Pan Roasted Rabbit in Red Wine with Prunes and Cinnamon

With my sister visiting for work in Paris we wanted to cook up something special for this rare occassion to meet up in Paris.

So we let our morning trip to the markets guide the way. A rabbit called out, and a great fruit and nut stand inspired the middle eastern spin on the dish.


Rabbit marinated in red wine, rosemary, orange rind and cinnamon...fried off briefly then roasted with the marinade with prunes til tender. This was absolutely delicious, the rabbit so tender and tasty and the cinnamon and prune combination added great flavour. A very memorable dish that would be amazing in a tagine. Food for thought.

We simply had this with some fresh baguette, some mushrooms and asparagus on the side, and a fantastic endive, fennel, strawberry and rochfort salad!

The Parisian Cooking Files: Jamie Inspired Breakfast

We saw Jamie Oliver do this with black pudding, so we couldn't resist cooking this up for breakfast one morning, after we had bought some fresh quail eggs from the markets and had that declicious salami on hand.


Simply fried quail eggs, served on sliced fresh baguette with a slice of salami. We resisted frying the salami but I'm sure that would be seriously good! This may look like pint sized, but it hits the spot! You have to leave room for a pan chocolat after all!

The Parisian Cooking Files: Roasted Pigeon with Fig & Walnut stuffing

We did go a bit cooking crazy in Paris, but our meals just kept getting better and better, and we were so excited to cook with produce we hardly get a hold of here in Sydney.

There was lots of game around in November, and we thought we try our hand at a pigeon! We stuffed this one with figs, walnuts and breadcrumbs, binded with a quail egg. No tooth picks to hold in the stuffing, so some rosemary spriggs did the trick. Roasted with sweet potato, this was beautiful, just like eating a big quail! just more meat to enjoy!

Charcuturie Platter

We started most evenings after opening a bottle of wine and grazing on some amazing pates, terrines and what was one of the best salamis I had ever had. A declicious pork and fennel seed salami. Amazing.
The cheese selections at the local Fromagerie were unbelieveable. We would lust take pot luck and pick what looked and smelt good. These picks were a mix of goats cheese, a soft harvati-like cheese and a brie. Served up with a fresh baguette and cornichons!

Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Clementines

Another Parisian cook up!

Some of the freshest and biggest duck breast I'd ever, which we bought from an amazing market in St Germain. The breasts still had the feathers on, then the friendly chap at the stall, cleaned and trimmed the breast beautifully! what service! Marinated in red wine, and some juice and rind from some clementines (mandarins - just making it sound Frenchy) garlic and rosemary. Seared in a pan, then left to roast in the oven with the juices and segments of the clementines.


Then served with some grilled endive lettuce and some more sauteed fennel which we still had from a previous market shop up! If only we had these markets on our door step in Petersham!

The Parisian Cooking Files: Artichoke Ravioli

We spotted a great pasta stall outside an Italian deli in Paris selling some great looking handmade pasta. We couldn't resist these artichoke ravioli! Simply served with some melted butter and parmasen with some rochfort crumbled on top with parsely and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Very rich but very tasty!

Steak Parisian Style

We spent a month in Europe in November, 2010 and the final stage of our trip was 10 days in an apartment in the Latin Quarter in Paris. We couldn't wait to cook up a storm with so many amazing markets on our doorstep. A short walk from our house was a great strip of shops, filled with great butchers, fish shops, cheese shops and don't get me started on the boulangeries.

Craving something simple with not much fuss after our train ride from Belgium, we cooked up simple beef fillet. While in Paris, mixed some butter with parsely and thyme and some chopped cornichons to dollop on top of the steak before serving. Served simply with some grilled fennel and tomatoes.

Berlin Burger

This was an amazing burger we had while on Holiday in Berlin. My sister Caroline had heard about this burger place under a train track, which used to be a public toilet block. Doesn't sound very appetising!

But we just stumbled upon it by accident, when we were strolling around Kruezberg in Berlin. Smelt the grilled meat in the air and then spotted a line. Kind of the Harry's Cafe de Wheels of Berlin! This photo gets me hungry every time.

Roasted Scallops with Prawn & Apple Salad

These dishes look fancy, but they are so easy and take hardly any cooking and prep at all. The less you do to fresh seafood the better.

