#tableofsophie

Well, firstly, sorry it has been such a long time between posts. Starting a new job, looking for a new pad, all very time intensive stuff.

We treated ourselves to a weekend in the mountains this weekend, mainly just food and rest, batteries recharged.

Seafood is one of those great things to cook when there are a couple of spare hands between your diners. We all love to get involved and prepare it, and those who don’t, can just work on the delicious crunchy garlic toast!

  Carluccio’s- Fish Stew Soup

  2kg Mixed fresh fish fillets and shellfish. I used swordfish, calamari, parwns, mussels.

4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

1 large onion, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped, plus extra for rubbing

1 kg tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

125ml red wine

1 x small Birdseye chili chopped finely, seeds removed

3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

½ tsp fennel seeds

salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 slices good quality bread

serves 6

  1.  Clean and prepare you fish and shellfish, cutting into manageable chunks

2. Put the oil, onion and garlic into a large frypan, on fry over medium heat for 3 minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes, wine, parsley and chilli, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook for 10-15 minutes, then add large chunks of fish, thn prawns, ending with mussels and calamari. Cook for 5 minutes, or until seafood is cooked through.

4. Meanwhile, toast your bread until lovely and crunchy. Rub the raw garlic over the toast and drizzle with olive oil.

5. Place a piece of toast into the bottom of a deep soup dish, and ladel the fresh seafood and liquid over the top.

Sunday has become my most regular cooking day. I cook snacks and lunches for the week ahead: Quinoa and poached pear porridge, Paleo muffins, Mulligatawny (NO SOUP FOR YOU!) and some sort of protein whether it be pulled pork, lamb shoulder, beef brisket or chicken. This Sunday was chicken and I wanted to share one of my easiest, tastiest and cheapest marinate to make your chicken have a little more "Jazz".

Soy Marinated Chicken Breast Fillets

4 x chicken breast fillets- trimmed (you could alsu use thigh's or a whole chicken if you feel adventurous and like breaking down a whole chook!

2 x tbsn Soy sauce or Tamari sauce

1 x good handful of thyme leaves

1 x large garlic clove- chopped finely

1 x tbsn olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. Pop the thyme and olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt in a mortar and pestle. Bash until the leaves are seperated from the stalks and pull the stalks out.

2. PLace the thyme oil in a bowl, with garlic, salt and pepper and soy/tamari sauce.

3. Add the chicken and marinate for at least 1/2hr, ideally a few hours.

On a recent trip to the mountains, I stayed at my favourite B&B; home. Max and I started a fire very early on in the afternoon. It crackled and prickled away as the sun dropped, and we made dinner.

The smell of beer and beef filled the air and for dessert we had a lovely crispy and gooey Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding.  Marmalade is one of those funny things, which I will only eat at home. I think my love for food started at such an early age. I have a wonderful memory of hiring out an old and aged copy of Paddington Pear from my public school library, and devouring the stories of Paddington and his orange Marmalade. As you can see, I couldn’t resist spreading orange marmalade all over the bread to make the pudding.

  Beef and Beer

2 Tbspn butter

1 Tbspn olive oil

1.5kg chuck steak, cubed

2 large onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbspn all-purpose flour

1 tbspn brown sugar

1 ½ cups beef stock

2 cups beer (I Used Hahn!)

1 tbspn red-wine vinegar

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 bouquet garni – sage, thyme and 2 bay leaves (this is where you pick or buy your herbs and tie together with some natural string..Don’t use coloured twine or you will have a blue soup, a la Bridget Jones)!

1. Heat the butter and oil together in a saute pan. Working in batches, brown the beef on all sides. Remove from the pan.  

2. In the same pan, fry the onions until soft, about 15 minutes, then add the garlic for 1 minute. Remove. (Check if there is fat in the pan. If not, add a good tablespoon of butter and let it melt.) Add the flour and sugar to the pan and cook for 1 minute to make a roux. Gradually whisk in the stock and bring to a boil. (At this point, turn your slow cooker onto low-medium heat) Add the beer and vinegar to the boiling stock, and bring back to a boil, cooking until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. 

3. Place the onions, beef, bouquet garni and sauce into your slow cooker. Cover and bake for 4-5 hours.

4. If you can bare the wait, cool the dish completely and refrigerate overnight! Casseroles are always better the next day don’t you think?

  Marmalade & Whisky Bread and Butter Pudding 

8 x slices Raisin bread, or brioche, crusts removed

50g very soft butter (don’t be impatient! It will rip apart your bread if you don’t wait)

4 tbspn orange marmalade

300ml full fat milk

248 ml pot double cream

3 large eggs

seeds 1 vanilla pod

4 tbspn caster sugar

1 tbspn whisky

  1. Butter each piece of bread on both sides, then spread 4 with the 1 tbsp marmalade each. Pop the remaining bread on top to make 4 marmalade sandwiches. Cut into triangles and nestle in rows in a large baking dish. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. 

