Fulfilling a Dream - Part 1 8 May 2016 3:40 AM (8 years ago)

For most of my adult life, I've dreamt of doing some kind of culinary training - not necessarily with the idea of becoming a chef, mostly just for the sheer joy of it, and of course always with the hope of developing new skills and becoming a better cook.

Several months ago when I discovered the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy, which offered courses (both onsite and online) that bring together innovate and creative culinary arts with optimal, plant-based nutrition, I was completely captivated and I really felt that this was my ticket to realising that dream.

Finally, last month I had the opportunity to complete Level 1 of the Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine through Matthew Kenney's online academy, and to say this was an extraordinary experience would be an understatement.

Of course, the food was fabulous, but it was also very satisfying to learn classical techniques - knife skills, food safety, flavour balancing, plating and presentation - skills that you would learn in any typical culinary training, and with techniques that were applied to raw food. Typically raw food is not heated above 45 degrees C (115 degrees F) to preserve the enzymes in food which are normally destroyed during cooking.

You might think that this would mean going without a lot of things, but it was very inspiring to find new and creative ways to ensure that this food was highly enriching rather than any form of deprivation.

Working through the online academy, I did miss the camaraderie of working in the kitchen with others; however, there is plenty of opportunity for students to connect with each other online, and tutors are incredibly helpful and supportive. Every effort really is made to make students feel as connected as possible.

So, I'm sure you're all dying to know what I learnt - well, I can now safely say that raw food is so much more than just 100 ways to chop lettuce! From tacos to tarts, soups to salads, and everything in between - here's a little glimpse of some of the things we made.

Juices, Smoothies and Almond Milk ...

Green Juice

Apple Aid

Blueberry Bee Smoothie

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Almond Milk

Beautiful salads ...

Sesame Noodle Salad, with tamari almonds and spicy almond sauce

Zucchini Tartare

A simple but delicious Butter Lettuce Salad

Kale Caesar Salad, with rosemary croutons, pine nut "parmesan" crisps and shiitake "anchovies

Seaweed Salad, citrus laden and very fresh

We pickled and fermented ...

Dill Pickles

Pickled Ginger

Kimchi

We made sushi ...

Nori Rolls with chipotle mayonnaise

Spicy Tuber Hand Rolls with mango chutney

You don't need pasta to make ravioli, lasagne or dumplings ...

Red Beet Ravioli, with cashew cheese filling, pistachio pesto and yellow pepper sauce

Heirloom Tomato Lasagne, with macadamia ricotta, tomato marinara, and pistachio pesto

Kimchi Dumplings, made with coconut wrappers and served with a sesame ginger foam

This Bahian-style soup, was a taste sensation and one of my favourite dishes of the course, and it was the inspiration for this Quick Curry Noodle Soup

Breads, cookies and pancakes didn't escape the raw food treatment either ...

Tostadas with pico de gallo, guacamole, and cacao mole

Flatbread Pizzas

Portobello Sliders with bbq sauce and caramelised shallots

Banana Bread

Sweet Maple Pancakes

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made cheeses out of nuts ...

Cashew Nut Cheese & Macadamia Ricotta

Fermented cheeses

And, of course, there were sweet treats ...

Banana Chia Chai Pudding

Truffles

and a Lemon Chamomile Meringue Tart

The course also offered plenty of opportunity for creative expression, giving us the ability to explore our own ideas around the various techniques we learnt. I'll share some of my own creations with you in Part 2 of this story later in the week, along with a glimpse of the dishes I made for my final project.

If you would like some more information about this course, or one of the many other courses offered through the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy, please email your contact details to me at yoga(dot)tapas(at)gmail(dot)com, and I'll get in touch with you.

Strawberry Hibiscus Punch 8 May 2016 3:40 AM (8 years ago)

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we're wetting our whistles, exploring Curtis Stone's repertoire of drinks and beverages.

Checking out the drinks section of Curtis' book Good Food, Good Life, I was actually immediately drawn to his Italian Rhubarb-Orange Soda - how good does that sound?! Unfortunately, though I couldn't get my hands on any rhubarb.

I did however have everything I needed for the Strawberry-Hibiscus Punch. Hibiscus flower is one of my favourite ingredients - I love the fresh, slightly astringent flavour it brings, and the colour it adds is gorgeous.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. Firstly, I halved the recipe, since a didn't need the slake the thirst of a whole party; I further reduced the amount of sweetener by half, and replaced caster sugar with agave. I also added a tiny pinch of salt - not enough to actually make it taste salty, but just enough to bring out all the flavours of the hibiscus and fruit. Lastly I added the juice of a lime, which did a great job of balancing out the sweetness, and really brought that nice tropical vibe.

This is beautiful, refreshing drink, and for a special occasion (or really even just for the heck of it) you could mix this with prosecco for a bit of sparkle. It would also mix well with soda water, coconut water, or even a bit of sake.

Strawberry Hibiscus Punch Recipe
Adapted from a recipe by Curtis Stone
from Good Food, Good Life
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2 cups water
1/4 cup agave
1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers
1 cup strawberries
2.5cm (1 inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced
pinch salt

to serve
juice of 1x lime
2 cups water extra (or soda or prosecco)
extra strawberries

Put water and agave in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Stir until liquid just comes to a boil and the agave has fully dissolved.

Remove from heat, and add the hibiscus flowers, strawberries, ginger and salt. Leave standing to infuse for about 2 hours.

Strain into a jug, and discard the solids. Add extra water (or soda or prosecco) and lime juice. Stir to mix thoroughly.

Serve over ice and garnish with extra strawberries.

If you would like to get to know Curtis Stone a little better, and would like to wet your whistle with all the fabulous beverages my friends have come up with this week, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I promised last week also to tell you a bit more about the training course which I've just done through the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy - you can now find that post here. I hope you find it inspiring.

Quick Curry Noodle Soup 1 May 2016 3:32 AM (8 years ago)

Regular visitors here will know that I like to cook along with my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs, where each six months we choose a new chef and take an in-depth exploration of their recipes and cooking techniques. What you won't know, because I'm shamefully guilty of not having posted for the last month, is that we have now moved onto our 14th IHCC chef - Curtis Stone. Curtis is of Australian origin, pursued a cooking career in London (including working under Marco Pierre White, and, in addition to a number of popular television shows, he now has a well-known restaurant of his own in Beverley Hills, California.

This week at IHCC is actually Potluck Week, which means we actually get to choose any recipe we like from any one of the 14 chefs in the IHCC stable. However, since I've yet to join in with cooking any of Curtis' dishes, it seemed only fair that I should dip into one of his many culinary tomes.

It was the Quick Curry Noodle Soup from Curtis' book Good Food, Good Life which provided my initial inspiration. Curtis' soup incorporates beautiful prawns and fresh fish in a rich coconut broth with lots of Thai flavours of lemongrass, ginger, coriander, and kaffir lime - delicious!!

However, as I've just spent the last month doing a Raw Food Chef's training course through the Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy (which I can honestly say has been truly amazing, and you can visit this post to find out about my experience and see what we made), I was inspired to see if I could make a raw version of this dish. Further inspiration also came from a Bahian style soup which we made on the course.

I went about making my version of this soup by substituting the seafood for vegetable "noodles" - carrots, zucchini and beetroot - and whizzing up my coconut milk and loads of zingy flavourings in the blender instead of in a pot. Obviously, because this is a raw version, it's not a hot soup, but there's actually plenty of heat comes through from the chilli, so it was still plenty comforting even on an autumn evening. The wild card I guess in my version was the beetroot - not something that you would generally expect to find with these bold Asian flavours, but the sweet yet earthy flavour of the beets actually worked surprisingly well, and there's no doubt that they certainly add some visual impact to the dish. I would have no hesitation including them again.

You might not have thought about raw food before, but I urge you to try this dish - it just might surprise you.

Quick Curry Noodle Soup Recipe
Inspired by Curtis Stone & Matthew Kenney
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

coconut milk
1 cup dessicated coconut
2 cups water

vegetables
1/2 medium carrot
1x small zucchini
1/2 medium beetroot
sea salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice

soup
1-1/2 cups coconut milk
1/3 cup carrot juice
5cm (2 in) piece spring onion, white part only, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, leaves and stems, chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1x small clove garlic, minced
1/2 medium red chilli, remove seeds if you prefer less heat
1x lime, grated zest and juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1x avocado
1x large tomato, seeds removed and diced

to serve
coriander leaves
kaffir lime leaf, finely shredded
lime cheek

Begin by making the coconut milk - pour the water over the dessicated coconut and leave to stand for at least 10 minutes. (Go have a cup of coffee, put your feet up, have a snooze - nobody dies!!) After a suitable rest period, add the coconut and water to a blender, blend thoroughly (really thoroughly), and strain.

Next prepare the vegetables. You can run the vegetables through a spiraliser to create your noodles, or if you don't have a spiraliser, a vegetable peeler that creates fine juliennes or ribbons will do just fine. Place the carrot and zucchini noodles in a bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and a teaspoon lemon juice, toss well and set aside to soften slightly while you prepare the broth. Do the same thing with the beetroot noodles, keeping them in a separate bowl from the other vegetables so that the beetroot doesn't turn everything pink.

Now, onto the broth. Put all of the soup ingredients, except the avocado and tomato into a tall jug or deep bowl. Using an immersion blender, blend everything until smooth. Add the avocado and blend again, at which point the broth will thicken up. Lastly, add the tomatoes and blend until smooth.

To serve, arrange a pile of the vegetable noodles in a bowl, and pour the broth around the noodles. Garnish with a few coriander leaves and finely shredded kaffir lime leaf. Serving a lime cheek on the side would also be a nice addition.

If you would like to get to know Curtis Stone a little better, and to see all the wonderful Potluck dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

Rockmelon Gazpacho 3 Apr 2016 6:19 PM (9 years ago)

I know a lot of people get pretty excited about the arrival of autumnal fruit such as apples, pears, quince and figs. And whilst I can get pretty turned on about the brief appearance of quince and figs, apples and pears - not so much. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them, I just don't get excited about them.

