Cherry Tomato, Herb & Chilli Fish

For my birthday this year, Megan gave me this great little cookbook that I had never heard of, The Hungry Girls cookbook. It is a small collection of recipes put together by 3 Melbourne friends, each of the limited 200 copies are stamped, lined with cloth & sewn together by hand & it is truly a special gift. The recipes all look delicious & here is a look in, last night I made my first attempt which was seriously good & so very simple. I used flathead which cooked up perfectly, I was worried it would break up but no chance of that. The flavour of the tomatoes really penetrates the fish & along with the simple herb sauce went well with a simple baked potato & salad. The book was released In April so I’m not sure if there are any left but if you can get to any of the stores that stock it, pick up a copy, it is a real treat & I love something unique, especially when produced by local girls.

Cherry Tomato, Herb & Chilli Fish

1 whole white fleshed fish weighing 1.5kg, filleted & skinned, each fillet cut into 2 pieces
or
4 x 150-200g white fish fillets
salt & pepper
75g butter
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 red birds eye chillies, finely chopped
2 punnets cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped chives

Pat the fish dry & rub with a little salt. Heat the butter & oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until the butter foams, then add the garlic & chilli, frying until the garlic begins to color. Add the tomatoes & fry for 30 seconds, then add the herbs & season with salt & pepper. Stir to combine, and make sure the tomatoes cover the base of the pan fairly evenly. Lay the fish fillets on top & gently press them into the tomatoes. After 2-3 minutes, when you can see the fish turning opaque up the sides, turn the fillets. Try to pick up some of the tomatoes underneath so they end up on top. Cook for another 2 minutes then serve. Serves 4.

Fresh Tomato Pasta

I picked up some fresh organic tomatoes from my local health food shop this week to make this fabulous pasta dish, Using the finest ingredients means the sauce doesn’t even need cooking, the hot spaghetti is enough to heat it through a little. The recipe comes from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food & is superb.

Fresh Tomato Pasta

1kg vine ripened tomatoes
1 tablespoon sea salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
juice & zest of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
300g spaghetti
1 cup lightly packed basil leaves, torn

To serve
Parmigiano Reggiano

Score a cross in the base of each tomato. Place tomatoes in a large bowl & pour boiling water over them. Drain after 10 seconds, then peel the skin away from the cross. Halve the tomatoes, and press halves to squeeze out seeds & excess juice. Chop tomato flesh roughly, place in a sieve over a bowl & sprinkle with sea salt. Leave to drain for half an hour.

Place drained tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice & zest, garlic, chilli and pepper in a bowl & stir. Leave for 20 minutes, for flavours to combine.

Cook the spaghetti in rapidly boiling salted water according to packet instructions. Drain well. Toss through tomatoes with freshly torn basil leaves, and serve with freshly shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. Serves 4.

Puy Lentil Soup

Well with the cold weather setting in it’s time for me to start making my usual pot of soup per week. Today I felt like I needed some fiber so it was this very hearty soup from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. The soup was very tasty & didn’t require any extra seasoning, I think this is because my vege stock was very salty. It was also quite thick with almost no liquid remaining, bordering on a stew I guess, no complaints from me there, served with some crusty fresh bread it was the perfect lunch.

Puy Lentil Soup

50g butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped carrots
½ cup chopped Spanish onion
½ cup sliced leek, white part only
½ cup chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
400g tin chopped Italian tomatoes
1 litre vegetable stock, or water
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
½ cup lentils du Puy
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
½ cup finely chopped parsley

Melt butter and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and leeks & cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add celery, garlic & chilli and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, stock (or water), bay leaves, oregano & lentils & bring to the boil. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper if needed & stir through parsley.

Spaghetti con Gamberetti e Rucola (Spaghetti with Prawns & Rocket)

This is a lovely version of one of my favourite combinations, prawns, chilli, garlic & spaghetti. The addition of lemon juice & sun dried tomato puree gives it an extra nice tangy taste. The recipe comes from Jamie’s Italy.

