KILLAH chilli sauce

 

I love a good hot chilli sauce on pretty much anything. Avocado on toast with chilli sauce, Potato wedges with chilli sauce and greek yoghurt, Pizza with chilli sauce... Love love love the chilli.

And the hotter the better!

I bought 250gms of birds eye chillies (thai chillies) reduced at Charlies fruit mart the other day - a few went into a jar with some oil and lemon to marinate olives, 2 went into a salad and the rest (about 40) went into this.

Its hot and its garlicky and a little bit sour. You can blend it down smoother than I have if you want a runnier sauce (like tabasco) or leave it chunkier if you want more of a relish. If for some reason you want it less garlicky... *shrug* I dont understand....

I left the membranes and seeds in, but you can take them out if you are bothered ;) You can also adjust the sourness of the sauce by adding more sugar and the thickness by how long you cook the tomatoes.

200+gms birds eye chillies - remove tops.

1.5 heads of garlic, peeled

4 tomatoes, roughly chopped

juice of 2 limes

3/4 tbs cracked black pepper

1/2 tbs salt

1.5 tbs raw sugar

a dash of cinnamon and thyme.

Chop the chilli and garlic using a food processor or a very sharp knife. Set aside. 

Put the rest of the ingredients into a pot. Cook down, stirring occasionally, until it resembles tomato sauce (about 30 minutes) - cook down further if you want a thicker chilli sauce. 

Add chopped chilli and garlic and combine. Cook down for about 10 minutes until the chilli skins soften up a bit. Take off heat and allow to cool.

Put into food processor and proccess to desired consistency. Spoon into clean jars. Keep in fridge.

Makes about 2 cups.

Mixed leaves with chick peas and chilli

This is a lovely healthy salad with a little bit of zing, perfect for a light summers dinner.


100gms mixed leaves
2 carrots grated
4 shallots, sliced chunky
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tins chick peas, drained
juice of 1/2 a lemon
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 birds eye chillies, chopped
a dash of macadamia oil
a dash of sesame oil
salt to taste

Crush garlic with the salt, add macadamia oil and juices and mix well.
Add leaves, carrots, chick peas, shallots and chilli. Drizzle with sesame oil.
Toss till combined.

Mushroom and Onion Puffy Tarts

 

I'm going to a friends carribean sea themed party tonight, and thought I would take something along other than my well dressed partner, the vicious tiger shark (whippet) and beer. Puff pastry tarts are always welcome as finger food and these ones consist of a little flavour explosion topped off with a squiggle of light cream cheese.

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

2 tbs minced garlic

1/2 red onion, sliced very finely

8 small mushrooms, sliced finely

8 sundried tomato halves, sliced small

1/2 tub lite cream cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into 4 long strips then halve them. Smear with minced garlic. Arrange on  an oiled baking sheet. Add onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. Put cream cheese in a plastic bag and cut the end off to use as a piping bag - add a squiggle of cheese on top of each one. Liberally sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Cook for 15 minutes or until browned and puffy. Allow to cool before serving!

Passionfruit Baked Cheesecake

This is my first attempt at a cheesecake of any kind - so bear with me :)

Thanks to our tiny oven, this cake cooked in half the time it should have, but also overcooked a little and ended up a bit dry. Next time I shall be paying more attention!

The topping is made with cornflour, but you can substitute gelatine if you like.

Passionfruit Baked Cheesecake

Pastry:

1 packet butternut snap biscuits

1/2 cup melted butter

1tsp cinammon

1tbs wholemeal flour 

Cheesecake filling: 

500gm cream cheese, pressed through a sieve

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1tbs lemon juice

1/4 cup passionfruit juice

Topping:

Pulp from approximately 8 passionfruit
1/4 cup sugar
2 Kiwifruits, peeled and sliced
1 tsp cornflour in 1/2 cup water

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Crush butternut snap biscuits until resembling fine breadcrumbs. Mix with melted butter, cinnamon and flour. Press onto the bottom and sides of a 9" pan. Cook for 10 minutes then cool.

Sieve room temperature cream cheese through a colander or strainer. In a seperate bowl, mix eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add to the cream cheese and beat well. Add lemon and passionfruit juices. Beat for approximately 5 minutes until smooth. Pour into prepared biscuit base.
Bake for 1 hour, or until top starts to turn golden. Leave in oven to cool with door open.

