My C.H.A.P Salad (Chicken, Haloumi, Antipasto, Pide)

Today we went along to Heide Museum of Modern Art. What a stunning, inspiring and educational experience. The museum space is amongst 14 acres of luscious gardens and subtly tucked away in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. My lovely neighbour and friend works there and we have been meaning to go for a long time and check it out. The museum occupies the site of a former dairy farm that was purchased by the prominent Melbourne art collectors John&Sunday Reed in 1934 and became home to a collective known as the Heide Circle, which included many of Australia's best-known modernist painters, such as; Albert Tucker, SidneyNolan, Laurence Hope Joy Hester and others, who lived and worked in the former farm house. Along with the exceptional and very historic Art collections are 2 Garden kitchens (the best I have seen yet!) that harvest produce for Café Vue which is onsite, creation by Uberchef Shannon Bennett of Vue to Monde (3 hat top Melbourne restaurant). Lunch was a wagyu pie and beautiful Salad du Jour. I have included pictures below as it rocked! So here for your dear reader is my Salad Du Jour – a Mediterranean delight with ingredients from my Kitchen Garden of course! A trusted and very easy recipe I whip up regularly. Enjoy mes amies. Serves 4

Prep time: approx. 15 min. cooking time: about 15 min

Kitchen stuff needed: a grill (we use an electric one endorsed by a once famous boxer!), strainer/colander, Sharp knife, chopping board, shallow frying pan, and fork for mixing dressing, and large salad bowl for serving

Ingredients from the garden:

4 x small eggplant/aubergine (or 1 biggie)

25 x cherry tomatoes
10 x fresh basil leaves

Other Ingredients

300gm mixed antipasto

500gm x chicken breast cut into 3cm strips

75gm x pinenuts

½ Turkish bread loaf

200gm mixed leaves

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

S & P to taste

Let’s do it:

1. Slice eggplant into 2cm chunks, lightly salt and set aside for 5 min

2. Drain antipasto into bowl. Keep the oil that is left.

3. Use about 2 tblespn of oil to and fry chicken in batches until brown and just cooked through. Fry quickly pinenuts in same oil.

4. Pop eggplant into same oil and lightly fry for a few minutes until it just starts to soften.

5. Cut haloumi into 1cm slices and using same oil, fry in same oil until just brown.

6. Cut Turkish bread into 1cm cubes and toast/grill.

7. In your large salad serving bowl add chicken, haloumi, antipasto, eggplant, cherry tomatoes and mixed leaves.

8. Drizzle with remaining combined oil and vinegar.

9. Sprinkle with pine nuts and basil leaves. Job done easiest tastiest salad ever.

Enjoy with a large glass of crisp Western Australian Rose.

Soundtrack for a Mediterranean Salad: Midnight Remember by Little Red

Todays lunch at Cafe Vue. Y.U.M.

Tandoori Lamb, Pilau Rice and Mint & Cuc Raita

For 4 extraordinary years we lived in East London. The vibe in this area was always on. From Sundays of markets and fine food from Spitalfields and Upmarket to bar-hopping and galleries of Shoreditch, flowers and cupcakes on Colombia Road, beers at The Ten Bells and curry nights on Brick Lane. We enjoyed a sensational time and made friendships that will last a lifetime. It was a moment time that spanned several years as transients with no real responsibilities, while travelling through Europe on the odd weekend was the way we happily existed.   We enjoyed  regular gatherings with friends on and off Brick Lane where you negotiated more food than you would ever eat for a fixed price. I have still not had a Peshwari Naan that amazing since. At that, this week’s Friday night dinner is a Lamb Tandoori, and I must say that for me the Pilau rice became the unexpected hero of the dish with its foreign spices and amazing aroma’s. Enjoy this, I hope it transports you back to that carefree time in your 20’s that makes you smile.  serves 4.

Prep time: approx. 30 min. Soaking time for rice: 30 min. cooking time: about 30 min

Kitchen stuff needed: Sharp knife, chopping board, Grill/griddle, cling wrap, 3 serving bowls, large saucepan.

