Pork Sausages alla Pizzaiola

Pork Sausages alla Pizzaiola

This is a fabulous, flavorsome recipe that can be cooked within 25minutes. This recipe is a hearty winter meal. Best of all this dish is super versatile, it can be cooked on the BBQ or stove top.

Sauce Ingredients

1x440grm peeled tomatoes finely crushed (you can use a stab mixer or mouli)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon Italian parsley, finely chopped

salt to taste

1 teaspoon oregano, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon of fine cracked black pepper.

3 tbls Olive Oil

Method

Place olive oil in a frypan, place onto a medium heat, when oil is hot add the garlic and stir for a couple of minutes until the garlic is golden.

Add the peeled tomatoes and stir until it comes to the boil.

Add all other ingredients, reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

Ingredients

2 portions of pizzaiola sauce

1 400grms Cannellini beans, drained

1 kg pork/pork and fennel sausages

Method

Into the pizzaiola sauce add the beans and let simmer for 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens.

Heat a BBQ grill plate to high (you could also dry fry, steam, or grill the sausages for about 10 minutes (or until cooked this will depend on the thickness of the sausage). If grilling or dry frying make sure than you turn the sausages after a couple of minutes for even colouring.

Serve a couple of sausages on a bed of beans.

Warm quinoa salad with pumpkin and fetta cheese

Warm quinoa salad with pumpkin and fetta cheese

This delicious meal can be served as a side or as the meal itself, it’s very versatile it can be made the night ahead or served warm.

 

Quinoa is considered a superfood, why? It’s a source of complete protein, low GI and gluten free.

 

Don’t be afraid of cooking quinoa, it is much more friendly that rice to work with. It is readily available in supermarkets. Always give quinoa a good rinse before you use it.

 

This salad has the perfect balance of flavours, the nuttiness of the quinoa with the softness of the pumpkin, green beans for a little crunch, fetta cheese to add and element of sharpness to each bite and the parsley to clean the palate. This recipe is also super versatile you can add/subtract/interchange the veggies. This salad keeps well in the fridge, I usually double it and take it for lunches.

Best part of all, it is all made in one saucepan!

 

Ingredients

2 cups quinoa

100gram pumpkin

1 cup green beans

70grams fetta cheese

2 stalks parsley

1 shallot

2Tb olive oil

1Tb lemon juice

1. Rinse quinoa, place into a medium sauce pan, cover with 3 cups water, chop the shallot and add to the quinoa, sprinkle with salt and pepper, on a medium heat bring the water to the boil.
2. Simmer the quinoa with the lid for 5 minutes. Whilst the quinoa is cooking, chop the pumpkin into small cubes, add the pumpkin to the quinoa cook for 10minutes with the lid on. Whilst the pumpkin and quinoa mix is cooking, top and tail the green beans and chop the beans into 1.5cm pieces, add the green beans to the quinoa cook for 2minutes. Whilst the mix is cooking, chop the fetta into 1cm cubes, finely chop the parsley.
3. At this point your quinoa should be slightly translucent and the water should have been evaporated (if you have extra water and the quinoa is done drain the excess water). Add the oil and lemon juice into the saucepan and toss.
4. Place into a large serving bowl or individual plates, sprinkle with fetta and parsley.

 

Honey Lemon Chicken

Honey lemon chicken 

This dish is so quick and simple you will never get it from the take out store again. You can cut each piece of chicken into nugget sized pieces if you prefer. I serve this dish with a big bowl of steamed greens. You could easily serve this dish with a side of rice. The benefit of using cornflour is this dish is gluten free!

Serves 4

2 chicken breasts

1Tb Dry Sherry

2Tb soy sauce

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

Oil for frying

¼ cup cornstartch

½ tsp baking powder

Sauce:

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup honey

2tb cornstartch

1 cup chicken stock

3tb lemon juice

1 tsp salt

1 lemon sliced

2tb vegetable oil

salt and pepper

Garnish: chopped shallots

Method:

1. Slice chicken in half horizontally, so you will have 4 thin slices of chicken breast.
2. In a large bowl combine the chicken, sherry, soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix together, cover and refrigerate. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs, 1/4 cup corn-starch and baking powder to form a batter.
4. Remove chicken from marinade and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Place vegetable oil in fry pan on a medium heat
6. Dip chicken in the batter to coat.
7. Place chicken into fry pan and fry until golden brown and turn over and repeat for the other side, do this for each piece of chicken breast.
8. In a medium bowl combine the sugar, honey, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, lemon juice and 1 pinch salt, mix together until their are no lumps add stock and lemon slices. In the fry pan that you cooked the chicken pieces in place lemon sauce, on a medium heat bring the sauce to a gentle simmer.
9. Pour sauce over chicken, sprinkle with shallots and serve.

