blog



Sep 29th

quick roast vegie tray

Posted by with No Comments

This is a quick and delicious side dish that helps to brighten up any plate and tastes fantastic!  We’ve served this with both whole eye fillet and roast lamb racks, but would go just as well with a roast chicken, a simple steak or bbq sausages.  I try to do a monster sized tray full so I have some leftover to toss with greens to make a salad for lunch the next day.  Change it up with your favourite vegies but make sure you stick with the red onions as this is what really gives the dish that beautiful caramelised flavour.

ingredients
enough for 6 sides

2 zuchinnis
10 chat potatoes
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, washed
2 red onions
2 bulbs australian garlic (or any garlic with large cloves) broken up into cloves with skin left on
2 sprigs rosemary – stems discarded
4 sprigs thyme – stems discarded
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
s&p

method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius. Cut the potatoes in half and par boil, skin on.  Meanwhile, slice the zucchini thickly and cut the onions into eight wedges. Once the potatoes are par boiled, toss in a large bowl with the other vegies, garlic, herbs, oil, butter and s&p.  The vegies should have a bit of a sheen to them, so don’t be afraid to go crazy with the olive oil if you think they need more.
Line the largest tray you have with baking paper and spread the vegies out.  You want them to be snug but not overcrowded as otherwise they will just stew rather than get a deliciously brown crispness. Bake for approx 30. or until the potatoes are golden.

Read the Recipe
Jan 24th

roast pork belly with cranberry & elderflower relish

Posted by with No Comments

roast pork belly with root vegetable puree and cranberry & elderflower relish.

I absolutely love roast pork belly … the combination of the crispy skin and the soft, rich layers of meat that melt in your mouth (when it’s done right) is delicious! But I am a little bit afraid of most pork cuts that depart from the usual suspects, so I have been hesitant to try this myself. That, and for this recipe you need to make yourself reasonably available for around 4 hours on and off.  I probably didn’t leave this cooking for long enough (I followed the recipe, however the crackling could have been…well…more crackly!) So just a word of advice, don’t be afraid to keep roasting it for longer than the recipe says to, it is pretty hard to mess up – the longer you roast it, the more tender it will become.

Seeing as it is so rich, I can only ever really stomach an entreée size portion of pork so it is a good idea to supplement it with something subtle and hearty to serve as a main, like root vegies or as i have done here, root vegetable puree. The relish in this recipe is delicious and cuts the rich flavour of the pork, while adding a sweet dimension to the meal. The watercress is a nice garnish and adds something fresh and untouched to the plate.

elderflower cordial, mustard & ginger

The recipes for the roast pork belly and the cranberry and elderflower relish are based on recipes by Ottolenghi’s creators; Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi.  Both born in Jerusalem, their food has a strong middle eastern influence and is very much about colour, texture, presentation, of course flavour and the freshest of fresh ingredients.  They don’t over complicate the cooking or preparation process and their food is not wanky. Their successful stores are located in London and are very hard to label one thing or another – they themselves sum it up with the words ‘food shop, patisserie, deli, restaurant, bakery’ and yet this still doesn’t do it justice … and to think I have never actually set foot in one of their stores! (although I have seriously considered forking out the $3000 + for a plane ticket just to do so). Thank the lord for their recently released cook book ‘Ottolenghi, The Cookbook’. Yotam and Sami’s passion for, nay, obsession with  food is so evident in every dish… something which I hope is true of my own creations.

(more…)

Read the Recipe
Jul 31st

crunchy roast potatoes

Posted by with 1 Comment

crunchy golden herby roast potatoes

I’m sorry – I have been extremely slack with my blog the last few weeks.  but what can I say… I swapped my frypan and spatula for my snowboard and beanie and have been carving it up with Josh (or atleast trying my hardest to) on the slopes of the Remarkables and Coronet Peak in Queenstown, New Zealand.  We had a great time, but I brought home a terrible flu which I can’t manage to shake… and which interestingly enough, rendered my fingers unable to type??

I hope my secret recipe for crunchy potatoes will make up for it. What is a lamb roast without roast potatoes?  And they can’t just be any roast potatoes – they have to be crunchy, golden potatoes with soft, fluffly centres.

So this is how I do mine…

(more…)

Read the Recipe