Roast Capsicum and Goats Cheese Tart

Roast Capsicum and Goats Cheese Tart
Home Cooking

This post is an example of what could be called Cooking Vanity. This again, goes back to my family Christmas dinner where we were all supposed to bring some food. I wasn't even going to bake a tart; in fact, I initially was just brining salad and later stretched that to include and ice-cream. I was leafing through Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker for dessert recipes (where I found this) and accidentally fell onto this recipe for a goats cheese tart. I decided right then and there that I would also bake that for my family.

Honey Roasted Pumpkin with Goat's Cheese and Hazelnuts

Honey Roasted Pumpkin with Goat's Cheese and Hazelnuts
Home Cooking

One day, I was rummaging around in my fridge when I stumbled across half a pumpkin that I'd totally forgotten I bought. I didn't really know what to do with it and I couldn't be stuffed mashing and using it to bake something (which is what I normally do with pumpkin) but I couldn't let it go to waste either.

I roughly chopped up the pumpkin and threw the pieces into a baking tray. Making it up as I went along, I added a drizzle of olive oil, salt and some sprigs of fresh thyme. As an afterthought, I added some honey to the mix. The pieces were left to roast until tender. I had already eaten that night so I didn't even use the pumpkin until the following day but that's irrelevant.

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup
Home Cooking

Soup and winter: two things that go hand in hand. I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago and it's now spring so I better publish it before the heat waves strike and everything I say becomes irrelevant.

Soup is one thing that makes the cold mornings, dry air and shorter daylight hours almost worth bearing. We had a couple of weeks in Toowoomba a while back that were close to the 0 degrees mark through the night and barely 10 at maximum. I know that would be mild for some but I'm a Brisbane girl and to me, that's slit-my-wrists cold. Maybe not that extreme but I sure as hell didn't feel like getting up for work in the mornings.

Soup makes everything better.

Sweet Potato and Salmon Cakes

Sweet Potato and Salmon Cakes
Home Cooking

I've recently taken yet another step towards becoming the ultimate sloth. Don't get me wrong. I work full time. My weekends are jam packed with activities (what isn't food-related will be alcohol related). The time between when I finish work and go to sleep flies by so fast that I find myself writing OCD notes in my diary to remind myself to do menial tasks like showering and nails.

With this, I justify that my day off should be spent as lazily as possible. That's easier said than done because as I've mentioned on this blog many times before, I don't possess the ability to sleep in. I've also designated my day off as my cooking and baking day and I try to do 2-3 recipes (I have to take advantage of daylight for my photos) so that's not really resting, but cooking is fun.

Julie Goodwin's Flatbread

Julie Goodwin's Flatbread
Home Cooking

Like many others out there, I've been weaning myself off Season 4 of Masterchef by watching the All Stars series. It's nowhere near as good but it's still some form of Masterchef and that's better than nothing by far.

In the episode where they're forced to axe their Mystery boxes for firewood, Julie is praised for her delicious char-grilled flatbread. I was browsing through the internet and stumbled upon THIS, no less than Julie Goodwin's flatbread recipe! This recipe doesn't force us to chop wood or cook oven an open flame so it's much easier to follow.

Labneh Plate with Flatbread

Labneh Plate with Flatbread
Home Cooking

I saw a mention of labneh when I was reading through Julie's flatbread recipe. It's one of her suggested accompaniments with the flatbread and when I saw it, I thought "what?" because I'd never heard of labneh before. It's essentially just strained yoghurt, aka yoghurt cheese. I have heard of the term 'yoghurt cheese' before and I don't know about you but it sounds kind of gross to me so I'm glad I can now call it labneh.

The principle behind this is pretty good. You let some Greek yoghurt sit on a seive over a long period of time until a significant portion of the water content has drained out. What remains is a thick, spreadable substance that has a more intense, tangy flavor than regular yoghurt.

Warm Roast Vegetable Salad

Warm Roast Vegetable Salad
Home Cooking



Sometimes, cooking seems to me to be a bit of a puzzle. You register what's available and have to think of ways to combine them into one dish. This is especially the case when you're at the end of your grocery cycle and a few things present themselves as 'needing' to be used up.



That's what happened to me with a couple of sad capsicums and about 1kg of potatoes. I found myself researching a host of capsicum recipes but nothing that really pulled potatoes into the mix too.

Finally, I spied a roast vegetable recipe online that I didn't actually follow but drew inspiration from.

Salmon, Pesto and Mint Pasta

Salmon, Pesta and Mint Pasta
Home Cooking



I think I can squeeze in one more home cooking post before the Easter break. This was also a creation for our most recent dinner party. It was the best I could come up with that satisfied the criteria of: healthy, filling and easy.

I got the recipe from 'Healthy Food Magazine' (June 2010 issue).

Roast Pumpkin and Chickpea Salad

Roast Pumpkin and Chickpea Salad
Home Cooking



It recently came to my attention that I am not eating enough vegetables. Aside from garden salad as a side to food I order from restaurants, I seem to eat no vegetables at all.

To rectify, I decided to put together a salad... a NUTRITIOUS salad as one of my contributions to a recent dinner party we hosted.



I kept thing simple and plain old Googled a pumpkin and chickpea recipe. The reason behind this is that I love pumpkin and I spotted a can of chickpeas in my cupboard.

Smoked Salmon and Potato Salad

Smoked Salmon and Potato Salad
Home Cooking



I like potato salads but try not to make them too often because they truly go against the idea of salads being healthy. Often, the best-tasting ones involve white potato boiled and tossed with loads of cream, sour cream and mayo.

