Creamy prawn and avocado pasta

I think I should have made a very large pot of this dish. It was so, so tasty that the man of the house and I polished it all off and were looking for more.

My inspiration was a packet of frozen green prawns. The rest of the ingredients were already in the fridge.

The creamy sauce and big, plump prawns stuck nicely to the flat ribbons of papardelle. And the hint of fresh chilli and basil lifted the sauce so it was not to heavy.

I'll be making this one again, for sure.

What you'll need

Served two, with no leftovers!

200g packet frozen, peeled, green prawns
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 fresh red chillis, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 cup pouring cream
1 medium avocado, peeled and sliced
2 teaspoon vegetable oil
Handful fresh basil, torn into small pieces
Handful of fresh Parmesan cheese, finely grated

Fresh cooked pasta to serve.

What to do

Heat one teaspoon of the oil in a large frying pan. Once hot, add the onion and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium, stirring constantly. You don't want the onion and garlic to colour, just soften. Once soft, remove from the pan to a bowl and set aside.

Increase the heat to high. Add a little more oil to the pan. Add the prawns and saute over high heat, until pink. This should take about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Once much of the heat has gone out of the pan, add the onion mix back into the prawns. Stir in the mustard and chillis. Remove the pan from the heat. Now add the cream and stir well into the other ingredients. 

While the sauce is still hot, mix through or spoon over cooked pasta. I used parpardelle. Top with sliced avocado, torn basil leaves and cheese. Simply delicious!

Banana cake with coconut and lime icing

'Can you bake a cake for an open day at the school?' I was asked. 'No problem,' I said. 'One slab of banana cake with coconut and lime icing, coming up!'


What you'll need

For the cake
2 large, overripe bananas, mashed
125g butter at room temperature (or slightly melted)
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod)
100ml milk
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

For the icing
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Juice and zest of one lime
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Butter to grease the cake tin

What to do

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the cake tin and line it with non-stick baking paper. I used a 20 x 20cm cake tin.

Place the butter, sugar, mashed banana, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and mix well. You can do this by hand or with electric beaters. Add the milk and mix to combine.

Add the flour and bicarb soda. Mix until combined. Pour the batter into a prepared tin and use a wooden spoon to smooth the batter and move it into all the corners of the pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then remove the cake to a wire rack to completely cool it.

Once cool, make the icing.  Pour the icing sugar into a bowl, squeeze the lime juice into the icing sugar, mixing as you go with a spoon. The consistency is right when the icing is the consistency of softened butter. It should not drip off the spoon, otherwise it will run off the cake. Add more icing sugar if the icing is too wet. If the icing is too dry, add warm water, a few drops at a time until you have the right consistency.

Spread icing over the cake, using a knife that has been heated under running, hot water. Once spread all over the cake (to the edges and down the sides if you want to), sprinkle over the coconut and the lime zest. Let the icing set for 10 minutes, then slice with a sharp knife. It will be easier to cut cleanly if you heat the knife under hot, running water before each slice.

This cake will store in an airtight container for three or four days. Alternatively you could slice the cake and then freeze to use in lunchboxes etc. Layering the individual cake slices between pieces of baking paper will make it easy to remove from the freezer, ensuring it won't stick to the other cake slices.

Corn and zucchini muffins

Continuing on with the zucchini theme of this week, I made a batch of these savoury muffins. They were super tasty and full of yummy vegetables.

Here's a funny story. I packed some off to school in the little people's lunchboxes. While they enjoyed the muffins, they reported that the other children in the class laughed because the muffins had corn in them. Apparently these children have never seen a savoury muffin, and thought I'd made sweet muffins with corn in them!  Gross is all I can say to that......

If you have trouble getting your children to eat their vegetables, I think foods like these muffins are a great idea. You can include lots of different vegetables, such as zucchini, corn, grated carrots, peas, chickpeas, tomatoes, sweet potato or pumpkin in the mix, flavour with some herbs and cheeses and you have a yummy and nutritious snack that easily fits in the lunchbox or can be served for lunch or as a party snack.

