This has to be the easiest soup to make and I call it “lazy” as there’s not much to throwing it together. With winter already here in Sydney in temperature, even if we’re not officially in the winter months, a warming soup seems like a good idea.
The recipe is a soup for two – double the ingredients to make a larger quantity.
Ingredients
Half a butternut pumpkin
4 spring onions
2 cloves of garlic
Salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
500mls chicken or vegetable stock
Juice of an orange
Ground black pepper
Pouring cream for serving, herbs for garnishing
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C fan.
Chop the pumpkin into rough chunks, skin and all. Take out the seeds if you can be bothered. Nothing fussy about this recipe! Slice the spring onions and peel the garlic, no need to chop.
Pile everything into a large baking dish and scatter a little salt over the veggies. Pour over the olive oil. Bake in the oven for half an hour or so until the pumpkin is soft.
Remove from the oven and transfer everything to a large saucepan. Add the stock and orange juice. Bring to the boil over a medium heat and cook for 10 minutes until the pumpkin starts to get mushy.
Using a stick blender, process until the soup is creamy. Or transfer to a blender or food processor and blitz.
Season with ground black pepper. Serve in bowls with a little pouring cream swirled on top. Add a leafy herb for a bit of zhushing.
Nice served with bread – flatbread is excellent for mopping up the leftovers!
Winter is on the way in Sydney. Time to break out the soup recipes! This one is pretty simple, a soup with lots of veggies and some Middle Eastern spices.
Vary the vegetables as you like, but make sure you include lots of root veggies like potatoes, parsnips and turnips. Other vegetables such as red peppers, celery and tomatoes work well too.
A note on the spices. The Middle Eastern spices mentioned are combinations of spices. If you can’t get either, feel free to substitute with a 1//4 teaspoon of a few of the following: cumin, coriander, allspice, paprika, cardamom, ginger.
Ingredients
500g pumpkin, peeled, cut into chunks
500g carrots cut into chunks
250g sweet potato
250g swede cut into chunks (swap for something else if you don’t like Swede)
2 onions, white or brown, cut into chunks
4 -5 garlic cloves halved, no need to peel
2 teaspoon of ras el hanout or baharat *
1 teaspoon sumac
Sea salt and ground black pepper
30mls olive oil
1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock
Method
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C fan forced.
Put all the vegetables into a large baking tray, sprinkle over the spices and salt and pepper. Pour over the olive oil. Mix well, making sure everything is coated with oil.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
Remove from the oven and transfer to a large stock pot or saucepan. Place on the stovetop. Add the stock, and bring to a medium boil.
Using a stick blender, blend till smooth. Or you could transfer to a blender and blitz. Leave some of the soup chunky if you want.
Serve with a swirl of Greek yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander or parsley.
This tart is an easy recipe to make for lunch or a simple supper. Cherry tomatoes, goat’s cheese and caramelised onion make a tasty filling. Use store bought puff pastry and you could even use a good bought onion jam to make the recipe even easier.
I made mine in a rectangular flan tin, but a round one would do as well.
Ingredients
320g store-bought puff pastry (I used 2 sheets from a pack of Pampas puff pastry). Use more or less, if needed, to fit your tin.
For the caramelised onion:
1 red onion, chopped
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Goats’ cheese – or similar crumbly soft cheese. You will crumble this into the tart, so quantities are flexible, about 100gm should be enough
15-20 cherry tomatoes, or more if you want to pack them in, on the vine
Fresh thyme leaves for scattering
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or 180 degrees C fan. Grease a flan tin and fit with the puff pastry sheets which you have cut to shape.
Fry the red onion in the butter in a small frying pan over a low to medium heat, until the onion begins to soften. Add the brown sugar to caramelize the onion and cook for a further couple of minutes.
Lay the caramelized onion onto the pastry base. Crumble the goats’ cheese into the tart. Cut some of the cherry tomatoes in half and place on top of the goats’ cheese, place a few whole ones on, too for effect. Scatter a few fresh thyme leaves over the tomatoes with sea salt and black pepper.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until the puff pastry is nicely browned, the cheese melted and the tomatoes softened. Nice served with a green salad.
Christmas Day is over, and maybe you’re looking for some tasty, easy to make dishes that don’t involve turkey or ham! This dish is a doddle to make, left overs keep well, and it freezes well if you want to make it in quantity.
