Melbourne has been surprising us with some amazing weather of late – a sunshiny, blue-skied 21C in winter – and pulling me out of the winter food rut. I’ve been trying to increase my protein intake so today, I marinated a 500g rump steak in 1 tbs palm sugar (finely grated), 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup lime juice, 2 tbs soy sauce, 2 cloves of garlic (crushed) for the afternoon while my 3yo and I had fun at the playground.

Upon our return, I sizzled the steak on high heat for a few minutes on each side, as I like it quite pink/red, then left it to rest while I collected the washing from the line (yay, a day when I can hang the washing outside!). The extra marinade was used as a dressing for the salad of mixed leaves, thai basil and mint on top of which thinly sliced beef strips were laid. It was cool enough to light a fire by that time so we sat down in front of its warmth for our dinner. We also baked a couple of small, cored apples filled with sultanas in the coals for dessert. A diverse menu for diverse weather conditions.

I grew up in a family that never put brussels sprouts on the table. In fact, I don’t recall ever eating brussels sprouts ever, except maybe once on a plane when I was doing air time with British Air. So it came as a surprise to me, after hearing all the horror stories of how awful this vegie tasted, that I LOVE brussels sprouts! I stir fry it with garlic, salt and pepper until it’s charry and crispy on the cut side. Mmmmm, still with the slightly bitter tang that makes it more appealing to adult taste buds, but my 1 year old had a good go of it anyway.

Knowing that I would home close to dinner time, I decided to put the bread machine to work today making some pizza dough. Actually, it was the presence of La Latteria’s Scamorza Bianca that inspired me to make pizza tonight, truth be told. Good thing I was organised as I arrived home to a text message that my boys had decided to walk down to the local supermarket and needed a lift back.

My 3 year old helped me shape out the dough and to dollop on some tomato paste (he quickly started licking the spoon after that). Then he helped me to layer on the red pepper marmalade, anchovies and cheese on one pizza, while tasting everything multiple times, and olives and cheese on the other. I’m not sure whether more cheese went onto the pizza or into his mouth. While the pizzas were baking, I washed the rocket and sliced the tomatoes and these went on top of the second pizza when it came out.

Dinner was a blast. I think my 3 year old had about five slices and my 1 year old was also trying to get in on the act, having some of the cheesy crusty bits. In fact, he was still trying to put food into his mouth when hubby was trying desperately to get him cleaned up as it was about 20 minutes past his usual bedtime!

Pizza Dough (takes 50 minutes in bread machine):
200ml water
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
2.5 cups flour (I used 1.5 cups plain flour and 1 cup wholemeal)
1.5 tsp yeast

Shape dough out, layer on pizza topping, bake at highest temperature for about 8-10 minutes.

My 3.5 year old, EJ, is fairly happy to eat most foods but like most children, he seems to have an innate dislike for any *green* foods. Fortunately for me, he does like broccoli and cauliflower so I try to capitalise on this. I’ve bee cooking a lot of soups this season but had not really thought about serving him soup until he started at kindergarten two weeks ago and they served chicken and corn soup as part of lunch. So, why not make him a cauliflower soup and we can all enjoy it together?

I don’t always buy organic fruits and vegetables but I just feel that it’s more important to do so with broccoli and cauliflower, knowing through a friend who used to grow vegetables commercially that a lot of pesticide is used on these crops. It seems to be trickier to wash away any chemicals from the tight florets so I try to ensure these are organically grown.

I always cut the head of cauliflower into florets before cleaning. Then I simmer it in a pot of water until soft, season it with salt & pepper (I like using white for a bit more of a bite), then add a spoonful of bechamel (white sauce). Yesterday, instead of the bechamel, I added a cup full of sago which had been soaked in water for about 20 minutes and cooked until they became clear. EJ loves sago pudding and he was equally delighted when I told him this was a cauliflower and sago soup. It serves to thicken the soup slightly and also adds a lovely textural surprise to each mouthful. Last night, it was served with some cheesy cauliflower and leftover risotto.

I first came across quinoa in 2006 through Heidi Swanson’s blog and the first recipe that I tried was her lemon-scented quinoa salad. 5 years on, I’m still a fan of this thing that I keep calling a grain, but it’s actually the seed of the plant that we eat.

While many of my friends may have heard of it or tried it at a restaurant, I don’t think many would have it as a pantry staple. However, I love its nutty-crunch so much that there’s usually a pack lying around somewhere in mine. It’s just as easy to cook as rice or pasta – two cups of water to one cup of quinoa and simmer until the curlique pops out as the germ separates from the seed. Then it’s a matter of dressing it like a salad.