Spaghetti con Gamberetti e Rucola (Spaghetti with Prawns & Rocket)

455g dried spaghetti
sea salt & freshly ground black peper
extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & finely chopped
1-2 dried red chillies, crumbled
400g peeled raw prawns
1 small wineglass of white wine
2 heaped tablespoons of sun dried tomato puree or 6 sun dried tomatoes blitzed in a blender
zest & juice of 1 lemon
2 handfuls of rocket, roughly chopped

Cook your spaghetti in a large pan of salted boiling water according to packet instructions. Meanwhile, heat 3 good glugs of olive oil in a large frying pan & toss in the garlic & chilli. As the garlic begins to colour, add the prawns & sauté them for a minute. Add the white wine & tomato puree & simmer for a couple of minutes. When the pasta is ready, drain & reserve a little of the cooking water. Toss the spaghetti with the sauce, squeeze in the lemon juice, add half the chopped rocket, adding a little of the reserved water if the sauce needs loosening a bit. Correct the seasoning & serve sprinkled with lemon zest & remaining rocket.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Here is s simple marinade for tuna or any firm fish or even prawns, great for the bbq or grill. It’s healthy & the flavours are fresh & clean, serve it with a salad & do your insides some good. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Marinade
2 tablespoons chopped shallots (escahlots)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped chilli
2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

4 tuna escalopes, weighing about 150g each
1 tablespoon olive oil
mixed salad leaves, to serve

To make the marinade, place all ingr4edients in a large bowl & mix well. Add the tuna & rub in the marinade. Cover & chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the barbecue or grill. Add the olive oil to the bowl & toss to coat. Cook on a hot barbecue or flat grill until cooked through. Serve on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

Garlic Prawns

One of my favourite ways to eat prawns is simply cooked with olive oil, garlic & a bit of chilli, nothing else needed, here is Bill Granger’s version from Bills Food.

Garlic Prawns

20 raw king prawns, peeled & deveined, tails left on
250ml (1 cup) olive oil
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 fresh small red chillies, split lengthways but intact at top
1 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

To serve
Lemon wedges
Crusty bread
Green salad

Preheat oven to 250c. Cut a slit down the back of each prawn & place the prawns in an ovenproof dish that will hold them snugly in a single layer.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add half the garlic and all the chillies & cook for 1 minute or until the garlic starts to change colour. Pour over the prawns, then sprinkle with the remaining garlic. Season with salt & pepper, cover with foil & bake for 10 minutes, or until the prawns are pink & cooked through. Don’t overcook – remember that the prawns will continue cooling after being removed from the oven. Sprinkle with parsley & serve with lemon wedges, crusty bread & a green salad. Serves 4.

Lynda’s Lemon-rub Steak with Charred Tomato Salsa

For my bbq on the weekend, as well as various snags, including some gorgeous kransky & some lamb chops I made some steaks with a gorgeous rub & salsa from Ainsley Harriott’s Ultimate Barbecue Bible. The rub was easy, just bash everything up in the mortar & pestle & it made the steaks lovely & tender & gave them a great flavour, they weren’t too hot either despite the extra hot cayenne pepper in the rub. The salsa went well alongside & the green chilly surprisingly packed quite a punch. I also made up some garlic bread to thrown on the Barbie after seeing a recipe for it in his book too, I know its daggy & old fashioned but what boy doesn’t like a bit of garlic bread & they all did, it was very well received indeed & the barbecue gave it a nice smoky flavour (and the house too, so much smoke came in that the smoke alarms even went crazy – Michael does it every time). We also had a few salads & as usual went way overboard with everything so guess what’s for dinner this week most nights?

Lynda’s Lemon-rub Steak with Charred Tomato Salsa

2 x 175g Sirloin Steaks ( I used Rump)
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Salsa
3 plum tomatoes
1 small bunch fresh coriander
1 small bunch fresh mint
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
rock salt & freshly ground black pepper

Using a mortar & pestle, grind the lemon rind, garlic, peppercorns & cumin seeds together until well blended. Add the oregano, cayenne & salt & grind again. Run the mixture into the meat & set aside for an hour or two.