In addition to lunch boxes for school, we had these warmed up for lunch served with some salads. And I left a plate of these muffins on the kitchen bench for afternoon tea snacking also. They didn't last long!

I think these muffins would also freeze well, so you could make a double batch for eating later on. I mention freezing foods as I've been seeing a bit online lately about new Mums struggling to cook/eat nutritious meals. Foods like these muffins can be defrosted easily with a quick zap in the microwave and importantly, can be eaten with one hand while nursing, rocking, feeding babies. Thinking of all you new Mums out there.

What you'll need

Made 16 medium-sized muffins

1 large zucchini, grated and extra juice removed
1 medium onion, grated
300g tin corn cornels
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup instant polenta
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated cheese, I used gouda
8 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 cup shredded ham
1 table dried thyme
Salt and pepper

What to do

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl, excluding the tomato, ham and thyme. Season well. You should have a thick mixture, but it should be wet. If not, add a little more milk or water to the mixture. If very runny, add a but more flour until the consistency is right.

Spoon the mixture into well-greased muffin cases. Sprinkle over a little bit of ham, press a half cherry tomato into the top of the muffin and sprinkle with a little of the dried thyme.

Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes. Insert a wooden skewer into some of the muffins, and if it comes out clean, the muffins are ready. If the skewer comes out with wet batter on it, bake for at least another 10 minutes and test again.  Once ready, remove the muffins from the oven and let cool
on a wire rack. Serve warm or let cool completely for lunchboxes or freezing. If freezing, store in an air-tight container.

Zucchini and cottage cheese cakes

Here are some delightful little 'cakes' that we had for brunch last weekend. I had a large bag of zucchinis (courgettes) in the fridge and I wanted to use them up, but in a way that our guests and the little people would enjoy. The result was zucchini and cottage cheese cakes. The zucchini gave these cakes a lovely lightness and the cottage cheese provided a wonderful tang. I served them warm with bacon, grilled tomatoes, chopped avocado and toast along with some other brunchy things. It was yummy and worth skipping breakfast for.

What you'll need

Makes 30 medium-sized cakes

2 x medium zucchinis, grated and drained of 'juice'
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 3/4 cups cottage cheese
1 cup grated cheese (I used gouda)
2 tablespoons chopped chives or eschallots
Salt and pepper
Butter for frying

What to do

Place egg yolks, flour and milk in a bowl and mix until smooth.

Add the zucchini, cottage cheese, grated cheese, chives/eschallots and season well with salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.

Place the eggwhites in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters until they are stiff. Gently fold through the zucchini mixture.

Heat a frying pan (I used two at the same time) over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of butter and melt until it is foamy. Dallop in tablespoons of the mixture. Cook until you see bubbles rising on one side of the cakes, then flip and cook the other side. Both sides should be golden brown. Cook in batches, keeping the cakes in a warm oven.

Serve warm with bacon, roasted tomatoes and some chopped avocado. Delicious!

Roasted eggplant and pumpkin with feta and lemon

Oh, this dish was just so delicious!

We've been eating lots of pumpkin lately as it is pumpkin season right now and it is abundant. I thought this combination with sweet pumpkin, silky eggplant, creamy feta, and the tartness of lemon juice was wonderful. You could make up a huge platter of this for a bbq or family feast. Yum!

I served this as a part of a vegetable banquet, no meat on the table. The only reason for this was that we had lots of vegetables and salad ingredients in the fridge that needed to be used. I promise you I am NOT turning into a vegetarian - I simply love meat too much. But we all really enjoyed the dishes and felt lovely and full afterwards.

What you'll need

Served four as a side dish, with leftovers.