It guest well with rice, pasta, polenta or just on its own! Kidney beans add both bulk and flavour to the dish. Serve it with extra fresh chilli on the side, sour cream or some grated cheese if you’re going Mexican.
You can throw this dish together provided you have some minced beef, as pretty much everything else would be pantry staples.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion
500g good quality beef mince
1 teaspoon chilli paste or chilli powder
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato purée
1 x 400g tin of kidney beans
Freshly ground salt and black pepper
Fresh chillies, sour cream, cherry tomatoes, grated cheese, parsley or coriander to serve
Method
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Chop the onion finely, and fry over a medium heat until slightly softened, about 1-2 minutes. Add the beef mince in small spoonfuls, breaking it up so that it cooks evenly. Fry until all the mince is brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chilli paste or powder.
Add the chopped tomatoes, half a tin of water using the chopped tomato tin as a measure and the tomato purée. Drain the kidney beans and add to the frying pan. Season with salt and black pepper. Bring the mixture back to the boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes until the sauce has reduced and has thickened. If the mixture looks too dry, add a splash or two of water.
Once cooked, serve straight away with some of the above accompaniments, or keep in the fridge for a day or so to serve later. It also freezes well.
You could easily double or triple the quantities to serve a crowd or batch freeze for later consumption.
This is an easy and tasty dish perfect for lunch or my favourite, a simple supper.
It’s more of traybake than a tart, as it’s baked in a cake tin or pan. But there’s nothing to stop you from baking it in a traditional tart or pie dish, or even a normal baking dish.
The recipe came about because I had loads of beautiful red onions, plus a few brown ones on hand. I had just been to the Spring Harvest Festival at Vaucluse House run by Sydney Living Museums where I came away with a big tub of Vanella Cheese ricotta.
So caramelised onions on creamy ricotta on puff pastry was the go! Baked as a traybake made it easy to cut into slices for serving.
Not too tricky, give it a go!
Ingredients
3 large brown onions
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 red onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
300g ricotta
3 free-range eggs
Salt and black pepper
1 sheet of puff pastry (approximately 180g, if you’re using block puff pastry)
Method
Cut all the onions into rings. No need to be too precise – they can be quite chunky. Reserve the rings from two of the red onions.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat on the stovetop. Add the olive oil. Put in all the onion slices except the reserved red onion slices. Add the salt and brown sugar.
Cook for several minutes until the onions are soft and caramelised, turning occasionally. Now add in the reserved onions and cook for a further couple of minutes, until the onions have only just started to soften. Remove from the heat.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C fan forced.
Grease your cake tin/pan or tart dish or baking dish.
Mix the ricotta, free range eggs, salt and black pepper with a spoon or fork. No need to blend or process.
Place the sheet of puff pastry snugly inside the tin/pan/dish, cutting it or stretching it to fit your dish. If using block pastry, roll out 180g into a shape to fit the size of the dish.
Soon the ricotta mixture over the puff pastry. Layer the onions on top, making sure the red onions you cooked last sit on the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden round the wedges and the ricotta is set.
Serve warm or cold, with a green salad and crusty bread. You can freezer left over slices too.
When I first acquired Jamie Oliver’s book, 5 Ingredients, I cooked many of the recipes, as they were simple to make up and used only 5 ingredients give or take a staple or two!
This recipe lives up to expectations. The main ingredient, hot smoked salmon, is versatile. You can buy it in the supermarket, and as the salmon is already cooked, you can pop it straight into any number of dishes.
I was recently reminded that we need to buy environmentally responsible salmon. In Australia, Petuna and New Zealand King Salmon are good brands to look for and are available in supermarkets.
Ingredients
350g fresh asparagus
300g dried taglierini or angel-hair pasta (I used the latter)
250g hot-smoked salmon skin off
1 lemon
100ml creme fraiche (Jamie recommends half fat if you can get it. Just use full fat if you can’t get half fat)
Method
Use a speed peeler to strip the top tender half of the asparagus stalks into ribbons. Finely slice the remaining stalks, discarding the woody ends. Cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water. Meanwhile, roughly break the salmon into a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the sliced asparagus stalks, and toss occasionally until the pasta’s ready.
