Tag Archives: cooking

Pink Ribbon Lunch

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Every year in October I host a function for a small group of friends to raise money for breast cancer. In the past I have had breakfasts and morning teas and this year I held a lunch. It was such a lovely day - a group of gorgeous girls, a glass or two of bubbles and some yummy food…and we raised $240. 

We kicked off the morning with a glass of gelati champagne – a brilliant idea from the wonderful Jill Dupleix. Add a teaspoon of your favourite gelati (we had berry) then top carefully with champagne.  Yum!

And, for the non-drinkers – Pom-Ade, a refreshing pomegranate drink with lemonade and soda.

For starters I served a melon, proscuitto and bocconcini salad from the new Women’s Weekly 12 Days of Christmas cook book.

For main I served a Rocket Quiche and Peppery Lemon Chicken (both from the WW 12 Days of Christmas cookbook), Spinach Salad with Bosc Pears, Cranberries, Red Onion and Toasted Hazelnuts and Daikon Salad (a recipe from my sister that I think may be from Jill Dupleix).

Rocket Quiche

Peppery Lemon Chicken

Spinach Salad

Daikon Salad

And then for dessert, an idea I got from the new magazine, The Outdoor Room – brownies with berries and cream.  I used the Brownie recipe from Epicurious.

What a wonderful day – I wish I could do that every Friday.  Thank you to my gorgeous friends for your generous donations.

Humous, Hummus, Houmous

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I don’t care how it’s spelt - I simply love humous. 

I have no objection at all to the store bought variety but today when I was craving some I decided to make my own. It’s just so simple.  Here’s the recipe I followed taken from Jamie Oliver’s very first cook book, ‘The Naked Chef’.


Humous

400g can chickpeas (Jamie suggests using 340g of dried chickpeas soaked overnight – but I didn’t have time for that)
1 small dried red chilli
1/2 tsp cumin seeds or ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tbsp of tahini
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Lemon juice to taste (approx. 2 tbsp)

In a pestle and mortar pound the chilli and cumin with a teaspoon of salt. In a food processor, finely chop the garlic, then add the chickpeas, chilli, cumin and tahini and pulse them until smooth. Add the salt, pepper, oil and lemon juice to taste.

Enjoy!

Korean Beef in Lettuce

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I have a new favourite meal from Totally Simple Food!

Korean Beef in Lettuce. The marinade is amazing and smells so good I was tempted to eat the meat before it was even cooked. It was so tender and just melted in my mouth. Thank you again Jill Dupleix!

I served it with another recipe from Jill Dupleix - Sesame Mangetout (snow peas).

Here’s the recipe for the Korean Beef…in case I haven’t yet convinced you to go out and buy Totally Simple Food.

Korean Beef in Lettuce

2 sirloin steaks, 2.5 cm thick (250g each)
8 soft lettuce leaves (I used oak)
200g jasmine rice
1 tbsp sesame seeds (I remembered to sprinkle mine on after I took the photo!)

Marinade:
2 spring onions
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5cm knob of fresh root ginger, grated
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine 0r dry sherry
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce or chilli bean sauce
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp sugar

Soy chilli sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce or chilli bean sauce

Slice the beef thinly, against the grain. For the marinade, finely slice the spring onions and mix with the other ingredients; stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the beef, turn to coat and marinate for an hour or so.

Wash and dry the lettuce leaves; chill. For the soy chilli sauce, mix the sauces together in a bowl and set aside. Cook the jasmine rice until tender; keep warm.

Heat a heavy fry pan. When hot, sear the beef over high heat for 1 to 2 minutes, leaving it still pink in the middle. Scatter with sesame seeds and serve on warm plates with hot rice and chilled lettuce.

Spoon a little jasmine rice onto a lettuce leaf, add a slice or two of spicy beef and a little soy chilli sauce, wrap the lettuce leaf around the filling and eat in the hands.

Mini Bundt Cakes

Posted in Cooking, Jill Dupleix by

 

I simply couldn’t resist buying this mini bundt cake pan when I saw it on the weekend. I have a full sized version that I use all the time.

Today I tested it out with Jill Dupleix’s Chocolate Cup Cake recipe, from Totally Simple Food. I was a little nervous that the cakes would stick to the gorgeous detail in the base of each pan. I sprayed the pans with a little oil before using my Pancake Pen to fill them with the cake batter.

The end result was delicious and quite cute.

One Pack of Organic Lamb, Please

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Rachel, from Spinnering, recently added a post about Silverwood Organics lamb. I couldn’t resist the idea of a pack of organic lamb delivered to my door direct from the farm South East of Longreach so I ordered my pack today and I’m counting down to Monday 25th October when I’ll receive my 20 kilos of fresh, organic lamb. If you’d like a delivery on the 25th too, place your order on Silverwood’s website before 15th October. They have half packs if 20 kilos sounds a bit much for you!

First thing I’ll be making when my lamb arrives is David Pugh’s Rack of Lamb with roast organic vegetables and lamb sauce.

Turns out David (from the beautiful Restaurant II) buys his lamb from Silverwood Organics too.

Neapolitan Cake

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Today we went to visit my friend Nan, and her friend Danielle. Between us there were six kids so I decided to make a cake that was a favourite when I was a child – a Neapolitan Cake.

