Prawn and mango salad

What would Christmas lunch be without prawns? Add some luscious mango and you have my favourite prawn salad recipe.

PRAWN AND MANGO SALAD
Ingredients
2kg cooked prawns
3 large mangoes
2 large avocados
1 orange
Salad leaves
Dressing
2 tablespoons sour cream
170g can mango puree (or puree a fresh mango)
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 tablespoon chilli sauce

Peel prawns. Peel and cut mangoes, avocados and orange into thin wedges. Arrange on a platter over the salad leaves. Drizzle with dressing before serving.
To make dressing - combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Mock Chicken Sandwich Filling

This is my favourite sandwich filling. It evolved from the days of the old Coolgardie Safe where the only cheese in the house came in the familiar blue packet and was kept in the pantry. So I always make sure I have some on hand. This is great for kid's lunchboxes now summer is here, freezes really well and is yummy on toast for breakfast. It keeps for a week or more in the fridge - if it ever lasts that long. My kids prefer to call it Savoury Cheese but country people know it by it's real name.


MOCK CHICKEN SANDWICH FILLING












Ingredients:
1 large ripe tomato
1 small onion, finely chopped
Sprinkle of mixed herbs - about 1/3 of a teaspoon. More if you like the flavour.
125 Kraft cheddar cheese
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Saute chopped onion in butter in pan. Peel the tomato by briefly immersing it in boiling water until the skin is loose. Chop finely and add to pan along with the mixed herbs. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until liquid is reduced.
Grate cheese and add to pan. Stir over low heat until melted. Do not allow to boil. Add the beaten egg and cook for 1 minute. Season to taste. Cool in the fridge before use.

The mixture will set upon cooling. If boiled, it curdles. The flavour is the same but the texture isn't. It just doesn't spread as smoothly.

 I'm a huge fan of Heston Blumenthal. I watched the episode where he showed British Airways what was needed to recreate their Shepherd's Pie for high altitude passengers. It was the 'fifth' flavour we taste. Umami. If you ever feel a meat dish need a little bit of 'something' to enhance the flavour, this is what you need. Umami paste. I just made some  thanks to the generous sharing of the recipe by Tenina. (tenina.com/2011/08/umami-paste/)  Her recipe is for a  Thermomix  but I didn't have one so adapted it for my 'Bullet' although I think any blender will work as well. My paste is creamier but has set beautifully and tastes amazing.

Umami Paste

300g Roma tomatoes
90g Parmesan cheese
80g toasted walnuts
1 teaspoon Dulse flakes - available from health food shops
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 anchovies

Core the tomatoes and blitz in the blender attachment of the Bullet. Transfer the puree to a glass or plastic jug, cover with plastic wrap, pierced a few times, and cook  in the microwave for 5 minutes. Strain through a piece of chux placed in a sieve. Retain the juice.

(Dehydrate the tomato solids in a warm oven, or like I did, on baking paper in a small pan on my wood fire. Blitz until finely milled and use in soups and stews.)

Toast walnuts in a pan over a low heat. Blitz in three lots in the Bullet using one of the cups. Blitzs the parmesan in three lots as well. This gives a fine milled product.

Add all ingrediets together in a large Bullet cup or blender attachment and blend for 30 seconds to combine.
Pour into sterilised jars and keep in the refrigerator.

I found these cute little jars very cheaply in Red Dot and filled three of them with the mixture. I added a tablespoon of the mix to my normal Shepherds Pie recipe and it tastes amazing.

QUINCE PASTE

My quince tree is laden with huge fruit so it's time to dig out the quince paste recipe. Even after three years of making it I still find it difficult to judge when it has cooked enough. I think I need to be more patient and leave it to dry for a month or so. It's difficult to do because it is so delicious I want to tuck into it straight away.

BASIC QUINCE PASTE
5 or 6 quinces
water
sugar.

