Honey soy salmon parcels

My daughter cooked this salmon, about 95 per cent on her own. How great is that! I heated the oven, put the parcels in to cook, then took them out when they were cooked. That's it. So, needless to say, this is very easy for children (my daughter is 10) to make with minimal supervision. And as an added bonus, it was very tasty and filling. We all enjoyed it very much.

What you will need

Serves four

Four pieces of salmon, skin off, about 100g each
2 cups fresh or frozen beans
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 small finger of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Olive oil

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

On an oven tray, lay four pieces of aluminium foil, approximately 20cm x 20cm. Lightly grease each sheet with some oil, using a pasty brush. Gently turn up the edges of each piece of foil so that your sauce will not run out when you pour it over.

If using fresh beans, top and tail them. If using frozen vegetables, put the beans and peas in a colander and run some warm water over them in the sink, to defrost them. Drain well of excess water. Divide the vegetables evenly between the sheets of foil (place in the middle). Carefully place the fish pieces on top of the vegetables.

In a small bowl, mix the honey and soy sauce with a spoon until the honey is dissolved.

Drizzle this over the fish and vegetables. Sprinkle some ginger over the top of the fish (this is optional, you may not like ginger pieces).

Now close the salmon parcels, bringing the left and right sides of the foil together over the fish. Crimp together so it will not pull apart. Fold up the remaining sides into the middle of the parcel so that the sauce will not run out and the steam will be tapped inside.

Place into the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before opening (watch out for the steam). Serve to the table in the parcels. Serve with some cooked rice or noodles.

Baked eggplant with feta, tomatoes and herbs

Yes, I admit it, I have a thing for eggplant. I am seeing someone about it - my green grocer. He's very helpful.

Here is another way to cook this most wonderful fruit (yes, it is a fruit!)

Broccoli with mushrooms and bacon

It is mushroom season in Europe at the moment. Due to a wetter-than-normal summer, there is a plentiful supply of many types of mushrooms.

In this recipe, I've used Eierschwammerl, a mushroom type native to central Europe, but you could use whatever mushrooms you have handy.

The Eierschwammerl have a short season, between July and October, depending on the weather. For this reason they can be expensive, unless you know where to go mushroom hunting to pick some for free. But the wonderful flavour and texture of these mushrooms is unlike anything I've ever had, so well worth the expense. A small amount of these mushrooms go a long way too as they are quite strong in flavour, but generally hold their shape quite well once cooked.

They go best in a creamy sauce for meat, game or bread dumplings (knodel). But I think this combination with broccoli and bacon is rather nice too.

Roasted pumpkin, eschalot and tomato tart

Dear someone. I am hungry; please cook this for me now. Love me.

Grilled chicken, haloumi and zucchini salad

I just uploaded this picture, and it makes me want to cook this dish right now and eat it. Maybe I'll make it for lunch.

I made this for the man-of-the-house and myself for our evening meal a few nights ago. Luckily I happened to have lots of yummy ingredients in the fridge and pantry that I was able to combine in this salad, such as haloumi cheese, olives and ripe avocado - three of my very favourite foods to eat. 

I think maybe I had a hankering to eat something green; sometimes that happens to me, I just need to sit and eat a large bowl of salad. Maybe it is my body's way of getting the vitamins and minerals I need. Either way, this salad hit to spot. I added in some fresh peppermint and basil and made a lemony dressing really add some 'zing' to the flavours. Very, very tasty indeed.

Morrocan braised beef and pears

I picked up a jar of Moroccan spice mix at a shop recently. I had to go to another country to get it, but it was only an hour away - did I tell you how much I love living in Europe? 

Being in another country in an hour - how remarkable!

I was rather excited about this little jar of spices - paprika, rose petals, coriander seeds, garlic, chilli, pepper, mint, all beautiful spices. The smell alone takes me to a special place and evokes wonderful memories of a little Morrocan cafe we used to visit when we lived inner-city in Brisbane, Australia. A long time ago, before children even. Tagines, yoghurt, lamb dishes perfectly cooked with tasty fruit-based sauces. In my opinion, the Moroccans are responsible for some of the tastiest food on the planet. 

Back to the food. My first outing with the newly-acquired spice jar was the following recipe. A lovely braised beef dish with pears and Moroccan spices. Now, beef with pears might sound a bit strange, but I wanted the dish to be a little sweet and I had some rather sad looking pears in the fruit bowl that had been bashed about in my shopping trolley. They were ripe, sweet and perfectly edible, but had a few brown spots, so the children were a bit turned off. So into the cooking pot they went. Of course the pears disintegrated to make a lovely sauce, but the lovely sweet flavour permeated the beef and made from the usual tomato-based sauces that sometimes I get a bit bored with.

