A note about traffic

I have been wanting to mention for a few weeks now that I am getting some wonderful traffic to my blog and I am SO encouraged to see the spread of audience.  It seems I have an avid follower from Russia and one from Germany and I wanted to reach out and say "hi, and thank you for tuning in"!!  Please feel free to make comments, add suggestions or provide feedback, I'd be so curious to hear how my blog is being received in other parts of the world.
I love that my friends are sharing it with their friends or perhaps people are stumbling upon it on their own - either way, it's very cool and keeps me inspired to keep cooking for you.  I hope I'm inspiring you enough in the kitchen and with dishes which interest you.  I'd love to know that you are trying them for your own families and friends, and with success, so drop me a line anytime to share your thoughts.

Until the next cry for dinner... stay happy and healthy.  Love Mo

Spaghetti with sautéed cauliflower and brussel sprouts

I wasn't quite sure where this was going when I started out but I had sautéed brussel sprouts, bacon and butter in mind.  It soon turned into this absolutely delectable spaghetti which I intended to be low calorie but in the end I'm not so sure.  I'll add it up later, for now - lets just say I REALLY enjoyed it!  I sat outside watching the girls play, drinking a chilled glass of pinot grigio and the stress of another day of school holidays just melted away....

Ingredients:

spaghetti pasta

extra virgin olive oil

a knob of butter

1 cup cauliflower florets, cut small

1 cup brussel sprouts, cut in half (approx 6-8)

150g pork sausage

100g parmesan cheese, shaved
1 tblspn each of thyme, rosemary, sage - finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tblspn creme friache

red chili flakes

sea salt and pepper

2 slices stale bread, crumbed

Method:

• Boil the kettle for the pasta
• In a skillet or large fry pan, heat a 1 tblspn of olive oil and a knob of butter
• Add the brussel sprouts, cut side down and cauliflower, put a lid on and cook for approx 5 minutes stirring occasionally until they are slightly golden.
• Add the pork sausage to other side of the pan and cook, breaking it up as you go
• Add garlic and herbs and cook until fragrant

• In a separate, small pan, heat 1-2 tblspn of olive oil and add the breadcrumbs.  Fry off until crunchy and brown, approx 3-4 minutes.  Tip out onto paper towel to absorb the excess oil (!)

• Cook your spaghetti until al dente, retaining 1/3 cup of pasta water
• When cooked, add pasta to the sausage and vegetable mix, with some pasta water, the creme friache, a sprinkle of red chili flakes and most of the parmesan cheese.
• Heat through until all combined
• Serve immediately with a sprinkle of toasted breadcrumbs on top, extra chili flakes and parmesan if desired

Roasted Meat Lasagne

I will warn you now... this is seriously good.  It is a Jamie Oliver recipe although in his recipe he uses a combination of 5 meats: rabbit, pheasant, duck, pigeon and venison to make his Italian Hunters Lasagne. That is all a bit too hard for most, including me, so let's do it with Beef.  If you really want to knock yourself over with flavor... use Lamb. And as I've done many times, I use a combination of Beef and Lamb and it works so well.

This recipe is not quick but it is SO worth the effort.   I normally roast the meat and shred it at least the day before and make the meat ragu. It obviously gives it more time for the flavors to intensify, and then it just leaves me to make the white sauce on the day and pull it all together ready to bake.

I think what makes this different to a any other lasagne I would usually make is that the flavors are separated differently.  The onions and parsley are used in the white sauce, not in with the tomatoes, and the triple cooking of the meat makes the meat so incredibly tender and rich.

Ingredients:
Beef / Lamb : 2-3lbs (1-1.5 kg) of roasted, shredded meat.  So more like 4-5 lbs (2- 2.5kg) raw meat.

Tomato Sauce:
Extra Virgin Olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
sprig of rosemary
3 bay leaves
3 x 400g tins of good tomatoes

White Sauce:
3 cups of milk
a xml handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 tspn nutmeg
1/2 onion, peeled and sliced
6 black peppercorns
80g (2 3/4 ounces) butter
65g (2 1/4 ounces) plain flour
150g (5 1/2 ounces) parmesan cheese
sea salt and ground black pepper

To Finish:
grated mozzarella cheese, 100g (4 oz)
fresh mozzarella balls
sage leaves
lasagne sheets
* homemade fresh pasta sheets are obviously the best way to go with this dish but after all this effort you may not want to spend the extra time, I totally get it.  If you can buy some good fresh lasagne sheets, fantastic, otherwise the packet sheets are fine - just soak them first for a few minutes in hot water before compiling the dish to ensure they will cook through.