Finely great half the lemon zest into the salmon pan, squeeze in half the juice, then toss in the drained pasta, a good splash of the reserved cooking water and the crème fraiche. Add the asparagus ribbons, toss again, then season to perfection with sea salt and and black pepper. Serve with lemon wedges, for squeezing over.
Another recipe from the vault. Jamie Oliver is a source of simple but innovative recipesand Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, which came out a while ago, was the inspiration for this salmon, rice and greens dish.The recipe’s based on his Green Tea Salmon with Coconut Rice, and Jamie’s Killer Kedgeree.
Hot smoked salmon is readily available here in Australia from supermarkets. I buy it often as it’s a quick fix meal that’s very versatile.
Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup boiling water
1/2 lemon
Handful of coconut flakes
A large handful of sugar snap peas
A large handful of green beans
3 spring onions
A scattering of shelled pistachios
1 hot smoked salmon fillet
Method
To make rice, combine the rice, coconut milk, boiling water and lemon in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until rice is almost cooked. Turn off heat and leave rice to finish cooking while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Cook the sugar snap peas and beans, separately, in the microwave, until just cooked but still crunchy.
Assemble the dish by placing the cooked rice minus the lemon half in a bowl. Flake the salmon fillet and scatter over the rice. Top with the coconut flakes.
PS The coconut rice is sensational and I’ll be cooking this again!
Arrange the sugar snap peas and beans on a serving platter to accompany the fish and rice, scattering with sliced spring onions and pistachios.
You can serve this salmon and rice dish with any vegetables and garnishes you like, or that takes your fancy.
Roll out the pastry to a rough circle. About 20-25cm or 9-10 inches in diameter is good. This is a rustic galette and is very forgiving. Put the circle of pastry onto a baking sheet on your chosen baking surface. A cast iron pan is ideal (that’s what I used), but a baking tray works just as well.
Score another circle with a knife inside the pastry base, 2-3 cms smaller. Carefully turn up the outer circle to make a rough side for the galette.
Chop the leeks into rounds. Put the olive oil and butter into a large frying pan. When the butter is melted, add the chopped garlic and leeks. Add the salt and simmer the mixture on a low heat for 10-15 minutes or until the leeks are soft. Add the the baby spinach leaves and stir through. Turn off the heat and cover the frying pan. Leave for 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Put the sour cream or creme fraiche into a bowl and stir to loosen. Add the eggs, and beat well to fully mix. Add the mustard and salt and pepper and mix.
Scatter the cheddar cheese over the pastry circle, and then scatter the leeks/garlic/spinach on top. Pour the sour cream/egg mixture very carefully over the filling inside the galette. If you have too much liquid, don’t use it all in case it spills.
Brush the pastry edge with egg wash.
Place the galette into the pre-heated oven, and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the custard is set and slightly puffy. The pastry should be golden brown, too.
Serve warm or at room temperature with a green salad. You could throw in a few baby spinach leaves and some fried leek rounds for decoration too!
I have a friend who is on a strict keto diet. I often make recipes that are naturally keto friendly or adapting ingredients to make the recipe fit the requirements.
Hearty beef or lamb stews are easy, provided you leave out the root vegetables. Chilli beef is always a winner!
My friend is very partial to pork pies. So they are definitely on the “to bake” list! Now pork pies are notoriously tricky to make with hot water pastry. And if you hand raise the pastry, that’s really challenging!
You need to adapt the pastry with keto friendly ingredients. And it’s still a hot water crust pastry which is more difficult to handle than ordinary pastry. However this recipe doesn’t require hand raising. Simply bake in large muffin molds, or small pie molds as I did.
The keto pastry is not that difficult to handle and the resulting crust is quite delicious!
Ingredients
Filling
2 rashers bacon
300g pork shoulder
4 spring onions or 1 medium onion
A small handful each of thyme and sage
1/2 teaspoon chilli paste or chilli powder
Salt and pepper
Hot water crust pastry
200 grams almond flour
200 grams oat bran
1 ½ teaspoon guar or xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
Ground black pepper
60 grams butter
60 grams lard
200 grams water
1 free range egg
Jelly
1 gelatine platinum leaf
125 mls chicken or vegetable stock
1 free range egg, beaten, for glazing.
Method
Butter the pork pie molds well. Large muffin molds work well.
Chop the bacon rashers and the pork shoulder roughly, and put in a food processor. Add the spring onion or onion also roughy chopped, and the thyme, sage, chilli and salt and pepper.
