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!
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.
Had a yummy lunch on the weekend at the Hyde Park Hotel in North Perth.
This pub is only 5 minutes drive from my house, yet I’ve never been there before in almost 4 years here. I was going to the Perth Mint (having a play-tourist moment!), so looked up the Entertainment Book to see what eating places were nearby, that I had a voucher for. I decided to try something new, and it turned out to be a great decision. The food was truly fabulous, in looks, portion size and taste. These mains were both about $25 each, standard pub prices, but as I had a voucher it was 25% off.
Baked Coriander & Pistachio Nut Crusted Chicken
Service was excellent and staff friendly – and the place was seriously renovated (apparently it used to be a bit of a dive – not so now, it is very upmarket) in 2011 and still looks brand new. It was my first time there, but it won’t be my last!
An added bonus is that there is a very large Dan Murphy’s bottle shop next door, so I made the most of that and stocked up on wine bargains while I was there.
I have had the most delicious baguette I’ve ever had in my life! This was at the Tower of London, in their New Armouries Cafe, which only opened a year or so ago and is much, much more gourmet than the usual fast food rubbish you get at tourist venues – but with very reasonable prices.
I’m having all sorts of trouble pasting links into their usual place on my iPad, and in fact am finding the app very un-user-friendly, but if you search for Tower of London you’ll have no trouble finding the restaurant details.
This baguette was called a Wensleydale Waldorf, and contained: Wensleydale cheese, walnuts, celery, cranberries and apple. All but the cheese, was bound into a spreadable mixture with creme fraiche. It worked brilliantly and I am taking this combination home as something to definitely try for myself. It helped that the baguette was super fresh and soft, as I am having a lot of teeth problems and can’t cope with crunchy, hard bread at the moment!
I’ve done absolutely no cooking whilst here, but I have eaten a lot! In particular I have had some wonderful cheeses – too much really!
I’ve been quiet this week as I am in England at the moment, hence 1) not doing any cooking and 2) I’m busy seeing sights and travelling around. I am, of course, doing my best to eat lots of yummy food, and am doing my usual hunt for new & better Ploughman’s Lunches!
There is something sooooo satisfying about a platter of cheeses, crusty bread, pickled onions, ham and chutney. No two places serve it in the same way, although some are better than others!
I’ve had two so far on this trip. One was at a pub in Covent Garden, part of a franchise, so you can get this particular platter all over the country. Included was ham pork quiche, a pie really, with beautifully crumbly pastry. Everything on this dish was delicious and I certainly couldn’t get through it!
The other one I had was whilst on a day out to Ightham Mote in Kent with a dear friend I was staying with. After a lovely morning wandering around the beautiful gardens and medieval house, we went for lunch at a quiet looking pub at the tiny village of Ivy Hatch, called The Plough Inn. Inside it was ultra modern, not quaint and cosy like we expected, and the service was downright poor as they were very understaffed. The food was lovely though, we both had the Ploughman’s, ate every scrap! The cheeses were so good, and the bread was nutty, fruity and fresh, a perfect accompaniment.
I’m having an amazing time and have loads of gorgeous food photos to make your mouth water. I love food.
I know there are a LOT of versions of this yummy quiche dish. It’s such a great standby recipe to whip up when zucchinis are plentiful – lovely cold or hot, cut into squares as an appetizer or in larger serves as a main course. I’ve made versions with carrot or pumpkin in as well, coriander instead of parsley, and I’ved used polenta instead of flour, for a gluten-free version.
This is my “basic” recipe, which comes from my aunt and is the one I’ve been making since Zucchini Slice became trendy about 20 years ago (or longer – don’t know where all those years went).
Zucchini Slice
2 cups grated zucchini
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 cup SR flour
1/3 cup olive oil
4 eggs
cracked pepper, to taste
3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Spoon into a 20 x 30cm dish lined with baking paper, and level the top. Bake in 200C (190C for fan forced) for 20-25 minutes, until a light golden colour on top and just firm to touch. Cool in the tin and cut into squares.
Really enjoyed watching this 3 part documentary, on my favourite subjects – food, history and England. So interesting to watch (and makes you want to rush off and roast some eggs!).
Last week I was in Melbourne for a few days, visiting my awesome kiddies and parents, and I had several yummy meals, including a family bbq at my mum’s (where I stay when I’m there), scrambled eggs for brekky at Geo’s Cafe (complete with champagne, because it’s always 3pm somewhere!), and lunch with my mum Kaye and good friend Linda, at Kelly’s Motor Club Hotel in Cranbourne.