Ingredients from the garden:

20 x mint leaves – chopped finely

1 x cucumber – deseeded and finely chopped

Other Ingredients:

Tandoori Lamb:

6 x Lamb fillets
2 x tablespoons tandoori paste
1.5 x cup natural yogurt (half will be used for raita)

Pilau Rice:

1.5 cups x basmati rice (for a more authentic flavour and texture it is best not to use easy-cook rice; however, it will still work and be very tasty if you do)
1 x medium onion, finely chopped
40gm x butter, plus extra to serve

4 x cardamom pods (smashed slightly)

8 x cloves

1 x cinnamon sticks
1 x teaspoon cumin seeds

Pinch saffron threads/or pinch of turmeric if it’s not payday!

2 bay leaves

700ml/1 pint hot chicken stock, vegetable stock or water

Salt

Let’s do it:

1. Combine well lamb with tandoori paste and half yogurt in a large bowl. Cover with cling wrap and pop in fridge (you can make a day ahead if you like or rest for 20 min while you do rice.)

2. Rinse rice through a sieve and then cover with water and leave to soak for 30 min.

3. After 30 min, in saucepan, add butter, onion, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and cardamom. Bay leaves and saffron. Stir until onions are soft and translucent.

4. Strain rice and add, giving a good stir until well combined with all that spicy buttery goodness.

5. Add stock and bring to the boil and then immediately turn down to a simmer, add tight lid and steam on low for 18 min. Do not be tempted to open lid or you will spoil the surprise. Trust me on this!

6. In separate bowl combine yogurt, mint and cucumber to make your raita. Cover and pop in fridge.

7. Once rice cooking time is up, take of the lid and enjoy the fragrant aromas of all that spicy rice. Using a fork fluff up the rice and add a bit more butter and put lid back on.

8. Using a grill, grill to your liking the lamb fillets for about 4 minutes each side. (less if you like it very rare)

9. Rest lamb under some foil for a few minutes while you prep the rest.

10.         Pop rice out in big serving bowl, along with Raita in a side bowl.

11.         Slice as you like the lamb and enjoy this wonderful tasty Friday night takeaway cooked at home.

Enjoy with an ice-cold longneck Kingfisher (Indian beer, ask your speciality beer man!) or a fine NZ north island Savignon Blanc

Soundtrack for some Friday night curry: Kala by M.I.A

My Valentine Raspberry filled Macarons

I find it very difficult to walk past a macaron stall without buying one, or three! The crisp outer shell and that gorgeous crunch into a smooth, slightly chewy, light, soft filling... oh those little gems! I’ve recently discovered salted caramel flavour - Oh la la! (They are next to be made!) I’ve always thought that something so wonderfully scrumptious could only be cooked by some fine Parisian-trained patissier.  But guess what folks? Not so. These macaron are simple to bake. The hardest part for me was trying not to eat all the mixture before baking, and the constant whisking of the meringue(No fancy-pance Mixmaster for me sadly, just the old hand whisk!). With this simple recipe I have made a delicate pink macaron with a raspberry jam filling. Makes 16 delightfully amazing macarons ♥ ♥ ♥

Prep time: approx. 20 min. Resting time: approx. 15min. cooking time: about 15 min per batch

Kitchen stuff needed: 2 x baking trays (1 will do if that’s all you have), baking paper, large frypan, teaspoon, whisk, (or mixmaster/electric whisker if you have one)

Ingredients from the garden:

15 fresh ripe Raspberries (or a small punnet if not growing them)

Other Ingredients:

1 cup icing sugar

3/4 Cup almond meal

2 Large egg whites, room temperature

1 sm pinch of bicarbonate soda

1/4 Cup caster sugar

1/2 Vanilla bean, scraped or 1/4 Tsp. Vanilla extract

a few drops of red food colouring

½ cup raspberry jam

Let’s do it:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Prepare parchment lined baking sheets.

2. Combine the almond flour and icing sugar. Mix so that there are no lumps.

3. Whisk egg whites with mixer on medium speed until foamy (or hand whisk if you are up for it). Add bicarb and continue to whisk until soft peaks form.

 

4. Add caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form. This may take a while! Stiff peaks = when you lift up the whisk and turn it upside down, the little peak that forms should stay in place and not tip over at the point).

5. At this point, if you want a different colour macaron then add little by little the food colouring to the egg white and also add the vanilla bean scrapings or clear vanilla extract. Whisk just until the colour is pretty much uniform. It does not need to be completely combined, little areas of white is fine.

