Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad.

 

Absolutely my new fav salad. Recipe here.

Ottolenghi's green tea noodles with grilled prawns.

Recipe

warm Vietnamese beef salad.

Recipe

Roast sweet potato with pecan and maple.

 

Ottolenghi - The Cookbook Recipe: P.67

Shannon Bennett's Tuna Melt recipe. Amazing.

New Ottolenghi recipes from Plenty.

Green bean salad with mustard seeds and tarragon. P.196

Green coucous. P.255

Ravioli Funghi? Anyone?

My salmon rollies remind me of hermit crabs.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Roulades (Delicious Magazine Dec '10/Jan'11)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 1/4 cups (310ml) milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbs finely chopped dill + extra to garnish
20g unsalted butter chopped into 8 pieces
250g fresh ricotta
300g smoked salmon slices
1/3 cup ocean trout or salmon roe

METHOD
1. Sift flour and 1 tsp of salt into bowl.
2. Add milk and eggs
3. Stir until smooth
4. Pour through a sieve to remove lumps and add chopped dill
5. Heat Swiss diamond fry pan and melt butter and cook crepes
6. Stir remaining dill into ricotta and add plenty salt/pepper
7. Spread heaped tablespoon of ricotta mix onto crepe
8. Cover cheese with layer of salmon and roll tightly
9. Cut in half then slice each half on the diagonal (gives 4 pieces)
10. Stand on platter and top with dill and row
 

Prawn, haloumi and watermelon salad.

Recipe

A quick lunch.

 

Camargue Red Rice and Quinoa with Orange and Pistachios (The Cookbook - Ottolenghi)

Brisket burgers in the background (Gourmet Traveller Annual 2008)

Smoked Salmon and Dill Roulades (Delicious Magazine Dec '10/Jan'11)
Chargrilled Cauliflower with Tomato, dill and Capers (The Cookbook - Ottolenghi)

 Jane Lawson Pretzels (Snowflakes and Schnapps)

 Ottolenghi Green Pancakes with Lime Butter (Delicious June '10)

With lime coriander butter

David Lebovitz's Banana Cake with Mocha Frosting and Salted Candied Peanuts
(Ready for Dessert)

Soft prawn tacos with coleslaw, avocado and coriander

Amazing. You must try this one.

The salt drenching can continue. Phew.

PT said to go the Wagyu Burger at Cafe Vue, so we did. I thought $15 was a touch pricey but my lordy lord...this humble fare was delicious and surprisingly filling too. The home made tomato sauce came in a cute little juice bottle and was so tasty, I practically inhaled the stuff and the chips were perfect; good portion, perfectly seasoned and cute presentation. Domus and I had been concerned of late that either a) Melbourne restaurants had really dropped the ball or b) we'd screwed up our palettes from salt-overload, but i'm pleased to say that Cafe Vue and their lovely staff (who don't have botox smiles plastered to their face or feel the need to refill your water between sips like the waiters at Pan Asia) have revived my Melbourne-dining-libido. Many thanks.

Lunch rocked.

Menu selection was tough. Dad doesn't eat seafood or pig or spices so all options either had to be dad-friendly or easy to separate out the bad bits. We decided to return to the open Swedish burger from last week's trial - huge success. Dad didn't even notice the ground caraway seeds. Think they were masked by Domus's beet-root mandolin skillfulness. Then we did the opposite colour thing with the tahini beans and asparagus and threw in a splash of summer with watermelon, haloumi, pomegranate, prawn and burghul salad. Each dish had completely unique flavors and was devoured in second and third rounds. No doubt everyone is now suffering with spary-wee and crimson poo.  Dessert was Autumn salad of pomegranate, pear and fig in rhubarb syrup. (see previous post for failed attempts at the rhubarb) with King Island vanilla yogurt. Mmmm, Food coma to the max.    

 

Green bean and asparagus recipe:
• green bean and asparagus salad with sesame dressing • 2 bunches asparagus 

• 250g green beans

• 1/4 cup Asian sesame paste or Tahini

• 2 tbs soy sauce

• 1 tbsp caster sugar

• 1 tbs rice wine vinegar'1 tsp finely grated ginger

• 2 red Asian eschalots thinly sliced

Blanch veg in boiling saulted water for 2-3 mins, then rinse with cold water. Stir paste, sauce, sugar, vinegar, ginger and 1 tbs water in a bowl to dissolve sugar. Drizzle greens with dressing and top with eschalots. I also put fried eschalots on top as well.

Preparations begin for Sunday lunch.

Asparagus wee, you're killing me.

Within a half-hour of asparagus consumption, some people notice their urine has acquired a very pungent odor, often compared to rotting cabbage,ammonia or rotten eggs.  Thanks wisegeek.com

Bill's burghul fluffed up my tabouli

The standard supermarket burghul reminds me of dandruff. It's dry and flakey and looks like it needs a vitamin booster. Quinoa is our usual grain of choice but when Don's dad sent us a burghul care package, our picnic lunches changed for the better.