Capsicum, chorizo and feta salad

We had this colourful, flavour-filled salad alongside a roast chicken. Lots of texture here with the squishy feta, salty sausage and the warm, soft capsicum. 

This is a great salad, as you can make it while you have the rest of the meal in the oven. This salad would be a great one for a BBQ or dinner party. You could even cook the capsicum on the BBQ if you liked. Less washing up!

What you'll need

Serves 4 - 6 people as a side dish.

3 capsicums, core and seeds removed and sliced in large slices. I used red and yellow capsicums.

2 chorizo sausages, cut into rough chunks

1/2 cup feta cheese, cubed

1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped or torn

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

What to do

Heat a large frying pan over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil.

Add the capsicums and cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Add the sausage. Continue to cook, stirring frequently for another 10 minutes until the capsicum and sausage starts to colour and the capsicum softens. Season with salt and pepper, remembering that the chorizo and feta cheese will add some salt already.

Once cooked, remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over the feta and basil and serve immediately.

I really enjoyed the lovely, fresh flavours and textures in this salad. I hope you do to. Serve this dish by itself for lunch, or with some roasted chicken or seafood and some crusty bread for something more substantial.

Cheese, bacon and tomato tart

Quick lunch for the kiddies here. The young lady asked if we could have pasty for lunch. I thought this was a fairly strange request. 'What kind of pasty?' I said. 'Just pastry,' she said.

This took about 30 minutes to make, including baking time, so it is a quick one. But I don't think the short preparation time lessens the taste of this little tart.

What you'll need

Served two for lunch

1 piece of short crust pastry, approx 40cm x 30cm

4 cherry tomatoes, thickly sliced

4 rashers of bacon, torn into medium-sized pieces

2 tablespoons cream cheese

4 slices fresh mozzarella (or 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella)

Handful fresh basil, torn

Salt and pepper

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Roll out the pastry. Hand shape the sides. I basically folded the sides over and pinch the pasty together to make sure it stays put.

Place the pastry into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until it is golden brown. 

Remove the pastry from the oven. Smooth the cream cheese over the base of the pastry. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the base, then the bacon, then the tomato. Place back into the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the bacon is crisped. 

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with some fresh basil and serve immediately. 

Serve with a side salad if you like or just by itself. Quick and tasty and it fixed the 'pastry' craving of the young lady apparently.

Pear crumble

On a cold winter's evening, I need crumble. It soothes something in me and warms my toes! Here's my recipe for a pear crumble. A little different from the usual apple, but it was lovely, especially with lashings of cream.

What you'll need

Makes four servings.

2 pears, sliced in half lengthways, seeds removed. I used Bosc variety, as they keep there shape better once baked.

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup raw rolled oats (porridge oats)
150g butter, cubed and at room temperature
100g caster sugar
pinch of salt

Cream to serve

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

I used individual baking dishes, but you could bake these pears in one large baking tray.

Make the crumble mix. Place the flour, oats, sugar and salt in a bowl. Throw in the cubed butter. With your fingers, rub the butter into the other ingredients until it resembles course breadcrumbs.

Take a handful of the crumble mixture and squish it onto the pears, moulding it a little with your hand. Distribute the crumble mixture evenly between the other pears.

Bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes, until the crumble is browned and the pears are soft.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Spoon on some cream and serve.

Note - I like a lot of crumble, but if you don't want so much, reserve any leftover mixture and use it with apples or any other fruit you need to use.

Mango, lime and coconut cheesecake

 

Cheesecake recipe time. Here's a summery-flavoured mango cheesecake with a double lot of crumbs - one on the bottom and one on the top. What could be better right! Lovely, summery flavours of mango, coconut and lime in a delicious cheesecake. Very, very good.

What you'll need

Makes six individual cheesecakes. I used glass containers with a 1.5 cup capacity.

For the base

125g butter

150g plain sweet biscuits

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

For the filling

Juice and zest of 3 limes

350g cream cheese

340g tin of condensed milk

Flesh of one ripe mango, finely chopped

For the topping

Fresh mango flesh

Lime zest

Dollop of thickened cream

What to do

Make the base. Using a food processor, finely process with biscuits. Or if you don't have a food processor, place the biscuits into a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin. Pour the crumbs into a bowl and mix in the coconut. Melt the butter and pour into the biscuit mix. Stir well with a spoon.

Grease your individual containers with a little melted butter. Using half the biscuit mixture, divide evenly between the six containers. Reserve the other half of the mixture for afterwards, but don't put it in the fridge. Press down the crumbs with your fingers or the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk. Mix well to remove any lumps. Once smooth, add the lime juice and zest. The mixture will thicken. Add the mango and fold through. Divide the mixture evenly between between the six containers. Place in the fridge to set for about half and hour.

Divide the remaining crumb mixture into each container, sprinkling it evenly to make the top crust.

Place in the fridge to set for approximately 4 hours.

To serve, dollop a spoon of cream on top of the crumbs, sprinkle some fresh, chopped mango flesh and a little lime zest. Eat in moderation, this is a little addictive.

 

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!