Operation Death by Macaroni and Cheese

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to my very first Thanksgiving. I was told that everyone was to bring a traditional Thanksgiving dish, and being that my life's motto is "dance like no one's watching and eat like you aren't lactose intolerant", I jumped at the chance to cook  Macaroni and Cheese. But this wasn't just any Macaroni and Cheese, this was Martha Stewart's recipe and I'd been waiting almost a year for an opportunity to cook it. It was amazing (and by amazing I mean so full of fatty ingredients that my heart nearly stopped beating just reading the recipe).

Here's what you'll need (serves 12. Halve the recipe if you've had a horrible day and need something comforting to eat while watching trashy television) :

• 6 slices good-quality white bread, crusts removed, torn into smallish, crouton-size pieces
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing dish
• 5 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar
• 2 cups grated Gruyere
• 500g elbow macaroni

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees. Butter large casserole dish (I used one of those foil roasting trays you buy from the supermarket); set aside. Place bread pieces in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour butter into the bowl with bread, and toss. Set the breadcrumbs aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided frying pan over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

2. Slowly pour hot milk into flour-butter mixture while whisking. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.


3. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar, and 1 1/2 cups Gruyere. Set cheese sauce aside.

4. Fill a large saucepan with water. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 fewer minutes than manufacturer's directions, until outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone. (Different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions.) Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Gruyere; scatter breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes; serve. Best eaten sitting down with eyes closed (it's so dangerously delicious that your eyes tend to roll back in their sockets).

*You can find more delicious looking pics of this recipe here

 

Radish Soup

Radishes... I just love them in salads and they are so good for you (great for the stomach and liver and rich in vitamin C). So when my work colleague Greg brought me in a massive bunch pulled straight from his garden, I thought I would try something a little different. You could say I put the rad in radish...

Here’s what you’ll need (serves 4):

• 1 large bunch of red radishes, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 cup of red lentils
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin.
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala
• 1 sprig of Thyme
• 1 tin of coconut milk

Cook the onion, garlic and radishes in a saucepan until softened. Add the stock, water, thyme, spices and lentils and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until radishes are cooked through and lentils are tender (you may need to add more water at this point as the lentils soak up a fair bit). Blend soup in a blender, return to heat and stir in the coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper and adjust spices according to taste. Serve with toasted sourdough.

Amanda's Duck and Quail Egg Salad

When my friend Amanda came into work one morning telling me about a delicious sounding salad she had made, there was only one thing to do... I shamelessly used my blog as a way of not only acquiring the recipe (and some really great photos), but also scoring  a serve for lunch, and it did not disappoint... It was reduckulously good (I know, that one was bad). Here is the recipe, make it quack smart!

Here's what you'll need (serves 6):

• 1 roast duck from your Asian Grocer. (Amanda gets hers "chop chop", and says that they will even debone it for you if you ask).
• 9 quail eggs (if you can't get hold of Leanne's itty bitty silkie chook eggs because she won't answer her phone).
• 2 bunches of watercress
• 4 sticks of celery
• 4 carrots
• 3 tbsp pickled pink sushi ginger
• Coriander leaves
• Birdseye chili (optional)

      Dressing

• 1 nip Rum
• 1 cup Coke
• 1 slice of lemon
• Ice
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• Liquid from pickled pink sushi ginger
• Rice wine vinegar
• White sugar

Method:

Wash salad veg and chill in the fridge.

Prepare dressing. Start with a base ratio of about 3:2 / sesame:soy in a small jug. Mix.

Combine the rum and coke in a glass and pour over ice. Garnish with lemon. Drink (this is a very important step in Amanda's recipe. She stated that this is crucial in preparing your taste buds for the following, and who am I to argue). Add the remaining ingredients and combine to taste.

Cover the eggs with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 seconds then run under  cold water so they don't continue to cook.

 While the eggs are cooking slice the carrots and celery into thin sticks. Slice chili. Arrange the watercress in a bowl and add the celery and carrot sticks. Peel the eggs and halve.

If the duck is not warm, give it a quick blast in the oven. Remove the bones if not already deboned and toss into salad.

Add the eggs, pickled pink ginger, coriander and chili.

Pour over the dressing, toss salad, pour another rum and serve.

Spag to Bol You Over...

