Serve this for elegant pre dinner drinks, to ring in the New Year or an evening in with the girls! Cosmopolitan Cocktails I love Cosmos for how easy they are to drink – and how I always feel like I’m channeling the New-York-Gal within as I daintily sip away! Truthfully though, I live in the Northern Beach of Sydney. I spend my days in flip flops, denim shorts and comfortable tees, a whirlwind of activity between the kitchen, shooting area and my computer....
I received an email from a reader asking me to share my chicken noodle soup. It might be in the middle of summer here in Sydney but the weather is swinging from heat waves to winter-like from day to day, so it was certainly no hardship to move from the barbecued Miso Marinated Side of Salmon I shared last Friday to this soup! OK, maybe “winter-like” is a slight exaggeration....
Caramelising onions calls for patience, but it’s worth it. You’ll be rewarded with deeply golden, intensely sweet onions that forms an incredible flavour base for this French Onion Soup. For an effortless option, see how to caramelise onions in a slow cooker! THE ICONIC FRENCH ONION SOUP! French Onion Soup is probably one of the most epic soups in this whole wide world. And yet, the soup itself is made with very few core ingredients: butter, onions, flour and stock/broth....
UPDATE: Give-away now finished! congratulations Stephanie Turnbull from Yatala, QLD, Australia and Lisa Honoshofsky from Ohio, USA! Both winners have been contacted by email to claim their prizes. I love doing giveaways! And today, TWO readers have a chance to win my most used kitchen tool – a handcrafted Japanese Chef’s knife. The exact knife I use every day – read more about it here! It’s sitting here in my house, brought all the way back from a little boutique knife shop in Tokyo....
Use for Eggs Benedict and steamed asparagus, and it’s also particularly spectacular with crustaceans such as lobster, crab, prawns/shrimp and scallops. Hollandaise Sauce This classic sauce is regarded as one of the most technically challenging in the French cooking repertoire. Traditionally made with just a whisk and bowl set over a double boiler, it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes of vigorous whisking. If the heat is too high you end up with scrambled eggs....
These Mexican Pulled Pork Rolls are: Great for feeding a crowd. One batch of Pork Carnitas (Mexican pulled pork) will make 25 to 30 of these! (Though this recipe is only to make 4); Freezer friendly, so are great to make ahead; Easy on the budget; Easy to make; and Jazzed up with a gourmet spin with caramelised onions, a great frugal way for making things “gourmet”! I would die a happy girl if I was buried under a mound of these....
Wikipedia says “A Pilaf is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth.” That’s exactly what this dish is. Lamb mince and spinach cooked with rice seasoned with Middle Eastern spices. Hence it’s name – Middle Eastern Lamb and Lentil Rice Pilaf. I’ve repeatedly professed my love for Middle Eastern food. It’s the spices that does it for me. I find the smell and flavour of Middle Eastern spices irresistible....
My family always gives me grief about how often I make Middle Eastern dishes for family dinners. Or, as they usually say, “Middle Eastern inspired” dishes. Hmph! I don’t think I make that many Middle Eastern dishes. Though….I just remembered….I do have an entire Middle Eastern recipes collection on my blog! Well, there’s a good reason for it! I love food with big flavours and Middle Eastern food is loaded with flavour....
This is a reader favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”. My best Vanilla Cake recipe is….. Plush, moist, fluffy crumb without being freakishly unnaturally so (as some store bought can be). No more dense cakes! Keeps near perfectly for 4 whole days. 100% fresh on Day 1, still 96% perfect on Day 4. That’s unheard of! Lovely vanilla and butter flavour without a greasy mouthfeel; Even, elegant crumb – no large tunnels or irregular, crumbly holes; Bakes perfectly flat – no levelling required!...
Traditionally served on yellow saffron Risotto Milanese and topped with a fresh mixture of parsley, lemon and garlic known as Gremolata. But just as delicious piled over mashed potato! This is a slow cooked recipe that belongs alongside greats like Shredded Beef Ragu and Beef Guinness Stew. Osso Buco “You never have Osso Buco for me!!”, I pouted at my butcher. (“Never” being a bit of an exaggeration, but embellishment sometimes just pours out of me during desperate times....
