The Meet.Make.Eat. Excellent Adventure…

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I like to think that I’m an Ambassador for all things tasty and awesome.
In actual fact, that very statement, is declared proudly by me on all my Social Media profiles.
Why… You ask?
Because, it’s true.
Take for example, the Cellar Door Wine Festival.
I am, as it so happens, an official Social Media Ambassador for this unmissable South Australian event. Showcasing the cream of the winemaking crop, from the 20th to 22nd of February 2015.
It’s Tasty.
It’s Awesome.
They know what I’m all about…

Anyhoo, this isn’t your ordinary Wine Fest.
This is over 150 of South Australia’s very best wineries, from all the corners of South Australia’s incomparable (OK, I’m biased, but… It’s true.) wine regions, along with 9 of SA’s best boutique breweries AND a plethora of our best local food producers, restaurants & chefs…
Can you spell… AH-MAY-ZING!?
Yes, this dear friends, is the epitome of a one stop shop.

Now, because this isn’t your regular festival shindig. The legends at the CDWF have decided to throw in a few delectable foodie experiences to whet your whistle and satisfy your hunger, while also getting you involved.
One such experience is the Meet.Make.Eat. Masterclass.

Note to everyone: At this point you should begin mentally humming ‘Eye of the Tiger’ whilst imagining my repeated, spoon wielding, air punching…

Meet Make Eat 1

Firstly, let me set the scene…
Six teams of two.
Brought together by a love of all things culinary, and then divided by a desire to claim ultimate victory.
Guided by top chefs, with mouthwatering recipes.
Time limits. Prime Ingredients. Whose dish will reign supreme…?
Ummm… No, it’s not MKR. It was our Ambassador showdown.

Now, we all know I love a challenge, and more than that I love a competition. Air Punch… Air Punch…
But, I was feeling relaxed and jovial this eve. Actually, everyone was.
This state of joyous calm, might’ve had something to do with the waterfall of wine making its way down our gullets while we cooked…
But, this is a wine festival. Of course there’s wine.

My duo-tastic A-team consisted of myself and my fellow Ambassador, Tash Stoodley.
Her first words to everyone… I can’t cook.
The overwhelming response… Pair her with Bree.
Now, I can appreciate there was a feeling of unrest with the masses.
Yes, I did win a cooking competition.
But, unwittingly, they were actually handing me the wild card entry.
Tash can cook. And, she can plate. WAHAHAHAHAHA (Villainous laugh)… Air Punch… Air Punch…
So off we set, wines and spatulas in hand.
It was a Tapas fight to the death… OK not literally… But, it was the certain demise of your foodie reputation if you massacred your allocated recipe and served something shite. The stakes were high.

Tash and I were charged with creating a glorious, Summery dish, courtesy of Kane Pollard from Topiary Cafe.
Pea, Chive and Sour Cream Fritters with a Smoked Salmon, Snow Pea Tendril and Preserved Lemon salad.
Kane, along with Tze Khaw, Executive Chef of the Adelaide Convention Centre and Paul Baker, Head Chef of the Botanic Gardens Restaurant, are the formidable Iron Chefs, overseeing the Meet.Make.Eat. kitchens.

meet make eat 2

And, this heroic masterclass is exactly as the name suggests…
Meet one of these renowned South Australian chefs and be gifted with their phenomenal recipes. Cheers one another with a tipple.
Make a fabulous meal out of the very best, seasonal ingredients, under said chefs guidance, while enjoying another tipple or two.
Eat the fruits of your collective labour, with said chef, while continuing the former tippling.

What would such an experience cost… You ask?
Hold onto your hats ladies and gents, because I’m about to BLOW. YOUR. MINDS.
$75.00 per person.
(Now, quoting the eternally insightful words of Bill and Ted…)
No Way?
Yes, Way.
Party on Dudes!

So, still quoting Bill and Ted…
Who at the end of our Ambassador showdown, was most triumphant?
It was Amanda and Mark, with their truly delectable offering (I inhaled four of these palate pleasing puppies) of Baked Prosciutto wrapped Figs with Goats Curd.
Nobody ever stood a chance as soon as they rolled in with that overflowing tray of perfectly ripe figs… But then, perhaps that’s just my sour wine grapes talking…

Until next week, be excellent to each other xxx

meet make eat 3

 

To find out more about the Cellar Door Wine Fest 2015 please click on the following link - http://cellardoorfestival.com

To find out more about the Meet.Make.Eat. Masterclasses please click on the following link - http://cellardoorfestival.com/meet-make-eat/

Logo Photo credit: Cellar Door Festival 2015

 

