Sweetcorn Fritters with Bacon, Avocado and Lime

Bill Granger has three restaurants in Sydney – Bills in Wollhara, Bills in Darlinghurst and Bills in Surry Hills. All three share the same menu and i’m sure everything on it is delicious. Though i’ve only ever had one thing. His corn fritters. And i’ve been there quite a few times. My corn fritter loving friend and I have even been to each of the three bills for Saturday lunch for the last three Saturdays. Just to have the corn fritters. So I thought i’d give them a go myself.

Bill’s corn fritters are big and main meal sized, though I did little entree sized ones. I used Bill’s recipe from his book Bill’s Food. I combined half a cup of ground rice, half a cup of plain flour, a quarter of a teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground coriander, half a teaspoon of ground cumin. Then added an egg, a teaspoon of lemon juice and half a cup of water and mixed to make a batter. I then cut the kernels from 3 big corn cobs and stirred them into the batter with 4 sliced spring onions and some chopped coriander.

I think the secret to these delicious corn fritters is the ground rice. It makes them light and crunchy. You can buy it or it is easy to make it yourself – just pop some rice in the blender or food processor and grind until it becomes a fine powder.

Then it is just a matter of shaping them and shallow frying them in oil in a saucepan.

If I was making these as a meal i’d make them bigger and bulk up the meal with some baby spinach and capsicum. But for these little ones, I topped them with some avocado, little bits of cooked bacon and squeeze of lime juice.

Ginger Poached Chicken with Coriander Dressing

To me, this is what you would, or should eat at a health farm. It is really delicious, tangy and eating it just makes you feel like you are becoming healthier with every bite. It is a recipe from Donna Hay’s Fast, Fresh, Simple and it is worth a try.

Start off by making the dressing. The flavours are fresh and interesting and would go with a lot of things, not just chicken. Fish would be nice with it. Anyway. Pop a third of a cup of tahini, 2 tbs of water, 2 tbs of lemon juice, 2 tsp of white wine vinegar, a clove of garlic, half a cup of coriander and a quarter of a cup of parsley into a blender and whiz until it is smooth.

Slice a knob of ginger and place it in a small pot filled with chicken stock. Bring it to the boil then reduce it to a simmer. Pop some chicken breasts in (one per person) and simmer for 6 minutes. Add a bunch of broccolini to the pot and simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the broccolini is tender.

Then all you have to do is slice the chicken and serve it with the broccolini and coriander dressing. Mmm… I feel healthier just thinking about it!

Lamb and Strawberry Salad

It was a warm night last night, well as warm as it is ever going to get in July, so I thought i’d make something to celebrate the relative heat.

I tossed some sliced strawberries, blanched green beans, chunks of feta and some mint leaves together. I then seared some lamb cutlets and popped them on top of the salad. I then drizzled it with a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little brown sugar. Super quick and easy. And sunny enough to make you forget it is winter!

Salmon Fish Cakes with Tartare Sauce

Fish cakes were something we had for dinner when I was a kid. And something I always enjoyed but had forgotten about. But I saw Jamie Oliver talking about them on TV and it sparked my memory.

I boiled a few potatoes and them mashed them, making sure they were drained really well first to make sure the cakes wouldn’t be watery. I then added some tinned red salmon, chopped spring onions, coriander and an egg and mixed it all together. I shaped them into little half cup patties and popped them in the fridge for half an hour to ensure they kept their shape.

I then crumbed them by rolling them in flour, dunking them in some egg and then coating them in fresh bread crumbs. I heated some oil in a small saucepan and shallow fried the little patties until they were golden and crunchy.

To make a quick tartare sauce, I just mixed together some mayonnaise, capers, lemon juice and chopped gherkins. I served it with some lemon to squeeze over them and some rocket to freshen it up.

It was enough for a main meal, though you could do a smaller serving and have it as an entree or make smaller ones and have them as a canape at a cocktail party.

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Proscuitto and Pesto Chicken with Polenta

Okay so when I went to write down the name of this dinner I realised that last last night, I must have been subconsciously been obsessed with the letter P. Proscuitto and Pesto chicken, with Parmesan Polenta, and a rocket salad with Pine nuts. Now that thats out of the way…

I love polenta, and not just because it is delicious. It is also good for you as it is just milled dried corn, and really quick to make.

For enough for two of us for dinner, I poured two cups of milk and a cup of chicken stock into a saucepan and brought it to the boil. As soon as it started to bubble, i rained in 120g of polenta and stirred until thick. I then added a small handful of parmesan in and stirred it in. It was poured into a square cake tin that i’d sprayed with olive oil spray and put in the fridge to set. Lots of recipes say this takes about two hours, but i’ve found it seems to take only about 30 minutes.

I had a bunch of left over basil in the fridge, so I thought i’d make pesto. It is so easy to make you’ll wonder why you ever bought it.

I started by popping a small handful of pine nuts into a pan with no oil on the stove and cooked them until they had a bit of colour. I then ripped all the leaves off the bunch of basil in one motion, and popped them in the blender. I added a good lug of olive oil, a handful of grated parmesan and the pine nuts and turned it on for five seconds. And hey presto, it’s pesto!

