Sesame Chicken Stirfry

Home made takeaway...

Chicken breast strips marinated in soy, pineapple juice, fresh ginger,
garlic, pepper, cayenne, a dash of tomato sauce and a shake of sesame
oil.

Remove chicken from marinade and stirfry till the colour changes. Pour
in the marinade and allow to thicken with some dissolved corn starch.

Garnished with lots of sesame seeds and spring onion.

Served with steamed broccoli and brown rice.

Anelli Giganti with broccoli and goats cheese

A quick and easy pasta with a real depth of flavour.

The 'sauce' is simply well blanched broccoli sauted with garlic,
anchovy, chilli and cherry tomatoes.

Dotted with fresh goats cheese and finished with cracked pepper.

A bloody good dish - highly recommended.

Tuna Pasta Salad

A joint effort on a hot and steamy saturday afternoon.

Cooled pasta, tuna, rocket, parsley, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice and
zest, olive oil, capers and fresh chilli from the garden and home
cured olives.

Pan-Fried Tuna with Lemon risotto:

Tuna with a pepper coating, pan-fried to still be rare in the middle.

The lemon risotto was done using Vialone Nano rice. This is a risotto rice that does not need constant stirring - just get the rice coated with oil/butter in the usual way, add hot stock, cover and allow to cook for 18 minutes (well, it actually took me longer but it was still much much easier). Used spanish onion and since I didn't want to open a bottle of wine I used home-made cumquat brandy. Fantastic, as it added a sweet citrusy yet slightly bitter flavour to the rice! Highly recommended!

Sesame Crusted Salmon and Soba Noodles

Clean, simple and delicious.

The salmon was drizzled with soy and sesame oil and then coated with
sesame seeds and baked in a hot oven.

Served over warm soba noodles, dressed with tsuyu, wasabi, spring
onions, soy sauce and sesame seeds.

Mini meatballs a la Nigella

Post by Fred

Made some mini meatballs. 500g of minced meat yielded just over 80 meatballs, so they're small!

A couple of interesting variations from Nigella: use spring onions instead of normal onions, and semolina instead of bread crumbs. Spiced with cinnamon, allspice and cumin, you know they are so more-ish (or should that be moorish?).

Served with a Fatoush salad and dips - just great. They also taste really good cold the next day :)

Ossobucco

Not the prettiest dish you can make but it sure is tasty.

Just the traditional version, browned meat, sauted onion, carrot,
cellery and garlic - simmered gently for a. Couple of hours with
canned tomatoes and red wine.

Finished with lemon zest and served with grilled polenta and sour
lettuce.

Penne Pomodoro Pronto

Finally the weather lent itself to cooking, but without much time or
many ingredients.

A quick and surprisingly tasty tomato sauce was made by boiling down
the left over gazpacho - tricked up with some more fresh basil,
anchovy, chilli, a dash of ketchup and a healthy sprinkle of Parmesan.

And best of all - I got to use the stove :)

Thai Beef Salad

Sunday night and it was still far too hot to do any real cooking - a
huge salad turned out as the perfect solution.

A huge chunk of oyster blade, cut into 'flat iron' steaks and
marinated in soy, lime, ginger and chilli before being seared on the
bbq.

Served over finely sliced carrot, lettuce & cucumber, Thai basil,
corriander, cherry tomatoes, been sprouts and glass noodles and
dressed with the traditional spicy, sour, salty and sweet Thai dressing.

mmmmm.....

Gazpacho with Balsamic Onion Bruschetta

No cooking for a month and I still didn't get to use the stove... but
there's nothing more refreshing than gazpacho on a hot night.

Fresh tomatoes, capsicum, spanish onion, cucumber, basil and a little
garlic blended together, seasoned with evo oil, vinegar, s&p and
chilled till dinner - quick, easy and very tasty.

The balsamic onions were bought, and served on grilled olive sourdough
spread with fresh goats cherve.