No, by and large, I am a summer fruits kind of girl. There isn't a single summer fruit that I don't adore, and what gets me properly excited is the arrival of melons just as late summer almost begins to give way to autumn. Rockmelon (or cantaloupe as you may know it in your part of the world) is my all time favourite melon. I love its juicy lusciousness and slightly "perfumed" flavour, and this time of year I just can't get get enough of it, though sadly the season is now almost at an end.

For that brief period from the end of February through to about now, when they seem to be at peak availability, I buy them up every opportunity I get. I cut some of them up into chunks and store in the freezer to use in smoothies and gelato during the year; I love big chunks of it in salads such as this Shaved Sprout Salad or tossed with some shaved fennel and pine nuts; I love to eat big wedges of it just on its own (ideally leaning over the sink to catch all the juice that runs down to my elbows); and I make it into these rockmelon & coconut yoghurt popsicles.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we are saying farewell to Ellie Kreiger who has been our guest chef for the last six months, and this seemed like the perfect time to try Ellie's Golden Gazpacho from Weeknight Wonders - a recipe which I have had bookmarked for ages.

Although weather here has definitely cooled and there is often an autumnal nip in the affair, we have still been blessed with some warm evenings, enabling us to cling to those last vestiges of summer before we begin to break out the winter woollies. Just such an evening was the perfect time to enjoy this gorgeously fragrant, chilled soup. To me there is always something about a chilled soup that seems very luxurious and elegant, and for some reason I can't explain seems to elevate soup from "comfort food" to something quite special.

In any event, if you can get your hands on some melon, I urge you to try this. The colour is glorious, with a flavour to match - but I do urge you to make the soup at least a couple of hours before you want to eat it to allow the flavours to fully develop. Actually even better if you can make it the day before.

I didn't really make any changes to Ellie's recipe in terms of ingredients used, but I did vary the quantities somewhat, particularly the vinegar and seasonings - I think this is an area where you totally need to add these according to your own taste, and what is required is going to vary enormously depending on the acidity of your tomatoes and the ripeness/sweetness of your rockmelon. You will also need, I found, to adjust again after the soup has been standing and just before you serve it, because the balance of flavours will change over that time, also the flavour will be slightly different when the soup is well chilled than when it is at room temperature. So taste, taste, taste, and adjust as necessary.

Rockmelon Gazpacho Recipe
Adapted ever so slightly from recipe by Ellie Krieger
from Weeknight Wonders
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/2 medium rockmelon, skin and seeds removed
700g (1.5 lb) yellow and/or orange tomatoes
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled
1x large handful of ice cubes
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cut rockmelon, tomatoes and cucumber into cubes. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of each cut into tiny cubes for garnish, and transfer the remainder to a blender. Add the ice cubes, and a generous slosh each of extra virgin olive oil and vinegar to the blender, along with a generous seasoning of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Blitz until smooth, taste and adjust the vinegar and seasonings to your liking.

Decant soup into a bowl or jug, and chill in the fridge for at least a couple of hours and up to 24 hours for the flavours to develop. Taste again and once again adjust flavourings to your liking.

Serve in individual bowls, garnished with the extra cubes of tomato, cucumber and rockmelon. Finish with a drizzle of the extra virgin olive oil.

If you would like to get to know Ellie Krieger a little better, and to see all the wonderful "Goodbye Ellie" dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links. And come back next week, when we begin another six month culinary journey cooking with our new guest chef, Curtis Stone.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

Black Boy Peach & Raspberry Jam 27 Mar 2016 11:33 PM (9 years ago)

There have been some exciting things happen here in Christchurch in the wake of the February 2011 earthquake. Many interesting activities that have popped up around the city as a result of the Gap Filler project, quirky cafes and bars have taken up residence on demolition sites, and many of the city's broken buildings have become the canvas for unique artworks, all of which have given the city a real vibrance that it didn't have pre-earthquake.

But one thing that is very sobering is the number of whole suburbs that have disappeared, and have now become what we know as the Residential Red Zone. In these areas the land became highly unstable and the Crown determined that it was uneconomic to repair or stabilise the land. As a result the Crown acquired all the land from the home owners and all the houses were demolished. What you see today is large areas of land now devoid of houses and people, but the gardens still remain, like a spectre of the neighbourhoods lost. Walking around the red zone has an almost eerie feeling to it. But to every cloud there is a silver lining, and these well established but abandoned gardens are a forager's paradise.

My home is less than 100 metres from the beginning of the red zone, and this week I have been gathering pears and several buckets of Black Boy peaches. I also have my eye on feijoas, walnuts, figs, more pears, and olives - all yet to ripen.

Some of you may have never come across Black Boy peaches. They are an old heritage variety, with a dark almost purple skin and pink flesh. You generally won't come across them in supermarkets; instead you are most likely to acquire some only if you know someone who grows them, or you might stumble across some at a farmers market if you're lucky. Unlike other peaches, they are in my opinion better suited to stewing or poaching than eaten fresh, and they are also beautiful made into jams and chutneys.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Potluck Week, giving us the opportunity to cook with any one of our IHCC stable of guest chefs. With the bounty of all the late summer produce around at the moment, preserving is high priority for me right now, and I've been spending a lot of time lately splattering the pages of Diana Henry's "Salt Sugar Smoke" with all manner of delicious sauces and jams. I love Diana's approach to preserving and, seeking some inspiration for dealing with one of those buckets of peaches, this seemed like the ideal place to look. I had been thinking along the lines of chutney actually, but then I stumbled across her recipe for White Peach & Raspberry Jam. Since I had a stash of frozen raspberries to use up as well, I could go no further.

I made a few tiny tweaks to the recipe - firstly using these glorious pink fleshed peaches instead of white; I included the zest from the lemons along with the juice, because why not: and I added the grated flesh of one apple instead of the box of commercial pectin asked for in the original recipe. Also once the jam has been made and bottled, Diana then puts the bottles through a canning process. Personally, this is something I have never bothered doing with jam, and I've had no problem with them keeping for up to 12 months, but feel free to do so if you have concerns about keeping your jams for long periods of time.

The resulting jam, as you can see, has the most spectacular colour. It's not overly sweet, has a softish set to it and incredible fragrance, giving this jam an almost seductive quality. A dollop of this on top of some sourdough rye and carraway bread I picked up at the farmers market made the perfect start to the day for a Sunday morning breakfast.

If you're lucky enough to get your hands on some Black Boy peaches, I urge you to give this a try.

Black Boy Peach & Raspberry Jam Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from Salt Sugar Smoke
Makes 4 large jars
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1.2kg Black Boy peaches (or whatever peaches you can get)
5 cups raspberries
grated zest of one lemon
juice of 2 lemons
1x apple, flesh grated
5 cups sugar

Place clean jars and lids into a low oven to sterilise them.

Meanwhile remove the skins from the peaches by plunging them briefly into a pot of boiling water. Remove and plunge into a bowl of cold water. The skins should then slide off easily. Halve the peaches, remove and discard the stones, and cut the flesh into slices or chunks.

Put all of the peach flesh into a large, deep saucepan, along with the raspberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and grated apple. Crush slightly to start the fruit juices running, then set pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Add the sugar, bring back to the boil, and continue boiling until setting point is reached (100 degrees C/220 degrees F on a sugar thermometer).

Allow jam to stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly, and then ladle into the hot jars. Leave to cool before sealing with lids.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry or any of our other IHCC chefs a little better, and to see all the wonderful Potluck dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Shaved Sprout Salad with Figs & Hazelnuts 20 Mar 2016 1:24 AM (9 years ago)

Shaved Sprout Salad with Figs & Hazelnuts 1

We've had a spectacular summer in my part of the world, but literally like a switch going off autumn screamed in right on the 1st of March, bringing with it cool, nippy mornings, gloomy days and chillier evenings. After a couple of weeks of decidedly autumnal weather, however, summer returned this weekend (hopefully for a few weeks to come) with clear blue skies and loads of sunshine.

Since recently moving back to Christchurch, I have of late been enjoying reacquainting myself with the local farmers market, and yesterday was the kind of day that makes it a real joy to venture out - the sun was shining, music played, all the stalls were flat out busy, and plenty of market goers were taking the opportunity to grab something to eat and enjoy "brunch" sitting in the sunshine on the river bank.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs, we're going green and healthy, celebrating the spirit of St Patricks Day with our current IHCC guest chef, Ellie Krieger. I had picked up some brussels sprouts at the supermarket earlier in the week, and was thinking that Ellie's recipe for Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Hazelnuts and Dried Apricots from "Weeknight Wonders" seemed like a good jumping off point. The original recipe combines thinly shaved brussels sprouts with hazelnuts and dried apricots (probably obviously enough); however, I was really feeling the autumnal vibe and was thinking that fresh figs would be a great complement to the brussels sprouts. I had great hopes of finding fresh figs at the farmers market, but it seems I was a bit premature - no figs around yet.

Shaved Sprout Salad with Figs & Hazelnuts 2

I still liked the idea of incorporating figs though, so used some nice plump dried figs that I found, and actually I liked the slightly more "chewy" quality of the dried fruit with the shaved sprouts. Other changes I made were including a large handful of flat leaf parsley leaves ( I love to use the leaves whole like another salad green, rather than chopping them up), and because I wanted to turn this into a substantial meal for myself I also included some blue goats cheese and some beautiful big, fat, green Sicilian olives that I picked up at the farmers market. Rock melon too have been abundant of late, and with plenty of melon on hand to be used up I thought this too would work perfectly with the sprouts and figs, and would deliver the juicy succulence that I had been hoping for in fresh figs. I also tweaked the dressing a bit really just to suit ingredients that I had on hand.

Here is my version of Ellie's salad, given its "autumn makeover". Actually this was the first time I'd ever eaten brussels sprouts raw - won't be the last! This salad packed plenty of great flavours, and lots of interesting textures - certainly delivers enough on both fronts to potentially get this one past even those who claim to hate sprouts. I was very happy to make a meal out of this and would certainly make it again. The other great thing about this salad, unlike a lettuce salad, is that it's not going to go all "wilty" on you, making this perfect to pack up and take outdoors for a picnic or barbeque.

