Chocolate Filled Oat Crunch

This week I was off to Megan’s for lunch with the girls & my contribution was these very yummy copies of the good old Kingston bickie. I love the original & of course as always, home made (to me at least) is always better & these are no exception. The biscuits are really very sweet which is ok by me & it was very difficult but I didn’t leave any at home (though I of course did sample a couple first & let Michael in on some too) & the leftovers remained at Megan’s, my willpower is getting pretty good lately, wonder how long it will last?

Chocolate Filled Oat Crunch

180g butter
120g demerara sugar
90g golden syrup
150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g desiccated coconut
60g rolled oats
150g milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 160c. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar & golden syrup until pale & fluffy, then add flour, bicarb of soda. Coconut & rolled oats and beat on slow speed until just combined. Spoon teaspoons of the mixture onto baking paper lined oven trays. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Cool biscuits on a wire rack. Meanwhile, melt chocolate, cool to a thick consistency & spread over half of the biscuits & sandwich with the remainder. Biscuits will keep in an airtight container for 5 days.

Coconut Muesli

I found another recipe for muesli in Marie Claire Luscious, this one is possibly even nicer than the Bill Granger recipe & uses mostly maple syrup with a bit of vegetable oil instead of a load of butter so has a lot less fat though of course is higher in sugar, so take your pick of poison. I will keep on alternating & changing the fruit in each batch for a bit of variety too, I cant get enough of the home made stuff, much nicer than anything from the shops.

Coconut Muesli

400g (4 cups) rolled oats
125g (1 cup) unsalted sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
125g (1 cup) slivered almonds
120g (2 cups) shredded coconut
250ml (3/4 cup) maple syrup
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
40g (1/4 cup) finely sliced dried peaches
35g (1/4 cup) finely sliced dried mango

Preheat the oven to 150c. Put the oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, almonds & coconut in a large bowl & mix well. Heat the maple syrup & oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Pour the warm mixture over the muesli & stir so that the grains & seeds are all well covered.

Spread the mixture over 2 baking trays & bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, and swapping the trays around in the oven halfway through baking. Remove from oven & cool. Transfer to a large bowl, add fruit & toss well. Makes about 1.2kg, enough for about 12 serves. Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Chocolate & Coconut Budino

This recipe was by Tobie Puttock from a recent Delicious magazine. A Budino is an Italian version of a self-saucing pudding. One tip that you probably don’t need, never attempt to make a self saucing pudding in a spring form tin, when you pour over the boiling water, it will leak straight out the bottom & you will have a big mess! Despite this minor disaster I managed to save the pudding by pouring extra water on top, banging it in the oven on a tray & crossing my fingers hoping for the best. The result was pretty darn good, I loved the addition of coconut for a bit of a change to your plain old chocolate pudding. I served it with some home made vanilla bean ice cream, yum.

Chocolate & Coconut Budino

1 cup (150g) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder plus 2 tablespoons extra for topping
¼ cup (20g) desiccated coconut
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
40g unsalted butter, melted
½ cup (125ml) milk
1 egg
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1 firmly packed cup (200g) brown sugar
halved strawberries & crème fraiche or ice cream or whatever takes your fancy to serve

Preheat oven to 175c & grease a 24cm non-stick metal pie or ceramic dish. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa & a pinch of salt into a large bowl, then stir in the coconut and caster sugar. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, milk, egg and vanilla seeds with a wooden spoon, then mix with the dry ingredients. Pour the mixture into the dish & set aside for a minute. Combine the extra cocoa powder & brown sugar in a bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over the pudding, then carefully pour 1 cup boiling water over the top. Bake in the oven until the centre has puffed & the pudding feels firm – this should take about 30 minutes (If you’re using a ceramic dish it will take about 40-45 minutes).

Serve immediately with strawberries & ice-cream or whatever takes your fancy! Serves 4-6

Breakfast Bars

This morning, still on my healthy breakfast thing I made up a batch of muesli bars from Marie Claire’s Luscious. Very easy to prepare, the flavor was delicious though mine had a bit of trouble keeping form when cut, they did keep their shape though they were very delicate & the edges crumbled, think maybe they needed to cook just that bit longer than the 30 minutes I allowed. Anyway this will be something nice Michael & I can take along to work this week.

