The Ultimate Tim Tam Guide

Okay. I've mentioned Tim Tams a couple of times on this blog, but have yet to devote an entire post to them. This is why. I've been waiting until I tried all flavors of these magnificent cookies, and could review them in their entirety. Well today was the day that I finally for around to tasting them all! So the post I've been waiting to do all semester: The Ultimate Tim Tam Guide.

Tim Tams are chocolate biscuits (cookies are called biscuits here). The easiest way to think of them is the Aussie equivalent of Oreos. Only they are SO MUCH better than Oreos. A Tim Tam is a rectangular chocolate cookie sandwich. It is chocolate cream between two chocolate cookies, covered in chocolate. Sounds good right? Well it is! They are really delicious and they make them in lots of different flavors and fillings besides the typical chocolate ones (see above). I tasted almost all of them (I didn't try the white ones, which were white chocolate covered vanilla cookies with vanilla cream, because I don't really like white chocolate). So the rest of the post is my ranking of the Tim Tams, as well as comments about each kind!

1. Dark Chocolate

These are unsurprisingly me favorite flavor of Tim Tams. Dark chocolate is richer and less sugary than milk and these Tim Tams are no exception. They are the best. Also this was the first flavor that I did a Tim Tam Slam with. A Tim Tam slam, is when you bit off both ends of the Tim Tam and stick it in a drink (preferably hot, but cold works too) This could be coffee, hot chocolate, or tea. I did mine with matcha (see above). You then use the Tim Tam as a straw and suck the liquid through it. You will notice the cookie starts to fall apart, at that point you slam it into your mouth an enjoy. It. Is. Amazing. Basically the Tim Tam becomes this gooey, cakey, choclatey mess, and is three times as good as the cookie by itself. Dark Chocolate Tim Tams can be slammed with all kinds of drinks. Their versatility, along with their general amazingness is why they beat out all other flavors in the rankings.

2. Orange Dark Chocolate

What makes dark chocolate better? Fruit! These Tim Tams are like the dark chocolate ones but have orange cream filling instead of chocolate. They are great because they have all the best qualities of the dark chocolate ones, but also a wonderful unique flavor that comes out amazingly in this cookie!

3. Mint Slice

Okay, so this isn't technically a Tim Tam. But it is a biscuit made by the same company, Arnott's, so I'm counting it. Imagine that a York Peppermint Patty and a Thin Mint had a baby. That is literally what this cookie is. It's basically self-explanatory why this is ranked 3rd on the list.

4. Chewy Caramel

So these guys are basically the original Tim Tam, with a little extra. There is chewy caramel in the middle of the cookie! If you refrigerate them (you have to in the summer because they melt!) it gets hard and crunchy, but at room temp it's gooey and chewy. These are really amazing, the carmel really adds something to the cookie.

5. Chocolate Brownie

                                

I mean this Tim Tam's filling is fudgey brownie batter. I transforms it into more than just a cookie. These ones are seriously addicting and so rich and delicious. I haven't done a slam with one, but I bet it would be out of this world!

6. Double Coat

So these Tim tams are something special. They have an extra coating of chocolate on the outside, and I think a little more cream in the middle as well. Basically the Double Stuf of the Tim Tam word. Also wonderful, I love Tim Tam slamming these ones because they can take a little more liquid before they break down. I did my Tim Tam Slam with Milo (above left). Milo is basically hot chocolate mix, but it's made of malted barley as well as coco (I posted about Milo here). It's amazing and went really well with the Tim Tams. It was such an Aussie thing to eat for dessert it made me happy!

7. Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight is one of the main flavors here, they have Turkish Delight flavored everything, so of course, Tim Tams are no exception. I really liked these ones. They have rose flavored jelly in the middle, and it goes really well with the chocolate. The cookies were actually dark chocolate, but the coating was the traditional milk. They were a yummy surprise!

8. Dark Chocolate Mint

These Tim Tams are basally milk chocolate coated with dark chocolate cookies, and dark chocolate filling with mint extract in it. They are pretty yummy, but I prefer the plain dark ones (the dark chocolate coating really makes it!). Also if I want mint biscuits I really prefer the Mint Slices. I think those two things hurt they're ranking.