Some fresh scallops simply roasted (180 degree oven) with salt and pepper for about 10 minutes tops. I made a simple basil salsa, blitzed with olive oil, lemon and salt to dollop on top after they scallops came out of the oven. Served with a simple salad of freshly peeled tiger prawns salad, with pink lady apples, cucumber and parsley - dresses simply with lemon juice and olive oil.

A great starter...and the scallops were so delicious!

First Harvest!

Our very first harvest of potatoes. Very exciting to dig these little fella's up out of the dirt after a few months of growing!


After leaving them for a few weeks we roasted these up one night and they were delicious! Nothing better than cooking up some veg from our own backyard!

Brithday Pancakes

There was a tradition growing up, that on the first day back at school, my mum would cook pancakes! Now it seems like on special occasions - a pancake breakfast is in order.


These beauties were cooked up on Hannah's birthday. Yogurt replaces buttermilk in a standard pancake batter recipe...and these are a great! Served here with a figgy compote like concoction. Dried figs warmed in a pan with some water and cinnamon. Banana's and maple syrup are a must!

The Best Pork Crackling!

It has been a mission of mine for a few years (along with perfecting my bolognese) to achieve the best pork crackling ever!

I have struggled to achieve good crunchy crackling after many pork roasts and reading plenty of tips of best crackling. And on a recent trip to Yonderfield farm I think I cracked it! (pun intended)

As much as most recipes say the key is a hot oven and salting, which I have tried to mixed results, the real key is good pork! and ensuring the rind is very dry. Salting and lining with paper towel overnight is good if you can. So armed with a free range (deboned) pork shoulder from Craig Cook meats in Marrickville and a specially purchased stanley knife to make deep incisions into the rind, I salted and slept the pork over night in the fridge, then it came along for the road trip to Broke.

Then, perhaps this was part of the magic, the pork was roasted in a good ol' woodfired stove oven! I added extra seasoning of fennel seed and lemon rind too. It didn't even hit the a seriously high temp, but this little piggy crackled up good...and the flavour of the roast was delicious too..but this was all about the crackling...which stole the show!

Pan Roasted Pork Loin with Quinoa, Zucchini and Green Olives.

A simple bistro style meal at home which was a great winter warmer while keeping the flavours quite clean and simple.

A pork loin pan seared and roasted. Seared with fennel seeds, salt and pepper - on both sides, then added a glass of wine, sliced dried figs and sour cherries and a clove of garlic in chunks to bake for another 15 mins.

Whipped a simple mix of vegies to serve with it. Fried off onion, carrot and celery - then added black quinoa (cooked already) and zucchini, keeping everything small, added a small amount of chicken stock and white wine to create a little amount of soupiness. Just before serving - added sliced green olives and fresh parsley.

While I rested the pork, added a little more wine to reduce the gravy and the figs and cherries made it all sticky and sweet. So it was a great addition on top of the pork. This WAS delicious!! Warming but light and full of flavour.

Salmon Dinner Set

Inspired by our recent trip to Tokyo, we decided to imitate the simple dinners and presentation of some of the great meals we had in Japan.

A simple pan seared and roasted fillet of Salmon, in a Terriyaki style marinade. Served with a bowl of black Quinoa (instead of rice - not the same as the sticky delish Japanese white rice) some Tofu with sesame and soy and pickled cucumber and cabbage.

A great way to eat and separating all the elements like this really insures every mouthful tastes different and you can appreciate the individual flavours.

Potbelly Pot Pie!

I can't believe this isn't up here yet!! But we love a good pot pie for a quick mid-week meal when you are tempted for something a bit glutinous for dinner and nothing quite does trick like a hearty stew hidden under a goldeny crunchy lid of puff pastry.

Using left over roast - gravied up with veg, wine and tomatoes! this was on of those after-work dinners that was so much better then just heating up last nights roast! and that's some crusty homemade bread on the side too!

A Petersham potbelly favourite!

Yogurt Pancakes with Banana Berry Sauce.

These pancakes were a bit of a fluke really. Gambled that yogurt can replace buttermilk in Bill's pancake recipe - and after a bit of a struggle to get the lumps out...these were awesome!

