Relishing Royalty

Finally Summer has hit with a vengeance, and I’m loving it. My social life is crazy right now, as everyone is just happier in the warmer weather and there are so many outdoor things to enjoy in Perth when the sun is shining :), not to mention the silly season is upon us – Christmas parties, lunches, concerts, street festivals – so much is going on right now and I’m really having a ball.

I was recently reading historian Kate Williams‘ book Young Elizabeth : The Making of Our Queen, which mentioned the dish created by royal chefs to be served at the Queen’s coronation lunch in 1953. Aptly titled Coronation Chicken, this dish has become an iconic British chicken salad dish, with many variations.

Basically this is poached chicken, dressed with a mixture of mayonnaise, curry powder and fruit chutney.

You can see both the original recipe and a healthier, modern take by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, here. I made mine above by taking elements from both – I used low-fat mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt for the dressing base, and fruit chutney rather than apricots, but I did poach 2 chicken breasts rather than use leftover cooked chicken. I also topped with shaved parmesan to cut through the sweetness, but actually it was still too sweet for me – too kind of “fruity” in an overpowering kind of way.

I like the concept, and it was easy to make, but I will try it again with just yoghurt and no mayo next time, and chopped dried fruit instead of the very strong fruit chutney.

Happy Summer Fooding!

 

Another Quick Salad

Creating a healthy meal in a hurry does not have to be complicated. This salad incorporated what I had on hand at the time, as well as including beetroot and pear, two things that (according to practitioners of Chinese medicine) are very good for the skin. As I have had rosacea for years, I try anything and everything to give my skin a helping hand.

Steam 1 whole beetroot in the microwave (skin on or off, up to you). Trim roots and cut into wedges.

Place a heap of baby spinach leaves on your plate, and top with beetroot wedges, chopped pieces of ripe pear, chopped avocado, bits of cheese of your choice (I used torn bits of shaved Jarslberg as that’s what I had, but I also like feta or blue, or sauted cubes of yummy haloumi) and a sprinkling of walnuts.

For a dressing, just whisk together some extra-virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar (use balsamic if you can’t find sherry vinegar, which is expensive but lovely for this kind of thing) and a bit of dijon mustard – drizzle over the salad and tuck in!

Happy Summer Fooding!

The Warmth Hath Arriveth

I should have mentioned about the lack of Summer weather earlier, because as soon as I posted about how cold and wet it was, the heat arrived! And I am certainly not complaining now – it’s quite lovely and should remain so now for the next 5 or so months. Hooray!

So……salad time.

After a couple of days of not eating proper meals, in fact not eating much at all I have to say, as well as too much wine consumption (what can I say, my friends are a bad influence….), I was badly in need of something healthy and vibrant. This dish, adapted from a recent Super Food Ideas recipe, fit the detox bill perfectly – light and crunchy, great colours, full of vitamins and goodness, and tasting great too.

Chicken & Broccolini Salad

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 skinless chicken breast fillets (about 500 gms)

2 bunches broccolini, cut into 3cm pieces

⅓ cup pine nuts

¼ cup dukkah (whatever flavour you like – I used Hot Chilli by Gourmet Spice Blends from Mt Tamborine, Queensland)

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

60 gms baby spinach leaves

Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a deep fry pan or wok. Add chicken fillets; brown on both sides then add the soy sauce, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes until cooked all the way through (add a splash of water if it starts to stick). Remove from pan, cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes then slice and put aside.

Steam broccolini pieces in microwave for 2 minutes on HIGH; let stand for a few minutes then drain.

Heat the other tbsp of olive oil in the same frypan or wok; add pine nuts and dukkah and stir frequently for 1-2 minutes until starting to toast and become aromatic. Returned sliced chicken to pan along with all remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and gently heat through until spinach wilts.

Serves 2-3

Happy Summer Fooding!

What To Do When The Trains Are Running Late…. Again

Sometimes in the morning on the way to work I have very good intentions of cooking something amazing, grand, special, gourmet, whatever, that night. Then on my way home I start to flag, physically and mentally, and by the time I get home I’m thinking “order a pizza” or “have a box of BBQ Shapes” (yes that is a weakness of mine) instead! I get up at 5.15 some days and it’s a long day by the time I get home and have to start cooking when all I want to do is pour a glass of wine and vedge out watching a DVD or reading (as if I don’t get enough closeness to books, all day at work lol). It’s also, to be honest, very hard sometimes to get motivated when there’s no one to cook for but yourself – much as I love food and all that goes with it – sometimes the lack of people to share the food with is, well just plain depressing.

So, the other morning I had this pang for mushrooms, spinach and feta – I was thinking of something vaguely burrito-ish but hadn’t quite decided what. I bought mushrooms, baby spinach and yummy Danish feta on the way to work, and some lovely fresh broccoli as well. All I knew for sure was, YES I really want to make something super-extraordinaire!

Hmmmmmm. Got to the station after work. Trains running late due to “point delays” (??????). The longer it took, the more my enthusiasm for cooking dinner just disappeared. By the time I got home, all I could think was omg how quickly can I have a shower and get a glass of wine poured (I can tell you from lots of experience, that going straight to the fridge, pouring the wine and taking it to the bathroom with you, is actually the best plan of attack).

I decided to chuck vegies in a pan and do something super fast and just eat it – it would be healthy at least. I wasn’t planning on making something blog-worthy at this point, but it actually tasted SO good that I just have to tell you what I did. Nothing of the rocket science variety, but the perfect super-fast-can’t-be-bothered-healthy-meal-for-one.

