I began collecting recipes when I was at school. Some of the recipes in my large collection have been in my family for generations, others were passed on by friends and chefs around the world. Many have been adapted over the years to make them lighter or update their presentation. I’ve served them to royalty, PMs and other VIPs and there have been no complaints. I hope you are inspired to make some of them.
You may have noticed that Café Cat has been quiet for the past 3 weeks while I was on a business trip to Chile. This involved catching up with lots of friends – rather too many lunches, dinners and pisco sours – the Chilean national tipple. But life’s too short to avoid occasional periods of over-indulgence!
For some reason jet-lag is always better coming back from Chile to Australia than it is going. Even so, in the first few days after returning from somewhere which is 14 hours behind AEST, I am not at my most creative. So we’ve been eating quick and easy, tried and tested dishes such as this one for Sticky Chilli Chicken. The original recipe came from Donna Hay – I’ve just cut down a bit on the sugar and the soy sauce. It may sound like a lot of chillies, but the end result is not very hot. Any leftovers are nice cold.
1.5kg chicken pieces (I use thighs) Chilli Sauce:
3 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
1 Tbs grated ginger
2 cups water
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup vinegar
½ cup chopped coriander
Place all ingredients for sauce except the coriander in a deep frying pan which has a lid and simmer for 3 minutes. I use an old-fashioned electric frypan. Trim chicken pieces and remove skin if liked. Add chicken to pan, cover and cook for half an hour, turning from time to time. Remove lid and continue to cook for 20-25 minutes, turning chicken from time to time until the sauce has become sticky and the chicken is well coated. Watch carefully towards the end as you don’t want the sauce to completely dry up and burn. Add coriander and serve with steamed rice.
Candied or glacée fruit has been made for centuries as a means of preserving fruit through the winter months. During a recent wander around the Adelaide Central Market I came across some Candied Vanilla Pears, which inspired me to have a go at making my own. They were a rich dark brown colour and delicious. They almost looked as if they were made of chocolate.
After reading through half a dozen recipes online, I found one which uses a slow cooker. This appealed to me as you can go away and leave the fruit to cook for hours without looking at it. It’s a time-consuming activity and you only end up with a few pieces, but having successfully done one batch I think I’ll do some more. The criss-cross pattern you can see in the photo is from the wire rack!
For those who have never been, the Adelaide Central Market is fabulous. Around 80 under cover stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as fish, meat, bread, cheeses and other gourmet delicacies. It’s open every day except Sundays and public holidays. I wish we had something similar in Canberra.
6-8 large pears, only just barely ripe water sugar 1 vanilla pod, split, seeds scraped out 2 very heaped Tbs glucose syrup (about half a 500g jar)
Halve pears lengthwise. No need to peel and you can leave the stem on one half. Use a metal skewer to pierce fruit all over. Place in slow cooker and add enough water to barely cover. Remove pears and measure the water – mine was a litre or four 250ml cups. In a medium saucepan, heat the water with one and a half times the amount of sugar – so for me that was six cups – stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Put pears back in slow cooker with enough syrup to cover, keeping the rest as spare in case you need to top up. Add vanilla pod and seeds, cover, turn the heat setting to high and cook for 6 hours. The recipe said to turn the pot down to low setting, but it also said the liquid should be gently bubbling. In my slow cooker that meant using the high setting. Keep an eye on it and if they seem to be cooking at more than a bare simmer, turn the heat down to low. If you cook the pears too quickly they will break up.
After six hours turn off the heat and leave to cool overnight. Next day turn to high and repeat the process, letting it gently simmer with the lid on for six hours. Next day do the same again, so that’s three times in total. I found I didn’t need to add more liquid but if you do, use the reserved syrup to top up.
Next day add the glucose syrup, turn the slow cooker to high and when it starts to bubble cook for about 3 hours, adding more syrup if pears are not covered.
Remove fruit from syrup while it’s still warm and place on a wire rack to drain. Keep the rich dark brown syrup to serve drizzled over pancakes or waffles. It will keep for months in a sealed bottle.