Breakfast Bars

150g butter
175g (1/2 cup) honey
200g (2 cups) rolled oats
60g (1 cup) shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
200g (3/4 cup) pitted prunes, chopped
100g (2/3 cup) dried peaches, chopped
75g (1/2 cup) currants
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 170c. Line a 23 x 32 cm sandwich tin with baking paper.

Put the butter & honey in a small pan over medium heat & stir until butter has melted.

Toss the oats, coconut, baking powder & sesame seeds together in a large bowl. Add the prunes, peaches & currants & mix well. Add the warm honey mixture & eggs & stir to combine, then spoon evenly into cake tin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the mixture is cooked through & the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven & allow to cool in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

Coconut Bread

This morning for brekky carrying on with my sweet theme I made this recipe from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. It is described as ‘never to be replaced’ on the menu at Bills. It is a Jamacican bread intended to be served with salt-fish relisg. Lime marmalade goes well too & it keeps well sliced in the freezer. Can be served toasted, buttered & dusted with icing sugar. Sounds very different & was incredibly easy to prepare. The end result was delicious, though to me it is more of a cake then a bread, much in the same way banana bread is really a cake. I had a piece nice & warm from the oven which was perfect & then tried one buttered & dusted with icing sugar, this was good too but to be honest I don’t think it needed the extra’s. I’m yet to try it toasted, sure will be great too.

Coconut Bread

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
150g shredded cocnut
75g unsalted butter, melted

To serve
Butter
Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar & cocnut and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix.

Pour into greased and floured 21 x 10cm loaf tin & bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes and remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered & dusted withicing sugar. Makes 8-10 thick slices.

Satay Anika Malaysian Restaurant, East Brunswick

Last night Michael & I didn’t have much on & with footy season finally over I wa s able to drag him out of the house away from the tv screen. We didn’t feel like dong much of anything so just went for a walk down Lygon Street (East Brunswick end) to one of my favourite local restaurants.

Satay Anika is a great place for a quick, cheap & really good Malaysian feed. Its byo too which is nice sometimes, so armed with a bottle of Montalto Pinot Grigio – which I am quite partial to even though I have to severely limit my intake these days, we stepped inside, another great thing about the place – you don’t need a booking & can walk in off the street (or I have never needed one yet anyway).

The place is tiny with 2 areas, up & downstairs – have never made it upstairs myself. Nothing fancy about the décor but who needs it when the food is so good? The staff also are very friendly & attentive. Apparently the place is famous for its satays which sadly I have never tried as Michael is allergic to peanuts – something I am constantly frustrated by when cooking! One of these days I will bite the bullet & just order some for myself to try. Anyway this said we started off with some veggie curry puffs which were delicious. We then moved onto a traditional Malaysian chicken curry cooked in coconut milk, a Malaysian Noodle dish, some rice & of course Rotti to mop up the gorgeous curry sauce. The noodles were good but the curry beats it all, I love this stuff & have vowed next time to order curry & curry alone so I can have the whole dish to myself, it really is fantastic. With the bill coming it at $30.00 suggest you get down thre & try it out for yourself!

Satay Anika
140 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
9380 9702

Cook Islands Trip

We have just returned from our week of Paradise in The Cook Islands, as you can see from the photo, it is gorgeous over there & the pic doesn’t even do the place justice. We even got to spend a day & night in Tahiti as on the way there some very strong winds – apparently 120kms/hour, prevented us from landing so we had to divert, thanks to Air New Zealand for providing all we needed it was actually really enjoyed rather than being the disaster it could have been. They put us up in The Intercontinental which was beautiful, we spent the day swimming in their gorgeous & mammoth pool, walking around & chilling out. As for the food, well I know resorts aren’t usually the best but I have to say the buffet lunch was pretty awful so the eating extravaganza I had planned was not off to a good start.

