Gratin of Eggplant

Posted on 8 February 2017 by Linda Peek

I’ve had this recipe for decades, but haven’t made it for some time.

In the meantime I read somewhere that salting and draining eggplants to remove bitterness is a waste of time, so I don’t bother any more. Removing that stage from the recipe speeds things up.

2-3 eggplants (aubergines) (about 800g)
olive oil
2 eggs
½ cup cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tomato Sauce:
1 Tbs olive oil
1 small onion or half a large one, finely chopped
400g tomatoes, peeled and chopped or 1 (410g) can chopped tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp sugar
Topping:
4 Tbs Panko breadcrumbs (see note below)
3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 180°C. Slice eggplants about 1 cm thick. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan until hot, then add eggplant slices a few at a time and cook on both sides until golden brown. Repeat with remaining slices adding more oil as necessary, but not too much as eggplants have a tendency to act like blotting paper. Drain eggplant slices on paper towels then arrange then overlapping in a shallow ovenproof dish, in one or two layers.

Beat eggs, cream, salt and pepper and pour over. Bake for 20-30 mins or until the cream mixture has set. Pour over tomato sauce (see below) and spread evenly. Mix panko crumbs and Parmesan and sprinkle over the top. Bake for a further 15 mins or until browned. Serve with a salad.

Tomato sauce: while the eggplant slices are frying, start the tomato sauce. Heat oil in a frying pan and add onion. Cook gently, stirring, until soft but not brown. Add tomatoes then simmer for a few minutes until a chunky, thickish sauce has formed. Add salt, pepper and sugar.

Serves 4 as a main course or 8 as a starter or side dish

Note: Panko breadcrumbs are chunky, Japanese-style breadcrumbs sold in many supermarkets. Alternatively, just blitz a slice of stale bread in the food processor.

Pasta with Cabbage and Anchovies

Posted on 1 February 2017 by Linda Peek

Don’t like anchovies? I have to admit I’m not mad about them either when they’re whole. But crushed into a sauce they add a unique depth of flavour which has been known to win over quite a few anchovy haters. A traditional Caesar Salad dressing wouldn’t be the same without them – but a lot of people wouldn’t even know they’re there.

I found this recipe on the New York Times recipe site which said “Just don’t mention the anchovies, tell people it’s pasta, cabbage and umami”.

This recipe is tasty on its own or as a side dish with grilled meat.

500g dry pasta such as penne
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs butter
4 anchovy fillets
½ cup coarse breadcrumbs or Panko breadcrumbs
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh sage
Salt and freshly ground black pepper. To taste
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
½ tsp dried red chilli flakes, or finely diced fresh chilli to taste
8 cups shredded cabbage
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook pasta according to package instructions until al dente. Drain.

While pasta is cooking, melt butter in a small frying pan and add half the garlic and the anchovies, mashing with a spatula until they dissolve into the butter. Add breadcrumbs and sage and cook, stirring, for about 2 mins or until golden brown. Turn off the heat and season with pepper.

Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium to high heat. Add remaining garlic and chilli and cook for a minute or so, until fragrant. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring from time to time, for 15-20 mins or until it begins to caramelise. Mix with the pasta and breadcrumb mixture, saving some of the breadcrumbs to garnish. Check for salt and pepper and serve immediately, garnished with the remaining crumb mixture and the Parmesan.

Serves 4

Indian Spiced Roast Lamb with Coriander Chutney

Posted on 25 January 2017 by Linda Peek

Somewhere towards the end of January I get cravings for a curry. Something spicy and a complete contrast to the food we tend to eat over the holiday period, with ham or turkey as the centrepiece.

As a change from the usual roast lamb with mint sauce, try this Indian-style spicy roast lamb. Serve the lamb with vegetables or skip the vegetables and serve it in wraps. Good for casual entertaining or teenage kids, where you can let everyone fill their own.

When it’s first made the coriander chutney is bright green. I made mine ahead and the colour changed, so it’s not so pretty in the photo.