This is a dish for a cool Autumn weekend afternoon. You'll need at least three hours for the cooking time so that the beef is melt-in-the-mouth. And your neighbours will be jealous as you will  have some delicious aromas coming from your house.

I suggest you open a bottle of red wine  to help you pass the time - just for the pure please of it.

Meatloaf

This is a 'feed a crowd' dish. And there's not too much effort involved. The oven does most of the work for you. 

I think you could make this meatloaf after work and have on the table in an hour. Or make it the night before and heat slowly in the oven the next night. Or make a double batch and freeze one uncooked meatloaf for cooking later. 

In our house it is definitely a crowd pleaser, for the young and the not-so-young.

I served the meatloaf with warmed sauerkraut. If you don't like sauerkraut, a simple mashed potato compliments the meatloaf just as well.

Braised pork with potatoes and fennel

When I was small, the smell of fresh fennel was highly disagreeable to me.

Actually, I still find the smell of the green, ferny bits of the fennel very overpowering. I think it must be the aniseed smell, not my favourite at all.

However, I always looked at recipes that used fennel and thought that it must be alright as people seem to eat it and like it.

I have had a conversion to fennel in the last few years. You may say I have seen the 'fennel light'. I now really like the fresh, crunchy, almost sweet flavour of this vegetable. I have been known to make a huge bowl of finely sliced fennel with a lemon dressing and gobble this up for lunch!

I have not done much 'cooking' with fennel, preferring to have it raw in salads etc, but in the colder weather of a few weeks back, I threw some fennel into the baking dish when I made this roasted pork shoulder. The result was lovely. The roast fennel became quite sweet, and the texture was lovely and soft, similar to roasted celery. And the juices from the fennel permeated the potatoes and the jus for the meat.

The little people ate it, which I was pleased about, although one asked, "Mum, what is this?"
To which I replied," It's fennel and it's great, eat it up." Can argue with that, can you!

Falafel, lentil and celery salad

Quick and crunchy salad - chock full of texture and taste. This took 10 minutes to throw together. We had it with some simply-grilled pork steaks.

I love crunch and texture in food, especially in salads. The celery in this salad is super-crunchy, then there's the chewy falafel and the squishy lentils and ripe tomatoes.



I made a dressing with red wine vinegar, just because I really like it, but I think it really brings out the flavours of other ingredients. If you don't like the tartness of this type of vinegar, use plain white vinegar or cider vinegar, or add a little water to the dressing to reduce the tartness. Some lemon juice and olive oil would be good as a dressing too. This salad would also be great with some fresh parsley tossed through.

One pot Asian-poached chicken

I cooked this tasty poached chicken dish in one pot. No really, just one pot. 

I made the poaching liquid for the chicken, and as it was so tasty, I thought I'd throw the noodles into the pot to cook as well. Instead of being cooked in plain boiling water, the noodles took on the delicious flavour of the chicken and other poaching ingredients. The broccoli, I placed on the top of the chicken to steam towards the end of the cooking process. 

And there you have it, my one-pot poached chicken. I have written previously about the wonderful texture of poached chicken. I won't go on about it again, but if you've never tried to cook a chicken breast like this, give it a try.

Pork, scallop and asparagus stirfry

Thanks to my father-in-law, I've discovered a new ingredient - mung bean noodles. Also called cellophane noodles, mung bean threads or glass noodles, these noodles maintain their shape once cooked, are chewy and don't go mushy like rice noodles.

These noodles don't have any real flavour, so it's best to serve them with something tasty like this pork, scallop and asparagus stirfry.

Mung bean noodles take about 10 minutes to cook and are gluten free, if gluten is a problem for you. Use them in place of rice or pasta.

Pulled pork with oven-baked sauerkraut

I'm looking at this photo thinking 'it doesn't look like a very appetizing dish.' It might not look like much, but this was so tasty and satisfying.

This recipe is one for a chilly night, when you want some comfort-type food to warm you up.

The pork was juicy and the oven-baked sauerkraut, for me was almost heavenly. It was soft and delicious as it had absorbed all the juices from the pork, as well as the wine and stock.

This is my kind of comfort food!

