what's ugly and bumpy on the outside and velvety smooth underneath?

Since I have stopped eating meat, avocado has become a staple in my diet. Luckily they are packed full of nutritional gifts so now I live on them. Every morning starts with avocado on sour dough toast!! I think I am addicted. Hass avos (the black bumpy ones) are the best in my opinion as they are creamy and delicious. The other type is so watery it kind of ruins the whole idea for me (even though they are much prettier outside). Avocadoes are great for so many things but especially this puree. Avocado 'mousse' is so simple but it is luxurious and the texture especially with seafood can not be beaten. Let me tell you, this may seem too simple to be special, but I can gurantee you I have used this puree in some of the finest restaurants I have worked in.

Ok here it is

Avocado Mousse
4 ripe Hass Avocadoes
juice of 1 lime
drizzle EV Olive Oil
pinch caster sugar
pinch white pepper
salt

In a blender puree the avocado and add the lime juice. Drizzle in some olive oil.
Continue to puree until you have a lump free 'mousse'
If possible, it is best to pass the mousse through a fine seive, then adjust the seasoning.
Voila!!

This 'mousse' (named so because it is so luxuriously creamy and light) is perfect with seafood , we love it with prawns. I served it for a dinner party with sous vide yabbies, crostini crisp and tomato confit. Please try it! Even just on toast or with homemade potato crisps yum..

Dinner!

BEFORE

AFTER

With only one day to go the summer that never was, to begin with, is over. So on this cold and miserable day with a flu brewing I took myself off to the markets, with one thing only in mind: Minestrone. I have worked with some amazing chefs and learned some incredible skills from these culinary masters but let me tell you no one knows their way around a kitchen like an Italian Nonna. The Nonna in question is my brother's Mother-in-law and let me tell you she can cook. It is borderline impossible to get any baking recipes from her as everything is always just "ooh so you add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and cook it". Since I was not born with Italian pastries in my blood these recipes would never suffice and I would inevitably embarrass myself upon attempt. But one night after a mean feast of her homemade minestrone I held her captive with pen and paper and would not let her loose until she gave me the recipe. Of course it was torture to keep her away from the opportunity to feed us bowl after bowl of her creamy Tiramisu and so she yielded. I now have this fantastic recipe and I know the secret. ooh , you want to know the secret too. Well how about I just give you the recipe and you can find out for yourself.

Minestrone Soup

1 cup diced butternut pumpkin
1 cup diced brown onion
2 cups diced carrot
1 cup diced zucchinni
1 bunch silverbeet (sliced and washed)
2 very ripe tomatoes
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup washed soaked lentils
1 L chicken or Veg stock
1 L water
1 chilli finely sliced
3 cloves garlic finely sliced
1 bunch thyme
a few parsley leaves
Olive Oil
Parmesan
Crusty Sour dough

Sweat onion and carrot in a big pan with a teaspoon of olive oil on a low heat.
(Be sure to add some seasoning to these vegetables as it adds a depth of flavour to the soup).
Add spinach and sweat until it has reduced by half.
Add diced tomatoes, halved cherry tomatoes, lentils, pumpkin, thyme leaves and garlic.
Add liquid to pot and bring to the boil
Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.
If you desire you can add pasta or rice at this stage and cook for a further 12 minutes (or until the pasta/rice is cooked)
I did not use pasta sometimes I use cannelini beans instead but tonight I just used lentils.
Add the zucchini and cook until it is just soft, so it adds a freshness to the soup.
Ladle the chunky soup into a bowl add some chiffonade basil, olive oil and some parmesan shavings. Serve with a crusty bread roll.

Bon Appetito


Since my very own Nanna is also an amazing pastry cook, and currently not able to bake tarts the way she used to , I will cook one of her tarts for you next time. She would be proud x
Oh and the basil oil tutorial is on it's way I promise.

Little lovely spoons

I love these little Asian spoons. They are so perfect for canapes. Back when I first started cooking I was taught a canape had to be served on a round of bread or in a pastry mould. Even then I found this so limited and boring. Of course there is a place for toasts, don't get me wrong, but if you are trying to do something a little different (like my 'parisian pomme and bacon chip canape') these spoons are ace! Basically you can use them as a vehicle for whatever canape you like. They are just a lovely little spoonful of flavour.