When fruit has stopped dripping preheat oven to 100ºC. Place the rack over a baking tray and place in the oven for an hour or two. When the surface of the fruit no longer feels very moist to the touch they are ready. Don’t overdo it or the pears will be a bit chewy. Leave the pears as they are for a shiny look, or roll each piece in granulated sugar for a frosted look.
Fruit will keep for several months in a tightly sealed container. Serve with cheese – they go especially well with brie and cheddar and look great on a cheese board.
Makes 12-16 pieces
Note: if preferred, cut pears into quarters instead of halves.
Raw vegetables are full of nutrients and very good for you. But unadorned they look and taste a bit like rabbit food. It’s the dressing that makes all the difference.
I’ve always been a big fan of beetroot. I grew up in the UK where supermarkets and green grocers sold beetroot cooked and ready to use. My mother used to slice it and dress it with dark malt vinegar, a dash of water and a teaspoon of sugar. This was standard fare in England when I was growing up. My Dad loved it but my mother and I preferred to rescue a few slices before she added the vinegar.
When an exchange student came over from France she didn’t realise that the beetroot was not intended to be polished off in one sitting. It was an accompaniment, like a pickle or chutney, which made an appearance several times a week until it was all gone. Martine looked around the table and said “This salad is delicious. If nobody else wants any more I will finish it.” And with that she tipped the remaining half kilo or so onto her plate. I will never forget the look on my Dad’s face.
I no longer make Mum’s beetroot and vinegar mix and I’ve never liked tinned beetroot. Roasting is a better way to bring out the distinct earthy flavour which is the main appeal for me. I often mix beetroot cubes, which have been roasted in olive oil, with rocket, goat’s cheese or feta, some toasted walnuts and a dash of salad dressing to moisten.
This salad uses raw beetroot and fennel and is very moreish. Using the large 5mm grating disc on my Magimix for the beetroot and the thin slicing blade for the fennel and onion, the veggies are ready in no time.
This salad dressing is my standard, basic, everyday dressing. It’s the one I make up in a one litre jar (with 3 times the recipe) and always have in the fridge. I don’t use it for everything, but it’s great to have on hand when you’re in a hurry and certainly much nicer than anything you can buy. If preferred, leave out the honey or use just a tiny amount or a teaspoon of sugar. Don’t crush the garlic because it will soon overpower the dressing – just leave the cloves whole or sliced in two.
3-4 beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated
2 fennel heads, trimmed and very thinly sliced
½ to 1 red onion, very thinly sliced Basic Salad Dressing – see below
1 cup frozen peas (optional)
Mix beetroot, fennel and onion with enough dressing to moisten. Taste to see if it needs a dash more salt. Place peas in a sieve and run under the hot tap to thaw, then sprinkle over the salad. The peas are optional but add a nice colour contrast. Once mixed through, the beetroot with turn them red.
Serves 4-6
Basic Salad Dressing: in an empty screw top jar place 1 cup of vegetable oil (I use Canola), ¼ cup cider vinegar, 1 Tbs Dijon mustard, 1 Tbs honey (or to taste), ½ tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled and halved. Shake well. Keeps in the fridge for at least a month.
This recipe will appeal to fans of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, those American sweets which combine chocolate with peanut butter. However, I do know a few other people who will say “yuck” when they see this post!
Half cream cheese and half ricotta results in a somewhat lighter texture, but you can use all cream cheese if you prefer. The addition of salted peanuts and salty biscuit crumbs in the crust make a nice contrast to the sweetness of the filling.
This dessert is very rich, so serve in small slices.
Base: 1½ cups salty biscuit crumbs, such as Jatz, Ritz or pretzels 1/3 cup melted butter Filling: 1 kg cream cheese (or use half cream cheese and half ricotta) 1 cup sugar ½ tsp salt 1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy) 3 large eggs Topping: 1 cup cream 100g dark chocolate Salted Peanut Brittle: 100g sugar 100g salted peanuts To serve: Thick pouring cream or whipped cream
Have cream cheese at room temperature. Preheat oven to 170ºC. Crush biscuits or pretzels in food processor till they are like breadcrumbs, tip into a bowl with the melted butter and mix well. Line base of a 22-24 cm (8-9″) spring-form pan with baking paper and grease the sides. Tip biscuit crumbs in and press evenly over the base with your hand or the base of a glass. Place in the fridge while you make the filling.
