Vol au Vents

Okay - so I don't make my Vol au Vent shell from scratch...but this is something that I think that you can make when you get home from work - rather then something that you need to slave over the stove for hours on...

So go out and get yourself some LARGE Vol au Vent shells (Woolworths Select Range is pretty good) and whip this wonderful treat up for yourself!

Filling

2 large chicken breasts

1 leak

1 medium sized kumera (sweet potato)

2 potatoes

2 garlic cloves

1 small bunch of shallots

1 lime

1 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoons of milk

2 tablespoons of seeded mustard

1 teaspoon of olive oil

Dice the potatoes and sweet potato into cubes and place in a saucepan of boiling water. Cook until tender and then drain. Crush the potatoes with the butter, milk, seeded mustard and the juice of one lime.

Place the olive oil, leak and crushed garlic in a pan and sweat. Add in the thinly sliced chicken breast and brown.Toss the browned chicken, leak and garlic with the crushed potatoes. Mix in thinly sliced shallots. And then spoon into the Vol au Vent shells.

Cook the Vol au Vents in the oven for 15 minutes on 200 degrees and serve with steamed vegetables of your choice.

Rainbow Pasta

I found myself home alone tonight, which is rare - so I decided to make something that I liked (instead of something that I know the boys will eat). This was a dish that used almost every vegetable that I had in the fridge and it tasted AMAZING...



2 tablespoons of capers
1 red onion
1 red capsicum
1 zucchini
1 small eggplant
4 vine ripened tomatoes
2 gloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of chili flakes
1/4 cup of water
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Gluten Free Pasta



Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the capers. Make sure that the capers are drained as any excess water/liquid will cause the oil to spit. Add the garlic and when it begins to brown, add the onion, capsicum, zucchini, eggplant and the tomatoes. Allow the vegetable to sweat.



Add chili flakes and the water, and allow the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes. When 12 minutes remain, place the pasta in a pot of boiling water and cool. Drain the pasta and add into the sauce, stir through and SERVE!



It was good tonight and I have the feeling that this will be even better for lunch tomorrow...

Happy Birthday May...

Today is May Lim's Birthday - May is an excellent Graphic Designer at Lovedesign Group! And so for her birthday I created a special treat. I combined the flavours of her favourite cake - black forest cake - with an Australian tradition - Trifle!!

I've made my in individual cups, but you could definitely make this in a big glass bowl - just remember it needs to be glass so that you can see the layers.

As with any good trifle, it's best to organise your ingredients to each layer the day before...

Layer One
Prepare a chocolate cake - it just needs to be simple and set aside to cool.

Layer Two
Prepare a packet of Aeroplane Strawberry Jelly
And set aside 1 punnet of strawberries and 1 punnet of raspberries

Layer Three
500mls of King Island Double Thick Cream

Layer Four
It's the good all chocolate cake that you've made for Layer One.

Layer Five
Prepare a packet of Aeroplane Cherry Jelly
And set aside 1 can of pitted black cherries and 20mls of Cherry Liqueur

Layer Six
500mls of King Island Double Thick Cream
150grams of of melted milk cooking chocolate
Whip the two together and leave to set.

Come back to the ingredients when the cake is cooled and the jelly is almost set. Crumble the chocolate cake and place at the bottom of a glass. Top with a few strawberries and a few raspberries and let the Strawberry jelly fill in the gaps. Place a lovely big dollop of cream on top (remember you don't need to spread it out, the next layer will flatten it. But the uneven lines of the layers just add the characters of your trifle).

Add another layer of crumbled chocolate cake. Top with the black cherries. Mix together the juice from the cherries and the Cherry Liqueur and spoon two good teaspoons over the chocolate cake. And again let the cherry jelly fill the gaps, so that you end up with a some what smooth top. Place a lovely big dollop of chocolate cream on top and your finished!

Place the trifle in the fridge and allow to set for at least 2 hours - over night is better! And serve with a smile...because you know that whoever enjoys this dish will be smiling when they finish...

Spicy Prawns for James...

I had a lovely dinner with my good friend James the other night...We drove down to the shops and with the prompt of 'Prawns' I came up with this recipe in my head. And we sure did enjoy it with a couple of glasses of Pinor Gris.



1 cup of olive oil
3 gloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of chilli flakes
1 bunch of shallots
1 red capscium
15 baby chap potatoes
400 grams of prawns
1 loaf of crusty Italian bread
salt and pepper to taste.



Halve the baby potatoes and pop into a microwave-able container. Cover with water and microwave for 15 minutes or until soft.



Dice the garlic, shallots and capscium. Pour oil into a frying pan with a deep lip and heat on HIGH. When the oil is HOT, add the diced vegies and toss. Add chilli flakes, prawns and potatoes...TOSS TOSS TOSS!!! Season with salt and pepper.



Take the hot pan to the table and serve on a bread board with chucky sliced, crusty Italian bread. Awesome with a good glass of wine and great company! This is definately a dish to share!