6. Sift the almond meal and sugar mixer into the egg whites. Fold just until everything is combined. Do not over fold - the whole point of beating up your egg whites to a stiff peak is to incorporate air, so you don’t want to deflate it by over folding.

7. The mixture should be thick and sticky. Transfer the batter to a pastry piping bag with a 1/2 inch plain round tip. Listen closely here! Pipe the batter onto the parchment lined pan by holding the tip straight up and down and making sure it remains straight as you pipe the batter. Keep the tip in one position (no need to move it around, the batter will spread to a circle on its own). Pipe them at least 2cm apart and as uniform in size as possible. If you’re really nervous, you can also draw circles on the baking paper, flip it upside down so you can still see the circles and pipe until the batter fills the circle.

8. Turn the oven down to 160 degrees.

9. Tap the pan on the countertop a few times and hit the bottom of the pan with your hands. Let the pans sit for 15 minutes. Tap it a lot - you will see some bubbles come to the top and pop and that’s exactly the purpose of the tapping! This is such an important step - I have gotten macarons that fall apart, have holes in the bottom, don’t puff up and pretty much everything else that could go wrong because I did not tap the pan enough or let them sit long enough. DO NOT TAP THE PAN AFTER THEY HAVE RESTED. Carefully place them in the oven - any hard hit to them will result in cracks when baked.

10.         Bake one pan at a time and rotate the pan 5 minutes in. Bake another 5 minutes and take them out. (Total bake time - 15 minutes) Let them rest on the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack. It should not be hard to take them off but if they are somehow sticking to the pan spray some water under the baking paper and the steam should release the cookies.

11.         Filling: take a saucepan and put on high, when warm add raspberry jam and fresh raspberries. Gently crush some of the fresh ones up, but keep a little chunky if possible. But aside to cool.

12.         Match up macarons of similar size and gently add a small teaspoon of filling to each, and add its little mate to make your perfect sweet macaron.

Enjoy slowly with a glass of French champagne

Soundtrack for Macaron ♥ : La Femme Chocolat by Olivia Ruiz

La Tomatina Tarte Tatin

The title of this recipe is inspired by a crazy Spanish tomato throwing festival, and a delicate French tarte. Back in the day we got a gang together and Ryan-aired over to Valencia for La Tomatina, a fantastic celebration of the tomato. This recipe also celebrates the tomato, but in a more tasty and less messy way. To celebrate tomatoes the messy way you start with a “Jamon” and a greasy pole. The celebration can only start once a town hero climbs up a greasy pole and cuts down a giant Spanish ham. As this happens, the crowd and the greasy pole are showered in water from hoses. Once someone is able to chop the ham off the pole, the tomato fight can start. Tip trucks make their entry loaded high with ripe juicy tomatoes. Everyone chucks tomatoes, first at friends and then before long, at complete strangers! It is messy crazy fun and a food fight like no other. To celebrate tomatoes in a tasty way, take a simple French tarte tartin, and make it savoury with delicious tomatoes fresh from the garden. Unfortunately our little patch will only harvest a few more tomatoes thanks to some mildew that has snuck in and killed our tomato and cucumber plants. (*boo*).  Enjoy this delicious tarte while the summer tomatoes last. Serves 4.

Prep time: approx. 20 min. cooking time: about 40 min

Kitchen stuff needed: Sharp knife, chopping board, shallow frying pan, pie dish, baking paper

Ingredients from the garden:

5 x large juicy tomatoes (or a load of cherry tomatoes if that’s what you are growing. Pop them into your clean pie dish whole to figure out how many you need)

1 x large Zucchini sliced into fine planks

Other Ingredients

1 x sheet puff pastry

1 x clove garlic

100gm x Greek feta chopped into 1/2cm pieces.

2 tbsp. x Olive Oil

1 tblespn x butter

2 tblespn balsamic vinegar

S & P to taste

Let’s do it:

1. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the tomato, cut-side down (if using big tomatoes). Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes or until tender.

2. Chop garlic and lightly sauté with ½ teaspoon of olive oil, add 1 chopped zucchini. Sauté for about 3 minutes until zucchini starts to soften and change colour. Put aside.

3. Preheat oven to 220ºC. Brush a round 20cm cake pan with melted butter. Arrange tomato, cut-side down, over base of pan. Top with zucchini planks followed by feta slices. Top with pastry and fold back the excess.

