Author Archives: Linda Peek

Weetbix Date Loaf

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Many Australians grew up eating Weetbix for breakfast and some are still fans. Not Weet-a-Bix, sold in England, but the Aussie equivalent by Sanitarium, called Weetbix.

In the post-War generation of my mother-in-law, when nothing was thrown away, women invented recipes to use up the broken Weetbix at the bottom of the packet.

This is an adaptation of a typical Date Loaf, with the addition of some crushed Weetbix. It’s quickly made, nice and moist and keeps for several days in a tin. If you don’t have Weetbix, use any crushed breakfast cereal such as raisin bran, All Bran or even cornflakes.

What I like about this recipe is that you just throw all the ingredients into a saucepan, so there’s minimal washing up and mixing involved. By the time the oven has heated, the loaf is ready to go in. It’s also a very flexible recipe so if you don’t have dates you can add any dried fruit or nuts you have available. To make this dairy free use olive oil instead of butter.

80g butter
1 cup (250ml) water
1 cup pitted dates chopped (or raisins, or mixed fruit, or fruit & nuts)
¾ cup sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 crushed Weetbix – about 2 cups
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan and line with baking paper. I just line the bottom of mine, but you can line the sides as well if preferred. Just a standard size, whatever you have.

Place butter, water, dates and sugar in a medium to large saucepan. Turn on the heat and when the butter has melted turn it off. Add the bicarbonate of soda, Weetbix, vanilla and sifted flour and lastly mix in the egg. Scrape into the loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes then run a knife around the sides if you haven’t lined them with paper, tip out and remove paper. Serve as it is or buttered. Store in a container with a lid.

Makes 1 loaf

Lamb with Fennel and Salsa Verde

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This delicious and quick recipe is adapted from one which appeared in a recent Australian Gourmet Traveller.

My supermarket didn’t have any lamb backstraps or fillets last week, so I bought boneless leg steaks. I didn’t have any pistachio nuts, so I used pine nuts instead. If you don’t have any preserved lemons, just add more herbs, some grated lemon rind and maybe a few pine nuts to the salsa.

The recipe serves 4 but it’s easily halved.

2 lamb backstraps or fillets (or 4 lamb leg steaks trimmed of any fat)
1 Tbs olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 small to medium bulb of fennel
2 spring onions
1 cup Greek yoghurt
¼ cup pistachio nuts or pine nuts
1 tsp sumac (optional)
Salsa Verde:
¼ cup each firmly packed fresh mint and parsley leaves
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 long green chillies, cut into 3 or 4 pieces
1 Tbs cider or white wine vinegar
½ a preserved lemon, pith and seeds discarded
¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (approximately)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Season the lamb on both sides then cook in a frying pan in the 1 Tbs of oil for 4 minutes each side, over moderate heat, or until cooked to your taste. Leave to rest while you prepare the other ingredients, then slice thinly downwards.

While meat is cooking, thinly slice the fennel with a mandoline, reserving a few fronds to garnish. Thinly slice the spring onions on the diagonal – all the white and a bit of the green part.

Place all ingredients for salsa in food processor except the oil and seasoning. Process, scraping down the sides, until chopped evenly, then add the oil through the chute with the motor running. When you have a thick salsa, season to taste then scrape into a small dish. Lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan over moderate heat.

To serve, divide the yoghurt between 4 serving plates and spread out into a circle. Arrange the fennel and spring onions on top, then the meat. Drizzle with some of the salsa verde, sprinkle a few nuts on top and garnish with a fennel frond. Sprinkle a little sumac (if using) around the edge of the plate.

Serves 4

Salmon Carpaccio with Fennel Salad & Sweet Onions

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We met Sharon and François while we were all living in Kuala Lumpur in the mid-1980s. They have retired to Menton, in the south-east of France and in September we spent a couple of days with them. It’s a beautiful spot on the French Riviera, just a 20-minute drive from Monaco.

They often stroll across the border from Menton to Ventimiglia, the first town on the Italian side of the border, to have coffee, it’s that close. Every Friday there’s an open-air market in Ventimiglia and, as our last day happened to be a Friday, guess where we went. After strolling around the market and buying a few bargains we were ready for lunch. Francois and Sharon had booked a table at their favourite bistro, Geppy’s.