All in all our food experience did not end up being that great apart from a couple of good feeds, for the most part I thought it was pretty awful, so as you can imagine I was very disappointed. Most of the food is imported from New Zealand which brings the prices up for a start, they are more or loss on a par with Australian restaurant prices which I wouldn’t mind paying if the quality was the same. The fact that it wasn’t & there really weren’t any cheap & easy options available for dinner didn’t make me any happier paying these prices. Lunch was a bit better with more available & at more reasonable prices. We had a tropical breakfast included daily which was fine, not much can go wrong with cereal, fruit, toast & pastries after all! I hate to write about bad experiences but really wasn’t left with much option. So anyway that being said now I will tell you about the good bits.

When we finally made it The Cooks, our first port of call was the stunning Island of Aitutaki, the photo is actually One Foot Island which is one of the surrounding motu’s (Islands). We did an Island cruise taking in a few surrounding Islands & some snorkelling – fantastic, and we had a local lunch on Honeymoon Island put together by the cruise people. This was great as they laid out a platter of traditional fruits & vegetables including Sea Grapes, these were very weird looking, a small branch with lots of very small ‘green grapes’ attached, squeezed with lime juice very tasty & apparently very good for you too, paw-paw, guava, lady bird bananas (as you can imagine I made the most of readily available bananas & stuffed myself with them for the whole week), some baked tapioca pudding – yum, steamed tapioca, purple kumara, fresh coconut & some fresh tuna sandwiches. Most of it was delicious though I was a bit iffy on the kumara & steamed tapioca. It was all served in a tiny little open hut on woven plates lined with freshly picked leaves of some sort, really enjoyed this experience.

That night was Sunday & not much is open on Sunday nights in Aitutaki so we opted for Te Vaka Bar & Grill, we caught a taxi there & the lovely driver gave us a piece of sponge cake for the ride that she had freshly baked that afternoon, it was delicious & moist & as you can probably tell the people here are very friendly, a very nice experience & cheap too! The restaurant was in a lovely open air building with the usual wicker furniture & Island feel, the food here was quite nice too, not fantastic but pretty good. Michael tried the Cook Islands speciality ‘Ika Mata’ which is fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice then tossed in coconut cream with onions, garlic, tomato & cucumber, he gave it the thumbs up, being pregnant I had to take his word for it as raw fish off the menu for me for now. I had Garlic chilli prawns, these were good too, with the marinade all making a lovely thick jammy sauce for the prawns. Michael then had some coconut topped Mahi Mahi (very nice fish if done the right way – we had a lot of it over the week) with calamari & I had an Island chicken curry, absolutely huge servings, don’t think I even ate half of mine. I then had some ice cream with freshly grated coconut & chocolate fudge sauce, their desserts were not overly creative! All in all it was a pleasant experience.

As you can probably tell by now they are very big on coconut on EVERYTHING in The Cook Islands, I was ok with it at first but by the end of the week hated it as most of the time thought it was way overdone & think it will be a while before I eat anything with coconut again which is a shame as I really like the stuff.

Anyway back on the mainland, Rarotonga a couple of places worth mentioning. FBI fish and chips , near the main bus stop in town. As we were getting off the bus we could smell it and you know what that smell does to you, we had no choice but to then find the place & order up. The fish was Parrott fish & the batter was light & crispy & all seemed to be cooked in nice fresh oil & at NZD11.50 for the 2 of us very good value for a change.

We went to Trader Jacks for dinner one night which is apparently the place to go, unfortunately I thought the food was crap here, our char grilled octopus was very tough & chewy & the coconut braised lentils it was served on well, yuk! For the mains Michael had some Wahoo fish, pan fried with garlic, lemon, fresh herbs & fries, this was nice & simple & really good, I ended up eating half of it as my Mai Mai wrapped in banana leaf & served on a bed of ginger, coriander, chilli & COCONUT cream was disgusting, I had one bite & didn’t go any further. So I was pretty hungry after this & ordered dessert, Chocolate & apricot cake with chocolate fudge & ice cream – bad mistake again, cake was dry & I don’t know what the fascination is with bloody vanilla ice cream & hot chocolate fudge on anything either! The place had a good feel & was fun but I would definitely order plain if going again, the bar pizzas looked & smelt terrific too – maybe that’s the way to go?