Method:
Meat Ragu:

• Pre heat your oven to 425'F
• I always sear the meat/s in the roasting tray on top of the stove before placing it in the oven. It helps to keep the juices in and creates a lovely crust and adds to the flavor. 
• Rub your meats with salt and pepper and extra virgin olive oil before searing for 2-3minutes on each side.
• For the beef - then spread a thin smear of dijon mustard over your beef and roast for usually around 50-75 minutes depending on (the size) of cut of meat, (23-25mins per pound for medium rare).  
• For the lamb, make three or four incisions into the meat and poke a sprig of rosemary and a clove of garlic into each cut before roasting for the roughly the same amount of time. 
• When it's done, and slightly underdone is good, remove it from the oven and allow to rest.

• Once cooled, strip all the meat and place in a bowl.  You do this by using a fork and shredding the meat by hand, which gives you the best result.  You can use a mini food processor and break it up into chunky pieces.  You do NOT want it ground so use a processor sparingly and only when your hand is so sore you can't keep going!

• Heat a pan and add a splash of extra virgin olive oil
• Slowly fry the garlic until colored, then add the rosemary, bay leaves and tomatoes.
• Cook gently for 45 minutes with the lid on
• Add the shredded meat to the tomato sauce with a little hot water if it's too dry, season well
• Simmer for 20 - 25minutes, stirring every now and then
• Remove the rosemary and the bay leaves
• Set aside to cool.
• Store in an airtight container until needed, or freeze if necessary at this point.

White sauce:

• Put the milk, parsley, nutmeg, onion and peppercorns into a saucepan and gently bring to just a boil
• Strain the milk and then put it back into the saucepan to keep warm
• In a separate saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour.
• Add the hot milk one ladle at a time until you have a thick smooth white sauce.  
• Once it's combined and heated through, add the parmesan and season if necessary

layer the meat, pasta, white sauce

Final Compilation of Dish:

• Preheat the oven to 360'F
• Boil the kettle and soak the lasagne sheets for 2-3minutes (if using store bought)
• Butter a large baking dish
• Add a thin layer of meat ragu to the bottom of the baking dish, add a little extra water if necessary to give the pasta something to cook against.
• Lay pasta sheets over meat, up over the sides if desired.
• Layer meat ragu over pasta
• Add a thin layer of white sauce
• Repeat with pasta sheets, meat, white sauce until you've run out of meat.
• Finish top layer with pasta, white sauce, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and fresh mozzarella balls
• Scatter some ripped sage leaves on top, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 45 -50 minutes until golden brown.

Serve this with a beautifully simple fresh mix leaf salad, pine nuts and shaved parmesan.  

Drizzle with my favorite combination of dressing:

- good extra virgin olive oil

- fig balsamic (Old Town Oil - Chicago)

- squeeze of lemon juice

- drop of minced ginger

- touch of white sugar

- sea salt and pepper

give it a good shake and that's it!  

An absolutely killer lasagne which will be hard to beat!

Prosciutto and Fig antipasto

What a lovely platter to share with friends.  Mixed meats, marinated artichokes, roasted red pepper, mozzarella balls, olives and feta with delicate figs wrapped in prosciutto with a hint of basil and a simple drizzle of dressing.  We hosted a Trivia night this week with some good friends and enjoyed this as our starter, followed by a Roasted Lamb Lasagne... (recipe to come). A fantastic, fun night accompanied by some deliciously simple, honest food.

Figs wrapped in prosciutto:

• Cut the figs criss cross at the top, not all the way down to the bottom.  Gently squeeze the base of the fig until the top almost blossoms and opens.  This not only looks incredible and enticing but allows the dressing to drip down inside the fig.
• Rip some green or purple basil leaves and push inside each fig
• For the dressing: mix and shake:
• 6 tblspn good extra virgin olive oil, 
• 3 tblspn lemon juice, 
• 1 tspn honey, 
• salt and pepper
• Drizzle the dressing over the figs and enjoy!

Granola

The smell of freshly baking granola filling the house on a saturday morning... unbeatable. This was something I've been meaning to do for some time now as I hate buying granola in stores, the healthier varieties are so incredibly expensive and this was so easy.  I had everything in my cupboard and throwing it all together and on a tray was too simple.  I love that you could go crazy with this and add anything you like.  My youngest daughter loves 'muesli', as we call it, so I thought I'd make this one pretty simple but you can add wheat germ, dates, apple sauce (instead of oil).  Serve with some non fat greek yoghurt and fresh fruit.  Have fun with it!

