It’s finally winter in Sydney. If you missed our treacherous weather last weekend, check out Fairfax for some pictures. The swell at Bondi was massive, but the wind was frightening. We went to have a look on Friday and aside from getting masses of sand in my eyes, I thought I was going to fly away in the wind. I’m not a cold weather person, however, the silver lining to cold weather is soups and dishes filled with cream and fat cuddling with romantic movie and a bottle of red.

This dish is an excellent winter entree if you want to impress your beloved, especially if you’re away somewhere in a tiny cabin with a log fire - the smell of this dish is sensual. You could follow it by another dish with strong aromatic tendencies, roast chicken.

Ingredients
Small head cauliflower, roughly cut
2.5 L stock (I used chicken, but veg or beef will do)
2 shallots (or spring onions), heads cut in half
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
100gm soft blue cheese

Method
Bring stock to boil with shallots and garlic. Add cauliflower and boil for 10 mins, then turn down to simmer for 40 mins. Strain half of the liquid out and put aside. Blend the remainder of the mixture together. Taste and add salt and pepper. Add cheese (I’m not a blue cheese lover so I add a bit at a time to make sure it’s not too overpowering) and continue to blend. Taste again. You might need more salt and pepper, or maybe more cheese. If you find your blend is bit too much like baby food, add some more of the stock that you set aside and blend.

That’s it. I don’t think you need any cream as the soft cheese is creamy enough.

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A super winter dinner, especially after a big lunch. We had ribs for lunch down at Hurricane’s today and whilst they are the best ribs in Sydney, they also make you feel lardy…so with with meat for lunch, it’s definitely time for vegetables for dinner.

Ingredients
3 kipfler pototoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 skinny eggplants, sliced
1/4 pumpkin, skinned and cut into chunks
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
1 zucchini, cut in half
3 cloves garlic
olive oil
pepper
150g Halloumi, sliced

Method
Heat oven to 200. Heat olive oil in an oven tray (in the oven) for about 5 minutes. Add all of your vegetables and grind pepper over them. That’s it! Just wait for 40 minutes, check them once half way through and turn them over. Put the cheese over the top of the vegetables and move the tray up to the grill for about 5- 10 mins.

Halloumi doesn’t melt - it still, according the geek - tastes like rubber. However I love it. This is a great recipe for you vego’s and people wanting to detox from meat.

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This is a really easy dish to make, and super delicious to serve as a light meal or on the side for a bbq or somewhere else where meat is involved. The only thing you have to promise to do is use really good quality olive oil.

I have two kinds of olive oil, a giant tin that I cook with and a tiny ‘gourmet’ bottle that I dress with. I don’t mean I wear it, I mean I use it to dress salads, dip bread into etc, because it tastes a lot different to the other oil (and costs about the same for about 1/10th of the size!). So if you want to impress your friends, or today, your Valentine, go and get some really expensive olive oil, like this Frescobaldi Laudemio…

Ingredients
1/2 pumpkin chopped into small cubes (no bigger than 2cm)
Roughly 4 big handful’s of rocket
2 kinds of olive oil
Handful of pinenuts
Slice of feta cheese cut into cubes

Method
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Heat some regular (cheap) olive oil in a baking tray for a minute. Add your chopped pumpkin and cook for roughly 30 minutes, turning at least once.

Heat a little regular oil in a fry pan on low heat, add pinenuts and move around for no more than a minute. Don’t walk away or leave these nuts otherwise they will burn quickly.

Put the rocket into your favorite salad bowl, throw in the sliced feta and top with the pinenuts, try not to include much of the oil. When your pumpkin is ready add that and then drizzle over the good (expensive) olive oil. Mix everything for a minute, you want the heat from the pumpkin and pine nuts to start working on the feta and even the rocket. Season well with salt and pepper.

Impress your loved one, maybe with some oysters (I know, it’s a cliché) and some champagne…

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