Robust Tomato Spaghetti

Sometimes all a girl needs is a nice glass of red wine (it’s ok, I read in ‘Foods that Fight Cancer’ that all them antioxidants are good for me! Yay!), some trashy tellie and a heaping bowl of the richest, heartiest spaghetti to make her night complete.



Serves 4
Ingredients:

2 Tbls olive oil
½ brown onion, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
45gm tin anchovies, roughly chopped
1 tsp. Paprika
Fresh or dried chilli to taste (For dried, about ½ tsp)
1 carrot, grated
¼ capsicum, diced
½ cup red wine
1 x 425gm tin chopped tomatoes
½ cup fresh basil, roughly torn
Salt to taste (anchovies are naturally quite salty so make sure you taste, taste, taste as you go, so you don’t go overboard!).
400gm dried spaghetti
100gm parmesan, grated

How to:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for several minutes until opaque and becomes soft. Add the garlic and anchovies and cook to dissolve the anchovies, about 1 minute. Add the chilli and paprika and toast until fragrant, another minute. Add half the red wine and stir.
2. Add the grated carrot and capsicum and cook to soften. Add the tomatoes and the rest of the red wine and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce reaches desired consistency. If the sauce becomes too thick or dry, simply add some water. Add the fresh basil after 5 minutes and continue simmering.
3. Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Prepare spaghetti following packet instructions. Drain.

To serve:

Divide the spaghetti between four bowls and do the same with the sauce. Top with parmesan and a few extra sprigs of fresh basil to garnish. Pour yourself a lovely glass of red, curl up on the couch and watch Gordon Ramsey yell at some folk. Enjoy!

Fresh Pasta and a Smoke Bomb of Flour

I love my girlfriends. I love the way they keep my smiling, I love cocktail nights and I love being surrounded by opera singers and breaking out into song at any given moment. But for all of their wonderful traits, my gorgeous girls are hopeless cooks, (sorry girls)! I recall Amy and Emma dropping by for dinner, turned cooking lessons and Amy struggling to peel a parsnip... I knew I was in for a long night!

Lately I have been experimenting with my new pasta maker and absolutely loving the results so when our next girly movie night came around I eagerly suggested we have a play with it. Within minutes of me briefly showing the girls how to work the machine the kitchen had been hit with a smoke bomb of flour, plenty of laughter and much excitement as to what deliciousness was coming.

I whipped together a pesto sauce, Emma sautéed mushrooms (even commenting that she was pretty sure she could manage it on her own one day!) and Amy ran around taking photos, because of course we must document this momentous occasion!

It was a fabulous night finished with a feast of fruity sorbets, piles or Oreo biscuits and a Disney classic to boot.Here is the delicious recipe we enjoyed that night so you and your friends can have a just as much fun as we did.


Serves 4

Fresh Pasta: of course you can use dried or buy fresh pasta if you don’t have a pasta maker.

Fresh pasta dough is as simple as can be. I always follow the 100g flour (‘OO’ if you can get it) to 1 egg per/person rule. So if you are serving four people it would be 400gs flour to 4 eggs. Simple!

Whisk the eggs lightly in a small bowl. In a large bowl add the flour and make a well. Pour in the eggs and stir with your fingers to combine. You’re going to get dirty here so enjoy it! Once the dough begins to come together remove from the bowl and kneed on a lightly floured bench until smooth. If it is too sticky add more flour, if too dry and crumbly add another egg.

Feed through the machine in batches that you can handle and take it too your desired thickness, I like level 7, not too thin, not too thick. Then it’s up to you how you want to slice up those gorgeous pasta sheets! You can use one of the pre set cuts or roll it up and slice how you want. We used tagliatelle for this batch.

Pesto:

1 bunch basil (reserve about 10 leaves for decoration)
40g pine nuts, toasted
2 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup olive oil
Good squeeze of ½ lemon
¼ cup grated parmesan
Decent pinch sea salt and pepper to taste

Pesto is all about taste. If you’re like me and you‘re a salt lover you can add more. If garlic or lemon is your thing, go wild! Here is my basic recipe, now have a play and make it your own.
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and whiz it up until herbs are roughly chopped and everything is well combined. If it seems too thick add more oil or water to thin it out. Taste, taste, taste!

To serve:

Boil a large pot of water, add salt. You may have to prepare the pasta in a couple of batches as to not over crowd the pot. Add the pasta and cook for 1- 1 and a half minutes. Seriously, this is all it will need. Remove and drain.

Add to a large serving bowl and toss with pesto to coat. Top with shaved parmesan and a few springs of fresh basil.

Options: You can always all extras to something as simple as a basic pesto topping.
Try any combination of the following:

Fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
Pitted kalamata olives
Marinated mushrooms or sautéed mushrooms
Prosciutto
Sun dried tomatoes
Fresh rocket

Creamy, Mango, Mess of Yum!

Not exactly a traditional Christmas Cake and doesn't really fit with the 'healthy' theme BUT if I listen to my hippy Doctor (and I rarely do but in this case I agree) if it is going to make me happy it is probably good for me! Therefor this Creamy, mangoy, mess of yummy simply MUST be good for me!

I made up this recipe after years of searching for THE Mango cake. It was several years ago, on a dark and stormy night. Ok it wasn't dark nor stormy but it was in fact the best cake I have ever tasted and so far this is recipe is the closest I have come to replicating it.

P.S This was the fastest I've seen a Christmas cake walk off the plate! An absolute treasure.

Ingredients

Sponge: Thanks Maggie Fulton!
3 eggs, seperated
pinch of salt
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup SR Flour
3 Tbls warm milk
1 tsp butter
Filling:
250g mascarpone cheese
300g thickened cream
2 Tbls icing sugar
1 egg yolk
½ tsp vanilla essence

Syrup:
3 Tbls Marmalade or light coloured jam of choice
½ cup water

Topping:
2 Large mangos, cheek flesh sliced ½- 1cm thick. Flesh from around the stone removed to best of your ability. It doesn’t matter so much what these look like.
200g packet of slivered almonds

Make the Sponge:

Grease one 22cm round cake tin and cut 1 sheet of baking paper of the same size to fit into the bottom. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180C.

In a clean, dry bowl add eggwhites and salt and using an electric mixer beat until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour in the sugar in an even stream until combined. Continue beating until thick and glossy. Add the egg yolks all at once and continue beating on a low setting to lightly combine.

Sift the flour into the egg mixture and fold through evenly with a spatula or large metal spoon. Combine the warm milk and butter and fold through quickly.

Pour the mixture into prepared tin and tilt to spread evenly. Place on a shelf in the middle of the oven and bake for 20-25minutes. To check if it is cooked, stick a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean it is done.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before trying to decorate or the cream will slide off.

The Filling:

While the sponge is cooling we can get started on the filling. Combine mascarpone, cream, icing sugar, egg yolk and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat on high until thick and well combined. Refrigerate until ready for use.
In a small saucepan heat marmalade and water over medium heat and stir to dissolve.

To Decorate the Cake:

Slice the cooled sponge cake in half through the middle, making sure to make it as even a cut as possible. Spoon ¾ of the syrup over top of both halves of the sponge and allow to soak in. Choose which ½ will be the bottom of your cake and on top of that spoon ¼ of the cream mixture. On top of the cream place the un-uniform chunks of mango from around the stone and cover with another ¼ of the cream mixture.
Place the other half of the sponge on top of the mango and cream covered cake carefully. Pour the rest of the cream mixture on top and around the sides of the cake, spread evenly. Around the sides liberally press slivered almonds. They will stick to the cream.

Top with the slices of mango in any which way suits you! I like to lay one layer of slices flat to cover the cake and finish with a stack in the middle to look messy-chic. Glaze with the remaining syrup to make it nice and shiny.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Coconut Pancakes

Serves 4

½ cup Wholemeal flour
½ cup Plain flour (you can use all wholemeal or try spelt or buckwheat).
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1* 400ml can coconut Milk
2 Eggs
1 ½ Tbls maple syrup
2 Tbls melted butter (plus extra for cooking)

