Creamy White Wine Garlic Prawns in the Tropics

 

Eating fresh prawns and seafood are synonymous with Christmas and living in Tropical North Queensland. The further North you travel the more seafood becomes the preferred option for a delicious Christmas meal. When it comes to eating seafood, often freshly cooked, chilled, and unadorned is what I prefer, however a plate of home cooked garlic prawns is always a delicious way to enjoy them. 

Portuguese Custard Tarts cooked in my Pie Maker amid Cyclone Jasper

Why  travel to Lisbon or anywhere else in Portugal to enjoy their famous Portuguese Custard tarts, when you can make them in your own kitchen at a fraction of the cost, and honestly they are just as delicious. We holidayed in Lisbon about 15 years ago, and we really did enjoy their custard tarts, note the plural, every morning with our espresso coffee along with the locals, but now I am just happy to cook and eat them in my own kitchen. It's cyclone season here in Far North Queensland, and Cyclone Jasper has been and gone.

In My Kitchen, December 2023

 

I'm in the mood for Christmas now, which is great, because it's nearly here and the stunning colours of Christmas are naturally occurring in our garden. Bring it on. It's been a big morning today. The fruits for my Christmas Cake and my Christmas Plum Pudding are now macerating, and the Rum Ball mixture is chilling in the refrigerator. I'll roll these traditional little festive balls in coconut tonight. I needed to start all of these preparations early at 6.30 am this morning, before the heat of the day set in, and I am so relieved that I have made a start. Hopefully the cake will be baked and the puddings made by the end of this week. I am usually earlier than this making the Christmas cake, but I've been fairly casual about it all this year, and they will still taste great and make it feel like Christmas, even if lunch is fairly simple. 

Sourdough Focaccia with Rosemary, Avocado, Goat's Cheese and Balsamic Dressing

 

Whenever I bake Sourdough Rosemary Focaccia and then eat it, enjoying its crunchy crust, and savouring its unique sourdough and rosemary flavours all over again, I wonder why I don't make it more often. It really is the easiest bread to bake, faster to rise than most loaves, and with so much potential to be served in so many interesting ways. The target rise required for Focaccia bread isn't as great as for normal bread, so it's going to be faster to make which is perfect during our Summer. I've also used a very small amount of baker's yeast in this recipe to ensure the dough requires minimal kneading and will conveniently rise and bake on the same day, unlike most sourdough loaves which require overnight fermentation.  Fresh in season avocado, delicious soft goat's cheese, and a Balsamic Vinegar Gourmet Glaze was the perfect lunchtime topping for my latest loaf. 

Prawn Taglierini

The ratio of prawns to pasta in a dish like this one can be a personal choice for the cook. I originally cooked this dish using a kilo of prawns and about 300 g of pasta because I love prawns and I think one of the saddest things when eating is when a prawn pasta only has a scant number of prawns in the dish. The fresh green prawns I bought were only $14.00 a kilo (very cheap but looked really fresh) so I bought a kilo and needed to cook them that day. They had already been frozen once, but they still had plenty of flavour and a perfect texture so freezing them at sea on the prawn trawler straight after being caught hadn't caused any disadvantage to the quality of the prawn at all. Buying good quality prawns in season ensures a very tasty dish.  I don't like camouflaging the flavour of seafood with highly seasoned and very rich sauces, the seafood definitely needs to be the hero of the dish. Whilst the tomato sauce I have used is very tasty, it doesn't take away from the perfection of the prawns and the parmesan cheese and basil. This recipe is also about minimal washing up, as the whole dish is cooked in one frying pan. This is a frying pan pasta.

Classic Slow Cooker Tomato Pasta Sauce

This is a classic homemade tomato pasta sauce recipe for the home cook which I find is one of the best sauces to have on standby in my kitchen for a quick and simple meal. Everyone needs quick dinners in their recipe repertoire, and with this sauce most of the work is already done. Just a few more ingredients added, and your meal can be on the table in no time at all.  It's convenient to cook it in my slow cooker for 8 hours but can be varied to many cooking methods depending on what appliances you have and like to use. I've already used it as the basic tomato sauce for a Prawn Pasta dish which was really delicious. Recipe is coming soon.