1 leg of lamb
Spicy Marinade:
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp chilli flakes or powder
½ tsp ground turmeric
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp grated ginger
1 Tbs lemon or lime juice
1 Tbs oil
1 Tbs tomato paste
1/3 cup plain yoghurt
Coriander Chutney:
1 cup coriander leaves, tightly packed
3 spring onions, sliced
1 long fresh green chilli, seeds removed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs lemon or lime juice
½ tsp ground cumin
Salt to taste
1 Tbs water, if needed
Garnish:
Coriander sprigs
Lemon wedges

Make slashes with a sharp knife all over the lamb. Place in a roasting pan. Place first 5 ingredients for Spicy Marinade in a small frying pan and stir over moderate heat until the spices smell fragrant. Place in a bowl, add remaining marinade ingredients and mix well. Spread all over the meat and rub in well. Leave lamb to marinate for a few hours at room temperature or loosely covered in the fridge overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Cover lamb with foil and roast for an hour and a half. Remove foil and roast for a further 30 minutes or until done to your liking. Remove from the oven and leave to rest, loosely covered with foil, for about 15 minutes, then carve thinly.

Place all ingredients for Coriander Chutney in food processor and process till chunky-smooth, stopping halfway to scrape down the sides. Add water if it’s too thick.

Serve lamb garnished with with coriander sprigs and lemon wedges with vegetables of your choice and the chutney. Or serve it in warm wraps with the chutney and some extra plain yoghurt and maybe some shredded lettuce or rocket.

Serves 8

Fish Fillets with Miso, Soba Noodles & Asparagus

Posted on 18 January 2017 by Linda Peek

This recipe Which came from a Coles supermarket magazine is quick, easy, tasty and healthy. What more could you want?

4 boneless, skinless, white fish fillets (about 150g each)
2 Tbs miso paste
3 Tbs orange or lemon juice
2 tsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
180g dried soba noodles
2 bunches asparagus, cut into 2
150g snow peas, sliced
2 tsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted
2 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Place a large saucepan of water on to boil and turn the grill on high. Line a baking tray with foil, spray with oil and place the fish fillets on top. Mix miso paste, orange or lemon juice, honey and sauce sauce. Brush both sides of the fish with this mixture and season lightly with salt and pepper. Place fish under the gril and cook for 8-10 mins or until cooked.

Meanwhile cook noodles for a minute or two, then add the asparagus and snow peas and cook for another 2 mins or until vegetables and noodles are cooked. Drain well and mix in half the remaining miso sauce. Divide noodles and vegetables among 4 serving plates. Arrange fish on top and spoon over remaining miso sauce. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and spring onions.

Serves 4

Mango and Prawn Salad with Honey & Walnuts

Posted on 11 January 2017 by Linda Peek

This lovely summery salad was in a supermarket recipe hand out. I’ve made a few changes as I always do. Perfect for the warmer weather when mangoes are in season.

1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs sugar
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup boiling water
About six cups mixed salad leaves
1 mango, peeled, stoned and thinly sliced
1 red capsicum (pepper) thinly sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
300g cooked, peeled prawns (weight after peeling)
100g feta or fresh goat’s cheese, crumbled
½ cup walnuts or pecans
1 Tbs honey
Dressing:
¼ cup red wine or cider vinegar or lemon juice
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs honey
Grated rind of 1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place onion in a small bowl. Add salt, sugar, vinegar and water. Mix well then leave to macerate for half an hour or more. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. Place all ingredients for dressing in a jar with a lid and shake well.

Arrange salad leaves in a large shallow bowl or four individual serving plates. Use small leaves or break larger ones into bite sized pieces. Top with the mango, capsicum, tomatoes, prawns, feta or goat’s cheese and the drained onions. Place walnuts in a dry frying pan and stir over moderate heat until lightly toasted. Add honey, stir to coat, then arrange over the salad. If you do this ahead and let them get cold they will stick to the pan, so you will need to turn the heat back on briefly to loosen them. Drizzle salad with some of the dressing.

Serves 4

Variation: use peaches or nectarines instead of mangoes.

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Tim Tams

Posted on 5 January 2017 by Linda Peek

This chocolate fudge cake has been our family’s birthday cake for decades. Twice it was promoted to the status of a three-tiered wedding cake – once covered with dark chocolate ganache and shaved chocolate and the second time with white chocolate ganache. It continues to be the preferred celebration cake in our family.

