Curry Baked Snapper

Now we are in the middle of winter, we are craving warm, comfort food but trying to stay healthy at the same time - so satisfying those cravings can be tricky. But this dish tonight was delicious, comfort food, perfect for a chilly night. It came together in no time. I seared the snapper in a big wok, seasoned it with salt, pepper, cumin and tumeric, then took it out of the wok and chucked it in a roasting tin. Then in the wok, I quickly whipped up a light tomato based curry sauce. Lightly fried, onions, garlic, ginger, red pepper, coriander stalks, chilli, tumeric, cumin, garam masala, a few cardarman pods and because this wasn't going to stew for ages, I chucked in some fish sauce, oyster sauce a cup of vegie stock to help it along. Then once that was all simmering nicely, I poured it over the fish and chucked it in the oven to stew for bout an hour. We had this with brown rice and a great refreshing, cucumber and mint salad Hannah whipped up with a great asian dressing and dry fried sesame and sunflower seeds! This was a memorable winters meal!

Sunday Spaghetti Marinara

Keeping with our Sunday pasta tradition, we were craving a rich tomatoey seafood pasta. We quickly chucked on a simple tomato sauce, with a mix of peeled and pasata. Just a heap of onions, garlic, parsley stems, diced carrot and thin slices of red pepper and a sprinkling of chilli flakes. As this simmered we jumped into the car and headed to nearby fish market in Marrickville off Sydenham Rd. We got a few handfuls of green prawns, baby calamari and a big fillet of gem fish. Stopping to pick up some fresh basil and some white wine on the way back. By the time the water boiled, the seafood, white wine and basil had flavoured the sauce beautifully! We had it with our new favourite spelt pasta and it was one of the best pastas we had eaten in ages!

Teriyaki Style Roasted Chicken

Hannah whipped this up recently with a marinade we had only used for grilling and barbecues, but I think roasting these chicken marylands in the formidable marinade of garlic, ginger, chilli, soy, honey, sesame oil and lemon juice was brought it to new heights! Served up with steamed choy sum and oyster sauce, on a bed of healthy brown rice. Good hearty healthy meal.

One-Pot Baked Snapper with Pine Nuts, Zucchini and Potatos

This is a great one pot dish that takes about 15 minutes to prepare and then you just let it do its thing.

I prepped the veggies first, thinly sliced potatoes and zucchini. I laid a bed of these on a roasting tin, row of taters, then zucchini, then again. Topped this with dill and diced tomato, salt and pepper and a good lug of extra virgin.

I scored the snapper on both sides, then rubbed it with a marinade of chopped parsley, garlic , anchovy and a splash of white wine. I then stuffed the cavity with the leftover marinade and placed it on a baking rack from the roasting dish. I placed the rack on top of the veg, then crumbled pine nuts on top of the fish, 4 dried chillies and seasoning. I then baked it at 180 for bout an hour.

The result was creamy delicious veggies with a tasty roasted snapper. Great winter meal!

Goats Cheese Tart with Rocket and Grape Tomatos

Hannah and I were craving a pizza , so looking in the fridge we discovered the ingredients for this unexpected winner.


We took a sheet of puff pastry from the freezer, let it go wobbly, then lightly score a square frame around the edges. Topped this with crumbled goats cheese (or any bitey creamy cheese you want really) , grated parmesan , grape tomatoes halved and scattered, pepper and and drizzle with olive oil. Throw in the oven for about 15 minutes until crispy and the cheese looking goey and golden. Top it with fresh rocket and it will disappear in minutes!

Home made Ravioli!

We have been getting into the habit of cooking pasta for lunch on Sundays and this one we had bit of time on our hands so Hannah was inspired to make some ravioli from scratch. I worked on the filling while Hannah cranked up the pasta maker.

The filling was a Jamie inspired recipe. Caramelised spanish onions with balsamic, roasted pumpkin, goats cheese and thyme.

This got a bit fiddly, but was well worth it, plus we had heaps leftover for another meal the following sunday!

We kept is simple for the sauces. The first time, we melted butter with olive oil and sprigs of time and roasted pine nuts. Drizzled this over the ravioli and crumbled some extra goats cheese on top. Very rich and absolutely amazing.


Round 2, was just as delicious, with the simplest of toppings, lightly fried grape tomatos (halved) with heaps of olive oil (that the skins of the tomatos turned a golden red!), topped again with goats cheese and rocket! Some of the simplest meals are the most delicious!

The Bolognese Mission

I have given myself a mission, to perfect the bolognese sauce!

This may seem ridiculous, as most people probably think the humble bolognese is the easiest sauce of them all. But I am not content with mine, it just doesn't seem to have the flavour and perfect balance of spices I would like. Well it just doesn't taste as good as my Nonna's!

So,this was one I whipped up recently, that was pretty good and probably the best I had made in sometime...but please post your Bolognese tips and techniques!

My process is simple...the most important ingredient to making a delicious bolognese is time. Not the herb, but the ticking variety. The longer you can let the sauce simmer and rest the better its going to taste! This one I cooked on a Sunday arvo...let it simmer into the night, then let it cool and rest over night. It's getting chilly now so you can get away with it.

Ok, back to the sauce, my cooking process is; sweating the onion, garlic, finely diced carrot, celery and the stalks of the basil (this time I added thin slices of red capsicum too) for as long as possible...about 20 minutes. Don't rush to get the meat in there or skimp on the good olive oil. I then added the meat; an equal mix of pork and veal mince (about a kilo and a bit). I find beef mince, is way too heavy and overpowers the sauce. I cooked this through, turning til lightly browned, then added about half a bottle of red wine. I stirred this for a bit, then put the lid on, my logic being this lets the meat absorb the wine and not let the wine evaporate, I could be wrong. Once the wine reduced a bit, I added a big jar of passata and a tin of diced tomatoes. Given it a big stir to mix all together and bring to the boil.

Now, the spices which I am experimenting with to get a unique full flavour. I chucked in about 5 to 6 cloves, 2 dried chillies, a good punch of salt, cracked some pepper and a sprig of cinnamon. Once it came to the boil, I turned it down low, put it on the backburner and went back to the paper. After about an hour, went for a taste, Hannah spotted the cinnamon flavour was well and truly present so we fished out the sprig and left it for few more hours to do its thing.

The next day I heated up a small saucepan of it, and had it with some great new pasta we came across. An organic wholemeal spelt trofie style pasta. I'm not a huge fan of packet wholemeal, but this was really tender and tasty.

My thoughts on the sauce. It was very tasty, I liked the subtle cinnamon and clove flavour. It had a vibe of my Nonna's sauce but not as red and with more vegies. For this first phase of the mission, it was a good step forward, but I have a long way to go. Next time, I'm gonna try experimenting with some nutmeg and oregano and majoram. Perhaps adding more tomotoes or some paste and a wee bit more chilli. Eventually I will like to go old school and not use mince, but get some veal shoulder and stew that til it falls apart into bite size pieces.

The saga continues...