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 one of the best inventions I’ve made this year. The feta melts slowly and beautifully with the heat of the asparagus and pumpkin.

You must use that special “top shelf” olive oil for this recipe. Something along the lines of this White Truffle Olive Oil. Mmm…truffles…

Ingredients
Bunch asparagus
half pumpkin cut into small cubes (about 2cm)
200g feta cheese, thinly sliced and cut into squares
handful of pine nuts
tablespoon butter
your best olive oil (like truffle oil)
regular olive oil
salt
pepper

Method
Heat your oven to 210. In an ovenproof tray heat some regular olive oil by placing it in the tray in the oven for about two minutes, then add pumpkin to tray, give the tray a good shake to coat the pumpkin in olive oil and put in the oven for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your asparagus. Jamie Oliver showed me how to prepare asparagus. You don’t cut the ugly tips off, you break them by letting the asparagus tell you were - this may sound odd, but if you hold the asparagus in two hands close to the tip and snap it - it will snap in the right spot. Anyway, moving on…steam your asparagus for three minutes over boiling water.

While the asparagus is cooking, melt your butter in another saucepan over low heat and add the pine nuts. It’s a bit of a catch-22 here as you want high heat for the pine nuts, but butter burns at high heat, so I usually turn the butter up to mid heat as it will only need about 2 minutes to work with the pine nuts.

OK, now your pumpkin should be ready from the oven, remove from the tray and place in a bowl with asparagus, feta cheese and pine nuts in butter. Drizzle with your best olive oil and then mix really well so the heat from the asparagus and pumpkin starts to melt the feta.

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This recipe is a real treat. I also knew fennel was great with fish (usually salmon), but in this simple dish it just picks it up. It’s a great meal if you’re feeling a bit sluggish.

I usually use ordinary spaghetti, but my brother gave me some of this whole wheat spaghetti and I have to say it wasn’t bad. It takes longer to cook than bleached spaghetti, but the nerd couldn’t taste the difference and it’s a slightly rougher texture which just seemed to work.

Ingredients
400g blue eye cod, cut into chunks
1 small bulb fennel, sliced thinly - keep the dill looking bits too
1 clove crushed garlic
1 can tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
olive oil
juice half lemon
handful of spaghetti

Method
Cook your spaghetti in boiling water - I usually bring the water to boil whilst I’m preparing the rest of the meal.

Heat olive oil over low heat, add fennel. Cook for a few minutes until very soft. Add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add can of tomatoes and increase heat to medium. I usually add a teaspoon of sugar when I use can tomatoes and in this recipe it works. Bring to the boil and then turn down to simmer. If you have thrown your spaghetti in to cook excellent. You want your spaghetti in for about three minutes before you add the fish to the tomato sauce. So when you are at this stage add the fish to the simmering tomatoes. The fish will take about 4 minutes to cook and you should turn the heat to low. Just before serving add your lemon juice to the tomato sauce.

Drain your spaghetti and serve on plates topped with the tomato fish sauce and then top with the dill-like fennel bits. I know it’s a really simple recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised!

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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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There’s nothing special about this recipe, except for the fact you can cook it in half an hour and it will make you feel warm and cosy. Which is probably very wrong for tonight as it’s still about 25 degrees and rather humid…But it’s Friday night, I’m not going out and I felt like drinking red.

On the wine list is a Bluemanna 2001 Merlot, another stella purchase from GraysOnline… anyway it seems like it will do the trick to unwind on a Friday evening.

Serves 4

Ingredients
500g lean mince beef
tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon sugar
3 cloves garlic, chopped or squashed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 glass red wine
2 400ml cans tomatoes (I like the whole roma tomatoes)
spaghetti
Parmesan (optional)

Method
Put a big pot of water on to boil for your spaghetti, add some rock salt.

Open wine and pour glass for one. On low heat gently heat oil and add onions. Cook slowly for 5 mins pushing them around and sipping wine. Add teaspoon of sugar and stir until dissolved. Add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add mince and turn up heat. I always mash the mince as it cooks so you don’t end up with great big lumps of it. Sip more wine as mashing mince. It will take about 4 mins for the mince to cook. When it’s no longer pink, add 1/2 glass wine (not yours) and stir until the smell disappears, roughly a minute or so.

