Recipes
Portugese Custard Tarts
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Water
- 2 tbs Cornflour
- 2 Cups Milk
- 5 Egg Yolks
- 2 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 3 sheets ready rolled Puff pastry
Method
Place sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat, uncovered, stirring for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a heatproof bowl and place in the fridge for 15 minutes to cool.
Place cornflour and 1 tbs milk in saucepan and stir until a smooth paste forms. Place sugar syrup, remaining milk, egg yolds and vanilla essence in saucepan and whisk until combined well.
Stir over a low heat until the custard thickens and coats back of spoon. Place in a heatproof dish and place in fridge for 1 hour to cool.
Preheat oven to 220 degrees C. Cut 4 rounds of pastry from each sheet and place in a muffin pan, divide custard mix evenly between the 12 cases and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until pasty is golden and custard is firm.
Serve warm, or set aside until they have cooled to room temperature.
Makes 12.
Yummiest Salmon Patties!
1 415g Can of Red Salmon (Try and remove all the bones, some peeps don’t like them)
500g Royal Blue or Dutch Cream Potatoes
1 Egg lightly beaten
3 Shallots finely chopped, including green bits
1/3 Cup commercial Breadcrumbs
3 tblspns Finely chopped, drained Capers
Garlic Herb Salt & freshly cracked Rainbow Pepper to taste
Extra Breadcrumbs
Olive Oil for shallow frying
Peel and chop potatoes, boil until tender. Mash potatoes and cool slightly.
Flake Salmon into bowl, add Shallots, Capers, Breadcrumbs, Salt & Pepper, Egg and cooled potato. Mix well with clean hands.
Mould handfuls of the Salmon mixture into balls, flatten to around an inch thick and coat each side in extra breadcrumbs. Place patties in the fridge for 1/2 an hour to set.
Heat oil in a shallow pan, fry each patty on each side for around 2 minutes.
Serve with Garlic Aoli or Lemon Wedges, with a green salad.
Serves 4.
BEST EVER! Lemon & Ginger Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 skinless boneless chicken breast fillets, cut into narrow strips
- 3 egg whites
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cornflour
- Oil for frying
Sauce ingredients
- 60ml lemon juice
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 3cm piece of fresh ginger peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Lightly beat egg whites, add the cornfour and whisk well until completely combined. Add the chicken strips and mix until they are all covered in the batter.
Heat around 4cm oil in a wok.
Add the chicken strips to the oil individually in batches, allow to cook until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Place in a low oven to keep warm.
Wipe the wok clean, add the chicken stock, lemon juice, grated ginger, honey and sugar. Stir and bring to the boil. Combine the cornflour with 1 tablespoon water and add to the sauce, reduce the heat and stir constantly until the sauce thickens. Simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.
While the sauce is simmering heat some more oil in a shallow pan, add the finely sliced ginger and fry until golden brown, drain on paper towels and add to the sauce, simmer for an additional 2 minutes.
Place the chicken pieces on a serving plate or bowl and pour the sauce over the top, garnish with shallots sliced thinly on the diagonal.
Serves 4.
GLUTEN FREE.
Homemade Fish Fingers with Lime Tartare Sauce
Ingredients
500 grms Boneless, Skinless Fish Fillets (Orange Roughy, Ling, Barramundi or Perch, any other firm sweet white fleshed fish, Salmon is also good)
1 loaf of day old Sour Dough (the better the quality the better the crumbs)
2 large eggs
4 tblspns finely chopped fresh Dill (make sure it’s dry so it doesn’t clump)
Tartare Sauce
1 cup of whole egg mayonnaise (homemade is best but store bought is ok)
Finely grated zest of half a lime
2 Limes juiced
2 tspns of finely chopped baby Capers
1 large Gherkin finely chopped
1/4 cup of finely chopped Wild Rockette
2 tblspns finely chopped Flat Leaf Parsley
Method
Using a blender or food processor make enough breadcrumbs to crumb your fish, you’ll need 5-6 cups. In a large bowl mix together the breadcrumbs and the Dill until evenly mixed. Whisk both eggs in a bowl until white and yolk are combined.
Rinse and pat your fish fillets dry with paper towels, slice your fillets across their width approximately 1 inch wide. dip each slice into the egg mixture then coat with bread crumbs. Place the crumbed fish into the refrigerator for around an hour to allow the egg and crumbs to set.
Mix together all the ingredients for the Tartare sauce and spoon into a serving bowl.
Heat enough good quality oil in a deep heavy based saucepan, fry your fish fingers in batches (3-4 minutes per batch) until golden brown, drain on paper towels then transfer to serving dish. I serve mine on a bed of Wild Rockette.
ENJOY!
Yum Nua – Thai Beef Salad
Ingredients
500 grams of eye fillet steak (2-3 3/4″ thick slices)
1 Telegraph Cucumber (Less bitter than lebanese) cut into julienne
1 Small Red Spanish Onion, cut in half and finely sliced
2 Small Red Thai Birdseye Chillis finely sliced
2 baby Cos Lettuce, outer leaves removed – or
3-4 Witlof, break off individual leaves, wash and drain
250grms Vine ripened Baby Roma Tomatoes
1 bunch of Coriander, finely chop root and stems (reserve leaves for garnish)
1 tblspn of finely grated Palm Sugar
1/3 cup of Lime Juice
1/4 cup of Nam Pla (fish sauce)
2 cloves of finely diced Garlic
2 tblspns finely diced Thai Mint (regular mint is fine)
1/3 cup of finely ground roasted rice (optional)
Method
Take steaks out of the fridge well in advance, room temperature is best. Heat a small amount of peanut oil in a heavy based pan and fry steaks on both sides approximately 3-4 minutes on each side on medium heat. Set steaks aside to come back to slightly above room temperature.
Combine the Coriander, Palm Sugar, Lime Juice, Mint, Nam Pla, Garlic and chillis in a large bowl whisk until the Palm Sugar is dissolved. Also whisk in the ground roasted rice if you have opted to use this. Finely slice the steaks across their width into 1mm slices, add to the sauce mix together with the onions and cucumber.
To serve
Arrange witlof or cos leaves on serving plates, spoon the mixture into the leaves, garnish each with Baby Roma Tomato wedges, and mint leaf and a Coriander leaf.
ENJOY!
Chilli Con Queso Dip
1 pack of Philly cheese
1 large jar of Old El Paso Chunky Salsa (I use the medium, but would use hot if I could get it)
1 small pack of sour cream
1 1/2 cups of grated tasty cheddar
1 SourDough Cob or Similar
Method:
Keep Philly at room temperature, in Winter you may need to micro for 40 secs to soften more. Add sour cream and salsa to bowl, mix with whisk until combined. Add cheddar and mix through.
Cut top off Cob, remove all of soft center, break top and soft center into bite sized portions. Cover baking tray in foil, place Cob in center, fill with dip. Scatter bite sized pieces around the Cob and bake in 180 degree oven for around 20 minutes, check occasionally to rearrange bite sized pieces.
Enjoy!!