9. Salted Caramel

These Tim Tams are caramel cookies, with caramel filling, and a gooey salted carmel center, covered in the milk chocolate filling. Though the salted flavor is really yummy and adds an extra dimension to the cookie, they suffer from lack of chocolate cookies and filling. This makes the Chewy Caramel ones much better. 

10. Double Chocolate Vanilla

Oreo lovers take note! This are the typical Tim Tam, but with vanilla filling instead of chocolate. This basically makes them a chocolate covered oreo. Really yummy, and very satisfying, but the chocolate lover at heat had to rank them lower then all the more choclately flavors :)

11. Raspberry White Chocolate

So as I mentioned, I don't really like white chocolate, but wanted to try these because of the raspberry creme. They were my least favorite, but I did like how the raspberry complimented the vanilla cookies. 

So this is my list of Tim Tams! There may be a couple of other flavors floating around somewhere, but I haven't seen them around Brisbane. These biscuits are my FAVORITE Australian food and I will miss them dearly when I leave. So much so that I'm bringing as many as I can fit back to the U.S. with me. Especially the Dark Chocolate ones!

Vegetarian Protein-packed Chili

I've been meaning to make vegetarian chili for awhile now. Partly, because it's starting to get more 'wintery' here, and also because it's a great meal to make a big batch of and then have for a long time. As for the recipe, I made this one up. I basically put any vegetable/vegetarian protein in it that I could think of that I thought would go well together. I'll list the exact ingredients out later (see pic below), but I used 3 kinds of beans, lentils and quinoa as the proteins, and carrots, celery, roasted red peppers, onions and spinach as the main veggies. The base of the chili was made from low-sodium vegetable stock, tomato paste, and canned tomatoes. 

I started to boil the veggie stock, and then added the quinoa. As this was cooking I was slicing the copious amount of veggies I used in this chili, and straining the beans and lentils. I added the tomato paste after the quinoa had cooked in the broth for about 5 minutes, as well as the canned tomatoes. Then when all the veggies were sliced, I added those and the beans to the mixture. I turned the stove up to high and cooked for 10 minutes. Then I took of the lid, stirred everything up and turned the stove to low. I left this pot of the stove for 1.5 hours, returning every 15 minutes or so to stir the mixture and add garlic powder/salt/pepper to the taste. Then I added the spinach to the mix, and left it on for another half an hour with the same procedure. Then it was finally done! I took a bowl of it, and left the rest on the stove covered with the heat off. It was such a great hardy meal. The quinoa had really helped it cook into this wonderful thick texture, and the beans, lentils, and large chunks of veggies really added to this dish profile. The spinach added a fresh touch to the dish, and the roasted red peppers added a little smokiness. This was such a wonderful meal, and is both vegetation, vegan and gluten free. Really this is the perfect meal to make if you are cooking for a lot of people with a variety of dietary conditions. I made so much that I had a ton of left overs to put in the fridge, I think I'll be eating this for the next 5 days!

Thoughts on this Dish:

• Here's a list of complete ingredients with the measurements
• 2.5 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 brown onion
• 1 red onion
• 3 canned roasted red peppers
• 1.25 cups of quinoa
• 8 cups of low sodium vegetable stock
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1 can of whole stewed tomatoes
• 1 can of lentils
• 1 can of cannelloni beans
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 bag of fresh spinach
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder to the taste
• I think that this is the type of dish that you could cook all day and it would just make it better. Longer cooking will break the veggies down more, and also let the flavors steep into the ingredients. However, the quinoa got really really soft during the two hours so I'd want to play with optimum cook times.
• I also would have added corn to this dish, but canned corn is ridiculously expensive here.
• I used yellow lentils, but I think green or brown would be better in this dish.
• This recipe makes about 6 servings (maybe more this is me eye balling it) so perfect for cooking for a crowd, or freezing for later. 
• More seasoning wouldn't be amiss, I'll try to add some dried herbs next time.

Really pleased with this one, I think it could be slightly improved, but nice to know I have chili under my belt as a dis!