Coconut Syrup:
1/3 cup coconut milk
¼ cup pure maple syrup

To serve:
2 Bananas, thickly sliced
Extra shredded coconut to decorate


Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C.
2. In a large mixing bowl sift together flours, baking powder and salt. Stir through shredded coconut. Set aside.
3. In a medium size bowl whisk the eggs lightly. Add coconut milk, syrup and butter, whisk to combine.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the coconut milk mixture, stir well to combine.
5. Heat a 1 tbls of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. If you want the extra flavour add a dollop of butter as well (delish!). Add 2 tbls pancake mixture to the pan per pancake, cooking 3 at a time. After a couple of minutes they will begin to bubble on top, this means they are ready to flip. Flip and continue cooking for a minute or 2. Remove from the pan and set in the oven to keep warm while repeating the process with the remaining batter.
6. To prepare coconut syrup, combine coconut milk and syrup together in a small saucepan and whisk over medium heat for 2-3 minutes to heat through.

To serve: Stack a few pancakes and top with ½ a chopped banana, coconut syrup and garnish with a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

Yummo!

Pasta Primavera

Serves 4

400gms dried pasta shells (or if you are super fancy like me and Alan, you can make your own fresh pasta!)

Really any green veg you like/have! I like:
250g (1 small head) Broccoli florets
1 Zucchini, halved and sliced lengthways in sticks
3/4 cup Green peas (frozen or fresh if you can be bothered peeling them...:s )

1 tbls Olive oil and extra to drizzle on top
¼ cup Fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
1 Tbls lemon rind
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tsp Chilli flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
Parmesan
Salt to taste


Method
1. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water following packet directions until almost al dente. Add broccoli and zucchini for the last 3 minutes of cooking and the peas for the last 1 minute, or until bright green and tender crisp. Drain well.

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbls of oil in a frying pan over med-high heat. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook until fragrant, 30seconds- 1 minute. Add the pasta and vegetables and toss to coat. Take off the heat and add the lemon juice, rind and basil, stir through. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

3. Spoon the mixture evenly among serving bowls. Top with parmesan and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.

Feta and Broad Bean Salad

Serves 4 as a side dish.

1 ½ cups broad beans, peeled
½ cup of mint, torn
2 cups mixed lettuce
50g feta cheese
Flaked almonds

Dressing:
2 Tbls lemon juice
½ clove garlic, crushed
4 Tbls olive oil
Salt and pepper


Method

1. In a pot of boiling water blanch the broad beans for 2 minutes or until bright green in colour. Drain and refresh under cold water.

2. Heat a small pan and toast the almonds on medium heat until lightly brown. Set aside to cool.

3. Whisk together the dressing in a small bowl and season to taste.

4. In a large bowl combine broad beans, mint, lettuce and crumble over the feta. Dress and toss with fingertips to coat the leaves.

5. Sprinkle with toasted almonds to serve.

Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

Makes 8 rolls

100g dried vermicelli rice noodles
½ Lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced into matchsticks
½ carrot, grated
1 ½ cups iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 good handful (about ¾ cup) fresh coriander, chopped
8 leaves of Vietnamese mint
1 Tbls oil
150g firm tofu, cut into 1cm * 4cm rectangles.
1 Tbls fish sauce
8 large rice paper roll sheets

Dipping sauce:
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 Tbls fish sauce
Juice or 1 lime
1 Tbls honey
1/2 fresh, red chilli, chopped or if you perfer a hotter sauce crush in a mortar and pestle.

Method
1. Soak the rice noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to cool down.
2. Heat oil in a pan and lightly fry off the tofu. Set aside to cool.
3. Combine cooled noodles, cucumber, carrot, lettuce and coriander in a bowl and coat with fish sauce.
4. To prepare the sheets for rolling you will need a large bowl of hot water. One at a time soak the sheets in the hot water for 10-15 seconds or until softened. Remove the sheet from the hot water and lay on the bench.
5. To assemble place 2 tbls of the noodle mixture towards the lower edge of the rice paper sheet and top with a slice of tofu and 1 Vietnamese mint leaf.
6. Gently fold the bottom of the sheet up over the mixture. Then fold one side at a time in toward the centre and roll up from the bottom to form a neatly packed cylinder (like a fat cigar). Repeat the process until you have made 8 rolls.

Option: You can crust the tofu with sesame seeds before frying if you would like some added texture.

Dipping sauce:
To prepare the sauce combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to dissolve the honey.