If your only experience of baked beans is with what comes out of a can, you are in for a treat. Making your own baked beans is easy, and the results way superior to the canned variety.
Sweet potato and cauliflower mash with a chilled tomato and parsley puree topped with crispy parsnip
Rather than monolithic, homogeneous dishes, my preference tends to dishes which contain ingredients which both complement and contrast each other. This one has cold-warm, acidic-neutral, and velvety-crispy. And it is very healthy! The chilled tomato parsley puree is delightful on its own, but paired with the warm sweet potato and cauliflower mash… the taste/texture/temperature sensation is…
How to make dashi
Dashi is a foundation component of many Japanese dishes. It is packed with umami, so the taste of whatever you layer on top of the dashi is greatly enhanced.
Apple and peach pastry with vanilla ice cream
Rough and ready. So quick to put together, yet this apple and peach pastry is so incredibly delicious with a good vanilla ice cream.
Scallops on a kimchi fritter with sesame mayo
Synchronicity. The three components of this dish, scallops, kimchi, and sesame mayo, complemented each other so well, and the combination so delicious, my guests wanted seconds. I had to remind them it was just the appetizer.
Chicken stuffed with pancetta, apricots, pine nuts, and brie. Mustard Maple drizzle. Base of Mushroom Quinoa
Dried apricots, pine nuts, and brie are a great combination on their own. But stuffed inside chicken, with a maple mustard drizzle, they rose to a new level of awesomeness. And yes, that is a word.
Quinoa, blueberry, red pepper, and corn salad, topped with a poached egg
This is a salad which is a meal in itself in terms of taste, texture, and nutrition – nutty quinoa, sweet corn and red peppers, and the flavour bursts of the blueberries. You will recreate this one many times over, as I have.
Loosely constructed vegetarian lasagna
It’s not “deconstructed”, but it is also not the dense baked variety of lasagna. Light, airy, and full of interesting and unexpected tastes and textures.
Pasta with garlic, truffled olive oil, and parsley. Black garlic and balsamic drizzle.
Pasta with olive oil, garlic, and parsley is an Italian standard. Add some truffle flavour, the black garlic and balsamic drizzle, and we have something where the tastes are an order of magnitude more interesting and complex.
Basil walnut pesto on linguini. Slow roasted tomato and mixed leaf salad
What’s different here… pesto made with walnuts and good quality olive oil, and a slow roasted tomato salad. Details, but details which lift this dish way above the average pesto pasta.
Cauliflower cashew soup. Black garlic bread.
A variation on a Bon Appétit recipe, this will be nothing like what you are expecting. It’s a rich sumptuous soup that really doesn’t taste anything like cauliflower. The smoked paprika infused garnish adds a colorful dimension both visually and to the flavour.
Beetroot and ricotta gnocchi with a brown butter thyme sauce, walnuts and Roquefort
Certainly a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A delectable combination.
Chinese sausage (Lạp xưởng) waffles topped with a warm pea and roasted red pepper salad
Waffles made using yeast as a rising agent can be almost bread like. That was certainly the case with these. Incorporating the Chinese sausage was particularly interesting, a combination I will explore again.
Baked potatoes with a blue cheese topping
The great thing about potatoes, like white rice and tofu, is that they provide volume to small amounts of stronger and distinct flavours – in this case, it is blue cheese. These work great as a vegetable accompaniment to a main dish, or on their own as a taps style dish.
Ras-el-hanout couscous with corn, red peppers, and chickpeas
A North African style dish, the predominant flavour here is ras-el-hanout, a combination of spices commonly used in Morocco cuisine.
More…
Crumbed cauliflower topped with a cauliflower ricotta garlic puree and parsley oil
Crispy roast pork belly, tempura mussels, cucumber, kimchi consommé
Scallops wrapped in pancetta on a mushroom risotto
Pomelo salad wrapped in prosciutto
Veggie quinoa muffin. Mushroom mustard cream sauce. Mixed greens
Vegetable green curry on egg noodles
Gnocchi with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Basil, Walnuts, and Roquefort Cheese
Chilli Jam
Miso roasted eggplant with seaweed quinoa salad and ponzu dressing
Herb crusted sea bass fillet on grilled parmesan polenta. Strawberry relish.
Seared foie gras on a bed of dates and walnuts with a dark chocolate and orange sauce
Crumbed silken tofu and tempura artichokes on a truffle infused corn salsa
Buckwheat crepes filled with mushrooms, spinach, and camembert
Salmon head stock
Balsamic glazed octopus on a black garlic and anchovy puree
Chicken stuffed with pancetta, asparagus, and brie. Veggie reduction gravy. Roast beetroot, marinated feta, and basil salad
Crispy skinned salmon with Pomelo Salad and Stuffed Red Pepper
Mussel fritters. Potato salad with broccolini and a ginger miso dressing.
Farfalle pasta with wild mushroom cream sauce. Speck wrapped asparagus
Banh Mi Quinoa – Vietnamese baguette with a quinoa patty
Seared tofu, kimchi waffles, gochujang drizzle
Vegetable stock
Red quinoa risotto with pickled cherry tomatoes and grilled haloumi
Lentil, stout, and mushroom turnovers, a mushroom Vegemite gravy, truffled mash, and greens
Spring rolls – crab surimi, chinese sausage, and chick peas
Grilled salmon wrapped in pancetta. Crispy potato waffles. Poached egg. Asparagus. Capsicum, roast garlic, and truffle drizzle
Roasted red pepper sorbet and anchovies on a crispy baguette
Beef Stock
Lamb, marinated and grilled, on a roasted eggplant and garlic puree. Pickled fennel and mint.
Blueberry gin reduction, variations…
Tempura mussels and octopus on pickled daikon. Soy mustard drizzle. Sea grapes.
Mushroom and leaf salad
Crumbed eggplant. Yogurt mint black garlic dressing. Green leaves.
Gnocchi
Spaghetti Carbonara with Salami, Slow Roasted Tomatoes, and Broccoli
Quinoa stir-fry topped with crispy skin salmon
Red quinoa, cacao nibs, and citrus salad
Roasted red pepper and corn yeast waffles. Parmesan sour cream dip.
Roasted tomato and zucchini soup