Blitz in the food processor, until the ingredients are combined. Don’t over process. You want a pork mince, not a paste.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C fan forced.
Meanwhile, make the pastry. Mix the almond flour, oat bran, guar or xanthan gum, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Lightly whisk the egg, make a well in the centre, put in the egg and mix in. Don’t worry if you can’t mix in properly – you will get clumps.
Put the butter, lard and water in a saucepan over a low heat and cook until the butter and lard are fully melted.
Turn the heat up and bring the liquid to the boil, and as soon as it starts boiling, carefully pour all the liquid into the flour mixture. You will need to stir everything together quite quickly while the mixture is still warm. Make sure everything is combined.
This mixture will make 6 pies, so divide the mixture into 6 large balls for the pie bottoms and 6 smaller balls for the pie lids.
Press each of the larger balls of dough into the molds, pushing the dough down into the molds and up the sides. Make sure there are no holes.
Divide the pork mix into 6 portions and put each portion inside the pastry bottoms. Leave a space at the top, for the jelly.
Using your fingers, stretch the small balls of dough into circles to fit the top of the pies for the lids.
Brush some beaten egg around the edges of the pies. Place the dough lids on top of the pies, and gently press all around the edges to stick the lids and bottoms together.
Brush the pork pie tops with more beaten egg, and make a hole in the centre of the pies.
Put the pies in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and egg wash the tops again. Put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Take the pork pies from the oven and allow them to cool inside the molds.
Meanwhile, dissolve the gelatine leaf in the hot stock. Pour the stock slowly inside the pork pies through the hole in the lids until they are full. Let the stock soak in for a moment, then pour in a little more stock.
Put the pies in the fridge for a few hours for the jelly to set.
Serve at room temperature with plenty of your favourite chutney or relish, and maybe a few pickles on the side.
A great winter warmer. Layers of pumpkin, leek and optional bacon with a mixture of cheeses, encased in filo pastry.
Bake, traybake or pie this is delicious for lunch or supper.
And if you’re pumpkin averse, butternut squash works just as well!
Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
500g pumpkin or butternut squash
5 rashers of streaky bacon
3 large leeks
1 clove of garlic
100g goat’s cheese
100g feta
2 large tablespoons Greek yoghurt
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 filo sheets
Butter for brushing the filo sheets + extra for greasing the baking dish
Method
Heat a medium sized frying pan on the stove top over a medium heat. If using, fry the bacon rashers. Once cooked, set aside.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Chop the pumpkin into small chunks, skin on. Lay the pumpkin pieces onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Pour one tablespoon of the oil over the pumpkin pieces. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pumpkin is soft. Set aside until ready to assemble the pie.
Wash the leeks and cut into small lengths, about 2 cms. Finely chop the garlic. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan – if you cooked the bacon, you can use the same frying pan and the bacon juices. Gently cook the leeks and garlic over a low heat until the leeks are softened. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Put the goat’s cheese and feta into a bowl with the Greek yoghurt and salt and ground black pepper. Mix to incorporate the cheeses and yoghurt.
Have 10 sheets of filo pastry ready for layering in a medium sized square or rectangular baking dish. Cover the sheets with a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter. Using the melted butter, lightly grease the baking dish. Lay one sheet of filo in the dish, and brush with melted butter. Lay a second sheet of filo cross wise in the dish, across the first sheet. Brush with melted butter. Continue layering with the remaining three sheets, putting each sheet on top of the last, crossing the sheets over each other, brushing each sheet with melted butter.
Now it’s time to layer the filling. You will need to remove the skin from the now cooled baked pumpkin. Put a layer of pumpkin into the dish. Then layer some of the leek mixture. Top with some of the cheese mixture. Repeat the layers again, ending with the cheese. If using, place the bacon rashers on top of the filling.
Layer the remaining 5 sheets of filo over the top of the pie, crossing the sheets over each other as in the base of the pie, and brushing with melted butter in between the layers. Once the layers are done, you can tuck the overhanging filo into the sides of the pie. Or you could trim the overhang, but tucking in the filo gives a rustic edge to the pie, as you can see from the photos.
Brush the top with melted butter and place into the 180 degrees C oven for 20 minutes until the pie is golden brown on top and crispy.
Serve with green salad and crusty bread for lunch or as a simple supper. It freezes well too!
The Quirk and the Cool 