January 2010
17 posts
6 tags
Jamaican brown stew part one: Rice with beans
At the moment, it’s just one killer day after another. Tommorow I am flying across the country again, and I’m hoping to use the plane time to catch up on my recipics. (I missed yesterday sorry!)
Tonight is the first of a two part series. This is Alex’s Jamaican brown stew with rice and beans. It’s hot, spicy and everything a good Caribbean stew should be. Take it easy...
6 tags
Lotus root chips
A few months ago when Chelsey and I were hit with Masterchef fever I saw a recipe for Lotus root chips on the show.
This recipe isn’t an exact match, but when I saw the little frozen lotus root slices in the local Asian grocer I just couldn’t resist the urge to try them. Alex gave them 2 thumbs up, so they can’t have been all bad. I’ll try anything once. And in this...
4 tags
Eggs Benedict Part 2: Poaching the perfect egg
Anyone who has ever had a weekend cafe breakfast with me more than once knows that I am the most predictable person ever born. “Eggs benedict with an iced coffee thanks” is my usual order, without so much as a peek at the menu.
This weekend I’ve decided to do an eggs benedict post over Saturday and Sunday. Today we learn how to poach the perfect egg.
Ingredients
egg
...
4 tags
Eggs Benedict Part 1: Hollandaise Sauce
Anyone who has ever had a weekend cafe breakfast with me more than once knows that I am the most predictable person ever born. “Eggs benedict with an iced coffee thanks” is my usual order, without so much as a peek at the menu.
This weekend I’ve decided to do an eggs benedict post over Saturday and Sunday. Today we learn how to make hollandaise sauce!
Ingredients
2 egg...
7 tags
Curry Pasta Salad
Today in Perth it was hot, and not just any old kind of hot, but dry, West Australian, sucks-the-life-out-of-you sweltering heat. So I decided to make one of my favourite summer meals. It’s simple, quick and fresh. Perfect for lazy summer heat.
Ingredients
1 red onion
1 green capsicum
1 red capsicum
1 apple
1/2 bunch celery
1/4 cup sultanas
500g pasta spirals
1 cup...
4 tags
Alex's spag bol
I can’t believe it’s Thursday night and another week is almost over. Alex has been the greatest housemate ever, and taken
care of dinner for me two nights in a row!
Tonight we had his version of “late-home-from-work-and-tired” which was an impressive three dish spread consisting of
Spaghetti Bolognese, Rocket and Parmesan salad, and Garlic Bread. Of course...
5 tags
Jug of Danger (a.k.a. Pimms Cocktails)
Last night was one of those nights where you totally don’t plan on having a big night, and the next thing you know it’s midnight and you’re eating Macdonalds in the back of a taxi wondering why the road is spinning.
That said, the jugs of Cocktails at Madame Brusells were refreshingly, deliciously, amazing. We started with a jug of Pimms and though I can’t remember...
7 tags
Roasted Quail
After a long day of usability testing I enjoyed dinner tonight at Melbourne’s famous tapas bar, Movida.
The project team let the two project managers select the dishes, allocate the portions and divide up the bill, which suited me just fine. All I wanted was a never ending glass of sangria and some respite from the 43 degree heat, that is still raging even now at almost midnight.
...
6 tags
Rigatoni Sardi a Mari
Today I went to Melbourne’s Southbank to have lunch with my Aunt Pat. She’s pretty much one of the most inspiring people I know. We had her favourite cuisine for lunch, which is of course Italian.
We both had Rigatoni Sardi a Mari, which was quite adventurous for me, seeing as I never normally eat anchovies. But I found the meal to be surprisingly good with the perfect...
7 tags
The Cocktail with No Name (Bar None, Melbourne)
Apologies for the poor image quality, the iphone 3GS camera is no DSLR.
It’s Saturday night (well… technically it’s Sunday morning, but at this time of the day that’s really an insignificant detail) and I’ve been out. I didn’t really eat much tonight so I figured you might like a recipic of the signature cocktail that I tried at Bar None
It took...
7 tags
Pon's spiced lamb mince
It’s been a very long week, and tonight I find myself in Melbourne visiting Pon. In response to my Simple Tomato Pasta post he has cooked me his signature dish.
But does it meet the strict criteria?
Simple? Tick.
Comforting? Tick.
A little (and I mean little) bit healthy? Tick.
And most important of all:
Delicious? BIG GREEN TICK!
Ingredients
500g minced lamb
1/2 cup peas
...
7 tags
Simple tomato pasta
Everyone has one of those dishes they can cook with their eyes closed, in 10 minutes, and know exactly what they’re going to get, right?
Well, this is mine. I’ve cooked it on more home-late-from-work nights than I care to remember, and even once for 20 people on an African safari. It’s simple, but comforting and a little bit healthy. What more can you ask for in 10...
6 tags
Spicy beef fajitas
Life is really hectic for me at the moment, so I decided to make something quick and easy for dinner. It’s a shame that making the recipic wasn’t so straightforward.
But there is a light at the end of the crazy tunnel I’m in right now. In about a month I’m going away on a round-the-world trip and I’m looking forward to trying real mexican fajitas. Who knows I may...
7 tags
Stuffed pumpkin flowers
A few weeks back my dad’s vegetable garden was overgrown with rogue pumpkin plants and I decided to make use of the beautiful yellow flowers. The fairytale soon turned into a disaster when I realised how awful and prickly pumpkin plants can be.
But the rumble of my stomach spurred me on, and I braved the elements, so that I might try this Italian cuisine that had been on my cooking...
6 tags
Onion and tomato tart
My old housemate Nina Las Vegas loves this dish. When we lived together it felt like she cooked it every second day. But when you try it, you’ll understand why it was on such high rotation in our house!
Ingredients
1 sheet of puff pastry
4 onions
2 small zucchini
Cherry tomatoes
Bocconcini cheese
1 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper
1 egg
olive oil
Serves: 2 Cooking time: 1 hr 10...
8 tags
Chilled Tapioca Pudding
This is one of my all time favourite summer desserts! I was inspired to try it out a few years ago after an amazing dinner banquet at Jimmy Liks in Sydney.
I have previously made it with mango, lychees and strawberries but you can use any fruit you like.
Ingredients
1/2 cup of tapioca seeds
2 cups of cold water
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
400ml of coconut milk (not coconut...
December 2009
1 post
11 tags
Dessert wine jellies with strawberry
Day two. This project is going to be harder than I thought.
I made this dessert on Christmas eve for my family and it went down really well in the Sydney summer heat. Try it with some whipped cream on top. Yum Yum.
Ingredients
400ml dessert wine
1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp powdered gelatine
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1 punnet strawberries
Serves: 4 Cooking time: 20 mins Chilling time: 3-5...
8 tags
Day One: Jamaican Chicken Salad
Inspired by the film Julie and Julia and a recent blog post on Smashing Magazine challenging designers to “design something everyday” I have decided to finish off a project that I started over 3 years ago.
Some of you may be familiar with my earlier recipics which were part of my major-project during my Visual Communication degree at the University of Technology Sydney.
The original body of...