Place cream cheese (or cream cheese and ricotta) in food processor with sugar and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and mix, stopping to scrape down the sides. Scrape filling into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for between 45 mins and an hour or until just set. As soon as it feels set in the middle when you touch with your fingers it’s ready. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
For topping, heat cream in microwave or a saucepan till almost boiling. Add chocolate broken into squares and stir till melted. Leave until starting to thicken, then spread evenly over the cheesecake. When cheesecake is cold refrigerate overnight.
To make brittle, heat sugar in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until dark caramel colour. Don’t stir, but you can lift and swirl the pan from time to time, to ensure sugar melts evenly. Add peanuts, swirl to combine, then tip onto a baking pan lined with baking paper or foil.
Remove cheesecake from fridge 15 mins before serving. Run a knife dipped in boiling water around the sides of the cheesecake to loosen, then remove the sides of the pan. Dip knife into boiling water to cut cheesecake into slices. Wipe and dip each time. Break or cut peanut brittle into shards and use to decorate cheesecake. Some whipped or pouring cream goes well.
Serves 16-20 (small slices)
Note: in South America queso fresco can be substituted for the ricotta. You can use sour cream instead of cream and milk chocolate instead of dark in the topping.
My Thai friend Pom makes these delicious crunchy biscuits. She gave me some as a gift recently, but they were so good I ate them all as I was driving home, so Matthew didn’t get any. I asked her for the recipe and decided to double the quantities because I knew that 16 biscuits wouldn’t last long.
They’re like muesli in a biscuit – healthy, satisfying, good for lunch boxes or to go with a cuppa. An Australian cup measure is 250ml or a quarter of a litre.
4 cups cornflakes
2/3 cup sugar or honey
250g butter at room temp
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup sultanas
2 cups SR flour
½ cup sesame seeds (white or black or a mixture)
½ cup shredded or dessicated coconut
½ cup sunflower or pumpkin kernels
1 cup chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Place cornflakes in food processor and process briefly to break them up a bit, but not much. If you need to chop the chocolate do it now and add it to the cornflakes. Place sugar or honey and butter in food processor and mix until smooth and creamy. Add eggs and mix well, then flour and vanilla. When smooth, scrape into the bowl with the cornflakes, add remaining ingredients and mix well. Line two or three baking trays with baking paper. Form mixture into 3cm balls and arrange on trays with spaces in between. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden – don’t overcook or they will be dry. Cool then store in a tin with a lid.
Makes about 32
Note: the recipe is easy to halve and you can vary the ingredients to suit you taste. Add more coconut and less sultanas, use chopped nuts instead of the kernels, or leave out the chocolate and substitute something else
I recently attended the Fine Food Fair at the Sydney Convention Centre. As I was wandering round I saw a cooking demonstration about to start, grabbed a chair and sat down. The subject of the demo was how to cook cheap cuts of meat quickly, rather than by one of the slow methods we usually use with less tender cuts.
The chef was a Pom like me, so he called the cut of beef he was using skirt. Here in Australia it’s known as flank. He said there were five rules for the successful quick-cooking of flank steak:
use a piece of lean flank steak about 2.5cm thick
marinate for about 30 minutes in a mixture which includes lemon or lime juice
cook over high heat for 3-4 minutes each side, turning once, to achieve medium-rare
rest meat loosely-covered for the same amount of time as you cooked it
slice thinly downwards, across the grain
Samples were passed around and the results were impressive. The meat was tasty and surprisingly tender so I decided try it at home. At the demo they served it in bread rolls which they called Vietnamese Steak Sandwiches. We had ours on top of the salad.
You can use any combination of crunchy vegetables for the salad. I used one carrot instead of two and added one coarsely grated raw beetroot and some finely shredded red cabbage.
The marinade can also be varied with any herbs, spices or sauces that take your fancy.