Meanwhile, halve the tomatoes lengthways and place on the barbecue, cut side down, for 5-8 minutes until softened & a little charred. Slip off the skins & roughly chop the flesh. Finely chop the herbs & mix with the tomato, onion, chilli, olive oil & lemon juice. Season well to taste.

Barbecue the st4eaks for 3-4 minutes on each side for a nice medium to medium rare cooked steak. Serve with the salsa.

Traditional Garlic Butter Bread

1 long fat French stick
3 garlic cloves
75g slightly salted butter, softened
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bread diagonally into 2.5cm thick slices without cutting right through. Peel the garlic& crush in a mortar & pestle with a little salt until you have a smooth paste. Mix the butter with the garlic, parsley & some pepper. Spread both sides of each slice of bread with the butter & place the loaf on some foil. Wrap well & place on the side of the barbecue for 1012 minutes, turning regularly until crisp & hot.

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

To go with some leftovers I cooked up some corn cobs with a really tasty butter that I found in Ben O’Donoghue & Curtis Stone’s Surfing the Menu. I halved the quantities for 2 & still have heaps of butter leftover which I think will go nicely with some baked spuds. It was delicious & went fantastically with the grilled corn cobs which were tender & juicy yet not overdone at all cooked in this manner.

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

4 whole corn cobs, in their husks
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g Parmesan cheese, grated
finely grated zest of 2 large limes
1-2 birds eye chillies, seeded & finely chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 lime, quartered

Place the corn cobs on a preheated hot grill and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning often. Peel off the husks when cool enough to handle.
While the corn is cooking, combine the butter, cheese, zest & chilli & beat until smooth. Season with salt & pepper. Smear each cob with the butter & serve with a wedge of lime

Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs

To please my man on Valentines Day I made this hearty dish of spaghetti & meatballs, what man doesn’t like this dish? The recipe came from Bill Granger’s Bills Food and was a big hit with Michael. I used the oven method of cooking the meatballs & they held together perfectly as well as using less oil & being less fiddly, ie no turning, standing over the pan watching them cook.

Spaghetti with Spicy Meatballs

80ml (1/3 cup) milk
1 slice of bread, crust removed
500g beef mince (or pork or veal)
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 egg, lightly beaten
25g freshly grated parmesan
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
60ml olive oil
2 x 400g cans chopped roma tomatoes
50g (1/2 cup) fresh basil leaves
500g spaghetti

To serve
A handful of fresh basil leaves
freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put the milk & bread in a small saucepan and place over a low heat. When the bread has absorbed the milk, remove from the heat & mash with a fork. Allow to cool.

Combine the meat, onion, parsley, thyme, egg, parmesan, garlic, half of the chilli, the bread mixture & lots of salt & pepper in a large bowl. Gently mix with your hands, then shape into small balls. I find wetting my hands makes this easier.

Heat the oil in large frying pan over a medium heat & when hot, add the meatballs. Brown the meatballs on all sides, turning carefully. Alternatively, you can toss the meatballs in oil in a roasting tin & bake them at 220c for 10-15 minutes. You may find this easier because the meatballs wont break up. Drain off any excess oil (if you’ve baked the meatballs transfer them to a frying pan) and add the tomatoes, remaining chilli, basil & salt & pepper. Stir the meatballs carefully to coat with the tomatoes, then simmer for 20 minutes.

While the meatballs are cooking, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over a high heat. Add the spaghetti & cook according to packet instructions.
Serve meatballs over drained spaghetti with extra basil leaves & freshly grated parmesan

Gingerboy, Melbourne

Saturday night I finally made it to Gingerboy with my very nice $150.00 voucher kindly arranged by Ed at Tomato that I managed to win in this years Menu for hope. With less then 2 weeks until D Day this was probably my last opportunity for a nice meal out for quite some time. Firstly the décor is fantastic, black bamboo lines the walls & ceilings with little fairly lights scattered through them so its all very magical, dark polished tables & very different clear plastic chairs for those sitting opposite the ‘couch wall’. The background music was funky & not too loud to be a nuisance & the place was packed & had a great vibe about it.