Spaghetti Bolognaise holds a very special place in my heart/stomach. Not only is it the ultimate comfort food, but it was the first thing that I ever learnt to cook. I have been tweaking my recipe for almost 5 years now and feel I can no longer keep it's deliciousness to myself....

Here's what you'll need (serves 6):

• 500g pork mince
• 500g beef mince
• 100g pancetta, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2 zucchini, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 200g mushrooms, sliced
• 2 small red chillies, finely chopped
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 tbs brown sugar
• 2 x 400g cans diced tomatoes
• 415g tomato paste
• 1 cup of basil, roughly chopped

In a large saucepan fry the onion, chilli and mushrooms until softened. Add the garlic, carrot,zucchini, mince and pancetta and cook stirring for 1 minute. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, brown sugar and red wine. Season with salt and pepper and simmer over low heat for one hour or until sauce has thickened (really, the longer you have to simmer this puppy the better. Sometimes I cook it all day in the slow cooker and it turns out AMAZING). Stir through chopped basil. Serve with spaghetti (or pasta of your choice) and a liberal sprinkling of grated parmesan.



Apologies for how messy this plate looks. I was so hungry by the time I had finished cooking, and it smelled so damn good that I was in no mental state to take a good picture...







Kat's Purrrfect Fish Bake

I like to wander around my office at lunch time as people tend to offer me samplings of their lunches (I have even come back to my desk to find sandwich halves on my keyboard, true story). I always partake in these offerings because a) I'm mostly always hungry, and b) well, pretty much because I'm always mostly hungry! But the day my friend/work colleague/ fellow blogger Kat offered me a morsel of her fish bake, that's when I hit the jackpot. This dish tasted so delicious that I'm pretty sure for a moment my eyes rolled into the back of my head. I begged her to email me the recipe, not only so that I could share it with you, but mostly because I wanted to be able to make it for myself ASAP! Not only did she deliver on emailing me the recipe, but she also provided pictures, which pretty much brings her up to best friend status in my book. In her own words:"The bake has a layer of onions and fennel, then topped with a lovely layer of flaky fish, crunchy potatoes and breadcrumbs with a little cheese and cream. It is the epitome of winter warmth in your mouth".

 
Here's what you'll need (serves 4, or just 1 if you plan on spending a night in, eating in front of the TV):

• 400g potatoes, scrubbed and finely sliced
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 bulb of fennel, trimmed and sliced (Kat uses leek as a substitute)
• 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
• 4 medium or 8 small fillets of trout, pin boned (Kat has never actually cooked it with trout, She uses 2 fillets of salmon - skin on)
• 285mL single cream
• 2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 anchovy fillets
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs (sourdough bread is perfect for this)
• 2 lemons halved

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.

2. Parboil the sliced potatoes in salted boiling water for a few minutes until softened and then drain in a colander.

3. Place a 20cm casserole type pan on low heat, and add oil, garlic, onion, fennel (or leek) and fennel seeds.

4. Cook slowly for 10 minutes with lid on, stirring every so often

5. Take pan off the heat. Lay trout (or salmon) fillets skin-side up over the onion and fennel.

6. Mix together your cream, parmesan and anchovies, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and pour over fish.

7. Toss the potato slices in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and layer these over the top of the fish.

8. Place in the oven for 20 minutes, sprinkling with the breadcrumbs and a little grated Parmesan 5 minutes before the end.

9. Serve with lemon halves.

Most Eggsellent Pumpkin, Broccoli and Mushroom Frittata

A couple of weeks ago, my work colleague Leanne generously (and most kindly) gave me a dozen eggs laid by her very own Chinese Silkie hens.

Not only are these hens the most adorable little chickens I have ever seen (I just want to pick one up and give it a cuddle), but the eggs they lay are just as cute...

Cute and also delicious, which is how I prefer all my food to be. To take full advantage of this most eggseptional gift I decided to make an eggstremely tasty frittata.


Here's What You'll Need (Serves 4):

• 1 1/2 tbs butter
• 1 1/2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 500g piece butternut pumpkin, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 heads of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 200g mushroom, sliced
• 1/2 cup thickened cream
• 6 eggs
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan

Melt the butter into a frying pan over low heat. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Increase the heat and add the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Cook, stirring for 10 minutes or until onion has softened and caramalised. 