I placed two pieces of proscuitto that were slightly overlapping each other on a sheet of baking paper on the bench and topped it with a chicken breast. And then repeated the process as I was cooking for two. A dollop of the pesto was then spread over the chicken breasts and I rolled the proscuitto over to enclose it. It was then into a 180 degree oven for about ten minutes until the chicken was cooked through.

In the mean time, I took the slab of polenta out of the fridge, turned it out onto a piece of baking paper, sprinkled it with a bit more parmesan and popped it under the grill to warm the polenta and melt the cheese.

With a bit more time to spare, I popped some rocket, pine nuts and feta into a bowl and… Ta da! A salad!

And just like that, I made this:

Mustard Chicken, Potato Dauphinoise, Greens and Black Forest Affogato

I have a confession… I’m addicted to cook books. I love to study the beautiful pictures, be inspired by different ideas and day dream about who I would invite for dinner on the night that I cook the recipe on page 82. So when I was watching TV the other night and Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals came on, I heard myself say “that looks nice, i’m going to buy that book tomorrow.” I looked at the pile of cook books on the coffee table, the stack on the TV cabinet, the one in my lap… (not to mention the two cupboards full of them in the kitchen!) and asked myself. “Do you really need one?” Of course, as an addict, the answer was a yes and there is now another beautiful cook book in my collection.

The pictures are beautiful. And the first dinner I made out of the book was too – Mustard Chicken, Potato Dauphinoise, Greens and Black Forest Affogato.

I started by preheating the oven to 200 degrees. I then thinly sliced a kilo of potatoes and a red onion, leaving the potato skins on, and placed the slices in a baking dish. The potatoes and onion were topped with a sprinkling of nutmeg, some salt and pepper, 2 crushed garlic cloves, a pinch of fresh thyme, six torn anchovies, a handful of grated parmesan and 225ml of cream, and tossed together. Just quickly, i’d encourage you to put the anchovies in, even if you don’t like them. They kind of melt into the bake and you don’t see them or specifically taste them when you’re eating them, but they make the dish have a delicious flavour. Anyway. I then sprinkled  some more parmesan over the top, covered it in foil and popped it in the oven.

When the potato was soft when i poked it with a fork, i took off the foil and made sure the cheese on top was nice and golden. When it was perfect, i turned off the oven and let it stay warm.

I will say from the outset that it didn’t take me 30 minutes, but it was not due to the recipe or Jamie. It was quick, and i’m sure it would take only half an hour if you followed the recipe properly, but I cooked this at a friend’s house where there is an electric stove. Jamie uses a gas one. So where Jamie starts his preparation with putting the potato dauphionoise on a stove to cook before going in the oven to brown, mine went straight into the oven for a longer time. It took a bit over an hour. But I you don’t have to touch it once it is in the oven, so i’m happy to leave it there! Also, Jamie just chucks all of his vegetables through the slicing attachment of the food processor. I cut mine my hand. Also not that hard…

Onto the chicken. I thinly sliced a leek and popped it aside, then cut four chicken breasts in quarters. Jamie cooks his whole and cuts them up after, but i’ve found that it stays a lot more moist when I cut it up first. Up to you. I then sprinkled four teaspoons of mustard powder over the chicken and moved them around to coat.

eI put a pan onto the stove with a splash of oil in it, and popped the chicken in once it was hot. After about five minutes, I turned the chicken and popped the leeks and 4 cloves of crushed garlic in. I also added about a glass of white wine and 75ml of cream. The chicken was cooked in five minutes time, so i transferred to a plate and covered with foil to keep warm. A tablespoon of wholegrain mustard was stirred to the sauce mixture and that was done too.

For the greens, I popped a bag of baby spinach into a strainer and poured a kettle of boiling water over it. I then transferred it to a bowl and added some salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon. Could it be easier?

The result was three delicious plates to be shared by the group.

Jamie’s dessert of black forest affogato was another hit that i’m sure will be used time and time again in my house. And really, it’s about as easy as any dessert I can imagine. You crumble a shortbread biscuit into a cup/ramekin/bowl/glass. Add in a few tinned dark cherries (from the tinned fruit section of the supermarket). Add a few broken up bits of dark chocolate and a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Dissolve a teaspoon of instant coffee in a tablespoon of boiling water and drizzle some over the ice cream. Top with some grated dark chocolate (or milo would do!). Delish! Though next time i’d put it in a glass or see through dish, i’m sure it looks pretty amazing from the side!

So my first Jamie Oliver 30 Minute Meal… A success!

Creme Caramel

I’m certainly more of a salty, savoury food lover than a dessert person. Having said that, I find it difficult to pass up a crème brulee or a crème caramel when I see it on a menu. So when I was thinking about something different to make on this rainy, weekend afternoon, I decided to try a crème caramel.

I found a recipe on Donna Hay’s website, who’s recipes I find always work. Here is the link if you would like to see it. 