For our last night we went to Tamarind House, recommended as the best spot on the Island I had high hopes & it didn’t disappoint, the setting is a majestic restored colonial era building & the piano player perched in the corner all night also added to the ambience. Michael started with the seafood chowder, another Island specialty which he enjoyed & I chose the chicken & mushroom won tons which were delicious, I finally learnt not to order Cook Islands food which I have developed an intense dislike for! For mains I had some smoked salmon spaghetti & Michael some Island style swordfish, we both left very happy customers for once.

All in all it’s a gorgeous & relaxed place for a holiday, Aitutaki was the highlight & highly recommended but if you go don’t have too high expectations for the food, hope I am not being too critical here, who knows maybe its just my pregnant taste buds after all.

Weekend Herb Blogging - Lemongrass - Thai Pumpkin & Seafood Curry

For this weekends herb blogging hosted by Kalyn of Kayln's Kitchen I'm concentrating on lemongrass

Lately I have been taking a lot of inspiration from other blogs. I see a recipe & I just have to have it. So when recently I saw one of my favourite Nigella recipes made by 2 of my local bloggers I realised it had been way too long since I had this lovely curry. The first time I did this I made it as per the recipe, ever since I have omitted the prawns as I didn’t think they added that much & much preferred the taste of the salmon in this curry. So anyway thanks to The Next Nigella, Sarah and of course Nigella Lawsons’s Nigella Bites, where the recipe came from.

For today’s’ version I have used Lemongrass from my little herb shelf, it is the first time I have harvested any so got out the gloves & dug out 3 bulbs. The grass is quite sharp so you definitely need to wear protective gloves & glasses or goggles to avoid any nasty injuries, especially as you will be getting right down into it pushing & pulling to wrench the tough buggers loose. The smell as you’re freeing them is lovely & intense. Once loose, cut off the leaves, peel back the tough outer layers & cur off the roots. I have shown photos of the various stages so you can see what it looks like before it gets to the stage you see it in the shops as.

I also used some fresh lime leaves & coriander from the garden, I love being able to walk outside & pick fresh ingredients as I need them, if only I had room for a veggie garden too, oh well maybe one day. Anyway this recipe is really quick & easy & tasty so do try it out if you haven’t already.

Thai Yellow Pumpkin & Seafood Curry

400ml tin coconut milk
1-2 tablespoons yellow or red Thai curry paste
350ml fish stock
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm or caster sugar
3 lemongrass stalks, each cut into 3 & bruised with the flat of a knife
3 lime leaves, de stalked & cut into strips
½ teaspoon turmeric
1kg pumpkin, peeled & cut into bite sized chunks
1kg Salmon fillet, cut into large bite sized chunks
Pak choi or any other green vegetables of your choce
Juice of 1 lime
Coriander, to serve

Skim the cream off the top of the coconut milk & put it, over medium heat in a large saucepan with the curry paste. Let it sizzle & using a wooden spoon beat together until combined. Still beating gently, add the rest of the coconut milk, fish stock, fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, lime leaves & turmeric. Bring to the boil & add the pumpkin. Cook a fast simmer for approx 15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender. If leaving at this stage to finish off later, leave the pumpkin with a tiny bite to it so it doesn’t overcook when reheating for the final stage.

To the simmering pan add the salmon & cook until cooked, about 3-4 minutes, also add the green veggies. Towards the end add the lime juice. When done sprinkle over coriander & serve with tice.

Curry Night

Last night I had a few people over for dinner & decided to do another curry night. I started off with some vegetarian samosas which I didn’t think were that good, they were a bit on the oily side so I have skipped the recipe. For the Main course we had some curries, rice dishes, rotti & raita. I used Jamie Oliver’s favourite curry sauce from Happy Days which I’ve made heaps of times before, I love it, the flavours are very fresh & it can be used many ways which came in handy as one of the guests tonight only eats fish, so I doubled the recipe, then split the sauce in half & did half chicken, half fish. The Lemon Rice is from this book also & really is worth that little extra effort over plain steamed rice, it’s absolutely delicious. This is the first time I am making it with the urad dhal as I finally found some at my local Asian grocer, it added a lovely crunchy texture to the rice The raita was a simple mix of yoghurt, grated cucumber & toasted cumin seeds and the Rotti I picked up form the local deli.