With all that money to spend Michael & I decided that we better try a bit of everything. The menu is divided between snacks & street food, and main courses, all designed to share. From the snack section we had the Steamed half shell scallops with green chilli sambal, these were delicious & definitely my favourite starter, the sambal serving quite a kick yet the flavour was still subtle enough to go perfectly with the scallop. Next we had the Son in Law eggs with Chilli Jam & Asian herbs that I have heard so many good things about. They certainly looked impressive yet as I am not allowed runny egg yolk at the moment & had to have them more on the well done side I don’t think I quite got the right flavour hit this way, oh well next time I will try them properly. Next up was Pork nam prik ong with shredded lettuce and herbs, this was minced pork in a sauce which was a bit on the sweet side for me though still good. Salt & Pepper Chicken spare ribs with a green chilli & soy dipping sauce came next, really very good, the rib is such a tender & meaty part of the chicken that most people don’t know about, Michael was especially pleased with this dish as for him it was a fancy & of course much superior version of the dreaded KFC. Lastly was the Prawn dumplings with chilli sauce, sticky soy & lime, these were delicate little parcels full of goodness, another one of the favourites for us.

Now my only complaint about this first part is that they all came out on top of each other & despite our waiters assurances that they were all quite small & would not be too much we were getting quite full at this stage & we still had a main to follow! Luckily they gave us a bit of a break before bringing out the Mussaman Duck leg curry with kipfler potatoes & shallots, we also had a serve of corn cakes which the waiter insisted on. Let me tell you this dish was fantastic & the corn cakes although sounding strange were great & you have to try some if you ever make it here.

And of course lastly we had to have some dessert, I did have high hopes for the sharing platter but of course there was no way this could even be considered so we shared the Steamed pandan dumplings with spiced pears & pure cream, loved these as well & they were the perfect end to a great meal.

All in all despite some mixed reviews of this place we had a great night, the staff were very friendly, attentive & helpful, food was very good, our glasses were always full & all in all service was very efficient, (even a bit too much to start with). Would be keen to go again & try out some more of the menu & some of the wicked sounding cocktails that sadly were off my list last night!

Gingerboy
27-29 Crossley Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: +613 9662 4200
Fax: +613 9662 4250
Email: eat@gingerboy.com.au
www.gingerboy.com.au

Sails on the Bay, Elwood

On the weekend some girlfriends gathered together at Sails on the Bay in Elwood for a long lunch to celebrate the upcoming wedding of the lovely Megan. We had a table right by the window which was lovely, very nice looking out over the beach. The staff were very attentive though we found them to be very inflexible, any suggested menu variations we came up with were rejected totally, for example 2 of us were pregnant & really, really wanted the Seafood Melange yet being in the state we were in asked if we could swap the cold portion (all raw & on the forbidden list) for another entree. Given that this dish was $65.00 per person & the other entrees were all way under half this amount, we certainly wouldnt have been costing them any money yet they still refused, something that annoyed us a little but we moved on, made our selections & had a very enjoyable afternoon.

I started with the Antipasto selection which included Tabouleh & falafel, hummus, balsamic pumpkin, , lavosh, crumbed olives with fetta on chilli jam, pickled yellow beetroot, avacado mousse & a zuchini bread, all very good & the portions weren't too big so not too filling, I especially loved the yellow beetroot, it was beautifully sweet, I have never seen this before so wonder where you can buy it?

Next I had the crab ravioli as a main, it was served in a broth with some pickly type veggies on top - sorry cant remember exactly what they were, the dish was nice though a bit too much for a main course, the crab flavour ended up being a bit overwhelming & I think a stronger sauce/broth introducing some other flavours to the dish would have helped, someone else had this as an entree & thought it was perfect.

To finish off how could I resist the dark chocolate truffle torte,

with raspberry coulis & white chocolate sorbet, the top section was nice & light & almost moussy & of course the raspberry coulis was perfect with chocolate as berry flavours always are. The white chocolate sorbet was ok but I couldnt really taste the choc flavour in it.

