Roasted Carrot Beetroot and Pecan Salad

Just look at what my garden gave me this morning. Beautiful cylindrical beetroot and Dutch carrots. I was instantly inspired by the lovely colours and the chill in the spring morning air to roast these beauties for dinner and turn them into a nice nutty warm salad.

This salad was truly simple and it’s hard to show you in a photo just how tasty and warming this dish was.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Dutch carrots

1 bunch of baby beets

½ cup of pecans (broken up)

30 gram s of Danish feta (crumbled)

Zest of one lemon

Juice of ½ a lemon

Drizzle of Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

All you have to do for this salad is wash and dry your carrots and beetroot, pop them into a large baking dish with some olive oil salt and pepper. Roast them for 25-35minutes or until beetroot is easily pierced with a knife.

When the vegetables are cooked, peel the beetroots by gently rubbing the skin off then slice the carrots and peeled beetroot. Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and toss.

I served this salad with a piece of cod and some arrabiata sauce.

Spring Rolls

As I have an abundance of beautiful herbs and greens, seemingly continually appearing in my garden, I thought it would be a good time to try something I have wanted to test out for a while. I wanted to make a baked spring roll, so I did….. there may be a reason they are deep friedL

It wasn’t a total disaster though just that a few of them (when I say a few I really mean most) had what can only be described as “soggy bottoms” However the flavour was definitely there and my boyfriend and I happily polished off several for dinner, soggy bottoms and all!

I can’t give you an exact recipe here as I really did just grab all things green from my garden and get chopping.

I used a mixture of:

Mint

Coriander

Bok choy

Chilli

Carrot

Spring roll pastry

I roughly chopped everything up and gave it all a good mix together by hand

I spooned mounds of the herb mix onto each pastry sheet and wrapped them as tightly as I could, sealing them with some water

I then spread the rolls out on some grease proof paper and sprayed them with olive oil, then baked them at 180 degrees for about 20 mins or until they had gone nice and crispy (at least on top). I served these with a nice spicy satay dipping sauce.

Now don’t get me wrong I think this method would work without creating such an excess fluid situation if you just add a couple of eggs to your herb mix before stuffing the rolls.

Atlantic Salmon with Asian Salad

Please forgive the haphazard presentation and blurry image I am giving you for this dish. It was served in a hurry when I was quite hungry after waiting for some time for my lovely boyfriend to return home from work. Perhaps it was the fact that I was so hungry or the fact that all of the greens were picked that day from my vegetable garden, whatever the reason, this dish was the most satisfying I have cooked in weeks!

Ingredients:

1 bunch baby bok choy or other suitable Asian green
1 bunch of roquette
1 handful of fresh mint
1 bunch of coriander (roughly chopped)
1/2 red capsicum (finely sliced)
1/2 red onion (finely sliced)
1cup of warm cooked rice
4 fillets of salmon

Dressing:

Juice of one lime
1/4 cup of stir-fry sauce (see previous post)
Drizzle of olive oil
1 teaspoon of chilli flakes

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees

Mix the first seven ingredients in a bowl allowing the warm rice to wilt the greens.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing together and set aside until just before serving.

Cook the salmon filets in a hot pan for 1 minute each side, then pop them in the oven for a further 4-5 minutes.

Dress your salad, pile it on your plates and top with a salmon filet.

I do hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did.

My Chocolate Mud Cake

To date, chocolate mud-cakes have always been rather disappointing to me. they are either too dense, too rich, not rich enough or unforgivably dry! I know I may sound hard to please but if I am going to eat chocolate cake then I want it to be better than just having a piece of chocolate.

This is a recipe that I have worked on for a while and every time it is served it is met with an unusual amount of praise, so the people have spoken, here is a chocolate mud cake recipe that you can expect to impress. There is however a condition to success with this recipe, you must not overcook it!

Ingredients:
250g Good Quality dark chocolate
250 g butter
1 1/2 cups of water
2 level teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa
2 cups of caster sugar
2 cups of plain flour
3 heaped teaspoons baking powder
4 eggs

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C.

Grease and line a medium springform cake tin.

In a saucepan put the butter (cubed), cocoa, chocolate, bicarb and water. Allow all ingredients to melt over a low heat then continue to heat the mixture until you get frothy bubbles as you stir.

In a large mixing bowl combined the flour, sugar and baking powder. Pour the chocolate larva over the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Mix in one egg at a time then pour the batter into your lined cake tin and bake on the lowest shelf for about 50 mins to an hour. the trick with this cake is to bake it until it has now wobble in it and will bounce back when tapped with your finger but don't cook it until a skewer comes out clean. the centre of the cake will set as it cools but will remain moist and sticky.

I recommend icing this cake with a chocolate ganache.

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Stirfry Sauce

I was asked by my brother recently how to make a stir-fry sauce, he's not as obsessive in the kitchen as I so I thought it best to share my simple recipe that can be made in advance and stored in the fridge until required.

Ingredients:

1 heaped teaspoon of chilli jam (or chutney)
1 clove of grated raw garlic
1 heaped teaspoon of palm sugar chopped or grated
1 heaped teaspoon of a grated ginger
soy sauce (amount will vary depending what size jar you are using
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
boiling water
1 large sterilised jar

Method:

this sauce is brilliantly easy, just pop the first four ingredients into a sterilised jar then pour soy sauce into the jar until it reached 1/3 of the way up the jar. pour in the sesame oil then fill the jar with boiling water. pop the lid on the jar/s then give it a shake until you can see that all of the sugar has dissolved.

this recipe is a basic one you can spice it up any way you want, some fresh coriander and chilli is always  a popular addition.

I make several jars up at a time as chicken cashew nut is a favorite in my house and this sauce is perfect for it.

Banana and Pecan Bread

With these colder days persisting I couldn’t resist the temptation of baking a beautiful banana bread to warm us all up and put a smile back on our faces. I make many versions of banana bread but this one is perhaps the most wholesome. I know that bananas are about one million dollars per kilo at the moment but I have thankfully got an ample supply in the freezer. I always put the bananas that have gone brown into a container in the freezer so that they are there for whenever the urge to bake takes over me. Aside from being frugal, the frozen bananas tend to produce the best banana bread.

I baked these ones in little muffin cases which makes them easier to pop into lunchboxes but also gives them a shorter cooking time. If you want to bake this recipe in a loaf tin you need to reduce the heat to 160°C and bake them it for a little longer

Ingredients:

½ cup macadamia oil

6 bananas

3 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup

2 cups wholemeal flour

1 cup plain flour

2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder

1 level teaspoon of bicarb soda

1 cup pecan pieces

Sesame seeds and slivered almonds for decorating

Method:

First you need to defrost your bananas by either leaving them at room temperature for a while or heating them in a little saucepan on a low heat until they become soft. Once your bananas are soft, mash them up then stir in your brown sugar, golden syrup and macadamia oil. Pour your flours, bicarb soda and baking powder into a separate large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the wet banana mix slowly into the flour mix until it is all mixed together. Fold through the pecan pieces. Spoon the mix into 12 muffin cases and sprinkle with sesame seeds and slivered almonds.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 30 mins or until golden brown and the muffin bounces back when tapped on the top. Don’t be tempted to test these with a skewer because they will remain quite soft inside but if you cook until the skewer is dry you will get a horrible dry muffin or bread. This banana bread is great toasted with butter and it is just as good when served at room temperature with a beautifuly warming cup of tea or coffee.