As you know I have a very large family.
One of the things that swims around and around in amongst the other things I think of as a parent is how I give to each of my children TIME.
It is an unusually hard to find commodity in our house.
And while some things may come arguably more easily in larger families such as patience, there are other things that don't come very easily at all.
In my family it is one on one time with each of my five children.
I try carefully to weave this into our family.
So much so that I keep each of them home one day a term separately to do exactly that.
One of my children has a significant birthday in a couple of weeks.
The second of our brood to enter the teen years.
A fitting occasion for a special celebration.
Recently my closest brother welcomed a very gorgeous new babe into his family. He lives interstate and my children have only 'met' her on Skype so far.
When I asked my 12yo 'What would you like for your birthday?', he answered 'I would like to cuddle my new baby cousin'.
There it was.
The most amazing boy answered with the most amazing answer.
So off we went.
Just him & me on plane to Sydney.
It was one of the most wonderful 24 hours ever.
I am very proud of the extraordinary human being this young man is.
Happy Birthday.
Ten Minute Haloumi & Spinach Gozleme with Black Cumin seeds:
I have posted a recipe for Gozleme on my blog before but I used a different dough. The previous recipe is here.
While we were in Sydney on the weekend we visited the Fox Studio markets to get some cheese & flowers. There was Gozleme- I had to have some!
And today in Melbourne it is very chilly and I fancied a hot lunch and Gozleme was still on my brain.....
I wanted to experiment with making a quick dough. I also had no fetta but did have a little Haloumi left from last week.
Here is the result. It took TEN MINUTES from whoah to go.
I am now inventing all sorts of Gozleme marriages- hot salami, chargrilled eggplant & haloumi , chargrilled zucchini and mint, semi dried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms, chargrilled eggplant & ajvar......you get my drift?! Endles possibilities.
Oh my......
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
- 250g plain flour (plus a little extra for dusting bench)
- 200g cup plain greek yoghurt
- pinch salt
- generous handful fresh spinach leaves
- 6 slices Haloumi
- Black Cumin seeds (also known as Nigella seeds)
- olive oil
Place a tablespoon Olive oil into a non-stick pan and place slices of Haloumi into the pan.
While that frys grab a bowl and combine the yoghurt, flour and salt and combine. I used a fork until it was well combined and then placed onto a dusted bench. Add more flour of necessary to get the dough pliable without being too sticky. It took me about 4 minutes all up to make the dough.
Keep your eye on the Haloumi! Turn and brown other side and remove from pan & set aside.
Roll out dough as thinly as possible (I like the pastry to be very fine- almost papery) and sprinkle spinach over one half of the dough. Add the browned Haloumi and sprinkle with Black Cumin and a little extra salt.
Fold over the dough and seal edges.
I sprinkled a few more Cumin seeds over the dough and pushed them in with the palm of my hand.
In the same pan you fried the Haloumi in place your Gozleme in and pan fy each side till brown- it will only take 2-3 minutes.
Remove from pan and slice into small slices & serve immediately with lemon wedges for squeezing onto as you serve.
my birthday boy has been playing this song on his guitar lately....'let your honesty shine'......perfect.