All in all a nice setting to enjoy an afternoon with the girls

Sails on the Bay

15 Elwood Foreshore, Elwood
9525 6933

Spaghettini with lemon, prosciutto and chilli

Another quick & tasty pasta combination from Bill Granger that Michael cooked up for me – this one’s from Bill’s Food

Spaghettini with lemon, prosciutto and chilli

60ml (1/4 cup) lemon juice
60ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
2 small fresh red chillies, seeded & finely chopped
12 slices prosciutto, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
250g rocket leaves, shredded
400g good quality dried thin Spaghettini (or any other pasta really!)

Whisk the lemon juice, olive oil, chilli & some salt & pepper in a bowl to blend.

Put the prosciutto, lemon zest and rocket in a bowl & toss to combine.

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil & cook pasta to packet directions. Drain & add the prosciutto mix, pour the dressing over & toss to combine.

Easy Paella

This delicious ‘Paella’ recipe came from a recent delicious magazine, think from memory it is a Bill Granger recipe from his new book. While not traditional Paella by any means, for a quick meal for Michael & I it was easy to knock out & really yum!

Easy Paella

1 tablespoon olive oil
500g chicken breast fillets (pref with skin on), cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, finely chopped
1 chorizo sausage, chopped
1 cup (200g) basmati rice
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
425g can chopped tomatoes, drained
1 red capsicum, chopped
1 small red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
2 cups (500ml) chicken stock
250g cooked prawns, peeled
425g can cannelloni beans, rinsed, drained
100g baby green beans, topped, blanched & refreshed in cold water
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
Lemon wedges, to serve

Heat the oil in a large, deep frypan over medium heat. Cook the chicken pieces fro 3-4 minutes, turning until golden & cooked through. Remove & set aside to drain on paper towel.

Add the onion and the chorizo to the pan & cook, stirring occasionally for 1-2 minutes until the chorizo begins to crisp. Add the rice & turmeric & cook, stirring for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes, capsicum, chilli, garlic & stock. Bring to the coil, then reduce heat to medium-low & cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Return the chicken to the pan with the prawns, cannellini beans & green beans. Toss & heat through for 1 minute. Stir in the coriander & serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Shanghai Ling, East Brunswick - Another great local

I finally got around to trying out Shanghai Ling, one of my local restaurants that I’ve heard many good things about. The place is much like any local Chinese, nothing flash to look at, yet the menu is much more inspiring than just the usual lemon chicken & beef & black bean. They specialise in Shanghai & Si Chuan cuisine & it is recommended that you try the specials rather than sticking to the ordinary menu, do this & you will be highly rewarded.

To start with we had the fried pumpkin cakes, I cant remember what’s in these exactly, though sure as well as pumpkin they contained some sort of sticky rice, any way they sound strange yet absolutely yummy & moorish, we also had the freshly steamed Shanghai-style pork dumplings served with a soy dipping sauce, very fresh & delicate & as you can from the photos the serves were very generous especially considering the price (think about $4.00 & $7.00 respectively). Next we had some Red Hot Chilli Beef which wasn’t red hot at all so the name was a bit deceiving, though the taste was very fresh, the beef melted in your mouth which is a nice change to what I usually seem to get in these type of dishes, that is very chewy meat. Alongside this we had the sweet & sour barramundi fillets in a tomato & pine nut sauce, a huge serving & the fish & batter was nice & light & cooked to perfection, the sauce nice & tangy with out the sickly sweetness you would expect form a dish like this. Unfortunately this is all we could fit in tonight but cant wait to go back & try out some more of there specials. Oh and a tip for you, they do take away but the take away menu is printed with only the standard dishes so would suggest you really try eating in.

Shanghai Ling
180 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
Tel +613 9381 0644
Open Mon-Sat 6.00-10pm
Licensed and BYO (wine only)

Prawn & Chilli Linguine

Tonight’s dinner was a complete no brainer, exactly the type of thing I love to cook up after a hard day in the office when all I want to do is put my feet up. I didn’t really need a recipe however followed Bill’s instructions from Sydney Food, minus the rocket which I really wanted but had mysteriously disappeared from my fridge. Perfect, I’ve been dying for this combination of garlic, chilli, prawns & pasta for a while now & I’m glad I finally got around to satisfying the craving.

Prawn & Chilli Linguine

250g linguine
4 tablespoons olive oil (I dint use half this much)
10 green prawns, peeled & deveined
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 small red chillies, finely chopped
25g butter
50g rocket, washed & dried

Cook linguine in rapidly boiling salted water according to packet instructions. Drain well. Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add prawns, season with salt & pepper & cook for 1 minute. Add garlic & chillies & cook fro another minute. Add butter and reduce heat to low. Add the rocket & linguine & toss until pasta is well coated.

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

Last night for dinner we had one of my favourite Nigella Lawson dishes, Gingery Hot Duck Salad. The recipe comes from Nigella Bites & is under the chapter, temple food – what Nigella describes as ‘soothing, pure, would be restorative food I make for myself after one binge or late night too far. Temple as in ‘my body is a ‘’. Now obviously in my condition I haven’t been binge drinking though I did spend the day snacking on cheese, crackers, dips & bread & the like while watching the races so was definitely in need of something good & light.

I was a bit tired too after all that eating & race watching so Michael was kind enough to make this for me this time which also proves how easy peasy it is! Lovely flavours that work oh so well together & a lovely touch of chilli to add some spice aswell. You must try it

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

1 duck breast
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of half lime & juice of half orange
1 chilli, finely chopped
1cm ginger, grated
few drops of sesame oil
Baby spinach, mixed lettuce, etc to serve

Grill or fry the duck breast, fat side down, until cooked the way you like it.

Let it rest while you mix the fish sauce, lime & orange juice, chilli, ginger & sesame oil in a bowl. Pour any juices that the duck has made into a bowl, then carve the meat on the diagonal into thin slices. Toss the duck into the bowl & stir everything well. Serve on top of mixed leaves.

Griddled Eggplant with fetta, mint & chilli

Today I’m having Michaels family over for a bbq & to start with I thought I would try out these little morsels from Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer that I have heard so many good things about.

The recipe calls for a large bunch of fresh mint which luckily I have growing in my courtyard no thanks to me. It initially grew on it’s own & every year I cut it back as it tries to take over the garden & just keep a little patch to use for cooking. I love the fact that I can just pop out the back door to take a cutting whenever I need, and Mint is so versatile, it can be used in sweet, savoury & even drink recipes, you gotta love it. You can see in the picture how it’s growing very heartily amongst my lobelia against the back wall! So this recipe is my entry this weekend for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Pat at Up a Creek without a Patl this round.

I have to say these are absolutely yummy, I could have eaten them all if it wasn't for the fact that I had a mamoth bbq waiting for me. The strong taste of the eggplant went really well with the salty, creamy cheese & the mint & chilli just set the whole thing off, really easy to prepare too. One hint too, I was very cautious with the filling & eneded up hacing some leftover so stuff them full.

Griddled Eggplant with fetta, mint & chilli

2 large eggplants, each cut thinly. Lengthways, into about 10 slices
4 tablespoons olive oil
250g fetta cheese
1 large red chilli, finely chopped, deseeded or not, depending on how much heat you want
Large bunch fresh mint, finely chopped, with some saved for sprinkling over at the end
Juice of 1 lemon
Black pepper

Preheat the barbecue or griddle to a high heat
Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with the oil, and cook them for about 2 minutes each side until golden & tender
Crumble the fetta into a bowl & stir in the chilli, mint & lemon juice and grind in some black pepper. Pile the end third of each slice with a heaped teaspoon of the mixture & roll each slice up as you go to form a soft, stuffed bundle.
Place joint side down on a plate & sprinkle with a little more mint.

Makes 20 rolls

Pasta al Forno Con Pomodori e mozzarella (Baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella)

For a quick & easy pasta dish I made this baked pasta from Jamie Oliver’s Italy cookbook. It’s very traditional & nothing new, just good simple delicious pasta, who doesn’t love pasta with loads of tomatoey sauce & oozy melty cheese. And the best bit is heaps of leftovers to freeze for mid week when I don’t have the time or energy these days to cook most nights. Jamie’s recipe also gives the option of using fresh tomatoes whichI have omitted as that makes it too much hard work! His recipe also says to process the sauce but I went the rustic option & left lumpy, as I said I needed something very, very easy.

