Pan-fried Gnocchi with Zucchini and Pancetta

Hooray! We have pictures! I'll try to include pics from now on.

This is simply fantastic. I can't remember where I got it from, but it is absolutely delicious.

I'm not really a huge gnocchi fan, but the frying thing really adds a lot. This is a real crowd pleaser, and very filling. It's a little fiddly, but my God it's worth it. Serves four.

You will need;

-500g of gnochhi
-2 zucchinis, coarsly grated
-200g of peas
-100g of pancetta, chopped
- 1 brown onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- olive oil
- 1 tbsp of butter
- ricotta, to serve

Put a few glugs of oil, the garlic, onion and pancetta into a hot pan and fry until soft - about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put your gnocchi on to boil. Try to time it so the onion and the gnocchi finish at the same time.

When your onion and gnocchi is done, put the onion aside in a warm place and drain the gnocchi. Drizzle some more oil into the pan and add the gnocchi, cooking and tossing until it has a lovely golden coating.

Add the zucchini, peas, onion and butter to the gnocchi and toss on the heat for a few minutes until cooked.

Serve on warm plates with a dob of ricotta on top.

Fettuccini de Elinoria

This dish was invented by my wonderful Sister-in-Law. It's so simple yet clever, and is unbelievably tasty. Serves two or three.

You'll need;

- 1 jar of anchovy-stuffed green olives.
- good handful of Parmesan cheese
- a handful of good-quality cheddar
- a couple of glugs of olive oil
- 200g of fettuccine

First, get your pasta on the boil. While it's cooking, drain the liquid from the jar of anchovy-stuffed olives and set it aside. Slice each olive in half.

When your pasta is cooked and drained, put the pasta saucepan back on the stove and add a couple of glugs of olive oil and the olives. Toss them around on the heat for a bit until they're aromatic. Put the pasta back into the pot and toss with the olives.

Get the reserved liquid from the jar of olives and sprinkle it over the pasta. Add the cheeses and toss until they start to soften and serve.

The whole thing takes about 15 minutes and if you get good-quality olives it's magic. You can try all sorts of variations - it's a very flexible dish.

Chicken Soup with Zucchini Ribbons

So there you have half a BBQ chicken, leftover from a picnic or a Tuesday night lazy dinner. So many possibilities. Here's something that lets you use the whole damn thing. Serves three or four depending on leftovers.

You'll need;

- At least half a whole leftover BBQ chicken.
- 1.5 litres filtered water.
- 1.2 teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 zucchinis
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon fresh or dried oregano
- white pepper and salt to season
- 200g shell pasta or equivalent

First, strip the flesh of the chicken and set it aside. Put the skin, stuffing and bones in a pot with the filtered water and bring to the boil. I like to use filtered water for soups - especially if your tap water doesn't taste particularly nice. Let the stock simmer for at bit. Pop in the fennel seeds, chili flakes, oregano, salt and white pepper. Simmer for about ten minutes or more.

Meanwhile, get a potato peeler and slice the zucchini length-ways into thin ribbons about 1mm thick.

Take the stock off the stove and strain the bones out and discard. Put it back on the stove and add the pasta. Let this cook - depending on the directions for the pasta.

Once the pasta's cooked, add the chicken meat and let this heat. Add the zucchini ribbons and the white wine vinegar. The zucchini should cook almost instantly, but still retain a bit of crunch.

Serve with crusty bread and bask in the satisfaction of using every last bit of chook.

Pork Sausages with Exploding Grapes

This is so simple yet effective, and it's incredibly moreish. Serves four.

You'll need;

500g of good pork sausages.
200g of seedless green grapes.

In a hot frypan, get your sausages going. After a minute or two, add the grapes and give it a toss.

After a couple of minutes, the grapes will start to pop, showering the sausages with sweet grape juice, and it will begin to caramelise on their surface. Hmmm - yum.