Meanwhile, add the pumpkin and broccoli to a saucepan of salted boiling water and boil for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and then add to onions in the frying pan.

Whisk the eggs and cream togethe and season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture over the veggies and cook uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes or until egg mixture is almost set but the top is still runny. 

Sprinkle the frittata with the parmesan and cook under the grill for 5 minutes or until the top is golden. Take out of the grill and let it rest for 5 minutes. Eat with the realisation that it doesn't matter what came first the chicken or the egg, because either way you end up with something delicious.

Drink This if You Know What's Good For You

My yogi friend Muz (or as I like to call him NaMuzte),  introduced me to this wonderful Turmeric concoction. Before this I had been completely unaware of the many wonderful health benefits of Turmeric. Not only is it a natural liver detoxifier and painkiller, but it also aids in fat burning, who knew? Needless to say, I now sip on this deliciously warming Turmeric drink first thing every morning and expect to live until at least 125.

Here's What You'll Need:

• 2 teaspoons of ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons of organic honey
• juice of half of a lemon
• grated ginger to taste

Mix the turmeric in a mug with a little hot water to form a paste. Add the rest of the ingredients and top up with hot water (you may need to add more honey, ginger or lemon depending on your own tastes). Sip on this refreshing drink while justifying to yourself that you can indeed have some more chocolate because turmeric aids in fat burning, right?

An Outs-Dan-Ding evening

I was lucky enough to be invited to my friend Daniel's house one evening for dinner. As much as I love to cook there is something wonderful about eating a meal that has been prepared for you, and when I found out that Beef Wellington was on the menu (something I had never tried before), I admit I may have shed some tears. I'll also confess that my eyes started to well up when Dan described the delicious layers that make up a Beef Wellington, but crying over food is something I have no control over! I'm not one to cry over spilled milk, but I am one to cry over a delicious meal, especially when it looks like this:



Dinner consisted of Beef Wellington, honey carrots and creamed spinach. The beef wellington was everything that I imagined it to be and the carrots I could have continued eating all night. The fact that the main course was followed by chocolate mousse, let's just say if I had died that night, I would have been one very happy lady!

Here's what you need to cook one Outs-Dan-Ding meal:

Beef Wellington

 

• 500g beef fillet 
• 500 g mushrooms
• 8 slices of Parma ham
• Dijon mustard for brushing beef fillet
• 400g puff pastry
• Egg wash
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 glass white wine
• Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

 

Preheat oven at 220\'C.Season beef with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat a pan with olive oil and fry beef on high heat until is brown. Let to cool.In food processor mix mushrooms, onion and garlic. Add this puree on the pan and fry for a few minutes. Add a glass white wine and let to evaporated alcohol.On the plastic foil put first layer Parma ham, then mushrooms puree and beef (brushing beef with mustard). Easy roll all in plastic foil and keep on fridge for 30 minutes.Unwrap the meat from the cling film.. Roll out the pastry and put the meat on the center. Egg wash the edge of the pastry and roll up the pastry. Turnover and egg wash over the top. Mark the pastry using the back of a small knife to make a cross hatch.Baking at 220\'C for about 30-35 minutes. Rest a few minutes before using.

Honey Carrots

 

• 2 kg large carrots
• 150g butter
• 50g brown sugar
• A few big dollops of honey

 

Method

 

Pre-heat oven to 150OC. Peel and chop carrots 1-2 cm thick. Place roughly in an oven proof dish. Chop butter and place on top. Sprinkle sugar over the carrots and butter. Place in oven for three hours, taking out and mixing through every half an hour. If carrots start to burn turn the oven down slightly. After three hours take out and drizzle honey over the top. Mix through and place back in oven for a couple of hours. Carrots will be ready when they are dark (but not burnt in colour), slightly shriveled, and chewy.

Chocolate Mousse



300g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
sea salt
8 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
100g caster sugar (4½ heaped tablespoons)
300ml double cream


Method


Place the dark chocolate and a tiny pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl and sit it over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Leave to slowly melt, stirring occasionally.


Meanwhile, separate your eggs so you have the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Add the sugar to the bowl of yolks and beat until the sugar has dissolved and its silky and smooth. Whisk the whites with a tiny pinch of salt until they form soft peaks – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down over your head without them falling out! In a third bowl, beat the cream until slightly thick and just whipped.


