Simple Strawberry Tart with mint and passionfruit glaze

Good Morning all!

Yesterday I spoke about the lovely lentil salad which I made for my parents, today I will show you the tart that we made for dessert.

Pastry:
It is really easy, you need to buy some puff pastry (this is why it is so easy).

1. First of all preheat the oven 220 degrees.
2. You will need to use either a rectangular or circular tart tray and then roll out the puff pastry and place of the tray, squeezing down the edges.
3. You need to blind bake the pastry (this is the only cooking involved), you will need to place some baking paper over the base of the pastry and then use some rice to cover the base. Pop in the oven for about 12-15minutes, until the sides are golden brown.
4. You then need to remove the baking paper and rice and put the pastry back in the oven for 5 minutes.
5. Let the pastry cool down.

What you will need for the filling:
1. 3 punnets of strawberries (depending on how big your tray is)
2. 1 tsp water
3. 1/4 tsp of gelatin
4. 1 small can of passion fruit pulp
5. 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
6. whipped  cream to serve
7. Mint to sprinkle on top

Method:
1. Trim the green off of the strawberries, and then place the strawberries in a row into the cooled tart base. Pop into the fridge to continue to cool.

2. Make the passion fruit glaze by sitting the water and gelatin in a bowl and leave it to set for a moment.
3. Grab a small saucepan and add the passion fruit and sugar and stir in the water and gelatin mix, continue to stir and do not boil.
4. Grab a pastry brush and brush the passion fruit glaze over the strawberries, pop into the fridge until the glaze has set.
5. We served the tart with fresh mint leaves and cream.

Strawberry Tart with mint and passion fruit glaze

Enjoy today, summer is the perfect time for this treat!

Lentil salad, inspired by Padma Lakshmi

In my last blog i spoke about going to visit my parents along the Bellarine Peninsular and the wonderful Paella they cooked for us. So as a treat my boyfriend and I decided to cook for them the following night. Mum and Dad were very appreciative as they commented that it is very rare for them to be cooked for.

So the decision on what to cook??? Hmm...Well I had been watching Ellen during the week and she had actress/ model Padma Lakshmi,on her show. With Ellen being a vegan decided to show her how to cook a vegan dish. Therefore I can not take credit for this marvellous creation however I will tell you how fabulous and easy this dish is. Watch the video below to see how simple this is.

As you can see the Lentil salad is really a simple dish. Below are the ingredients that I put in the dish.

Ingredients:

Salad:
half a red capsicum
half a yellow capsicum
2 cans of lentils
3 stalks of celery
2 carrots diced
2 apples peeled and diced
a bunch of curly parsley chopped finely
lemon juice
balsamic vinegar

Topping:
shredded coconut
mustard seeds black/yellow
2 tsp ginger


Method:
Sauté the capsicum, celery and carrot until soft in olive oil.
Then place in the bowl with lentils, apples, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil from the pan and mix.
Then toast the coconut, mustard seeds and ginger. And that is it! How simple is that!

What is great about this recipe is all the ingredients are things you will probably have already in your kitchen. I serve the coconut topping on a separate plate so people can help themselves to how much they like.

The finished product: Lentil salad with toasted coconut, ginger and mustard seeds

If you want to impress someone with any easy dish this one is a winner. Or it is even a great salad to take to work as it wont get soggy. You cant stuff it up, trust me!
Also my mum and dad loved it. My dad is not a big salad eater but he couldn't stop raving it about it, and he is a chef so take it from him!

Enjoy :)

The joys of being cooked for...

So, I went and visited my lovely parents over the weekend with my boyfriend. I hadn't seen them for about a month, as we have been away in Sydney. Whenever we go down to visit we can always guarentee there will be some kind of culinary treat awaiting us. And this time was no exception. I'm sure you will agree that it really is a treat to have someone cook for you, I know I always appreciate it. 

This weekend was the Portarlington Mussel festival, so in the spirit of things it only seemed right to have some mussels! My parents work fantastically in the kitchen together, my dad being a Chef already, and my mum works great as his 'comme chef.' They had planned to make us a beautiful Spanish Paella with some local mussels. 

Here is a picture of the wonderful Paella that we were so lucky to enjoy! 

Seafood Paella with BBQ sourdough

One of my favourite things about cooking and food is that it brings people together. Here is everyone (minus me) enjoying the feast.

Enjoying the feast in the sunshine with some Rose

So If you havent seen your loved ones for a while, invite them over for dinner or go an visit them. Maybe experiement with a new receipe or ingredient or offer to cook for them and enjoy some good old fashioned chit chat around the dinner table.

My next blog I will share with you what we cooked for my parents the next night!

'Treat yo self' treat

My boyfriend and I have been getting into the NBC show 'Parks and Recreation', if you haven't seen it, it is a must. Anyway, there is an episode where two of the characters Tom and Donna decide to have an annual 'treat yo self' day, where you do just that. I have told my friend Nathan this and every now and then we text each other a reminder to 'treat yo self'. It doesn't have to be anything big, maybe a foot scrub, a walk or maybe an iced-coffee.

Anyway I have decided that food should be treated just like this. We need to look after our bodies and treat ourselves to something special and not just feed our bodies the same old boring stuff every day.
I like to challenge myself to come up with new ways of making an old dish a bit more exciting and still healthy.

This week I have noticed that raspberries are not only in season, they are actually affordable at $3.90 a punnet, compared to the usuall $7.00. Raspberries are my absolute favourite berry, when travelling through Europe I snacked on these beauties on a daily basis as they were 1 euro for a whole punnet!! So this morning I decided to treat myself to some raspberries in a fancy way, this is how I did it...

What you will need:
1 'nice' glass (or 2 if your treating someone else too)
small fry pan

Ingredients:
handful of raspberries
handful of blueberries
3 tbsp of Greek yoghurt
3 tbsp of sesame seeds
handful of hazelnuts chopped
2 squirts of honey

Method:
Grab your glass, dollop 2 tbsp of Greek yoghurt then scatter your berries on top, then dollop 1 more tbsp of yoghurt over the berries. Take your small fry pan and put on a low heat, scatter the sesame seeds and chop up the hazelnuts. Slowly let the seeds and nuts roast for 2 minutes, until golden brown (be careful not to burn). Then simply sprinkle the nuts and seeds over the yoghurt, pour on the honey and enjoy!

'Yoghurt and mixed berries with roasted sesame seeds and hazelnuts'

So that's a way I like to treat myself!
Whether you buy your self something new, get your hair done, read a book, paint your nails or have a Nana nap, don't forget to 'treat yo self' every now and then. xox

I'm back...

So I have had a massive break from my blog, but have however been posting some of my yummy dishes on Instagram, and have been getting some good responses so it has motivated me to get back into posting my creations to share with you all. Also this year, I want to try and do more for ME, and use my time more effectively rather than spend time sitting in front of the box. So here goes...

I often get asked how did I come up with that idea or that recipe? Most of the time I will just take an ingredient I love or that I already have in the fridge/cupboard and I try and build my idea around that. I usually get inspiration from other peoples recipes and then try and adapt them and make them my own. I rarely repeat the same recipe twice, simply because I get bored doing the same thing over and over again.

I've said it before and Ill say it again, you DON'T need to be afraid when cooking. You need to experiment and have fun. You do of course need some experience with what flavours go with what, but the more variety you try and buy the more you will improve and your confidence will grow.

So stay posted for some more food explorations to come.