Paniyiri Greek Festival

This weekend in South Bank there was a gigantic Greek Culture Festival. I stayed in Brisbane this weekend after two weekends of traveling, a friend and I decided to check it out for dinner on Saturday night. The festival was a combination of souvenir booths, carnival rides, live performances, and food booths run by various Greek organizations in Brisbane. We headed over to those to get some dinner. First we got some Halloumi cheese (see above left)! It was absolutely amazing, basically fried cheese but not breaded like a mozzarella stick. We each got one and ate it as we made our way over to the alcohol booth. We both got some sweet white wine (see above right), it was pretty crappy wine, but went well with the cheese and was nice to drink as we walked around. We grabbed wraps for dinner, and ate those as we watched a dance competition in the main square.

We strolled the booths for a good while, then decided it was time for some dessert. We ended up with this little beauty (above). It's called Galaktobouriko, and was basically custard wrapped in phyllo dough. It was huge and really yummy. It tasted a bit like bread pudding because the custard was very thick. The two of us shared, and agreed that it was a perfect way to end our Greekfest experience. I love being able to experience some go the fun things happening in Brisbane, it's something that I haven't really been able to do the last two months since I've been traveling, but it's nice to get to do some more of it before I leave next month!

Green Pie

So I STILL have phyllo dough left. This means I needed to make another dish with it. I was thinking about making spanakoptia, but instead decided to put my one twist on it. Basically I wanted to add more veggies, so I put zucchinis and artichoke hearts in as well. With three green veggies making the pie a beautiful, fresh green color, I dudded it "Green Pie." This recipe was my own invention. I sliced up three small zucchinis, chopped up 2 heaping handfuls of spinach, chopped 3/4 of a red onion, and added 1 small container of marinated artichoke hearts. I then took a block of low fat feta cheese, chopped it up and added it to the mix as well. Next 3.5 eggs were added. I mixed all of this together in a bowl with a generous amount to garlic powder and tuscan seasoning. I then poured it into a deep roasting pan that I had layered with 4 slices of phyllo dough. I closed it off on top with 2 more pieces of the dough. The I wiped it in egg whites, and put more tuscan seasoning on top. I stuck it in the oven at 375F for 45 minutes.

It turned out really well. The crust got beautifully golden-brown, and even a bit caramelized in places. I took a generous slice and dug in. It was really yummy and the three different veggies definitely all added something to the dish. I probably would add more egg, feta, and seasoning next time though. If I had a grater I would perhaps make the zucchini thinner, since I think the large chunks overpowered the other ingredients at times. A really yummy dinner though, and one I'll be eating for the next four nights since I made a ton of it!

Thoughts on this dish:

• I would definitely add more seasoning and cheese. Also some more eggs would help it firm up a bit.
• Like I said cut the zucchini thinner might help as well.
• I would use some scallions next time, unfortunately you have to buy them in bulk here, and I didn't think I could use them all before going bad.
• Also sundried tomatoes and maybe olives might also be a good addition to this pie.

Loved this idea, but I think I can work to prefect the dish!

Campfire Cones

This is a recipe that I've been seeing floating around Pinterest. It's a camping dessert recipe called Campfire Cones. Basically you fill an ice cream cone with desired dessert fillings, wrap it in aluminum foil and toss it into the campfire until everything melts. I went camping this weekend on the Sunshine Coast with some friends and thought this would be a great dessert to make. Everyone could make their own. I brought vanilla waffle cones, marshmallows (there were pink and white ones on sale so that's what time pink is above), dark chocolate chips, caramel chips, and Nutella. We also had apples, bananas, and peanut butter. For my own cone (above) I spread peanut butter than Nutella around the cone. Then added marshmallows, chips, and banana in alternating fashion. All cones were then entirely wrapped in aluminum foil (below). Since we were camping at a campground we had a hot plate grill at our disposal (campfires were not allowed :( ) So I placed the cones on that. I periodically rotated them around with tongs so the cones wouldn't burn and the insides would melt. This was a bit tricky because they were not really melting, so I left them at longer intervals. Some burned slightly, and others got golden brown. I need to work on my technique. Ultimately though, they turned out wonderfully. Everyone was really happy with them and they made a wonderful camping treat. I would definitely make these again, hopefully on a real campfire next time!

