Prawns and Snowpeas with Wasabi Cream Sauce

Okay, NOW we're talkin'. This was a complete wing and I was so happy with how it turned out. This is really, really great and I think you should absolutely try it.

You'll need;

500g prawns, shelled
200g pasta shells
two big handfulls snowpeas, chopped
200ml cream
1 tbspn fresh REAL wasabi - not the green stuff you get from asian stores. There's a great company in NZ that does an awesome wasabi.
1 clove crushed garlic
2 tbspns mirin
1 finely chopped tomato
2 tbspns extra virgin olive oil.
salt to season.

Cook your pasta according to directions. Put the chopped snowpeas in the cooking water with the pasta for the last minute or so of cooking to blanch them. Drain the pasta and snowpeas, then put the olive oil and garlic in the saucepan and return to heat. Let the garlic infuse the oil, then pour in the cream. Add the wasabi, mirin, tomato and bring to a simmer. Season, then stir in the prawns and snowpeas. Serves two very happy people.

Smoked Salmon and Rocket Super Salad

I don't like rocket, usually. It's just a little too bitter. A friend of mine says it tastes like poison, and I have to agree.

However, this salad is so freakin' delicious I have to make the exception, here. Try it - I dare you.

You will need;

150g rocket
200g smoked salmon
1 handful capers
3 good quality salad tomatoes
300ml good quality fresh ceasar salad dressing
handful shaved parmesan
1 thinly sliced spanish onion
1 packet of crispy noodles (this is the big secret)

You could add avocado as a variation.

Simply toss it all in a bowl and serve.

Baked Vegetables with Pruscuito and Creamy Caper and Cherry Tomato sauce.

Whooaaahh! This was simply the most delicious thing I've made in ages. The sauce... I just wanted to drink the sauce...

Anyhoo, this is what you'll need...

Pre-heat oven to 180C

1 celeriac,
1 sweet potato,
1 swede, all peeled and diced into 2cm cubes.
150g finely shredded pruscuito
200ml cream
1 tspn dijon mustard
1 clove crushed garlic
1 tbspn capers
100g cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 good handful of finely grated Parmesan
Olive oil

Put the diced vegetables and pruscuito into a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and put into the oven for 30-35 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the pruscuito crispy.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, place the cream, capers, garlic, mustard, and tomatoes and bring to a simmer, pressing down on the cherry tomatoes to release some juice into the sauce. When simmering, add the Parmesan, stirring, until the mixture is thick and saucy. Season.

Arrange the cooked vegetables in a serving bowl, and drizzle over the sauce. Serves two.

Fettuccini with Mushrooms and Truffle

Okay, okay so it's truffle. I swore I'd never put anything that was weird or pretentious here, but I simply couldn't resist - and the reason is that it's delicious. I don't mean that kind of Madagascan-lemur-kidney oh gosh it's so rare it must be good tasty, but really great. Truffles are expensive because they are freakin' AWESOME. Ahem.

Okay, rationalization aside, here's the recipe.

You'll need:

200g fettucini
150ml cream
150g mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 clove crushed garlic
25ml truffle oil (get the good stuff, with truffle bits floating in it)
10g butter
good handful of Parmesan
olive oil

In a frypan, get the butter frothing with a couple of glugs of the olive oil. Toss in the mushrooms and cook until very tender and rich. Set aside in a warm place. Meanwhile, cook your pasta.

When the pasta's done (saving a bit of the cooking water), put the cream, garlic and truffle oil in the pan and bring to a simmer. Grate your Parmesan into the simmering mixture until you get a lovely creamy sauce. Season.

Add the pasta and mushrooms, and toss until coated. Add a couple of glugs of the cooking oil to keep it from getting too gluey. Serves 2. A very happy 2.

Smoked salmon and avocado oreccette

This was a complete throw together of everything that was left in the fridge, but turned out really lovely.

You'll need;

1 avocado diced
100g smoked salmon, chopped into small strips.
150ml cream
50g parmsan
1 red chile, chopped finely
1 crushed garlic clove
handful parsley chopped
300g oreccette pasta (or whatever)
2 tomatoes (I used kumatos), chopped finely
Extra virgin Olive oil.
3 anchovies

Cook your pasta according to directions. Drain and set aside.

In the same saucepan (love this aspect) put in a few glugs of olive oil, the anchovies, chile, garlic and stir for a minute. Add the tomates and heat through. Pour in the cream and heat until just simmering, and shave in the parmesan. Season now.

Stir through the pasta, smoked salmon, avocado and parsley. Serve to rapturous appaluse.

Pistachio, rose and cinnamon brittle

Okay, okay - it's been a while since the last update. I just haven't made anything that I thought was blog-worthy. Hey, it happens:-)

This was a great experiment. I'd made a maple and pecan brittle which was yummy, but this was particularly interesting.

You'll need:

1 cup brown or raw sugar
1 cup corn syrup
4 tablespoons rosewater
300g shelled pistachios
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon red food dye
1 tbspn baking soda

Put the sugar in a saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of water over high heat, and stir till dissolved. Pour in the corn syrup and rosewater.

This is the tricky bit. I've never had a sugar thermometer that was in any way reliable, so I use the old water test. Once your toffee has been heating for a few minutes, drop a teaspoon of the mixture into some cold water. If the toffee goes instantly brittle, you're there. Simple as that.

When you are getting close, drop in the pistachios, food dye and the cinnamon and stir. I put the dye in just to give the brittle the slightest warm hue to offset the green pistachios, but you can omit this if you like. Stir in the baking soda - this is essential to getting brittle that breaks cleanly and doesn't pull out your fillings.

Turn out the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper, spread into a thin layer and let cool. Eat, eat, eat!!

Schnitzel Pamigiana with bacon cabbage and mash

There's been a bit of a hiatus in posts, so I thought I'd better get something in. Honestly the past few weeks have been a bit barren at home in a gastronomic sense. Plenty of good cooking, just nothing new.

This is a great recipe for schnitzel. We have a lot of leftover veal as our 3 year old loves it but can only eat so much. Stay tuned for lots of recipes involving veal:-)

You will need;

- 500g veal
- 3 eggs
- flour
- parmesan
- breadcrumbs
- butter
- olive oil
- capers
- juice of 1 lemon
- 100g bacon finely chopped
- half a cabbage
- Worcestershire sauce
- 3 large potatoes
- garlic, salt pepper

First thing to do is get your schnitzels done. Mix your breadcrumbs with finely grated parmesan. Dip your veal in plain flour, then egg, then the breadcrumb/cheese mix. Set aside.

In a large frypan, cook your bacon till crisp. While the bacon is frying, grate your cabbage and out into a saucepan of boiling water for a couple of minutes till soft. Drain well, then put the cabbage into the frypan with the butter and Worcestershire sauce. Make sure you deglaze the pan and get all the bacony goodness. Set this aside in a warm place.

I'm not going to tell you how to make the mash - you should know all about that already:-)

Put a few glugs of olive oil into the frypan and drop in your schnitzel. Cook till golden and set aside.

Now this is the cool part.

Put a few more glugs of oil into the pan, then drop in your butter till it foams. Add a tablespoon of capers. Swirl this around for a moment to let the flavours develop. Then add the lemon juice. Drizzle this over your schnitzel and serve. Your life will never be the same. All other schnitzels will tremble before this one.