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.