I ordered the Salmon Carpaccio, served with a fennel salad and sweet onions. This is my interpretation. The photo shows a fairly large serving as I made it for lunch rather than as a starter.

About 250-300g gravlax, thinly sliced (bought or home-made)
1 bulb fennel, thinly shaved
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sweet onions:
2 large onions, halved then thinly sliced
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs white balsamic or white wine vinegar
A pinch of salt
2 tsp sugar
To garnish:
Snipped chives and some fennel fronds
Black salt or black sesame seeds
2-3 Tbs mayonnaise mixed with a little wasabi paste, to taste

Make the sweet onions. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add the onions and cook slowly for 20-30 minutes or until soft but pale in colour, stirring often. Add the vinegar, salt and sugar and continue to cook for a further 15 minutes, or until the onions are very tender. Cool.

Arrange salmon decoratively in the centre of two serving plates (four if you are doing starters). Mix the fennel with the oil, lemon juice, honey and seasoning. If preferred, use your favourite salad dressing instead. Arrange the fennel around the salmon and arrange some of the onions in the middle of the salmon. Garnish with black salt or black sesame seeds, a few blobs of mayonnaise mixed with wasabi and some snipped chives and fennel fronds.

Serves 2 for lunch or 4 as a starter

Substitutes: use smoked salmon instead of gravlax

Cedarvale Health & Lifestyle Retreat

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A few days at a health retreat in the Southern Highlands, near Moss Vale, was a lovely birthday present to me from our three kids and their partners. My daughter came with me and the four days went quickly, with daily massage and other treatments, cooking demonstrations and long walks. It was great to have some quality mother-daughter time, while my son-in-law looked after their two girls.

Cedarvale Health and Lifestyle Retreat is set in 150 acres of beautiful temperate rainforest. We formed part of a lively group of ten – the maximum capacity of the retreat – and there was a lot of laughter and fun. The food is vegan and there’s no alcohol or caffeine. Don’t worry, the meals are delicious and plentiful so you certainly don’t go hungry.

I wasn’t expecting to get withdrawal symptoms from caffeine. One cup of coffee a day is the norm for me, but I do drink quite a few cups of black tea, which also contains caffeine. Fortunately the headaches subsided after a couple of days.

If you live in the fast lane, Cedarvale is a great way to destress, detox and maybe shed a couple of kilos. A not-for-profit organisation, prices are reasonable.

Here is one of the dishes we enjoyed there.

Greg’s Lentil Soup

1 Tbs oil
2-3 large onions, finely chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
3 cups red lentils
1 heaped tsp each turmeric, coriander and cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ can coconut cream
Water
Salt to taste
Vegetable stock cube (optional)
2-3 cups frozen peas
2-3 cups frozen, canned or fresh sweetcorn kernels
To serve:
Chopped fresh coriander or fresh spinach leaves

In a large pan cook the onions and garlic in the oil until soft and translucent. Add the ginger, lentils, spices and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes.

Add the coconut cream and enough water to cover. Add the stock cube if using. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the lentils are soft, then add the peas and sweetcorn and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add more water if necessary and check to see if you need more salt.

Serve garnished with fresh coriander or mix in a couple of handfuls of fresh baby spinach or torn up larger leaves just before serving, as I did in the photo.

Serves 8-10

Black Bean Chocolate Brownie

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This is an interesting recipe for deliciously moist and chocolatey brownies which uses a can of black beans instead of flour and eggs.

It’s gluten-free and, if you want to cut down on the sugar, use a sugar-free fake maple syrup, stevia or another artificial sweetener. I used honey. You could leave the chocolate chips out.

1 can black beans, drained
3 Tbs cocoa powder
½ cup nut meal (ground almonds, walnuts or whatever)
1/3 cup olive or coconut oil
½ cup honey or maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder
¾ cup chocolate chips (optional)
Extra: ¼ cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in food processor. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add chocolate chips if using, then scrape into a small square cake pan. Mine was 7 inches or 18cm. You will need to grease and line a metal pan with baking paper. I used a silicone pan which doesn’t need lining.

Sprinkle the extra chocolate chips over the top then bake for 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch in the middle. Cool then cut into squares. If preferred, make the brownies in muffin pans – it will make about 6 big ones.

