Black Radish Salad with Radicchio and Cucumber
Monday, April 01, 2019A platter of cucumber, black radish and radicchio topped with black sesame seeds and tossed with a homemade yoghurt dressing. Add a few olives and some crumbled Feta or Cheddar bites and you have a complete meal.
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- Combine yoghurt, cucumber, garlic, lemon rind, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover. Refrigerate until required.
- Arrange sliced cucumber on a platter. Top with sliced radicchio and shredded black radish. Sprinkle the toasted black sesame seeds over. Garnish with parsley leaves if using. Serve with prepared tzatziki.
Soft Sandwich Loaf with Pumpkin Seed Oil
Monday, March 25, 2019The sandwich loaf bakes up tall, soft and bouncy, yet sturdy enough to slice nicely. It's perfect for tuna or egg sandwiches and jelly/peanut butter smeared toast for the breakfast. You can use the same dough to make cinnamon rolls, dinner buns or savoury bread.
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- In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients and stir on slow speed until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed or knead until it begins to become smooth and elastic.
- Turn out the dough and shape into a ball. Grease the mixing bowl and return the dough ball to the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise until about doubled in bulk, about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
- Gently deflate the dough and transfer it to a lightly oiled work surface. Shape the dough into 20 cm roll. Place it into a greased or lined 26x14cm loaf pan, cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 60-90 minutes until the center is about 2.5 cm above the sides of the pan.
- Towards the end of the rise, preheat your oven to 190C/375F. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle the seeds over. Bake the bread for 30 to 35 minutes, until it's light golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack before slicing.
Gorgonzola Almond Scones
Monday, March 18, 2019These savoury blue cheese scones are perfect as a weekend breakfast paired with some homemade fig jam or a nibble for cocktails. Next time I will definitely add some bacon bits and use pecans instead of almonds. Not only delicious, this is also a very versatile recipe. Use any desired blue cheese, creamy and mild, like Danish Blue, or piquant and bold, like French Roquefort or Italian Gorgonzola.
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- Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Whisk flour, baking powder and coconut sugar in a large bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture looks like flaky breadcrumbs. Add crumbled blue cheese and toasted almonds and toss to coat.
- Drizzle in cream and mix with a wooden spoon until dough just begins to come together with a few bits of dry flour remaining. Transfer dough and any loose flour to a lightly floured work surface and briefly knead to bring everything together.
- With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to about 2.5cm thick. Use a 5cm-diameter fluted pastry cutter dipped in flour to cut out 8-9 scones.
- Place the scones on a baking tray, about 1cm apart, and brush tops with the extra cream. Sprinkle with crushed black peppercorns and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. Serve with sour cream or room-temperature butter.
Hokkaido Coconut Soup
Monday, March 11, 2019Super creamy and deliciously nourishing, this pumpkin soup with coconut milk is the ultimate warmer for cold rainy days. The warmth of fresh ginger adds a lovely kick to the soup. If you like, serve the soup with some roasted poultry leftover, a sprinkle of coconut flakes, pomegranate seeds and fresh herbs. It's also very easy to veganize the soup by using vegetable stock and leaving out the meat.
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- Heat oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add chopped shallot and ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until fragrant. Add pumpkin, coconut milk, chicken broth or water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is soft.
- Remove saucepan from heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Using an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. Add in lime juice and season with salt and pepper.
- Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with roasted duck breast slices, chopped parsley and desiccated coconut flakes and / or pomegranate seeds.
Beef Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce
Monday, March 04, 2019This simple blue cheese sauce recipe is a really easy one to whip up and so delicious too. Serve it on the side, or spooned over the meat. The sauce is so rich that a little bit goes a long way. I have used Gorgonzola because of its smooth texture and strongly aromatic flavour that make it perfect for sauces. But any variety of blue cheese (Roquefort or Blue Stilton) will work just as great.
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- Heat a grill pan over high heat. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Cook steaks in the hot pan until beginning to firm and hot and slightly pink in the center, about 4 minutes per side for medium.
- In a small pan over medium-low flame, add heavy cream, crumbled Gorgonzola and finely minced garlic in a small pan over. Stir until blue cheese melts completely, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Pour the sauce over the steak or or on the side for dipping and garnish with pink peppercorn and parsley leaves if desired.