Thoughts on this Treat:

• I stood the cones up at one point to make sure the ingredients on the top of the cone were in contact with the hotplate and melted. 
• Some other great filling ideas are dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, strawberries, toffee, reeses pieces, m&ms, reeses cups, milky ways… basically there are so many ways to do these it's basically mix and match!

Quinoa Creamy Carrot Risotto

This was an invention of mine. I really really like risotto, but it's not very good for you. So I came up with a way to make it a lighter and healthier dish. Firstly, I decided to use quinoa instead of rice. Partly because I had quinoa at the house and partly because it gives the dish some protein. Next I decided to make the cream sauce from carrots and light cream cheese instead of pure cream and ricotta. I did this by first sautéing some carrots with rosemary in vegetable stock, with a splash of white wine. While I did this I cooked the quinoa in the same mix of veggie stock and white wine. While I was preparing these components I chopped some red capsicum, zucchini, red onion and carrot and placed them to roast in the oven with sprigs of rosemary. When the carrots in the pan were sufficiently softened, I placed them and the veggie tock/wine mixture I cooked them in into a blender. I blended it until it was fairly smooth. Then I added light cream cheese to taste. Blending as I went until I had a creamy mixture for the sauce. Next I added this creamy mixture to the cooked quinoa, with a bit more white wine. I mixed this together, simmering it on the stove at a low heat. As I was doing this I stirred in shredded parmesan cheese. I left this on the stove covered on the lowest setting until the other veggies were done roasting. Then I combined them with the risotto, as well as the roasted rosemary. I throughly mixed this together to make a flavorful and wonderfully textured risotto dish. I'm really proud of this dish because while it has a lot of components every part added something to the dish, making it into an elegant and textured meal. The carrot as the base made this dish have a sweet flavor. The wine and rosemary tied this sweetness together with the rosemary roasted veggies. The cream cheese added texture to the dish and went really well with the carrots. The roasted veggies added something to the dish, turning it into a meal rather than a side. And the quinoa really was an excellent substitute to the normal rice, so much so that I don't know if I'll ever attempt rice risotto when this was such an excellent substitute. 

Thoughts on this dish:

• I like using a veggie like carrots as a base for risotto. I would try making a tomato basil version of this dish next.
• Adding the parmesan really added something to the dish, giving it a melted cheese taste and texture that the cream cheese along won't fulfill
• Could probably have blended the carrots a little more.
• I realize now writing this post over a week later, that I didn't really measure anything rather, just used what looked right. I think I used 2.5 carrots, using 2 in the sauce and 1/2 for the roasted veggies. I used an entire capsicum, a whole medium sized zucchini, and 1/4 of a red onion. I used about 1/2 a cup of quinoa. I used 3/4 of a cup of veggie stock to cook the quinoa, and 1/4 for the carrot sauce. Cream cheese, parmesan, wine, and rosemary were all put in to the taste. 

Can't wait to make this for my family since they all really like quinoa and risotto. This one is the best of both.

Kimchi Fried Rice

Okay, so I had three nights in Perth and I had the same thing for dinner every night. I was staying in the CBD, and apparently most of the restaurants in the city center close at 5p. This limited my dinner options, but there was a korean restaurant called Arirang, half a block from my hostel that was open. I really like korean food so that was my choice the first night. I got it for take-away to eat back at the hostel since I was tried (in the best of ways ;)) after my wine tour (below). I ordered the kimchi fried rice vegetation style. I was pleasantly surprised to find it came with miso soup, another favorite of mine.  It was the BEST kimchi fried rice I have ever tasted. I love kimchi, but unfortunately do not have a high tolerance to spicy food. So whenever I order it, it's usually a crap shoot whether or not it will be too spicy for me. This kimchi was perfect. It had the perfect amount of slow burn spiciness, but it din't overwhelm the dish. The cabbage was just sour enough to come through the spice on it's own, but also didn't overwhelm the dish. And finally, it was the perfect consistency, not too greasy! It was served with a slaw covered in zesty coleslaw dressing and I ended up mixing it into the rice. It added a bit of crunch and the slaw sauce added another dimension to the flavor. They gave me so much rice in the takeaway that I saved half of it for dinner for my second night in Perth. Then the last night I, along with my huge backpacker backpack, ate in the restaurant before heading to the airport for my red-eye flight home to Brisbane. I got some barley herbal tea to drink with the meal, and it was once again fabulous. I'm really really going to miss that dish, it was definitely a culinary highlight on my trip to WA.