These two canapes are so simple and vegetarian. The fact that they are a little bit unique means people always love them. Lets face it vegetarians probably get a little sick of the same old finger food every function they go to. It's nice to put something together that really tastes special.
Watermelon , Goats curd, Mint oil Spoons

1/4 Seedless watermelon
100 grams Goats curd
30 mls Basil Oil

Slice watermelon into 3/4 cm slices
Using a pastry cutter the size of a ten cent coin cut out perfect discs
Pipe a tiny dot of goats curd onto the disc
Chill
Drizzle with basil oil just before you serve them

Braised Swiss Brown Spoons

10 Swiss Brown mushrooms
200 ml water
200ml soy sauce (gluten free)
oil

Heat the water and soy in a saucpan
Seal mushrooms in a separate hot pan with oil (cap side down)
Cover pan fried mushrooms with soy liquid and briase in a medium oven for 15 minutes (covered with a piece of grease proof paper)
Allow mushrooms to cool in the liquor
Thinly slice the mushrooms heap a tablespoon onto the asian spoon and drizzle with basil oil.

Ok! I talk about basil oil a lot, and now mint oil too. This is homemade! Please don't try to buy flavoured oil or infuse the oil. I have just decided I will blog an oil tutorial because these oils are so sensational. When they are made properly they are like liquified emeralds- so glossy and with the deepest green hue. They really add the 'zsa zsa zsu' to everything they touch. But like anything a little special, it is a little tricky. Not complex at all - mimimal skill required- just specific techniques. I will need to go out and stock up on herbs before I can attempt to make some more oil. The bit I have will still last me, but I will make a nice fresh batch for you. Enough on oil for now.

Enjoy your lovely little spoons.

Did I marry him for love or gnocchi???

Even though my hubby and I are both chefs we never really compete. There is no real 'head chef' in our kitchen.... except when it comes to gnocchi. Delicious gnocchi I can make, sure, but my boys gnocchi is like a gift from the heavens. I beg him, "tell me". Tell me the secret. "How do you get the air into my morsel of gnocchi?" "How is it so light and fluffy?" "How can it be so delicious and full of flavour and then disappear in my mouth?" Of course, as far as I can tell we have the exact same approach. We use the exact same ingredients but his magic hands (or some secret ingredient) make all the difference. So I can help you no more then give you his gnocchi recipe, his helpful hints, his serving suggestions and then maybe you too will make gnocchi better then me. Good Luck! If you can master this recipe you will be very proud of yourself, and so will I.

Gnocchi
8 bintje (very important) potatoes
2 sebago (very important) potatoes
6 egg yolks
just enough flour to combine

Roast potatoes (whole) and pass through a tamis (or ricer)
While warm (also important) add yolks
Finally add enough flour to hold mixture together

Roll thumbnail size pieces and blanch in salted water until 1 minute after they have reached the surface.

Hints
Roasting the potatoes ensures they won't become waterlogged. If they do they require a lot of flour to make a dough. (too much flour = heavy gluey gnocchi, yucky)
Cook in batches rather then crowding the pot.
If you are going to pan-fry the gnocchi (as per serving suggestions) refresh blanched gnocchi in ice cold water and remove immediately.

Pan-Seared gnocchi w butter emulsion and spring greens
4 serves of perfect gnocchi
4 knobs of butter (100 grams about)
200 mls chicken stock (or veg)
12 asparagus spears blanched (cut into inch size pieces)
1 cup Fresh peas blanched (defrosted frozen will be fine)
Seasoning
Truffle oil if you have some

Heat a non stick pan and add some olive oil.
Being sure not to overcrowd the pan cook the gnocchi until it is golden brown on both sides
Deglaze the pan with chicken stock and reduce slightly
Add in the cold butter and create and emulsion
Add the blanched greens to this and heat through
Serve with shaved parmesan and a drizzle of truffle oil

yum yum yum

OK. Good Luck (he was reluctant to share this treasure, so I hope you give it a go)

I have no signature dish....

I blame Gordon Ramsay!
As a chef I am always asked this ridiculous question: "what is your signature dish?" So absurd! I am always completely stumped ,not because I can not find an answer but because I do not quite understand the question...What is a signature dish? The one dish you would always prepare for people to show off? The one that had the biggest wow factor? The one you can prepare the best? The combination you specifically invented? The dish that summarises your style? Your technique? I think the only chefs who would have an answer to this question are those who have prepared an answer. I think the home cook may be better suited to to having a signature dish because they can perfect one meal and prepare it as their failsafe for any dinner party. Or be famous for that one dessert they always bring along to a bbq or BYO plate occasion. But for a chef surely every dish I prepare should be a knock out. Sure there are some dishes I feel more atuned with then others and certain types of food I prefer to cook, but signature dish.... I have failed! I do not have one. However if the man I believe to have instigated this flawed question (Gordon Ramsay you are so much better then your signature dish! Why lock your entire career into one meal )were to dine at my table I would prepare him a meal off a list of my 5 favourite things to cook.

1) Moroccan Lamb Tagine with cous cous salad and accompanimnets
2) An assiestte of spring vegetables
3) Sweet corn and basil soup
4) Croque Madame
or
5) ocean trout, vichysoisse and egg.

