The team at Insight spend their time raising money for a raft of charity organisations and just before Christmas they decided to take time out for a weekday team lunch with a twist.

I wanted to improve on the  sausage-in-a-bun or cold-chook approach to the average and decided to hit the team with a Mexican inspired feast.

Taking full advantage of the beautifully maintained free barbecue (thank you City of Sydney), I set up operations under a couple of giant Port Jackson figs in Prince Alfred Park MAP and got cooking.

Everyone dove in to

build their own fajitas topping their corn tortillas with mango or avocado salsa and zesty home made green chilli sauce.

It was a challenge to set up a party in the park, but I’m definitely looking forward to the next outing with the Insight team.

If you’d like to organise a special treat for your colleagues or team simply click here to get in touch.

 

Fiona’s Mum baked up a storm with the best carrot cake I’ve had in a VERY long time, and I’ll be doing my best to weasel that recipe out of her to share here.

The menu

Crostini with broadbean and mint puree; caramelised onion and sour cream: roasted tomato and basil, and home preserved beetroot dip.

Chicken schnitzel dippers with peach, apricot and rosemary chutney.

Home cured salmon with apple cider and fennel seed.

Lamb burgers with middle eastern spices and crunchy onion rings and sweet corn and coriander fritters.

Marinated steak and prawn “Surf and Turf” bites

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Get your pre-launch copy of Eating and Drinking Sydney by letting me know your favourite place to eat.

With over 700 reviews, this is a great guide for every sort of event – a posh dinner in the city, a great bowl of Vietnamese soup in the outer west and just about every option in between.

I contributed about a dozen reviews for this new book.  It was great fun scooting around the city trying some new places and revisiting some others.

The best three comments will win the books, so get commenting and check out the Eating and Drinking Sydney facebook page to get more updates.

Simply enter before 8 September by leaving a comment on this post.

Eating and Drinking Sydney is released 1 September, 2011 rrp $29.95

I’m aiming to use the best seasonal produce available to give a cheeky twist to some old favourites.

This week’s dessert at the Strawbs is an Eton Mess, rich whipped cream and crunchy meringue layered with sweet passionfruit curd and home made passionfruit jelly.

Look out for more soon.

Fancy your very own cake or dessert, hand made with buckets of love and a slathering of creativity?

I’m now taking orders for delivery in the Sydney metro area.

Check out the list and drop me an email message to order something sweet for yourself.

Rhubarb is pretty versatile too, and easy to prepare. I love rhubarb compote, soft stewed vibrant fuschia ripples through thick sweet yoghurt, dolloped on ice cream or instead of jam with toast.
Or serve along side roasted pork, or with turkey for a burst of flavour and autumn colour.

Ingredients
Rhubarb and ginger compote
1 bunch rhubarb
2-3 cm piece of root ginger
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water

saucepan
fine grater
Method

Wash rhubarb and remove all traces of the poisonous green leaves.
Chop the crisp ruby stems into small chunks and set aside in a medium sized saucepan.
Peel the ginger and grate finely or bash with the heel of a heavy knife and mince until very fine.  Add to the ginger.
Add sugar and water and place over high heat until the compote comes to the boil.
Reduce to a gentle simmer until the rhubarb has collapsed and become the consistency of jam.
Transfer the hot mixture to sterilied jars and seal while still hot, or use the compote in the next few days.

My flatmate made a trip to the fish markets today, and along with a couple of kilos of delicious Hawkesbury River prawns she brought home a tin of Chipotle chillies.

Of course, I had to come up with a recipe and what better than Salt and Pepper Prawns.

Crispy fried, sweet, salty, smoky and spicy, of course tonight’s dinner was moreish, and definitely more than a match for my grumbly tummy.  A good batch of prawns needs a dipping sauce and what better than a rich lemon aioli – delicious garlic mayonnaise.

Chipotle chillies are perhaps not the easiest ingredient to find, feel free to replace the tinned chillies I used in my recipe with a  good dollop of your favourite chilli sauce.  This recipe is also gluten free – for more gluten free recipes visit my other website, www.clunki.com.