Once the chocolate has melted, carefully lift the bowl out of the pan. Tip in the cream and mix again, then fold through the melted chocolate until it’s well combined and a gorgeous colour. Finish by tipping in the egg whites, then keep folding, from the outside in in a figure-of-eight until the mix is smooth and evenly coloured. It will look a bit dodgy at first, but trust me it will come together. Spoon or ladle the mousse into a big serving bowl or divide between little glasses or cappuccino cups and pop in the fridge for an hour or two until set...

 

 Daniel is in the process of getting his own catering business up and running, and if the above meal was anything to go by, it is going to be a great success. Watch this space, as I'm sure there will be plenty of delicious recipes of Daniel's to follow (If it sounds like I am trying to wheedle my way into having another meal cooked for me... You would be correct).
 

 

Pan Fried Toasted Cheese Sandwich with Truffle Oil (so cheesy, no food pun needed)

Last week I was lucky enough to have the most amazing gift bestowed upon me. A work colleague of mine had spent a week in Melbourne and kindly brought me back a bottle of black truffle oil. 

As that particular day at work ended up being quite busy, in times of stress I sniffed at the oil like it was smelling salts (your brain really can't comprehend that anything stressful could be happening when it is faced with an aroma so crazily pungent and delicious).  Anyway, as it was my first time ever using black truffle oil, I thought I would start really simple. And since I decided to cook with it on a Sunday, it made sense after being at church and worshipping Jesus, to go home and cook with cheesus.

Here's What You'll Need:

• 2 slices of bread (I used a light rye)
• Vintage Cheddar cheese
• Black Truffle Oil

 Fry the bread in a pan in the oil (only fry one side of each slice) until browned. Flip one slice over, add the sliced cheese and put the other slice of bread on top. Continue frying sandwich until the bread has browned and cheese has melted. I accompanied the toastie with a cup of tea in a fancy tea cup, because I'm a lady (although seeing me eat you probably wouldn't think so). Best eaten with eyes closed, to experience maximum deliciousness.

Pig in a Winter Garden Soup

Soup. I love the thought of it on a cold Winter's day, but the reality is that it rarely keeps me full for long. That's why I came up with this little beauty. It's tasty, nutritious, high in protein and did I mention it contains cheese AND bacon?

Here's what you'll need (Serves 6):

• 2 small red chillies, finely sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 300g bacon, chopped
• 3 heads of broccoli, roughly chopped
• 1/2 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
• 1-2 handfuls of brussel sprouts, halved
• 200g of mushrooms, chopped
• 2 tins of butter beans, rinsed
• 2L of vegetable stock
• Grated cheese

Fry the garlic, and chilli in some oil for about a minute. Add the Leek, bacon and mushrooms and cook until leek softens. Chuck in the rest of the vegetables, the butter beans and stock. Add water until liquid covers vegetables and bring to the boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Blend soup (I used my newly acquired stick blender... Life changing!), pour into serving bowls and add a handful (more like 2) of grated cheese to soup before serving. Best eaten slurped.

Taste-Tea Tropical Oats with Quinoa

With the weather seeming to grow colder by the second, I have been counting down the days until Summer's sweet return. It's no secret that I'm not that fond of Winter. The cold really gets to me, and Winter fruit just doesn't appeal to me the way Summer tropical fruits do. Which is why I was delighted when I stumbled across Stash Teas. They have some amazing flavours, my favourite being their delicious Coconut Mango Oolong tea. As the back of the box suggests, it really does taste like a day at the beach. Seeing as I couldn't afford to whisk myself off to somewhere tropical and would have to ride what remained of Winter out, I thought maybe I could bring a taste of the tropics to my breakfast with the help of this tasty Oolong.

