I went to an engagement party recently – one side is Indian, the other side is Greek so as you can imagine the food was amazing! All home made food, my plate was the oddest mix of dolmates, meats, curries, biryani…and the nicest discovery was a very simple eggplant dish that I fell in love with and have since tried to re-create.

Ingredients:

Eggplant, sliced

Parsley, chopped

Salt

Olive oil

Garlic, crushed

Mix the garlic and a few glugs of olive oil together in a shallow bowl, add a pinch of salt. Thinly coat the eggplant slices on both sides with the garlic olive oil mix. Place all the eggplant on a frypan on med – high heat, you won’t need to add additional oil to the pan there should be enough on the eggplant already. Cook on each side for around 3-5 mins or until soft.

Plate up by sprinkling parsley over the eggplant and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top.

This is a great entree or side dish and you can vary how strong / weak you want the garlic flavour to come out. Mine didn’t taste quite as amazing as the original but I’ll soon perfect it…

Easter is almost here! For most of us that means a lovely long weekend and lots of food, friends and family.

Here are some of my suggestions to help with your Easter preparations.

Silly Yaks in Northcote is opening their factory outlet on Saturday 27th March, with gluten free hot cross buns for sale along with heaps of other gluten free food goodies to stock up on, click here for more details.

Or if you’d prefer to give it a try making them yourself, Tjuz.com has a good Gluten Free Hot Cross Buns Recipe.

Coles has a feature in their latest in store magazine and on their website on Gluten Free Easter Treats with some nice recipes.

Now, I have to share with you possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen in baked form! Bakerella‘s Easter Cake Pops!

Below are the Easter Eggs …

and Spring Chickens …

How utterly cute is this idea? Bakerella has some instructions on how to make the cake pops using cake mixture, however I think they would work well with my Rum Balls recipe too as an easy Gluten Free option…

These Rum Balls are so so so easy to make and you only need a few ingredients.

2 packets of Arnott’s Rice Cookies

1 tin condensed milk

250g cooking chocolate – you can use dark, milk or white depending on what you like better

Put the cookies and cooking chocolate in a blender and pulse until all combined

Put the mix into a bowl and add the condensed milk – add gradually until you have a good consistency, it should be sticky enough to roll into a ball with your hands but not too sticky so it’s glugy

Roll the mixture into small balls (or egg shapes if you’re making the Easter pops). Here you can either roll in dessicated coconut and you’re finished, or if you want to try the Easter pops, melt some cooking chocolate and cover the balls in the chocolate (dip them in using a skewer), then place them on some baking paper and let them dry. Now follow Bakerella’s instructions above to make shapes / characters!

Here is the finished product (excuse the bad photo, this was taken a while ago before I got my flash new camera that I am totally in love with) – half coconut and half chocolate covered. To get the red coloured balls just use milk chocolate with the cookie mixture and add a dash of red colouring when you’re mixing in the condensed milk.

You can also add a dash of your favourite liqueur like Kaluha or Baileys when mixing in the condensed milk.

Happy Easter!

Week 14 of the Cookbook Challenge, theme is Japanese. I love eating Japanese food, but I’ve never really tried to cook it properly, like with an actual recipe. I’ve had this Women’s Weekly Japanese cookbook for over 10 years so I think it’s time now to give it a go.

I decided on 2 recipes – Beef and Vegetable Rolls and Sushi Rolls.

Beef and Vegetable Rolls

2 medium carrots

6 asparagus spears, halved lengthways (I’m not a fan of asparagus so I substituted with brocollini)

3 green onions

12 thin slices of beef eye fillet (300g)

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup mirin or sweet rice wine

2 tablespoons sake

1/4 cup soy sauce

Using a vegetable peeler, slice carrot lengthways into thin strips. Cut carrot strips to width of beef. Place asparagus in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, stand 2 minutes, drain, rinse under cold water. Cut asparagus and onions to width of beef. If you use brocollini like me you’ll need to blanch in boiling water for a few minutes as they need a bit longer to soften than asparagus.

Lay beef slices flat and sift 1 tablespoon of the cornflour lightly over the top. Lay 2 pieces each of the carrot and onion and one piece of asparagus across the dusted side of each slice of beef and roll up. Tie rolls with kitchen string or secure ends with toothpicks. Dust rolls lightly with remaining cornflour.