Salt and Pepper Prawns

1 kilo (2lb) peeled green (uncooked) prawns

1 1/2 tablespoons of chipotle chilli, minced

1 egg white (use egg yolk for aioli recipe as below)

1 heaped teaspoon salt

1/4 cup rice flour

2 teaspoons ground pepper (or a mix of pepper and spices of your choice)

1 cup oil for frying.

Combine the peeled prawns with minced chillies and egg white and mix until well combined.  Set aside in the fridge while you prepare the dry ingredients.

Grind pepper, salt and spices and mix with rice flour until well combined.

Heat oil on a wok or large pan.

Add a handful of the prawns to the flour, salt and pepper mixture coating the prawns well with the flour and shake off the excess.

Add the prawns to the hot oil and fry until crispy.  remove from the oil and drain for a moment.

Repeat with handfuls of prawns in batches.

Serve the hot prawns with a sprinkle of salt and a good dollop of aioli.

Lemon Aioli

1 egg yolk

pinch salt

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice of one lemon

In a large bowl beat the egg yolk together with salt.

Add a few drops of olive oil and whisk until combined.

Continue adding oil a few drops or teaspoon at a time, continue until well combined.

Add the garlic and lemon juice and stir well to incorporated.

I’ve been working on gluten free and otherwise modified recipes for clunki.com and I’m a little uncertain sometimes about adding a commercial chilli sauce, just in case there is some wheat used in the manufacturing process.

To get around any doubt that I might have I’ve decided to have a crack at my own.

There is a big old preserving jar sitting on my kitchen bench at the moment.  This time last week it was packed full of roughly chopped green chillies, whole cloves of garlic and a generous couple of handfuls of coarse salt.

As the week has worn on the chillies and garlic have begun to give up their liquid and they have slumped to almost half of their original volume. The garlic cloves have even started to take on the green of the chillies as the chlorophyll has started to bleed into the creamy whiteness of the garlic.

There’s at least another week of good fermenting to go before I even think about cracking open that jar to blend everything up and add the vinegar.   I’ll have to remember to find my goggles before I open the jar.

I grew up in the country.  And I’m taking my queue today, on our National Day of  barbecues and parochialism to offer up a recipe for a good old fashioned slice.
Everyone would bring a slice to community events, church afternoon teas, or to break the ice with a new neighbour.  You’d also bring a slice if someone was doing it tough, and needed a bit of a boost.  Just the ticket for sharing over a good strong cup of tea.
I’ve deliberately included a couple of iconic Australian ingredients in this one, just to make it extra Aussie Day special. I hope you enjoy it.

Aussie Slice, or – Macadamia and blueberry caramel slice

Ingredients

1 pack Arnott’s Kingston biscuits

100g macadamias – roughly chopped

100g blueberries, raspberries or even chopped mango if you are feeling adventurous

1 qty milk crumbs (see below) OR 1 block of white chocolate, chopped

390-400g tin sweetened condensed milk

Method

Line a baking tin with baking paper, and preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Place Kingston biscuits in a food processor or blender and process until crumbs.  You could also place the biscuits in a plastic bag and smash with a rolling pin.

Press the biscuit crumbs into the bottom of the baking tray.  The chocolate filling will melt and hold the biscuit base together.

Sprinkle the macadamias, blueberries and milk crumbs over the biscuit base.

Slowly drizzle the condensed milk over the ingredients in the pan, being sure to cover all of the ingredients with a little of the condensed milk.

Place in the pre heated oven for 25-35 minutes or until lightly golden brown and set.

Set aside to cool and serve on Australia Day, or any other day you feel like it.

Milk Crumbs

These add extra sweetness and creaminess to the recipe, and they remind me of long summer afternoons at the local swimming pool where the lollies and treats from the kiosk would ALWAYS include a Milko bar.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons full cream milk powder

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons rice flour

2 tablespoons butter

200g white chocolate

Method

Combine the dry ingredients and rub the butter in well to create a bread crumb texture.

Place the crumble in the oven until dried out and lightly toasted.

Melt white chocolate and stir in the milk powder crumble.