Hannah whipped up a great hot sauce by heating mixed berries in pan with a bit of water and then added banana. So good!

Pan Roast Duck with red wine gravy and Roast Pumpkin

I Have found duck breasts in the supermarket lately at a more affordable price than free range chicken and these were great.

Very easy to cook. Browned the duck - skin side down til nice and crisp in a pan with olive oil, then threw in some chunks of onion, garlic and thyme til roast with the duck in the oven (for about 15min for medium).

Also roasted some jap pumpkin earlier - skin on with fennel seeds.

When the duck was resting - drained off the fat, but held onto the stickyness and roasted onions, garlic and thyme - through in some red wine to make a gravy and thickened it up a little with flour.

This was a great simple but special dinners because it was duck - that really took no time at all...well just a little thyme.

2010 A Bread Odyssey.

2010 has definitely been the year for bread baking and I must say I am loving it. Here are some samples of the regular loaves being baked. A spelt fruit loaf - using mixed spices (cinnamon, allspice, clove and nutmeg) dried apple, fig, cranberry and walnuts. Delicious and a great museli replacement for brekky!


Tried Pizza dough and few times and it has come out great! Kept the base on the thin, but not to thin size as I like a bit of crust. These were great!


Also tried baguettes - which were great. I think the dough recipe I am using (Jamie's Basic) is most suited to these actually.

This herbed knotted roll and dinner rolls were made with some left over dough and they were great!

We haven't bought bread in months now! Nothing beats fresh bread!

Spelt Loaf

Have really been getting into baking bread. This was my first go at a spelt loaf. I went 50/50 white strong flour and spelt. Following the bourke st bakery rolling technique - it came out beautifully! The thing with baking your own bread fresh - you gotta eat it quick! as it will turn into a rock after a day or two! But it usually does disappear pretty fast.

Potbelly Brekky!

We love a good healthy yet hearty hot breakfast. This one was extra special - as it was on homemade spelt bread with homemade hummos.

An egg fried with just a little olive oil...topped with some whole smoked salmon that we flaked onto the egg.

I've also started lightly frying tomatoes at the last minute that I drizzle with balsamic while they fry.

Delicious....




and don't forget the atomic coffee!!

Somerset Salad

We love a great salad for lunch in summer and this was amazing! Just a mix of everything on hand - grape tomatoes, cos, tuna, including some fuji apples and a quick herbed crouton by pan-grilling a herbed and oiled slice of stale baguette.

Also - quickly pan frying some zucchini and pin-nuts added some extra interest too. Plus a good mustardy dressing!

Nothing too fancy - but a hearty and satisfying big salad!

Rolled Roast Chicken Breast with Caramalised Pear

This was an exciting surprise I put together for Marco one coolish evening! The colder it gets, the more I want to slow-cook and make stews... must be my Irish blood, I love winter food.
I am slightly ashamed to say I found this recipe in an unmentionable woman's magazine I was flicking through at the doctors. But their version was pretty bland so I worked my own effect on it. They had no marinade or herbs, and it sounded like it would dry out to me, so here's the variation.
I marinated four free-range chicken breasts in white wine, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper. The longer the better for this, but I left it for about four hours.
Once I was feeling crafty and nible-fingered, I gathered our kitchen string and prepared to roll. I cut the string to 40cm lengths and laid four out across a chopping board, perpendicular to the board itself (sorry, hard to explain without showing you!). We had some left over pancetta, so I used this, but you could also use prosciutto (and it would probably roll better). I placed three slices of the pancetta over the top of the string, with the slices overlapping slightly. Then I placed a chicken breast on top of this, and another breast on top of that. Lastly, I placed two or three more slices of pancetta on top, ready to tie the string. (So, by now, you should have a pile of the following layers: string on the bottom, then pancetta, two chicken breasts, more pancetta). A little bit fiddly, but now bring the string up to tie it all together, the pancetta should almost completely cover the breast and hold it all together. Because I did four breasts, I did this process twice.
That's the difficult part, I promise - the rest is super easy.
Preheat the oven to 200 deg. cel. Put some olive oil in the bottom of a good baking tray. Slice one onion and scatter this across the bottom in a thin covering. Sit the chicken rolls on top of these.
Now prepare your pears. I used about 6 not-quite-ripe pears, knowing they'd get soft and quishy in the oven anyway. Cut the pears into quarters and remove the core. In a bowl, coat the pears in 1-2 table spoons of sugar and give them a good stir.
Now, place the pears around your chicken in the baking tray. You're ready to put it in the oven!
Cook in the hot oven for about 20mins then turn down to 180 and cook for another 20mins, or until you're confident the chicken is cooked (this will all depend on how big your breasts are... tee hee).
Then voila! It's ready to serve. I cut it into slices, as shown here, and it made it easy to eat and serve. The brown stuff on top is the caramelised onion, and the golden potatoey looking things are actually pear. I served this with steamed snowpeas and with pine nut and lemon dressing. YUM!!! (if I do say so myself).