Nice served as dessert with a blob of cream and some berries.

Makes 9-12 pieces

Substitutes and variations: use rolled oats instead of ground nuts; add some chopped nuts such as walnuts instead of or as well as the chocolate chips. Use 1½ cups cooked mashed sweet potato instead of the black beans.

Date and Nut Loaf

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The recipe for date and nut loaf originated in Scotland. It was brought to Australia by the early immigrants where it became popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Back then home cooking was the only way to get cakes and pastries, especially in rural areas.​

Willow started business in 1887 as a metal working company based in Melbourne. They made canisters for tinned biscuits and tea, but the outbreak of the First World War saw their manufacturing change to making armaments and essential packaging for the war effort.

In the early 1920’s, the Willow brand was established and they began to make baking pans with the Willow logo printed on them. The nut loaf tin shown in the photo – cylindrical with a removable lid on each end – was developed by Willow at that time. Pretty much every housewife in Australia who married between 1920 and 1960 had one, my mother-in-law included. Nowadays they are considered a collectable item and I found one recently in a second-hand shop. It worked, although getting the cake out of the tin was no doubt more difficult than if I had bought one of the newer, non-stick versions you can buy online. If you’re using an old-fashioned one make sure you grease it well with melted butter, including the insides of both lids.

Don’t worry, if you don’t have one of these special tins, just make it in a standard loaf tin.

While you can always eat this as it is, some prefer it spread with butter.

Willow Nut Loaf Tin — Rustic Notions

1 cup water
150g dates, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
3⁄4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
13⁄4 cups self-raising flour
1 egg, beaten
100g walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Bring water to the boil in a small saucepan. Add the dates, butter, sugar and soda and boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. Add the flour, egg and walnuts and mix until combined. Spoon mixture into a well-greased nut loaf tin, standing up with the lid on the bottom. Fill to just under 3⁄4 full because the mixture will rise as it cooks.

Place the greased lid on top and cook in the oven, standing upright, for about 45 minutes. Any leftover mixture can be baked in greased muffin tins. If you don’t have a nut loaf tin you can make this in a loaf tin.

Serve sliced, plain or buttered.

Chicken with New Potatoes, Bacon and Herbs

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This recipe is quick to prepare and good when you only have one chicken breast to feed two people.

2 Tbs olive oil
1 large chicken breast or equivalent in tenderloin pieces
200-300g new potatoes
100g chunky bacon, speck or lardons, cut into small thick pieces
1 red onion, halved, then cut into wedges
3 Tbs fresh oregano or marjoram, roughly chopped
A few fresh herbs to garnish

Cut chicken into chunks about 2.5cm (one inch) square. Scrub potatoes, cut into quarters, then cook in boiling salted water. When cooked drain well.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan and cook bacon and onion, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and potatoes and continue to cook for 5-7 minutes over moderate heat, turning the chicken pieces and the potatoes so they brown evenly. Lastly add the herbs and season to taste. Save a few fresh herbs to garnish.

Serves 2

Lamb with Eggplant and Ginger

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Lamb has become relatively expensive in Australia over the past year or two. A couple of years ago you could buy a leg of lamb for between ten and twenty dollars. You’re now looking at $40 to $50 from a supermarket and more from a butcher’s shop. For many familes lamb has gone from being an everyday staple to a special treat.

This tasty stir-fry recipe can be made using lamb fillets or any lean lamb, cut from the leg or shoulder. Adjust the amount of chilli to suit your taste and serve it with rice to make it go further.

350g boneless lamb cut into thin stir-fry strips
1 tsp cornflour
3 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs rice wine or sherry
2 tsp sugar
2 eggplants, sliced then cut into strips about 1.5cm wide
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Tbs finely chopped or grated fresh ginger
1 Tbs cumin seeds
1-2 small red chillies, finely chopped
2 spring onions finely sliced on the diagonal
Fresh coriander to garnish

Heat the cumin seeds in a small dry frying pan and allow them to lightly toast, being careful not to burn them then put them aside.

Pat the lamb dry then place in a bowl with the cornflour, half the cumin, half the soy sauce, the rice wine or sherry and the sugar. Mix well and put aside for 30 minutes and up to an hour.