2. Beat the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla, sugar and whisky together, then pour over the bread. Leave to soak for 30 mins.

Lately i've been on a big baking adventure! I think i'm trying to find reasons to turn on the oven and heat up our tiny little flat. June/July is also the month of Birthdays in our family, but really, any excuse will do!

I used a Donna Hay pastry, which uses a little bit of icing sugar. Keep a close eye on it, because I found it coloured very quickly and I popped some alfoil over the top to protect the edges. It is a lovely and short pastry!

Pastry

1½ cups (225g) plain (all-purpose) flour

125g chilled butter, cut into cubes

½ cup (80g) icing (confectioner’s) sugar

3 egg yolks (reserve yolks for meringue top)

1 tablespoon iced water

Filling

3/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)

1 cup caster sugar

2/3 cup thickened cream

5 eggs, lightly beaten

Meringue

3 egg whites

1 cup caster sugar

  1. For the pastry, Place the flour, butter and icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add the egg yolks and process to combine. Add the iced water and process until the dough just comes together. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring together to form a ball. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 3mm-thick. Line an 11cm x 34cm lightly greased loose-bottomed tart tin with the pastry, trim the edges and prick the base with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Line the pastry case with non-stick baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the paper and weights and bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is light golden. Reduce temperature to 140ºC (275ºF). 

3. Combine the lemon juice, sugar and cream in a bowl. Whisk in the beaten eggs a little at at ime until is is all combined. Pour the mixture into the tart shell, through a sieve (this will stop any egg bits that haven’t quite separated appearing on the top). Bake for 25 minutes or until set. Allow to cool for half an hour before putting the meringue on top.

Having started a new job last week, I wanted to make a good re-heat meal over the weekend to carry us through the week. Moussaka is one of my favourites and it tastes even better when reheated! The cinnamon smells amazing as it cooks!

This recipe is based on Maggie Beer's recipe. I love her use of lemon rind and lemon thyme as it freshens up the lamb. It makes such a difference to pound up a cinnamon stick, as opposed to using the powdered stuff. The flavour is more potent and a little tart. You can substitute it for 3 teaspoons of cinnamon powder if you don't have the stick, but I think it is well worth the investment!

3 medium-sized eggplants

1 1/2 tbspn Extra Virgin Olive Oil to roast eggplants

To taste salt flakes

To taste freshly ground black pepper

1 tbspn Extra Virgin Olive Oil to saute

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic crushed

500g minced lamb

1 Cinnamon quill cinnamon, pounded

1 tbspn tomato paste

½ cup red wine

½ lemon lemon zest grated

1 cup tomato sugo

2 tbspn lemon thyme

Rind of 1 lemon

½ cup of cheese- combination 

Bechamel Sauce

2 tbspn parmesan grated

50g unsalted butter

50g plain flour

1 cup light milk

1 cup Chicken Stock

1 pinch nutmeg grated (grate fresh)

To taste freshly ground black pepper

To taste salt flakes

1. Cut eggplant into thin 1 centimetre slices. Brush slices with oil, season with salt and put in the oven at 250C, or as hot as you can go, for 8 - 10 minutes until golden – turning the pieces over half way through cooking.

2. Saute onion at moderate temperature for 5 minutes – add the garlic and cook another 5 minutes. Put onion and garlic aside.

3. Salt and brown meat in batches at a high temperature, you don’t want the mince to ‘boil’. Put all meat back into the pan, add cinnamon, onion and garlic, tomato paste, and deglaze with wine at high temperature. Then add lemon zest, Tomato and Basil Sugo, parsley, and lemon thyme. Simmer for 20 minutes for flavours to combine.

4. To make the béchamel or cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pot and then sprinkle the flour over it, stirring well to combine. Continue to cook for a little while until the flour colours slightly and it loses that raw flavour.

5. Remove from the heat and pour the milk in first and then the stock, slowly, at first, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Return pan to the stove and continue to cook until thickened – stirring often until the liquid thickly coats the back of the spoon. Add the nutmeg and seasoning and lay a piece of plastic wrap or baking paper directly on top of the sauce so that it doesn’t form a skin. Set aside until needed.

6.  To make the moussaka, spray an oven proof dish with non-stick cooking spray or a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place a layer of eggplant on the bottom of the dish and then a layer of lamb mince over this. Continue to alternate between eggplant and lamb mince, finishing with a layer of eggplant.

I'm not at all being biased! I made this and there were just no words between my boyfriend and I, as we filled our tummies after a long Wednesday hump-day.

I've become a bit of a spice princess and shied away from the heat of late. This dish actually isn't hot. It's quite mild, but has a lovely fresh chilli flavour (a lot of people think chilli is purely heat). If you would like more heat, feel free to swap your long red chilli's out for birds eye chillies or add more chilli sauce in. The dish is also gluten free, and thickened with an egg. It's very healthy.