I started off by preheating the oven to 150 degrees. I then set about making the caramel. This just meant placing 150g of caster sugar and 80ml of water in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolved, then letting it bubble away on medium heat until it turned a dark, rich colour. I then poured it evenly between four little ramekins and left them aside to set.

The next step was the custard. I put 180ml of milk and 180ml of cream into a saucepan and let it heat until it just started to boil. Meanwhile, I placed two eggs, four egg yolks, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract (with the vanilla seeds in) and 75g of caster sugar in a bowl and whisked until it was well combined. Then I dripped in the hot milk and cream mixture, little by little into the bowl of eggy mixture, whisking all the time. If you add the hot liquid too quickly, the eggs will cook.

Once it was all combined, I strained it through a sieve (to get rid of any little bits of cooked egg) then poured the liquid into the ramekins on top of the caramel.

I placed a folded up tea towel in the bottom of a baking dish, arranged the ramekins on top of the tea towel, then filled up the baking dish with boiling water to just below the top of the ramekins. This makes a water bath, which helps the custards to cook evenly as there isn’t direct, harsh heat on the base and walls of the moulds. I popped them in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until set, then they went in the fridge to cool down until it was time for dessert.

After dinner, I just ran a knife around the inside edge of the ramekins and inverted them onto a plate. They worked!

Next time I might make a little bit of nut brittle or toffee to go along with it to make it look a bit more interesting, and i’d cook the caramel a bit longer to turn it a little darker. But it was pretty yum. And it would be such a perfect dessert if you were having a dinner party, because you could make the whole thing the day before and they would just sit patiently in the fridge until you were ready to serve. Yum!

Melted Mozzarella Chicken

Not having much time to cook tonight sent me to Donna Hay’s book, No Time To Cook. I found this salty sounding recipe and thought i’d give it a try. It was easy, quick, fresh and looked impressive with all its different colours.

I popped a punnet of cherry tomatoes and half a jar of pitted kalamata olives in a baking dish and put them in a 180 degree oven for a few minutes while I prepared the chicken.

I simply sliced two chicken breasts in half lengthwise, topped them with a few slices of mozzarella and basil leaves, then wrapped it in two pieces of proscuitto and placed them in the baking dish with the olives and tomatoes. Ten minutes later, dinner was ready! And it was yummy.

Roast Chicken with Bacon and Peas

Tonight’s dinner was another easy one and a delicious hit. The recipe came out of another delicious. cookbook by Valli Little, 5 Nights a Week.

I started by peeling and chopping a couple of potatoes and placing them in a pan of salted water and left them to boil and soften.

To start on the chicken, I sliced two chicken breasts into a few large pieces, then seared them on the stove for around two minutes per side. They were then transferred to a tray lined with Glad bake and placed in the oven for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I thinly sliced an onion and roughly chopped 6 pieces of eye rasher bacon and fried them off in the same pan as I seared the chicken in. When the onion was soft and the bacon was cooked, I added a tablespoon of plain flour and stirred for about a minute. I then added 150ml of chicken stock and the juice of an orange and stirred it until it thickened. I popped in 100g of frozen peas and a few tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley.

I quickly drained and mashed the potatoes and served it with the chicken, bacon, peas and sauce.

Amazing. So easy and quick but the orange juice gives it such a delicious flavour. Definitely worth a try!

Dinner Two – Pork Wonton Soup

I love the idea of wonton soup. I love the salty, flavoursome broth, the floating green strips of bok choy, and the punch of chilli. But I don’t love the meat in most of the wontons i’ve had, hard and lumpy and mysterious. So tonight I set about recreating a delicious wonton soup, but with beautiful, soft wontons full of fresh ingredients.

I started by mixing together the wonton filling. 500g of free range pork mince, three thinly sliced green onions, two teaspoons of finely chopped ginger and a good splash of soy sauce. Then I placed a small ball of the mixture in the centre of a square wonton wrapper. You can find them in the supermarket next to the fresh pasta. I dipped my finger in a bowl of water and ran it around the perimeter of the wonton wrapper. I then just folded the opposite corners together and pinched to tighten. It took a little bit of time to get them all done, but it was a pretty fun job and I was proud to look at them all when they were done.

Wanting to make a pork wonton soup, I then simply placed two free range pork fillets into a baking dish, covered them in a little hoi sin sauce and put them in the oven for about ten minutes until cooked.

The broth was next, and was just about the easiest thing i’ve ever made… I just sploshed some chicken stock, a little water and a couple of slices of ginger into a pot and popped it on the stove. Once it was hot, I removed the ginger slices and added a bit of soy sauce to taste. All that was left to do was pop the wontons in, six at a time, for about five minutes, or until they floated to the top of the broth. When they were done, i dropped them into a bowl with some thinly sliced bok choy, and poured the steaming broth over the top. The heat of the liquid is enough to quickly cook the bok choy.

I topped it with some sliced, roasted pork, a few slices of chilli (my weakness) and a sprinkle of chopped spring onions.

It was delicious. And so easy. A great, quick, healthy weeknight meal.