Entertaining Special # 2 - An "outdoor" picnic

Last Sunday I was planning an outdoor picnic, but what was a balmy Saturday turned into a bleak and cold Sunday. So the "outdoor" picnic soon turned into an indoor one! But of course that wasn't going to stop me making a delicious spread at home. So here is a feast that you could use for an outdoor picnic or even as a beautiful Sunday lunch!

Any picnic needs items to peck at as well as more substantive foods.  So I have used a mix of items. For smaller items you can't go past a mix of:

• Brie Cheese (or your favourite cheese!)
• Olives
• Semi sun dried tomato
• Dips (my new favourite is Ajvar which is a delicious relish originating from Serbia, it is made from a mix of red capsicums, garlic and chili. You should be able to buy this from you local delicatessen)

For my more substantive items I have made olive focaccia , fennel and pork sausage rolls and carrot cake. So let's get into these recipes!

Olive Focaccia

Ingredients

• Large pinch of caster sugar
• 500ml lukewarm water
• 9g dried yeast
• 50ml olive oil
• 730g plain flour
• 3 teaspoons salt
• seas salt

Method

1. Combine the sugar and 250ml of the lukewarm water. Sprinkle the yeast until foamy. This should take up to 6 minutes.2. Add the remaining lukewarm water and olive oil. Add in one third of the flour and all of the salt. Stir until smooth. I like to use the electric kenwood but you can also do this by hand.3. Gradually add the remainder of the flour until the dough becomes soft. 4. Knead for 7-8 minutes until smooth and elastic. 5. Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Put a plastic wrap on top. Set aside in a warm place for about an hour or until it doubles in size.6. Grease a baking dish and press the dough into the dish. Use your fingertips to make a dimples over the surface. 7. Place olives on top. Drizzle olive oil and sea salt on top.8. Bake for 25-30 mins or until golden. Add semi sun dried tomatoes on top if desired

Before

After

Pork and fennel sausage rolls

Ingredients

• 1 tsp fennel seeds + extra to serve
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 80g pancetta, chopped
• 450g pork mince
• 1/2 soft white breadcrumbs (from day old bread)
• 1/3 cup chipped flat leaf parsley
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 4 sheets of puff pastry
• sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method:

1. Toast spices in a dry frypan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Pound the spices in a mortar and pestle until finely ground. Set aside. 
2. Return pan to medium heat. Cook onion and pancetta for 5 minutes or until onion softens, stirring. Add spices, then cool.
3. Add onion mixture to a large bowl with pork, crumbs, parsley, zest and half the egg. Season and mix well, then refrigerate until needed.
4. Halve the pastry sheets into half.  Shape pork into a long length and roll up to enclose. 

5. Turn rolls seamside down, brush with egg and sprinkle with fennel and sesame seeds.

6. Cut on an angle into 5cm pieces then place on tray.

7.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and cooked.

Carrot Cake (with a twist!)

The spices combined with rosewater turn a normal carrot cake from something ordinary to truly extraordinary. 

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp rose water
• 250ml canola oil
• 300g caster sugar
• 400g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 3 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 tsp cinnamon ground
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg ground
• 400g carrots, peeled and finely grated

Icing

• 200g soft unsalted butter
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 tsp rosewater
• 300g icing sugar
• Rind and juice of 1 lemon
• Edible flowers to serve 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Grease a baking tray well.

2. Using an electric beater, beat the eggs, rosewater, oil and sugar until thick and smooth.

3. Sift the dry ingredients being the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and all the spices into a bowl.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture. Stir in the grated carrot. Combine well.

5. Pour into the baking tin and bake until golden. Cool completely.

6. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, butter and rose water until smooth and fluffy, Gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon zest. 

7. Decorate with edible flowers.

Entertaining Special - # 1 Italian Inspired

I can't imagine anything better than making some amazing food and having friends over during the cooler winter months! After all it's much easier to rug up at home and get cosy than it is to brave the weather outside.  So in these upcoming weeks I am going to show you some great ideas for entertaining. This first week I have made a spread with an Italian influence. Think rich, decadent flavours of olives, sun dried tomatoes and beautiful cheeses. The below menu serves four. So let's get started!

Entree- Bruschetta with olives and capers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of lack and green olives, chopped
• 1 cup semi sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tablespoons baby capers
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• Fresh ciabatta, cut into slices and toasted

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and top on top of the hot ciabatta bread. 

Main- Prosciutto wrapped chicken with sun dried tomato, baby spinach and ricotta 

Ingredients:

• 100g baby spinach
• 200g fresh ricotta
• 80g semi sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 4 medium sized chicken breast
• 8 slices prosciutto
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Olive oil 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line with baking powder

2. Place spinach into a bowl.  Pour boiling water over the spinach for 30 seconds. Drain the hot water and rinse under cold water. 