1 piece of flank steak weighing 600-750g and about 2.5cm thick Marinade:
Juice of ½ lemon or 1 lime 2 Tbs soy sauce or Worcestershire Sauce 2 Tbs fresh grated ginger or 2 cloves garlic, crushed, or both Salt and freshly ground black pepper Salad: 2 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
½ cup fresh coriander leaves 1 cucumber, thinly sliced 2 carrots, coarsely grated Salad Dressing: 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 tsp sugar Pinch chilli powder (optional) 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar 1 Tbs water Salt and pepper to taste
Combine marinade ingredients except salt and pepper, add meat, turn to cover and leave for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. At the demo they marinated it in a sealed plastic bag, but I just used a dish. Mix salad ingredients in a bowl and dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake.
Preheat BBQ or griddle to very hot. Drain steak and pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook steak for 3-4 minutes each side, turning once, until medium-rare. Remove from heat, cover loosely with a piece of foil or a saucepan lid and leave to rest for 6-8 minutes. Slice thinly downwards, across the grain. If serving in rolls, split and lightly toast them. Mix salad with dressing.
Serve beef and salad in rolls or arrange on individual plates.
Serves 4
Note: if preferred just use your regular salad dressing instead.
This delicious, creamy Mediterranean-style soup can be on the table in less than 15 minutes. With crusty bread it’s a meal in itself. You want the fish to stay in chunks and not disintegrate, so be careful not to over-cook it.
25g butter 1 leek, finely sliced or 1 lg onion, chopped 1 cup white wine About 12 mussels, fresh or frozen, in shell, scrubbed 3 cups boiling water 1 vegetable stock cube 1/3 cup cream or sour cream 350-400g fish (I like half white fish and half salmon) 200g raw peeled prawns pinch saffron or turmeric 1 tsp sugar Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste Tabasco sauce (optional) 2 Tbs finely chopped fresh parsley
In a large heavy-based saucepan, melt butter and cook leek or onion gently for 5 minutes until soft but not brown. Add wine, water, stock cube and mussels and bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer. As soon as mussels have opened remove them from the pan and when cool enough to handle open and discard the empty shells. Meanwhile cut fish into large chunks and add to the pan with the prawns, cream and saffron or turmeric. As soon as fish is tender – just a few minutes – return mussels to pan, add sugar and season to taste. Ladle into soup bowls and serve with a drizzle of Tabasco, chopped parsley and crusty bread to mop up the juices.
Serves 4
Note: I bought a kilo of frozen New Zealand mussels from the supermarket which was enough to make this soup twice.
A perfectly ripe pear and an avocado sitting next to each other in the fruit bowl provided the inspiration for this healthy week-end lunch. I’ve always liked the sweetness fresh fruit adds to an otherwise savoury salad. You can use any type of blue cheese and pecans instead of walnuts.
2 baby cos lettuce hearts
1 large ripe pear
1 ripe avocado
2 tsp oil
About 20 walnut halves
2 tsp honey Dressing:
½ cup vegetable oil of your choice
Juice of ½ lemon or lime
¼ cup cream or sour cream
2-3 Tbs blue cheese
Freshly ground black pepper To serve:
Finely chopped parsley or chervil
Arrange lettuce on two plates. Peel and halve pear and remove core with a melon baller, arrange on plate. Peel avocado, remove stone, cut each half into slices but not quite to the narrow end, then fan out on the plate. Heat oil and cook walnuts for a minute or two, stirring. Add honey and continue to cook and stir until sticky and glazed then turn off the heat – be careful, they burn easily. Place all ingredients for dressing in food processor and process until smooth. Start with 2 Tbs cheese, then taste and see if it needs more. Drizzle some of the dressing over the salads, sprinkle with walnut halves and herbs.
Most recipes on this blog are fairly quick and easy. Gâteau de Crêpes Florentine is a bit more time-consuming, so allow an hour to an hour and a half for preparation, plus cooking time. It can however be prepared ahead if you’re serving it to guests.
I used to make this in one large pancake stack and serve it cut into wedges. I decided to modernise it by making individual ones to serve for brunch. Making individual ones is a bit more fiddly than one big one, but using frozen spinach instead of fresh speeds things up.
If you make individual gateaux you will be left with a lot of crepe off-cuts, which can be used to make a quick dessert. Use scissors to snip them into more uniform pieces then mix them with some apple slices, pile into a baking dish, sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter and bake in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.
