Caesar Salad

Chicken, apricot and almond patties with soya sauce and snow peas

Zucchini Fritters

Eggs Florentine with Crispy Free Range Bacon

Perfect Pork Belly

Salad Nicoise

Poached chicken breast salad

Thai fishcakes with Vermicelli noodle salad

Must be love!

"Toad in the Hole"

I'm in love. Real, true, proper actual crushing love. I have my mum to thank for introducing me to this, my newest obsession. The object of my affection is the oft overlooked Celeriac. Yes, that scary, gnarled root vegetable - literally, it is the root of celery, though not the variet of celery which most of us would usually eat. This super veg is low in carbohydrate and a great tasting substitute for potatoes. Truly, it's amazing. Go get some, and make this!

What better way than this breakfast to tell the celeriac how I feel? And also to thank the piggies, chooks and cows who all combined efforts to make this deliciousness possible, nom.

You will need:

1cm sliced of celeriac - treat each slice as a piece of bread
Free range eggs - one per piece of celeriac, I usually work on two eggs per person
Optional - cherry tomatoes
Free range ham - mine is from Barossa Fine Foods

To do:

Use a sharp paring knife to carefully remove the hard skin from the celeriac. Discard. Use a cookie cooter to slice into the middle of the celeriac - I used a love heart. Set a frying pan over moderate heat and melt a little butter in the bottom.. just enough to lubricate the pan. Add in the celeriac - the edges and also the cut outs, as well as the tomatoes if using.

Allow the celeriac to cook for around 3 minutes on each side over low heat. Celeriac seems to have a tendency to caramelise, so keep the temperature low. Once it's started to brown, crack the eggs into the centre of each piece of veg. Don't worry if the eggs run out of the middle, this won't affect the flavour! Place a lid on the saucepan and leave until eggs cooked to your liking. Serve immediately, plated with the ham.

I also cooked up an egg in my love heart shaped cookie cutter, well greased..

NB I think this would also work with eggplant, which I have likewise developed a new affection for (don't worry, celeriac, it's nothing compared to how I feel for you. Mon amor!).

(coffee from my delicious delonghi coffee wizard)

Cauliflower and home grown pumpkin soup

We planted what we thought was a butternut pumpkin seed many months ago, but actually it turned out to be what we think is QLD Blue instead. Either way, sadly, our pumpkin growing attempt was somewhat abortive. Perhaps as a result of overwatering from the top side, our pumpkin patch developed a mildew that was unbeatable. Our Zuchini, which neighboured the pumpkin, were a sad casualty of this mildew, so we lost a lot of these, also. However, the pumpkin vine did yield one almost fully grown veg before it gave up on itself, and this we have picked and started to cook. It is quite beautiful, though a little green and underdeveloped, so perfect to give the cauliflower body in this recipe, without overwhelming the flavour.

You will need:

Extra virgin Olive Oil
1/4 of a small pumpkin
1/2 Cauliflower
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cups chicken or veggie stock
Salt and pepper for season

What to do:

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the diced onions and chopped garlic. Stir until becoming translucent. Add the cauliflower and pumpkin and mix well, seasoning now with salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned and fragrant. Deglaze with verjuice or white wine (optional).

Add the stock and leave to simmer and bubble and soften. I pureed mine in the blender, though it would also be beautiful just hand mashed and left as a chunky soup.

Serve with parmesan cheese and spring onion (optional).

Creamy mushroom chicken with mashed cauliflower cheese

Figs and Haloumi salad

Haloumi 'chips'

Serves 2 as a light snack. Or, add a salad of bitter greens and walnuts for a light lunch.

You will need:
1 piece Organic Haloumi (180g - 200g)
10g cornflour
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

Slice the Haloumi into chip size pieces. Lightly coat in cornflour and salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a non-stick fry pan, to a moderate temperature. Gently add the haloumi sticks - careful for splashing oil.

As soon as you have all pieces in, use tongs to rotate onto another edge. Repeat and repeat again until all four sides are nicely browned. Remove from heat. I served with an organic barbecue sauce that had about 7g carb in the small portion I used.

Chicken soup (for the soul!) with truffle oil

We had friends for dinner last week. It was the first truly Autumnal day; grey sky, overcast, icy rain, and very cold. I roasted a couple of free range chooks and root vegetables. I hate food waste, and so the next day, set about turning the leftover chicken into a new meal. For the purpose of this recipe, I've cut back to one whole chicken.

You will need:
1 medium size free range chicken
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
500ml Chicken stock
250ml water
250ml cream
1 cup verjuice/dry white wine
1/4 cup sherry
Olive oil, for roasting
a pinch of saffron strands
tablespoon butter
tablespoon cornflour
1/4 cup milk

truffle oil, to serve

Preheat oven to 220'c. Lay the chicken in a roasting pan and cover with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes. Remove from oven. The chicken will probably not be fully cooked yet - so don't be tempted to sample those tasty wings!

