Tomato Soup with Sambal

This is one of Bill Granger's recipes.

In a baking dish add Roma tomatoes, 1 red capsicum, 6 cloves of garlic
Drizzle with olive oil
Oven bake 200c 1 hour covered 30 mins uncovered

Blend with 2tsp ground coriander and cumin
1ltr vegetable stock
Chilli flakes
Reheat

For the sambal
Grind together 1/2 cup cashews and 1/2 cup of grated coconut
 Place sambal on top of soup and garnish with coriander leaf.

Cheesy Vegetable Pie

Sorry it's been so long since I updated this blog, hope today makes up for that.

Grease a large baking dish and place sheets of fresh lasagne sheets to form a base.

Cover with 1 jar char grilled eggplant strips and 1 jar cheese stuffed bell peppers

Dice 1 red chilli and sprinkle on top add a third of a cup of parmesan cheese

Cover the mixture with fresh lasagne sheets

Pour 1 can diced italian tomatoes and 1 jar of passata over the whole lot

Sprinkle generously with tasty cheese

Oven bake at 180c for about 40 mins

Vegetable Pie

This was going to be Andy Bunn's Baked Eggplant Pie from this months Delicious. I sought of improvised a bit.

Reduce 1 jar passata, a tip for the unwary it sputters every where use a lid.

Char grill in a pan three eggplants cut into 1 cm thick pieces lengthways.

Char grill in a pan two zucchini  cut length ways.

Grill two carrots cut into ribbons until soft.

Start with a buttered pie of Quiche dish place a layer of eggplant

Top with reduced passata and sprinkle with grated tasty cheese

Add a layer of zucchini Top with goats cheese and mozzarella .

Top with remaining eggplant, cover with sauce and then be generous with the mozzarella.

Finally sprinkle with pepper and cayenne pepper and dress with spring onion.

Oven bake for 20 mins at 180c.

Allow to rest and refrigerate before serving.

Vegetarian Red Curry

It's always hard cooking for a someone special never quite sure if you understand their like and dislikes properly. I have never cooked for a vegetarian before so for a first attempt this turned out really well. What surprised me was how filling this was. One question i have is why do Thai cookbooks suggest using fish sauce in vegetarian dishes?

I started with cutting a butternut squash into cubes and partially cooking in the microwave, making sure they are still firm.

Started with peanut oil and fried off my red curry paste before adding 400mls of coconut cream
Into this mixture was added:
Chopped Thai eggplants
the butternut squash
baby corn
a mixture of asian mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts
cherry tomatoes
1 block cubed of firm tofu
add 1 can coconut cream and a splash of tamarind concentrate
Finish cooking with palm sugar to taste


Garnish with peanuts or cashews and serve on jasmine rice

Breakfast of Champions

or why do I have heartburn at 9.00am....

Take 2 sourdough rolls split and toast

Grill 2 slices of halumi and several pieces of hot salami
Fry 2 eggs

Combine and garnish with coriander and tabasco sauce

Yes it was too much for one person, I was a pig!

Prawn Curry

This astounded me with how much it created.

Cut 4 thigh fillets of chicken into bite size pieces

Dice one red onion
Fry onion and fillets in peanut oil
Add curry paste, I used a spicy Malaysian blend I picked up at the supermarket.
Add 1 tin bamboo shoots
Add one tin coconut cream
Stir through Hokkien noodles
Add desired quantities of you favourite prawns, in this case Crystal Bay
I finished mine off with broccolini and baby corn

Spicy Noodle Soup

This is a warming winter soup.

Shred 1 chicken breast
Bring to the boil 4 litres of chicken stock
Add 1 tbsp ginger, grated
2 finely diced red chillies
Dash Shaoshing wine
2tbsp dark Soy
1 tin bamboo shoots
assorted diced and whole mushrooms
1 tin water chestnuts
3 tbsp Black Rice Vinegar
5 diced cornichons
1 beaten egg
your favourite noodles

When cooked through garnish with corriander