I’d been to this pub once before, several years ago, and I don’t really remember what the food was like, so it can’t have been too memorable, but the pub itself is an historic icon in Cranbourne and has been owned by the same family (the Kellys, strangely enough!!!) since 1923.
I felt like a salad, so decided to have a Caesar – but there was the option of paying a bit extra for either chicken or salt & pepper calamari with it. I love calamari so thought that would be good, and was expecting really just a ‘garnish’ of a few pieces on top of my salad.
WELL, as you can see from the photo above, there was actually more calamari than salad! It is rare that you get such generous portions (the prices were very good – but then I tend to compare with Perth which is more expensive than Melbourne anyway). There was a substantial amount of salad to begin with (and the poached egg was cooked to perfection and actually still HOT, which is rare by the time it comes out to your table lol), which is not that obvious in the photo, but believe me this was a humungous meal. I couldn’t eat it all and ended up wrapping half of the calamari up in a serviette and taking it home – I had it cold in a bread roll with Greek yoghurt, for lunch the next day (yes, I am strange, but you already know this).
Kaye and Linda both had “Seniors meals”, which are smaller servings, priced accordingly, and include dessert. Kaye had the battered fish & chips, which as you can see is still a reasonable size, and Linda had porterhouse steak with mushroom sauce – and they made a gluten-free sauce for her, as she can’t eat wheat. They also brought out a special serving of gluten-free bread, without being asked for it, which Linda said it was delicious (often GF breads are pretty disgusting!).
Even though the fish and steak were smaller sized options, neither of the ladies could fit in their free dessert, which was a shame as the choice was a massive mixed berry cheesecake or a very large serving of chocolate mousse.
The menu choices were really great, so much choice that in fact it was really hard to decide what to have. Service was great and staff very friendly. We were all very impressed and I will definitely go back there.
Small but delicious, this bread machine recipe is from a new cookbook that crossed my path at work recently, Brilliant Breadmaking in Your Bread Machine, by Catherine Atkinson. The quantities are for a smaller loaf than I usually make, in fact it was less than half the size, but the flavours were really good – the lemon & dill was definitely present, but not overpowering – and the texture was light and fluffy.
I made sandwiches for lunch with some of the slices, but this would make an idea nibbles platter – cut the slices in half so that they are small squares, and top with cream cheese, smoked salmon, capers and a garnish of fresh dill.
To make, just place the ingredients in the bread machine in the following order:
325 mls water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup white bread flour (or plain flour if you can’t get bread flour – if the flour is good quality it shouldn’t make a difference)
3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped finely
grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/4 tsp dried yeast
cracked pepper, to taste
Cook on a basic white loaf setting.
Slices of lemon fluffiness
If you don’t have a bread machine, you should invest in one as they’re awesome!!
This week I went out to the Swan Valley. This is an area only 20 minutes North of where I live, (I’m 5 minutes from the Perth city centre) – very quickly you get out of the suburbs and into “country”, and the Swan Valley is a lovely area for visiting wineries, restaurants, cafes and little side-of-the-road places selling all sorts of gourmet delights – chocolate, honey, coffee, lavender, nougat etc.
I try to get out to this area as often as I can, especially when the weather is great, as there are so many terrific places to sit out in the sunshine having an icy cold beer or glass of champers with friends.
This week I had lunch at The Cheese Barrel, a new restaurant that only opened its doors last September and which I had heard good things about. They are mostly open during the day only, although they do have the occasional theme night ie Spanish cheese/tapas night.
You can choose a ‘regional tasting plate’ for 2, from Australia, France, Spain or Italy, OR you can select individual cheeses and add your own choice of condiments/sides – olives, crackers, figs, fruit bread etc.
We went for the French tasting plate (pictured above), plus we added a Tasmanian cheddar (the tiny wedge you can see in the background!). The cheeses were all brands or types I hadn’t tried before, and were all delicious. The portions were not large, and to be honest I think this was quite an expensive lunch for the serving size. For us it was a comfortable amount for 2 girls for lunch, but someone like my 21 y.o. son (a 6′ tall streak with hollow legs!) could have eaten this platter by himself without a problem and still wanted more!
The wine list was from the adjacent Olive Farm Wines, and I had a glass of the Shimmer sparkling, which was quite young and fruity tasting and went with the cheese very well. The platter came with tasting notes and recommended wines, but I just always reckon champagne is good with everything!
The cheeses are available to buy – which we did! Quite pricey, but good for a special occasion.
I like this place, and I like to support local industry, but considering the value for money I think there are better options around in this area – a nice lunch for something different though.
Salmon & Avocado 