Recipe - Mushroom and Barley Soup

Ingredients

Serves 4

·       200g pearl barley

·       40g butter

·       200g onion, diced

·       10g garlic

·       10g rosemary

·       3g fresh thyme

·       20g dried porcini (soaked overnight in 500ml hot water)

·       20g salt

·       1g pepper

·       100g shitake mushrooms

·       200g swiss brown mushrooms

·       200g field mushrooms

·       80g sherry

·       850ml chicken or vegetable stock

·       Chopped parsley to serve

NOTE: This can of course be made with all one kind of mushroom to equal 500g

Method

1.       Cook barley in 1½ litres of water for an hour and strain.

2.       Melt butter and fry onion until translucent. Add garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and cook together.

3.       Strain porcini and chop, reserving liquid. Add chopped porcini, precooked barley, stock, reserved porcini liquid and sherry to the onion mixture.

4.       Chop the shitake, swiss bown and field mushrooms and saute in extra virgin olive oil, seasoning with salt and add to the barley and stock. Cook for approx 10 minutes and season with black pepper.

5.       Serve topped with chopped parsley.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s2251277.htm 

Recipe - Marbled Chocolate Crumble Cake

Ingredients

  

For the crumble topping

• 125 g plain flour, sifted
• 75 g caster sugar
• 75 g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
• 75 g dark or milk chocolate, in chips or roughly chopped into pieces

For the cake

• 225 g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 225 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 50 ml milk
• 25 g cocoa powder
• icing sugar, for dusting 

Method

1. For the crumble topping: Using your fingertips, rub together the flour, sugar and butter in a large bowl until it resembles thick breadcrumbs, then mix in the chocolate pieces. Set aside in the fridge while you make the sponge.

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/gas 4. Butter the sides and the base of a 23cm cake tin - if you’re using a springform tin, make sure the base is upside down so there’s no lip and the cake can slide off easily when cooked.
2. Cream the butter until soft in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Whisk the eggs and vanilla extract together in a small bowl for a few seconds or just until combined, then gradually add the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, beating all the time.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in carefully, then add the milk and mix gently to combine. Tip half the cake mixture into another large bowl, then sift the cocoa powder into this bowl and fold it in.
4. Place the two different cake mixtures in the prepared tin by alternating heaped tablespoons of the vanilla batter with the chocolate one. Using a skewer or the handle of a spoon, gently draw swirls through the cake mixture to create the marble effect - try not to overmix or you won’t get that wonderful marbled effect. 
5. Scatter the crumble mixture evenly over the top of the cake mixture and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the crumble is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then loosen around the edges using a small, sharp knife and remove the sides of the tin. Place the cake (sitting on the base of the tin) on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
7. Use a palette knife or metal fish slice to loosen the bottom of the cake from the base of the tin, then slide the palette knife or fish slice under the cake and carefully ease it onto a plate. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Source

 

Recipe - Chicken and Kale Casserole (Own Creation)

Ingredients:

·       40 g butter

·       Coarse salt and ground pepper

·       2 tablespoons unsalted butter

·       1 onion, diced

·       3 garlic cloves, minced

·       1 bunch kale, chopped

·       1 Suede, diced

·       1 Leek diced

·       1 celery stick, diced

·       Chicken (breast, thigh or tenderloins), in large chunks

·       3 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste

·       Slivered Almonds

·       3/4 cup Parmesan, grated (2 1/4 ounces)

·       Cannellini beans

·       I cup chicken stock 

Method

1.         Heat a large saucepan over med-high heat, add a little oil and butter

2.         Brown chicken then set aside

3.         add in this order, leaving about 2 minutes in-between each:

ü  Onion

ü  Garlic

ü  Leek

ü  Celery

ü  Suede

ü  Cannellini beans

ü  Almonds

ü  Chicken stock

4.       Season to taste

5.       Add chicken back in, and the Kale then cover with a lid

6.       Reduce to low heat

7.       When kale is wilted and chicken is cooked through, stir rough lemon juice

8.       To serve, sprinkle with Parmesan

Recipe - Chunky Fish & Vegetable Stew

Chunky Fish & Vegetable Stew (Could also be used as a Pie Filling, or a Pasta Sauce by Chopping the Veggies extremely fine)
Serves 4

You'll need

·       350 g fish fillets (firm fish that doesn’t disintegrate easily), chopped into medium chunks

·       350 g salmon fillets, chopped into medium chunks

·       400 g smoked fish (such as haddock), chopped into medium chunks

·       1 onion, finely diced

·       1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

·       2 celery sticks, finely diced

·       200g cabbage, finely diced

·       3 sml tomatoes, finely diced
Small bunch spinach, finely diced

·       40 g butter

·       60 g plain flour

·       Handful of Coriander and stems very finely chopped

·       1 cup fish stock

·       100g fetta, diced

Method

1.       Melt butter then add, allowing two minutes before adding the next ingredient:

o   Onion

o   Celery

o   Carrot

o   Cabbage

o   Tomatoes

o   Spinach

o   Coriander

2.       Add the fish

3.       Sprinkle flour over and mix well

4.       After 3 minutes pout over the stock

5.       When fish is just cooked, stir through the feta