Cheers, Hannah

First Foccacia!

I've always wanted to get better at baking bread, after being a bit disappointed with my first attempts.

So armed with a new electric mixer with a dough hook, Jamie's basic bread recipe and The Bourke St Bakery cook book - I was inspired. Very easy and hardly took any time at all...except you just have to be patient with the proving!

Started simple - a foccacia - as this required minimal proving etc...and the result was a crunchy flat loaf, soft and airy in the middle! Before chucking it in the oven, drizzled loads of olive oil, salt, pepper, dried chilli and oregano. Sampled it hot with some more olive oil and balsamic. Amazing!

Brilliant! can't wait to try some more!

Penne with Brocolli, Pine Nuts and Lemon

This is one of our favourite quick pastas and after spending 3 weeks in Malaysia - sampling some amazing asian flavours, lets just say we were craving pasta!

This pasta is so simple and quick. All ingredients ready while the pasta cooks.

Threw the pasta and will it was cooking, fried off some pine nuts in olive oil, then took them out as they can burn quickly. In the pine nutty oil fried off some chilli, a wee bit of anchovy and grated lemon zest. Let this rest.

When the pasta was few minutes off, threw in some brocolli to the boiling pasta. You have to time this right, so you don't overcook your pasta and brocolli, aiming for both to be just right at the same time...always a bit of gamble...so if you aren't confident boil or steam your greens separately.

When the pasta and brocolli were ready, drained but no too much to get a bit of moisture in the pot. Threw in a bit more olive oil in with the pasta and threw in the lemony, garlicy, anchovy mix and the pine nuts (saving some to top with the cheese). Had some proscuito, so tore some in aswell! (If you do this go light on the anchovy). And squeezed in the juice of the lemon and a wee bit more extra virgin. Dished up with parmesen and a glass of pilsener!

Such a simple pasta and so delicious! Try it with any good boiling veg, like asparagus, spinach, long green beans! Mmm next time.

Pasta di Federico

A cousin from Italy was staying over and he wanted to cook one of his regular pastas that he whips up after a day at uni for him and his housemates. It reminded me of quick pastas my mum makes!

A dead simple pasta, but what makes this pasta so good is the little details in the cooking. Basically, take your time...and fry things off seperately. I don't like using too many pots for a quick pasta, but it is really worth it.

Federico, diced onions and then fried off very slowly on low heat with a lot of oil. This was the key...and decent amount of olive oil with the onions in a stone cold pan that he then brought to slow sizzle for about 15 minutes will he preped the rest.

Diced and sliced zucchini and red peppers...and some diced speck...or thick slice or proscuito or bacon. While the onions were cooking, again very lightly and slowly fried off the veg in a seperate pan...with a healthy lug of olive oil. You don't want the veg to sizzle as they hit the pan...let them soften the build to a sizzle...he even put a lid on to steam/sizzle.

When the onions were ready, he added a tin of tomatoes and threw the pasta...once the sauce began to boil, he added the veg and fried off the proscuito, again seperately. Then added the proscuito to the sauce.

Once the pasta was cooked, added it the the sauce in the pan and tossed it around. A very lightly sauced pasta and not too dense with vegetables. But the extra flavour created by the oil was delicious.

The key to this pasta is taking your time...and keeping things to a low heat. It still will only take about 20 to 25 minutes to make. So well worth it! Delicious.