Made with cabbage, fennel, apple, dill and caraway seeds, this is the side we love to serve alongside Southern foods like Fried Chicken, brisket, BBQ Chicken, pulled pork and ribs. No Mayo Coleslaw This is the RecipeTin Family recipe for a Coleslaw made without mayonnaise that we truly believe stacks up to traditional Coleslaw in all it’s mayo-laden glory. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good creamy Coleslaw. But typically, Coleslaw gets suggested when we’re planning rich Southern menus for a family dinner....
Pot Roast Confession: I wasn’t a fan of pot roast for most of my life. I just didn’t get it – the beef and vegetables were fine, but typically they are braised in just liquids that aren’t thickened in any way so the end result is like a watery broth. Plenty of flavour in it, but when you pour it over the beef and vegetables, it doesn’t cling to it at all because it’s watery....
Pumpkin Pie For a recipe that’s actually incredibly simple to make, perfecting The Pumpkin Pie was irritatingly difficult – hence why it’s taken me until 5 years to share it. Not enough spicing, weird blend of spicing, too sweet, not sweet enough, unpleasant “curdled” filling, severe cracks, overcooked, undercooked. I feel like I’ve battled every possible variation of pumpkin pie to confirm that this is The One. It’s based on the filling recipe from Smitten Kitchen albeit I tweaked the spices (I found them too subtle) and reduced the oven temperature because I discovered by trial and error that this is the easiest path to avoid cracks on the surface of my Pumpkin Pie....
I love this recipe not only because it is so tasty, but also because it’s a really simple side dish that takes mere minutes to prepare and requires only one baking tray to make. I simply chop and crumble stale bread to make the breadcrumbs – very roughly because I like my breadcrumbs chunky – but this will also work well with panko (olive oil makes it clump together slightly)....
Rack of Lamb recipe Welcome to the first recipe for Easter Week 2021! We’re kicking off with a traditional choice of meat for Easter: lamb. Not just any old lamb, though. Today we’re going for the Rolls Royce of cuts, rack of lamb! Lamb rack is a premium cut of meat and a darling of fine dining restaurants, for good reason. The meat in a rack of lamb is amongst the most tender and juicy on the animal, while still retaining plenty of flavour....
Juicy seasoned beef patties drowning in an outrageously delicious Mushroom Gravy, this Salisbury Steak recipe has been tried and loved by readers from all over the world… now it’s your turn! 🙂 Salisbury Steak There’s a homeless guy who lives at our local dog park. He’s a valuable member of our community – he knows all the locals, looks after the park like it’s his own backyard, and he tells the worst jokes....
Creamy Herb & Garlic Salmon Sauce Here’s a lovely way to serve the world’s most popular fish – smothered in a cream sauce that’s lifted with a good hit of fresh herbs. The luscious sauce is a sensational match with the rich, oily flesh of the salmon. And the best part? You’ll be done in 15 minutes flat! What you need for this Creamy Salmon Sauce The trick to making simple sauces taste incredible is to use ingredients that add complexity and savoury depth....
Make this using whatever veggies you have, switch up the chicken with prawns/shrimp, pork, beef or even fish. This is a winner! I know my local supermarkets pretty well. I know exactly where to go for most items (except cling wrap, which, for some reason, I always forget which aisle it’s in and Woolies people tell me it’s the single most asked question) and I know the aisles pretty well....
No secret ingredients. Just a secret Japanese baking technique applied to classic butter cupcakes ingredients. It’s like…. magic! ✨ It’s notoriously hard to find a really good, classic cupcake recipe. Many promise game changing techniques, but all too often they fall short. So why should you believe me when I say this is the last Vanilla Cupcake recipe you’ll ever use? Because this is already a tried and proven recipe made using the batter from my Vanilla Cake....
Tomato Passata is an ingredient that I’m quite fond of, one I use regularly in tomato-based sauces. Though increasing in popularly, it’s not as well known as crushed tomato and tomato paste. So I thought it would be helpful to do a little 101 on Tomato Passata – what it is, how to use it, why I love it so much! What is Tomato Passata? Tomato Passata is just plain tomato that’s been pureed and passed through a sieve to strain out any chunks so it’s perfectly smooth....