Also, because I know, you really need to know… The foodgasmic menu we created (and you too could create…) was as follows;

Kinkawooka Mussels with Smoked Pork and Hills Cider

Salad of Hot Smoked Harris Salmon with Pickled Fennel, Endive, Dill and Fetta

Seared, Dry aged Beef Rump with Tuna Mayonnaise and Crostini

Dry Spice Rubbed Chicken with Stone fruit salad

Honey and Prosciutto Baked Figs with Goats Cheese and Rocket salad

Pea, Chive and Sour Cream Fritters with Smoked Salmon, Preserved Lemon and Snow Pea Tendril salad

 

 

***SPAM***: Not just a case of vile, Hawaiian canned Ham!

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So, I’ve just gone onto my blog to write my latest post, annnnd what have we here, pray tell…
Some cretin, has spammed the absolute bejeezus out of it like Dog:The Bounty Hunter’s pantry.

Look don’t get me wrong, I’m all for advertising… If I’m getting paid.
I’m all for sponsors… If we make a deal and it’s consensual.

Note to Sir.Spam-a-lot: I don’t remember permitting you to spew all over my blog pages. Go back to the ‘past its expiration date’ can, you came out of.

I feel violated.
I feel exposed.
I feel that even if I were in a bunker during an apocalyptic storm, I would still refuse to ingest Spam.
I’d really love to know how the EFF this happened…?!

If anyone out there has any advice for me about removing this cyber-loser from my website, I’m all ears.

But, in the meantime, while I try to clear this up… I will gift you with my latest recipe, Salmon Pot Pie.
Why… You ask?
Because, this is a food blog, and where I come from, Spam ‘aint food.

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Salmon and Leek Pot Pie
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 700gm Fresh Salmon - skinned and boned, cut into 2cm dices
  • 2 Leeks - washed and finely sliced
  • 1 cup Butternut Pumpkin - peeled and cubed into 1cm cubes
  • 1 small bunch of Dill - roughly chopped
  • 300mls Thickened cream
  • 1 sheet Butter Puff Pastry - use good stuff, please.
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Olive oil
Instructions
  1. Preheat your fan forced oven to 200c
  2. In a heavy based pot or dutch oven, heat 2 tbs of oil over a medium heat and fry the sliced leeks and pumpkin together for about 5 minutes until they start to soften, season really well.
  3. Once the veg is soft, take the pot off the heat and add the raw salmon and dill with the cream. Stir well and add a little more seasoning if you think it needs it, then carefully place the sheet of pastry over the top, tucking into the sides well.
  4. Cook for 20 minutes until the pastry is puffed and brown, then leave to sit for 5 minutes. After resting, eat immediately and be thankful it isn’t a foul can of Spam. Amen.

Note to everyone: Blog title credit goes to my hilarious sister, Cerrita.

Also, I truly apologize. Any irritating advertising you may see on my pages and/or pop-ups on your computer, are totally unsolicited and completely without my consent. But, that’s just the way the inedible cookie crumbles, in the sordid world of Spam. Please bear with me while I sort this out, sorry!

F.F… Beef and Miso Udon Soup

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Hands up, if you spent the best part of December, overeating like a voracious glutton and drinking wine like a booze hag at Bingo?
Ummm… You can’t see this, but my hand is up too.

Hands up, if you spent at least a couple of nights during the holidays, lying in bed eating Smiths Originals at Midnight while watching a Sons of Anarchy marathon?
Yep, up again.

Hands up, if you did the bare minimum exercise over the festive period, because you were just way too busy, socializing, sleeping in and being lazy?
Is it wrong to put both hands up?

Since it’s well and truly January now, my extended (and shameful) yearly vacation from being my normal health conscious self, has come to a close. The jig is up.
I’m back at the Gym.
I’m back on water.
I’m backing off of my beloved salted crisps.

It’s time for nourishment. It’s time to right my numerous wrongs.

Vegetables. Clear broths. Lean meat.
My body is screaming for it, and I know I’m not alone.
This Festive Feast is all things healthy AND delicious.
It will lift your spirits while it tingles your taste buds.
And, it’s quicker and easier than a teenage boy on Prom night.

So, if like me, you hold the burning desire to slay that health crushing Christmas demon.
Or, perhaps you’re just feeling flat because you’ve spent the last 3 weeks drowning your immunity and energetic enthusiasm in alcohol…

Every day is a new Chapter.