Spiced Pumpkin, Orange and Prune Cake

 
This cake is full of golden pumpkin, aromatic spices, orange juice and half a cup of our home produced honey. Whilst we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving here in Queensland, we are planning for Christmas already, and we know that it will be Thanksgiving in the Northern Hemisphere very soon. This cake will be nice and comforting to bake and have on hand as part of the Thanksgiving celebrations. The aromatic spices combined with orange juice and honey are wonderful flavour enhancers in this cake, and nobody will even guess that the cake contains pumpkin, well perhaps at Thanksgiving the adults will, but the children won't. Pumpkin is such a versatile vegetable.

In My Kitchen, November 2023

What a varied month it's been, and as always, the cooking I do in my lovely kitchen reflects what is in season, my use of any produce gifted to me, what I have the time to cook and those recipes which I love to cook. So, I'm excited to be sharing a few new recipes with you this time, although regular readers of my blog may have already seen them. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited about bringing you some old favourites as well. I suspect that like me, your cooking repertoire contains those recipes that are on high rotation in your kitchen and contains some old and tried but true recipes which feel like a big hug from faithful friends, which always feels so reassuring. With Christmas well and truly on the horizon now, some nostalgia is creeping into my cooking as well.

Crispy Teryaki Chicken Wings

 

Crispy Teriyaki chicken wings at a party or a casual get together with friends are always delicious served as finger food.  Or cook them for your family and serve with some rice or noodles and stir fried vegetables, and they will love you for serving up a real treat. It's now officially November and here in sunny Queensland the weather is warming up. It's the season for BBQ's and outdoor eating, not to mention that Christmas and all the festivities associated with that are only 4 weeks away.  

Gochujang Chicken and Seasonal Vegetable Traybake

I've been wanting to use my red tub of Gochujang Korean paste ever since we went shopping for it in Sydney at an Asian Supermarket a few weeks ago. I was so excited when I bought it. This is my first experience cooking with this fermented soybean and chili paste, and we love its unique umami flavours. This dish is basically roasted chicken pieces and simple seasonal roasted vegetables, livened up with this quite uniquely flavoured red paste. However, many other vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots or even beetroots could also be used. I'm looking forward to trying them all out in another Gochujang traybake, which is such a convenient way to cook. I am a real oven traybake fan. Add the pickle of radish and spring onions, and this dish soars to the next level. 

Birthday Celebration Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This is the perfect chocolate cake for a birthday celebration. It really tastes like chocolate cake, not all do, and this one has the softest crumb and is incredibly moist. I've made many chocolate cakes in my lifetime, but none of them have stood out above this one. 

In My Kitchen, October 2023

 Dear Readers, It's time for my monthly In My Kitchen review, which surprisingly is for October already, can you believe it, I can't. However, this is mostly about happenings In My Kitchen for September. It includes a recent fabulous trip to beautiful Sydney, in NSW, some food foraging, and links to some of my favourite recipes that I have made recently. It's Black Friday today, the 13th, and this post needs to be submitted by close of business. I'm not superstitious, but I think I should try and submit this one as soon as I can, just in case.  So here it is, and I hope you enjoy reading about my latest culinary exploits and adventures, and other highlights as well.

Chicken Fricassée with Shallots, Mushrooms and Bacon

This rustic French dish, a classic Chicken Fricassée, is all about fresh chicken thighs seared in butter and braised in white wine with sweet French shallots, mushrooms, and tasty bacon bits. This recipe sounds fancy but it's not. Although it's a French classic, it's very achievable for the home cook, because it's just a comforting single pot recipe, using humble ingredients from your kitchen (although I did make a special trip to the supermarket to buy French shallots). There are many versions of this dish, depending on what the cook has on hand at the time, but I was thrilled with how this particular combination tasted. There is no fancy French sauce, just white wine flavoured with beautiful ingredients. 