Crêpes: 2 cups cold water 1 cup cold milk 3 eggs ½ tsp salt 2 cups sifted plain flour 5 Tbs oil Filling: 100g plain flour 70g butter 2 cups milk salt, pepper and nutmeg 2 bunches spinach (or 2 x 250g packets frozen) 250g grated Parmesan cheese To serve: 1 carton sour cream ½ cup chopped parsley Salt to taste
Blend crepe ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. Add 1-2 tablespoons of extra water, to ensure the batter is nice and thin, then make 24-28 thin crêpes in a non-stick omelette or crepe pan. No need to grease the pan. Use 1½-2 Tbs batter for each crepe, swirling the pan to cover the whole area. Stack them one on top of the other on a plate. If you’re making individual ones, use a larger non-stick pan so the crêpes are big enough to cut three circles using a stacking ring.
For the filling, wash, cook, drain and chop spinach or use two well-drained packets of frozen spinach. Make a white sauce with butter, flour and milk. Add seasonings and spinach. Sauce should be thick.
For one large gateau, place one crepe on lightly buttered ovenproof plate. Spread with thin layer of spinach sauce and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan. Continue, ending with a crepe. Cover with foil and leave in the fridge. To serve, heat for about 45 mins at 180°C, remove foil and cut into wedges, like a cake. Serve with the parsley sauce.
For individual gateaux, grease individual stacking rings and arrange on baking paper, on a baking tray. Doing three crepes at a time, cut circles using one stacking ring. So from 3 crepes you will get 9 circles. Place one in each ring, then spread some spinach sauce over, sprinkle with grated parmesan and continue until you reach the top, ending with a plain circle of crepe. You will need 5-6 circles per serving. You can either use up all the crepes and filling or just make six or so and keep the rest for another use.
Sauce: Mix and chill. Add salt just before serving.
Once it’s been passed on a few times, the origins of a recipe are often lost. I haven’t made this recipe for quite some time, but I remember it was given to me by my dear friend Maggie about 15 years ago. We started primary school together, so we go back a long way!
My friend Karen recently gave me two cook books by British cook book writer and critic Simon Hopkinson, called Roast Chicken and Other Stories and Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. As I was reading the first volume, voilà, there was Maggie’s salmon. Hopkinson says it’s his version of “a most famous creation by George Perry-Smith, one of the great pioneers who changed the eating habits of an apathetic British public.” Perry-Smith was greatly influenced by Elizabeth David and made his name at The Hole in the Wall in Bath, which opened in the late 1950s.
You can either make this in individual parcels or one large one and cut it into slices, which is what I decided to do this time. Hopkinson likes to serve it with a hollandaise sauce, lightened with whipped cream, but concedes that the dish is very rich and just as nice served with a wedge of lemon. The combination of crisp pastry, salmon, ginger and currants is unusual, but delicious. A simple watercress salad and some buttered new potatoes are all that you need to complete the meal. The potatoes took longer to cook than I thought they would, which meant that the salmon got a bit over-cooked as you can see in the photo. Next time I will put the potatoes on earlier!
I served the reheated leftovers with my Cucumber Salad which went extremely well.
2 Tbs currants 2 Tbs stem ginger in syrup, drained, or glace ginger 110g butter, at room temperature Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste A pinch of ground mace or nutmeg 375g puff pastry, bought or home-made 8-900g salmon fillet, skinned and boned 1 egg yolk, beaten
Pour boiling water over the currants and leave to swell for 5-10 minutes, then drain and pat dry on paper towels. Mix currants and finely chopped ginger into butter, then add mace or nutmeg and season to taste. Roll out pastry to a size which is slightly longer and wider than the salmon fillet. Lay the pastry on a lightly oiled baking tray. Spread the butter over the salmon fillet, then fold it over on itself lengthwise. Place on pastry, to one side. Fold over the pastry and seal all the way around. Press with the tines of a fork then trim off any excess to give a neat edge. Salmon can be prepared ahead to this stage and kept, loosely covered, in the fridge for up to several hours.
Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Brush salmon with egg yolk then bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown – you don’t want to overcook the salmon. Slice and serve with a wedge of lemon, lightly dressed watercress salad and boiled new potatoes, dressed with a knob of butter and some finely chopped parsley.
1.5kg chicken pieces (I use thighs)