For first timers, here’s my amazing red quinoa salad recipe:

1. Cook 1 cup of organic red quinoa in 2 cups water until tender
2. Thinly slice a green zucchini and grill until soft with edges are crispy
3. Steam a bowl of cubed pumpkin until tender
4. Simmer a clove of garlic in milk for 15 min then mash
5. Cut up some small cubes of chèvre and pit a few olives and halve some black russian tomatoes
6. Toss all ingredients together and season to taste with salt & pepper and a dash of olive oil

I made this with my 3 year old for dinner last night and I thought it was fantastic. He took one look and told me “I don’t like the brown things” before pushing the bowl right off the table! He had two serves after that so either he agreed with me or decided that it wasn’t worth going hungry for the night. Anyway, try it and tell me what YOU think.

As you can tell we’ve been talking Mexican food of late (well, this post is late but seeing as Melbourne is treating us to some lovely sunshine this week, you can let it slide can’t you?). Maybe it’s the plethora of tortilla and burrito wraps that are cropping up all over the place that’s inspiring us, or maybe it’s the cool freshness of the salsas that we look forward to on hot summer days. Either way, this food is right down my alley. I love foods that you have to use your hands to eat with and even more so when you have to assemble it yourself. I think eating with your fingers makes food taste different though I do try to avoid picking off food straight off shared plates when we have company.

And so it was that A & I cooked turkey tacos for my family using leftover turkey from our Christmas Feast (yes this post is late, isn’t it?). The turkey was diced and cooked with some onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, ground cumin, salt & pepper then sprinkled with coriander at the end.

This was accompanied by three types of salsas:

1. Tomato, red onion, mint
2. Lychee and avocado
3. Peach, capsicum, cucumber, red onion

The dressings were loosely based on some recipes I pulled out of a magazine, but for the life of me I can’t find the sheet right now. Well, there are loads of recipes you can trawl the internet for or just experiment with vinegar (sherry, cider), garlic, coriander leaves, lime/lemon juice, salt & pepper. It was just lovely to be able to use some summer stone fruits to make the salsas colourful and appetising. Mum used to tell me that you should try to have a bit of red, a bit of green and a bit of yellow in the dish. That way you won’t end up with a brown dish, and these dishes are anything but.

Seeing as we had not done a potluck since our Neil Perry special, I decided it was time for us to have a Masterchef cook-off, the idea being to cook a recipe from the Masterchef website and bring it along for all to try. As I didn’t bother asking what anyone was making, I was a little concerned that we would end up with four desserts and one entree and we’d have to order in pizza – not that there would have been anything wrong with eating four desserts for lunch. Fairytale ending…

We started with Adam’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal. So good.

This was followed by George’s Open Beef Kofta and George & Gary’s Chicken Winglets, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad (I took the photo before the winglets were placed!)

To end the meal, we had George’s Braised Tomatoes with Smoked Chocolate Mousse – my effort – and a Fruit & Cheese Platter.

That reminds me of the many cafe and restaurant chalkboards that misspell menu items. Here’s one from Equinox Cafe/Bar that made me stop short yesterday as I first spotted their version of this tuna salad.

This was meant to be a Salmon, Green beans and Egg Caviar salad but N decided to substitute snowpeas as they looked fresher on the day he went to the market. Even A, who doesn’t like smoked salmon all that much, enjoyed this dish. I managed to sneak a little bowl of leftovers away to have for lunch the next day.

J&L, big Neil Perry fans, brought this Salmon with Tomato-Braised Chickpeas and Herbed Yogurt. According to them, Neil Perry’s recipes are deceptively simple, more straightforward than Jamie Oliver’s.

J’s dish, a Dry Prawn Curry, was pronounced the most delicious looking when she saw the photos later on. Tasty as this was, J didn’t agree with J&L that Neil Perry’s dishes are easier to cook!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of my Honey-Braised Duck with Orange and Olives but we did finish the night off with E’s Lemon Yogurt Cake, baked on behalf of S&B.

All-in-all, a good night with good friends with Neil Perry’s Good Food.

I love this tradition of tossing the prosperity salad! I love watching everyone getting their chopsticks in and the vegetables getting progressively jumbled. It tastes great too, of course.

Mum cooked some fantastic food and we were able to invite the guys from work to join us. Apart from the salad, there was loh bak, fish balls, roast pork ribs, duck stuffed with glutinous rice, noodles, fried rice, steamed chicken.

Enjoy the photos and best wishes for a prosperous new year!