Pork and pineapple stack

Here's a sunshine recipe. 'What is a sunshine recipe?' I hear you ask quite sensibly.

For me, a sunshine recipe is a meal that you make using ingredients or flavours that take you back to a sunny, summer day somewhere in the past.

This recipe did this for me - the sweet, juicy, yellow pineapple and the spicy, colourful dressing reminded me of a hot, sunny day in Queensland - my home State in Australia. Of lazy weekends mowing the lawn, thunder storms, being all sweaty and jumping into the pool for a dip, of bbqs and a cold glass of wine. Fairly remarkable that one little pineapple can do all that!

Anyway, enough reminiscing about times past. Onto the recipe for a stack of pork steaks and grilled pineapple, with a few prawns on top and a chilli and lemongrass dressing. This was just the dish for a cold and snowy evening in the depths of winter in Vienna.

The pineapple provided the inspiration and the ingredients in the fridge and freezer did the rest. Oh the beauty of having a well-stocked fridge with lots of different ingredients to choose from. It is great when you don't have to trek out in the snow to the shops at the last minute.

What you'll need

Served two people.

2 pork steaks or fillet, approximately 150g each
4 pineapple slices (preferably with the core in tact)
4 large green prawns, peeled
Olive oil for grilling the meat and pineapple
Salt and pepper for seasoning

For the dressing
Juice and zest of one lime
1 red chilli, chopped finely
1 tablespoon sweet chill sauce
1 dessert spoon honey
1 teaspoon fish sauce
Good pinch salt
1 small stalk of lemongrass, bruised and the fleshy bottom part chopped finely
Handful fresh basil or mint leaves, stalks removed and chopped finely

To serve
Lime and ripe avocado slices

What to do

Make the dressing. Add all the dressing ingredients into a small bowl and mix well to combine. Set aside.

Heat two frying pans over medium heat. Add a little oil to each. Grill the pork steaks in one pan, until cooked to your liking. I like my pork a little pink in the middle, so about 8 minutes cooking time altogether. Season well with some salt and pepper.

At the same time as the pork is cooking, add the pineapple pieces to the other pan and grill until caramelized on both sides. This will take about 6 minutes.

Once pork and pineapple is cooked, set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Keep the pineapple pan heated and throw in the prawns. Cook for two minutes until just cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Now assemble the dish. Slice each pork steak in half horizontally (so you end up with four thinner pork steaks).

On a large plate, place one pineapple slice. Place one of the pork steaks on top, then repeat with one more pineapple slice and steak. Place two prawns on top, then spoon as much dressing as you like over the whole dish. Place the sliced avocado on the side with a piece of lime and serve immediately.

We ate this with a crunchy cabbage and snow pea salad. It would have been lovely with a glass of crisp, white wine, but it was a tad cold for that.  Enjoy your little taste of sunshine.

Baked passionfruit custard

A delicious dinner party dessert recipe follows. You'll find it hard to stop at one of these beautiful, creamy passionfruit custards. Thanks to Donna Hay , from her wonderful recipe book 'fast, fresh, simple' for the recipe.

These were a sublime ending to a lovely evening with friends. The subtle sweetness of the custard was balanced by the tang of the passionfruit and a dollop of mascarpone cheese on top. Just simply lovely.

What you'll need

Made 6 tea cup-sized custards

250ml milk
250ml pouring cream
3 eggs
1 extra egg yolk
75g caster sugar
125ml passionfruit pulp - you'll need 4 or 5 passionfruit

Cream and extra passionfruit pulp to serve

What to do

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Boil a kettle full of water.

Place the milk and cream in a saucepan over low heat and heat until hot, but not boiling.

Place the eggs, yolk and sugar in a bowl and whip with electric beaters until pale and fluffy.

Slowly whisk the hot milk/cream mixture into the egg mixture.

Now strain the mixture through a fine sieve, back into a clean saucepan. Add the passionfruit and mix to combine.

Over low heat, stir the mixture for about 5 minutes until it thickens slightly.

Pour the mixture into 6 tea cups or any container that can hold approximately 3/4 cup liquid. Place in a baking dish, spacing the custards apart evenly.

Using the hot water from the kettle, pour water into the baking dish until it comes approximately half or three quarters of the way up the cups/dishes you have used.

Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the custards are just set. Carefully remove from the baking dish and cool in the fridge for 3 hours until cold.

Serve with a dollop of cream and some passionfruit pulp drizzled over the top.

You will find it hard to stop at just one of these - I did!

Asian-style omelette

 

This was our Saturday morning breakfast; omelettes filled with left-over roasted chicken, grated carrot, eschallots, lots of fresh basil and some Asian flavourings - soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice.

These were quick to whip up, very tasty and not a refined carbohydrate in sight, so they are Paleo diet friendly. Man-of-the-house thought I could have added a little fresh chilli to boost the Asian flavours contained in the omelette. Chilli is a bit much for me first thing, but certainly chilli would have been good if this was a lunch or quick dinner dish. Serve with a side salad or some vegetables and dinner or lunch would be on the table in less than 30 minutes.

You could use any ingredients you like to fill these omelettes such as grated zucchini,chopped onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, left-over roast vegetables and meats, ham or salami, roasted capsicum or eggplant.

I tried to keep this omelette on the lighter side so I didn't use cheese/dairy products but you could if you like.

What you'll need

Made 2 medium-sized omelettes

5 medium-sized eggs

1/2 cup water or milk

1 cup roasted chicken meat - chopped or shredded

1 carrot, grated

1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

1/2 lime 

Soy sauce and fish sauce (I used a few sloshes on each omelette)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

What to do

Heat a good non-stick pan or omelette pan over medium heat. Add one teaspoon of oil. Spread the oil to coat the pan.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly with a fork. Add the water or milk and mix to combine.

Pour half the egg mixture into the pan and swirl the pan to coat the bottom (so the egg mixture evenly coats the bottom of the pan).

Now, sprinkle half your ingredients into the centre of the omelette in a line down the middle (see the top picture). Cook the omelette until you can see that the egg is set (not runny) and the ingredients have warmed through. Splosh on a little soy and fish sauce and squeeze some lime over omelette.

Using an egg flip, lift up one side of the omelette and flip gently into the centre. Press it down slightly to keep it there. Repeat with the other side of the omelette. 

Slide the omelette gently on a plate and serve immediately or keep warm while you make the second omelette. Repeat the above process for the second omelette.

Paleo 'Meat Muffins'

This recipe was specifically designed  for some friends who are following the Paleo Diet - eating only meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, eggs and nuts (and herbs and spices). If you want to know more, visit this website.

I think, on this diet, that breakfast is the most challenging meal of the day to come up with something relatively quick, tasty and high-protein to eat. When you remove carbohydrates from the breakfast equation - breakfast cereal, porridge, muesli, toast, muffins, pancakes - and also remove dairy products - milk,  yogurt, cheese, cream etc - there are not too many 'traditional' breakfast foods left. Certainly you could eat eggs, but that gets a bit monotonous after a while.

So the challenge was to make something high-protein, quick to heat-up and eat in the madness of morning, filling and of course tasty. My first attempt to meet the challenge was some egg muffins - basically beaten egg, some herbs and seasoning, poured into a greased muffin tin, then some pork mince sprinkled into each one. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Not too bad. But I thought I could do better.

Second go was these 'meat muffins' which is not the best name, but I figure it is more about the taste and the look, rather than the name. These muffins took 5 minutes to put together, then 20 minutes in the oven. I made  a batch the night before, stored in the fridge, then reheated in the morning. These ticked all the boxes for the challenge. And man-of-the-house says this is the 'breakfast of champions.' Maybe we'll change the name to 'champion muffins.' Sounds better already.

What you'll need

Made 10 medium-sized muffins

400g mince - I used a mixture of pork and beef mince
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup grated zucchini
4 mushrooms, finely chopped
1 teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano
1 onion, finely chopped or grated
Salt and pepper

Vegetable oil for greasing the muffin tin

Cherry tomatoes and fresh basil for the topping

What to do

Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix well with clean hands. Season well.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the muffin tin with the vegetable oil. Using your hands or a spoon, scoop the meat mixture into each muffin tin, dividing equally between each.

You will end up with about 10 muffins depending on how much mixture you place in each. Remember these won't rise at all, so what you put in will be the final size of the cooked muffins.

Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until brown on top.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin. Once cool, remove to a plate or storage container. Sprinkle over the chopped cherry tomatoes and some fresh-chopped basil.