Shaved Sprout Salad with Figs & Hazelnuts 3

Shaved Sprout Salad with Figs & Hazelnuts Recipe
Inspired by recipe by Ellie Krieger
from Weeknight Wonders
Serves 1 as a substantial meal or
Serves 2 as a light meal or side dish
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

large handful of hazelnuts
8x brussels sprouts, washed and outer leaves removed
large handful flat leaf parsley leaves
3x plump dried figs, cut into thin strips
1/4 of a rock melon, skin and seeds removed and cut into cubes
large handful of Sicilian olives
approx 75g (2.5 oz) blue cheese, crumbled

dressing:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Place hazelnuts in a small dry frying pan, set over medium heat and toast, tosssing from time to time, until the nuts are golden brown. Remove pan from the heat, tip the nuts out onto a clean tea towel, wrap them up and rub vigorously to loosen the skins. Set nuts aside to cool.

Meanwhile, cut the sprouts in half lengthwise, remove the hard "core", and then with a very sharp knife cut them crosswise very thinly. Place the shave sprouts in a bowl along with the parley leaves, dried figs, cubed rock melon, crumbled blue cheese, green olives, and roughly chopped hazelnuts.

To make the dressing, place all ingredients into a small jug or bowl and whisk until well combined. Pour over salad ingredients and toss until everything is just coated with the dressing.

Serve and enjoy.

Note: As with so many of my recipes you don't need to be too fussy about quantities here, or even use all of these ingredients - just follow your instincts and your taste buds to come up with your own creation

For example try using:
broccoli instead of brussels sprouts
feta instead of blue cheese
cranberries instead of dried figs
orange or pink grapefruit instead of rock melon
almonds instead of hazelnuts
The possibilities are limitless - just use your imagination

If you would like to get to know Ellie Krieger a little better, and to see all the wonderful "Green Eating" dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays hosted by my lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

Peri Peri Prawns 14 Feb 2016 2:21 PM (9 years ago)

In case you hadn't noticed (I'm sure you did), this little blog of mine has been sadly neglected over the last few months. I could give you a dozen or more excuses for that - all of them valid, but all of them equally boring to anybody else but me. So I'm going to dispense with the lame excuses, and cut straight to the chase - the blog is back, and I'm kicking things off this week with some fiery prawns ... just the thing to wake up the taste buds and a dormant blog.

I'm cooking along with my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs this week, where we are revisiting a cooking club favourite chef - Tessa Kiros. I absolutely loved the time we spent cooking with Tessa a couple of years ago, and her book Falling Cloudberries became (hands down) the most used cookbook in my collection.

I had bookmarked Tessa's recipe for Prawns with Lemon, Peri Peri, Garlic & Feta ages ago, and a hot summer evening last night seemed like the perfect occasion to try it. I made very little changes to the recipe, other than to adjust quantities (since I had no need to feed six people), substituted chilli flakes for peri peri seasoning which I didn't have, and I baked the dish in the oven instead of on the stovetop.

This dish was incredibly simple to prepare, absolutely bursting with the kind of flavours that I love, and served alongside a simple Greek salad, instantly transported me back to the Greek island holidays I've enjoyed so much in the past - if you want to travel without the hassle of packing a suitcase or renewing your passport, this is the dish that will take you there.

Peri Peri Prawns Recipe
Serves 2
Adapted from recipe by Tessa Kiros
from Falling Cloudberries
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

400g raw prawns
1-2 tablespoons butter
4x large cloves garlic, finely chopped
large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
very generous pinch of chilli flakes
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1x lemon, finely grated zest & juice
150g feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (390 degrees F).

Choose an ovenproof baking dish that will be just large enough to hold all the prawns in three layers.

In a small bowl mix together the finely chopped garlic and parsley, chilli flakes, lemon zest, and a generous seasoning of flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Dot some of the butter liberally around the base of the baking dish and cover with a layer of prawns. Sprinkle over a third of the garlic mixture, and dot generously with more butter. Cover with another layer of prawns, sprinkle over half of the remaining garlic mixture, and once again dot with more butter. Finish with the final layer of prawns, sprinkle over the remaining garlic mixture, and dot with some more butter.

Cover dish and place into the preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, drizzle over the lemon juice, and crumble the feta over the top. Baste with some of the buttery prawn juices which by now will have settled in the bottom of the dish. Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes (or longer as necessary), until the prawns are cooked through and the feta is just starting to melt and turn golden.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately, with a simple salad and some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

If you would like to get to know Tessa a little better, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and see what they've all cooked up ...

... or check out Falling Cloudberries and many of Tessa's other great titles available from Amazon or Fishpond NZ.

Crunchy Chicken Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing 25 Oct 2015 8:00 PM (9 years ago)

Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing 1

Like many of you I'm sure, I like to travel. That said, I don't think I'm much of a tourist. I usually don't have too much interest in popular tourist attractions, preferring instead (wherever I maybe) to search out the local food markets and making interesting food discoveries. Returning from an overseas trip you are more likely to find my suitcase weighed down with jars of olive oil, tins of anchovies, or slabs of nougat, than bulging at the seams with souvenirs and clothes. Case in point, I recently returned from a trip to Bali with blocks of peanut sate sauce and 50 beautiful vanilla beans. Whilst on my stay in Bali I did a couple of great cooking classes (my other favourite thing to do when I'm travelling anywhere), and whilst we learnt how to make the delicious peanut sauce that you frequently finding accompany sate sticks or used in Gado Gado (an Indonesian salad of assorted steamed vegetables, often served with tofu and eggs, and liberally doused in peanut sauce), it turns out that most of the locals don't actually bother making their own peanut sauce, but use the concentrated blocks of it. It keeps really well, is easy to use - simply break off a large chunk and dissolve in boiling water - and tastes every bit as good as making your own.

So now I have a stash of peanut sauce blocks, and I've been looking for different and interesting ways to use it. Inspiration this week came from Erin at The Spiffy Cookie. Erin's blog was my Secret Recipe Club assignment this month and her Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing was the perfect dish to not only use up some leftover roast chicken, but to also provide a home for some of my peanut sauce.

But before I move onto the recipe, let me tell you a little bit more about Erin and the Secret Recipe Club. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page. As I mentioned this month I was assigned to The Spiffy Cookie, hosted by Erin, who has a PhD in Microbiology - yep, this girl is really smart - and loves to cook and bake for her family and friends. She tries to stick to the healthier side of things foodwise, but admits that her favourite "food group" is dessert. Erin also likes to keep herself fit with a regular work out regime, and to get crafty painting on canvas as well as ceramics. She is a very prolific blogger, and so offered literally hundreds of recipes to choose from, and I've bookmarked a few to try at a later date: Peanut Butter & Chocolate French Toast (yes, really!), Dark Cherry Chocolate Almond Granola Bars (what better way to start the day?), Gnocchetti with Asparagus & Garlic-Gorgonzola Sauce (it being asparagus season here, this one was a serious front runner), but it was the Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing that ticked all the boxes for me.

I varied some of the ingredients in the salad a little simply to suit what I had on hand or was readily available - for example, Erin used radicchio in her salad which was not available, so I added some baby spinach leaves in with the lettuce, and used some purple carrots for the colour. I also subbed in some rocket leaves (arugula) for the coriander (cilantro) which I couldn't get, and replaced peanuts with cashew nuts because that's what I had on hand. I'm also giving you here Erin's recipe for the peanut dressing, though I did (as I mentioned) sub in some of my Balinese peanut sauce. In terms of the actual salad ingredients here, I don't think you need to be too fussy with quantities here - use what you have in whatever proportions you like and depending on how many people you need to feed.

Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing 2

Crunchy Chicken Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing
Adapted slightly from this recipe
at The Spiffy Cookie

salad
cos lettuce
baby spinach leaves
orange carrot, very finely julienned
purple carrot, very finely julienned
red pepper, very finely sliced
cooked chicken, shredded
rocket leaves, roughly torn
roasted, unsalted cashew nuts
crispy noodles

dressing
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1/8 teaspoon sriracha or hot sauce
hot water

Begin by making the dressing. Whisk together peanut butter, honey, soy sauce, lime juice and sriracha in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in hot water until you reach the consistency you want. Set aside.

Assemble all your salad ingredients, except the cashew nuts and noodles, in a large bowl. Toss together well, then arrange on a serving platter, or in individual bowls. Drizzle the dressing over the salad liberally, and top with the nuts and noodles.

Serve immediately.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pasta with Asparagus & Pistachio Pesto 18 Oct 2015 12:36 AM (9 years ago)

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs sees the introduction of a new event - our monthly "featured chef" event, where each month we will be given the opportunity to celebrate the recipes of one of our previous IHCC celebrity chefs. In keeping with this being the inaugural celebration, our featured chef this month is Nigella Lawson who was our very first IHCC chef.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about the group way back when they were cooking with Nigella until it was almost too late - I actually discovered the group just as they were saying farewell on their last week of their culinary journey with Nigella. I came to the party with these Chocolate Caramel Crispy Cakes, which is still one of my go-to treats when I need a crowd or kiddy pleaser, and which actually consistently ranks in the top 10 of my most viewed posts of all time.

Looking for inspiration for this week's dish, I decided to break my copy of Nigellissima down from the bookshelf. I have to admit that although I've had this one in my collection for quite a while, I actually haven't used it very much - no particular reason (it's actually a great book), but there just seems to often be other books I turned to first.

I found my inspiration in Nigella's Green Beans with Pistachio Pesto. It's asparagus season here right now, and I just can't get enough of it, so I knew I was going to sub asparagus in for the beans. I made a couple of other changes too, replacing basil in the pesto with some watercress and spinach (because that's what I had on hand, and because basil is not really readily available here yet), and adding pasta to turn this into a main meal instead of a side dish.

If I'm honest, much as I love the flavour of basil, I often find that as a flavour base for pesto it can seem a little overpowering. Here I loved the more delicate flavour of the cress and spinach in this pesto, which really enabled the flavour of the pistachios to shine through. This pesto is beautiful for dressing any green vegetable or pasta, would be a great addition to an antipasto platter, or delicious condiment in sandwiches or wraps. I think this is bound to become a real summer staple in my house.