When the sausages are cooked, arrange them on a pile of garlic potato mash and drizzle with the grapes and any pan juices.

Totally Drinkable Salad Dressing.

Whenever I make this, I can't resist taking a few sips - it's just so delicious. For me it's the perfect salad dressing, and it goes with just about everything.

You'll need the following;

3 parts Grapeseed oil
2 parts Good quality Balsamic vinegar
1 part Mirin
1 part Good quality Soy Sauce (Kikkoman is the best IMO)
1 part Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Now, the exact proportions you can fiddle with to your taste, but generally the Grapeseed oil is the base, and I tend to put more of this in. But the rest you can experiment with. Just combine in a small container and give it a good shake. It's really smooth, sweet and tart.

Eat-till-you-burst Bean Salad

This is one of those wonderful experiments that came from necessity and resulted in something really lovely. It's a deceptively simple bean salad that people seem to want to eat until stomach rupture. You have been warned.

You'll need;

1 can of mixed beans, rinsed.
2 cups of hot, fresh-cooked Jasmine rice.
1/2 cup of shallots.
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, finely chopped.
a couple of glugs of extra-virgin olive oil.
a tablespoon of good quality white wine vinegar
a teaspoon of fresh-ground fennel seeds.
a pinch of fresh or dried oregano

Simply toss everything together while the rice is still warm and season. There is something about the warmness of the rice, the tartness of the vinegar and the fennel that combine to create an intense more-ishness.

Kangaroo with Mushrooms and Sweet Potato Mash

Well, I thought I'd start this out Blog out by detailing recipes as they happen. There'll be a lot of recipes that are from other places, as well as my own creations - and a few things in between. I'm sure the tone will evolve over time...

So! Today was a really lovely Kangaroo fillet on top of sweet potato mash, whole large mushrooms as a side with a red wine jus. It was very, very tasty. I really prefer a kangaroo fillet to even a good quality cow steak. The texture is incredible, it's much cheaper and better for you, apparently. Sorry there are no pictures for this one - will get some next time.

Now, spuds are the only thing I microwave in preference to boiling as it keeps the flavor and texture intact, as well as keeping the potatoes from getting too waterlogged.

Peel and dice one medium sweet potato. Microwave on high for about 5 or 6 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile, bring a third of a cup of milk and a tablespoon of butter to a simmer in a saucepan. Add half a clove of crushed garlic. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper. Add sweet potatoes to milk and mash. Keep warm on the stove.

In a hot frypan, add a tablespoon of oil (I use rice bran or Camellia Tea oil for a lovely smoky flavor) and throw in the (room temperature) kangaroo fillets. Cook for a couple of minutes on a side until it's done to your preference.

Don't be too tempted to cook until it's well-done, even if you like your beef that way. Roo really hates being over-cooked and, rare, it doesn't have that gelatinous texture that rare beef does. Give it a go - keep it pink in the middle.

After about the first turn-over of the fillet, put your large whole mushrooms (minus stalks) in the pan to cook alongside the steak. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper.

Take your Roo out when done, and wrap them in foil to sit for a few minutes. Let your mushrooms sit in the pan a little longer. When done, take them out and put them on your warmed plates.

Now, warming your plates is pretty important, especially in the winter months. I just run them under the hot water tap for a few seconds to take the chill off them.

Working quickly lest your mushrooms go cold, pour a third of a cup of good red wine and a little water into the saucepan. As it's frothing, deglaze the pan with a wooden spoon, getting all the lovely crunchy bits from the pan. Put in half a beef stockcube, a knob of butter (or the cholesterol reducing stuff, ahem) and a little salt and pepper. Add a teaspoon of cornflour and stir, cooking for a minute or two until thickened.

Put a good amount of mash on your warmed plate, arrange the Roo on top and put the mushrooms to the side. Drizzle the lot with your red wine jus and tuck in.

For variation you could add a little maple syrup to the sweet potato mash.