When I saw this recipe, I couldn't resist. It doesn't have huge amounts of cream, just a few dollops of creme fraiche, which isn't too bad. More importantly, it combines the luscious idea of potato salad with one of my favorites, smoked salmon, to create an awesome food superchild.


The original recipe is by Jamie Oliver but I left out horseradish because I couldn't find any. Since that was a crucial component of his version, I can't really claim they're the same dish. I also forgot to add capers even though I had some in the house... hey, it happens when you're running around trying to make 3 things at once.

Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad

Vietnamese Chicken and Mint Salad
Home Cooking



It's rare for me to repeat a recipe, even one that's good, because I'm constantly needing new material for this blog. I've made Nigella Lawson's Vietnamese chicken salad before but on that occasion, it was devoured before I got any good photos.

I needed to come up with some salads for Australia Day and I remembered that this one works. It's easy to do and it's light and fresh for Summer but with a bit of a kick (Vietnamese cuisine = chili).

Crunchy Wombok Salad

Crunchy Wombok Salad
Home Cooking



I have a new favorite salad. I admit that I do like salad. There exists people in the world who see 'salad' on the menu and immediately erase it as a potential choice. I, on the other hand, frequently order salad at restaurants at the expense of a protein main. And I'm rarely disappointed.



BUT... my idea of a home salad is somewhat less exciting. I usually throw together a concoction of pantry spares. This means: leaves, ham/tuna, boiled egg and a piece of bread toasted and torn to simulate croutons. If I'm lucky, I'll have an avocado ready too.

Cherry Tomato, Basil and Bocconcini Salad

Cherry Tomato, Basil and Bocconcini Salad
Home Cooking



This is another one of my lazy throw-togethers that don't really deserve the description of 'home cooking'.



The idea of combining tomatoes with basil and bocconcini is hardly original. I've seen it as an entree on many bistro menus. Often, it's presented in stacks, or as skewers.

Guest Chef makes Karaage Chicken

Karaage Chicken
Home Cooking



I LOVE eating stuff made by friends. Not only is it great because you know they put in effort, there's a novelty factor for me too. Everyone has their own way of doing things and it's interesting to see what little tricks and methods they employ that's different from your own approach.

The amusing thing is I have had so many people tell me they don't want to cook for me or recommend me restaurants. Their excuse is that I write a food blog and therefore must be like Matt Preston's protege (i.e. tentatively nibble on a morsel of food before screwing up face in concentration and delivering a molecular-level taste analysis). That is so, so very far from the truth.



Before I start preaching about my ability to enjoy all standards of food (well, unless it's basically inedible), I'll jump back to the point. One of my closest friends from uni, a fellow food-lover, joined our cooking party yesterday. She decided to make karaage chicken (or perhaps, it was me who demanded she make it).

Japanese Potato Salad

Japanese Potato Salad
Home Cooking



I was on the potato salad thread on Vogue Forums when I came across something described as Japanese potato salad. Unknowingly, I had eaten this many times before without making the connection between potato and Japanese to realize it was an actual replicable dish.

The recipe seemed extremely straight forward and I happened to have a bottle of Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise bought for a sashimi party last week. All the ingredients were basics and took no effort at all to collect from the grocery store.

Simple Sweet Coleslaw

Simple Sweet Coleslaw
Home Cooking



This is a throw-together recipe from a while ago. I was craving fresh vegetables and didn't want to eat anything heavy for dinner. Coleslaw is an ideal solution. It has enough body to fill you up and all those shredded veggies make you feel like you're eating concentrated nutrients!


Coleslaw is easily a family classic. It's versatile - can be used as a side or for lunch, dinner, picnics, whatever. The composition of vegetables and what you put in the dressing is all really flexible but best of all, it's easy to make it taste good.

Summer Mediterranean- Spanakopita and Greek Salad

Spanakopita and Greek Salad

Home Cooking



I've always loved the idea of spinach pie - it's just the kind of thing that appeals to me since I'm automatically drawn in by anything that's packed with veggies (don't I just sound like some kind of kid's education program??)



My first taste of spanakopita was from the farmer's markets and it was so yum. It didn't really occur to me to make my own until I saw Alex Perry do it on Celebrity Masterchef.

Speedy Chili Con Carne

Chili Con Carne
Home Cooking



Here's a quick idea for whipping up some Mexican-style chow. Most of the ingredients are the kinds of things you have lying around the pantry. The recipe is quite straight-forward and open to variation. No claims for authenticity but it is very delish!

We made this for a 'Mexican-themed' lunch though at the end, this was the only item present. Laziness is poisonous.


You can make this the 'main event' by supplying a huge batch with rice, bread, tortillas etc OR, nurse a bowl of chili in front of the TV with some corn chips. Savory mince of any kind is versatile so you're only limited by your creativity. The quantities in this recipe are adjustable depending on your own preferences.

Beer Damper

Beer Damper
Home Cooking



There's something really appealing about country-style food. I was leafing through a magazine recently (can't recall exactly what it was but there was a lot of celebrity gossip) when I stumbled upon a country-themed recipe section. Loads of good stuff: scones, chunky soup, pot pies etc.



When I think of country food, I'm thinking 'hearty', 'fresh' and lots of milk, eggs, cheese and herbs. Mmm... I spent a while copying out recipes by hand. One that I decided to follow through today was the beer damper recipe.

Father's Day Special: duck legs, fresh mulberries and crispy potato

Confit of Duck Leg with Mulberry Red Wine Jus and Crispy Hash Brown
Home Cooking



Mum's birthday is always around the same time as Queen's birthday. Dad's happens to coincide with Father's Day. Last night, we had noodles with savory mince (noodles to represent long life).

As for today, I volunteered to make something special.