For the unenlightened, a Tim Tam consists of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by chocolate cream filling and coated with a thin layer of chocolate. These biscuits have become something of an Australian icon since their launch by Arnotts in 1963. Over the years new flavours and fillings have been introduced to keep up with modern trends. Tim Tams now come in dark or milk chocolate and with fillings such as salted caramel and peanut butter.

Matthew is a staunch Tim Tam fan so I decided to use them to decorate his birthday cake this year. Unfortunately white chocolate ends up rather yellow as you can see in the photo – but it tasted good! Make the cake the day before the birthday as it’s much easier to ice next day.

Cake:
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ cup hot water
¼ cup vegetable oil
1¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
1½ cups self-raising flour, sifted (or use plain flour plus 2 tsp baking powder)
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup buttermilk (for substitute see below)
½ tsp salt
Chocolate Ganache: (option 1)
300ml thick cream
250g chocolate (dark, milk or white)
Cream Cheese Icing: (option 2)
125g unsalted butter at room temperature
125g cream cheese at room temperature
¾ cup cocoa powder
1½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2-4 Tbs cold milk, as required
To decorate:
2 x 200g packets Tim Tams
1 packet Maltesers (optional)
3 Tbs cream and 50g white chocolate, melted, to drizzle over

Preheat oven to 180°. In a fan-forced oven it’s best to lower the temperature to 170ºC so cake doesn’t rise too fast. Grease a 20-22cm round cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. Alternatively use two shallow sandwich tins and line them both.

Place all ingredients for cake in a large mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, mix well for 2-3 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down any bits stuck to the sides of the bowl.

Scrape mixture into cake tin and smooth the top. Bake for 35-45 mins in the centre of the oven, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Don’t overcook as you want the cake to be moist and fudgey. Two thinner cakes will take less time, around 25 mins. Cool 10 minutes in tin. Turn out and cool on a cake rack. Ice the cake the following day.

Make Chocolate Ganache or Cream Cheese Icing – see below. Either ice cake just on the top and sides, or if you’ve cooked it in two sandwich tins use some of the ganache in the middle to stick them together. You can also cut one large cake in two horizontally with a serrated knife. If cake has risen into too much of a domed shape shave a bit off with a serrated knife.

To ice cake in the middle as well as top and sides you will need to make one and a half times the Ganache recipe. With the cream cheese icing there should be enough.

While the cake is perfectly nice without any adornment, if liked stick Tim Tams around the sides, cover the top with Maltesers and drizzle with melted and cooled white chocolate mixture. Cake keeps for 3-4 days in a tin.

Chocolate Ganache: Heat cream in a small saucepan until boiling then remove from the heat and add chocolate, broken into squares. Stir to dissolve then cool until thick enough to spread over cake.

Cream Cheese Icing: With electric beaters, beat butter and cream cheese, gradually adding the cocoa, then the icing sugar and enough milk to make desired consistency.

Substitute: if you don’t have buttermilk use ½ cup plain yogurt and ½ cup milk or 1 cup milk mixed with 1 tsp vinegar and left to stand for an hour.

Serves 14

PT45M
PT15M
PT60M

Pickled Ginger Slaw

Posted on 28 December 2016 by Linda Peek

This is an unusual variation on the usual coleslaw. It doesn’t contain any mayonnaise and has a bit of zing with the addition of lots of ginger. The slaw will still taste good the following day.

Perfect to serve with cold ham and turkey over the holiday period.

About 5 cups finely sliced white cabbage,
About 2 cups finely sliced red cabbage
About ½ cup finely chopped red onion or sliced spring onions
3 coarsely grated or shredded carrots
1 red pepper finely chopped
Dressing:
1 large clove garlic
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs grated or finely chopped ginger
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar or Mirin
½ cup olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
Freshly ground black pepper

Place all the shredded vegetables in a large bowl. Place all the dressing ingredients except for the lime juice in a saucepan. Bring to the boil then simmer 2 mins. Mix into the vegetables, refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to an hour. Add the lime juice and pepper just before serving.

Serves 4-6

Sticky Asian Lamb in a Slow Cooker

Posted on 14 December 2016 by Linda Peek

Our friend Juliette recently posted a recipe for Slow Cooked Sticky Asian Lamb on Facebook. It looked delicious so I saved it.