When cake is cooled, put passionfruit pulp and sugar into a saucepan. Bring to simmer. Add the cornflour in water and mix well. Keep stirring until boiled and then boil for approximately 2 minutes until glaze is thick and clear. Let cool for 10 minutes.
Spread a layer of glaze on cooled cake. Arrange sliced kiwifruit on top then top with rest of glaze.
Set aside to cool for an hour.
Place cake covered, in fridge overnight before serving.

Lentil and Silverbeet parcels

 

Just another one of those things that I invented off the top of my head... It started with Mum forgetting to bring Spanakopita last week, then to my partner talking about making Spanakopita, then to me turning it into pumpkin and ricotta triangles because we had been eating too much spinach (palak paneer for 5 days anyone?) Then scrapping the ricotta for lentils... guh.

I had to add silverbeet, because I like it more than spinach ;)

Lentil and Silverbeet parcels

3 sheets puff pastry - cut into quarters and kept cold.

1/3 jap pumpkin, 1cm cubes

1 bunch silverbeet, trimmed of stalk and roughly chopped

1 tin lentils, drained and rinsed thoroughly

2 soft tomatoes, diced

1 onion, finely diced

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

mustard seeds

cumin seeds

paprika powder

curry powder 

salt and pepper 

garam masala and dried chopped garlic to garnish

In a large frypan, sautee onion and garlic in olive oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds and fry until popping. Put in cubed pumpkin and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally to lightly caramelise.

Add silverbeet, paprika and curry powder. Cook for 3 minutes stirring frequently.

Add drained lentils. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook a further 5 minutes until mixture is 'dry' 

(the tomatoes will make the mixture a bit watery upon addition, which will make the pastry soggy when baking. When the mix is no longer watery, it is ready.)

Spoon 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of mixture into centre of each pastry quarter. Fold up diagonal ends and place onto oiled tray. Use extra pastry trimmings to make a small button and place in the centre. 

Spray each parcel with oil. Top with a sprinkle of garam masala powder and dried chopped garlic.

Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown - check after 20 minutes to ensure they cook evenly.

Makes 10.

Sweet Potato and Legume Salad

Im on a bit of a salad kick at the moment - Every dinner this week has been salad. I think they make great dinners as they are easy, light and satisfying without being too heavy.

This one has a lovely interplay of colours and textures, as well as lots of filling legume protein!

1 small sweet potato, diced 1cm cubes
350gms sugar snap peas, cut in half
1/2 red onion, sliced finely
1 punnet mini romas, halved
1 tin champignons, drained and cut in half
1/2 large avocado, diced thick
1 tin lentils
1 tin 5 bean mix
3 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp seeded mustard
a dash of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
macadamia nut oil to drizzle

Boil diced sweet potato until tender. Pour lentils and Bean mix into strainer, pour on the pot contents of the sweet potato. Rinse it all with cold water till sweet potato is cold.

Put everything into a big salad bowl. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice, toss till well mixed. Drizzle with Macadamia nut oil. 

Serves 4 as a meal, or 6 as a side salad.

Gnocchi with Pesto and Spinach

It was my last day of practicals for the year... Well... For my entire undergraduate actually! 

I had a hankering for some gnocchi ever since I saw someone, somewhere at some point in time in the last week made some in a delicious looking soupy tomato based sauce. It was probably on a blog - You know, the ones I read when I've got a study break (i.e. procrastinating...*sigh*)

I didnt feel like the heavy tomato based sauce today, as we had pasta a few days ago, but I did want something that would go down pretty well with a glass of red. Enter Pesto - stage left!

All the pesto at the shops looked crap, so I bought two bunches of Basil and made my own. 

Gnocchi with Pesto and Spinach 

1 pack of potato gnocchi

4 tbs pesto

1/2 bunch spinach, roughly chopped

a few egg tomatoes, halved

Shaved parmesan

Olive oil for drizzling

Salt and pepper to taste

To make the pesto: wash and roughly pick leaves from 2 bunches of basil. Use a hand mixer or food processor to chop finely. Add fresh garlic cloves to taste (I used about 4) add a bit of salt and pepper and olive oil. Store in a clean jar with a thin layer of olive oil.  

Cook gnocchi as per packet instructions. 

Toss through pesto, sprinkle spinach add tomatoes to taste. Add shaved parmesan. Liberally sprinkle with olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste.