. It’s all about the rice really (like risotto).

Prep time – if you’re not in a rush and are enjoying yourself, I would allow at least an hour for chopping and getting organised. If you pulled out all the stops you could do it in half the time.

Cook time – allow about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on volume.

Ingredients

(For one paella)

Rice - ideally use Calasparra rice, available from specialty delis, or if you get really stuck – arborio or a short grain rice will do. Approx. 450g or 1.5 – 2 cups uncooked rice
1 whole head of garlic
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and kept whole
1 onion
2 chicken breasts, cooked in olive oil, S&P then sliced thinly
1 chorizo sausage, slice her up, then cook in olive oil
Peas (a handful)
Spanish paprika – about a teaspoon (important for the flavour)
Black spanish olives (tinned ones from Spain are great)
About 10 asparagus spears (can use green beans instead)
Saffron (about 5 – 10 strands)
1.5 – 2 litres chicken stock (I use Massel brand)
10 giant uncooked prawns
Extra virgin olive oil (lots of)
2 red capsicum
1 tomato, diced
Chopped flat leaf parsley

What to do

[If you're on holidays, pour yourself a wine, grab some friends and start a conversation as you work].

Getting the red vegies ready: Slice the red capsicum into thin strips and fry (in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil) with the 6 cloves of garlic and spanish paprika until soft.

Take out the capsicum and keep the oil mixture for the next stage. Add the whole head of garlic to the oil and then the onion. Fry until soft. Then add the diced tomato and cook until it forms sort of a light tomato sauce. You will need to add some water to it – and S&P for flavour. This forms the base of the paella and is called the sofrito.

Rice cooking: Lightly toast the saffron in a dry fry pan. Crush it all up into a powdery form. Add it into the chicken stock.

Add the rice and fry for about a minute, making sure it’s evenly covered in oil. Then add the chicken stock. Pour the stock over the rice to cover it, and make sure the rice is evenly distributed. Then let it cook. Don’t stir it again. Put some foil over the pan and let it bubble away for about 20 minutes. Check it now and then – making sure it’s not too dry. Just keep adding chicken stock if it gets too dry. Towards the end of the cooking – crank up the heat so a nice crusty base forms. Taste test a few grains of rice for doneness.

Finishing touches: Add the peas, capsicum, chicken, chorizo and cook until the peas are soft. Then add the prawns and put the foil back on so they cook. Add the olives and then it’s ready. Sprinkle with chopped flat leaf parsley and serve with a green salad and a good red. Wait for the applause.