We keep lovely green prawns in the freezer (which we pick up from our favourite Sydney seafood supplier; Faros Brothers). Everything else we had in the cupboard and I think most of you would too! This dish honestly took 5-10 minutes from start to finish. Hop to it!

Singapore Chilli Prawns

750g green prawns, peeled and deveined

2 large red chillis finely sliced (you can use a little bird's eye chilli if you like it very hot)

Thumb sized piece of ginger (finely chopped)

2-3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

2 teaspoons of rice bran oil

for the sauce

200ml water

2 tspns salt

2 tbspns tomato sauce (I use a gluten free one from the supermarket)

4 tbspns tomato paste

2 tbspns sambal olek (you can substitute for a chilli sauce, like spirulina, but start by using 1 tablespoon and then taste)- check for gluten free options if this is a requirement for you

1 tbspn sesame oil

1 tbspn white vingear (i substituted with white wine vinegar because I was out and it was delicious)

1 egg beaten, and mixed through at the last step

1.Fry garlic, ginger, red chilli, then add in prawns and fry for 1 minute.

2.Next add in the sauce ingredients and simmer for 1 minute. 

3. Lastly, add in a beaten egg, stir the sauce while adding in the egg.

A big trend at the moment is to substitute cous cous, which is a traditional North African cuisine made up of semolina (granules of durum wheat), with cauliflower. My favourite part of cooking with cous cous is that it is such a speedy process. Cauliflower takes a comparable time to cook, but the benefits of cauliflower are much better! Cauliflower has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties (can help decrease chronic inflammation that leads to conditions such as arthritis, chronic pain and bowel conditions). The veggie also contains a whole lot of vitamins, particularly B group vitamins, assisting with the nervous system and energy production. I served my cous cous with some simple moroccan meatballs for a winter meal. But I also think it would be fantastic dressed up with some herbs, celery, walnuts and maybe even some dried fruit to add a bit of sweetness.

Cauliflower CousCous

1 cauliflower

1 teaspoon rice bran oil

salt and pepper

1. Remove the florets from the cauliflower and pop into a food processor (leaving behind stems). Pulse cauliflower in a food processor until it’s “riced” (ie, the size of couscous). Careful not to overmix, you don’t want to puree the cauliflower at all.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add the cauliflower “couscous” and a few good pinches of salt. Let it gently toast for a minute or so and stir. You are trying to keep the couscous white, careful not to toast it, just to dry it out. Pop it into a cold pan or plate and fluff up with a folk.

Moroccan meatballs

500g chicken or lamb mince

40g quinoa flour

1 small brown onion, coarsely grated

1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander

Moroccan spices- I used 1 tspn cumin, 1 tspn smoked paprika, 1/2 tspn ground coriander, 1/2 tspn nutmeg 

salt and pepper

2 teaspoons olive oil 

1. Combine all ingredients for meatballs and roll into balls- about the size of 2 tablespoons.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add half the meatballs at a time, browning for 5 minutes, set aside.

For the Sauce

1 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove, chopped finely

1 x 400g can Chopped Tomatoes

125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock

1/2 cup red wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the remaining oil in the pan. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato, paste, wine and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5-10minutes. Add the meatballs, reduce to low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.

I have tried a few pulled pork recipes in my time, and I thought I had a great one…Then I found this one! Initially it was a Williams-Sonoma recipe, but I have adapted it a little since then. The pork remains really succulent and moist. By browning the pork off really well before putting it in the slow cooker or baking pan, you get those lovely crunchy bits, with the very soft shredded bits! Delish! Unfortunately this one does have a little bit of sugar in it..

This is what the meat should look like after 4-5 hours in a slow cooker on high, or in a baking pan or french cookpot in the oven. You can see that it’s lovely and browned and already falling apart..Perfect for pulling!

3 tbspns rice bran oil

2-2.5 kg pork shoulder piece (you could even try a 3kg shoulder if it will fit in your slow cooker/cookpot.

1 brown onion finely chopped

1 large garlic clove finely chopped (or 2 small cloves)

3/4 cup cider vinegar

3/4 cup tomato ketchup

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 tspn red pepper flakes

1 Tbspn  Worcestershire sauce

1 tspn dry mustard

1 tspn salt

1 tspn freshly ground pepper

1. Brown the pork: In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil. Add the pork pieces and brown well on all sides, about 12 minutes total. Transfer the pork to a slow cooker.

2. Pour off all but about 1 Tbs. of the fat from the fry pan and return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, it will brown quickly- 1 minute or so). Add the vinegar and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the pan bottom.

3. Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, just until the mixture begins to bubble. Pour over the pork. Cover and cook until the pork is very tender, 4 to 5 hours on a high setting. If you are cooking in the oven, place all ingredients in a baking pan or cookpot and cover with a lid, or double layer of foil if using a pan. Set oven to 150 degrees celsius and cook for 4-5 hours.