2 medium eggplants, sliced into wedges (I cut each eggplant into 6 wedges)
Half a medium-sized butternut pumpkin, skin on, cut into wedges the same size as the eggplant (10 wedges)
1 tablespoon olive oil
200g packet feta cheese, crumbled
Juice of 1 lemon
1 red onion, 1 brown onion, sliced into rings
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil (some for frying the onions, some for basting the vegetables)
Salt and pepper

What to do

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

On a large lined baking tray, place the wedges of pumpkin and eggplant, skin-side down. Using a basting brush, paint all the pieces with olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper.

Bake for approximately 30 - 40 minutes, or until the pumpkin and eggplant are browning and soft.
Remove from the oven and set aside.

While the eggplant and pumpkin are baking, in a pan, fry the onions over medium to low heat with a little olive oil. Add the garlic and fry until everything is soft and golden - about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

Assemble the dish.

Arrange the pumpkin and eggplant wedges on a platter. Spoon over the fried onions and then sprinkle with feta cheese. Finally, squeeze the lemon juice over the top, then serve while warm.

I think you could eat this dish by itself with some crusty bread and a salad. Or serve it as a side dish to roasted chicken or lamb. I would have loved to sprinkle some sumac over the top of this dish, but I cannot find it in Vienna yet. I will have to keep hunting.

Asian pork roast

I had a boneless pork shoulder roast in the freezer, but I wanted to do something a bit different to the normal roast meat, vegetables and gravy. Not that a normal roast isn't delicious, but sometimes my palette craves something out of the ordinary. 

I think the man of the house would have preferred a 'normal' roast dinner as described above, but I think he enjoyed this Asian inspired version as well.

There were three parts to this meal; roasted pork with miso glaze, pumpkin and sweet potato mash with coconut milk and ginger, and steamed broccoli and beans with garlic and soy.

The recipes for all three dishes are below.

What you'll need

Serves four for dinner with leftovers.

For the roast pork
1.5 - 2kg rolled boneless pork shoulder (usually sold in an elastic bandage for cooking)
3 tablespoons miso paste (loosened with 1 tablespoon of warm water to make a wet paste)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of oil

For the pumpkin and sweet potato mash
400g sweet potato, peeled and chopped into pieces
300g pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into pieces (same size pieces as the sweet potato)
100ml coconut milk
50g butter
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

For the vegetables
Handful fresh beans, topped and tailed
2 cups broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Prepare the meat, rubbing all over with oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Brush on (with your fingers or a pastry brush) the miso paste, leaving a thick coating all over the meat. Reserve approximately 1 tablespoon of the miso paste mixture for reapplying during the cooking process.

Cover your baking dish with foil and bake the pork for approximately 60 minutes. Remove the pork from the oven and paint on the rest of the reserved miso paste. Place back in the oven without the foil for 20 minutes to finish the cooking process and colour the miso glaze.

Remove from the oven, cover with foil again and set aside for at least 10 minutes to rest before you carve it.

Once rested, carefully remove the elastic bandage with scissors, then thinly carve the meat, placing it onto a serving plate. Keep covered with foil in the warm oven until ready to serve to the table.

About half way through the cooking of the meat, begin making the sweet potato mash. First, place the sweet potato and pumpkin in water, bring to the boil and boil until all is tender (use a knife inserted into the largest piece to check). Drain well. Return to the cooking pot. Add the butter, coconut milk, ginger and season well. Using a potato masher or electric beaters, mash/puree until smooth. Place a lid on the pot to keep it warm and set aside for serving. When ready to serve to the table, spoon into a serving dish.

For the vegetables, boil a large pot of water, once boiling, add the broccoli. After 1 minute of cooking, add the beans. Cook for approximately 2 more minutes, then drain and refresh under cold running water. Heat a frying pan over high heat. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Now add the broccoli and beans. Stir for one minutes, or until the garlic goes brown. Remove from the heat, serve the vegetables onto a serving plate and drizzle over the soy sauce. Serve while hot.

I like to serve my roasts to the table on serving platters, so everyone can help themselves to extra if they want. But alternatively, you could serve this out onto plates in the kitchen.

Either way, this is a refreshing twist on a traditional pork roast. Enjoy!