After a dash to the fish co-op one afternoon we produced this delicious dinner of a Barbecued Snapper served with Spicy Mango and Avocado Salsa and accompanied it with the best friend of white fleshed fish - potatoes - simply steamed and tossed in butter. It was spectacularly simple and delicious ….
Inspired by my favourite, old, French cookbook, I prepared this mussel dish. It is very simple to make, the quality of the result relying upon the use of the very best produce you can lay your hands on. And aren’t we fortunate in Australia to have such ingredients to indulge our appetites and fantasies? ….
This is a recipe for XO Sauce with a difference. It is gluten-free, of course, which is the first difference. The next is that XO sauces usually include dried scallops and seafood but we use readily available bacon and mushroom to create the savoury complexity expected in an XO sauce ….
Versions of moussaka have been made in the Levant and the Balkans, in Egypt and Turkey and Greece for who knows how long. Proof of its popularity. But do we need another one? Well, this Mushroom and Lentil Moussaka has no gluten. It has no meat. It has no potato. The eggplant is grilled not fried ….
Deliciously succulent pasta tubes filled with aubergine, ricotta, spinach, parmesan and smoked Fior di Latte, topped and bottomed with home made tomato sauce ….. salivating yet? This week’s recipe is a home-cook’s dream as it can be prepared well ahead of time and gently reheated to serve topped with fresh basil leaves. It can be made in very large quantities for parties and freezes well ....
In the run-up to the festive season, or anytime really, I feel quite satisfied with myself if I have a little hoard of good things to eat on hand for whoever might drop in, and these classic Italian biscuits are close to perfect because they accompany a lovely glass of sweet wine just as easily as a cup of tea ....
Yes, we all do it. Wanting to catch up with everyone before Christmas as if there’ll never be another chance! It makes a crazy time even more crazy but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
We love the idea of catching up over drinks with a few delicious bites no matter whether it is a huge festive affair with all the friends and neighbours dropping in or something more intimate. Either way, we’ve got you covered ....
Here we go again, turning our heads towards Christmas dinner.
It’s only four weeks till D Day, or rather C Day, so getting ourselves prepared is not such a bad idea. In the next four weeks we’ll be posting lots of ideas for your Christmas dinner, in fact we have so many we’ll be posting twice as often as usual but just in case you’re a real Scout and would like to be prepared NOW, we’re here to help ...
Funny how one thing leads to another. I recently needed only a couple of stalks of rhubarb, to pickle, to top some delicious sticky rice cakes for a pre-dinner nibble. As our rhubarb pickle loses its vibrant colour after a week or two, I only pickle what I need. What to do with the rest? A bit of poaching with some star anise, orange juice and zest produced a cup full of delicious pulpy sweet rhubarb.
What to do with that ...
Nonya cuisine is probably the world’s first true fusion food. It really is a fusion of cultures using Malay, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese flavours and spices and is also well known for a wide variety of delicious and sometimes unusual (to me) traditional cakes and sweets. I went crazy for their delicate Pineapple Tarts ...
I love Singapore and not just for the noodles. A very old friend and her husband have been living and working there for ten years and we love to visit. They live in Tiong Bahru an old, historic part of Singapore which has lately become a very trendy part of the city. There is a wonderful Chinese wet market there full of a vast variety the freshest produce. It’s hot and noisy, bustling and busy and I love it ....
Deliciously succulent pasta tubes filled with aubergine, ricotta, spinach, parmesan and smoked Fior di Latte, topped and bottomed with home made tomato sauce ….. salivating yet? This week’s recipe is a home-cook’s dream as it can be prepared well ahead of time and gently reheated to serve topped with fresh basil leaves. It can be made in very large quantities for parties and freezes well ....
Some years ago I found an interesting herb garnish on my salad in a Vietnamese restaurant. I didn’t recognise it but my mother, the green thumb in our family who couldn’t identify it either, suggested that I take it home and stick it in a glass of water. I did and roots sprouted. Now, I have a garden that is verdant with perilla ....
Husband’s birthday. Cake needed. But what to make? Something new. He’s had all our recipes of course. Birthday getting closer ..... Chatting with a friend just back from Europe who, on a train to Brussels, consumed several pieces of what she described as the most delicious cake she’d ever had - a Medovik, a Czechoslovakian Honey Cake. Bingo! ....
Dinner for a very dear friend’s birthday required a bit of thought as I wanted to cook her favourites but with a twist. She loves a corn curry I’ve been making for years but I didn’t want to serve a curry meal and so decided to convert the curry idea into a soup for entrée and make it a bit luxe for the celebration by garnishing with crayfish tails ....
Here are two simple dishes to offer with drinks when you have a crowd of people. Recently I served them instead of a first course before an Indian meal. The radish and cucumber raita can be made well ahead of time and, if all the ingredients are prepared beforehand, the prawn and coriander pakoras can be cooked in just a few minutes ....
We’ve posted a few citrus-based recipes recently but given that lemons, oranges and grapefruits are in season right now we know you’ll allow us to post one more. After all, it is winter in the southern hemisphere and vitamin C is supposed to be good to ward off colds and the flu.
So here is a classic lemon delicious pudding with a touch of lime ....