The recipe uses a whole leg of lamb, but the other day I was in the supermarket when they decided to mark down all their one kilo packs of forequarter lamb chops to $2 a packet. I couldn’t resist buying a few for the freezer as they were almost giving them away. I decided to make the Sticky Lamb using 2 kilos of chops instead of a leg. It was delicious and would makes a great dish for a large family or casual entertaining.

1 whole leg of lamb, bone in, or 2kg lamb chops
1-2 Tbs oil
Sauce:
½ cup Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce)
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
3 star anise
8 cm piece of ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
2 sticks lemongrass, cut into two and bruised with a meat hammer
4 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
To serve:
1 packet rice noodles
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
6 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
Asian greens such as Bok Choy, steamed

Trim meat, discarding any fat which is easy to remove. Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry meat all over until nicely browned and caramelised. If using chops you will need to do them in 2-3 batches. Place in slow cooker.

Mix all ingredients for the sauce and pour over the meat. If you’re using chops rather than a leg of lamb you will need to add a bit more liquid, so add a cup of water. Cover and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. Every couple of hours turn meat over to make sure it’s well-covered with the sauce.

Remove meat from slow cooker when it’s very tender and falling off the bones. Using two forks shred the meat, discarding bones and lemongrass. If there’s a lot of fat in the sauce, put it in the freezer until the fat sets on top and can be easily removed and discarded.

Place sauce in a small saucepan and boil to reduce a bit. You want a thickish sticky sauce, but don’t over-do it or you will end up with too little. I didn’t need to reduce my sauce, but this will depend on your slow cooker because they vary a lot in temperature. I shredded the meat and put it back into the sauce in the slow cooker and left it there on Low for an hour, until I was ready to serve.

Cook noodles according to packet instructions, drain, season and add the sesame oil. Pile noodles onto a large serving platter or divide among individual plates. Top with the meat and sauce then garnish with sesame seeds and spring onions. Serve steamed greens in another dish and let people help themselves.

Serves 6-8

Bruschetta with Ricotta & Roasted Grapes with Rosemary

Posted on 7 December 2016 by Linda Peek

This recipe is from Silvia’s Italian table, a cooking programme currently showing on the ABC. I substituted ricotta cheese for the home-made curd cheese and balsamic glaze for the vino cotto. The result was absolutely delicious.

Make up a double or triple batch of the grapes and serve over the holiday season with cold ham, turkey or duck.

4 cups seedless grapes (red, black or green or a mixture)
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs vino cotto or balsamic glaze
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 Tbs fresh rosemary, pulled off the stems
1 cup ricotta cheese
1-2 Tbs cream if necessary
Toasted baguette slices or rolls (I used English muffins)

Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with foil or baking paper. Remove grapes from stems and spread onto baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil and balsamic glaze, season with salt and pepper and scatter with rosemary. Use your hands to thoroughly coat the grapes and crush some of them a bit. Bake for 20 minutes or until glazed. Remove from the oven and cool a bit.

Meanwhile toast the bread and top each piece with a thick layer of ricotta. If the ricotta is a bit dry as mine was, mix in some cream to make it nice and creamy. Spoon the grapes over the ricotta and serve.

Variation: South Americans can substitute Queso Fresco for the Ricotta

Warm Rocket and Caramelised Mushroom Salad

Posted on 30 November 2016 by Linda Peek

There seem to be a lot of lunches to attend at this time of year. After a substantial lunch it’s nice to make something light but tasty for supper.

2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs butter
3 shallots, thinly sliced (about ½ cup)
About 400g fancy mushrooms (shitake, oyster, porcini) or ordinary mushrooms
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4-6 cups rocket (or baby kale) washed and spun dry
¼ cup dry sherry
100g fresh goat’s cheese, crumbled
3-4 Tbs pine nuts, lightly toasted (optional)
Dressing:
3 Tbs sherry vinegar (or another kind
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp honey
1/3 cup olive oil

Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook shallots over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until softened. Add sliced mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 5-10 minutes or until starting to brown. Add sherry, season with salt and pepper then cook, stirring often, until liquid has evaporated.

Meanwhile shake dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid. Mix rocket with enough dressing to lightly coat and place in a large serving dish. Arrange the mushrooms and shallots on top of the rocket and top with the cheese and the pine nuts if using – I didn’t in this photo.

Serves 4