Barbecued Prawns With Smoky Chipotle Butter

These prawns are epic according to one of my boys!

The butter quickly melts over the prawns so I like to serve them with some of the melted butter spooned over the top to no one misses out!

Serves 4. You can make the flavoured butter the day before and keep it rolled in the fridge or make it and freeze it for a week.

Ingredients

800g large prawns, deveined, peeled but leaving the tail intact

100g butter

1 garlic clove

1 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon fresh chopped oregano

2 teaspoons fresh chopped parsley

salt and pepper

Method

Make the flavoured butter first, combine all of the ingredients except the prawns in a processor and process until smooth.

Scrape the butter onto a large piece of platic wrap, cover and gently roll, twisting in the edges as you go.

Pop the butter into the fridge to harden.

Prepare the prawns and season with a little salt and pepper.

Heat the BBQ, once hot, cook the prawns.

Plate the prawns in your serving dish, top with slices of the butter and serve with slices of lime.

Tempeh With Sumac And Zatar

Having lived in Indonesia I love tempeh and it works really well with the Middle Eastern flavours of sumac and zatar. I needs to be fried a little with the spices before popping it in the oven for a final roasting.

You could use a firm tofu here but just stir fry it in the pan without the baking in the oven.

Serves 2.

Ingredients

200g tempeh

50ml oil

1 small red onion, sliced finely

1 garlic clove, sliced finely

2 teaspoons sumac

3 teaspoons zatar

1 small capsicum, sliced into strips

a few thin slices of lime

salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Centigrade.

In an oven proof pan, heat the oil gently.

Add the onion and cook slowly until the onion is soft, add the garlic, sumac and two teaspoons of zatar and cook for one minute until fragrant.

Turn the heat up to high and add the tempeh, cook for one minute stirring well.

Add the capsicum and stir through.

Top with the lime slices.

Pop the pan into the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the capsicum is beginning to colour.

Australia Day Berry Pavlova

I know that there is an ongoing argument about whether the pavlova comes from Australia or New Zealand but for the purposes of a gluten free dessert on Australia Day I claim it as ours!

You can make the meringues the day before but they need to be stored in an airtight container.

Serves 8-10.

Ingredients

4 large egg whites

220g caster sugar

400mls cream

500g fresh strawberries, hulled and halved

125g fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 130 degrees Centigrade.

Take two pieces of baking parchment and draw around a dinner plate to give you a 26cm circle on each piece of paper.

Turn the paper over so the pencil mark is on the base and place each sheet onto a baking sheet.

Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until forming stiff peaks.

Gradually add the sugar, around two teaspoons at a time, beating each addition in very well.

Once all of the sugar has been added, use a spatula to spoon half of the meringue onto the first sheet of prepared parchment, carefully spreading up to the line, I don’t do a precise spread and I like to have it a little uneven around the edges!

Bake the meringues in the oven for 90-120minutes, when they are cooked they will lift off the baking parchment easily.

Allow to cool completely on the baking sheets.

To assemble the pavlova, or pav as we call it, whip the cream until forming soft peaks.

Place one meringue on the serving plate, spread over half the cream and top with just under half of the fruit.

Top with the remaining meringue, again spread the cream and sprinkle over your fruit.

Baked Carrots With Smoked Paprika

As simple as these are they are very popular with my boys!

For years the boys would only eat raw carrots and even today would choose raw over cooked, enter smoked paprika to jazz up their cooked carrots!

If you are wanting to make this vegan or fat free, omit the butter and add around a teaspoon of water. If you are cooking on a BBQ then just slide the foil packet onto the grill.

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of you bunches of carrots. Ours come with their green tops still attached, these go straight out to the chooks for a treat.

Ingredients

2 large bunches of baby or Dutch carrots, greenery removed

10-20g butter or a little water

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

a really good grind of fresh peppper

a little pinch of salt flakes

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Take a long piece if kitchen foil and top it with a slightly shorter piece of baking parchment.

Pop the carrots onto the baking parchment, dot with butter or water and sprinkle over the smoked paprika, pepper and salt.

Fold the parchment to create a sealed parcel and repeat with the foil so no steam can escape.

Slide the parcel onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes.

Allow to sit for three minutes before opening.

Chipotle Chilli And Sundried Tomato Roast Chicken

Only a week of school holidays to go so time to get back into sharing what I’ve been up to in the kitchen these last few weeks!

As many of you know, I’m a BIG fan of flattening whole chooks like this, it’s really quite easy with a pair of poultry shears or kitchen scissors, you just cut up each side of the spine, trim around the skin, flip the chook over and squash the breasts down with the palm of your hand. I then loosen as much of the skin as I can to then pour the marinade right in against the skin for maximum flavour and to give you some really juicy chicken.

Dont waste any pan juices or the bones either! I pop the removed spines under the chooks to roast at the same time and then once we are done, all of the bones and pan juices go into the pressure cooker to make an amazing smoky stock, great for tomato based soups or even dirty rice!

Serves 10-12.

Ingredients

2 x 1.6kg chickens, spines removed and flattened

2 chipotle chillies in Adobe sauce plus and extra tablespoon of sauce

10 Sundried tomato halves

4 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

1 tablespoon dried oregano

100mls olive oil

salt and pepper

Method

Prepare the chicken first. once the spine has been removed, I use poultry shears, flatten the chicken breasts with the palm of you hand. Next, slide your fingers up under the skin over the breasts, legs and thighs, loosening it as you go.

In a processor, whizz up the chipotle chillies and sauce, Sundried tomatoes, garlic, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, pepper and oil.

Now, por the marinade into a piping bag or a food prep bag. Cut the corner off and use the bag to squeeze most of the marinade under the skin of the two chooks. Rub the remaining marinade over the outside over the skin while rubbing the marinade under the skin to make sure it goes into all of the nooks and crannies!

Allow the chicken to marinade for 4-24 hours if you have time.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

Lay the chooks in a roasting tin, breasts up.

Roast in the oven for 80 minutes, basting regularly until the skin is supe crisp and the meat cooked through.

Allow to rest for 20 minutes before serving to give you supe moist meat.