GARLIC, CHILLI, PRAWNS ON PASTA
This is another really easy emergency prawn dish that can be made upmarket with fresh green prawns that you have shelled and deveined or can be simply made from half a bag of defrosted prawn meat. As with most of the prawn dishes this is very easy to make using the actifry, and almost impossible to over […]
Read More
ONION SOUP
This recipe has been in my handwritten recipe book for a couple of decades. It comes out when onions are cheap or when I feel like a savoury, light meal. The ingredients are usually available in the kitchen so a fairly classy meal can be made in an emergency. Yesterday I bought a 10kg bag […]
Read More
BEETROOT AND CREAM CHEESE
Corned silverside is a favourite meal in our house, it was cooked by my mother and her mother before her. My take on it has a lot of spices in the boiling water, is cooked in a pressure cooker, and left to depressurise naturally. An essential part of the meal is the sweet white sauce […]
Read More
MUFFINS
This recipe was written on my fridge whiteboard for at least 12 months. It was great whenever I felt like something a bit different for breakfast. At some stage I copied it onto a piece of paper. This morning I spent ages looking for the piece of paper so it has now made it to the […]
Read More
GARLIC PRAWNS IN TOMATO – a la Claire
One of Claire’s signature dishes – can be served with bread, cous cous or rice, always good, quick to prepare and very versatile. This can be made with fresh or frozen ingredients. A few tins of tomatoes and some frozen prawns makes an almost instant dinner. Ingredients: 1 bulb of garlic – minced or finely […]
Read More
CURRIED FISH
This is a mildly curried fish dish flavoured with chilli, kaffir lime leaves and coconut milk. It is quick to prepare and easy to serve. Ingredients 1 kg of fish pieces1 star anise 1 cup cauliflower broken into small florets 1 large leek finely sliced 5 kaffir lime leaves – finely sliced 2 tsp cummin […]
Read More
POACHED COD
Another easy fall back meal, I always have a kilogram of smoked cod in the freezer. Ingredients, Method and Serving: Cook the fish 1 kg of smoked cod, poached in milk at a slow simmer, with a bay leaf, salt and pepper for about 10 minutes, until tender and fish just flakes apart. Remove from […]
Read More
PAELLA
Fourth time for Paella – first time in a normal pan, second time I bought a paella pan and followed the recipe that came with the pan, it was okay but only just okay. Fourth time – it worked, I used the wood fired pizza oven. It provides even heat to the entire base. As […]
Read More
CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
Really easy recipe – the only problem is that your hands get very chocolatey. I think that the longer you can leave the mixture in the fridge the less messy your hands should get. These need to be quite small, otherwise they are quite a commitment to eat. You want to feel as if you […]
Read More
The Onion Family
Garlic 2010 – My first attempt at garlic was a total disaster. I scavenged through Woolworths for sprouting garlic bulbs, and planted a whole bed. They just sat and looked miserable for months and then got attacked by a plague of aphids or thrips (not sure which because it happened while we were on holidays […]
Read More
Growing Radish
This was something that all the gardening programs showed being planted. They were praised for their quick turn around time but no-one mentioned what to do with them once grown. I had space between the rows in the garlic and onion bed and some radish seeds so decided to give it a go. When it […]
Read More
BEARNAISE SAUCE
Bearnaise Sauce (in a microwave) Maybe not so conventional but pretty easy and pretty foolproof, goes really well with steak or poached eggs. Follow the instructions in the method – pretty easy but the method needs to be followed. Ingredients 2 tbs white wine vinegar 2 tbs white wine 5 peppercorns – from freshly ground pepper […]
Read More
NEIMAN MARCUS DIP
Found this dip on the internet when I was looking for something about marinating feta – it was just an “you may also like . . . ” on the side of the page I was looking at. I was intrigued, firstly by the limited number of ingredients, the simplicity of flavours and lastly by […]
Read More
RADISH RAITA
So we grew radishes – all types – fantstic because they grew so fast but the problem was what to do with them. This is so fast and is a great sauce to have with steak. Itis strong and bites a bit like horse radish sauce. (enough for a side dish for 6) Ingredients 3 […]
Read More
BEEF LASAGNE
This is a good recipe for meat lasagne. Just don’t make the meat and cheese layers very thick. It is much healthier than the version with white sauce and doesn’t go soggy and collapse, a problem that my lasagnes have, probably because I make the layers too thick. Best Beef Lasagne Recipe –Serves 12 people– […]
Read More
SPINACH SAUCE
This is a similar dressing to the warm green salad except that I use palm sugar, cook it for a bit longer and add about 100g of cream cheese to make a creamy side dish to have with steak. The spices can be varied depending on what it is accompanying. Ingredients Dressing ¼ cup olive […]
Read More
WARM GREEN SALAD
Leafy Greens I discovered that the tops of most of my root crops make very tasty leafy greens to use in salads. Radish, beetroot, turnip tops all taste better than silver beet. Ingredients: For Vinaigrette: ¼ cup olive oil 2 tbs balsamic vinegar 2 tbs water 1 tbs honey / maple syrup / palm sugar […]
Read More
STRAWBERRY, ROCKET AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD
Amazingly tasty, the strawberries and blue cheese complement each other and having it with steak and a bearnaisse sauce is delicious. Ingredients 1/4 cup white balsamic 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp dijon mustard 1 bunch rocket / baby spinach (washed and drained) 4 slices of prosciutto or pancetta (torn into pieces) 1 […]
Read More
RHUBARB STEWED
Links Found this great website – http://www.rhubarb-central.com/ to help with recipes and growing hints. When we have some rhubarb growing I will revisit. I have ignored all the advice that says not to eat any in the first year. The plants are so huge and the old leaves are just dying so why not eat […]
Read More
Freezing Zucchini
This is great. I just washed the zucchini and ran them through the grater on the food processer, packed the result into zip lock bags, pressed out as much air as possible, lay them flat on a tray and froze them. I am hopeless at labelling things that I put in the freezer – note […]
Read More
Zucchini growing
Zucchini 2010 When you have zucchini in the garden you really have it. I planted six plants, six different varieties this year (2010) – only two of them really excelled – the yellow and the round rondo. From these we still had a glut. I planted them too close together in a bed shared with […]
Read More
Beetroot growing
We had not really eaten beetroot before growing it. What a fantastic vegetable. Really good for you, easy to grow, tastes great, tastes best raw, fantastic in juice, when pickled it is so much better than the tinned stuff and you use the lot of it. The leaves taste much better than silver-beet. Next year […]
Read More
GINGERBREAD MEN, GINGERBREAD HOUSE
Christmas Gingerbread These are such a winner with any child, the smaller the child the more preparation needs to be done before they actually become involved. The mixture needs to be made in advance and left to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This takes little time and can be done in […]
Read More
Zucchini Chutney
Just another way to use up all of those zucchini. Ingredients First day: 1.5 kg assorted zucchini, seeded and chopped into 1cm cubes 1/3 cup salt Second day: 5 medium tomatoes or chopped or a couple of tins of tomatoes 3 small onions chopped 2 medium cooking apples diced 2 1/2 cups white vinegar 1 […]
Read More
Recent Comments