The thought of any one of these meals brings a smile to my face, and yet they are all so completely different I am still no closer to identifying a signature dish. Perhaps my signature dish would be a breakfast.... It is with out fail my favourite meal to consume and definately the one which can be most enjoyed...How could it not be a dessert.... A perfectly smooth and luxurious parfait, or a crumbley warm apple pie with vanilla bean icecream.... Oh dear how will I ever get any closer to my signature dish with saliva dripping all over my keyboard. I will think some more on this silly topic but in the meantime I will prepare you one of my favourite meals to eat.. perfectly cooked ocean trout , silky vichysoisse soup finished with a soft poached egg. It may not be my signature but it's what I am having for dinner tonight.


Hot Vichysoisse

4 lge potatoes (cut into small cubes)
4 leeks white only finley sliced(keep green)
1 onion
1 clove garlic (cut in half only)
1 L milk
1 L chicken stock
salt and pepper
100g butter
1 tbspoon oil

In a large saucepan gently heat the butter. Adding the oil will stop the butter from burning.
To this add the onion and the leeks and sweat until the leeks have reduced to half their size. It is important to add some salt at this stage as it really adds a depth to the leek flavour.
Add the potatoes to this mixture and continue to cook on a low heat for 5 minutes.
Heat the milk and stock and then add to the leek and potato mixture adding the garlic clove.
It is important at this stage to add another teaspoon of salt and some ground black pepper.
Cook on a moderate heat until the potatoes are completely cooked through. (roughly half an hour)
check seasoning again and adjust with a pinch of sugar as well as pepper and salt
(the sugar is very important so do not skip it)
Very finely slice the green of the leeks and add to the soup. Puree the entire mixture.
For a bright green vichysoisse you can belnd the soup with some spinach leaves.

This soup is so simple but is a classic recipe. Traditionally the soup is served cold and is a gorgeous light lunch. You could serve it as an entree but I think it is irresistable served hot with crispy ocean trout and a perfectly soft poached egg.

plummy plummy yum yum

If you had have seen these plums!!

I was at the markets today and I smelt the most beautiful sweet plums in the world. I couldn't resist buying them. As I bit into one I thought surely they deserve to be the star of something... surely these plums deserve to be shared. So what else was there for this plum then to sit atop the most delicious and simple tart one can make.

Simply bake an individual tart shell using you best tried and tested sweet paste recipe.
Fill with a light and creamy vanilla bean creme patiseirre
Top with slithers of your beautiful plums!!!

Everybody loved them of course. Lets face it, you don't need to be much of a cook when the farmers and mother nature do all the hard work for you!

Nicoise...I will never forget you.

There are some things in life you learn and never forget. How to spell a word. Your 4 times tables. How to tie your laces. How to make a bechamel sauce. What goes in a martini. What is a salad nicoise.

To me nicoise was the first salad I ever 'learned'. Sure I knew what a garden salad was, a greek salad even a caseser salad. But I don't remember ever learning what they were. Nicoise was the first salad I stumbled across that I had never ever heard of.. It seemed so foreign, so intriguing, so alluring.... it was a salad with out lettuce. I was all of 18 and just beginning what would become my journey into dining and all things culinary. My 'foodie' friend and I ( another waitress) would save up all our tips to shout ourselves out to flash restaurants once a month. We were almost always out of our league but these dining experiences were the most educational lessons of my career. It was on one of these occasions that I met a salad nicoise. Green beans, tomatoe, soft boiled egg, olive cheeks, fresh seared tuna. Oh what a delight. The flavours were something special so simple so crisp and yet I had fallen in love with something else....Nicoise.... I had fallen inlove with the word. Knowing it, I all at once felt so accomplished. Before I sat down for that meal I knew nothing of this salad. I would never have even known the word was a salad should I have heard it said aloud. And yet suddenly here I was a part of this educated club. This culinary world where a little jumble of letters were a secret code for something known, something else. I had learned the code.. I knew what it was, this salad ' nicoise'. And I would never forget.

Of course as I ate more dinners, drank more wine and started my chefs apprentciship I was exposed to many new and wonderful things but none more significant then that first discovery. When I make a nicoise salad these days I cheat by substituting kipfler potatoes for tuna. I also love dressing it up with a little basil oil.

Vego (ovo-lacto) Nicoise salad

Crisp Green beans (topped only) (blanched)
Sweet cherry tomatoes
Olive cheeks (must be good quality olives)
Soft boiled egg (must be farm fresh free range organic)
kipfler potatoes (cooked and peeled)
basil oil
Preserved lemon mayonaise (homemade)

Dress the ingredients with EVO sea salt and crakced pepper.
Scatter on a plate and drizzle with basil oil and s small amount of mayo.

Whether I make a nicoise the traditional way or with quails eggs or tuna or salmon I always remember that very first salad I ever had. I hope some one else out there can understand why