Tim Tam Gelato

Tim Tams, oh how I love thee!!!!! Tim Tams are amazing and hopefully I will soon be doing my mega Tim Tam post about my love for these cookies. However, in the meantime I have to rave about this Tim Tam flavored Gelato that I had in Fremantle. Gelato is Italian style ice cream, it's creamier and richer than American ice cream, and it's really common in Australia, which is awesome because I love it. Another reason that this kind of ice cream is so amazing is because it is made fresh everyday with the actual ingredients of the flavor. So if it's pear gelato for example, you better believe that actually fresh pear, not just nasty "pear flavor" went into making it. What this means is was that ground up Tim Tams went into making this gelato. It was AMAZING, I was eating bliss. Liquid, creamy cookies, what could be better? You may have noticed that there are two scoops of ice cream in that cup. The Tim Tam flavor is on top, and I also got a scoop of Freo (Australian abbreviation for Fremantle… Aussies abbreviate everything) Delight. It was basically affogato flavored ice-cream with chocolate chips. For those who don't know, affogato is a scoop of vanilla gelato with a shot of warm expresso poured over it (it's amazing obviously). This flavor was really great as well, but the Tim Tam one really outshone it. This was a perfect way to end an afternoon of wandering around the shops and coffeehouses of Fremantle. And since I didn't end up getting a cup of coffee on the Famous Cappuccino Strip, I still honored it with the affogato gelato :P 

Pumpkin Ciabatta

This was my lunch my last day in Perth in the port town of Fremantle. Fremantle is a small town on the Indian Ocean, it's one of the busiest ports in Australia. It also has a history, it used to be home to one of the biggest prisons in Australia, and that prison is now a world heritage site (see below). Despite its dark history, the town itself is beautiful. It has streets lined with colorful colonial style buildings. There are shops and restaurants everywhere you look. I spend an extremely pleasant afternoon wandering around exploring. Popping in and out of shops, climbing up overlooks to see the ocean, and of course wandering around Fremantle's famous Cappuccino Strip. 

This is one part of the town's main street that is positively lined with little coffee cafes. I didn't really stop for coffee but couldn't resist getting lunch at the Fremantle Baking Company. If you haven't noticed by now, bakeries here sell much more than desserts. They are famous for pies, quiches, savory pastries and sandwiches. A bakery is usually a really safe bet for a fabulous and fresh lunch in Oz. I saw that they had a lot of vegetarian items on their menu at this bakery and was sold. I ordered the pumpkin ciabatta sandwich. They toasted it for me and served it up hot. And I've got to say, this was the most satisfying and flavorful vegetarian sandwich I've had in a good long time. It consisted of a marinated veggie salad of pumpkin, capsicum, zucchini and feta. There were also some fresh greens on the sandwich. But the crowing ingredient was the caramelized onion aoli, which added just a hint of sweet/tart flavor that brought the whole thing together. The crunch of the bread and the complex flavors made this such a yummy lunch. And the perfect thing to compliment my low-key yet wonderful afternoon in Fremantle!

Lamington

I finally had a chance to try a lamington! Lamingtons are a traditional Aussie dessert. They are a light cake dipped in (usually) chocolate cream/icing and then covered in desiccated (dried) coconut. Sometimes they have jam or creme filling, sometimes they don't. They're sold as fresh good quality treats, and also as prepackaged kinda like hostess cakes. I've been wanted to try one for the past couple of weeks but hadn't been to any bakeries and didn't feel like spending money on a huge package of the prepackaged ones. This weekend when I was on Rottnest Island I got my chance. After a wonderful day hiking, snorkeling, and exploring the island is my Rottnest island post, I headed back to the central town and was craving something sweet. They had a bakery, and when I saw Lamingtons in the case I was sold. I immediately noticed that they were pink! This is not typical, so I asked and apparently they were selling special strawberry ones for Mother's Day. So I decided to try the special one. I wasn't disappointed! The treat reminded me of a Snowball, the cake was fluffy and moist, and the coating and coconut really complimented it. I really want to try one of the chocolate ones now, and I'm thinking that this would be a good Australian dessert for me to attempt to bake on my own.