No real quantities here, just a great combination of flavours. I didn’t use the feta, decided on tasty cheese instead, so I kept the feta for a salad instead.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a wok or large pan. Add whole button or cup mushrooms, zucchini (chopped into chunks), and broccoli (cut into very small florets). Saute for 1 minute on medium heat, stirring a lot. Add 1 tsp chilli paste, about 1/3 cup condensed tomato soup (I had this leftover from a can I opened for the beef stroganoff the other day) and a good splash of soy sauce. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, then add some baby spinach and cracked pepper, and saute for a further 1 minute until spinach is wilted.

Drain off the liquid and serve in tortillas with grated taste cheese sprinkled on top.

As I wasn’t planning on this being a perfectly presented and photographed meal, I didn’t take a photo until I’d already eaten two-thirds haha – so the pic above is the leftover bit, sprinkled with cheese and ready for lunch the next day.

Delicious, easy, very quick and stress-free for those pesky train-bothering days.

Happy Fooding!

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!

Food Failures

Boring!

I have had a couple of no-good cooking attempts recently. One was a recipe I pulled out of a magazine, for gnocchi that is cooked and then sautéed with butter beans, lemon zest, lemon juice and peas, then topped with parmesan. I added fresh basil, baby spinach and pine nuts for good measure – all in all a great combination of flavours that should have worked, but sadly did not. The resulting bowl of pasta was a stodgy carb overdose that looked like mashed potato gone wrong, and just left me feeling blurgh (family word). I had to have a glass of wine to help me get through the experience!

My other not-so-great meal was this “melt in your mouth chicken breasts” dish that I mentioned in the steamed carrots post the other day. Upon reading the chicken recipe, you would think surely this can’t go wrong. Well, it didn’t so much go wrong as just not look or taste like anything out of the ordinary. The photo in the original looks like a great crunchy topping – mine did not turn out like that! Nor did it melt in the mouth. The mayo topping just slid off and disappeared into a vague bit of liquid in the baking dish. It was just total “plain Jane” in flavour, and is another recipe to be filed under R for rubbish bin!

Oh well, you can’t win ’em all, and overall I don’t have TOO many failures so can’t really complain. I hate wasting food, so I always eat the bad stuff anyway, reminding myself that it’s healthy….

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!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

I’ve had a bit of a meat-free phase recently – kind of a post-Christmas detox, only not really as I haven’t given up wine haha. I just sometimes feel my body needs more vegies, and I firmly believe in listening to what your body tells you.

I am eating lots of fish and prawns, and am also eating a lot of spices at the moment, no idea why. There are many versions of red and green Thai curries around, so I made up my own prawn dish using the elements I liked from several dishes. The result was quite good, medium hot and not too complicated to make.

The prawns I bought were quite small – I should have bought the giant king prawns and shelled them myself, but I just couldn’t face the messiness of peeling/deveining them myself . You just have to be in the right mood for that, so I cheated and bought smaller prawns, already peeled with the tails left on. Of course they shrink when cooked as well, so ended up quite small. Instead of cooking rice or noodles to go with it, I decided to have Thai fajitas! Prawns wrapped in tortillas with a little yoghurt instead of guacomole – yum!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

2 tbsp olive oil

500 gms prawns, tails left on, peeled/deveined

1 brown onion, cut into wedges

1 small carrot, peeled & thinly sliced

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

2 tbsp red curry paste

400 mls coconut milk (I use low-fat)

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

100 gms baby spinach leaves

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or saucepan; add prawns and toss for 1 minute or until starting to change colour. Set prawns aside.

Heat remaining oil, and saute onion, carrot and ginger for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add red curry paste and stir to coat, for 1 minute.

Add coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Return the prawns to the wok along with the basil and baby spinach, and simmer for 2 more minutes.

Serves 2-4 depending on what other things you have with it.

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!

Pre-Christmas High Jinks!

I’m in Melbourne now, for Christmas with the family, and am more in party mode than cooking mode! Lots of socialising and catching up with people going on this week. I have cooked one meal for my mum and son, my delicious and sooooooo easy Beef Rendang, but apart from that I’ve been eating out or having a sandwich.

I’ve had a lovely lunch at Red Fire Lounge (see pic below of yummy calamari stirfry with hokkien noodles – the calamari was ultra-tender and it was a HUGE serving, no way could I eat it all), and a wonderful brunch in the sun at Barmah Park Winery, complete with champagne at 10.00 in the morning!! It is Christmas, after all, and I’m on holidays. In fact, my friend and I spent 3 hours there yackety-yacking, and the waitress asked if we’d then like to order lunch as well lol. I’ve eaten there before but never ordered from the breakfast menu, and it was divine. Sitting outside on the verandah, looking out at the vineyard – supremely relaxing and fun.

Mum and I have written our grocery shopping list for this weekend, and we’re pretty well organised, so it should be fairly stress-free. We will do most of our cooking and a lot of other preparation on Christmas Eve, so that on Christmas Day it’s all just a matter of throwing a few easy things together and slicing things up. Chilled out and relaxed, is the aim.

The Christmas ham is all ready to be hacked into, and I’m sure that will happen in the next day or so – after all, it’s so huge there will be more than enough for Christmas Day (along with roast turkey, rolled/stuffed pork and a myriad of vegies and salads….not to mention nibbles and dips beforehand and LOTS of desserts later on….let’s face it, it’s just one big food-fest ALL day!!).

So…whilst I might not be doing too much actual cooking this week, I’m certainly doing some fabulous eating!

Happy Christmas Fooding!