And dear friends, this is the perfect place to start your book of Twenty-Fifteen.
Until next week xxx

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Beef and Miso Udon Soup
Author: 
Recipe type: Lunch, Dinner
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 300gms Eye Fillet Steak - sliced super thin *** see tip
  • 440gms of fresh Udon noodles
  • 1 long red chilli for serving
  • Broth:
  • 6 cups Good Quality Beef stock - Homemade is best, but if using bought make sure it’s salt reduced.
  • 1 stick of Lemongrass - bruised
  • 1 large red chilli - halved length ways, seeds in if you like it hot.
  • 2 spring onions - white part only, green section reserved for serving
  • 1 bunch of Coriander - stems and roots only, leaves reserved for serving
  • 4cm Knob of fresh Ginger - julienned
  • 1 large Garlic clove - thinly sliced
  • 20gms sliced dried Shitake Mushrooms
  • 2 heaped tbs White Miso Paste
  • 2 tbs Light Soy Sauce
  • Assortment of Asian Vegetables, I like to use the following:
  • 1 bunch Bok Choy - Leaves roughly torn and stems sliced
  • 1 bunch Chinese Spinach - Leaves roughly torn and stems sliced
  • 1 pack fresh baby corn - cut into 3, length ways
  • 1 bunch Asparagus - woody stems removed, then cut into 3, length ways
Instructions
  1. Make a bouquet garni out of the Coriander stems, large halved chilli, lemongrass and spring onion whites by tying them all together well with a piece of butchers twine.
  2. In a large pot, place all the broth ingredients (including the bouquet garni) except the miso and soy sauce. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes.
  3. While the broth is simmering, place the noodles in a colander and run under warm water to separate, set aside until ready to use. Also, make a small salad out of the thinly sliced green section of the spring onion, the thinly sliced extra red chilli and the reserved Coriander leaves. Set aside until later for serving.
  4. Once the broth has infused, remove the Bouquet Garni, leaving the Mushrooms, Ginger and Garlic.
  5. Now, add the miso and the soy sauce. Stir well.
  6. Increase the heat and add the stems from the leafy veg, corn and asparagus. Cook for 2 minutes until they are tender crisp. Then add the noodles and leaves. Bring back to the boil and immediately take off the heat.
  7. Divide the vegetables and noodles between 4 large bowls. Place the thinly sliced Beef over the vegetables, then ladle over the hot broth (this will cook the meat). Garnish generously with the Coriander salad and serve with your favourite chilli sauce, then feel the self love people… Feel that internal, warming love!
  8. *** Tip: To make it easier to slice the beef, place it in the freezer for an hour to firm it up.
  9. *** Tip: To make this meal Gluten Free, replace the Udon with a GF option and use Tamari instead of light Soy.
  10. *** Tip: You can make this fab soup even quicker, just reduce the simmering time of the stock. I give it 30 minutes to really infuse, but it will still taste amaze after 10 minutes if that’s all ya got.

Burn, baby, Burn… Or maybe not.

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I’m a Summer baby, through and through.
I love the heat. LOVE IT.
I love eating cold stone fruit straight from the fridge, on a scorching Summer day.
I love outdoor BBQ’s, lazy evening’s and kids under sprinklers.
I love sipping Corona’s in the hot arvo… I would say, I love sipping Corona’s in the hot arvo sun… But, that’s not true, I don’t.
My friends and family like to tease and give me grief every, single Summer.
Why… You ask?
Because, I’m a Vampire.
Not the Edward Cullen type that has mesmerizing, diamond-like skin.
I’m the Blade type.
The sort that erupts into flames when put in proximity with UV rays.
I love Summer, but, I loathe being in the Sun.

Yes, I know you need the Vitamin D. But, I figure the walk to and from my car will sort this one out.
Yes, I’m fully aware, a Sunkissed glow looks healthy and appealing. But, when you’re a fair skinned European rose like me, it usually becomes more of a Sunburnt glare…
If I go out in the full peak hour rays for 3 minutes max, I will get burnt. Guaranteed.
I even got red recently in Melbourne (of all places), whilst waiting for a cup of tea.
A. CUP. OF. TEA.
I actually got singed one year, while sitting under a shade canopy and wearing a sun hat and kaftan. HOW is this even possible…?

But, my fun and sun lovin’ friends, my dermal reality hasn’t always been this way.
When I was younger, footloose and fancy free.
When wrinkles on my early adult face were not even a precursor, and my perception of Skin Cancer was vague and somewhat dim.
I, was a bronzed little chicos baby.

I spent my Summer days off, lazing like a lizard, catchin’ rays.
Weekends, leisurely spent, lounging around in full sun.
When my good friend Megan and I travelled through Mexico (read about it here), we were so brown, the Mexican’s thought we were locals. True story.
I actually used a sunbed tan activator, at the beach. WTF?
Sunscreen did not exist to me.
I had no care whatsoever for the health of my skin or the consequences of my carefree attitude towards our favourite ball of flames, the Sun.
That is, until I found a spot on my leg.