Toss the eggplant with the remaining cumin and the salt. Heat half the oil in a wok or large frying pan and cook the eggplant, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, until it’s starting to brown.

Add the ginger, remaining soy sauce and continue to stir fry until the eggplant is dark golden brown. Remove from the wok. Add remaining oil to the wok and when it’s hot add the lamb and stir fry for a minute or so, to make sure it’s not sticking together, then leave it undisturbed for 2 minutes. Stir fry for another 2 minutes or until golden brown all over. Return the eggplant to the pan with the chillies, spring onions and toasted cumin seeds.

Serve with steamed rice, garnished with the coriander.

Serves 3-4

Salmon with Green Mango Salad

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You can’t buy green mangoes in the two local supermarkets I frequent. When I go to a Middle Eastern shop a bit further afield which sells them I always buy a few when they are in season. Green mangoes are a particular variety, smaller and thinner than the sweet ones. If you can’t find green mangoes, buy some very underripe ordinary ones. You don’t want soft mushy flesh, it needs to have a bite to it.

This salad is perfect without the salmon as part of a buffet. If you don’t like things too hot, leave out the chilli or use less.

Tamari is gluten-free, so it’s a good option for celiacs.

Dressing:
3 Tbs fish sauce
¼ cup lime or lemon juice
1 or 2 Tbs brown sugar, honey or maple syrup, to taste
2 tsp Thai sweet chilli sauce
Salad:
¼ cup dry unsweetened coconut flakes
2-3 firm green mangoes
2-3 cups beansprouts
½ cup coarsely chopped coriander
1/3 cup coarsely chopped basil
3-4 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 small red chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
¼ cup peanuts or coarsely chopped cashews
Salmon:
4 salmon pieces
2 Tbs finely chopped or grated fresh ginger
2 Tbs tamari or sweet chilli sauce

Place all ingredients for dressing in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously.

Place coconut in a dry frying pan and stir fry for 2-3 minutes or until light golden. Cool. In the same pan stir fry the nuts until starting to colour ,then cool.

Peel the mangoes, cut the flesh into thin slices, then cut these into long thin julienne strips. I used a vegetable peeler to make the strips you can see in the photo. Place in a large bowl with the beansprouts, fresh herbs (saving a few of each to garnish), spring onions and half the coconut. Add enough dressing to moisten, then tip onto a serving plate. Garnish with the reserved herbs and coconut and sprinkle with the nuts.

Meanwhile, arrange salmon pieces on a shallow baking tray lined with baking paper. Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix ginger with tamari or sweet chilli sauce and spread over the top of each piece of salmon. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cooked to your liking. I like it pink in the middle, but if you like it well done cook for 15 minutes.

Serve the salmon with the salad on the side.

Serves 4

Middle Eastern Crispy Rice

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Do you ever have leftover cooked rice and turn it into your own version of Chinese fried rice with some sliced omelette, spring onions and maybe a few frozen peas?

This recipe is the Middle Eastern equivalent. Delicious on its own as a simple Sunday night supper, or as a side dish.

2 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin
4 Tbs dates or raisins, chopped
3-4 cups cooked and cooled long grain rice
2 Tbs coconut flakes or chips
2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
Salt to taste
2 Tbs fresh chopped coriander
Juice of 2 limes or one lemon

In a large non-stick frying pan, heat 1 Tbs olive oil over medium heat then add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring often, until onion is soft. Add the ginger, turmeric and dates or raisins and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Remove to a bowl.

Add the remaining Tbs of oil to the pan and turn up the heat to medium-high. Mix the cumin into the rice then add to the pan and flatten it all over the base with a spatula. Let it cook for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown. Keep checking till it’s ready. Turn the rice over in sections (as much as you can fit on the spatula) so you get small clusters sticking together. Cook the other side of the rice until golden brown and crispy. Add the date mixture and the coconut flakes and cook for a minute or so, stirring. Mix in half the mint and season to taste with salt. Tip into a warmed serving dish, garnish with the coriander, the remaining mint and drizzle with the lime or lemon juice.

Serves 4

Note: the cooked and cooled rice is best made the day before and refrigerated, so this recipe is perfect for leftover rice.