Rhubarb, Meringue and Almond Celebration cake

Just Sweet Talking about Rhubarb

My Rhubarb, Meringue and Almond cake just out of the oven

This is a really delicious cake with layers of rhubarb, ground almonds and meringue, and I urge you to bake it. Rhubarb, a very inconsequential yet colourful stalk before it is cooked, almost a red celery look alike, comes into its own in desserts, and when this cake is served by the slice, the rhubarb provides colour and it's wonderfully unique flavour. It comes in three layers comprising a light and delicious butter cake base, a tangy cooked rhubarb layer, topped with a textured, sweet, and nutty layer of meringue. Rhubarb is in season at the moment, so let's cook up a storm using rhubarb. This cake dusted with icing sugar, decorated with a few pretty flowers, and served with fresh cream or ice  cream would be worthy of any celebration. That photo is in the planning, I promise.

Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagne Recipe

 

This is a Mediterranean style vegetable lasagne, to my way of thinking anyway. Most of the ingredients are of Mediterranean origin, and can probably be found in your refrigerator and pantry right now. Except perhaps for the ricotta which needs to be purchased fresh. The Mediterranean flavours shine through. There are times when a vegetarian meal just ticks all the right boxes for me, especially when I need to really load up on vegetables,  however this lasagne can also be served with any meats of your choice if you wish. This meal is perfect for a no fuss Meat Free Monday, which I still try to abide by, and at the same time enjoy something really filling and comforting.

Budget Friendly and Loaded Sweet Potato Wedges

 

This nourishing dish is a simple, inexpensive mid-week meal with Middle Eastern flavours, or it can have more of a Mexican influence depending on what you substitute or add. It's a recipe that is extremely versatile and only limited by your imagination. I placed the mince filling on a bed of lettuce both for extra nutrition and appearance, however corn chips as a base, yes, I am thinking Mexican nachos now, would really bring this dish to another level if you are cooking for children or extra adults. Who doesn't love  a corn chip? If you are adding corn chips, add some drained sweet corn to the mince or add it separately, and layer it up. Hidden vegetables are very achievable here and always important for our health, I love them. Please see my notes below.

Very Smart Strawberry Streusel Cake

 

A highlight of my sweets baking recently is this very smart Nigella Lawson Strawberry Streusel cake, marbled with beautiful strawberry puree,  a combination of fresh strawberries and strawberry jam.  Why is this recipe very smart? Because besides the very easy strawberry layer, one dough does double the work, it becomes the cake batter and the streusel. This isn't the kind of cake that I would tackle at the end of a long day at the office. This cake requires a calm mind with my favourite music playing in the background, a clear head,  and plenty of time at my disposal. Cooler weather also helps to keep the butter chilled. Whilst strawberries are in season, this cake will be on rotation in my kitchen and will be quite simple to make next time. I can't wait. This recipe was also featured in the New York Times.

In My Kitchen - September, 2023

 Last month, much of the activity In My Kitchen was a celebration of the fresh and plentiful bounty of fruits and vegetables available at the markets and in the supermarkets, and at quite reasonable prices. This will change as the weather warms up, as Summer sets in with a vengeance on our beautiful sunburnt country, and the inevitability of the dreaded bushfires of the season have an impact on certain parts of the country. Let's hope the bushfires are averted by careful management practices. The following is in a nutshell what I created in my kitchen. This post is part of the In My Kitchen Link Party series hosted by Sherry at Sherry's Pickings. 

Prawn Curry - simply the best!

Curried prawns or curried shrimp, depending on where you live, is something of a comfort food classic in Tropical and Central Queensland, but it's a real treat that the whole family will love wherever you live. It can be the go-to for an easy mid-week meal to throw together when raw prawns are well priced like they are here right now. At $15 a kilo, it's a reasonably priced meal. Once the prawns are peeled and the preparation done, this meal can be on the table in less than 30 minutes. Or buy them already shelled, simple. It's Father's Day tomorrow, and unless the Dad or the Man in your house is allergic to prawns, he will feel very spoiled if this meal is cooked for him. A Prawn Curry really is a cinch to make for the whole family.