Makes approx 1 kg, 2 lbs

Ingredients:
4 cups rolled oats (not 1 minute oats)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup dried fruit (cranberries, dates, apricots, raisins whatever you like)
4 tblspn walnut oil or vegetable oil or a combination
1 tspn kosher salt
1 tspn cinnamon
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened coconut

Method:

• Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined.  
• Pre-heat the oven to 325'F
• Pour out granola onto a large baking tray and bake for approx 40-45 minutes stirring every 10minutes until golden brown.
• Allow to cool
• Store in an airtight container.

Spinach, ricotta and feta rolls

A nice twist on the traditional sausage roll, these vegetarian rolls are great as a lunch or cut larger for dinner with salad or vegetables.  The girls even enjoyed them after getting over their 'green' fear.  They have a wonderful subtle flavor and the little bit of nutmeg brings it all to life.  I was tempted to pipe this mixture into cannelloni shells but I'll save that for another time.  Make a double batch and freeze them or share them with friends.

Makes 12 standard size rolls
225 calorie per serve (1/6 sheet)

Ingredients: 
1.5 cups ricotta cheese
4oz (113gm) Greek non fat feta
1/4 tspn nutmeg
1 box frozen spinach, defrosted and chopped
3 tblspn parmesan cheese
Cracked pepper, to season
1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
Olive oil
Puff pastry sheets x 2
1 egg, lightly beaten for brushing pastry
Sesame seeds (optional)

Method: 

• Let 2 sheets of puff pastry defrost on the counter top. 
• Heat a small pan and add a drop of olive oil. Finely dice the onion and cook until translucent. Set aside to cool. 
• Defrost the spinach in a microwave for a few minutes and then allow to cool before squeezing the excess water out by rolling it in paper towel. 
• In a large mixing bowl, add the ricotta, feta, parmesan and cooled spinach and onion. Season with nutmeg and pepper and mix until well combined. 
• Spread the puff pastry sheet out flat on a lightly floured counter. 
• Cut the sheet in half horizontally and spoon out a length of mixture in the middle of each section. 
• Prick the top edge of each section with a fork and brush with a little milk before rolling the sheet over and sealing. 
• Cut into three even lengths (for adults) or into 9 smaller pieces (for children or as an appetizer). 
• Freeze at this point for future use or else heat an oven to 360'F (180'C) and brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Thai Fish Cakes

Fish cakes can either be so delicious or so dry. I don't often order them when I'm out because I have been disappointed so many times.  This recipe was totally easy, and left the cakes moist, light and full of flavor.  The dipping sauce was sensational, Mark was raving about it from the couch at every bite, so definitely a real winner for us.  I pan fried the fish cakes in a little oil to get them nice and golden brown but I'd be interested to see if they worked just as well baked in the oven.  This was an adaptation of a recipe from taste.com.au and the dressing was so good unchanged I'll be using that again with so many different things.

Makes 14 small fish cakes
Serves 2-3
Calorie: approx 280-300 per serve

Ingredients:
500g (1 lb) skinless fish fillets, bones removed (I used cod)
2 tblspn red curry paste
2 tblspn fish sauce
1 egg
1 tspn white sugar
1/2 cup green beans, finely chopped
1/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped
3 fresh kaffir lime leaves, stalk removed and finely diced OR just use juice of half a lime
vegetable oil for frying

Dipping sauce:
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 lebanese cucumber (2 inches) deseeded and finely chopped
1 long red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tspn fish sauce
2 tblpsn roasted peanuts, finely chopped

Method:

• To make the dipping sauce, bring the vinegar, sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan to dissolve the sugar. Turn down to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes until slightly syrupy. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• In a mini processor, process the peanuts and then the cucumbers.  Add to the cooled vinegar mixture with the chili and fish sauce.  Set aside.
• In a food processor, add the fish, curry paste, fish sauce, egg and sugar and process until combined.  Transfer to a bowl and add the beans, cilantro and kaffir lime to the mixture until mixed through.
• Mold into small patties using about 2 tblpsn of mixture at a time.  Place on a lined baking tray ready to refrigerate for about 1 hr before cooking, if time allows.
• Using a wok or pan, pour in approx 1/2 " or 1.5cm vegetable oil and heat over medium/high heat until hot.  Cook fish cakes in batches until golden brown, turning until cooked through - approx 5-8minutes. 
• Serve with dipping sauce.