Caramel parfait with candied popcorn. Oh my.

Needs some work perfecting the look, but the taste is pretty awesome. Very intense caramel ice-cream. First time i've made pop-corn on the stove since i was little. I'd forgotten how delicious it can be drenched in salt! Recipe here.

Feeling hot hot HOT.

Barley, couscous, squid and cauliflower salad. 

Gourmet Traveller, August 2011, p109

Char-grilled lamb with green chilli and sesame sauce.
Gourmet Traveller, August 2011, p117.

Matzah Monday. Hot Cross Buns Friday.

Double 'Bang Bang'.

Saturday is a scheduled 'bang bang' day at our place. It's kind of a religious thing. Last Saturday we also got up to some less conventional, chicken 'bang bang' action, with a side order of Hakka-Style Eggplant. The chicken was AMAZING. The eggplant was stuffed with prawns and was yum, but probably not worth the deep-fried calories and prep time.

 

Hakka-Style Eggplant

 

Bang Bang Chicken

Prawn, haloumi and watermelon salad.

Recipe

Poached pears with olive oil espresso mousse on almond and hazelnut meringue.

Better than a Four'n Twenty Pie

I couldn't allow my carnivore mates to become malnutritioned after entree so we whipped them up some mini meat pies. I slow cooked the chuck steak with red wine, beef stock and thyme for three hours. We then made the short-crust pastry which we stuffed up a bistle as we left it in the fridge for about 5 hours instead of one. Panic phone call to jess who suggested grating the dough on an old school  cheese grater. Fantastic idea. Softened the bastard up, rolled him about with a rolling pin and voila: perfect pie base. We bought the puff pastry for their hats, squeezed them all together and banged them in the oven for 25 minutes. Such little rustic looking delights. I accidentally gave don the tomato paste instead of the tomato sauce so he had a rude surprise when the stuff squelched onto his entree, but he loved them nonetheless.