Here's what you'll need (it serves 4):

• 2 Coconut Mango Oolong Teabags (I picked mine up from Thomas Dux, but you can also purchase them online from their website)
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1 cup of Quinoa (rinsed)
• 1 cup of shredded coconut
• 1 cup of dried mango, chopped
• 1 can of light coconut milk

Bring 4 cups of water to the boil and remove from heat. Plop in your teabags and let them steep for 5 minutes. While you're waiting, place the oats and quinoa into a saucepan. Once the teabags have steeped for long enough, discard them and pour the tea over the oats and quinoa. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

Place the shredded coconut onto a tray lined with baking paper and pop under the grill until it has browned (keep a good eye on it as it browns really quickly).Add the coconut and dried mango to the oats and quinoa as well as the can of coconut milk.Bring the mixture to the boil, then lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid has reduced. Serve, enjoy and imagine you're somewhere exotic! You can store the remains in the fridge (if any), and just add some milk to the mixture when reheating.

Delicious Stuffed PotatOH

So I decided to follow my own advice and use the remnants of my vegetarian chili from a few nights ago and rustle up a stuffed spud for dinner. This dish was super easy to make and the perfect meal for a cosy Saturday night in.

 Here's What You'll Need:

• 1 good sized potato (okay I'll admit it... I ate 2)
• Salt
• Grated cheese
• Leftovers of your choice

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Wash the potato and while it's still wet, put the potato into a bowl, add some salt and turn the potato to coat (this will give the potato a nice, crispy skin). Bung the potato into the oven and bake for one hour (the potato is ready when the skin feels crispy and the potato gives a little when you squeeze it). Cut a hole in the top of the potato and scoop out some of the contents. Once you have enough space for your filling, sprinkle over some grated cheese and put the potato back into the oven until the cheese has melted. Top with guacaholymole and serve with a movie of your choice (for me it was Love and Other Drugs).

Lime Marinated Chicken wings, Easy Vegetarian Enchiladas and Guacaholymole

I had invited a friend over to watch the final State of Origin Game. Now I have to admit that I am no fan of football. But what I am a fan of is having an excuse to cook up unhealthy(ish), delicious food mid week. First up on the menu were lime marinated chicken wings:

 Might I say that these wings tasted amazing and were really easy to prepare (you can find the recipe here on the Food Network website). I followed the recipe as far as making the marinade, but instead of "broiling" the chicken as the recipe suggested, I baked them in the oven for around 30 minutes (turning them over half way through) at 180°C. The recipe also suggested serving these delicious wings with an avocado dip, but why you would serve them with a boring dip when you could serve them with my Guacaholymole is beyond me.

Here's What you'll need to make Guacaholymole:

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 cove of garlic, crushed or thinly sliced
• 1 small tomato, diced
• 1 small red onion, finely diced
• 1 lime, juiced
• chili flakes
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp Coriander, chopped

Mash the avocados in a bowl. Add the garlic, tomato and the onion. Add a good squeeze or two of lime juice, a sprinkle of chili flakes and some salt and pepper. Stir through the coriander and give the mixture a taste. Adjust the ingredients to please your own taste buds. I prefer mine quite limey with a big hit of garlic and chili.

Next up, right in time for kickoff, were vegetarian enchiladas:

For the filling, I cooked up a vegetarian chili (found here on Taste, a website that I have found really handy in the past as there are loads of recipes listed here). The best thing about this chili is that you can do so much with the leftovers. You can make nachos, have it on toast, or (my personal favourite) use it as a delicious filling for a stuffed spud. I also added a can of corn into the mix, just for some extra sweetness.

To make the enchiladas (and this is a very simplified version), spoon the mixture into tortillas and roll up to enclose the filling. As the filling will be warm from just being cooked on the stove top, all you need to do is place the enchiladas on a tray, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake in the oven until cheese is melted and tortillas have started to brown. Serve with a good dollop of Guacaholymole on top.

Good Golly Miss Cauliflower, Prosciutto and Potato Bake

Saturday night found me and three friends squeezed into my tiny studio apartment. I was cooking a feast for four in my even tinier kitchen but as I always say, it's not the size of your kitchen that matters, it's the size of your heart when you're cooking in it. As I had an abundance of potatoes and cauliflower remaining from the past few fruit and veg box deliveries I had received (see Mystery Box Thursdays), I decided to cook up a delicious cauliflower, prosciutto and potato bake, and good golly was it tasty!

Here's what you will need:

•  4 good sized potatoes, thinly sliced
• Half a head of cauliflower, broken into florets
• Prosciutto (half to put in the bake, and half to eat while you're cooking)
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed or thinly sliced
• A pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup of cream
• Grated Cheddar cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cook the sliced potato in salted boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and then layer the potato in a lightly greased, ovenproof serving dish. Shred the prosciutto and layer on top of the potatoes, followed by the cauliflower. Add the garlic.

Mix the cream with the nutmeg, and pour over the potatoes, prosciutto and cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the top and then sprinkle some more (you can never have enough cheese), followed by the Parmesan. Cover and bake for 50 minutes or until vegetables are tender, then uncover and place under grill until cheese has browned. Serve with other equally delicious things of your choosing (I served with baked vegetables and garlic-chili BBQ chicken) and fight your friends for the last few remaining mouthfuls.

Mystery Box Thursdays

One of the highlights of my week is Thursday afternoons, when my seasonal fruit and veg box from SydneyFresh is delivered. For $35 I get amazingly fresh seasonal produce delivered to a doorstep of my choosing. In this case the delivery is made to my office and presented to me by whoever is lucky enough to receive it from the delivery man. I know this box is going to arrive once a week, but somehow the excitement and novelty of it is yet to wear off. Whoever brings the box round to my cubicle is always greeted by the site of me, bouncing up and down on the Swiss ball I sit on and clapping my hands in delight (I thought it would be a better option for me to sit on a Swiss ball after one of the senior members of the office busted me spinning around on an office chair while gleefully yelling "Weee!". Did I forget to mention this was the first impression this poor man had of me?). Anyway, my good friend Troy talked me into getting this delivered after he raved about how fresh it was, and he was right.

What I love most about it, is the fact that it's seasonal and I'm able to support Australian produce. I also love that I never know what I will be cooking come Thursday night. This has really enabled me to get creative in the kitchen. What was in today's box of delicious goodness you ask? Cauliflower, broccoli, zucchinis, tomatoes, snow peas, spinach leaves, potatoes, celery, mushrooms, carrots, pumpkin and my favourite, brussel sprouts! In the way of fruit I recieved pears, apples, oranges, mandarins and kiwi fruit. This is the smallest box available (with the largest box costing $70) and is the perfect size for a couple, or like me, a single gal who eats enough for two. You can also order extras like free range eggs, herbs and spices, and also flowers.

My kitchen, the scene of a Hommuside

As I was waiting for a friend of mine to arrive at my little Darlinghurst studio for dinner, I found myself feeling peckish. So I rustled up what has to be one of my all time favourite snacks (aside from cheese, which in my opinion is more of a staple), Hommus. My take on this delicious dip is quite rustic (and by rustic I mean that I have yet to buy myself a stick blender so have to mash everything up in a mortar and pestle), but boy is it tasty!

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 tins of chick peas (drained and rinsed)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of tahini
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• the juice of 1-2 lemons
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• salt and pepper

Chuck (yes, that is the correct culinary term), the chickpeas into a bowl along with the olive oil, tahini, garlic, and some of the lemon juice. Blend ingredients with a stick blender, or any type of blender for that matter, until somewhat smooth (add some water if the consistency is too thick). From here it becomes a tasting game. Add some salt, pepper and cumin until you feel the balance of flavours is to your liking. I prefer my hommus really garlicy and lemony, but you may prefer yours to have more of a creamy, tahini kind of taste. 

*I forgot to mention that if you have the time, you can roast the garlic first in the oven until it's really soft, and then add it to the hommus for that extra punch of flavour (I'd like to thank my friend Tam for that idea).

An Eaternal Love Story

I've thoroughly enjoyed my food from the moment I was born. Eating for me has always been my most favourite past time, so it made sense that cooking would become my second most favourite. Not to say that I'm some kind of culinary genius, but I do know how to create tasty, flavoursome dishes using healthy(ish), simple ingredients.

What I think I love most about food is that eating it engages all 5 senses and that each meal can be an amazing emotional experience and not just a way to fill a hole in an empty tummy. In fact, eating is such an emotional experience for me that I have been known, on numerous occasions, to cry when I taste something that is really delicious. Only a couple of weeks ago, I had to hold back a sob in a Thai restaurant when I tasted the most amazing fermented pork and sticky rice sausages, and I'm not even that big of a fan of sausages!

My main aim of this blog is to share my love of food, some of my favourite recipes, as well as a few funny stories along the way I'm sure. So watch this space, as tasty recipes are soon to follow! :)