Slow, Unique Tomato Sauce

Good things take time. Everyone knows it. Traditional tribes soak their grains for the time it would take them to reach a shop. Indians let their spices meld overnight for a better curry. Holidays are better when they're longer. So I had an idea to transform this ingrained knowledge to an Italian favourite: tomato sauce.

Not exactly squeezy bottle, catsup-inspired ketchup, I mean the stuff you could ladle over chicken schnitzel (like I did last night - recipe will be coming soon!). Stuff you could toss into pasta if that's your thing. Stuff that makes anything boring taste much better. It's not much of a dipping sauce, but a ladle sauce. And you'll want a ladle for it too. You could even use it as a soup with some sprouted bread if you only want a small meal (or an entree).

The sauce turns out very individual to the last one you made, once you've made this more than once. And you can't just go 'I want that awesome sauce' right off the bat. Give yourself time to treasure this amazing stuff that's gone in two seconds at my house.

And no, apart from the obvious 'tomatoes' you're not going to guess the ingredients until you read the recipe. Guaranteend.

Unique Tomato Sauce

1 batch osso buco, cooked in a runny tomato-based sauce

arrowroot (optional)

Eat the osso buco. (never thought I'd see that as a first instruction!) Leave plenty of liquid-sauce behind.

Pour the sauce into a saucepan that fits it, and bring it to a boil where it's not overflowing but not simmering either.

Keep it on a high simmer (should I call it that?), stirring occasionally to scrape the sides, until reduced to your liking, preferably 1/4 - 1/5 of the size it was at the beginning.

Ladle over food and enjoy!

Better than Baba Ghanoush

The Middle Easterns have their dips down pat. Just look at tahini. Isn't that a fantastic little spread that's a great creamy addition to a lot of stuff? If I don't put olive oil on something, I'll probably drizzle and dollop some tahini on it. But then there's baba ghanoush, which is fantastic made right (or bought) or bad. Real bad.

Ages ago, I came across another dollopy spready purée thing that hails (or seemed like it would hail) from the Middle Eastern area. It was called avjar (pronounced av-yar), but because the blender and I don't have the best relationship, and I'd just eat it all out of the blender as soon as it was made anyway, I gave it a miss.

Today, I was desperate for food so I strolled into some place called 'deli' and picked up some sliced salami and marinated olives, and as she was slicing up my future taco shells (deli meat is THE best for holding food), I turned around to find red jars of, you guessed it, delectable avjar. Take note that I've never tasted it before today, I already knew it would be a spoon of divine Middle Easternness.

And then I looked around a bit more. And I found another jar called malizzano. There was no way I could leave this shop without both jars. Even with the evil oil (sunflower). Sometimes I think it's better to taste things to know what they taste like, even if it means going against ideals you'd normally not stray from. And the jars are from Macedonia, and it looks like they've been made with love.

I should probably mention what these jars are made of before I tuck in with a spoon. They're very similar; they're both a simple blend of roasted capsicum and roasted eggplant, but obviously the avjar is red capsicum and the malizzano is green. It's quite strange, though, how they taste a lot different to what they're made of. I reckon they'd both taste good mixed with either roasted tomatoes, tahini or maybe paprika or cinnamon or some other spices, or maybe all three. Oh and garlic. It almost tastes like it already has garlic in it. Or some soft white cheese if dairy's your style.

I'm not quite sure what to eat it with, but my options so far are from a spoon, simmer and cook eggs in it like shakshuka, or obviously as a dip with some veggie sticks. I had a google search around and found that it's good for salad dressings, meat marinades and as a lasagna sauce. Can't wait to try it all!

Raw Walnut Cashew Butter - better than Almond Butter!

My birthday was the other day, and for my birthday, I asked my friends for nuts. And what did I get?

Raw almonds. So many raw almonds.
They know me too well.

I love almonds!

I eat them every day, and I could eat them even more often if I really wanted to. My gorgeous friends know how much I love my almonds so the day I got them, I spent my meditation trying to not to drool and not focusing on making some delicious almond butter. Not that I'd tried it before, but I'd made nut butters before and if they were good, a nut butter made out of my favourite nuts would be like liquid bliss.