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What's for dinner?

kxk said:
Tabouleh from Charcoal Chicken mixed with tuna = perfect and healthy meal, and all you have to do is open and mix.
Charcoal Chicken places in Melbourne make great tabouleh, with Italian parsley, has to be this bigger leaf/flat leaf parsley, the other curly shit is vile and bitter.
Of course middle eastern eateries make nice versions too.
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I have middle eastern background in me. I know a thing or two about tabouleh ;) But I would never have thought to have it with tuna. It sounds so... Odd. But I'm going to try it next time.
 
Sweet_Geek said:
I have middle eastern background in me. I know a thing or two about tabouleh ;) But I would never have thought to have it with tuna. It sounds so... Odd. But I'm going to try it next time.
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It was an accident I made sort of, tuna with any salads is standard food for me, and anything I can buy to ease the labour.
I have a fabulous Lebanese place near me, with piled up fresh salads.
I discovered my Lebanese favourites, mostly don't love tuna(chick peas/lentils/I friggin love those salads) - but tabouleh, yummy, and really clean and fresh and pretty healthy.
It's pretty good all wrapped in pitta too.
So - do you have a good recipe for tabouleh:) Pretty please
 
el'coopo said:
Mrs B!! I finally made these over the long weekend! The filling was really yum, I helped myself while I was filling the little rounds - exhibit a)View attachment 37329 They were sealing well, no breaks etc, but I had a heap of left over potato, so I was starting to wonder if I've rolled them out thin enough. Anyhoo I boiled them & the rose to the top & weren't leaking/busting open so I had high hopes - exhibit b)View attachment 37330 Then I fried a couple to test, and well, there are no pic's cos my feeling was right, I hadn't rolled them anywhere near thin enough & they were ruined ;( *BUT* I shall be making these again! Mr Coop had a taste test & could see how nice they could be had I of gotten the outside right. I shall keep you posted for attempt 2 :)
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I'm so happy you tried them and gave me an update, including pics!!! I wish I had a clue about measurements so I could give you a precise one with rolling out the dough but is sounds like you've sussed it out now. Let me know when you try again! :)
 
kxk said:
It was an accident I made sort of, tuna with any salads is standard food for me, and anything I can buy to ease the labour.
I have a fabulous Lebanese place near me, with piled up fresh salads.
I discovered my Lebanese favourites, mostly don't love tuna(chick peas/lentils/I friggin love those salads) - but tabouleh, yummy, and really clean and fresh and pretty healthy.
It's pretty good all wrapped in pitta too.
So - do you have a good recipe for tabouleh:) Pretty please
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I do. I like my tabouleh on the lemony side. I also dislike tabouleh when the wheat hasn't been softened enough, also the parsley needs to be held in a tight bunch and almost like it's been shaved with the knife.

So... get the parsley bunch (one bunch) hold tightly and finely cut with a very sharp knife. Do the same with the mint leaves (about three to four stalks). Put them on the colander and wash and rinse. Finely chop spring onions (4 to 5)and Depending on how many tomatoes you use, I use around five, dice them. Juice lemons (about two) and half a lime and pour over the washed and rinsed burghul (wheat- a handful), so they soften, and set aside.

Add all the parsley, mint, onion, tomatoes, burghul and season with salt and pepper and add the olive oil and mix with your hands and there you have it, I always add another lemon for the tangy bite after all that. But it's up to you. Sometimes I may add a cucumber to the mix, finely chopped, just sometimes though. It takes away the bitterness of the parsley if it's been overgrown.

Traditionally we eat the tabouleh with cos lettuce but we also have it with iceberg lettuce, they are quartered and spread around the tabouleh. Kind of like a San Choy bow
 
Yummy.
Thanks [MENTION=35834]Sweet_Geek[/MENTION], I have pasted that into my computer recipe file, and I will give it a go on the weekend. I love mine lemony too, and it is that tang that mixes so well with the tuna. I feel healthy eating this.
 
kxk said:
Yummy.
Thanks [MENTION=35834]Sweet_Geek[/MENTION], I have pasted that into my computer recipe file, and I will give it a go on the weekend. I love mine lemony too, and it is that tang that mixes so well with the tuna. I feel healthy eating this.
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Enjoy! I feel healthy eating salds with beans, eggs or tuna too.

Btw the measurements are just a rough estimate... I don't normally measure everything out and just go with what I think I need. Play around to suit your tastes. I've got to tell you that a lot of places use citric acid with their lemons. I know this because I worked in Mediterranean restaurants for a bit. Not all of them, but some do this. You can normally tell though.
Let me know what you think :)
 
Do you just use spring onions?
No other onions?

Some of the nastier Tabouleh I have tried has a heap of yucky chopped white onions. Don't like raw white onion, spring onions will be much nicer. Citric acid yuck, real lemons do enough, with the added lime, yum. I'm going to try this tonight now, totally craving...
 
kxk said:
Do you just use spring onions?
No other onions?

Some of the nastier Tabouleh I have tried has a heap of yucky chopped white onions. Don't like raw white onion, spring onions will be much nicer. Citric acid yuck, real lemons do enough, with the added lime, yum. I'm going to try this tonight now, totally craving...
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It's up to you, you can use red onion (it's sweeter). I have made it with both white and red onion. I actually prefer the white onion, it you have to finely chop it. My grandmother actually soaks the white onion in a bowl of cold water. That might be why it's not as strong. I just prefer spring onion I guess because it's there. Dad grows it and gives me some weekly. So that's why I said spring onion.

