I recently gave into new cookbook temptation and bought my second Nigella Lawson cookbook, Nigella Express – this recipe is from this book.

Ingredients:

2 sea bass, approx 900g each, gutted and prepared (I couldn’t find sea bass so got some snapper instead)

4 spring onions

6 tablespoons of Sake – Note: Sake is a Japanese liquor made by fermenting rice – most traditional sake is gluten free however there are different varieties that may use barley or other grains, so double check before you use.

2 tablespoons of soy sauce (make sure it’s a gluten free soy sauce)

1 teaspoon grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Lay each fish on a large piece of foil, and bring up the sides ready to make a parcel.

Slice the spring onions in half lengthways and place 4 pieces into the cavity of each fish.

Into each parcel, sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sake, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and about 1/2 teaspoon of the grated ginger.

Wrap the parcels loosely but seal them firmly, and cook on a baking sheet in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Open the cooked fish parcels, peel away the skin from the top of each fish and fillet the top layer of fish.

Turn the fish over, and repeat the same process again, and then spoon over any juices from the parcel onto the fish and serve with wilted greens.

To make the wilted greens just sautee your choice of chopped vegetables in a wok for a few minutes with some oil.

I decided to keep the fish whole to eat, although I did have to cover up the head, don’t like that eye looking at me! I also threw some potatoes in the oven to have on the side of this dish.

I was really excited about how this fish would taste, but I ended up being a bit disappointed – the flavour was not intense as I was expecting. It still tasted nice though, and was really easy to do.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Peel and finely slice 800g of potatoes. Peel, halve and finely slice 400g of medium onions and 3 cloves of garlic. Pick the leaves from a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley and finely chop. Pour a couple of lugs of olive oil into a large, hot pan with the onions, garlic and parsley. Slowly fry for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft and lightly golden. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube in 850ml of boiling water. In a large baking dish place a layer of potatoes, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and a layer of onions. Continue, repeating until you’ve used up everything, but try to finish with a layer of potatoes on top. Rub some foil with olive oil, place it, oil-side down, over the dish and seal tight. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, then remove the foil, push the potatoes down and return to the oven for 20-40 minutes until golden and crisp.

This was a really easy recipe to make and makes for an interesting twist on the normal baked potatoes when you want a bit of variety. I loved the onion flavour and the crispiness of the potato. This dish is good the next day as leftovers too!

I used one of my favourite dessert books, Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2

Ingredients

220g fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup caster sugar

Base:

85g shortbread biscuits
1/2 cup almond meal
45g butter, melted

Filling:

600g cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the base I used Freedom Food’s gluten free Crunchy Coconut cookies – they are pretty crumbly to eat as biscuits but work really well for a cake base.

Process the blueberries in a food processor and press through a sieve (you should have 1/2 cup of puree). Place the puree and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is disolved. Rapidly simmer for 8 minutes or until thick. Set aside to cool.

To make the base, process the biscuits in a food processor until crushed. Add the almond meal and butter and process until combined. Grease a 22cm springform tin and line the base with non stick baking paper. Press the crumb mixture over the base and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees. To make the filling, process the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the sour cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla and process until combined and smooth. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the base. Drizzle the blueberry mixture over and swirl lightly with a butter knife.

Bake for 1 hour or until set. Refrigerate and serve cold.

My tip: keep an eye on the blueberry when it’s simmering – I let mine simmer for too long and it ended up too thick, so the swirling process at the end didn’t work and all the blueberry just dropped down to the bottom of the cake. Still tasted nice in the end, just doesn’t look as pretty as the picture in the cookbook!

I actually had this for dinner not breakfast – I often have omlettes for dinner when I need to whip up something and don’t have a lot of ingredients. My most common ‘dire straights’ omlette dinner when I am scraping what is left in the fridge and pantry before having to go to the supermarket is eggs with canned tuna, whatever fresh veggies I have (usually zuccini and mushrooms), a dash of paprika, salt, pepper – throw everything into a fry pan and voila you have dinner in 5 minutes.

Nigella’s omlette recipe was a bit more structured than my usual ‘throw bits together’ omlette.

Ingredients:

225g baby new potatoes, halved
4 eggs
75g chopped caramelised or flame roasted peppers from a jar
3 spring onions finely sliced
75g grated Manchego or Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon butter
drop of oil
salt and pepper to taste

Turn on the grill and let it heat up while you start off the omlette.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 15 minutes, until cooked through, then drain.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the peppers, spring onions and cheese, and season with salt and pepper, then add the cooked, drained potatoes.