Banana Cinnamon Pie

Okay, listen up because this is my best original dessert since the Taro Cloud Cake. I experimented making banana popovers with some extra phyllo dough last week. The popovers turned out pretty badly, they didn't stay together and didn't get crispy. However, the filling I used tasted amazing, and baked into a cake like constancy. This gave me the idea to make a phyllo crust pie out of it, and last night I made it happen. My inspiration was ban-offe pie, a toffee banana pie that is popular in England. But I wanted to make something simpler, with more cinnamon and less carmel. So I ended up with this wonderful recipe instead. I mashed banana's together with cinnamon, honey, and good quality caramel sauce. Literally, that is all that is in the pie filling. I then layer down a layer of phyllo in a pie pan for the crust, and poured my filling in (below left). It filled the pan about halfway. Next I covered the filling with a top layer of phyllo dough. The last touch was brushing egg unto the dough (see below right) so that it would get nice and brown as it baked (kudos to my mom for the suggestion!), I topped the egg with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Then I baked it for 20 minutes at 410F. 

The result was an amazing, beautiful pie with delicious crust! The cinnamon gives the pie a wonderful homey flavor and the honey and bananas make it sweet. The caramel is essential because it is what helps solidify the pie and give it the wonderful cake consistency. The crust was very yummy, the egg did wonders for it and the combination of flaky and crunchy crust really made a good pie great. Another wonderful thing was how well this dessert stayed together. After the popover fiasco I was worried it would come apart when I cut it, but this wasn't the case at all. The pieces held their shape remarkably well (see top photo). This is definitely something that I would serve to guests. Actually, it's a wonderful dessert to bring to a party or potluck because it is unique and really easy. 

Thoughts on this Dessert:

• Here's the ingredients that I used and their correct measurements. To make the filling I used 5 bananas, 1/4 a cup of caramel sauce, 1 1/2 tblsp of honey, and a generous amount of cinnamon (add to taste). For the crust you need 2 pieces of phyllo pastry, 1 scrambled egg, and cinnamon. 
• I would maybe make a bit more filling next time, since I had room for more in the pan.
• Make sure you get good quality caramel sauce, the kind that oozes out. If it's watery don't use it for this recipe, it's your solidifying agent! 
• You might also be able to make this using dulce de leche or melted caramel as a substitute. 
• You can also try a substitute traditional pie crust, I liked the phyllo though because it lightened up the dessert, both in texture and healthiness.
• As desserts go this one really isn't too bad for you. The caramel is the worst thing in it, otherwise there is no added sugar because the ingredients themselves are naturally sweet. Really this pie is mostly fruit. 
• I suggest eating it with vanilla ice crew, or cool whip, but it's also wonderful plain.
• IT IS AMAZING WARM FROM THE OVEN, this is the optimum way to enjoy this dessert. Preferably with a cup of coffee, a cappuccino is probably the best drink to pair with it.

This was such a success! I shared it with all of my housemates, and we all agreed that it tasted wonderful and turned out very well :)

Black Bean, Spinach, and Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers

What a yummy meal! I stuffed 2 capsicum with a mix of black beans, spinach, sweet potato, seasoning and mozzarella cheese. Then I roasted them at 400 for 30 minutes. Final touch, homemade guac. Done! Quick, easy, healthy, and very tasty! I mixed the filling and then stuffed the peppers to capacity. They cooked wonderfully. Two tips, go heavy on the spinach and light on the cheese. A little cheese goes a long way, and the roasted spinach made this dish. Highlight of this dish was the black beans. Apparently, they don't really sell these in Australia, and I've been going through some serious withdrawal. I finally found them at a health food store last week and eagerly shelled out the money for them. Totally worth it. I love black beans so much, and it was wonderful to be able to cook with them again. 

