Smokin’ Risotto

Here is the recipe for the risotto I mentioned, that I made the IKEA bread to go with. It is adapted from a recipe in Woman’s Day magazine, that I came across whilst flicking through mags at the hairdresser recently. I still had the Huon hot smoked salmon from Tasmania that I won on Valentine’s Day, so the recipe caught my eye.

If you haven’t got access to hot smoked salmon, just poach/steam some fresh salmon fillets in the microwave instead, and flake them into the rice mixture.

This risotto is amazing! I mean it. Complete and utter melt-in-your-mouth perfection that just comes together in a moment of pure food delight.

Salmon & Pea Risotto

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 small red chillies, finely chopped

2 cups arborio rice

½ cup white wine

5 cups chicken stock

¾ cup frozen peas, thawed

¾ cup fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed

3 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

1 lemon – zest and juice of

250 gms hot smoked salmon fillet (or equivalent cooked fresh salmon fillet, skinless)

cracked pepper, to taste

optional – shaved fresh parmesan cheese

In a large, deep pan (a wok is good), heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and chillies and saute, stirring, for 2 minutes until softened.

Add rice, stirring to coat, and saute for 1 minute.

Add the wine and then the chicken stock, gradually, stirring constantly as the liquid absorbs into the rice. When all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked (15-20 minutes), add remaining ingredients and fold through until gently heated.

Top with a sprinkling of shaved parmesan if desired, and serve with fresh bread.

Serves 4-6 depending on what you have with it – it is quite filling.

Happy Fooding!

A Valentine’s Win!

My goodness, life has been crazy since Christmas…..which is why you haven’t heard from me for over a month! As well as socialising and work, I sold an apartment in Adelaide and have bought an apartment here in Perth. I’ve moved temporarily last weekend, as my rental lease was expiring, and I move again in 3 weeks’ time, to the new apartment. Life is full of good things, but with packing, paperwork, moving etc I have actually not done a huge amount of cooking, with very little experimenting of anything new. Most of my kitchen stuff and appliances are currently in boxes, so I am making do with basics. There has been a lot of takeaway pizza and Indian food in my life recently!

I am really looking forward to moving in to a new place, hopefully for a longer time than I’ve lived in any one place in the last 11 years, and unpacking ALL of my gorgeous dinnerware, baking dishes, gadgets etc – a lot of which has actually stayed in the box during the last 2 years and not seen the light of day. My partner and I are hanging out to do some real entertaining, once we’ve moved in, unpacked and worked out what new pieces of furniture will suit the apartment. It is also conveniently located close to the Swan River, and 5 minutes walk from our favourite pub!

Anyway, I did have some Valentine’s Day excitement on Friday. About 2 weeks ago, I entered one of those Facebook competitions where you have to like the page and make a comment. The comment question was, describe your favourite picnic spot. The prize was a salmon picnic “hamper” from Huon Aquaculture, a premium salmon company in beautiful Tasmania.

I described my favourite picnic place as Mt Franklin in Victoria – it is a beautiful, serene spot in the middle of an extinct volcano bowl. Haven’t been there for a few years as I live on the opposite side of the country these days, but it will always be somewhere I love going back to.

Imagine my surprise last Wednesday when I saw on fb that I had WON! Not only that, but as it was a Valentine’s Day prize, the intention was that I receive the hamper by the 14th – no mean feat considering the mail between the East and West coast of Australia is generally not know to be super fast. The team at Huon, however pulled it off, and on Friday afternoon I was delighted to have a parcel delivered to the door:

Inside was two packets of smoked salmon, salmon pate, a packet of crackers, some gourmet chocolates, a bottle of Tasmanian Home Hill bubbly, and a picnic rug. All my favourite things and all for ME!

My day had started with roses and chocolates in bed, and I was also taken out for a surprise Valentine’s dinner at The Naked Fig, where we enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal and of course some champers.

All in all, a pretty special day with me being totally spoilt from start to finish. And I still have my yummy picnic goodies to enjoy 🙂

Happy Fooding!

Sunday at Sittella

On the weekend I went with a small group of other winos to Sittella Winery in the Swan Valley. The weather was pretty awful – cold and windy with the occasional sprinkling of rain – but that didn’t stop us.

