Grown-up fish fingers with caraway dipping sauce.

Love the odd shallow-fried recipe from Ottolenghi.

Mee Goreng from the Gourmet Traveller Asian Annual.

Roasted parsnips with caper vinaigrette.

This recipe looked and tasted great!

Shredded lamb and sweet potato salad.

 The best meal we've had this year.

Always tasty. Never fails.

Honeyed sweet potato with chickpeas and lemon garlic yoghurt.

 

My presentation wasn't amazing but this was unbelievable!

Donna Hay's carrot cake.

 

God this was yum!

Got my cooking mojo back.

I hosted Mothers Group last week which gave my Ottolenghi cooking skills a damn fine workout/rejuvenation. Did a couple of trusty old favs + one newie to get the juices flowing. Have never made brioche before so gave these pizzas a good crack and damn fine they were too. This is the 2nd recipe of his that require oven drying tomatoes and i think i now have them down pat. The combo of the sweet onions and the tangy tomatoes was delicious. As per usual, i picked a colourful menu and the most fiddly i could find. 16 hours straight on Monday (thank god for the baby carrier) and another four hours of prep beforehand. I felt alive again!

 

Radish and broad bean salad with green tahini recipe

Green couscous recipe

Brioche pizzas with oven-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives and caramelized onion.
Recipe here.

Roast butternut pumpkin recipe here.

 

Party pies

 

Recipe here.

Ocean trout and soba.

 

Delicious AND easy. Recipe here.

Chicken, lap cheong and snowpea stirfry.

Am making my way through the Gourmet Traveller Asian cookbook. So many amazing recipes like this one.

Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad.

 

Absolutely my new fav salad. Recipe here.

God i love Mothers Group.

It a) Gives me time away from infomercials and b) Ensures I don't forget how to bake and c) Provides a receptive audience for talking about my vagina.

This Honey and Rosewater Baklava was a hit, although it took a freaking long time to layer the 25 sheets of filo with butter!

Getting back into the groove.

Weekends are the best time to attempt new recipes these days (baby days) as Don and I can take turns manning the child. Kung Pao chicken with Asian salad and ginger relish was last night's effort. The recipe is from the new Gourmet Traveller Asian Favourites Cookbook which is an UNBELIEVABLE recipe book. This dish rocked our socks off.

Ottolenghi's back in the house.

Having frozen a huge batch of the crumble months ago, these little puppies were a cinch to make. Blueberry Crumble muffins. Looked great. Tasted even better.

Back in the kitchen where i belong.

When people told me to get all of my cooking out of the way before child entered world, I really thought they were talking crap, alas here i am two and a half weeks after popping her out and all I've managed thus far is a Kurnik Chicken Pie. It's a damn fine pie, but that's one dinner out of a possible 13 since leaving the hospital. Lame-o.

Apple Walnut Empanadas.

Superb recipe!

Our babymoon (7 months).

Ottolenghi white peppercorn squid.

Delicious, just goes easy on the white pepper. Recipe here.

Warm glass noodles and edamame beans.

Recipe

Ottolenghi Saturday.

 

Quinoa, Fennel and Pomegranate Salad recipe

Wasn't completely happy with the flavor of this one so improvised (shock horror) and added some pomegranate molasses to the dressing. Wasn't bad, but would probably be better with the addition of some shredded chicken. Colours looked good though. 

Sweet and spicy beef and pork pie recipe

This was pretty delicious and looked a treat too. The only bit i couldn't quite nail was getting the egg to cook. It took about 15 minutes as opposed to the recommended 5, which gave the shortcrust pastry a bit of sunburn.