Heat the butter and oil in a small, heavy-based frying pan, and, when hot, pour in the omlette mix and cook gently for 5 minutes.

By this time, the bottom of the omlette should be set and, rather than turn it, simply sit the pan under the grill for a few minutes to set the top.

Turn the omlette upside down onto a plate to let cool. Don’t worry if it feels a little wibbly-wobbly in the middle, as it will carry on cooking as it cools.

Once cool, slice into 4 large or 8 smaller wedges.

I made a smaller version with not as many potatoes and eggs so it spread out a bit on the pan and didn’t quite end up looking like the picture, but it tasted great anyway and was very quick and easy to make.

I used my good old reliable curry cookbook, the aptly named “Best Ever Curry Cookbook”.

Ingredients:

675g raw tiger prawns (as you can see from my picture I cheated a bit and got cooked prawns)
4 dried red chillies
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 bay leaves
1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tomatoes, finely chopped
plain boiled rice, to serve

Peel the prawns and remove the thin black intestinal vein. Put the dried chillies, coconut, mustard seeds and onion in a wok and dry-fry over a medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until the mixture begins to brown. Stir continuously to ensure even browning and to avoid burning the coconut. Put into a food processor or blender and process to a coarse paste.

Heat the vegetable oil in the pan and fry the bay leaves for 1 minute. Add the chopped ginger and the garlic, and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add the ground corriander, chilli powder, salt and the paste and fry for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes and about 175ml (3/4 cup) water and simmer for 5-6 minutes or until thickened.

Add the prawns and cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until they turn pink.

Serve the curry on plain boiled rice.

I loved this curry, it was quite simple to make, very aromatic and it was interesting using desiccated coconut instead of coconut milk – it gave it a sweeter and lighter taste and is a bit healthier than using the milk so you don’t feel so bad having seconds

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 leek (white part only) finely chopped

1 carrot, cut into 1cm cubes

1 large potato, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes

2 cups (500ml) good quality chicken or vegetable stock

1 tomato, peeled, seeds removed, cut into 1cm cubes

420g can four-bean mix, drained, rinsed

50g thin French or thin green beans, ends trimmed, cut into 2cm lengths

1 large zucchini, chopped

4 tablespoons good quality basil pesto

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the leek and sweat over a low heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the carrot and potato and cook, stirring, for a further minute. Add the stock and 1 cup water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the tomato, four-bean mix, French or green beans and zucchini. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a further 2 minutes, stir in half the pesto, then ladle into serving bowls. Add a dollop of the remaining pesto and serve with slices of chargrilled bread.

This soup was a nice twist on the average veggie soup with the leek and the pesto giving it a good kick. I made my own pesto (basil, oil, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan in a blender) so everything tasted really fresh. Easy and quick recipe to make, particularly if you decide to use pre-made pesto, I think I’ll be adding this to my regular repetoire!

Ingredients (to serve 2):

140ml milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reversed

rind of 1/2 a lemon

50g caster sugar

2 gelatin leaves

140ml cream

For the blueberry soup:

150g caster sugar

400g blueberries, washed

30ml gin

Warm the milk, vanilla bean, seeds and lemon rind in a saucepan over medium heat and allow to infuse off the heat for 15 minutes. Add sugar and allow to dissolve over medium heat.

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water and, when soft, squeeze out excess water and add to warm milk (I couldn’t find gelatin leaves anywhere so just used gelatin powder). Pass mixture through a fine strainer and allow to cool. Stir in cream and pour into 2 lightly greased 150ml plastic dariole moulds. Refrigerate overnight.

To make the blueberry soup, bring 200ml water and sugar to the boil. Add 300g blueberries and simmer gently for about 10 minutes to allow flavour and colour to ‘come out’ of blueberries. Pass through a fine strainer. Chill and add gin.

Turn panna cottas out of moulds onto the centre of 2 bowls. Surround with remaining blueberries, pour around soup and serve.

This dessert was beautiful – the creamy panna cotta was a nice contrast to the fruity blueberry “soup”. The one thing I would do differently next time is buy plastic moulds – I didn’t have any so used ramekins and it was quite a challenge getting the panna cottas out once they had set – you can see the top of the panna cotta is a bit bruised from the process! Overall though I was impressed at how quick and easy this was to make – it would be a great dessert for summer when you don’t want to use the oven.