3. Squeeze excess moisture from the spinach.

4. Add the fresh rictotta, sun dried tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. 

5. Now we need to butterfly the chicken breast.  To do this cut the breast through the side, ensuring not to cut through the entire breast.

6. Spoon the ricotta mixture into the middle of the chicken breast.

7. Roll the chicken breast.
8. Using two slices of prosciutto wrap the chicken breast firmly.
 

9. Place the four breasts on the prepared tin. Spray lightly with olive oil and season with pepper.

 10. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through.


Side 1- Kent pumpkin with prosciutto and bocconcini


Ingredients:

• 1/4 Kent pumpkin, cut into wedges
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 slices prosciutto, torn
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 50g baby spinach
• 120g bocconcini

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray.

2. Place the kent pumpkin on the baking tray. Drizzle the oil, salt, pepper and brown sugar on the pumpkin.

3. Cook for 30- 35 minutes until or until the pumpkin is soft.

4. Once the pumpkin comes out, dress with the prosciutto,  bocconcini and baby spinach.

5. Drizzle the red wine vinegar.

Side 2- Mashed potato with black truffle oil

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo potatoes, the dirty variety
•  1 1/2 cups light cream
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tablespoons butter
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons black truffle oil

Method:

1. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan covered with water. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Mash.

2. In another saucepan, place the butter and garlic and saute. Add the light cream and warm until the butter has melted into the cream.

3. Add the garlic mixture to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.

4. I find the masher still does not lead to a smooth fine texture. So I like to press the mash through a fine sieve.

5. Stir through the black truffle oil.

Dessert- Chocolate and cherry trifle

Ingredients:

• Chocolate cake (you can make this a day early)
• Cherry flavoured jelly (make this a day early)
• 900g tinned pitted cherries
• 300ml thickened cream 
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 250ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 30g slivered almonds, toasted
• edible flours to serve (optional) 

Method:

1. Scrape the vanilla pods and whip the thickened cream until light and fluffy. Separate 185ml of the cream for the custard. The remaining amount will be used to serve.

2. Now we are going to make the custard. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until thick and pale.

3. Heat the milk in a saucepan with the exterior of the vanilla bean, until almost boiling.  This will help to further infuse the vanilla flavour through the custard.

4. Remove the vanilla bean from the milk.  Then gradually beat the milk into the egg yolk mixture.

5. Return to a clean saucepan and heat until the custard boils and thickens.

6. Remove from the heat and cover with plastic wrap and allow to cool.

7. Fold through the 185ml whipped cream into the custard mixture.

8. Toast the almonds until brown.

9. Now comes the fun part- putting it altogether! Cut your cake into two and put the first slice on the bottom of the dish you will serve. Using a pastry brush, generously brush the juice in the tinned cherries over the cake. Place just under half of the cherries on the cake.  Pour half of the custard mixture. Repeat with the second slice of the cake and custard mixture. Place the jelly on top of the custard.  Put the whipped cream on top. Scatter the almonds, cherries and edible flours to serve.

Mussels cooked in white wine

I have always liked the idea of making mussels at home.  So this weekend my husband and visited the Sydney Fish Markets! After adequately gorging ourselves on some oysters and Balmain Bugs for lunch we decided to take some mussels home to prepare.

Now I have never made mussels at home but we hadn't quite prepared ourselves for the task at hand. Don't get me wrong the mussels cook very quickly indeed.  However preparing them is quite another matter.  So below I go through how to prepare the mussels at home along with a easy and tasty sauce to prepare the mussels in. 

To start with you need to de-beard the mussels.  This involves pulling the filament on the side of the mussels off the shell.  This is best done with a wet towel. Remember to be firm and pull on the filament in a downward motion toward yourself.  There are some great YouTube clips that demonstrate this should you need more assistance.

Once the filament is removed you need to descale the shells. Using a brush, scrub the shells clean.  It will go from this to this: 

All the mussels should be closed at this stage. If any are open tap the mussels lightly.  If it does not close then the mussels are dead and you need to discard these. 