Following a few wine tastings in the cellar door (I particularly liked their Sparkling Chenin and a divine wooded Chardonnay), we moved into the restaurant itself, and spent a leisurely 2.5 hours sitting on the enclosed verandah (outdoor heaters on thankfully), with delicious food and a bit more wine.

I say delicious because it absolutely was. Three of us chose the Winemaker’s Taste Plate, which is supposedly designed to share as a starter – but we each wanted one as a main dish so why not! It contained lots of tiny portions but of a variety of things, and in the end was quite filling. I didn’t eat the chorizo/salami parts as I am still not really eating meat, although there was a tiny bit of chicken liver pate and some terrine thing – only 2 bites so hard to tell exactly what it was, but I think probably chicken again. A highlight was the wasabi-dressed smoked salmon, and the port-soaked figs, both unbelievably good. As well as the bread that came with it, we shared a serving of warm breads as well and this was sooooooo warm and soft, it really was melt-in-your-mouth bread at its best.

Top notch food (at top notch prices however……no bargains here), great service, and a lovely view over the Winter-coloured vines. A lovely way to waste a few lazy hours on a Sunday.

Happy Fooding!

Salmon Bake

Can’t remember where I got this recipe from – online somewhere I think – but I originally made it as a “non red meat” addition to a dinner party table, years ago – where I had a pescetarian who needed something in an otherwise mainly beef related dinner. It was a big hit with everyone, however, and so has been on my regular menu ever since.

Although salmon is my favourite food, the tinned kind is not something I am super keen on – I could not eat it just on its own, but this dish is one of the rare “tinned” dishes that I really love. It is great as a main dish, comfort-food-style, just to dig in with a spoon in front of a movie on a cold Winter’s evening. It is equally good at a party or pot-luck-supper, as part of an array of various dishes. Enjoy…..

Salmon Bake

30 gms butter

1 onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

1 1/4 cups milk

cracked pepper, to taste

210 gm can red salmon, drained

125 gm can corn kernels, drained (or cut the kernels from one small corn cob)

1 cup frozen green peas

1 cup tasty cheese, grated

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 180∞C.  Melt butter in saucepan on medium heat;  cook onion and celery for 3 mins, stirring, until onion is soft.

Add flour and cook for 1 min, stirring, then add milk and pepper and cook, stirring constantly, for 3-4 mins until mixture boils and thickens.

Remove from heat and add salmon, corn, peas and half of the cheese. Mix well and pour mixture into a 2 litre ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with combined breadcrumbs and remaining cheese.

Bake for 20 mins until golden.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Something Fishy….Or Not So Fishy.

Since returning from my amazing 🙂 UK trip I have really not done much cooking – I think I’m trying to stay in holiday mode as long as possible, and frankly sometimes it is difficult to get motivated to make stuff when there is no one to share the meals with – it’s just not the same on your own. I do, however need to eat, and you can only make do with sandwiches, couscous and home-delivered gourmet Crust pizza (mmmmm….) for so long!

I made this very easy and healthy “baked fish pie” last night, from the May issue of Recipes+ magazine. I halved the quantity, but have listed the full amounts (feeding 4) below.

I like the concept of this recipe – kid-friendly, quick and easy, economical, healthy etc – but I did find the fish itself too bland. When a recipe says “firm white fish fillets”, well you can use anything can’t you, but I do find that I just prefer salmon or tuna all the time, and apart from flake (shark) from Victorian waters, nothing much else cuts it in the fish flavour department. I will make this dish again, but use salmon for better flavour, and also I think some sort of cheese on the top of the mashed potato would finish it off nicely.

So, I like to think of this recipe as a basis to go on with, experimenting with adding other things. The celery was a great inclusion for a start, but there is scope for further improvement….and I also think you could use tofu instead of fish, if you wanted a vegetarian version.

Baked Fish Pie

1 kg potatoes, peeled, cut into 3cm pieces

1/3 cup milk

1 cup frozen peas

cracked pepper, to taste

550 gm jar tomato pasta sauce (any flavour)

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or basil

800 gm (=4) fish fillets, cut into 2 cm pieces (I used ling, but will try salmon next time – or prawns would be good!)

Preheat oven to 200C (180C fan forced).

