Monthly Archives: December 2015

Prawn-Cucumber-Apple-Salad

Prawn Cucumber Apple Salad

After an indulgent few days of festive eating, its nice to get back to a few light basics.

It’s Summer here in Melbourne and the weather has definitely been true to the season. With warm to hot days easing in and out of this holiday period, Iight salad choices are a must go-to option to ride out the heat.

This Prawn Cucumber Apple Salad combines some fresh ingredients with a zingy dressing that feels ultimately palate cleansing and refreshingly cooling. It is simple to prepare and utilises fresh everyday ingredients. If you are a lover of Prawns, you will enjoy the flavours that come with mixing these lightly seared morsels with mouthfuls of fresh cucumber and apple that is then wonderfully offset with a light zesty kick.

I love a dish that is simple and full of contrasting flavours and hope you will too!

Try my Prawn Cucumber Apple Salad recipe.

Happy 2016 and hope to share with you more recipes in the year to come.




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Popiah

Popiah Prawn and Vegetable Spring Rolls

I had my first taste of Popiah at a Hawker stall in Malaysia and fell instantly in love with these tightly wrapped parcels filled with interesting fillings . Often eaten as a snack and popularly known as street food in some Asian countries, these can best be described as a hybrid between a Rice Paper Roll and a Spring roll and yet something a bit more.

Popiah has its origins in China however there are many Asian adaptations and some with their own regional twists. The word Popiah itself is derived from the meaning ‘thin wafer’. This would describe the crepe like wrapping that hugs in all the fillings; a wrapping that is delicate and soft but robust enough to keep together its contents. Popiah is known as a ‘fresh spring roll’ as it is not deep fried as we might know of the ‘traditional’ spring roll and is refreshingly healthy. Popiah can be filled with a multitude of fillings but the best ones have an interesting blend of contrasting textures and tastes inside.

Whilst the authentic versions of Popiah involve individually making the wrappers as well, store bought Spring Roll wrappers can also do the trick. They can easily be found in most Supermarkets and in this recipe they are a quick and effective shortcut to otherwise a more labourious  process.  Here in this recipe, you can also give  the rolls a bit of time on the fry pan to give it a wonderful crisp!

So… grab a handful of fresh ingredients, a few herbs, a bunch of prawns and wrap away!!!

Try my Popiah Prawn and Vegetable Spring Rolls recipe.




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Christmas-Cookies

Christmas Cookie Assortment

The calendar has flipped over to December and suddenly all things ‘Christmasy’ has come to the forefront.

Should I be panicking that I haven’t fully completed the Christmas shopping list, planned the big festive meal OR even sent out the Christmas cards to overseas relatives and friends?

The answer should be a resounding YES however what would the spirit of Christmas be without the exhilarating chaos and the unmistakable mayhem that goes along with the pre-Christmas madness?

The one thing that I do rely on year after year is my own tradition of baking Christmas Cookies. Knowing that I have this part under control gives me an assuring sense of ease that at least something is in order.

Cookies have had a long association with all things Christmas. As a child, you might have put out a plate of milk and cookies for Santa in excited anticipation of his arrival Christmas Eve. Some families might have baked colourful and decorative cookies to hang on the Christmas tree. Some might have received beautifully crafted biscuits in intricately patterned tins that were reminiscent of old times gone. And some of you may even be the cookie creators yourselves, baking and passing on this long surviving symbolic Christmas tradition.

In my Christmas Cookie feature here, I have used a basic cookie dough recipe, incorporating traditional Christmas shapes with a couple of classic tastes and a couple of new twists. Here you will find Chocolate Swirl Cookies, Coconut Reindeers, White Chocolate Tipped Bells, Green Tea Iced Christmas Trees and Lime Iced Snowflakes. The idea is to mix and match these so that old age tradition can meet something new….

Cookie preferences are as varied as there are the number of cookie types out there but if you have a preference for a crisp and buttery cookie …………Try out my Christmas Cookie Assortment and Happy Baking!

Chocolate Swirl Cookies recipe – Dark chocolate swirl on a buttery crisp Cookie

Coconut Reindeer Cookies recipe – Coconut flavoured Cookie finished off with a nice dusting of icing sugar

White Chocolate Tipped Bell Cookies recipe – Bells are festive and a nice white chocolate touch to ring in some all round sweetness

Green Tea Iced Christmas Tree Cookies recipe – Green Tea Flavoured cookies give a nice break from tradition and instill an Asian touch

Lime Iced Snowflake Cookies recipe – A zesty cookie with a sweet and sour zing!




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Creamy-Pasta-with-an-Asian-touch

Creamy Pasta with an Asian touch

With over three hundred and fifty different types, Pasta is as common as it can be mysterious.

Imagine a feast of different shapes, colours and textures; types that we have seen and shared on our plates day in day out and some of those that we have yet to discover and taste.

Pasta has a long romantic history and has evolved over time and tastes to fashion itself as iconically Italian and yet universal to all…

The word ‘Pasta’ literally translates to the word ‘dough’ in the Italian language and in its most basic form can be made from a combination of flour, water, eggs and semolina.  From this very base, numerous variations were crafted to suit not only to a multitude of tastes but also to accompany certain sauces. If you have ever wondered why certain pastas are best matched with certain sauces, the ingenuity is in the ‘design’ of the Pasta. A pretty clever concept!

‘Pasta Craft’ does not stop at the Pasta itself but what we choose to marry it with….Here in this Pasta dish, some Thai Basil replaces traditional Italian Basil together with some Edamame beans to infuse an Asian touch. Add some Pan fried chicken, some Snow Pea Sprouts, a swirl of creamy sauce with some Penne Pasta to bring the dish together in one harmonic plate. Two worlds in one!

Try my Creamy Pasta with an Asian Touch recipe.




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