Roasted Hassleback Caprese

So while this might not look very pretty it was really yummy. I decided to make Caprese, but with tomatoes cut like hassleback potatoes! And then because I was feeling ambitious (and because it's been really cold here and a warm meal sounded better) I decided to roast them. I took two medium ripe tomatoes and sliced them sideways, but left them slightly attached, so all of the pieces formed one slit tomato (see below left). Then I removed some of the guts to make them less watery. I also tend to not like tomato guts in anything I eat so I alway try to remove them before serving or cooking. I set the tomatoes upside down, with the slits facing the cutting board to let some of the access liquid drain as I was preparing the cheese and basil. I bought buffalo mozzarella, but it was preserved rather than fresh. In retrospect this was a good idea since the preserved melts a lot better than the fresh would have. I sliced it into thin pieces and then stuck it into the slits of the tomatoes with a basil leaf. As I cut into the mozzarella the pieces got larger and larger until some were sticking out at weird angles. The melting of these pieces is what led to the tomatoes falling over under the weight of the cheese. I realized afterwards that I should have cut the larger pieces in half to have more uniform cheese slices. I'll do this next time. Before I put them in the oven I sprinkled balsamic vinegar over them and also added a bit of tuscan seasoning. Then I put them in the oven at 400F for 40 minutes. They turned out really really yummy. They were super cheesy and the tomatoes cooked perfectly. They were quite messy to eat, but overall a really satisfying dinner. 

Veggie Cashew Pies

Okay I've been wanted to make these since I discovered Australian savory pies. I saw on Pinterest that there is such thing as using cashews as a substitute for the creamy pie filling. So I decided to try that. I made the cashew cream by soaking 2 cups of unsalted cashews in hot water for about 15-20 minutes. Then adding it together with some seasoning and 1 cup of veggie stock. Then I blended it in a high powered mixer until it was creamy with no lumps. Then I combined carrots, celery, lentils, and sweet potato (microwave the chopped potato for 2 minutes first), with a bit of olive oil, tuscan seasoning, and garlic pepper. Then my secret ingredient! I placed a spring of rosemary on top. I then placed a top on the pan and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. At then end I broke up the spring and mixed in the rosemary so it would get into the pies. 

While that was cooking I prepped the dough. I decided to use phyllo dough. This decision was made because I couldn't find pre made pie crust in the store. But the phyllo dough is healthier so I'm glad this decision was made for me. I cut it into pieces and stuffed it into the individual tins (below left). When I was finished with that, I mixed the cashew cream into the pan and cooked it with the veggies for another 2 minutes. Then I spooned the completed mixture into the prepped pies. Lastely, I covered the pies with more phyllo dough, making sure that I tucked it on top of the pie. Then I stuck the pies in the oven for 40 minutes at 375ish F. They turned out great (below right).

The cashew cream made the pie taste toasty and nutty. It got crunchy on the edges but stayed creamy in the middle. also the veggies that I picked did an awesome job go making this dinner taste like the most comforting thing ever. Also important to note that they stayed together perfectly when I took them out of the pan (this was something I was worried about). This made 18 pies!! So I'll be eating these for the next 5 days or so, but they were so yummy that I'm happy about that. They're really good warm, but also a good thing to take as a snack or lunch on the go. 

Thoughts on this dish:

• The most unhealthy part of this is the cashews. Otherwise the phyllo is much better than using actual pie crust, and the veggies are really healthy. Since only 1-3 pies are supposed to be eaten at one time this recipe is actually a really nice healthy vegetarian meal.
• I loved the combination of these 3 vegetables so much that I wouldn't even they to mix and match them with others. 
• What I would do is add more veggies, more celery, maybe another half of a potato, and another small carrot. 
• Also another sprig of rosemary might have been needed, especially If I add more veggies next time.
• I could probably have baked these at 400F for 45 minutes, I didn't want them to burn but I think the crust could have gotten crispier. 

I'm so happy that I was able to put my own spin on some authentic Aussie food. Feel like I'm settling in here.