In a large saucepan, over moderate heat, fry off the diced onion and garlic until translucent.Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Place the whole chicken into the pan and leave to simmer for around an hour. Top up with water as required. Add verjuice, sherry and saffron, and leave cooking for a further 10 mintues.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the cornflour and stir until it has developed a rust colour. Slowly whisk in the milk, stirring constantly to avoid the formation of lumps. Put the roux aside for now, but be sure to remove it from the heat, completely.

Strain the soup through a colander and reserve the chicken. Return the liquid to a low heat. Add the cream, and the blonde roux, and stir. The soup will thicken slighty. Be careful not to curdle the cream. Once it has achieved your desired consistency, remove from the heat.

Using a fork, shred the chicken. I know this might seem almost sacrilegious, but I don't particularly like the taste of chicken skin, and much less the texture. Ugh! I remove the skin. Mind you, I usually find my husband very quick to offer to clear the table... so that he can scavenge the skin off the chopping board! Put the shredded meat into the bottom of the soup bowls and ladle the soup on top. Drizzle with truffle oil to serve.

Surf and Turf with Red wine sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

400g whole eye fillet
8 green prawns
1/2 avocado
Asparagus
Snowpeas
200ml red wine
garlic
1 tsp cornflour

What to do:

Slice the steak into approximately 200g portions. Heat a knob of butter or olive oil in a heavy base frying pan, over moderate heat. Once frothing, add the steak and season with salt and pepper. Cook as desired - this was thick cut steak, so about 4 - 5 minutes on each side for rare... and allowing 5 minutes for resting. This was still actually almost a little too rare for me, but perfect for my husband.

Peel and devein the prawns. Season with salt and pepper. Fry over high heat until they have just lost their translucency. Set aside.

Blanche your selection of green vegetables. Remove the steaks from the frying pan and set on chopping board, allowing to rest. Return the frying pan to the heat, with the juices. Stir in the cornflour, using a flat wooden spoon to grind out any lumps. Slosh in that red wine, and simmer to thicken.

To serve, place 1/4 avo on each plate and drizzle a little truffle oil on top. Add green veg, steak and top with prawns. Ladle a little of the red wine sauce over the top of the steak. Excellent with a Barossa Valley Cab Sav. Mm.

Lady Flower

Yesterday's blog must have been a sort of call to arms...!

dukkah crusted zucchini and pumpkin flowers

We planted some pumpkin seeds a while ago, and my vine has now grown to a healthy 4 metres in length. Each morning, I have a good crop of bright yellow flowers, happily smiling away at me. So far, though, they're all boys. The swollen, voluptuous lady flowers are being a little shy. They must be having too much fun with the girls from my zucchini plants, as they too are yet to make an appearance.

What to do then, with these lovely blooms? They last only a day, and if I'm not quick, my industrious ants carry off all the pollen. So, I picked them first thing this morning, while still bright and fully open.

Rinse the flowers thoroughly, and remove the stamen. I stuffed mine with a slice of Edam cheese and also some basil from my garden. The batter consisted of 10g cornflour (approximately 8g carb), 2 tablespoons local Dukkah, and just enough ice cold water to make a reasonably firm mix. Dip each flower and shallow fry in olive oil, turning (carefully) until golden on all sides. I served mine with very peppery rocket from my garden, some truffle oil and aged balsamic. Amazing to have something straight from the garden and in my tummy in half an hour.

NB - no pesticide used in my garden, or any nasty chemicals, otherwise I would steer clear of this.

chicken madras curry with eggplant and zucchini

lamb curry with pomegranates and lime

I am lucky enough to have a very prosperous pomegranate tree in my front yard, and a neighbour with a lush lime tree. I used fruit from both in this recipe and absolutey loved the fresh, zesty flavour. Ideally, try to add the lamb close to the end of the cooking time, so that it is still a little rare when you serve.



Serves 2

Ingredients:

400g lamb leg steaks, trimmed into cubes
1 bunch broccolini
1/2 eggplant
1 zuchinni
1 onion
2 tblsp yellow curry paste
1 tin coconut cream
2 roma tomatoes
1 pomegranate
1 lime
sesame oil
soy sauce

Add a tablespoon of sesame oil to a wok and warm over high heat, until the oil is smoking. Add onion, cubed eggplant and sliced zuchinni. Stir until coated in oil and add a little water to moisten. Cook for a few minutes, until eggplant and zuchinni have softened. Slice broccolini lengths in to thirds and add to mix. Add lamb and sliced roma tomatoes. Stir. Mix in the yellow curry paste and stir until it coats the ingredients in the wok. Add tomatoes, coconut cream and 1/4 cup water. Simmer on moderate heat to allow the sauce to thicken and reduce.