Prepare a large bowl of water. Add juice of a lemon to prevent discolouration when you add the quartered fruit. Peel and core quinces. Cut the quinces into quarters and place in the water. Set aside.

Place the peel and the cores into a large pan, cover with water and simmer, uncovered for an hour. Strain, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.

Weigh the quince quarters and add to a large heavy bottomed pot. Add the strained liquid and bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered,  for about an hour, stirring occasionally. When the fruit is soft, place fruit and liquid in a food processor. Puree until smooth.

Return the pureed fruit to the pot and add sugar in a ratio of 3 of fruit to 2 of sugar. Eg, for 600g fruit, add 400g sugar. Simmer slowly for 3 - 5 hours until the paste changes to a dark rose colour and the bottom of the pot is visible when the paste is stirred. It must be very thick.

Pour into an greased tray. The tray size varies depending on the size of the fruit. I use an 18cm x 27cm tray. Leave it to cool overnight. It should be solid but still sticky. (If it isn't, either use it as jam or recook it until it will set.) Turn the slab out onto chux and wrap it up. Place it on a wire rack and keep it in a cool, dark place for a month. When the surface has dried out, the paste is ready to eat.

FLAVOUR IT UP.
 I like to add the juice and peel of a lemon to the pot of cores and peel. I also love to add chopped ginger to the cooked quince mix.

GLUHWEIN

I can feel winter creeping in. I have my bookclub in June so I'm making the most of the cold with a warm fire and serving Gluhwein as a winter warmer to start the night - and maybe even finish it. I first tried it in Vienna at one of the Christmas markets where every evening people stopped after work and huddled round patio umbrellas to shelter from the snow, sipping mugs of Gluhwein. I have a wine rack full of lovely Willow Bridge reds and as I'm not really a red wine drinker, I can't wait to make this concoction and see what my bookclub members think. I may try it out on my sisters first - if I can get them together at one time.
GLUHWEIN

To 2 bottles of good red wine you need to add:

• 1 cup Caster sugar
• 4 Cinnamon sticks
• Whole cloves - enough to stud the slices of orange
• 1 Oranges sliced
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 cups of orange juice or a good splash of Grand Marnier, port, brandy or sherry. Some like to add the juice as well as the 'kicker/s'.

 Method:

1. Pour the red wine into a  pot and put it on the stove on a very low heat but do not let the wine boil. Very important
2.  Cut the oranges into slices and then put about 4 cloves into each slice.
3. Break the cinnamon sticks in half.
4. Add in the orange juice or liquer, port, sherry etc, allspice, cinnamon sticks and oranges.
5. Add in 1 cups of sugar and stir.
6. Stir on and off for about 30 mins to give the spices time to infuse with the wine.
7. Let it infuse over a very low heat for about 30 mins more but make sure it doesn't boil.
8.  Serve in ceramic wine pots or mugs.

Spices can be varied according to taste. I love the flavour of star anise but it can be quite overwhelming so use this spice with care. (If the flavour is too strong, add one cup water.)

Tuna Patties

I always have a packet of potato mash and a tin of tuna in my pantry. I adore tuna patties and so do my family. (They prefer them with real mashed potato but if I don't tell them, they often don't know the difference if I season these and add parsley.)  Kids just don't care. The secret to perfect patties is to refrigerate the mix until it sets otherwise the starch in the potatoes  tends to explode when heated.

Tuna Patties

1 packet of instant potato mash
1 large tin of tuna in springwater
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
Plain flour for coating
Oil
Alfoil

Make up the instant mash according to direction but use a little less liquid. (Depends on the brand. I usually use a scant 1/4 cup less. You can always add more liquid if the mix is too dry.)
Drain the tuna really well. Mix the two together along with the parsley and lemon pepper.
Spread out a generous sheet of alfoil and shape the mix into a long log. Wrap it up and refrigerate it for at least an hour, until it is cold. Then, simply cut the log into slices, roll them in plain flour, and shallow fry until golden.

So simple, so yum hot or cold.