Steamed Ginger Lemon Lime puddings

Steamed Ginger Lemon Lime puddings

Ingredients:

12 Tsp Ginger lemon lime marmalade

60 grams butter (softened)

1/2C white sugar

1/2C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ SR flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 pinch dried ginger (powder)

Optional to serve, cream or ice cream

METHOD

1. Pre heat combination steam oven to full steam.
2. Cream butter and sugar for 2 minutes, add vanilla bean paste.
3. Lightly whisk egg, add into mixture fold through flour and dried ginger.
4. Spray a 12 hole silicone muffin tray place onto a biscuit tray. Place 1Tsp of the marmalade at the bottom of each muffin hole. Fold the remaining fruit into the cake mixture.
5. Divide the mixture evenly into the 12 hole muffin pan.
6. Place into oven, cook for 12 minutes.
7. Invert a pudding onto each plate. Serve with cream or ice cream if desired.

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Spaghetti Boscaiola

Ingredients

400g spaghetti

4 rashers bacon

400g  mushrooms (mixture of button and Swiss brown works best)

40g butter

2 cloves garlic

2 shallots

400ml thickened cream

1 sprig parsley

80g Parmesan to serve

Serves 4

Method:

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil with 1Tb salt added to water.
2. Finely chop mushrooms, bacon, parsley and shallots. Crush garlic.
3. Place butter into a non-stick fry pan over a medium heat and allow butter to melt.
4. Add bacon, garlic and mushrooms and cook for 6 minutes.
5. Cook pasta as per packet instructions.
6. In the final 4 minutes of the pasta cooking, add cream to the mushroom mixture and allow to thicken on a low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Finely chop parsley.
8. Drain pasta add to cream sauce, toss through to ensure all pasta is evenly coated.
9. Serve on individual plates with a sprinkle of parmesan and parsley

Steamed individual Christmas puddings

Did you know Christmas is less than 60 days away ?

Are you trying to plan your Christmas menu? Look no further than these little puddings.

This delicious little pudding is so easy to make and will impress the most discerning guests on Christmas day.

You can make your own minced fruit by soaking dried fruits in port or rum.

If you do not own a steam oven, please post a comment below and I will convert the recipe for you 😉

individual Christmas puddings

INGREDIENTS
12TB mince fruit (approx. 400grams)

60 grams butter (softened)

1/2C white sugar

1/2C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ SR flour

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

To serve:

Custard

segments of mandarin or raspberries

individual Christmas puddings

 

 

PREPARATION

1. Pre heat combination steam oven to full steam.
2. Cream butter and sugar for 2 minutes, add vanilla bean paste.
3. Lightly whisk egg, add into mixture fold through flour.
4. Spray a 12 hole silicone muffin tray place onto a biscuit tray. Place 1Tb of fruit mince at the bottom of each muffin hole. Fold the remaining fruit into the cake mixture.
5. Divide the mixture evenly into the 12 hole muffin pan.
6. Place into oven, cook for 12 minutes.
7. Invert a pudding onto each plate, drizzle with custard.

 

individual Christmas puddings

 

 

Steamed Mussels

INGREDIENTS

Steamed mussels with white wine and cream, chilli optional

Steamed mussels with white wine and cream, chilli optional
2kg mussels

4 cloves garlic

2 shallots

3 sprigs parsley

150ml white wine

150ml cream

1 Birdseye chilli (optional)

 

Steamed mussels with white wine and cream, chilli optional

To serve:

8 slices toasted crusty bread

3 sprig parsley

1 lemon

40grams butter

1. Pre heat combination steam oven to full steam.
2. Remove beard from mussels allow sitting in cold water for 3 minutes rinse thoroughly.
3. Place mussels in a deep dish and sprinkle with garlic, shallot, parsley, salt and pepper (optional Birdseye chili), Drizzle over the wine and cream sauce.
4. Steam for 12-18minutes until all mussel shells open (do not eat the mussels that do not open).
5. Serve in 4 bowls, sprinkle with parsley, add a lemon wedge and crusty bread and butter.
   

   Steamed mussels Italian style with pasta

Options

For Thai flavoured mussels try using a 400ml can of coconut milk (no cream), chilli and lemongrass

For Spanish flavoured mussels use a can of tomatoes (no cream) and chorizo

For Italian flavoured mussels use a 400ml can of tomatoes (omit cream) and add 1Tb of mixed basil and oregano

For a more filling meal, cook up 100grams of pasta per person and toss the sauce and mussels through the pasta.