Halve the lime. Slice one half into wedges (for serving) and finely slice the other half (skin and all) and incorporate into the curry. Halve the pomegranate and drop the seeds into the curry.

Just prior to serving, season with a dash of sesame oil and soy sauce.

Excellent with thick, rich yoghurt.

lazy sunday brekkie

perfectly poached eggs (runny for him and hard for me) and barossa valley ham, local roma tomatoes and parsley from my garden.

spicy-salmon-and-salsa-sorta-fritata

Serves 2

This dinner was a bit of a leftover mish mash. Last night, we had my parents in law over, and I made a crisp skinned Salmon with some tomato and red cabbage salsa, amongst other things. A simple solution to tonight's dinner arrived in the form of what I could raid from the fridgeridoo.

Ingredients:

1x 250g piece of (if you can find it) wild caught Salmon (look out for antibiotic nasties in farmed seafood)
3 x free range eggs
2 Roma Tomatoes
Handful of finely chopped red cabbage
1/2 red onion
Tsp Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 Avocado
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 cup almond meal

Salt and Pepper to season
Lemon wedges to serve




Preheat the oven to 200'c.
Place the piece of salmon skin side down in a smallish baking dish. Finely chop the tomatoes, onion and combine with the cabbage and balsamic. Strain over a fine sieve for 10 minutes to remove excess moisture. Lay the salsa on top of the salmon. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with chilli flakes and seasoning. Pour into the baking dish. Optional - add a handful of torn fresh herbs, if you have them to hand. I added some chives and basil.

Bake for 15 minutes. Carefully remove from oven and top evenly with the almond meal. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes, or, depending on individual ovens, until the eggs are set and the almond meal is lightly browned.

I served with some crispy baby cos leaves, a balsamic vinaigrette and some miniature capers. Would also be great with avocado.

chilli fried squid

My husband and I love squid. I used to make it with a beer or soda batter and deep fry it. This is low carb and low fat and absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

4 squid tubes
20g cornflour
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tblsp olive oil
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tblsp wasabi

Method

Butterfly the squid tubes and lay flat on a chopping board. Shiny side down, score diamonds into the squid by running a sharp knife diagonally. Toss the squid in a bowl with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and cornflour. Use your hands to evenly coat the squid pieces. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a wok until smoking, then add the squid. Stir almost continually for approximately 5 minutes, until cooked and crisp. Squeeze lemon juice over squid and continue to cook for a further minute.

Combine mayonnaise and wasabi.

Serve squid while hot with Mayo wasabi.

Caesar's Brekkie

My mum makes the best Caesar salad I have ever tasted. No restaurant has ever been able to match it, in my opinion. I think the dressing is crucial, and my mum makes her dressing very traditionally, always using fresh eggs to form the base. It's just a perfect, perfect balance of flavours. When I was pregnant, I was craving the saltiness of this salad, but advice is strongly against consuming raw eggs throughout pregnancy. I loathe commercially produced caesar dressings, finding they often resemble an aoli. Nothing against aoli, but they're bland compared to a true caesar dressing. Mum suggested that I try making the dressing with store bought mayonnaise instead of the fresh eggs. Since then, it’s been a mainstay of my repertoire.

Mum and I began making this brekkie several years ago. It's a delicious breakfast when you want something that little bit special.

Serves 1
Quantities given for the sauce will serve 4, so just increase the other ingredients to make this for more people.

Ingredients
3 rashers middle bacon (choose a good, sow stall free product)
2 free range eggs
6 leaves cos lettuce
Parmigiano Reggiano

For the dressing:
4 tablespoons whole egg mayonnaise
3 anchovies
2 cloves garlic
½ cup of lightly flavoured Olive Oil
Juice of half a lemon

Salt and Pepper to season

Method

Place the bacon into a dry (no oil) frying pan on high heat. Cook for a minute and then flip to cook the other side. The pan will begin to smoke – add a ¼ cup of water and reduce the heat to moderate. Place ½ a cup of water into a small frying pan and bring to the boil. Add the two eggs and place a lid on immediately. Reduce the heat after about one minute and leave the lid on. Cook to desired runniness.
For the dressing, smash the garlic cloves and chop finely. Add all ingredients to a blender and wizz until combined.
Rinse the cos lettuce and roughly chop. Place the lettuce on a plate, top with the bacon, poached eggs and shaved parmigiano reggiano. Top with a few tablespoons of dressing. The left over dressing will keep in the fridge for up to a week.