Strawberries, Cointreau and Cream Cheesecake

Serves 10

This recipe comes from my new cookbook – Legless. This was a gift from my dear friend Jo who knew too well that this book was a perfect match for me J

Ingredients – Base:

-          250g plain biscuits

-          125g butter

Ingredients – Drunken Strawberries:

-          1 punnet strawberries

-          60ml (1/4 cup) cointreau

-          1 teaspoon castor sugar

Ingredients - Filling

-          125ml (1/2 cup) boiling water

-          1 tablespoon gelatine

-          180g sugar

-          I tablespoon lemon juice

-          250g cream cheese

-          300ml (1 ½ cups) cream

-          125 ml (1/2 cup) strawberry liqueur

To Make base:

-          Crush biscuits into vey fine pieces

-          Melt butter and add to crushed biscuits, mix well and press into a spring form cheesecake tin, packaging mixture tightly in to form a crust.

-          Refrigerate to set

To prepare strawberries:

-          Trim tops from strawberries and cut in half

-          Place all strawberries in a bowl

-          Add 60ml (1/4 cup) Cointreau and the castor sugar to the bowl

-          Toss to coat strawberries well

To make filling:

1.       Sprinkle the gelatine over the boiling water, stir until dissolved and leave to cool

2.       Place sugar and melon juice in a blender and mix lightly

3.       Add room temperate cream cheese and continue to blend

4.       Add cooled gelatine mix, strawberry liqueur, drained cointreau from the strawberries and cream and blend until smooth and mixed well

5.       Pour half the mixture onto the biscuit base then top with two-thirds of the strawberries

6.       Add the remaining mixture

7.       Refrigerate to set (allow 3 hours at least)

8.       Keep remaining strawberries in the refrigerator to use as a garnish when you serve the cheesecake.

Leftovers Lasagne

Recently I bought a number of savoury ingredients for a home-made pizzas dinner. I had a lot of chopped vegetables left over so what better way to use them, than in a cheat-version lasagne!

Ingredients:

-   Spanish onion, diced

-   2 cloves garlic, crushed

-   500g chicken mince

-   Up to 600g chopped mixed veg (I used a combination of capsicum, zucchini, mushrooms and pumpkin)

-   Up to 100g baby spinach

-   400g can tomatoes

-   Five Brothers Oven Roasted Onion and Garlic pasta sauce

-   Lasagne sheets

-   Tasty Cheese

-   Parmesan Cheese

Method:

-   Preheat the oven to 180'C.

-   In a saucepan fry the Spanish onion and garlic in a little olive oil till soften

-   Stir in chicken mince till browned

-   Stir in the chopped mixed veg

-   After two minutes add the canned tomatoes and pasta sauce

-    Leave the sauce to gently bubble for 20 minutes

-   Stir in the baby spinach

-   Line a medium sized baking dish with baking paper

-   Layer lasagne sheets along the base

-   Pour in half the vegetable mix

-   Top with another layer at lasagne sheets

-   Pour in the remains of the vegetable mix

-   Sprinkle cheeses over the top

-   Bake for 30 minutes, and then serve.

Review For Michaels Charcuterie - Double Bay

Salads Glorious Salads

What a great line up on salads they have at Michaels Charcuterie in Double Bay. If I worked in Double Bay I would be very happy having a salad from there every day for lunch.

Mum and I went there for a light lunch on the go and both couldn’t resist getting a selection of salads to try. Must make one of these the next time the meal calls for a salad.

1.    Broccoli salad

-       Broccoli

-       Mayo

-       Cashews

-       Cherry tomatoes

2.    Smoked Trout Risoni

-       Smoked Trout

-        Risoni

-       Peas

-       Zucchini?