Add tomato paste and mix well. Add the tins of tomatoes and mash them up - you don’t want whole tomatoes popping up in your bolognese. It’s pretty much finished now, so just add a bit of salt and pepper and turn down to simmer.

Your water should now be boiling to put the spaghetti in. This should take around 6-10 mins to cook, but test it anyway by taking it out and eating.

Drain the spaghetti and serve onto plates (although I prefer bowls). Top with bolognese and then Parmesan, and don’t forget to eat with a glass of red.

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I can’t remember what this fish is. I got it last week and put it in the freezer, but I’ve got no idea what it is. I’m guessing… actually I’m not guessing, for the life of me I can’t remember and a quick search has revealed nothing, so come on - please tell me!

Ingredients
2 small pieces of fish (similar to the lame picture on the right)
grapeseed oil
1/2 zucchini, peeled (I mean keep peeling with a peeler to get the slices thin)
1/2 cucumber, peeled
1/2 shallot, cut into strips
6 chives, cut in half
lemon juice
Dressing
teaspoon mirin
teaspoon soy sauce
tablespoon grapeseed oil

Method
Combine zucchini, cucumber, shallots and chives in bowl and squeeze a good bit of lemon juice and one drop of grapeseed oil.

Heat some more grapseed oil in a fry pan and add the fish and a few grains of rock salt. Cook quickly for about 1 1/2 mins on each side. Now, the nerd thinks the dish would taste better if it was all cold and I agree with him. So, leave the fish to cool for about 20 mins.

Then place the greens in the bottom of the bowl add the fish and dress with the ‘dressing’. A super lite entree that leaves you wanting more, just like foreplay.

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I was feeling like cooking a creamy dish with some chicken breasts I had and since we just got a delivery of some yummy white wine I decided it had to be French. I’ve borrowed some bits from Elizabeth David and her French cookbook - the creamy sauce, I may have bastardized it by adding the white wine, but I have to say it tasted divine.

My timing is a bit crap, so I cooked my greens when I had free time, rather than at the end so they were a bit cold, but hey, it’s still summer here so it’s not that bad.

Ingredients
4 baby desiree potatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon goose-fat
2 chicken breasts
some seasonal green vegetables, I used a bunch of asparagus, a handful of green beans and half head broccoli
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
250 ml white wine
250 ml water
500 ml cream
2 egg yokes
parsley and chives

How it works
Most Excellent Roast Potatoes
Heat the oven to highest temperature. Put your potatoes in a pot of water and bring to boil. When the potatoes have boiled for five minutes drain, melt the goose fat in an oven tray for a minute. Drain the potatoes and then to melted goose fat with a little bit of salt. Give the tray a good shake so the potatoes are covered in the melted fat and salt. The oven should be at roughly 220. The potatoes will take 30 mins. If you have some sort of super oven that cooks at more than 220 (celsius) then perhaps you might want to keep an eye on them.

Green Vegetables
Boil a pot of salted water. Add the broccoli and beans. After 1 1/2 mins add the asparagus. Cook for 1 min (or maybe a bit more), then drain and plunge into cold water. I find it takes two  rinses to stop the vegetables from cooking. Drain and set aside.

Chicken Breasts
Season the chicken breasts with some rock salt (or other chunky salt) and some pepper. Fry or grill with some olive oil for about 15 mins until cooked. I cooked mine in a fry pan on very low heat. You don’t want it too hot as chicken breasts are not an ideal size for grilling, being thicker in the middle. If you’re dieting you could always poach them, but then you wouldn’t be having this cream sauce either!

The Piece De Resistance
Melt the butter in a saucepan. When melted and bubbly take off the heat and stir in the flour. When combined and smooth return back to heat and add the water and wine. Stir until sauce starts to thicken, then add the cream. Stir and make sure heat is very low. It should take about 15 to 20 mins to thicken up. Just before you’re ready to serve add in two egg yolks (note these should be whisked and if you have some lemon juice handy, whisk a bit in with the egg yolks). I know this seems like a strange addition, but the sauce ended up being divine, so just go with it. Stir in the yolks for a minute then turn off heat and add chopped parsley.