Pasta al Forno Con Pomodori e mozzarella (Baked pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella)

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 white onion, peeled & finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & finely sliced
1 or 2 dried red chillies, crumbled
3 x 400g tins plum tomatoes
a large handful of fresh basil leaves
I tablespoon red wine vinegar
400g dried orecchiette
4 big handfuls of freshly grated parmesan cheese
3 x 150g balls of mozzarella, sliced

Preheat your oven to 200c & put a large pot of salted water on to boil. To a large pan add a couple of glugs of olive oil & fry the onion, garlic & chilli slowly for about 10 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the tomatoes & a small glass of water, bring to the boil & simmer for about 20 minutes. Tear the basil leaves & add along with the red wine vinegar & salt & pepper to taste. Meanwhile cook your pasta according to packet instructions & drain.

Add half the sauce & a handful of parmesan to the drained pasta & toss. Then rub a large baking dish with a little olive oil & layer a little pasta in the bottom, top with sauce, parmesan & mozzarella slices, then repeat layers until all ingredients used up, finish off with a good layer of cheese. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden & bubbling.

Fifteen Melbourne - Finally a look in!

A couple of weeks ago when I heard that Fifteen was opening for reservations I suggested to Michael that it would be great if he could get us a booking there, you know a nice surprise seeing as how I'm normally the one doing all of the organising for the 2 of us. I thought the booking line might be a bit busy but had no idea that within a matter of days they would be booked solid until the end of January next year, amazing what a tv show can do for you. Anyway Michael being the fantastic hubbie that he is, got on the line & waited for 1.5 hours (on speaker phone while he was working so it was bearable!) & got us a booking for a Saturday night no less, very impressive.

There have been a lot mof mixed feelings out there about Fifteen so I was quite curious to see exactly what it would be like. I love the idea of what Fifteen stands for, helping those in need but at the same time providing us with a (hopefully) great experience in oder to achieve that goal. At the same time I think that for $90.00 a head for the 6 course tasting menu which is your only option for dinner, the food has to be bloody good & stand up to other great Melbourne restaurants.

I had very high expectactions for the food, a few months ago I did a Queen Vic Market cooking night with Tobi Puttock & the food was to die for so I was hoping for more of the same.

Ok so now down to last night. On the decor, I loved it & it was totally different to the 'artist impressions' as seen on tv. The colorful bar area which Jamie knocked looked great & the colors were much more toned down, oranges, reds, very warm & filled with wine very subtle too. The place is split into 3 areas, the private dining room which I spied a corner of, looked very dark & gothic from what I could see, would be nice having a private party there with some friends, I believe it seats 10. Then onto the main area, on entering you walk down some stairs where you can see straight into the kitchen, then around the corner the bar area with more casual looking dining area in front, light wooden seats & tables, etc. this is split down the middle where you go into the second dining area which is where we were seated. I loved this area, all dark wood furniture, dark wood floors, black walls & ceilings, a purplish couch forming the back seat for the tables on the side & back walls & long mirrors along the walls too & some very funky globe light fittings hanging here & there. Ask Michael, I love black & the trend seems to be now to have everything all nice & light so this darkess worked well for me.

Now onto the food, as mentioned it is a six course set menu, soup, seafood, pasta, main, dessert & cheese platter with a choice of 2 dishes offered for the pasta & main course.


First course was Borlotti bean & pasta soup with fresh grated parmesan & Fifteen olive oil.

This was really nice, though needed a bit of salt, luckily there was a dish of Pink Murray River salt flakes on each table - nice touch - which did the job. As you can see it was a very thick, hearty, warm & homey soup which I would love to replicate at home.


Next was fried whitebait, sage salt, lemon & aioli.

As you can see a very small serve but dont be put off, by the end of the night we were well satisified & if the courses were any biggger we would have struggled to fit them in. The fish was cooked perfectly, nice & light & the salt/aioli combo went very well with it.