The serve, heat for 20 seconds in the microwave until warm. You could make a small side salad of avocado, tomato and nuts if you like and have time or just eat them on the way out the door. These would also be good for the lunchbox.

Lime and lemongrass prawns

We had a birthday dinner for the man-of-the-house yesterday. He designed a menu and I had to cook it as one of my gifts to him. He asked for these prawns, inspiration and partial recipe borrowed from Donna Hay.

Very simple, but these prawns were so very, very good. Firm, sweet prawn flesh with those little crunchy cooked bits on the outside. Then a spicy, sour sauce spooned over the top. The man was extremely happy with these.

I made a very spicy marinade/sauce, but I also kept some plain prawns for the children as they don't cope with too much spice. And a squeeze of lime over the top made these prawns very special.

I used frozen green prawns in the shell, so I had to peel them once defrosted, but it only took 5 minutes. I was very happy with the texture of the prawns, even though they were frozen.

I think if I made a double batch of these they would have been eaten. I made 25 prawns and they were gone within 5 minutes, with lots of 'yums' around the table.

What you'll need

Served four people as an entree

25 large green prawns, peeled with tails intact
25 bamboo or metal skewers

For the marinade/sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 small, fresh chillis, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 small stalks of lemongrass, whacked/bruised with the back of a knife and finely chopped
Good pinch of salt

What to do

Thread the prawns onto the skewers. Try to straighten the prawns out as much as possible on the skewer.

Make the marinade. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and whiz until combined. Or if you don't have a food processor, chop all the ingredients very finely and combine in a bowl. Spoon half the marinade over the prawns. Keep the rest in reserve to spoon over afterwards.

Heat a large pan or a bbq hot plate and grill the prawns for a few minutes either side until golden brown.

Once cooked, remove and place onto a serving plate. Drizzle the reserved marinade over the top and serve with extra lime to squeeze over. Simply delicious!

Quinoa and roasted pumpkin salad

I'll admit it, I am a slow adapter of new things; products, technology etc. I am one of those people who say, 'Oh yes, sounds good, I'll wait a couple of years until I try or buy.' I am even a little slow trying out new food ingredients. For example, I ate quinoa (pronounced kin-wah) for the first time two weeks ago.

I know that this new food has been around for a few years, and I have heard lots about it, read recipes about it and heard friends talk about using it, but it was not for me until two weeks ago. I decided to give quinoa a go after talking to my Mum, who has used it to make a version of fried rice (minus the rice of course).  

Our first taste of quinoa was as a plain side dish accompanying a chicken curry. The verdict from the family was good and yummy. The next recipe we tried was this roasted pumpkin salad. I made a chilli and green olive dressing, and sprinkled some fresh-cracked walnuts over the top. The textures were wonderful, squishy and crunchy, and nutty and creamy.

I find that quinoa doesn't sit in your stomach as heavily as some other carbohydrates, such as rice or pasta. Therefore, I will be adding quinoa as a regular ingredient to my cooking repertoire. Give it a try if you haven't already. 

What you'll need

Serves four to six people as a side dish

For the salad

Half a medium butternut (or whatever variety you have) pumpkin, skinned, deseeded and cut into rough 2cm cubes. I had about 2 cups-full of pumpkin to cook.

250g quinoa, cooked according to packet instructions

Vegetable oil for roasting

Salt and pepper

For the dressing

2 tablespoons green olive paste or tapenade

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 small red or yellow chillis, finely chopped

To serve

1/2 cup roughly-chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon fresh, finely-chopped oregano leaves

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Line a baking tin with a piece of baking paper. Place the pumpkin in a roasting tin. Drizzle pumpkin and vegetable oil (about 1 tablespoon) and season well with salt and pepper. Mix well to coat the pumpkin.

Roast until pumpkin is just soft and golden. (about 20 minutes). Remove tin from the oven and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, place the cooked quinoa and the cool pumpkin. Mix carefully, so that the pumpkin maintains its shape.

Make the dressing and season to taste. Pour over the salad.  Mix very gently to coat. Sprinkle with herbs and nuts and serve immediately.

This salad is a great accompaniment to chicken or fish. You could serve it as a main dish with some other salads or vegetable dishes. It would also be great to serve a large dish of this at a BBQ.