Curry Sauce

5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
3 fresh green chillies, deseeded & thinly sliced
1 handful of curry leaves
2 thumb size pieces of fresh ginger, peeled & coarsely grated
3 onions, peeled & chopped
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
6 tomatoes, chopped
1 x 400ml coconut milk
salt

For the fish version
225g white fish fillets
1 knob tamarind paste or 1 teaspoon tamarind syrup
baby spinach
handful fresh coriander, chopped

For the chicken version
4 chicken breasts, sliced into 1cm strips
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed

Heat the oil in a pan, and when hot add the mustard sees. Wait for them to pop, then add the fenugreek seeds, fresh green chillies, curry leaves & ginger. Stir & fry for a few minutes. Using a food processor, chop the onions & add to the pan. Continue to cook for a few minutes until the onion is light brown & soft, then add the chilli powder & turmeric. Using the same food processor, pulse the tomatoes & add to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, then add 1 or 2 wineglasses of water & the coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes until it has the consistency of double cream, then season carefully with salt.

Ok so now I am splitting the sauce in two. For the fish verion, add the fish & tamarind & simmer for 6 minutes. Add some baby spinach & coriander at the end.

For the chicken version, stir fry the chicken strips & coriander seeds until lightly browned, then add to the sauce & simmer for about 10 minutes.

Lemon Rice

455g basmati rice
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoons urad dhal (small dried split peas)
1 handful of curry leaves
rind & juice of 2 lemons
fresh coriander, chopped
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Thrown the rice into boiling water, cook for 10 minutes & drain.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan, over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds & as they begin to pop add the urad dhal, curry leaves & strips of lemon rind. Leave to cook for 1 minute until the urad dhal & lemon peel are lightly coloured.

Add the drained rice to a bowl & pur over the cooked spices, lemon juice & chopped coriander. Season to taste.

Ginger & Ricotta Flatcakes with Honeycomb

Yesterday I had my family over for brunch before heading out to the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show with my mum. I cooked up these flatcakes which sounded yummy, they took a bit more effort than just your average pancake so needed an excuse to cook them, would not go to the effort for just Michael & I. The reason I picked these was that I had a lovely chunk of fresh honeycomb that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. The end result was very nice, the coconut gave them some added flavour as well as a nice texture, I couldn’t really taste the ginger though so would maybe increase the quantity next time. The family were impressed & at 3 per person they were actually very filling so even though the recipe was for 4, I fed 5 without any empty stomachs left at the end. The recipe comes from my cute pocket sized Lust book

Ginger & Ricotta Flatcakes with Honeycomb

150 g (1 cup) Wholemeal Flour
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
55g (1 cup) flaked coconut, toasted
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 eggs, separated
310ml (1 ¼ cups) milk
500g ricotta
200g fresh honeycomb, broken up into chunks
4 bananas, sliced

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder & ginger into a bowl & stir through coconut. Make a well in the center & add combined egg yolks, milk & 350g of ricotta. Stir until a smooth batter forms. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, fold through mixture.

Drop 3 tablespoons of batter into a lightly oiled or buttered pan & cook until small bubbles appear on top, flip & cook other side. Serve 3 flatcakes topped with a spoonful of ricotta, a chunk of honeycomb & sliced fresh bananas. We also poured over some maple syrup & some of us even added a scoop of ice cream!

Anzac Biscuits

To get into the Aussie Spirit for the Commonwealth games that are on here in Melbourne at the moment I thought I would whip up a batch of Anzac cookies. The recipe I used was from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food, would you believe I have never made these before so I’m not sure if the recipe is the same everywhere or not!

As the recipe says, these were said to have been devised for sending care packages to Australian & New Zealand Army corps soldiers serving in World War 1.

My hubby ate half the mixture before I cooked them as that is what he used to do as a kid & prefers the lovely mixture to the cooked bickie. I waited for the finished product myself & they were great.

Anzac Biscuits

1 cup plain flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
125g butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 teaspoons boiling water

Preheat oven to 160f. Place flour, coconut, sugar & oats in a bowl & mix well.

Place butter & golden syrup in a saucepan over medium heat & melt.

Place bicarbonate of soda in a small bowl & add water, stir to combine.

Add bicarb mix to saucepan & stir. Pour over oat mixture & stir all ingredients together.