Steamed Italian style mussels with pasta

Chia pudding

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This wonderful dish can be served as breakfast or dessert. You would never guess it is sugar and gluten free. No cooking required!

If that wasn’t good enough, chia seeds are an excellent source of dietary fibre and Omega 3’s.

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400ml coconut milk

1 cup chia seeds

4Tb honey

1cm length vanilla bean scraped

Mix all ingredients together and allow to set in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Toppings:

Caramelised fig and ginger

100g dried figs sliced

2Tb honey

1cm length of a vanilla bean

3/4 cup water

1cm piece ginger

1Tb slivered almonds

Place all ingredients into a pot over a low heat and allow to simmer. Thicken for 5-10minutes.

Scrape vanilla seeds into mixture.

Remove ginger

Allow to cool.

Or 

Blackberry and mixed seeds and nuts

4Tb mixed seed and nuts. E.g., sunflower seeds, pepitas and pine nuts.

1 cup blackberries

To assemble

layer the ingredients into 4 medium glasses

Place 1/8 of the chia mixture into the bottom of each glass.

Place 1/8 of a fruit filling of your choice on top of the chia mixture in each glass.

Place 1/8 of chia mixture on top of the fruit.

Top with 1/8 of the fruit filling. Sprinkle nuts of top.

Delicious blueberry tart

  

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup white sugar

¾ cup of water

2 Tb cornflour

2 pieces thawed puff pastry, around 6 x 10 inches

2Tb milk

1. Dissolve cornflour with 2Tb until it is a smooth paste. Combine the blueberries, water, sugar, cornflour mixture into a small sauce pan, on a medium heat bring to a gentle simmer, allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Remove from hotplate, place into a bowl and allow to cool.
3. Heat combination steam oven to quarter steam and heat/25% steam 180c and line a tray with baking paper or grease 4 small (4cm) pie dishes.
4. Cut the puff pastry into 8 even sized pieces, spoon blueberry mixture into the centre of the pastry leaving a 1cm border. Brush pastry with milk, bake for 15-20minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

OR

5. Lightly grease pie dishes cut a round of pastry to fit the dish, lightly press down, cut strips of pastry to create the lattice pattern. Spoon mixture into 4 pie dishes, lay 2 piece of pastry across the pies horizontally. Vertically alternate up and over the horizontal pastry pieces to achieve the lattice pattern. Brush pastry with milk, bake for 18-23minutes until pastry is golden brown.
6. Serve with cream or ice cream, dust with icing sugar if you dare!

Last minute entertaining made easy with Five Tastes make at home meals!

Last minute entertaining made easy with Five Tastes make at home meals!

Having invited dinner guests with very short notice, I was confronted with the dilemma of what to cook for them with the minimal time I had.  I went into overdrive wondering about what last minute meals I could plan.  Of course, whatever I chose would need to knock their socks off. So I headed to my local supermarket and grabbed some fresh seafood and a couple of Five Tastes make at home meals. I wanted to impress my guests and knew the quality and flavours of Five Tastes would help me achieve that.

Adding my own creative flair, I added a few bits and pieces to two of the meal packs, the result?

The Emperor’s Nasi Goreng with Balmain bug tails and prawns and The King’s Laksa with prawns, scallops and fresh curry leaves.

I love incorporating seafood as Sydney has access to the best range of fresh wild caught seafood.

The Nasi Goreng packet serves three, however I used it as an entrée for four people. I added 400 grams of Balmain bug tails and 400 grams of prawns as well as an egg for each serving. Simply fry the Balmain bug tails and prawns for 2 minutes each side and with the other meats on the packet instructions. The servings were more than ample.

The Emperors Nasi Goreng was unctuous, spicy and gratifying.  Given my goal of knocking the socks off my guests, I added some extra red and green chili to the mix and garnished with julienne snow peas. May I say, my mission was certainly accomplished!

The Laksa serves four.  I added 500 grams of prawns and 300 grams of scallops to the mix. Cook the scallops for 2 minutes each side and add with the prawns as per instructions. The King’s Laksa was heart warming, satisfying, yet overwhelmingly moreish, the dish was garnished with the prawns, julienne snow peas and extra chilli. The added chili and fresh curry leaves made for a pleasantly piquant dish.

Five Tastes meal kits with some fresh ingredients saved me time. My guests didn’t even notice!