Vegetarian

Start lowering your carbon footprint on ‘Meatless Mondays’ with these dishes.

It is so important to not only help the planet but to also maintain (or reduce) our waistlines by having at least one meat-free meal a week. I have many more than that and I love sharing them here for your inspiration.

Quick and easy mushroom strudel

Posted on April 16, 2011

This is so easy to make, yet so impressive when served to guests sliced steaming hot at the table. May I suggest you add a bit of theatre to your next dinner party with this strudel? Or serve it to your family for dinner and make weeknights special (without too much effort!).

Autumn is the best time to enjoy mushrooms as the damp weather makes them grow like crazy so you’ll no doubt bump into loads of seasonal specimens at your local farmers market.

I used swiss brown and cup mushrooms but feel free to substitute all types of seasonal mushrooms including shiitake, enoki or oyster. Basically whatever you can get your hands on that’s freshest. (more…)

Broccoli, blue cheese + chargrilled pear soup

Posted on April 12, 2011

Remember last week when I received those pears to cook with? This is what I made!

This recipe has now been entered into a competition run by PR company Impact Communications and will be judged by David Bitton. I’m a big fan of his lovely cafe in Alexandria so it’s a bit nerve-wracking, to say the least.

Autumn is the perfect time to get cosy with a steaming bowl of soup. As the weather gets colder it’s nice to indulge in richer ingredients like blue cheese and have a bit of fun by doing something different with seasonal fruit, like chargrilling it.

Or if you have simple tastes, like my five month old daughter Poppy, you simply suck on thick slices of pear that have been chilled in the fridge to soothe your teething gums. You can read more about that here.

For grown ups, chargrilling pear is an interesting flavour and texture sensation, and it offsets the strong blue cheese and slightly bitter broccoli with a welcome sweetness.

Happy cooking! Christie x

Broccoli, blue cheese and chargrilled pear soup recipe
serves 4 as a starter

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium leek, white part only, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
500g broccoli, about 2 medium heads including stems
4 Packham pears
1 litre vegetable stock or water
100ml cream
80g blue vein cheese
salt, ground white pepper, ground black pepper

1. Place a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil, sliced leeks and garlic and saute for 5 minutes until softened, but not coloured.

2. Wash the broccoli and chop into small florets and thinly slice the stems. Add to the pot. Peel and core two of the pears. Roughly chop and add to the pot.

3. Pour in the stock or water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down a bit and gently boil for 20 minutes until the broccoli and pear are very soft.

4. Blitz with a stick blender until very smooth then remove from the heat and crumble in the cheese, pour in the cream and stir until the cheese melts and everything is well combined. Season with salt and white pepper. Keep warm.

5. Heat a chargrill pan over high heat. Chop the remaining two pears into quarters and cut out the core. Thinly slice into 1/2 cm wedges and season both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Grill on both sides for a minute or so until the fruit is tender and has black/brown grill lines.

6. Serve the soup in warmed bowls topped with the chargrilled pear and toast soldiers on the side.

Pomegranate marinated pineapple

Posted on March 29, 2011

Last month I went to Capital Grill Restaurant to taste their pomegranate inspired menu but had to leave before dessert because my beautiful little Poppy was upset at home with her grandparents. Never mind, I have come up with a dessert of my own that features POM Wonderful pomegranate juice as a refreshing marinade.

I also deliberately made this dessert with one of my dedicated readers in mind…the InTolerant Chef. This one’s for you! I even used lactose free vanilla yoghurt.

You might think the InTolerant Chef must be hard pressed at dessert time due to her gluten and lactose intolerances, but no, she whips up lots of delicious baked goods – check out the wasabi macarons she recently made.

For this dessert, there are only four simple ingredients but it is one of those recipes where the individual parts combine together to make a fantastic whole! The pineapple is cold marinated in the pomegranate juice which stains the edges a blushing pink and adds a pleasing tartness. (more…)

Pineapple cake + pineapple drink

Posted on March 16, 2011

I absolutely adore recipes that use ingredients in an innovative way so that nothing gets wasted. Take this pineapple cake for example.

The first step involves poaching fresh pineapple in a vanilla spiked sugar syrup and then adding the pineapple pieces to the cake batter. Most recipes would then tell you to discard the syrup or ‘keep for another use’ which I’m sure most people do not do! But this recipe uses that precious syrup to moisten the cake into a heavenly wet mouthful.

This alone is fantastic but what really got me itching to make this recipe (other than the fact that I had a ripe pineapple begging for it) was this small note that accompanied it: “The pineapple peel can be boiled for 20 minutes or so with some sugar and makes a delightful juice”.

What! What? What! Why have I not thought of, or heard of this before? I weep for all the pineapple skins in my life that have gone straight into the bin. I weep salty tears for them.

Enough crazy talk. Let’s get on with the recipes… (more…)

Devouring figs with ricotta and honey

Posted on March 9, 2011

I’m a little bit obsessed at the moment with the last of the Summer figs, or are they the first of the Autumn figs? I always confuse the two.

The farmers markets have big punnets of them for $5 which yield 6-7 fruit. An absolute bargain.

Regular readers will know of my unashamed love affair with ricotta and the figs pair up beautifully with it. You might remember I did strawberry and ricotta toast a few weeks back and a few years (!) back I did blood orange and ricotta with brazil nuts.

At a pinch, you can ditch the toast, and simply cut a cross in the top of the fig then stuff with a teaspoon of ricotta and drizzle with honey. It’s the perfect size to stuff into your gob for a quick snack.

Sorry to get repetitive with ricotta but I really get into phases with food. It will pass soon, promise.

Coming up I’ve got lots of gorgeous restaurant reviews, so stay tuned.