Pavlova

While scrolling through my favourite food magazine I once again sighed at the ingredients used in some of the recipes. Now I don't have access to fresh horseradish, moreton bay bugs, bush tomatoes and the like,  so the recipe for a Rolled Wattleseed Pavlova is not one I'll keep. But pavlova is on the agenda today. And it's all because of Meg.

My sisters are the dessert queens in our family. Meg's blog http://bushgourmand.blogspot.com/ has some great ideas. One of her ideas was a freezer challenge where we used up all the food from there before buying more. Well I'm doing it again and found several jars of frozen eggwhites. To my surprise they whipped up superbly and now I just have to find someone to eat the dish I made  because I don't really like pavlova. But I'll bet the kids next door do. Now I just need to decorate it. I'm going to leave it for a day or two to see how well it keeps.

Pavlova
4 egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of cornflour
1 teaspoon of white vinegar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 240 degrees. Line a non-stick pizza tray with wet brown paper. (Or use a lightly greased oven tray.)
Place the eggwhites and salt into a mixing bwl and beat until whites are stiff. Add the sugar gradually, beating constantly until all the sugar has been added and has dissolved. Use a metal spoon to fold in the vinegar and sifted cornflour.
Spoon the mixture onto the tray and shape into a circle, flattening the top.
Turn down the oven to 120 degrees and bake for one hour or until it is pale cream and crisp.
Remove from the oven. Carefully invert and peel paper away while it is still warm. Turn up the right way and leave to cool.

Decorate with:
1 cup of whipped cream
Passionfruit pulp, strawberries, kiwi fruit or whatever is tangy to offset the sweetness.

Curried Tuna Slice

When unexpected visitors arrive and need to be fed, head to the pantry for a tin of tuna and some rice. Add a few ingredients from the fridge and make a slice that is one of my family's favourites. 'Tis yum hot or cold and freezes well.

CURRIED TUNA SLICE
Base:
1cup long grain rice
30g butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp lemon pepper

Filling:
450g tin tuna in springwater
45g butter
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons lemon juice
 grated cheese
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 egg
60g grated cheese

Method:
Cook rice in boiling salted water. Drain well. Stir through butter, egg, salt and pepper. Line a slice tin with baking paper or foil. Press rice mix into the tin.

Melt butter, add flour and curry powder. Stir until smooth; cook one minute. Remove from heat and add mayonnaise. Stir until smooth and then add milk gradually, stirring again. Return to heat and stir until sauce boils and thickens.  Remove from heat . Add lemon juice and parsley. Add beaten egg and tuna.
Spoon mix evenly over the rice and sprinkle with grated cheese.
Bake in moderate oven for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Serve with salad.

Ps. Nowdays I make the sauce in the microwave and cook the rice in a rice cooker.

Chicken pies

I rarely buy cooked chickens at the supermarket but sometimes they are a bargain. And sometimes they are just a great base for a quick meal. Here's a twist on the standard BBQ chicken and salad for the busy cook. These take less then half an hour to make. If you don't have all the ingredients, it doesn't matter. No fresh basil?  Use spinach leaves with a bit of dried basil if you have them. If not, just dried basil but soak it in the lemon juice for a while.  Substitute cream cheese for sour cream. Mustard and lemon are optional. Great if you have them but not crucial if you don't. It still tastes yum.

Chicken pies  -  Serves 4

1 small  BBQ chicken deboned and chopped into cubes
1 carton sour cream
4 tablespoons basil from a tube or fresh if you have it
1 lemon grated and half of the juice.
1 tablespoon french or wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
4 sheet puff pastry
I beaten egg or 2 tablespoon milk for glazing

Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Combine all filling ingredients
Cut pastry sheets in rectangular halves
Spoon fillling onto centre of the lower square of the pastry
Fold the pastry over and gently pinch the edges together to enclose the filling.
Flute the edges with a fork.
Glaze the tops with beaten egg or milk.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Serve with salad or vegetables.