Roll teaspoons of biscuit mixture into balls & place on a greased & lined baking tray, leaving room for spreading. Flatten each ball gently with a fork.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown at the edges. Allow to cool slightly on trays before transferring to a wore rack. Makes 20.

Chiang Mai Noodles

Made up these Noodles for dinner which were delicious though I missed out on lots of ingredients & substituted some too, guess it would only be better with everything in it. Really quick & a great dish to knock up after work when you’re in a hurry. I used packet noodles, spring onions instead of shallots & added no fried red Asian shallot flakes, fried noodles or fresh red chilli at the end, was feeling very lazy! The recipe is from ‘Bowl Food’ one of those cute little books doing the rounds at the moment


Chiang Mai Noodles

250g fresh thin egg noodles
2 tbspns oil
6 red Asian shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 small fresh red chillies, seeded & finely chopped
2-3 tbspns red curry paste
375g chicken breast, cut into thin strips
2 tbspns fish sauce
1 tbspn grated palm sugar
3 cups (750ml) coconut milk
1 tbspn lime juice
1 cup (250ml) chicken stock
4 spring onions, sliced to garnish
1/3 cup (10g) fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
fried red Asian shallot flakes, to garnish
purchased fried noodles, to garnish
fresh red chilli, finely diced to garnish

Cook the noodles according to packet instructions, drain & set aside

Heat a large wok over high heat, add the oil, shallots, garlic & chilli & stir fry for 3 minutes. Stir in the curry paste & fry for 2 minutes. Add chicken & fry for 3 minutes or until changes colour.

Stir in the fish sauce, palm sugar, coconut milk, lime juice & stock. Reduce the heat simmer over low heat for 5 minutes – do not boil.

To serve, divide the noddles among 4 deep bowls, spoon over the chicken mixture & add the garnishes.

Cajun Daintree Barramundi with Kipfler Potato Salad, Jelly Coconut Sambal & Cumquat Sauce

Tonight I decided to whip up another creation from the ‘A Slice of Port Douglas’ cookbook. This recipe was not so much difficult as very fiddly, lots of pots & pans used, luckily I didn’t get stuck with the washing up too. The other thing was that I had trouble sourcing some of the ingredients & in fact didn’t end up finding jelly coconut, can you even get this in Victoria, would love to hear from anyone that knows where? The cumquats I could not buy anywhere either & have since come to the conclusion that they only grow in peoples back yards & are not for sale. Luckily the fruit & veg man at DJ’s who I was asking for these from had a tree at home & promised to pick some for me & bring them in. So I went back the next day & sure enough he had them there waiting for me after apparently picking them at 3 in the morning by the light of his mobile phone torch. It’s very refreshing to find someone so helpful & willing to go out of their way for no profit just to help a total stranger, very impressed. After all of that the end result was really good & especially the potato salad, the lime mayo was excellent & the first I have made from scratch. Was always under the impression that they were very time consuming yet this only took me a couple of minutes to whip up, another first for me & will be looking to make more now that I know they are so easy.

Cajun Daintree Barramundi with Kipfler Potato Salad, Jelly Coconut Sambal & Cumquat Sauce

4 x 180g barramundi
2 tbspns Cajun spice
1 bunch fresh asparagus

Potato Salad

4 garlic cloves
Olive oil & 2 egg yolks
1 tspn Dijon mustard
Juice of 2 limes & 2 kaffir lime leaves, julienned
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 cup grape seed oil
600g Kipfler potatoes
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
1 spanish onion, thinly sliced

Coconut Sambal

200g jelly coconut
1/3 cup coconut cream
1 tspn fish sauce
½ red capsicum & ½ spanish inion, very finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped coriander
1 tbspn sweet chilli sauce
1 tbspn sesame oil

Cumquat Sauce

1kg cumquat
½ cup orange juice
2 cardamon pods
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon quill
½ cup sugar
50g butter

To prepare the salad, place garlic on a baking tray & drizzle with olive oil & bake in a 180c oven for 10 minutes or until soft. Place garlic, egg yolks, mustard, lime juice, lime leaves, salt & pepper in a food processor & process for 10 seconds. With the motor still running, add the oil in a thin stream. When mixture starts to thicken you can add the oil faster. Continue to process until the mayo is thick & creamy. Place potatoes in a pot of salted boiling water & cook until tender. Refresh in cold water. Slice thickly & combine with mayo, capsicum & onion.

To make the sambal, combine all ingredients in a bowl & mix to combine.

To prepare the cumquat sauce, place all ingredients (minus butter) in a saucepan & bring to the boil. Reduce heat & simmer uncovered until liquid is reduced by half. Strain. Add butter just before serving.

Boil or steam asparagus for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Coat the barramundi with Cajun spice & cook in a heated frypan with olive oil, approx 2 minutes each side until cooked.

To serve, place potato salad on a plate with the asparagus then top with barramundi & sambal, Drizzle the sauce over the top.

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry – Sunday 28th Jan 06

Sunday night I cooked up a curry from Jamie Oliver’s original ‘The Naked Chef’ cookbook, the flavours were very fresh & it was very simple to make. I have cooked various curries from his different cookbooks & they are all fantastic so this is another winner to add to the collection. He suggested serving with his chunky coconut, tomato, cucumber & lime relish which I sort of did apart from the fact that I could not buy coconut anywhere yesterday so it was minus the coconut. I have since been told that coconuts are too old at the moment, will have to try & remember - no coconuts in January!!! Still it was nice to have something fresh to serve on the side. Sorry the photo once again doesnt do the curry justice, I find curries generally arent that photographic at any time (for me the amateur photographer anyway).

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry

4 skinless chicken breasts, each cut into 5 pieces
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1 handful chopped pistachio nuts

Green Curry Paste

6 spring onions, washed & trimmed
4-6 medium green chillies, deseeded & finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh root ginger, peeled & finely chopped
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, pounded or crushed
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt & pepper to taste
Handful of lime leaves, torn
2 lemon grass stalks, trimmed back & finely chopped
2 good handfuls fresh basil on the stalk
3 good handfuls fresh coriander on the stalk
3 tablespoons olive oil
zest & juice of 4 limes

Put all the curry paste ingredients in a food processor and whiz to a smooth green paste. Marinate the chicken in a little of the paste for 30 minutes, then add a little oil & chicken pieces to a hot pan. Fry for 4 minutes, thenad the remainder of the paste. Stir in the coconut milk, bring to the boil & simmer for 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Season to taste.

Sprinkle with the pistachios & some coriander leaves & serve with steamed rice

Chocolate Chip Cookies – Australia Day Jan 26 2006

Today we had another scorcher so my plans to go to the Hanging Rock Races were unfortunately cancelled. Woke up & felt like baking so thought I would whip up some treats & take them over to Michaels parents, they have a pool which was just the thing for us to cool down in.

Luckily downstairs at our place stays nice & cool so having the oven on all morning didnt heat things up too badly

The first thing I made were some gorgeous chocolate chip cookies from Marie Claire ‘Cooking’. Very simple to make, the brown sugar & coconut adding lots to the flavour, the photo doesnt do them justice, here’s the recipe

Chocolate Chip cookies

125g (4oz) butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1 cup SR Flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
250g (8oz) chopped chocolate (I used Nestle dark)

Place butter, vanilla & sugar in a bowl & beat until creamy. Beat egg into mixture & then stir through flours, coconut & chocolate. Roll 2 tablespoons of mixture a ta time into balls, place balls on lined baking trays & flatten slightly. Bake in a preheated 190c (375f) oven for 15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on trays. Makes 20

WhyNot @ Byron Friday November 18th 2005

For our last night in town we headed out to Why Not where we decided to sit out on the back on one of the lounges & do tapas & cocktails. The lounge area is very asian inspired with large wooden couches covered in bright cushions with some really interesting art work on the walls by Evan Malcolm, we kicked our shoes off, lounged back & ordered up our tapas & cocktails.

I love the idea of eating like this, lots of teeny little dishes allowing you to taste so much more on a single night & still be able to walk out afterwards. We started with some big fat juicy black olives & pistachios, some dips - a homemade guacamole & a smoky eggplant dip which was to die for & not like any dip I have tried before, wish I had that recipe! We also had some antipasto, & caperberries which I also love & would love to see on more menus, artichokes, fetta, semi dried tomatoes & lots of toasted bread. This was washed down with a cosmopolitan, they have this great deal where you can order any tapas item & a cocktail for $15.00 which we planned to take advantage of. We were off to a very good start.