Cherry Jam Steamed Pudding

A steamed jammy pudding is the loveliest surprise dessert that you can cook for the special people in your lives. Every mouthful brings back nostalgic childhood memories for me, as my Mum often cooked steamed puddings with various toppings: jam, golden syrup and treacle, and probably mainly in Winter, however, change of seasons in either hemisphere is still the perfect time. Cherry Jam is the perfect topping, sweet and yet very slightly tart, but any thick homemade jam would also work.

Beef and Red Wine Stew, in the slow cooker - oh my!

Today I present to you one of the most delicious Beef Stews I've ever made, and I've made a lot of them. I've been working on a stew that has all the essential elements of the beef falling off the fork, perfectly balanced flavours, and with a rich, red wine and mushroom gravy. However, I wanted a stew that would also be perfect as a filling for Beef Pies, which we love.  The meat filling in a Beef Pie needs to have a tanginess to its flavour, and this is where the Worcestershire Sauce's umami properties make a big difference to this beef dish.

Chicken with Miso, Ginger, and Lime

Yotam Ottolenghi is well reputed for his Middle Eastern style meals, but this Japanese inspired meal with white miso, ginger and lime is delicious, sticky, tangy, savoury and full of flavour. It's another recipe which showcases Yotam's talent by combining delicious Japanese flavours to produce a showstopper of a dish which in my opinion is restaurant worthy. Children will also love this dish, what child or teenager doesn't love a tasty and tender chicken leg, and the flavours aren't too overpowering. The tantalising aroma wafting through your home when this dish is cooking will have everybody excited about what you have cooked, so be ready for the rush.

Very tasty Cauliflower Cheese Steaks

 

Baked cauliflower, dressed in shredded Red Leicester Cheese, more eye-catchingly orange than red, with tasty spices added, and for the finishing touch, a crunchy parmesan crumb strewn throughout. This dish can confidently go solo taking centre stage, for a delicious vegetarian meal, perfect for Meat Free Monday. When baked, cauliflower becomes such a sweet vegetable, and keeps its shape and firmness beautifully. We really enjoyed it just on its own, but feel free to eat it with a salad, or any other side dish of your choice. 

Chinese Chocolate Chews

 

Do you ever need to bake something quickly on the weekend when you hear that friends are coming over later, and you have a lot going on? Or you just feel like something chocolatey and easy to bake, that sounds like me.  This is an iced chocolate biscuit slice to solve that problem. So quick, easy and delicious as well, and who doesn't love a chocolate slice with lots of chocolate icing. If you have nuts on hand, crush a few and sprinkle them across the top while still warm, or sprinkle coconut over the top. If you are cutting down on sugar, I think that a sugar substitute would also work well in this recipe. This recipe is from one of my Mum's original recipe books which I was reading through just the other day, and I spotted this one. I don't think a recipe like this one ever dates.

Sultana and Apple Scones with Lemon Curd #ISW2023

 

International Scone Week 2023 is a celebration of scone making, and a shout out to all those cooks who have enjoyed baking a great scone over the years. The perfect scone is a joyeus thing.  Let's have a sconversation about scone making, over a cup of tea and a delicious scone with lemon curd, or jam and thickened cream if that's what you prefer. The perfect scone should have puffy height, a soft, tender crumb, and shouldn't flake like a biscuit. This Sultana and Apple scone ticked all of those boxes.

In My Kitchen, August 2023

 In our part of the world, the Tropical Queensland Winter is such a great time to cook, eat and be merry,  to garden, read great books, listen to music, play the piano, and attend concerts etc. There are lots of favourite pursuits competing for my time, however cooking in my kitchen is my happy place when the weather is nice and cool. Our garden thinks it's Spring already, as the temperatures by Winter standards have been quite warm. I'm still slightly under the influence of my recent French experience, so I'm still sharing with you a few treasures and memories from the two months I was over there with my son and his family.