Sitting on the loo one day, shortly after my sister Cerrita’s Thai wedding (the wedding I spent hours at the solarium prepping myself for…), I looked down and saw a tiny little black dot on my thigh.
A dot so small, had it been on any other part of my body, I would never have seen it. A dot that only stood out to me, because it was Black.
I don’t know how everyone else feels about this, but where I come from, when something’s Black and it’s on your body, it’s not usually a good sign.
Blackhead… Black Plague… Black mole… All signs point to NO.
Anyhoo, to cut a long story short… I got this 2mm dot cut out of my leg and tested… And it was pre-cancerous.
Had I left it there or had I never noticed it, this minute little dark speck, could’ve been my entire mortal undoing.

So, when you witness my ghostly pale skin this Summer, please don’t scoff at my lack of pigment. It’s intentional.
I don’t want to prematurely age and I’ve also got a real aversion to looking like the Moon when I’m an old duck, from having stuff cut out of me left, right and centre.
Also, if you ever see me in the supermarket in oversized sunnies and a hat, I’m not trying to shop incognito (as someone has once thought…). No, I don’t think I’m famous. If that were the case, I wouldn’t wear my Maseur Massage Sandals in public.
No dear friends, I’m just hiding from my greatest nemesis, the Sun.

In honour of us all being sun smart this Summer and in 2015 (farrrk me, I DO sound like a nagging mum!), I’m sharing with you my Herb Roasted Chook with Haloumi Salad and Hummus recipe.
Why… You ask, again?

Kramer Chicken

Because, just like Seinfeld, sometimes my posts are just a show about nothing.
Until next week, Happy New 2015… xxx

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Herb Roasted Chook with Haloumi Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Dinner
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 1 Free Range Chook - about 1.2kg’s - Please for the love of all that is holy DON’T eat a factory Hen.
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tsp Fennel seeds
  • 1 tbs fresh Dill - or 1 tsp dried
  • 1 lemon - zested - the rest of the lemon reserved for later
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 400gm tin Chickpeas
  • 100gm Haloumi
  • 2 cups Baby Spinach
  • 1 small red onion - finely sliced
  • 100gm Grape Tomatoes
  • 1 large chargrilled Capsicum - jarred is fine, or do your own…
  • 1kg All Purpose Potatoes
  • ¼ cup Greek Yoghurt
  • 1 small Garlic Clove
  • Extra 1 tsp of Dill
  • Salt and White pepper
  • Olive Oil
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat your fan-forced oven to 220c.
  2. In a mortar and pestle (or just a bowl if you’re not THAT fancy) mix together the Fennel seeds, dill, lemon zest, salt and oil. Rub that shiz all over your (washed - see tip) chicken, and then, with the herb marinade leftovers, cut the 1kg’s of potatoes into wedges and rub that shiz all over them. Ohhhh yeah baby.
  3. Lovingly place the chicken onto an oiled roasting rack, then lovingly place the wedges onto a baking paper lined tray (skin side down). Cook the chicken for 15 minutes, then lower the oven heat to 180c.
  4. Once the heat is lowered to 180c, add those cut and placed wedges to the mix. Cook those potato babes with the chicken for an extra hour.
  5. Meanwhile, to make the Hummus. In a small food processor, add ¾ of the drained chickpeas and the extra fresh dill with the yoghurt, garlic clove and juice of half the remaining lemon. Whizz together until a smooth puree has been formed. Season well to taste with salt and white pepper.
  6. When the chook is ready (see other tip), pull it out of the oven and rest it for at least 20 minutes. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Leave the wedges in the oven, they will be fine to keep cooking in the interim.
  7. While that chook is resting, Heat a fry pan or griddle, then spray it with some oil and fry in batches the sliced haloumi.
  8. Make a salad out of the remaining ¼ can of the chickpeas, the finely sliced Capsicum, halved Tomatoes, Baby Spinach and Onion. Make a dressing out of ½ the lemon and ¼ cup of Olive Oil, Salt and White Pepper to taste, then dress. Drape the salad with the freshly fried Haloumi…. De-Lish-Ous.
  9. Serve all these awesome elements together, and die from happiness (not literally, you will live) x
  10. *** Tip - Wash your chook in cold water, inside and out, then pat down all over, inside and out with absorbent paper. Trust this advice, and follow it.
  11. *** Tip - To check when a roasted chook is done, insert a skewer into the meatiest and boniest part of the thigh… the juice that emanates should be clear… if it’s bloody, shes not ready.