Note: This will actually make more pesto than is required for the quantity of pasta and asparagus given, but some leftover pesto ready to dollop on some eggs, alongside some fish, or spread in a sandwich can never be a bad thing. Pesto also freezes really well so you can enjoy it all year round - it's great to freeze in ice cube trays or small zip lock bag portions - great for using in soups and casseroles.

Pasta with Asparagus & Pistachio Pesto 2

Pasta with Asparagus & Pistachio Pesto
Serves two
Inspired by recipe from Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson

250g penne pasta
8-10 fresh asparagus spears

for the pesto
large bunch watercress
2x large handfuls baby spinach leaves
1x clove garlic, roughly chopped
generous pinch flaky sea salt
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1/2 cup parmesan, freshly grated
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

to serve
freshly ground black pepper
extra parmesan

Begin by making the pesto. Put watercress, spinach leaves, garlic and sea salt into a food processor, and pulse until finely chopped. Add pistachios and parmesan, and pulse again until the nuts have been roughly chopped. Now with the motor running, add olive oil one tablespoon at a time until everything is chopped to a fine paste and fully amalgamated. Remove from food processor and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil, salt the water liberally, and add pasta to the boiling water. Remove the woody ends from the asparagus, and cut asparagus into pieces about the same length as the pasta. Once the pasta is halfway through the recommended cooking time, remove and retain one cup of the pasta water, and add asparagus pieces to the boiling water. Continue cooking until the pasta is cooked but still al dente.

Remove from heat, drain, and immediately return the pasta and asparagus to the pan. Add a couple of generous dollops of the pesto, and stir through enough of the reserved pasta water to loosen the pesto and make a sauce. Keep stirring until everything is well coated with the pesto, then serve immediately. Finish with freshly ground black pepper to your liking and a sprinkling of extra grated parmesan.

If you would like to get to know Nigella Lawson a little better, and to see all the wonderful dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I'm also sharing this post at Cook Your Books, hosted by the lovely Joyce at Kitchen Flavours.

Green Smoothie Bowls 10 Oct 2015 11:09 PM (9 years ago)

I don't know if this happens to any of you, but I completely lose my cooking mojo over the cold winter months. Whilst I know many of you relish those hearty comfort food dishes that we turn to so often once the weather turns chilly ... soups, stews, casserole, substantial puddings, and so on ... I personally could hardly give a "thank you" for them. Sure, I don't mind those things occasionally (as in maybe once or twice a year), but I have no interest in any of it as regular fare.

As soon as the days begin to get longer and warmer, however, and the first asparagus spears appear at the market, my enthusiasm for cooking returns and sends me rushing to the kitchen with renewed creative spark.

I haven't cooked with my lovely friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs for a few months. This week, however, they're beginning a new six month culinary journey with guest chef Ellie Krieger. Ellie is a nutritionist, with a number of cookbooks and regular magazine features to her credit, and if you're a fan of Food TV you will almost certainly have come across her show featuring her unique blend of healthy meets delicious fare ... just my kind of food.

This week is a potluck challenge to choose a dish to welcome Ellie to the IHCC stable of celebrity chefs. Scrolling through some of Ellie's contributions to the Washington Post, I came across her article and suggestions for smoothie bowls. As Ellie says, the best reason to put your smoothie in a bowl is of course the toppings, and she served up a gorgeous looking cherry and banana smoothie, topped with fresh berries, flaked almonds, chia seeds and toasted coconut - gorgeous.

I've been on a major smoothie kick lately, and I'm always looking for new inspiration, so this idea was right up my alley. But then I got to thinking - what if I gave this a savoury twist ... a delicately flavoured avocado and cucumber smoothie, given a little bit of a kick with peppery watercress, and spiked with lemon and mint. And the toppings? Some toasted pumpkin seeds, crispy, crumbled chorizo, and a sprinkling of wasabi peas for a bit of heat and extra crunch, and finished off with crisp shards of sourdough crackers. Of course, if you want to keep this vegetarian - skip the chorizo.

This was deliciously light and refreshing, and the toppings added enough interest and substance to make this feel like a delicious and healthy lunch. Thanks for the inspiration, Ellie - I think this could become a bit of a lunchtime staple over the summer months.

Green Smoothie Bowls Recipe
with inspiration from Ellie Krieger
Makes one generous serving
Vegetarian (if you leave out the chorizo)

for the smoothie
1x small avocado, cut into rough chunks
1/2 a telegraph cucumber, peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped
2x cups ice
half a dozen mint leaves, roughly torn
two large handfuls watercress leaves
zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 to 1/2 cup almond milk
generous pinch flaky sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

for the toppings
toasted pumpkin seeds
1/2 a chorizo sausage, thinly sliced, fried until crisp, then very finely chopped
wasabi peas
sourdough crackers
anything else savoury and crunchy that you can think of

Place all of the smoothie ingredients in a blender and blitz until completely smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning or lemon juice to your liking.

Pour the smoothie into a bowl, and sprinkle toppings liberally over the top.

Dig in and enjoy!!

If you would like to get to know Ellie Krieger a little better, and to see all the wonderful "Welcome Ellie" dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Nutella Meringues 27 Sep 2015 7:00 PM (9 years ago)

I love the serendipitous nature of things at times.

It's Secret Recipe Club** time again, and this month I was assigned to Shockingly Delicious, hosted by the lovely Dorothy. With 25 years of food writing and developing behind her, Dorothy has an absolute plethora of what she describes as "scrumptious, tried and true, scary good recipes" for her readers to choose from.

Difficult though it was to choose, I had shortlisted a few recipes from Dorothy's blog that I wanted to try: Mango Orange Cream Power Smoothie and Orange Things Fruit & Vegetable Smoothie - okay, I've been on a massive smoothie kick lately so there was no question they were going to be front runners on the list; Cheesy Skillet Gnocchi with Kale - I have a big weakness for gnocchi, and kale is very plentiful right now, making this a very strong contender in the mix; and Nutella Meringues - well, who even needs a "because" for Nutella meringues!!

And this is where serendipity comes into play. While I was in the midst of an inner debate between mango smoothies and cheesy gnocchi, a friend arrived to stay for a few days bearing a box of duck eggs collected from the brother of another friend. This occasioned a bit of a Google search for some information about using duck eggs, whereupon I discovered that apparently duck eggs make the best meringues. Well no prizes for guessing that the decision over which dish I would make was instantly nailed.

Further serendipity came today in the form of the sister of the provider of said duck eggs coming for lunch, and being able to serve her the Nutella meringues for dessert. Jennifer is not normally a woman of few words, but as she took a bite out of one of these babies, she had just four words to say ... "Oh. My. God. Awesome". What more can I say?! There is actually nothing that can be said about these meringues that is not summed up in those few words. For an "awesome" experience I urge you to try them too.

** Interested to know a little bit more about Secret Recipe Club? Then let me explain. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

Nutella Meringues
from Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
Makes 12 largish meringues
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/4 cup Nutella
3x large egg whites (duck eggs if you can get them are perfect, if not free range hen eggs)
pinch of cream of tartar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of sugar

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F), and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Put Nutella in a small bowl and microwave for around 30 seconds to "loosen" the consistency. Allow to cool if it has become warm.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on medium speed until they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt, and continue beating until the egg whites reach a soft peak stage. Now increase the speed to high, and begin to add the sugar one spoonful at a time, beating well after each addition to ensure that the sugar is fully dissolved - be patient!! By the time you've finished the meringue will be very thick and glossy.

Add the Nutella to the meringue and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold the Nutella through - just enough to get a marbled effect. Don't over mix.

Using two spoons drop dollops of meringue onto the lined baking sheet, and place in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down to 95 degrees C (200 degrees F) and bake for one hour, by which time the meringues should feel "dry". Turn the oven off and leave meringues in the oven until completely cold.

Remove and store in an airtight container. Serve just as they are or sandwich together with whipped cream, then wait for the accolades.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad 26 Jul 2015 8:00 PM (9 years ago)

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad 1

I don't know about you, but for me it's round about this stage of winter that the blues really start to set in. It's mid-winter and I've pretty much had enough of scraping the ice off the windscreen of my car every morning; the joy and novelty of winter boots, coats, hats and scarves is wearing thin; and if I see another root vegetable I'm going to scream!!

As you already know, if you stop by here on a regular basis, my meal of choice nine times out of ten will usually be a salad of some sort. This of course can get a bit challenging in the middle of winter when so many of the ingredients we normally put into salads are out of season.

It's Secret Recipe Club week again, and this month I was assigned to Bewitching Kitchen, hosted by the lovely Sally. Born and raised in Brazil, Sally's work as a biochemist has seen her live for a number of years in California and Paris, and currently in Manhatten. Sally has a great sense of humour, which entertains us all at SRC on a regular basis, and that humour infuses the literally hundreds of posts which you will find on her blog.

Of course, I headed straight to the salad section of Sally's recipe index, and as soon as I saw "Green Olive, Walnut and Pomegranate Salad" I knew I had found my dish. No seasonal ingredients required (well, there is pomegranate, but I always keep a stash of pomegranate seeds in the freezer, so no problem there), and sounded like a great combination of ingredients and textures.

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad 2

I made only minimal changes to the recipe, to suit what I had on hand, and I was not disappointed. I subbed in almonds for the walnuts, as that's what I had in the pantry, and I included the zest from the lemon that was juiced for the dressing. This salad delivered on every level - brininess of the olives, crunch of the nuts and pomegranate seeds, little bit of sweet and sour from the pomegranate molasses, and citrus zing of lemon.

I loved this so much I made it twice within a few days. The first time I served it in these lettuce cups - it was delicious to roll the salad up in the lettuce leaves, burrito-style - alongside slabs of fried haloumi cheese for a light lunch. More recently this was a great accompaniment to some pan-seared monkfish. This would also be great with roasted chicken.

Other dishes I found on Sally's blog which I can't wait to try are Pumpkin Shrimp Curry, a traditional Brazilian Shrimp Moqueca, and these amazing looking Black Pepper Cashews.

Interested to know a little bit more about Secret Recipe Club? Then let me explain. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad 3

Green Olive, Almond & Pomegranate Salad Recipe
Adapted from this recipe
from Bewitching Kitchen
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1/2 cup natural almonds
1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
1/2 cup pitted green olives, roughly chopped
seeds of 1/2 a pomegranate
1x green chilli, finely chopped
large handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1x lemon, zest and juice
2x tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1x tablespoon pomegranate molasses
flaky sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place almonds and cashews into a dry frying pan, and set over low heat. Toast until golden brown. Remove from heat, cool and chop roughly.

Place olives, pomegranate seeds, chilli, parsley and grated lemon zest in a bowl. Add the chopped nuts, and mix all ingredients together well.

Drizzle over the lemon juice, olive oil, and pomegranate molasses. Season with sea salt and black pepper. Mix once again to combine everything well. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

If time permits, allow salad to stand for an hour or two for the flavours to fully blend and develop.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Prawn, Leek & Lemon Risotto 27 Jun 2015 11:12 PM (9 years ago)

I've been remiss with my blogging over the last few months - definitely not posting as regularly as I would like to, and it's been ages since I've posted anything over at I Heart Cooking Clubs. I miss my friends and, since it's pot luck week this week, I thought I'd join in with a quick and easy Donna Hay dish that's become a bit of a favourite of mine.

Now let me preface this by saying that I've always been very firmly been of the view that a baked risotto will never be as good as a traditionally prepared version, a view that appeared to be supported by others I know who have given it a try. I was pretty sure that as long as my backside pointed to the ground (as they say), I was never going to venture into baked risotto territory.

Well, one should never say "never". I'd had Donna's recipe for this Prawn, Leek and Lemon Risotto bookmarked in my copy of "Fast, Fresh, Simple" for ages because I think this is such a winning flavour combination. Donna's version is however a baked one, and I was pretty sure that I would just take those ingredients and use them in my usual stirred method for making risotto.

A couple of weeks ago though, I was really hankering for some risotto on a cold and miserable winter week night, but I had other things I needed to be doing and just didn't have the time to spare standing over a pot for 20 to 30 minutes. So, I took a deep breath, threw caution to the wind, and made my first baked risotto. I fully expected that without all that constant stirring my risotto wouldn't have the creaminess I was used to from my usual version, but I was surprised to find it was plenty creamy - I think a good knob of butter up front, and another one to finish with, probably helped with that, and I have the feeling that using my enamelled cast iron casserole dish also helped.

So final verdict - no deficit on the "creaminess" front, and the resulting risotto was just about as good as a stirred version. In my mind, however, a large part of the joy of risotto comes from the sheer pleasure of standing and stirring that pot for up to half an hour - it's a great exercise in presence and mindfulness, and that matters to me a great deal, and I have the belief that it is this which translates into superior flavour rather than just the physical alchemy of stirring those starchy grains of rice around for 20 minutes. So, yes, I think a stirred risotto will always be superior - you will taste the love that's been stirred into it in every mouthful - but for a quick mid-week fix when you have other things to get done this is a great alternative, and I loved it so much that I've made it several times since. I hope you'll give it a try.

Prawn, Leek & Lemon Risotto Recipe
Adapted slightly from recipe by Donna Hay
from Fast, Fresh, Simple
Serves 2
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
couple of generous knobs of butter
1/2 a leek thinly sliced
2x cloves garlic, crushed
1x lemon, zest and juice
1 cup arborio rice
2-1/2 cups vegetable stock
200g raw prawns, peeled and cleaned
large handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).

Put olive oil and one generous knob of butter in an ovenproof dish, which has a tight fitting lid. Set dish over medium heat, and once the butter has melted add the leek, garlic and lemon zest to the pan. Cook for several minutes until the leek has softened, but not browned. Add the rice to the pan and stir constantly for a couple of minutes until all the rice is completely coated with the oil and the grains look slightly translucent around the edges. Add half the lemon juice to the pan, and stir constantly until all the liquid has been absorbed. Now add all the stock to the pan, remove from the heat and cover tightly.

Place pan in the preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, and set the pan over medium heat again. If all the liquid has already been absorbed, add a ladleful of hot water to the pan along with the prawns. Stir constantly until the prawns are cooked through - about 4 or 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat, stir in the other generous knob of butter, the remaining lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Cover and allow to stand for five minutes for all the flavours to infuse, and then serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the wonderful fast and fabulous dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Because it's been a while since I've visited some of my other friends, I'll also be sharing this post this week at Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream 21 Jun 2015 8:00 PM (9 years ago)

I'm sure you all know this feeling ... you come across a recipe - on another blog, in a book, in a magazine, wherever - and you're utterly captivated by it. The picture makes it look beautiful, the recipe sounds great, but then somehow it just fails to live up to expectations, leaving you feeling more than a little disappointed.

So let me tell you - this ice cream was not good, not good at all. Was I disappointed, however? - no, on the contrary, because this ice cream exceeded my expectations - it wasn't just good, it was fabulous. I love ice cream any time of year (case in point, it is currently the middle of winter in my part of the world), and this ice cream offered the sweet freshness of blueberries (reminding me that summer will come again), the tang of lemon, and thanks to the buttermilk was surprisingly fresh and light.

How did I stumble across this frozen scoop of joy? Well, as those of you who visit regularly will know, I like to play along at the Secret Recipe Club. If that's new to you then let me explain. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

This month I was assigned to A Calculated Whisk, hosted by the lovely Becky. Becky's blog features loads of creative gluten free and paleo recipes, so I knew I would have no problem finding the kind of healthy food that I like to enjoy - even treat food that is on the healthy side. Her blog features a great recipe index, which makes finding just what your heart desires ever so easy, and her passion for food styling and photography is evident in the gorgeous images that grace all her recipes. With her love for good healthy eating and practising yoga, Becky and I clearly have a great deal in common - it's such a shame that a great ocean divides us, as I would love to be able to roll out my mat and do some yoga with Becky, before heading to the kitchen to whip up some special post-practice treats. But stranger things have happened and who knows when the opportunity to do just that might arise. Until then, I can keep Becky close in the kitchen by cooking some of her recipes, and I can tell you there are quite a few that have been bookmarked for the weeks ahead: Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Cilantro Pesto, because cauliflower is one vegetable I can never get enough of; Zucchini Lasagne, just take a look - you will want it too; Kale & Bacon Quiches with Hash Brown Crust, hello?! - if you're not hooked at bacon, I defy you to get past the hash brown crust; and Lemon Cheesecake Truffles, look so utterly divine I can't wait to try them.

But in the end, being the ice cream addict I am, I couldn't go past Becky's Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream, and I was certainly not disappointed. This ice cream is light and luscious, and in the depths of winter reminded me of the possibility of summer days ahead. I made very minimal changes to the original recipe. Because the buttermilk is low in fat and there are no eggs in this recipe, Becky used gelatine in her version to add a little creaminess - I didn't have any gelatine on hand, but I did have half a can of sweetened condensed milk that needed to be used up, so I used that instead and cut back the honey in the original recipe a little bit. Becky also used some lemon liqueur which I didn't have, so I subbed in a whole fresh lemon. I hope you'll give this recipe a try and enjoy it as much as I am.

Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
Adapted from this recipe
from A Calculated Whisk
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1-1/2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon honey
1x lemon, washed
2 cups frozen blueberries (do not defrost)
2/3 cup cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Place 1/2 cup of the buttermilk into a small saucepan and set over low heat and warm gently - keep an eye on it and do not allow the mixture to come to a simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the condensed milk and honey, stirring until dissolved.

Cut the lemon into smallish chunks, flick out any seeds, and then put all the lemon chunks (yes, skin and all) into the food processor and blitz until very finely chopped, almost a puree.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the food processor, along with the blueberries, cream, vanilla and salt. Process until smooth, then transfer to a jug and refrigerate for a few hours.

Remove chilled mixture from the fridge and churn in an ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's instructions. Dive in straight away, or transfer to a freezer-proof container and freeze for several hours to firm up.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Baked Fish on Polenta with Chorizo Butter 24 May 2015 8:00 PM (9 years ago)

Baked salmon with polenta & chorizo butter 2

Repeat after me .... "chorizo butter"! Say it again .... "chorizo butter"! Can you bear not to say it one more time .... "chorizo butter"! Once chorizo butter enters your life, things can only get better - I swear. Heck - life feels better just saying it, which is why I think you should at least repeat it several times more to yourself, before you rush to the kitchen and make it. So, how did my new found obsession with chorizo butter begin you may wonder.

Well, as those of you who visit regularly will know, I like to play along at the Secret Recipe Club. If that's new to you then let me explain. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

This month I was assigned to Lynsey Lou's Making Your Days Delicious, hosted by Lynsey of course. In time-honoured fashion, Lynsey cooked her way into the heart of the love of her life, to whom she has been happily married ever since. She learned to cook the best way possible - following her parents and grandparents around the kitchen and lending a helping hand. Lynsey has been blogging, very prolifically I might add, since 2008 and has a recipe index which boasts hundreds of great dishes to choose from. Normally when I start browsing my assigned blog to decide on my dish, I look first for any fish dishes, then salads and vegetable dishes. From there I move on to sweet treats, and it can usually take me many hours of browsing and bookmarking potential recipes before I narrow it down to my final dish. Not so this time - as is my habit, I headed straight to the fish section, whereupon the words "chorizo butter" leapt out at me, and from that moment on there was no question that Lynsey's Baked Halibut with Chorizo Butter was the dish I was going to make. Of course, as I browsed some more there were other dishes which beckoned me - Creamy Clam Chowder, Caribbean Jerk Salmon Bowls, and Chicken Schnitzel served with crisp apple and rocket salad, to name just a few - but there was just no getting past that chorizo butter, and the rest as they say is history.

Baked salmon with polenta & chorizo butter 3

I didn't make any changes to Lynsey's dish, other than replacing rocket with spinach and replacing the halibut with salmon. Halibut is not a fish which is available here, so I chose salmon since it is my favourite fish. However, to be perfectly honest, I actually found that the salmon was just a bit too rich with the polenta and sauce, so it would have been much better if I'd chosen another white fish. Or prawns would have been another great alternative. And as for the chorizo butter - everything I expected it to be - in fact I would have been happy with just that poured over the top of the polenta and skip the fish altogether. Actually, I would have been happy to bathe in it!!

Baked salmon with polenta & chorizo butter

Baked Fish on Polenta with Chorizo Butter
Adapted from this recipe
from Lynsey Lou's Making Your Days Delicious
Serves 2
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

for the polenta
1x cup vegetable stock
1x cup water
2x bay leaves
flaky sea salt
1/2 cup instant polenta
1 tablespoon butter
freshly ground black pepper

for the fish
2x fish fillets
olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2x generous handfuls of spinach

for the chorizo butter
1x chorizo sausage, skin removed and flesh crumbled
1 tablespoon water
3-4 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place fish fillets in a lightly greased shallow baking dish. Drizzle fish with a little olive oil, and season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put fish into the preheated oven and bake until cooked through - around 8 to 10 minutes depending on the type of fish and thickness of the fillets.

Meanwhile place water, vegetable stock and bay leaves in a pot and bring to the boil. Taste and season with flaky sea salt - bear in mind that polenta can be quite bland and will really soak up the flavour, so season a little more than you ordinarily might. Once the liquid is boiling, pour the polenta into the pot in a slow but steady stream, whisking constantly. Keep stirring until the polenta becomes the consistency of a thick porridge and starts to bubble up like a boiling mud pool. Once it has reached the desired consistency, remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Cover and stand in a warm place until the fish and sauce are ready.

To make the chorizo butter, place the crumbled chorizo into a cold fry pan and set it over medium heat. Cook for around 5-8 minutes, until the sausage is golden and crispy and has released most of its oil. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chorizo from the pan and set it aside. Add the tablespoon of water to the pan, and then begin to whisk the butter in one tablespoon at a time, until the sauce has emulsified and thickened a little. Remove from the heat and stir in the chorizo.

To serve, spoon polenta into the centre of a plate and top with a generous handful of spinach. Place fish on top of the spinach, and spoon chorizo butter liberally over the top. Serve immediately.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Bars 26 Apr 2015 8:00 PM (9 years ago)

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that each month I like to play along at the Secret Recipe Club. The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and is a great way to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

This month I was assigned to A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures, hosted by Christine, who says she has been in the kitchen since she could see over the counter-top. Christine's cooking and baking took a healthy twist a few years back when she joined Weight Watchers and lost about 100 pounds - wow, just wow! Christine loves to cook healthy, low-fat fare for her husband and dog, Missy, and she even appeared on Emeril Live with her Elegant Sweet Potato Skins.

Christine's blog has an easy to use recipe index (something I always like to see on a good blog), which made searching through the hundreds of recipes she has posted very easy, and there were plenty of great looking dishes that appealed to me. I've bookmarked a few to try at a later date: Roasted Mushroom & Goat Cheese Alfredo, Portobello Stroganoff, (clearly I have a thing for mushrooms and pasta), and Peanut Ginger Stir-Fry over Soba Noodles. In the end though, I'm always looking for something for a quick and easy breakfast-on-the-run, and it was Christine's Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies that were calling to me.

I'm ashamed to admit that breakfast, along with a cup of coffee, is often something that happens in the car on the way to work these day, so these were ticking all the right boxes for me - packed with enough wholesome goodness to see me through to lunchtime, and very portable.

I did make a couple of very small changes to the original recipe. Firstly, the recipe calls for canned pumpkin puree. This is something which is simply not available in my country, so I steamed up some fresh pumpkin and then mashed up the required amount. Secondly the recipe uses egg substitute, but I just used a regular egg. Also I didn't have all the spices that Christine used in her recipe, so I just swapped it out for mixed spice. And lastly, because I am an inherently lazy person, instead of spending time forming the mixture into little balls to make cookies, I just pushed the whole lot into a slice tin and made them into bars.

These bars have great texture, with nice bits of crunch coming through from the toasted quinoa and sunflower seeds, and lovely bursts of flavour from the cranberries. I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, but did feel I would have liked a little more sweetness, and next time around (yes there will definitely be a next time) I'm going to try adding a bit of honey or maple syrup. This time around though I added a chocolate topping. This added just that little something I was looking for, and let's face it who doesn't want to start the day with a little bit of chocolate! This also enables you to pass off what is really a very healthy little snack as something slightly more indulgent - "put some chocolate on top of it and they'll never know they're eating something healthy" are words to live by!

Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Bars Recipe
Adapted, just barely, from this recipe
from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

For the bars:
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/4 cup apple sauce
2-1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 cups jumbo rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted quinoa
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly beaten

For the topping:
100g (3-1/2 oz) cacao butter, gently melted
30g (1 oz) cacao powder
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F), and lightly grease a 32cm x 18cm (13in x 7in) slice tin.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the bars. Once everything is thoroughly combined, empty everything into the slice tin and press well, evening out the surface.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes (mine took about 18 minutes), until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and set tin on a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.

Mix topping ingredients together well, pour over the top of the slice, and then set in the fridge until the topping has set.

Slice into bars and enjoy - on the run or at your leisure!

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Autumnal Farro, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad 4 Apr 2015 10:00 PM (10 years ago)

Autumnal Farro, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad 3

Over the last few weeks, I've missed out on a bit of our culinary journey with Diana Henry over at I Heart Cooking Clubs, but I felt I couldn't miss the opportunity to join in this week as we bid our fond farewells to Diana. She is definitely an inspirational cook and I have loved cooking from her culinary tomes in which I have invested - A Change of Appetite and Salt Sugar Smoke. I love a cookbook which is as much a joy to sit down and read as it is to cook from, and I have certainly found that in both of these volumes. Sitting down with one of Diana's cookbooks to have a read and find a little dinner inspiration is like sitting down with a good friend, and I know that I will continue to enjoy her company in my kitchen.

Right now my neighbour's fig tree is literally groaning under the weight of its ripening crop, and it's a constant vigil to get to the fruit at just the right time before the birds do. Must be the spectacular summer that we've had in my part of the world this year, but the fruit seems to be bigger, fatter, sweeter and juicier than ever before, and I knew that my farewell dish to Diana would have to include this much coveted autumn treat.

Autumnal Farro, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad 2

Inspiration came from Diana's recipe in A Change of Appetite for her salad of farro, hazelnuts, grapes and figs. I changed things up a little bit to use ingredients I had on hand, but I think the spirit of this dish remains the same. I tweaked the dressing a bit using red wine vinegar instead of white balsamic vinegar, leaving out hazelnut oil because I didn't have any, and adding in a bit of pomegranate molasses because ... well, just because. I swapped out red chicory and watercress in favour of baby kale leaves which I had on hand; I used roasted almonds instead of hazelnuts, blue cheese instead of goat cheese, and plump golden raisins instead of grapes. I also pan roasted the figs in honey before adding them to the salad.

This salad is the ultimate ode to autumn on a plate. The nutty flavour and texture of the farro is the perfect foil to the soft, sweet figs, the tangy dressing, the crunch of the almonds, and the salty hits of the blue cheese. This was easily satisfying enough for me to make a meal out of it all on its own, but would also make a great accompaniment to perhaps a roasted chicken or some great sausages.

A glass of shiraz or a great pinot on the side, and you have a meal made in heaven. I hope you'll give it a try.

Autumnal Farro, Fig & Blue Cheese Salad 1

Autumnal Fig, Farro & Blue Cheese Salad Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a generous meal or 4 as a side dish
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1x cup farro
juice of 1/2 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
baby kale leaves
generous handful roasted almonds
generous handful plump golden raisins, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes
3-4 plump, fresh figs
1 tablespoon honey
50g blue cheese, crumbled

Dressing
3x tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1x tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Put farro in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer the farro until tender but still with a little bite - about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat, drain well and add lemon juice, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and season liberally with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile make the dressing. Place all ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously until everything is well combined. Taste and adjust flavourings to your taste. Set aside.

Cut figs in half. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a small saute pan and add the tablespoon of honey. Add the figs to the pan, cut side down, and allow the figs to soften and warm through in the pan. Remove from pan, cool slightly, and cut each half in half again if figs are large.

Now that the farro has cooled, taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Add the kale leaves, almonds and plumped-up raisins to the farro, and toss to combine.

Arrange farro mixture on a serving platter, nestle fig pieces into the mixture, and strew nuggets of the blue cheese over the top. Serve immediately.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry a little better, and to see what everyone else has cooked up this week, then do go and visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links (who knows, you might even want to join the journey and cook along with us) ...

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

And make sure to come back next week as we begin a new six month culinary journey of cooking with French chef Jacques Pepin.

I'm also sharing this at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays, hosted by my very lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

Garlic, Lemon Prawns 22 Mar 2015 8:00 PM (10 years ago)

If you're one of my regular visitors, you'll have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a while. Some of you have even emailed me to check up on me, and I appreciate your thoughts and concern more than you can ever know.

I'm not going to go into details here, this is not the place, but the reality is life has been pretty challenging for me lately, leaving me completely disinterested in food. I've scarcely been bothered to eat it, let alone cook it or write blog posts about it. But life goes on; there are plenty of people who are faced with very much worse; and the clouds are beginning to part sufficiently for me to get back into the kitchen today.

And I have the lovely Nicole at I Am a Honey Bee to thank for getting me back to the stove top. It's Secret Recipe Club (**) time, and Nicole's blog was my assignment for the month. Nicole lives in the Bay State with her husband, Price, and beyond gorgeous 16 month old daughter, Autumn. She works in architecture, and like me she enjoys cooking, design and loves all things Greek.

* So what's this Secret Recipe Club you may ask? The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group. That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret. Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out. It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and to meet and discover some new blogs. If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

So several weeks of secretly browsing through Nicole's blog, has been enough to tantalise my jaded taste buds. Dishes like 40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken, Scallop Salad, and VegetarianWontons with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce all piqued my appetite and have been bookmarked for a later date. But it was Nicole's delicious Garlic Lemon Shrimp that eventually lured me back into the kitchen.