Tropical Ginger, Coconut and Lemon Slice

Allow me to present a nostalgic and vintage style slice for you on a Sunday. At this time of year in our Southern Hemisphere Winter, which I am loving, ginger is my favourite spice, and I use it whenever I can in savoury and sweet cooking. Ginger has an irresistable combination  of hot, clean and cool flavours. Although to be honest, Middle Eastern Baharat comes a close second to Ginger for me, and I use it in my iced Ginger Cake or my Ginger Syrup Cake (same recipe). I try to always substitute Baharat for the mixed spice. 

Dining in and around Montpellier in southern France - some of my favourite places

France is a culinary hotbed for delicious food and I was fortunate to sample some of it in and around Montpellier with my son, Matthew, somewhat of a local now, and to dine in some restaurants that tourists aren't familiar with.  

La Tomate is a very typical French restaurant, serving real French food. Matthew had been invited there previously by some French friends and was very keen to take me there as well. We finally managed to eat there on the last evening of my stay which was a lovely French experience to finish with. Fish soup is a specialty on the menu here, but we didn't really feel like soup in Summer. Steak tartare, the very raw meat patty is available too of course, and it takes courage to order that but is delicious if made in the traditional way. I'm also pretty sure that frog legs and snails were on the menu as you would expect, however if you have your heart set on eating snails or frog legs, it would be a good idea to check the menu to ensure they are being offered. I've eaten them before when we visited Paris, so didn't feel the need to try them this time. We were really happy with the delicious food we ordered, and the almost homely but elegant way in which it was presented.

I ordered Confit de Canard, delicious duck on a bed of vegetable pasta, with grilled eggplant and greens in the pot.

Poached Sole above and below, in a Beurre Blanc sauce (I think) with vegetables, and radishes for a  garnish around the plate. It was also served with eggplant and some rice and vegetables in the pot. Matthew said the fish was delicious and quite a light meal, which was a good thing as we had already been out to lunch that day! Well it was my last day in France. This meal was delicious in its simplicity. 

There weren't any children's meals on the menu, as could be expected, so we ordered Hugo a French  burger. It was huge, and he ate what he could, so naturally Matthew finished the rest of it. It also came with delicious potato wedges and some eggplant. It could have served two people.

A few photos before dessert.

Dessert definitely had the wow factor for me. This classic Crème Brulée is the best I have ever eaten.

Matthew ordered an ice cream parfait which he enjoyed.

My amazing grandson was smitten with his profiteroles and ice cream. He very kindly offered us a taste, and they were really special.

Matthew at the entrance to La Tomate looking quite pensive at the end of a wonderful night.

When we were leaving, the surrounding streets were full of restaurants and lots of diners.

There was this street on the way back to our car without any restaurants or vehicles in it.

BRAISE

Braise is located in suburban Montpellier at:

Quartier des Beaux Arts

42 Avenue Saint-Lazare, 34000 Montpellier

t. 04 99 62 64 25

Braise isn't in the tourist district of Montpellier, it's near a cemetery, a florist and a school, and most of its clientele are business and corporate people, and so the standard is very high. However, with access to a hire car, the restaurant is very accessible. Matthew and I only intended a visit to the boulangerie next door, but when we arrived, he suggested we should have lunch at Braise instead. The Boulanger Pâtissier Glacier next door is called Palais Saint Lazarre. A few photos of that a bit later though. It was my last day in Montpellier, and we were already booked to dine out that evening at La Tomate, but despite that he said to me that as it was my last day, we should make the most of it, so we did. Magnifique.

I had the best experience at Braise, it wasn't just about eating a meal, enjoying it with good company and leaving. We arrived before the real lunchtime rush, we were seated inside close to the kitchen, and could see the two young chefs cooking. I couldn't help myself and went to the kitchen counter and chatted to the head chef after the entrée and the main meal because they were exquisite meals, and I wanted to personally thank them, and also hopefully gain a few tips about the preparation. They were very generous with their time and their information. 

The entrance to Braise. There is seating inside and outside.

A substantial wine cellar to choose from. We just ordered by the glass as it was lunchtime!