Heat oil in medium frying pan and cook rolls until lightly browned all over. Remove rolls from pan, wipe oil from pan with absorbent paper, return rolls to pan. Add combined sugar, mirin, sake and sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer, turning occasionally until rolls are cooked through. If thicker sauce is preferred, remove rolls and boil sauce to reduce. Return rolls to pan and coat with sauce.

Remove rolls from pan, cool for 2 minutes. Remove and discard toothpicks and cut rolls in half. Arrange on a serving plate and serve with the remaining sauce.

I was really happy with how these turned out, the meat was sweet and tender. The only thing I would change would be to double the sauce quantity as I found there wasn’t a lot there to drizzle over the rolls and some rice as an accompaniment.

Sushi Rolls

3 cups prepared sushi rice (details below)

4 sheets toasted seaweed (yaki nori) – from an Asian grocery

2 tablespoons mayonaise

1 teaspoon wasabi

1/2 cup soy sauce

For the filling you can use whatever you like, I used some cooked salmon and cucumber strips.

To make the sushi rice, put rice in rice cooker as normal. Make some sushi vinegar by combining 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Once the rice is cooked, allow rice to stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Spread rice in a large, non-metalic flat bottomed bowl or tub. Using a rice paddle or wooden spoon, repeatedly slice through the rice at a sharp angle to break up lumps and seperate the grains, gradually pouring in the sushi vinegar at the same time. Continue to slice and turn the rice with one hand, with the other hand fan the rice until almost cool. This will take about 5 minutes.

To make the rolls, combine the wasabi with the mayonaise in a small bowl and cover. For each roll, place a sheet of the seaweed shiny side down on a plate and add about 2 tablespoons of rice in the centre of the seaweed and spread the rice across the sheet, leaving a strip on one side empty. Swipe a dab of the mayonaise down the centre, then top with your filling. Roll up the sheet from the full side to the empty side. To join the roll together I just dabbed some water inbetween like you’re sealing a letter. Cut the rolls in half and serve.

I was actually surprised at how easy sushi is to make. Mine didn’t quite taste as good as the sushi bar sushis but I’ll experiment a bit more now I know how to do it!

Week 10 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Cool. I happened to be in an Asian grocery when thinking of inspiration and decided on rice paper rolls. I went with a recipe from a Marie Claire cookbook called Cooking, which is actually written by Donna Hay.

Ingredients

12 rice paper sheets

1 cup snow pea sprouts (I’m not sure what this is, I just used bean sprouts!)

1/2 cup shredded carrot

1/2 cup shredded raw beetroot

125g enoki mushrooms (find these at most Asian grocers)

1/4 cup mint leaves

1/4 cup Thai basil leaves

Dipping sauce:

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons chilli sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar

Soak rice paper sheets a few at a time in warm water until they are soft (mine took about 30 seconds each). Place a small pile of sprouts, carrot, beetroot, mushrooms, mint and basil on each rice paper. Fold and roll to enclose

To make dipping sauce, combine lime juice, chilli sauce and sugar.

Week 3 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Hor d’oeuvres (appetisers). I dug out a cookbook I usually only use for cooking soups, called Soups, Starters & Salads and picked this eggplant recipe.

Ingredients (makes 12 fritters)

3 1/2 coarsley grated eggplant

2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs, beaten

4 tablespoons plain flour (I used gluten free flour)

vegetable oil

salt and pepper

For the chilli jam:

5 tablespoons olive oil

4 large onions, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1-2 fresh green chillies, seeded and sliced

2 tablespoons dark brown soft sugar

First make the chilli jam. Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot, then add the onions and garlic. Reduce the heat to low, then cook for 20 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions are very soft.

Leave the onion mixture to cool, then transfer to a food processor or blender. Add the chillies and sugar and blend until smooth, then return the mixture to the pan. Cook for a further 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid evaporates and the mixture has the consistency of jam. Cool slightly.

To make the fritters, squeeze the courgettes in a dishtowel to remove any excess liquid (here I used a sieve to drain out the water), then combine with the parmesan, eggs, and flour and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat enough oil to cover the base of a large frying pan. Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture for each fritter and cook the fritters for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden.

Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm with the chilli jam.