This dish is incredibly quick and easy to put together (which is just perfect for me right now), and I took Nicole's advice of serving it with some crusty bread, though you could just as easily as she suggests serve it over some rice or pasta. To keep things healthy I had a simple green salad on the side. Other than adjusting quantities, as I was only cooking for one, I followed Nicole's recipe fairly closely - adding lemon zest and parsley being the only other changes I made.

Garlic, Lemon Prawns Recipe
Adapted from recipe from I Am a Honey Bee
Serves one as a main meal
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

200g (7 oz) prawns or shrimps, shelled & deveined
3x cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine
generous pinch of red pepper flakes
zest and juice of 1x lemon
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon cut into wedges
generous handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (450 degrees F).

Place prawns into a bowl. Add the crushed garlic, butter, olive oil, wine, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice. Add half the lemon zest, and set the remaining zest aside to use later. Season generously with sea salt and black pepper, and mix everything together well.

Line a shallow baking dish with foil (makes the washing up easy later on), and spread the prawn mixture in the baking dish in a single layer. Nestle lemon wedges in amongst the prawns, and place dish in the preheated oven. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the prawns have turned pink and cooked through.

If serving with crusty bread, place bread in the oven 5 minutes before the prawns finish to heat through.

Remove from the oven and use the foil to carefully transfer the prawns and all the lemony, garlicky juices to a serving dish.

Mix the reserved lemon zest with the chopped parsley and sprinkle over the top of the prawns and serve immediately. Use crusty bread to mop up all those heavenly juices.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Three of the Best - Salad Days # 9, 10 & 11 11 Feb 2015 9:02 AM (10 years ago)

Out there in blogland I often hear some of you talk about dishes in your "regular rotation", but I seriously don't have any kind of regular rotation going on in my household. I sometimes think it might make life a little bit easier if I did, but I just don't. Truth is, even though I often say things like "this was so great, I'll definitely be making this again" - I usually don't. I get seduced by some new idea and seldom make the same thing twice.

That said, there is a small selection of salads in my repertoire that I really have made several times because they were that good, and so I thought that it bears reintroducing them to you.

Roasted Eggplant, Mango & Soba Noodle Salad

This is a salad, unsurprisingly, from my food hero - Yotam Ottolenghi - and with mangoes (albeit imported ones) and eggplant being in abundance right now, this is a great time for this salad. Because we don't grow mangoes in New Zealand, they are one of the few imported items in the fruit and veggie department in which I allow myself to indulge over summer, and I really make a feast of it. Lush, juicy mangoes alongside smokey, roasted aubergines is not a combination I would have ever thought of, but it really works.

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy-Roasted Salmon and Broad Bean & Radish Salad 1

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Soy Roasted Salmon & Broad Bean-Radish Salad

Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay, this is probably one of my favourite dishes I've posted of all time, and one I really have repeated numerous times. Try this once, and I'm sure it will become one of your regulars too. A visually stunning dish, packed with great punch of flavour from the wasabi-ginger dressing, and yet quick and easy to prepare. This is the perfect maximum impact - minimum effort dish.

Baby Spinach Salad with Dates & Almonds

When we had our time over at I Heart Cooking Clubs cooking with Ottolenghi, this was one of my favourite dishes I made. I know several of my fellow participants, and several of my friends in the Tasting Jerusalem group also loved, so don't just take my word for it - this is a salad you definitely need to have in your "rotation".

This is salad numbers 9, 10, and 11 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too. Have a favourite salad you'd like to share? Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post. The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like. Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to. There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one. Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link. Thanks for sharing your favourite salad with us.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw - Salad Days # 8 7 Feb 2015 10:30 PM (10 years ago)

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw 1

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we're exploring the theme "East Meets West", choosing Diana Henry fusion dishes with a global influence.

Living here in New Zealand, I'm no stranger to fusion food - I'm sure the same can be said for most of my "neighbours" on the Pacific Rim. It has always fascinated me, in just about any country, the influence that its immigrants has on the local food culture. When I was growing up, Chicken Chop Suey at the local Chinese restaurant was about as exotic as it got. In the last 20 years, however, increasing numbers of Asian immigrants has had a huge influence on the New Zealand culinary landscape. Previously unheard of ingredients are now readily available; Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Malaysian, Burmese, Bangladeshi, and Indonesian restaurants abound; and even the pantries of this nation's most unadventurous cooks would boast a bottle of soy sauce at the very least.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw 2

Looking through Diana Henry'd book A Change of Appetite, I thought her Burmese Chilli Fish with Hot & Sour Salad was the perfect dish to fit the brief. The hot and sour salad, which is essentially an Asian take on a classic cole slaw seemed like the epitome of fusion food to me. I made quite a few changes to the recipe ... For a start I replaced the fish with prawns, and tweaked the curry paste a little. And I rang a few changes to the salad as well - adding in some red cabbage along with the white, and adding carrot, green papaya, cherry tomatoes, mint and peanuts to the slaw, and as I did with the curry paste I tweaked the dressing a bit.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw 3

This dish definitely had the wow factor - an absolute explosion of flavours and textures, and just enough heat to leave my lips tingling at the end of it ... in a good way. If you like Asian flavours, I urge you to give this a try the next time you have cole slaw on your mind.

Burmese Chilli Prawns with Hot & Sour Asian Slaw Recipe
Inspired by recipe from Diana Henry
from A Change of Appetite
Serves 2 as a substantial meal

For the Burmese Chilli Prawns:
300g raw prawns, shells removed and deveined
1x clove garlic, roughly chopped
generous pinch of salt
piece of fresh ginger about the size of your thumb, grated
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon lime juice

For the Hot & Sour Asian Slaw:
1x cup finely shredded white cabbage
1x cup finely shredded red cabbage (plus extra leaves for serving)
1x carrot finely shredded (a julienne peeler is ideal)
1x cup finely shredded green papaya
2x radishes, thinly sliced (a mandoline works perfectly if you have one)
12x cherry tomatoes, halved (use different colours if you can)
generous handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
large handful of roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you like less heat)

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon lime juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place garlic, salt, ginger, chilli, turmeric, olive oil, sesame oil and lime juice in a mortar and pestle, and grind to a paste. Add paste to the prawns, and toss until all the prawns are well coated in the paste. Put prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish, and bake in the preheated oven until cooked through - depending on the size of your prawns this will take between 5 and 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the dressing ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously until well combined. Taste and then adjust to your liking - you want a good balance of sweet-sour-salty, so play around with the ingredients until you get the flavour just right.

Place all the slaw ingredients in a large bowl, drizzle liberally with the dressing, and toss gently until everything is well combined.

Serve immediately piled into red cabbage leaves, and arrange prawns on the side.

... or check out A Change of Appetite and Diana's many other great titles available from Amazon USA, Amazon UK, or Fishpond NZ.

I'm also sharing this at Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays, hosted by my very lovely friend Deb at Kahakai Kitchen, and at Weekend Cooking, hosted by the lovely Beth at Beth Fish Reads.

This is salad number 8 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

Salad of Seafood with Tomatoes & Roasted Lemons - Salad Days # 7 6 Feb 2015 9:18 PM (10 years ago)

Salad of Seafood with Tomatoes & Roasted Lemons 2

Yesterday was my birthday, and of course a birthday calls for celebration food. Staying with my salad theme this month, I had been thinking along the lines of perhaps a duck and crispy noodle salad. But then, my lovely friend Martine, who knows me so well, gave me a couple of crayfish tails. If you're a seafood lover, you will know that few birthday gifts can rate as highly as crayfish tails!

I already had some scallops on hand and some prawns, so there was no doubt there was a substantial seafood salad in the making.

Salad of Seafood with Tomatoes & Roasted Lemon 1

The crayfish and prawns were lightly poached until just cooked through - take care not to overcook them - and the scallops sauteed in a little olive oil.

Further inspiration came from this recipe from my food hero, Yotam Ottolenghi. I just couldn't go past those roasted lemons. One or two lemons (depending on how many people you are serving) are sliced wafer thin and blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes. After draining the lemons, toss them gently with a little olive oil, generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt, drizzle of honey, and a generous handful of fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped. Spread the lemons in a single layer on a lined baking tray, and roast in an oven preheated to 160 degrees C (325 degrees F) until starting to char.

Remove lemons from the oven and toss with chopped tomatoes (use as much variety of colours and sizes as you can) and avocado. Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil, some roughly chopped flat leaf parsley, and a generous sprinkling of sumac. Toss gently to combine everything.

Add seafood to the bowl, and once again toss gently to mix everything together. Arrange on a serving platter and serve immediately.

I finished everything off with a drizzle of this Preserved Lemon Dressing.

The creamy avocados, tangy bite of the tomatoes, and caramelised lemons, along with the citrus tang of the sumac and the preserved lemon dressing compliment the sweet, delicate seafood beautifully without overpowering it. This was definitely a dish fit for a special occasion - thanks, Martine xo

This is salad number 7 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

Black Cherry & Blue Cheese Salad with Basil & Almond Gremolata - Salad Days # 6 5 Feb 2015 9:20 PM (10 years ago)

Today's salad is my take on this Goat's Cheese and Macerated Cherry Salad recipe from Diana Henry.

As Diana says, there's nothing new about the combination of goat's cheese and cherries, but she goes on to say that this takes it to a whole new level. And she's right - it seriously does. Actually I didn't have any goat's cheese, but I did have some blue cheese which I subbed in instead, and which made for an equally sensational combination. The cherries and the cheese don't just marry together nicely, they actually really enhance each other, so that somehow each ingredient seems to taste even better in the company of the other than on its own. Between these two fabulous ingredients, and the flavour packed almond and basil gremolata sprinkled over the top, this has just become a summer favourite that I fully intend to repeat as many times as I can before fresh cherries are gone for another year.

I had this flavour packed salad with a simple piece of pan-fried fish, but I think it would also be great with some barbequed lamb chops or a classic roast chicken. Whatever it's served with, I urge you to try this - you won't be disappointed.

And come back tomorrow for a sensational seafood salad with tomatoes, avocado and roasted lemons. You won't want to miss that one!

This is salad number 6 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

Courgette, Parmesan & Hazelnut Salad and Green Bean, Spinach & "Falafel" Salad - Salad Days # 3 & # 4 4 Feb 2015 11:06 PM (10 years ago)

My Salad Days project continues and today I have two salads for you. My first salad, a Courgette, Parmesan and Hazelnut Salad could not be simpler. Like all dishes which are incredibly simple, however, it relies entirely on good quality.