3.    Pea and Mint

-       Peas

-       Mint

-       Fetta

-       Sundried Tomato

4.    Chickpea and lentil salad

-       Baby Spinach

-       Chick peas

-       Lentils

-       Zucchini

5.    Snow Pea and Sesame Seed Salad

-       Snow Pea

-       Sesame Seeds

-       Mushrooms

-       Capsicum

-       tomato

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

Serving size: Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

·         50g butter

·         1L chicken stock, warmed

·         ½ cup (125ml) white wine

·         ½ Bunch Shallots

·         ½ bunch chives

·         3 cloves garlic

·         400g chopped mixed mushrooms

·         2 Chicken Breasts, cut into thin strips

·         Parmesan

·         Cooking Cream

·         2 cups (400g) Calasparra or Arborio rice

·         Sea salt and pepper

METHOD

1.       Using a lge saucepan, heat butter over a medium heat. Cook shallots until soft, add garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.

2.       Add chicken strips and brown

3.       Increase the heat to medium-high; add rice to pan, stirring continuously until rice is coated in butter. Pour over wine, stirring continuously until absorbed by rice.

4.       Continue adding ladlefuls of stock to the rice.

5.       When only one ladleful of stock remains, add the mushrooms

6.       Mix in last ladle until well combined, add chives, salt & pepper, 1 cup parmesan and ½ cup cooking cream. Cover with the lid and stand 5 minutes before serving.

Spoon into large bowls and top with extra parmesan if desired.

Review For Bombe Alaska - Willoughby

Zucchini Flower 

Spatchcock

This is a great find tucked away in Willoughby. If you’re after modern Australian food at fairly reasonable prices (2 entrees + 2 mains = less than $100) you should be quite satisfied. The menu is full of variety – although in some cases there are entree/main combinations that I don’t think match each other. I had the zucchini flower for my entree then the Spatchcock for the main. The zucchini flower was great and the spatchcock was lovely just a little on the dry side... The sauce with it was nice. It was only us there and a group of four arrived half way through our time there. We became a little forgotten about when the second group arrived so the service, while pleasant, wasn’t the greatest when the waitress had to multi-task. Overall I would recommend it and I think there’s no need to book as they do always seem quiet and I’m really not sure why as it truly is a great find.

NYE Dinner for Peg & JP - Braised Calamari with Pine Nuts and Currents

October 2011 Greek Edition of Gourmet Traveller

Prep time 45 mins, cook 1 hour 25 mins (plus cooking)

Serves 4 as a light meal

Ingredients

-          150g long-grain rice

-          40gm butter, coarsely chopped

-          2 tbsp olive oil

-          1 onion, finely diced

-          2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

-          125ml dry white wine

-          200ml fish stock

-          2 tbsp pine nuts

-          1 tbsp currents

-          30ml lemon juice

-          2 tbsp each coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley, mint and dill, plus extra flat leave parsley to serve

-          8 cleaned calamari tubes (about 800gm)

Tomato and Red Capsicum Sauce

-          50gm butter, coarsely chopped

-          2 red capsicum, sliced into 2cm strips

-          2 garlic cloves fine chopped

-          2 tsp each ground coriander and paprika

-          200ml fish stock

-          150ml white wine

-          800gm canned crushed tomatoes

-          1 fresh bay leaf

-          ¼ cup each coarsely chopped dill and flat-leaf parsley

Pinch of caster sugar.

Method

1.       For the tomato and red capsicum sauce, heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, add capsicum and garlic and stir occasionally until starting to soften. Add spices and stir until fragrant (30 secs), then add stock and wine and bring to the simmer. Add tomato and bay leaf and simmer until thick (20-25 mins). Season to taste and stir through herbs and sugar.

2.       Meanwhile, par cook rice in boiling water (3-5 mins) drain and set aside

3.       Heat butter and olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add onion and garlic and stir occasionally until tender (5-6 minutes). Add wine and stir to combine, and add rice and stock, season to taste and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, add pine nuts and currents cover and simmer until rice is just cooked through (12 – 15 mins). Remove from heat, stir through lemon juice, season to taste and spread on a tray to cool. Stir in herbs, and then fill calamari tubes ¾ full. Secure with a toothpick and refrigerate until required.