4. Turn down power to 180 and bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Turn out upside down and flip onto a serving plate.

5. Combine vinegar and oil. Drizzle over tart. Season with salt and pepper. Top with basil.

Enjoy with a large glass of summer chilled Yarra Valley Rose.

Soundtrack for a Tomato celebration: 11:11 by Rodrigo y Gabriela

Turkish Cheesy Lamb and Mint Pide

This time last year we took a family trip to New Zealand to visit friends and attended 2 beautiful weddings. Both were in the north island by the ocean and were truly sensational, stunning and memorable in every way. One of the weddings was our kiwi friend marrying her Turkish “delight”. The uniting of this gorgeous couple from different sides of the world was just so special. She carefully read her vows to him in her finest Turkish, and his to her in English. It was an elegant wedding ceremony and one fantastically brilliant party of a wedding reception. With the brides DJ brother on the decks, we danced the night away to cool tunes from all over the world, including some fancy footwork of a traditional Turkish dance-off. We hope to one day soon make it to Turkey, I know from family and friends who go there that it’s so alluring, diverse and simply wonderful. In honour of Mr & Mrs A on your first wedding anniversary, I hope I’ve done this Pide recipe justice x

Prep time: approx. 45 min. Resting time for dough: approx. 1hr, 15min. cooking time: about 40 min

Kitchen stuff needed: Sharp knife, chopping board, 2 x baking trays (1 will do if that’s all you have), baking paper, 3 x mixing bowls, a blender, large frypan, rolling pin.

Ingredients from the garden:

20 x mint leaves

2 x silver beet stalk (or use big handful of spinach instead)

1 x red pepper/capsicum

1 x lemon

Dough Ingredients:

7 gr active dry yeast

1 tspn sugar

1/4 + 3/4 cup warm water

2 & 1/4 cup flour

1 tspn salt

2 tbspn olive oil + 1 tsp olive oil

Topping:

500gm lamb mince

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup tasty cheese

2 tbspn olive oil

1 small onion, sliced

1-2 garlic clove, chopped

1/2 cup of water

Let’s do it:

1. Turn on oven to the max temp of 250 degrees (500F)

2. Topping Preparation: Put red capsicum/pepper in oven whole for 20 min or until starting to blacken. Remove and put into plastic bag, tie up and allow the pepper to sweat the skin off for about 5 min.

3. Sauté the onion with olive oil until it is softened, add garlic.

4. Deseed and deskin pepper and pop in the blender and pulse for about 30 second. Then add to onions and add ½ a cup of water. Let sauce simmer gently while you make the dough. (no more than 15 min, add some more water if you need to)

5. Dough Preparation: In a small bowl, mix the yeast, sugar and 1/4 cup warm water. Stir well so the yeast dissolves. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

6. In a large bowl, sift the flour and salt. Add in the bubbly yeast mixture and 3/4cup warm water and olive oil. Mix and place the dough on the lightly floured counter. Knead well for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth (no more crumbles). Then spread 1 tsp of olive oil inside a clean bowl. Place the dough in it and turn it upside down to spread olive oil all the surface. Then cover it with a clean, damp towel. Put aside for about an hour at room temperature until the dough rises to double its size.

7. Meanwhile, place lamb mince in a bowl and add chopped mint and a clove of garlic and get your hands in there and squish so all combined. Pop in fridge.

8. Place the dough on the lightly floured counter. Press all over with your hands to get rid of any air bubbles. Cut the dough in 4 pieces with a knife. Knead and give a ball shape to each, cover with a damp towel, and put aside for about 15 minutes.

9. Take out a dough ball and flatten with your floured hands and then use a roller give a long oval shape each one.

10. Gather together red pepper sauce, lamb mince, chopped silver beet, and your cheeses.

11. Put baking paper down on your baking tray and assemble the pides directly there (much easier than trying to transfer, trust me, I ended up with upside down pide first time round!)Spread pepper sauce; crumble raw mince, feta, silver beet and cheese on the each dough. Fold the long sides towards the inside, and then twist the ends to give a boat shape.

12.Place the tray on the middle rack and bake for about 15 minutes. Immediately brush butter or olive oil on the edges. P.S: We had two baking trays going at once. Ensures faster Pides to stomach!

Although the prep time was definitely longer, the reward absolutely outweighs the effort of this sumptuous fresh homemade Turkish pide. Serve with a wedge of lemon and few fresh mint leaves.