Begin with the freshest, crispest courgettes you can get your hands on. I like to pick them fresh out of the garden literally moments before I use them, which means there's usually a few flowers I can use as well. I also like to use the the little baby ones that are literally no bigger than your index finger, though they grow so quickly there's usually a few slightly larger ones as well. If you happen to have different varieties and colours of courgettes/squash at your disposal use them too.

To put the salad together, cut your courgettes (as many as you like) as thinly as you can - a mandoline is really useful if you have one - and go for a variety of shapes. I cut some into rings and some into long ribbons using a vegetable peeler. Place the courgettes in a bowl with plenty of shaved parmesan and roasted hazelnuts. Squeeze over some fresh lemon juice and a generous slosh of the best extra virgin olive oil you can get your hands on. Hazelnut oil or walnut oil would also be great alternatives. Season generously with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss everything together gently to combine and transfer to a serving dish.

PS - Don't you love this gorgeous bowl made for me by my lovely friend, Clare Strange

My second salad today is a Green Bean, Spinach & "Falafel" Salad with a Harissa Dressing.

This was another incredibly simple salad to put together. I happened to have some mixture leftover from a batch of these Pea, Feta & Quinoa Fritters, so I rolled it into teeny, tiny fritters and fried them until crispy. You could just as easily use some falafel mix instead. While they were cooking, I blanched some green beans, then tossed them together with some baby spinach leaves and diced cucumber. Nestle the little fritters amongst the salad leaves and beans. The dressing is a simple combination of 2 tablespoons of harissa with 1/3 cup of natural yoghurt - if necessary thin with a little water if necessary to achieve a "dressing-like" consistency.

This dish delivered all the things I love in a good salad - some protein from the quinoa and feta, great texture contrasts from the crispy fritters, crunchy beans, and soft velvety spinach, and finished off with a great dressing that packs a real flavour punch. This salad makes a complete and satisfying meal on its own.

As I mentioned earlier, these are salad number 4 and 5 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

Tandoori Mushroom Salad with Spinach, Almonds & Fried Egg - Salad Days # 3 2 Feb 2015 11:27 PM (10 years ago)

I've been addicted to tandoori roasted mushrooms ever since I tried them one night at the Indian Cafe. Fortunately, they are quick and easy to make at home, especially if you always keep a jar of tandoori paste in the fridge as I do. As you know, I'm a great believer in making as much as I can from scratch, and there is very little I buy at all in the way of processed foods. That said, I'm not super woman, and I've long since discovered that a few sachets or jars of a variety of curry pastes in the pantry can be just the thing to transform a few humble vegetables into something fabulous when you want a quick and easy mid-week meal.

So tandoori mushrooms make a regular appearance around here for a quick and easy vegetable side. I simply mix together equal quantities of yoghurt and tandoori paste (usually about 1/4 cup of each) to make a marinade, toss the mushrooms in the marinade and leave them to develop the flavour for at least an hour. Finally the mushrooms are removed from the marinade and roasted in a hot oven until tender and slightly charred.

Often as I've made these mushrooms though, I'd never thought to turn them into a salad until I flicked on the TV one night just in time to see Anjum Anand serving up a tandoori mushroom salad. Unfortunately, I was too late to get the recipe, I only saw what she put on the plate, so this is my version of how I think this dish might go.

I love the spicy, yet slightly lemony, zing of the tandoori flavour, which develops a kind of smokiness when roasted, the earthiness of the mushrooms and spinach, the velvety softness of the spinach leaves against the crunch of the almonds, and finally the oozy, runny egg yolk which combines with the mushroom juices and olive oil to make a rich, glorious dressing.

This salad is great to serve as a meal on its own, and is hearty enough for a cool, winter's evening.

Tandoori Mushroom Salad with Spinach, Almonds & Fried Egg Recipe
Inspired by a dish by Anjum Anand
Click here for a printed copy of this recipe

For each person allow:
4x large mushrooms
generous handful or two of baby spinach leaves, roughly torn
generous handful of roasted, unsalted almonds, roughly chopped
1x egg, fried

To marinate the mushrooms (this will be enough for 6-8 mushrooms, depending on size):
1/3 cup tandoori paste
1/3 cup natural yoghurt

To dress the salad:
juice of 1/2 lemon
extra virgin olive oil
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F).

Mix together the tandoori paste and yoghurt in a medium bowl. Add mushrooms to the bowl, and toss to make sure they are all well coated with the marinade. Set aside for the flavour to infuse for at least an hour. Place mushrooms in a single layer in an ovenproof dish, and roast in the preheated oven until the mushrooms are tender and slightly blackened around the edges.

Remove mushrooms from the oven and arrange on a serving platter. Arrange spinach leaves amongst the mushrooms, and sprinkle almonds over the top. Drizzle over lemon juice and olive oil. Nestle fried egg on top, and season liberally with flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Serve immediately. Dig your fork into that runny egg yolk and enjoy!

This is salad number 3 in my Salad Days, 28 days of salad project. What's that you ask? Well, I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad - Salad Days # 2 1 Feb 2015 8:01 PM (10 years ago)

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad 1

This is one of my favourite summer salads - it's fresh and vibrant, and has great texture. There have been numerous versions around of the nectarine and tomato salad - with good reason. They are surprisingly good together - the sweet, juicy nectarines are a perfect foil to the more acid-sweetness of the tomatoes. It makes a great side salad to just about anything, but I like to amp things up a bit by adding some peppery salad leaves and some paprika roasted prawns to make a complete meal.

Now before I share the recipe, I want to talk a bit more about salads in general. I've said it here a dozen times or more ... I love salads. A big bowl, substantial salad is hands down my favourite meal any time of the year. Such is my love of salad, that I'm challenging myself to come up with a different salad every day for the month of February - that's 28 days of salads - and I plan to share as many of them as I can with you. I'll also be doing some flashbacks to some of my favourite salads I've shared in the past.

What's more, I'm giving you the opportunity to share some of your favourite salads with me too. Have a favourite salad you'd like to share? Simply link up your salad recipe using the linky tool at the bottom of this post. The linky will be open all month, and you can join in any day or every day, and link as many recipes as you like. Feel free to grab the Salad Days badge from the sidebar to include in your post if you'd like to. There's really no rules around linking up, other than please, use your manners and link your post back to this one. Linking old posts is fine too, just please edit them to include the back link.

I always find that thinking about salads sparks the most creativity in me around food, and I thought I would share with you some of my suggestions for creating a great salad of your own.

Salads are not just summer fare. I like a salad which is substantial enough to constitute a meal in its own right, and this can be surprisingly easy to achieve in winter when all sorts of root vegetables are in season. So what are my salad rules?

Firstly, a good salad should ideally, in my opinion, contain some form of protein. This could come in the form of:

Cheese - grilled haloumi, feta, blue cheese, brie, soft goats-milk cheeses, bocconcini or mozzarella are all great in salads
Poultry - try chicken, duck or quail
Fish and seafood - salmon, smoked white fish, prawns, lobster, crab, squid, mussels are all wonderful additions to any salad
Meat - personally I don't use much meat in my salads other than perhaps some chorizo sausage or some crispy prosciutto or pancetta, but you could certainly experiment with the inclusion of some rare lamb or beef
Nuts and seeds - I like cashews, pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds
Pulses & legumes - try chickpeas, lentils, cannellini beans, lima beans, borlotti beans
And yes, if you must, tofu - I have to say it definitely wouldn't find its way into any salad of mine, but it would certainly be a good inclusion for those whose gastronomic ethos doesn't extend to the consumption of various other forms of protein and, apparently, some people even like it.

Secondly, I like a grain of some sort - noodles, pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous, croutons are a few suggestions. It is useful to know, if your diet doesn't include any animal products, that pulses combined with grains form a complete protein.

Thirdly, a great meal in a salad should have great texture and colour - consider the inclusion of some fruit (fresh or dried) and fresh herbs (mint, coriander, flat-leaf parsley, basil, tarragon are all wonderful in salads).

And lastly, your salad should have a great dressing which pulls the whole meal together - it's the dressing which really balances out all the ingredients you have chosen for your salad and creates beautiful layers of flavour.

Above all, don't be afraid to experiment and come up with your own wonderful creations. Like all experimenting in the kitchen, not everything will be a success, but along the way you will learn a great deal about flavours and textures that work well together, and you will without doubt get many pleasant surprises.

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad 2

Paprika Roasted Prawns with Tomato Nectarine Salad Recipe
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

No need to follow quantities too literally here - use your instincts, and this can easily be multiplied to feed any number of people

For each person allow:
100g-150g (3-1/2 to 5 oz) raw prawns
1x large, ripe nectarine, stone removed and cut into wedges
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved, use a variety of colours if you can get them
large handful of peppery salad leaves such as rocket and mizuna
handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

To flavour the prawns:
1-2 teaspoons smoky paprika (depending on your tastes)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil (or more, depending on the quantity of prawns you are cooking)
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Dressing (this will probably make enough for two generous servings):
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon maple syrup
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Meanwhile make the dressing - place all the ingredients in a small jar, cover, and shake until everything is well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Set aside.

In a small bowl mix together the paprika, olive oil, flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss the prawns in the bowl until they are all well coated, then place prawns in a single layer in an ovenproof dish. Place dish in the oven and roast until the prawns are just cooked through. This will only take about 5 minutes so keep an eye on them.

Place the nectarines, cherry tomatoes, and half the parsley in a bowl, pour over half of the dressing, and toss to combine everything well. Leave to stand while the prawns are cooking to allow the juices from the nectarines and cherry tomatoes to "meld" with the dressing.

Arrange salad greens on a serving platter, and nestle the nectarines and tomatoes (with their dressing) in amongst the leaves. Arrange the cooked prawns over the top, drizzle with the remaining dressing, and finish with a sprinkling of the remaining parsley.

Serve immediately.

What's your favourite salad? I'd love you to tell me about ... better yet, why not share it.

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