This recipe is from the July 2010 edition of Masterchef magazine, but is also available online.  I changed it slightly and divided the batter into three to make a more traditional marble – pink, chocolate and vanilla. Yum. Just add a few tablespoons of cocoa to the batter to create the chocolate batter.

Spoon the three batters into the cake pan & swirl with a skewer

The finished product

Little Fruit Cakes

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My family loves fruit cake. I always make one at Christmas, and then once or twice during the year. I have one recipe that I use every time – it’s delicious and always works out perfectly. But – I found a recipe in ‘Totally Simple Food’ for Little Fruit Cakes, so thought I’d try it out. They are basically mini fruit cakes cooked in a muffin pan. The recipe is sooooo simple and they taste very good.

The recipe calls for sultanas and raisins but I used what I had on hand: sultanas, craisins, dried apricots, glace cherries and goji berries.

Delicious!

The End of the Week of Totally Simple Food

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Well, for one week every dinner cooked at home was from Jill Dupleix’s ‘Totally Simple Food’.

We ate:

Caramel Salmon and Lime

Spicy Pork Noodles

Spanish Meatballs with Baked Feta Bread

Goats Cheese Cannelloni with Fattoush

Paper Bag Veges

Plus Peppered Steak with Drunken Potatoes and Spanish Cafe Salad and for breakfast one day – Banana Bread.

If you don’t already have ‘Totally Simple Food’ you have to go out and buy it. All of the meals were absolutely delicious. The Spanish Meatballs were particularly nice as left overs when the flavour really had time to develop.

It was great fun and certainly no chore to be tied to ‘Totally Simple Food’ recipes for one week. In fact – I’ve planned my menu for this next week to include dinner each night once again from ‘Totally Simple Food’.

It’s very hard to pick a favourite from all of these delicious meals, but if I had to I would pick Caramel Salmon and Lime. I think the gorgeous salmon my lovely friend Nan picked up from the Brisbane Farmers Markets on Wednesday helped to make this meal absolutely perfect.  Thanks Nan…and here’s the recipe.

Caramel Salmon and Lime 
From Jill Dupleix’s ‘Totally Simple Food’

4 thick salmon fillets, around 180g each
200g bean sprouts
2tbsp vegetable oil
50g mint leaves
25g coriander leaves
1 spring onion, finely sliced
2tbsp salted peanuts, crushed
1 lime, quartered

Sauce:
100g soft brown sugar
125ml water
1 red chilli, finely sliced
3cm knob of fresh ginger, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
4tbsp Thai fish sauce
4tbsp lime juice

To make the sauce, dissolve the sugar in the water in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Add the chilli, ginger and garlic, and let it bubble away to reduce (but not boil over) for 4 to 5 minutes until quite syrupy. Remove from the heat, and add the fish sauce and lime juice.

Cut the salmon into bite-sized pieces, about 3cm square, and coat lightly in the caramel sauce.

Pour a jug of boiling water over the bean sprouts, then drain and set aside.

Heat the oil in a non-stick fry pan, and fry the salmon quickly until caramelised, keeping the inside pink.

Combine the salmon, mint, coriander, spring onion and bean sprouts in a bowl and toss well. Arrange on warmed dinner plates, spoon the warm sauce over the top, and scatter with peanuts. Serve with lime quarters and plenty of rice.

The Perfect Julienne

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Wondering how I did this?

With my fabulous new kitchen tool. It looks like a peeler but cuts vegies into the finest julienne.  I love it.

I bought mine at Victoria’s Basement, my favourite kitchenware shop, while I was in Sydney on the weekend. I’ve also seen a similar one at the James Street Cooking School in Brisbane. You simply have to get one. They are fantastic!

Perfect for the julienned cucumber on our Spicy Pork Noodles last night!

Recipe from Jill Dupleix's Totally Simple Food

A Week of ‘Totally Simple Food’

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My sister’s immaculate kitchen bench always has a copy of Jill Dupleix’s ‘Totally Simple Food’ on it. It’s not that she’s forgotten to put it away, but more that it is her recipe bible. It’s been hanging around for months now and recently she delivered a copy of it to me.  Guess what? It’s now my recipe bible too. I don’t cook from it every day but I devour every page as I flick through looking for a new recipe.

So – for this week (as a starter) I am committed to ‘Totally Simple Food’. Every dinner and some breakfasts, lunches and snacks will be made from this book. The ultimate goal is to have tried all 251 recipes in a ‘Julie/Julia Project’ kinda way.  My intention, however, is not to turn this blog into a commentary on this experience. I’m sure the recipe highlights will feature in posts, and ‘What’s for Dinner’ will be dominated by ‘Totally Simple Food’ recipes. So, if you are inspired by what I cook, it might be a good time for you to get your hands on a copy too.

I am so excited about taking on this challenge and particularly looking forward to Caramel Salmon & Lime, Chilli Orange Duck, Sweetcorn Shot Soup and Scallop Stack. In fact the only two recipes in the book that I’m not too sure about are Salt-grilled Sardines and Breadcrumbed Sardines, and really…how bad could they be?

Thank you Sharon for introducing me to the fabulous world of Jill Dupleix!

Wish me luck and join in the fun!