Enjoy with an ice-cold Efes (Turkish beer, ask your speciality beer man to sort you out!)

Soundtrack for some Turkish delight: Lambaya Puf De by Baris Marco 

Also special mention to www.turkishcookbook.com/ blog for the dough recipe and inspiration.

Viet Chicken Salad Rice Paper (Rock'n') Rolls

What a magic Saturday it has been... a stunning 30 degree day, 2 birthday parties with gorgeous friends, great catch-ups and new faces.  We consumed far too much chocolate birthday cake /raspberriesbrownies /cupcakes / homemade yo-yo’s..(the list goes on...!). The need for fresh+raw+green was quite apparent in our household tonight as the sugar highs peaked at about 5pm and then came crashing down along with our energy levels by about 6pm. There really is something to be said for a getting a good dose of fresh veg into you to lift your spirits and awaken the senses again. (Those nutritionist do know what they are talking about) Tonight’s fresh, fast and incredibly delicious dinner is a Chicken Viet Salad Rice Paper rolls. Again, I’m combining two different meals I love into one because I want the best of both worlds, and because I can! I’m a big fan of a shredded chicken Vietnamese Salad, with its crunch and lightly pickled raw veg. I also love a freshly rolled rice paper roll of any description, whether its  with prawns, pork, roast duck (now I have your attention!) or chicken... always good. This recipe takes the fresh, lightly pickled flavours of a Viet chicken salad and wraps it up in rice paper, served with a dipping sauce. Trust me, they may look a bit fiddly, but they are so easy, and oh so quick.  Did I mention how ridiculously enjoyable they were? Enjoy with your own variations of fillings or keep as vego.

All prepped and done ready to eat in under 30 min. Makes 10 big rice paper rolls, serves 3 – 4.

Stuff from kitchen you need: 1 small frying pan; 3 medium bowls; 1 large shallow bowl (I used a big salad bowl); chopping board; clean teatowl, kitchen paper; sharp knife. 

From my vegie patch:
1 cup fresh mint chopped
1 cup fresh coriander chopped
1 cucumber

Other ingredients:
500gm cooked chicken breast, shredded
1 large carrot
½ cup rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 medium red onion sliced thinly
2 cups (160gm) savoy cabbage finely shredded
100g roasted peanuts or cashews chopped finely
2 spring onions chopped
1 clove garlic
10 sheets round Vietnamese rice paper (in supermarket or Asian grocer)

Dipping sauce
2 tablespns fish sauce
¼ cup water
2 tblespn castor sugar
2 tblespn line juice
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 teaspoon oil

Let’s do it...

1.       Heat small saucepan and add garlic and shallots, fry lightly for 2 minutes and add cooked shredded chicken, toss in juices and remove from heat and leave in frypan for now.

2.       Meanwhile, with a vegie peeler, peel large strips off the carrot longways and then chop with knife into 10cm matchstick. Put in bowl; add rice wine vinegar, sugar & salt. Stir around and cover for 5 min.

3.       Add onion to carrot, give another stir and re-cover for another 5 min. Once time is up, discard liquid and put bowl aside

4.       Put mint, coriander and cabbage in another bowl and toss.

5.       Bring carrot mix, chicken mix, cabbage mix, cucumber and nuts all to one area. Wet completely a clean teatowel and lay flat on your bench... this is where the magic will happen. (G&T as pictured is optional but recommended!)

6.       Put a cup of boiling water and a cup of cold water in a separate large flat bowl and submerge into water smooth side-down of rice paper to bottom of bowl, this will take about 30 - 45 sec until water is absorbed, you will feel the difference. Now you are ready to rock’n’roll..

7.       Take rice paper out of water carefully, lay flat on tea towel and add a little of all the mixes although double the cabbage quantities to the others. Fold the paper from the bottom up to the middle, Fold up the side and roll over fully to finish off. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it I promise. The first one is always a little dodgy J Repeat process until you have used up all ingredients.

8.       Wet a piece of kitchen towel and place over rolled paper rolls to keep fresh.

9.       Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a jar and give a good shake.

Serve your rice paper rolls up immediately and enjoy the fresh raw tangy flavours of wholesome and healthy food.

Soundtrack that’s so aptly titled: Rawville by The Bamboos