Ingredients for the cake:

200g plain flour (substitute with gluten free flour)

200g caster sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

40g cocoa powder

175g soft unsalted butter

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

150ml sour cream

Ingredients for the icing:

75g unsalted butter

175g dark chocolate broken into small pieces

300g icing sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup

125ml sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

sugar flowers, optional (I used the below sugar flowers)

Take everything out of the fridge so all the ingredients can come to room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and line and butter two 20cm cake trays with removable bases.

Now combine all the ingredients in a food processor – flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream – and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. Divide this batter into the prepared tins and bake until a thin skewer comes out clean, which should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking at 25 minutes. Also, it might make sense to switch the two cakes around in the oven halfway through cooking time.

Remove the cakes, in their tins, to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins. Don’t worry about any cracks as they will easily be covered by the icing later.

To make the icing, melt the butter and chocolate in a good sized bowl either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly either way; you don’t want any burning of seizing.

While the chocolate and butter are cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar into another bowl. Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is combined whisk in the sieved icing sugar.

When you’re done you may need to add a little boiling water – say a teaspoon or so – or indeed some more icing sugar: it depends on whether you need the icing to be runnier or thicker, or indeed it might be right as it is. It should be liquid enough to coat easily, but thick enough not to drip off.

Spread the icing in between the 2 cakes like a sandwich, then cover the whole cake in icing and add the sugar flowers to decorate.

I loved how simple this cake was to make – really easy and tasted beautiful. Was really really sweet though, I felt like I’d had my weeks worth of sugar with a few bites!

For this challenge the theme is Leaf – one of my new favourite leaves is Kaffir Lime leaves. I usually pick a few off my lime tree, throw them in a cup with some honey and make a quick tea – very refreshing and great if you have a cold.

Kaffir leaves are also used a lot in Thai cooking, so I wanted to do a Thai dish – Green Beef Curry with Thai Eggplant from my curry cookbook

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons green curry paste

2 1/2 cups coconut milk

450g beef sirloin

4 kaffir lime leaves, torn

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

1 teaspoon soft light brown sugar

150g Thai eggplants or small eggplants, sliced

2 fresh green chillies and a small handful of Thai basil to garnish

Plain boiled rice or noodles, to serve

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan. Add the green curry paste and fry gently until the paste begins to release its fragrant aromas.

Stir in half the coconut milk, a little at a time. Cook over a medium heat for about 5-6 minutes, until the oil begins to seperate and an oily sheen appears on the surface.

Cut the beef into long thin slices and add to the pan with the kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, sugar and eggplant. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then stir in the remaining coconut milk.

Bring back to a simmer and cook until the meat and eggplant are tender. Finely shred the green chillies and use to garnish the curry, along with the Thai basil leaves.

This curry was pretty easy to make, although it looks more like a brown curry than a green curry! I made the green curry paste from scratch which took the longest but you can take a shortcut by buying curry paste which would make the process even quicker. I would definetly make this again.

I have a beautiful Hungarian cookbook, Culinaria Hungary. My mum bought me this book when it became apparent that I wasn’t very good at learning the traditional Hungarian way of learning recipes: a bit of this, a bit of that, cook until it looks good!

It’s amazing what paprika will do to a dish – this recipe is so so so simple, minimal ingredients, just a dash of paprika totally makes all the flavour come through in the fish.

Ingredients

About 1.5kg fish (eg. carp, catfish, perch – you can use a mixture)

Salt

1 capsicum

1 tomato

2 medium onions

1 tablespoon sweet paprika (not the hot paprika)

1-2 hot peppers (optional)

Chopped parsley (my addition)

I have adapted this recipe a bit – it’s a very traditional recipe that uses all parts of the fish, I took the easy way out and just use fillets so made the recipe a bit easier as a result.

Scale and gut the fish, remove the bones and wash (to avoid this step I just used a boneless fillet of fish!). Cut the fish into bite sized pieces and season with salt. Chop the capsicum and tomato into small pieces, and slice the onion. Place the fish and onions in a pot and add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, add the paprika and simmer gently for 1 hour. Add the tomato and capsicum  and cook over high heat for 20 minutes.

I added some chopped parsley to give the soup a bit more colour.