Coat the crumble chunks well with the chocolate and spread out on a tray lined with baking paper.

Add the milk crumbs to the slice recipe OR use on ice cream, in biscuits and cookies, or simply as a snack.

(Inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar)

Tomorrow is the official launch of Pass on a Book – a social venture, a charitable project that David Barnier and I have been working on for almost a year.

Our aim is pretty simple.  We collect used and pre-loved children’s books and we give them to kids who need them – easy right?

Setting up a project like this was supposed to be simple, we were going to collect maybe 100 books and send them to some friends who are based in India and ask them to donate the books to a local school.  We widened the scope to aim for a shipping container of books and then we started to take it all very seriously indeed.

Everyone we have mentioned the project to has embraced the idea and offered to bring their skills and energy to it.

We’ve set up a website – CLICK HERE to find out more about what we are doing, and check back here to see some photos from our launch celebration tomorrow night.

This second list is necessarily less glamorous.  No prawns or turkey, or ham or lobsters.  Just lots of pantry staples so I can be sure to have an easy way to use up the mountains of food that are always left whenever I (over)cater for a crowd.

5 essential ingredients to use up those left overs

Eggs
Omelettes, fritata, quiche and french toast – all impossible without good eggs.
Eggs don’t feature highly on a traditional Christmas menu, but an extra couple of dozen in the fridge will certainly help out in the days afterwards.

◊Sliced ham, pork or turkey folded into a light and fluffy omelette

◊Make your favourite quiche recipe including finely chopped left over meats and roasted vegetables

◊A fritata is a quick and easy lunch or dinner over the festive season.  Add a little olive oil, some chopped leftovers and fresh herbs to a frying pan.  Gently warm through and add a couple of beaten eggs.  Cook over low heat until the eggs are barely set.  Add a sprinkle of cheese and cook the top of the fritata under a hot grill (broiler) until bubbling.  Serve with a salad.

◊French toast is a Boxing Day favourite at my place, and making it with pannetone or another sweet christmas bread (even Christmas fruit cake) is not unheard of.  Beat a few eggs with a dash of milk.  Heat some butter in a non-stick pan.  Dip sliced pannetone, cake or bread in the egg mixture and fry gently over low heat until golden brown.  Serve with a drizzle of honey, maple syrup, left over brandy butter or a handful of fruit. Mango or peaches and cherries are my favourite at this time of year.

Salad ingredients
With Christmas plonked firmly in the middle of a lazy southern-hemisphere summer, salads are a great way to use up any cold meats and left over vegetables.
Be sure to stock up on leafy greens, ripe tomatoes and plenty of fresh herbs to keep your intake of vegetables up over the break.

Bread
Sandwiches are a classic way of using up left overs.
Watching the Boxing Day test cricket match, or the Sydney to Hobart yacht race is just not the same without a ham and salad sandwich.

◊Buy a few loaves of your favourite bread, slice them and keep them sealed in a plastic bag in the freezer.

◊Make a ham sandwich with a generous slice of cheese, a scrape of mustard and a dollop of onion jam or relish.  Press the sandwich together very well and dip in the french toast egg mixture.  Fry over gentle heat until warmed through and golden brown and crunchy.

Pastry
◊Leftovers always make great pies. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Chop your favourite leftovers into bite sized chunks.  Transfer to a casserole or oven proof dish.  Add any leftover gravy and an extra splash of stock or water so everything is moist, but not swimming in liquid.
Cover the dish with sheets of thawed puff pastry.  Cut a 2-3cm slit in the centre of the pastry to allow any steam to escape and bake your pot-pie until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is piping hot.

Spreads, chutneys and relishes
Cold meats and other leftovers are always much tastier the day after with a generous helping of relish or chutney.
If you have a grandmother or aunt, or someone else that makes great preserves get your order in early and you might be lucky enough to get something useful in your Christmas stocking.
Otherwise, get cooking.  A big jar of caramelised onions, or tomato chutney will last all the festive season.

◊I use these stand by ingredients to jazz up sandwiches and salads dressings, as well as stirring a generous dollop into light sour cream or natural yoghurt as a dip.