Recipes

A six tiered, show stopping festive dessert inspired by my own Christmas tree this year in reds and pinks.

Thinly sliced and marinated beef is delicately wrapped in a betel leaf resembling the shape of a cigar and then placed onto skewers and then grilled over flames until the leaves get charry, the skewers are glistening, juicy and fragrant. They’re served fresh and hot in rice paper rolls, otherwise you could also serve it in bowls as bún (vermicelli noodle bowls).

A fresh, simple and delicate summery pasta with spanner crab, baby asparagus, parsley, chilli, lemon and angel hair pasta.

The key to packing flavour into this simple 15 minute pasta is in using the prawn heads and rendering them in some good quality olive oil which creates a fragrant prawn oil and becomes the base of the sauce.

A flavour/umami packed marinade for the next time you grill some butterflied prawns.

Easy sticky chicken wings with a vegemite marinade.

Whole roasted cauliflower with a vegemite marinade, served with a yoghurt sauce and a herb salsa.

This pasta dish originates from northern Italy in the Veneto region near the Dolomites, however there are variations like Casoncelli which originates in the neighbouring Lombardy region.  Some recipes use potato in the filling with the beetroot but I love the version that uses ricotta and parmesan to create a rich and creamy texture to the beetroot.

This is how to cook rice without needing a rice cooker, aka the absorption method. Before you come for me, telling me I should be cooking rice in a rice cooker, I grew up in a family who doesn't cook rice in a rice cooker, just in a good old saucepan using the absorption method, and we still do it to this day!

Fried Rice was one of the first dishes I learnt to cook as a kid. Its an easy, comforting dish that I default to making when I don’t know what to make and always hits the spot. 

Whilst it’s traditionally a Chinese dish where cooked rice is stir fried in a wok with meat, egg and vegetables, you’ll notice most Asian countries have their own version of it and even within China, each region has their own variation and style of making it.

 Tzatziki is such an easy dairy dip to make at home in 5 minutes using the simple ingredients below. I made this batch and had it as a snack alongside some warmed pita and then used the rest in sandwiches for lunch for the rest of the week.