Place potato in large saucepan; cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain; return to plan and add milk and peas. Mash until combined. Season with pepper.

While the potato is cooking spray a 2 litre (8 cup) ovenproof dish with extra-virgin-olive-oil spray. Spoon pasta sauce over base of dish, then sprinkle over celery & herbs. Arrange fish pieces over the top and bake for 10 minutes.

Spoon potato mixture over the fish (add some cheese now ??). Bake for a further 15 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

Jumpin’ Jezebel(le)….

I had a spur of the moment brunch yesterday, whilst wandering the antique/coffee strip at the historic town of Guildford. It is only 15 minutes drive from me, but I went there by train, as it is their monthly craft market day and I expected parking to be an issue. I have never been to this market before, and was expecting big things….only to be pretty disappointed. It was just one room (the old town hall) with about a dozen stalls selling value-priced but not very exciting stuff. I could easily have found a parking space as well, but it was still nice to just wander up and down browsing – there are several antique/curio/collectibles shops and an excellent secondhand book shop – always worth a delve into.

As usual I had a book with me, so I decided to stop and have an early lunch at Jezebelle, a fairly new tapas bar/cafe. It was too early for tapas so I had brekky instead, which was absolutely delicious. I had the “hot smoked salmon cake, poached eggs & avocado”. There were 2 eggs, perfectly poached, except a bit cold by the time I finished mucking about taking photos haha, but that was my own fault and I am quite happy with cold food anyway. The salmon cakes (x2) were baked rather than fried, so not greasy and kind of like a mini hashbrown/frittata thing. The dish didn’t come with bread apparently so I asked for some rye toast with it, and this came with a tomato/onion salsa on top that was quite spicy and blended perfectly with the other flavours.

I had English Breakfast tea (it was the silk bags from Tea Drop, who seem to have a completely monopoly on coffee shop/restaurant supplying here in WA these days – it is nice tea, but I would prefer it a little stronger – I don’t think they put enough tea in the bags) and a glass of house sparkling. After all, it says on the menu that champagne is okay to drink any time, as it is always 12.00pm somewhere. I took them at their word.

The decor here is very modern – posh toilets! – and the service was good. The staff were all “young and hip” and very friendly. There was a family group arriving at the same time as me, and they were the customers from hell – they asked to be moved to a different table 3 times (just to be painful, as there was nothing wrong with any of the seating/view/light/temperature arrangements and you could choose to sit outside or inside) – I could see the poor staff doing their best to please them and no doubt wishing they would just go away! Thankfully, this lot only had coffees and didn’t stay all that long, as they were loud and had snivelling whiny kids with them, right behind me. When you are alone with a good book and have ‘been there, done that’ you don’t want rude, noisy kids mucking up your quiet Sunday morning! That’s my ‘old person rant’ over with anyway lol.

Prices were comparable to elsewhere in Perth: $16 for my main dish which is pretty good considering there was no charge for the toast (not sure if that was a mistake or not) and $4.50 for the tea. The only thing I realised when I got home and checked the bill, was that they actually charged me $18 for a premium glass of champers, when I asked for the house sparkling which should have cost $9.00. The reason I didn’t notice at the time, was that 1) I thought they were charging me extra for my toast, and 2) I had a 25% off discount by using the Entertainment card, so in my head I thought the total was about right, at the time. Hmmm, well my fault for not checking the bill properly at the time I suppose.

Had I been there a bit later in the day, there is live music from 1-3pm on Sundays, which would have been very nice alongside a few tapas dishes.

Happy Brunching!

Salmon, Spinach & Haloumi

Layered & ready to cook

I was sitting in the hairdresser, flicking through AWFUL weekly women’s magazines, catching up on the celebrity gossip (as you do), when a recipe for a layered vegetarian “stack” gave me a pang for haloumi. OMG I just love squeaky cheese! As soon as I got out of there I went racing (well, walking actually) to my local Coles and thought hmmm what will I do with some haloumi tonight.

I ended up buy a salmon fillet (I’m sure that does not surprise you), a jar of tomato pesto, a bag of baby spinach and the block of haloumi.

So what did I do with these ingredients?