4.       Preheat oven to 180 and place calamari in a single layer in a baking dish, cover with sauce and bake until calamari are cooked through (23-30 mins). Season to taste and serve hot scattered with parsley, with crusty bread.

Sent from my iPhone

Recipe - Roast chicken with chorizo and tomato

Ingredients

• 800 gm small potatoes, such as kipfler, scrubbed and quartered
• 1 Spanish onion, cut into thin wedges
• 120 ml extravirgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp each coarsely chopped thyme and oregano, plus extra leaves to serve
• Finely grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
• 1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 4 chicken Marylands, halved through the joint
• 2 chorizo, thickly sliced
• 300 gm cherry tomatoes or small truss tomatoes, cut into clusters
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar, or to taste
• To serve: crisp leaf salad

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Combine potato and onion in a large roasting pan, drizzle with 60ml olive oil, season to taste and place in oven while you prepare the chicken.
2. Pound herbs, rind, garlic and paprika in a mortar and pestle until a paste forms, stir in half the lemon juice and remaining oil. Transfer to a bowl with chicken, stirring to coat well, and stand to marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Heat a large frying pan over mediumhigh heat; add chicken pieces and cook, turning once until browned (2 minutes on each side). Add to roasting pan with chorizo and tomatoes, drizzle with any remaining marinade and return roasting pan to oven.
4. Reduce oven down to 120
5. Meanwhile, return frying pan to medium high heat, deglaze with stock and simmer until slightly reduced (12 minutes). Add remaining lemon juice, season to taste and pour into roasting pan. Cook until potato is tender and chicken is cooked through. Add vinegar to pan, then serve chicken, chorizo and vegetables hot with pan juices, scattered with extra herbs, with a crisp leaf salad.
6. Serves 4

Source:

• http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/recipesearch/fast/2010/9/roastchickenwithchorizoandtomato/ however I have made adjustments

NYE Dinner for Peg & JP - Char-Grilled Vegetable Salad with Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

I did a seafood cooking class at Sydney Fish Markets with my friend Fay and this salad was one of the dishes. We did this on a bbq but my new bbq hasn't been unpacked or set up yet so I used the oven for the capsicum and my health-smart grill for the other vegetables. My grill doesn't change the flavour, i just love the look of the striped char marks that it creates.

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

-          2 baby eggplant, cut into 1cm thick slices

-          2 zucchini, cut into 1cm thick slices

-          1 red capsicum

-          1 banana chilli (sweet chilli)

-          Extra virgin olive oil

-          Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Dressing

-          ½ tablespoon red wine vinegar

-          1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

-          ½ teaspoon castor sugar

-          ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

-          ½ teaspoon salt flakes

Method

1.    Heat BBO.

2.    Brush whole capsicum and banana chilli with oil and place on BBO, turn as needed to blacken all sides.

3.    Meanwhile, make dressing: whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl. Set aside.

4.    Brush eggplant and zucchini with olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

5.    Put eggplant and zucchini onto BBO, turn once after 2 - 3 minutes, when well coloured.

6.    Remove when cooked and place into bowl with dressing.

7.    Remove capsicum and chilli when all sides are blackened and place into a plastic bag until cool enough to handle. Peel and remove seeds and membrane, slice into strips.

8.    Combine with other vegetables, toss to coat well with dressing and serve.

NYE Dinner for Peg & JP - Poached Berries on Panettone

Ingredients

-          1 Panettone

-          3 punnets blueberries

-          2 tbsp honey

-          ¼ cup grand Marnier

-          1 tbsp brandy cognac

-          1 star anise

-          ½ cinnamon quill

-          3 strips orange peel

Method

1.       Put all ingredients (except the Panettone and blueberries) in a saucepan, bring to the boil then turn off and allow sitting for an hour. Then pour over blueberries, cover with glad wrap and refrigerate till needed.

2.       When ready to serve toast the panettone

Pour over blueberries. Serve