Now let's prepare the sauce.  We have used 1 kg of mussels in this recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 12 small heirloom tomatoes, chopped in half
• 2 tbsp black pepper, freshly ground
• Chili flakes (adding to your heat preference)
• Salt to taste
• 1/3 cup mixed fresh herbs, such as flat-leaf parsley and thyme 

Method: 

1. In a large pot set over medium heat cook the garlic and onions until translucent

2. Add the tomatoes, wine, pepper and salt. Cook until the tomatoes become soft. 

3. Stir in herbs and allow the sauce to thicken slightly.

4. Add the mussels. Cover and increase heat to high. Cook until all mussels are open and then remove from the heat.

5. Serve immediately with bread to mop up all the flavour. 

Sri-Lankan style prawn curry

I went to an Indian restaurant recently and had a lobster curry.  The most amazing aspect of this curry was just how delicious the curry sauce itself was.  It was hard to believe the few pieces of lobster served in the curry could give the curry sauce such depth of flavour.

So I started doing some research and realised to make seafood curry truly infused with seafood flavour then it will require more than just adding the seafood into the curry sauce at the end of the dish.  Bear in mind unlike using meats in a curry like you would beef or chicken, seafood requires minimal cooking otherwise it will become tough.  So then the question becomes how do you infuse a seafood curry sauce with the flavours? Quite simply it requires making a seafood bisque or stock and adding that to the curry sauce. Such a simple solution for something that adds so flavour to the dish!  

Below I demonstrate the process using an adaptation of a recipe from SBS.

Ingredients: 

• 15 green prawns, heads separated from the rest of the prawn 
• 2 sprigs of fresh curry leaves 
• ½ medium onion 
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced 
• 3 cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds 
• 5 cardamom pods 
• 1 cinnamon sticks 
• 2 tbsp ground cumin 
• 4 tbsp ground coriander 
• 1 tbsp chilli powder 
• 1 tbsp turmeric 
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 red chili, sliced  
• 1 piece goraka (or a tablespoon of malt vinegar) 
• 1 pandan leaf, cut in a few pieces 
• 500ml light  coconut milk
• Salt to taste
• Coriander to serve 

Method:

1. Remove the heads from the prawns, reserving the heads. Remove the shells from the bodies leaving the tails intact.  

2. Heat some oil in a saucepan and add the curry leaves, onion, garlic and ginger. Fry until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the spices, chilli, goraka and pandan leaf.
4. Add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer.

5. Meanwhile cover the reserved prawn heads in a saucepan with water and add a few sprigs of parsley. Cook until the water turns a pale yellow and the flavour appears to be infused.  Strain the mixture.

6. Add the stock to the coconut milk mixture and bring to the boil. Then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and add the prawns.

7. Cook until the prawns are opaque.  Add the coriander. 

8. Serve immediately with steamed rice or roti.

Banana Bread

I don't know about you but it's often the case for me where I will have a couple of ripe bananas hanging around in the kitchen.  Instead of throwing these out why not make banana bread? It makes a delicious breakfast fresh out of the oven or toasted slightly the next day served with a slathering of butter. 

Another fantastic aspect of this recipe is how easy it is. Truly, once you give this is a try you will wonder why you ever considered buying it in a cafe.

This recipe is adapted from Taste.com.au.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk (I like to use a low fat option) 
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 50g butter, melted, cooled (you can use margarine for a healthier option)
• 2 ripe medium bananas, mashed

Method:

1.     Preheat oven to 180°C.

2.     Using a spray olive oil spray the inside of a loaf pan

3.     Sift the combined flours and cinnamon into a large bowl.

4.     Stir in the sugar and make a well in the center.

5.     Place the milk, eggs, melted butter and banana in a medium bowl, and stir until well     combined.

6.     Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

7.     Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

8.  Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

9.   Remove from oven and set aside in the pan for 5 minutes.

10. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Everyone need's a local - Indo Rasa

In Kingsford, very close to the University of New South Wales sits a restaurant called Indo Rasa.  It's by no means a new or hidden gem, but I thought for those not familiar with the area it is certainly a good restaurant  to keep in mind when you are looking for cheap yet delicious Indonesian food.

The restaurant is teeming every night with local Indonesians.  You when when locals are eating at a restaurant, the quality is good!

The restaurant is open and large with long wooden tables. The tables each have a traditional hot chili sauce placed and customers are served their water in a mug.  This adds a coziness and homeliness to the restaurant which is a nice touch. 

The menu is rich and diverse in options.  Once ordered the items are given to you with little delay.  Every time we go we get our coconut yellow rice, which is delicious even on its own, rich and soft and topped with fried onion.  We had this with a 1/4 grilled chicken which comes with a spicy paste that is a mixture of chili, onions and garlic. Then there is the eggplant which is grilled and gooey in the middle and slathered with a rich tomato sambal. Finally we had the lamb skewers served with a rich satay sauce. 

Next time you are in the area, or even when you feel like some spicy Indonesian food then keep in mind Indo Rasa.