Serve with some steamed broccoli or French beans.

Chicken and vegetable tray bake

This simple one-tray bake is a quick and easy family meal. It takes about 50 minutes to prepare and cook.
And you only use one tray for the cooking, so it also saves on the washing-up.

The juices of the ingredients combine to make to make a tasty sauce that you can spoon over the dish. And you can easily substitute your favourite vegetables or whatever veges are in the fridge into this dish too. For example, throw in some baby carrots, olives, capsicum, chunks of sweet potato or parsnip.

The trick to this dish is to place the ingredients that take longest to cook - such as the chicken and potatoes -  in first, so they have the longest cooking time. And then add the ingredients that take less time as you go along - such as the mushrooms and tomatoes. That way, all your ingredients will be perfectly cooked and ready to serve at the end of the cooking time.

Moroccan-spiced chickpeas, carrots and apricots

Here is a lovely, spicy dish or chickpeas, carrots and apricots. You could eat this dish by itself with some rice or fresh pita bread. Or serve it as a side dish with pork or chicken. Either way, the sweet, slightly tart apricots break down a little once cooked, and combined with the tomatoes, coat the other ingredients and make a wonderful, tasty sauce. The carrot pieces hold their shape, as do the chickpeas. And the pine nuts provide a nice crunch.  

This dish is spicy. If you don't like spicy food, or you are cooking for children, leave out the chilli.

Eggplant parmigiana bake

For my family, this was a lovely spring meal, even for the non-eggplant liking person among us (no names will be mentioned!). 

Once cooked, the eggplant becomes so soft and squishy. And the juices, combined with the tomato sauce and bechamel sauce is very tasty. For something different, I sprinkled the top with cheese combined with hazelnut meal, instead of breadcrumbs. The taste of the hazelnuts gave a bit of nutty sweetness to the dish, which I really liked. I grilled the top a little to make the cheese/hazelnut mix crunchy.

This dish would freeze very well, either cooked or uncooked. You could make a double batch, and freeze one for later. 

I think this eggplant parmigiana  makes a lovely, tasty meal. Serve it with a fresh garden salad and some crusty bread to mop us the lovely sauce.

Sticky lemongrass and lime chicken

This chicken and its marinade are a little addictive. The sticky, salty and spicy ingredients taste so fantastic together. Don't waste any of the marinade. Reduce it over low heat in a small saucepan to make a heavenly sauce for your chicken at the table.

Paleo Eggplant 'Pizza'

Hello Paleo people, here's a recipe for you.

Eating 'lower carb' has it's challenges. 'What to use as a pizza base' is one of those challenges. I don't eat pizza very often, but sometimes it is nice to have something with some melted cheese on it.

I made these 'pizzas' for my own lunch one day. It didn't take very long, and these were really yummy. I think I captured the 'gooey' pizza texture, which is how I like my pizza. The eggplant base will not be crisp, but it will at least look like a pizza and taste really good.

Lamb shank pie

This lamb shank pie is more of a 'serving suggestion' than a recipe. 

You can use this recipe for the lamb shank filling. All you'll need is some puff pastry, a little melted butter to brush it with and that's it.

Serve the lamb shanks to the table and then tear off the pastry and use it as a scoop for the beautiful, tender lamb and yummy sauce. You could make this recipe in a large baking dish and have four or six lamb shanks standing upright. I made them in individual dishes, which worked really well.

                         

Baked sticky chicken wings

Yum alert! Sticky finger food is so good, if a little messy. But that's what finger bowls are for!

These sticky chicken wings are easy to make, inexpensive and everyone loves them. That ticks all the boxes at my house. Enjoy these while watching your favourite footy team go around with a cold beer. Bliss!

Spaghetti with pork and mushroom sauce

Sometimes life is just so busy and hectic, isn't it!
Is it because we make it that way, or is that just how modern life is I wonder? Some evenings, I look at the clock at dinner time and think, "Ughhh, I have no inspiration for cooking tonight." Or I have no energy or a combination of both.

This pork and spaghetti dish was what I made on a night when I had no inspiration, was running late, and would have just loved to sit on the couch with a glass of wine and a cheese platter! (that would count as dinner right?)

There was microwave defrosting of meat involved in this recipe, which I don't generally like to do but when needs must........

A quick whip up of a mushroom sauce, a bit of spaghetti, grill some pork and a salad, and there it is. Everyone satisfied, fed, job done. Then I sat on the couch with a glass of wine and put my feet up.