For the Pasta course I opted for the Fifteen ravioli with biodynamic riccotta, free-range egg yolk, served with white asparagus & butter broth.

Yummo, nothing beats home made pasta & the runy egg filling was quite unusual, quite a big ravioli too as you can see. Michael went for the Risotto of calamari, squid ink, celery, chilli & fifteen olive oil which he reallay enjoyed too.


For the main we both had the Slow roast Bachus Marsh grass fed beef, Nicola potato & fennel al forno, braised greens & salsa verde. The other choice was Tasmanian Salmon. The beef dish smelled divine which I think was mainly due to the whole clove of roast garlic hidden amongst the greens which I happily devoured. The beef was very tasty though mine was a bit on the cold side which is obviously a bit dissapointing. Mine pictured was cooked a little extra as I'm not supposed to be eating any raw or underdone meat at the moment, Michaels was as per the menu & pretty bloody which is a good thing, nothing worse than an overdone piece of cow.

Dessert was Vialono Nano Tiramasu, little twist on the traditional with crostoli.

The twist was rice instead of sponge/biscuits in the tiramasu, I have to say that this & the crostoli were fantastic & by far by favourite course of the night.


Lastly, the cheese course. pear, quince paste, muscatels, grissinei, some fruit bread & of course the cheeses, sorry have forgotten what they were except tto say that one was lovely & oozy & the other was as bitey spanish crumbly one, both fantastic, in fact the whole cheese course was really great.

Overall the whole experince was enjoyable, the staff were very friendly & helpful, extensive wine list to choose from, fast servce though not too fast that you had no time between courses & the food was good, presentation & tatse. For 2 weeks of opening & a bunch of kids that a couple of months ago had no idea it is pretty amazing to see how far they have come though I would like to see them improve some more & lift the food from being just pretty good to being fabulous!

Fifteen Melbourne
115-117 Collins Street
Melbourne
1300 799 415 www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

Lebanese Lemon Chicken

After a week away & eating our for every single meal I was looking forward to getting back into my kitchen & cooking up something hopefully delicious. I decided to try this dish from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Kitchen. I used some chicken marylands instead of a whole chicken cut up as frankly I couldn’t be bothered with the chopping. Wow, this dish was amazing, unlike anything I have ever cooked before, very different. The aroma of aniseed while cooking was intense thanks to the fennel bulb & seeds. The bulghur wheat was fantastic, I haven’t really tasted or cooked with this much at all in the past & I loved it, it went all crisp & brown around the edges & the rest was just melt in the mouth full flavour. The flavours in the crispy chicken skin were gorgeous too & it all went so well together especially with that final dollop of sour cream to bring it all together.

Lebanese Lemon Chicken

1 large chicken cut into pieces
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
extra virgin olive oil
1 large bulb fennel, roughly chopped, herby tops chopped & reserved
1 red onion, peeled & roughly chopped
2-3 small preserved lemons, chopped
1 small bunch fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
150g farika or bulghur wheat
1 wineglass of tequila, vodka or white wine
565ml chicken stock or water
1 small tub sour cream

Preheat oven to 180c. Bash all of the spices up in a mortar & pestle with the salt until you have a fine powder. Add the flour & mix well. Rub this all over your chicken, any flour left over, reserve for later.

Heat an appropriately sized casserole type pan on the stove and add 5 tablespoons olive oil. Brown your chicken pieces on all sides, do this in one layer. Once they are coloured, remove to a plate, turn down the heat, add the onion, fennel, lemons and rosemary to the pan. Fry for around 5 minutes or until nicely softened. Then add excess flour & farika or bulghur wheat, give it all a good stir.

Add the tequila, vodka or wine & allow to cook down. Cover with chicken stock until it reaches the same level as the grains & veg. Now make a cartouche (A piece of greaseproof paper cut to fit the size of your pan). Run it under the tap to make it flexible then rub with olive oil. Place over the grains & veg in the pan & put the chicken on top. Place in oven & cook for 45 minutes until the chicken skin is really crisp. Serve with a dollop of sour cream & the fennel tops.