My entrée was raw fish, not sure which variety, possibly sole, served in a delicious French Béchamel sauce, and garnished with small purees of glossy green deliciousness. I asked the chef how they made the green garnish, and he very kindly told me that he uses grape leaves and olive oil, blended to the right consistency and strained. I'm sure there is more to it than that though. It was delicious. To be honest I didn't know I was ordering raw fish, but it was amazing. My order was changed to this one when the chef realised my original order was loaded with nuts which I can't eat. I missed that this was raw fish when the dish was being explained to me by the waiter, but I'm so pleased I had it.

We both ordered the Filet de Boeuf (Beef) for the main, which was tender and delicious, but an additional highlight for me were the whole braised leeks and carrots, cooked to perfection. Just near where we parked across the road from Braise, we saw a very successful market garden in a large paddock. The chef told me all of their seasonal vegetables came from there. From paddock to plate is alive and well at Braise.

The layered Apricot dessert was just outstanding. I saw the apricots served with the tart marinating in a jar on the counter in the kitchen. The chef used thyme and some kind of alcohol in the marinade, and the apricot was exquisite. I really enjoy an apricot dessert.  

There are lots of other delicatessen items for sale as well in the restaurant.

Palais Saint Lazare Boulangerie and Pâtisserie, a few photos. 

Located at 42 avenue Saint Lazarre 34000 Montpellier, phone 04 67 72  00 12, next door to Braise. They also have a good website.

We still purchased a baguette here after lunch to take home.

Yum.

Sète

Enjoying the taste of an authentic Mediterranean seafood lunch with Matthew and Hugo in Sète.

If you would like to read more about Sète, a charming fishing village on the Mediterranean, within driving distance of Montpellier, and all that if offers, you can find what I wrote about it in a previous post here.

St Martin-de-Londres

We had a wonderful day when we drove with the children to St Martin-de-Londres, which is very close to the famous wine and hiking region of Pic Saint Loup. We ate lunch at a small restaurant in the village called Sous le Platane.

A glass of this wine was delicious with our lunch.

A delicious Salad Niçoise, it was very fresh and salty.

Fish and chips for the children, it was really good as well.

Steak, fries and salad, it was very well cooked.

Dessert was such a pleasant surprise. Matthew knew what it was, so we ordered Café Gourmand.

Café Gourmand Dessert, a sample of 4 desserts with coffee.

Café Gourmand

Café Gourmand as a dessert is the French Mini-dessert trend. It is a ménage à trois (threesome) or quatre (four), of mini-desserts and is a wonderful way to sample a selection of the chefs best offerings with a coffee as well. It is a wonderfully light way of approaching a dessert to share. Mini chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce and cream, macarons, miniature tarts, or a mini millefeuille or French pastry are all popular to serve on the plate of a Café Gourmand.  According to an article in Bon Appétit, on December12, 2012, this trend was sweeping America. I wonder if it did. Such a lovely way to eat dessert at the end of a three course meal or plat du jour.

Saint-de-Martin-de-Londres is steeped in history from the 12th century, and deserves a post of it's own.

The village square

Pic Saint Loup in the distance.

A beautiful little flower shop just over the road.

 

Le Coté Jardin

GARDEN SIDE

41 Rue de l'Aiguelongue

34000 Montpellier

Tel:  04 67 41 20 46

This photo courtesy of the restaurants website

And to finish, we ate lunch one day with Hugo, at a small restaurant just down the hill from where Matthew lives in Aiguelongue, that I always walked past to catch the blue tram. I just had to show you this stunning breaded fish dish, surrounded by a delicious sauce and more of those little green garnish drops. These must be the trademark of the French chef at the moment. Because we ordered an entrée, we didn't order dessert even though it was available for the Plat du Jour, or the daily special. I don't have a photo of the entrée unfortunately, but it reminded me of a Middle Eastern pastry, and was delicious and quite filling. The trees in the middle of the restaurant were a real talking point. 

Once again a burger and French fries was available for the children. An American style burger with a French béchamel sauce, interesting..

Bon appétit and thankyou for visiting.

Pauline