Yeah citric acid is foul and not good for your insides. Not many people think of using lime, but that's the way I was taught and it does give it a bit more of that acidic and sweeter touch
 
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I'm slack, I bought all the ingredients - and they rotted away in my fridge:(

Tonight is steak, fillet, marinated.
Hollandaise sauce (I bought from Simon Johnson, awesome sauces - worth every expensive cent, as it is like restaurant quality and you get a few meals from one jar).
Baked spuds and salad.

Don't feel like cooking? Make your family watch MKR it is quite handy - puts you off eating the food is so bad:)
 
Looks spicey.

We are having burritos, easy - meat is defrosted, already cooked and made tasty (home-made spag bol left overs, with spicey taco/burrito stuff added, & frozen a couple of weeks ago).
All I have to do is chop up the salad stuff and heat some burrito wraps, love easy meals.
 
kxk said:
Looks spicey.

We are having burritos, easy - meat is defrosted, already cooked and made tasty (home-made spag bol left overs, with spicey taco/burrito stuff added, & frozen a couple of weeks ago).
All I have to do is chop up the salad stuff and heat some burrito wraps, love easy meals.
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HAHA Yeah I make my parents dinner, so while I'm having the chilli I am making them burritos. I found this recipe for beef mince which I make every 2 weeks and freeze the rest into separate portions. Like you all I have to do is heat the meat up add the spices, chop up the veggies and heat the wraps up.

Here is the recipe for the beef mince.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7768/basic+mince?ref=collections,budget

OH BTW I love this website. At night when I can't sleep I just browse through it and bookmark any recipes that look interesting to me. I've made a lot of new recipes lately.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
HAHA Yeah I make my parents dinner, so while I'm having the chilli I am making them burritos. I found this recipe for beef mince which I make every 2 weeks and freeze the rest into separate portions. Like you all I have to do is heat the meat up add the spices, chop up the veggies and heat the wraps up.

Here is the recipe for the beef mince.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7768/basic+mince?ref=collections,budget

OH BTW I love this website. At night when I can't sleep I just browse through it and bookmark any recipes that look interesting to me. I've made a lot of new recipes lately.
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I use that site and all the others, internet is so good for recipes - fantastic how you can look up anything, old favourites from when you were a kid etc.

But gee that recipe is very basic and bland. No tomato paste! You have to have tomato paste or the mince never loses that ghastly grey colour.

Mince recipes never tell you to do the first step my Mum taught me - brown the mince, all the while draining off the gross fat that turns into liquid.
Keep draining it off as it cooks, until there is no liquid fat left.
At that point it - minus fat, it will brown properly.

Then cook with lost of onion/garlic/spices/tomato/tomato paste/beef stock cubes . Worceshire/mustard etc/wine.

We eat no animal fat, ever, yuck - it is either drained away or cut off. The only good animal fat is pork crackling:)

When they do that confit stuff on shows - I feel ill.
 
kxk said:
But gee that recipe is very basic and bland. No tomato paste! You have to have tomato paste or the mince never loses that ghastly grey colour.
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The can of diced tomato has a tomato paste in it. And once I've finished cooking, I portion it up and add spaghetti sauce to what is left in the pot (for that nights dinner). I have noticed that while I'm letting the other portion cool off before I put them into the fridge water seems to seep? out and I have to drain each portion before I do put them in the freezer. But I'm not eating it, so the animal fat thing does not bother me and my parents don't complain.
 
That is lovely that you make their meals, I'm sure they are very appreciative.
You don't eat meat I take it? My posting memory is shit in case you pointed that out previously - your chick pea dish looked yummy, I love chick peas & lentils but nobody else wants to eat them here.
 
I've only just recently in the last few months stopped eating meat and wheat . I love trying to find vegetarian meals that don't use pasta. Nobody in my house likes beans, lentils or chickpeas either.... so more for me I guess lol.
I found this chickpea burger recipe that I really like. I made a whole lot and froze the rest into portions of 2. Obviously I don't have it with a bun, just with some steamed veggies on the side.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/24077/chickpea+burgers+with+raita?ref=collections,easy-vegetarian
 
I agree, it is really nice of you to make your parents dinner [MENTION=34449]Inigo Montoya[/MENTION]

I made some lentil patties the other day that apparently were nice, pulses are a good substitute for meat I hear.

I personally eat quite a lot if meat because it is one if the few things my fussy palette with tolerate. If I cut out meat then unfortunately my diet would be 100% junk. However, my sister is completely meat, egg and dairy free and I often end up cooking dinner for her and I use A LOT of pulses - I will have to dig up some recipes for you. Is it just meat you don't eat, or all animal products? A lot of the time I just veganise vegetarian recipes for her, she claims they are tasty but I'm actually yet to try them.
 
I do like a veggie patty/burger.
I was a vegetarian for 7 years, and then got too run down - low B and iron. Still don't eat much meat.

I love, chickpeas, lentils, caramelised onions with rice; caramelised onions make just about anything yummy.
I discovered this arvo that - take a burrito wrap, put grated cheese & caramelised onion, fold in half, squash together, shove in the hot oven (that is cooking something else). And voila, puffy crunchy tasty snack; now I'm working on what to fill this idea with next.
Downton is on and I'm off, cheers.
 
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[MENTION=34226]jessy_girl[/MENTION] We are total opposites LOL. You cook vegan meals for your sister and I cook meals with meat for my parents.

I still eat things like cheese, eggs and I'll have a dash of milk in my coffee of a morning. I don't think I'll ever be able to give up cheese. It's weird because I don't even feel like I am a vegetarian, I just wanted to try something different for a while.

I would really appreciate it if you could get me some vegetarian recipe. That would be great! :)
 
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