MUSSELS IN CIDER AND CREAM

MUSSELS IN CIDER AND CREAM

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? ….

RASPBERRY PEARS AND VANILLA RICE

RASPBERRY PEARS AND VANILLA RICE

The visual delight of this dessert – borrowed in part from a cookbook called Dinner with Jackson Pollock (via Gourmet Traveller) – is that poaching the pears in a raspberry syrup, otherwise known as a Melba sauce, turns them an amazing, almost electric pink ….

FRENCH MACARONS

FRENCH MACARONS

We know you can pick up a macaron pretty well anywhere these days but they’re not all good and just think how impressed your friends and family will be when you produce your very own home-made version. Our macarons are not at all difficult to make but you do need to follow a few easy technical steps to ensure success ….

PLUM AND HAZELNUT PUDDING

PLUM AND HAZELNUT PUDDING

Plums and hazelnuts seem to have been made for each other. Certainly in this pudding they make a great team, providing a juicy, fruity base and a crisp friand-like topping. And with a dollop of something creamy it’s delicious ….

PIZZA TARTS

PIZZA TARTS

For some time now I’ve taken to keeping a batch of our Revenge Cream Cheese Pastry in the freezer. Which means it's always on stand-by to make one of these quick and tasty Pizza Tarts. Roll it out, top it with good fresh flavours as we’ve suggested here - Tomato and Gruyere, Kabocha and Bacon, and Asparagus and Ham - and bake.

SIENNA CAKE

SIENNA CAKE

As a very young woman I went to Europe with two girlfriends for a year. We had a great time (who wouldn’t?) and, like most people, fell in love with Italy. And its food (yes, and the art, architecture and the odd young man or two!). In Siena, to see where the famous Palio horse race spectacular is run, I had a piece of its equally famous Siena Cake. And another love affair was started ….

EGGPLANT CONFETTI

EGGPLANT CONFETTI

This dish of pan-fried eggplant is marinated in soy and sweet vinegar and scattered with a selection of little flavour hits. It’s the bits that make the party but the eggplant that provides the tender heart ….

XO SAUCE

XO SAUCE

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 ….