Next up we had some Chilli salt baby octopus & coconut mussels, these were fantastic, esp the coconut broth the mussels were served in, quite different. This lot was washed down with a bellini

Next up were some very tasty Grilled thai prawns & tuna with daikon & ponzu. The ponzu was not something i had eaten or heard of before & was quite interesting, almost potato like, wouldn't say it wasnt nice but I also wont be rushing out to buy any in a hurry

We finished it all of with a lovely cheese platter

A great relaxing way to enjoy our last night in this lovely place

Cup Day BBQ Tuesday 1st Nov 2005

Decided to have a bbq with a few friends over to watch the Melbourne cup. Was a glorious day in the low 30's so perfect to sit outside amongst the new & colorful blooms under the shade of my umbrella enjoying a few refreshing glasses of wine & yummy food, is there a better way to spend a warm sunny day I ask you!

Started the day with nibbles of dips, olives, & crackers kindly donated by various guests Was a good thing we had the nibbles as my better half waited until the last minute to check & discover that we needed more gas & after driving to half the servos in Melbourne before finding one that hadn't run out the bbq was running just a tad late

On the bbq we had some good old Aussie snags, spicy chevups, homemade hamburgers courtesy of my mum & some marinated chicken. The chicken recipe was from The Womens Weekly Great BBQ Food cookbook, very tasty!

Sweet & Spicy Chicken Recipe (Note original recipe is for quails which I substituted with the chicken pieces)

Chicken Thigh Fillets (Enough for 8 people)
2 cups Mango Chutney
2 tblspns cumin seeds
1 tblspn Sweet Paprika
1 tblspn grated lemon rind
1 tspn cracked black pepper
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander

Combine all ingredients, throw in the chicken & refigerate 3 hours or overnight (I left mine overnight)
Drain well & thrown on the barbie, til cooked & that’s it - very easy!

To go with the meat I tossed a couple of simple salads together, mixed lettuce, tomatos, cucumber, avacado & dressing and also made a potato salad with a difference, (diff for my family at least who always have the traditional boiled potatoes with egg, onion & lashings of mayo), recipe was from Jamie Oliver the Naked Chef & was really good, here it is & is highly recommend

Jamies Potato Salad Recipe (I made triple to feed about 12 & there were leftovers)

Boil 450g of evenly sized new potatos either peeled or scraped in salted water. I also cut mine in half as they were a touch on the large side Cook until just falling on off the blade of a knife when inserted, don’t overcook or will be a bowl of mush
As soon as they are cooked dress with following (all ingredients combined beforehand):

2 tblspns lemon juice
5 tblspns olive oil
1 level tspn salt
1 level tspn freshly ground black pepper

Throw in a bunch of fresh dill & some extra salt & pepper to taste

Also on the side had a fantastic cob filled with roasted veges, proscuito & camembert that another friend had whipped up, as well as the usual sliced bread & tomato sauce to keep the boys & kids happy

Now you may think we would all be bursting at this point but no, it is a long day & soon we needed more Had experimented with some chocolate coated, cointreau injected strawberries earlier in the day, very wicked & believe me they were a big hit so if you can get your hands on a syringe well worth it. Was very funny having to walk into the local chemist & embarrassingly ask for them, luckily the girls understood my dilemna

To make, simply melt some chocolate melts in a bowl over simmering pot of water, use dark, white or milk, up to you.
As soon as melted twirl strawberries in choc & place on baking paper to set. Note berries have to be completely dry before dipping or ruins the chocolate. When set, inject with your alcohol of choice, would suggest to use a full syringe of each as I didn’t and could have used some more, was a bit worried of overpowering with alcohol for my first try, no danger there

Also had a cherry & coconut slice to share around, again donated by one of my helpful friends & last but not least a selection of lovely cheeses, fig paste & fruit to finish it all off

Was a great day though not very hungry now as you can imagine!

And a big congratulations to Makybe Diva for winning yet again & making me some money at the tab!