So serve your green vegetables with chicken breasts and then coat with creamy sauce. We had left over, but if we were feeling really naughty you could finish it off. But instead I’m going to put it in the freezer and use it on a rainy day. I served the potatoes desperately as I wanted them to stay crispy.

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This recipe is super adaptable. I usually make it with lentils and yogurt, but I was afraid of missing fig season so had to create something. I love figs in balsamic, I’ve tried the other classic recipes with mozzarella and honey, but I just can’t get past cooking them.

This recipe is really quick by the way. You can make it all in under 30 mins.

Ingredients
300g lamb fillets
ground spices such as coriander, cumin, garam masala and tumeric
1/2 cup cous cous
4 baby carrots, halfed and halfed again
8 snow peas, halfed
3 figs, halfed
handful of pinenuts
tablespoon of butter
tablespoon white wine
tablespoon brown sugar
tablespoon honey
balsamic vinegar

How it all goes together
First you want to bring some water to boil for your snow peas. Then boil the kettle for some water for your cous cous. Add half a cup of boiling water to your cous cous and put it aside.

On low heat melt the butter, when melted tip half into a cup. Add wine to remaining butter in saucepan. Cook for a few minutes until the smell of wine has evapourated. Add pine nuts and cook for another minute or so and then remove from heat.

Your water should be boiling for the carrots, pop them in for a minute then add the snowpeas. After about 30 seconds drain and run under cold water, drain again and put aside.

OK on to the lamb, rub all of your spices into the lamb. Steady on the tumeric. Put into a frypan of hot oil (olive oil) and cook for about 1 1/2 mins on each side. Take out lamb to rest and return to your frypan. Put a good lug of balsamic vinegar in the pan - it will sizzle and smoke lots so you might want to turn off your fire alarm. Then put your figs in, put a bit more balsamic in and then spoon in your brown sugar. I have it on a medium heat.

Whilst they sizzle away contently, return to that cup of melted butter. Add a tablespoon of honey and cook gently in a pan until honey and butter have melted.

Ready to serve, slice your lamb. Put a fork through your cous cous and then tip in the pine nut butter wine mixture, mix a bit more with the fork. Add your carrots and snow peas to the butter honey mixture.

Put the cous cous onto 2 plates, stack with the carrots and snow peas and their sauce, top with the lamb and then put your figs on last.

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I’m going through a Japanese phase at the moment. After reading a book about their diet and all the health benefits, I went on a bit of a shopping spree and got some japanese cookbooks. So we’re eating Japanese around twice a week. As I’m just starting out, it usually only means two to three courses. I can’t quite manage five, even though everything I’ve cooked so far is pretty quick. So tonight was trout followed soup. The trout was great and really took under 30 mins, the soup not so tasty. So I’ve altered the ingredients to what I’m pretty sure will taste much better.

BTW the fish is excellent…

Ingredients
1 Ocean trout - sliced in half
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, cut thinly
1 carrot, cut in half and sliced thinly
a few strips ginger sliced thinly
4 shallots, sliced thinly in strips
oil (I’ve been using Rapeseed Oil)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon soy
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups dashi*
1 tablespoon cornflour

Method
Stir fry vegetables (minus the shallots) in a little oil for a couple of minutes. You don’t want to let them get soft. Add dashi, sugar, soy and rice wine vinegar. Bring to boil and then simmer. Whilst this is simmering fry your fish. Dust lightly in flour and then put in a pot of hot oil (about 5 cm’s worth). The fish will only take three minutes so you if your timing is skillful you can go straight from simmering sauce to fish. When fish is cooked, transfer to paper towels. Mix cornflour with one tablespoon of water, add to simmering sauce - now do you see where the gooey came from? Cook sauce for another minute or so and you’re done.

Don’t forget for the Japanese presentation is just as important as the food, so transfer the fish to a sexy dish and top gently with the vegetables in simmering sauce.

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