I was also making a slice to take to work for morning tea the next day, so I whipped that up and thought well I’ll use the oven while it’s on, one thing after the other, so I placed the salmon on a baking dish, with a little extra-virgin olive oil spray underneath to stop the fish sticking to the pan. I then layered a heap of baby spinach (knowing how much it shrivels when cooked), a few bits of lemon zest, then about 60 gms of chopped haloumi and a few small dollops of the pesto. Some cracked pepper and a drizzle of lemon juice, and it went into the oven at 180C for 20 minutes.

Ready to eat

The result was good – nice combination of flavours – except that I served it on a pile of rice stick noodles, which I adore, but in this instance they became too slippery and every forkful I put together just slipped off! It was a bit frustrating. Plus I couldn’t eat it all so there is half a fish piece in the fridge to have for lunch this week. I should cook smaller portions, but cooking for one person is not my idea of fun – I like to cook to share, as food is such a wonderful part of life.

Happy Fooding!

Super Duper Salmon Pad Thai

I know, I know….there’s been a definite emphasis on Thai style curry flavours in my cooking, since Christmas. I have no idea why!  Perhaps it’s the hot weather and the fact that Thai dishes are a lot lighter and fresher than the stodginess of say an Indian curry (much as I LOVE Indian curries!) or a casserole.

Whatever the reason, this recipe from the Tassal Tasmanian salmon producer’s website, is amazing! I adore Pad Thai, but the only one I’ve ever tried to make, a few years ago, was a vegetarian one and was majorly complicated. When I saw this salmon version I thought it looked too easy to be great tasting – not so. Easy yes (I made it after a day at work when tired, so that shows how uncomplicated it is), tasty yes yes yes!

I followed the recipe exactly, except I garnished with cashews instead of peanuts, as I just like them a lot better. And I was starting to make it when I realised I had completely overlooked the red capsicum when I wrote out my shopping list, and had none in the fridge – so just had to leave that out.

If you can please imagine flecks of red here and there, when looking at the photo, then you will have it about right….

I made the full serving, so as it definitely does make enough for 4 as stated in the recipe, I had it for lunch at work for the next couple of days – I could have reheated it, but I just ate it cold as a kind of noodle salad and it was delicious.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Party Nibbles 1

I made a batch of mountain bread rollups on Christmas Day – these little savoury bites always go down well and you can put whatever fillings in you like. In this case I made some with smoked salmon, some with asparagus, and some with both.

These are quite suitable for making the day before and then just slicing up when you are ready to serve – always a plus at party time.

There aren’t really proper quantities here – just make as many as you like. I usually keep going ’til I’ve run out of cream cheese.

Rollups

lavash/mountain bread (you could also use thin tortillas, but you get a fair bit of wastage by the time you trim them into a rectangle/square shape)

cream cheese (I use low-fat)

smoked salmon

fresh asparagus spears (I prefer to use them raw, for a bit of crunch, but if you prefer you can blanch them in the microwave for 1 minute per bunch)

cracked pepper, to taste

Spread each sheet of bread thickly with cream cheese. Lay fillings on the lower half, topped with cracked pepper and then carefully roll the bread up as tightly as you can.

Wrap the “log” in cling wrap and refrigerate for a few hours (or overnight). Thinly slice and arrange on a plate to serve.

Other filling ideas: grated carrot, thin slices of ham or turkey, shredded lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, canned tuna, cucumber (skip things like avocado, tomato etc as they will just go soggy or discoloured by the time you slice them up).

Happy Summer Fooding!

Bacon Wrapped Salmon

Ready for the oven

From a cod recipe in Jamie’s Food Revolution I was recently inspired to wrap my salmon in bacon. I brushed the fish with extra-virgin olive oil, then sprinkled it with truffle salt, chopped fresh rosemary and cracked pepper, and baked for 20 minutes.

The outcome was alright –  a bit too salty though, as bacon + truffle salt is overpowering, so I couldn’t actually taste any rosemary. I like the concept though, of wrapping the fish and using whatever herbs and flavourings you like. Worth playing with anyway.

The garnish is a sprinkling of finely chopped nori – I love this stuff! So good for you, and it gives an oriental touch to fish, chicken, rice etc.

Garnished with shredded nori

I’m baking gingerbread today – should be fun. Don’t forget the cookie cutter giveaway!

Happy Fooding!