Zesty Coleslaw

Another coleslaw recipe, this one is great with rich meat when you need something light and zesty as a side or as I’ve done with pulled pork tonight. It’s also nice and easy to prepare for a barbecue as you let it sit around after making to let all the flavours meld together.

Adjust the herbs to suit your tastes or what you have available.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

1/4 red cabbage, finely sliced

1 small red onion, finely sliced

140g snow pea sprouts, halved

2 tablespoons fresh chopped mint

1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill

3-4 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander, leaves and stalks

175mls sour cream

1 lime, juiced

Salt and pepper

Method

Combine the cabbage, onion, pea sprouts and fresh herbs in a bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream, lime juice and seasoning.

Pour the sour cream dressing over the cabbage mixture and stir well.

Allow to sit for 15-30 minutes before serving.

Stir again just before serving.

Mexican Corn On The Cob

The picture really doesn’t do this corn justice but quite honestly, it doesn’t last long enough for photos to be taken!

With a household of boys if you serve food on a stick or with a bone they will eat their fill of it without complaining, I’m sure it harks back to caveman days!

These are moreish, you can use the whole cob but these half cobs are cute and if you are feeding smaller mouths, a little more manageable.

I have given instructions for cooking indoors but these work well on the bbq. Peel the husk  off, remove the fronds and put the husk back over the corn and bbq. Once cooked, unwrap, dip in the sauce, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

6 corn cobs,husk and fronds removed, cut in half

150g sour cream

110g mayonnaise

1/2 lime, juiced

15g fresh coriander levels, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

Salt and pepper

60g Parmesan, grated

Method

Boil the corn for 5-6 minutes in salted water until cooked.

In a bowl, combine the sour cream, mayo, lime juice, coriander, garlic, salt and pepper.

Heat a large dry frying pan over high heat.

Tip the corn into a colander to drain.

Now add the corn to the dry pan and turn regularly until it has coloured.

Stick a small skewer into the end of each cob half.

Using the skewer, pick up the cob and dip it in the sour cream dip, swirling it around to cover it.

Place on a serving plate and repeat with the remaining corn, sprinkle over the cheese and serve. 

Cheese And Jalapeño Muffins

Cheese and jalapeño, a match made in heaven here and gluten free to boot!

Sometimes it can be hard to find Mexican cornflour in Western Australia so a great way to get around that is to use crushed up corn chips, it works, I promise.

We have these muffins with a bowl of soup or they go to school for lunches for the boys, any leftovers, freeze on the day of baking. 

Makes 10 large, 120g muffins.

Ingredients

150g crushed plain corn chips

220g grated cheese

3 large jalapeño chillies, deseeded, quartered lengthwise and sliced thinly

125g chickpea/bean flour

50g tapioca flour

50g ground almonds/almond meal

4 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

2 eggs

200g sour cream

1 tablespoon whole grain mustard

150mls milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Line a twelve hole muffin tin with large muffin cases, this mix makes ten muffins with my cases.

In a large bowl, combine the crushed corn chips, grated cheese, jalapeño, chickpea flour, tapioca flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Give it all a good stir to combine and season with pepper and a little salt depending on how salty your corn chips are.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs, add the sour cream and whisk again, add the mustard and milk and whisk a final time.

Now, pour the wet ingredients into the dry, scraping out the mustard seeds that will have sunk to the bottom.

Give the mix a brief stir and then spoon into the prepared cases.

Sprinkle a little extra cheese over the top if you want and then slide the tray into the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes until golden and risen. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Salmon And Sour Cream Bake With Chives

This is one of those fab dishes that you just stir everything together, top it and bake, so, no sauce to thicken and gluten free to boot!

Feel free to use regular breadcrumbs if you don’t need to do the gluten free thing, if using gluten free bread, I whizz up the crusts as well, GF bread is too expensive to throw away the crusts.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

400g fresh salmon, skinned, boned and cut into 2 cm cubes

160g hot smoked salmon, skin removed

400mls full fat sour cream

juice and zest of one lemon

salt and pepper

1 large bunch of chives, two tablespoons set aside

60g gluten free fresh breadcrumbs

60g finely grated Gruyere cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

In a bowl combine the two salmon, sour cream, juice and zest of the lemon, the chopped chives, keeping two tablespoons to the side, salt and pepper.

In another bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, reserved chives and pepper.

Spoon the salmon mix into and oven proof of dish, I use a dish that’s 23x18cm.

Sprinkle over the breadcrumb mix.

Pop the bake into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.

Smoked Garlic Potato Salad

Everyone loves a good potato salad and although I’ve posted a recipe before this one incorporates my new favourite flavour of smoked garlic.

Although I tend to use a whole clove, and they are big, maybe start with half a clove and work up from there to suit your taste buds.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

500g cooked baby potatoes, skin on, cut into 1-2cm chunks

180mls sour cream

200mls mayonnaise

1/2-1 clove smoked garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper

Method

Combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, smoked garlic, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl.

Add the potatoes, stir through and serve with a little extra parsley sprinkled over the top.

Creamy Chicken Chilli

This is a really handy way of making chicken chilli, great over rice and great as a dip with nachos.

I like to serve this chilli in individual bowls if it’s for dipping or a large oven proof dish if it’s a main meal.

Serves 8.

Ingredients

30mls olive oil

2 onions, finely diced

6 garlic cloves, finely sliced

3 jalapeño chillies, deseeded and diced

4 large chicken breasts, cut to 1cm dice

300mls cream

300mls sour cream

Juice and zest of 2 limes

salt and pepper

large bunch of coriander

150g fresh mozzarella, drained

Method

In a large deep frying pan, heat the oil and add the onions, cook until translucent.

Add the garlic and jalapeños and cook for two minutes.

Add the diced chicken and seal quickly without burning the onions.

Stir in the cream, sour cream and the juice and zest of the two limes.

Season well and bring up to a simmer. preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade.

Simmer for twenty minutes until the chicken is thourghly cooked.

Take an oven proof dish and spoon the chicken mixture in, sprinkle over the fresh mozzarella and bake for 25-30 minutes until the cheese is golden.

Seared Tuna With Black Sesame And Pepper Crust And Avocado Cream

An absolute luxury in our house!

Simple and effective, the freshest Sashimi grade tuna seared like a steak with a wee drop of sauce to go with it.

This can be cooked on a barbecue hot plate too.

Serves 2.

Ingredients

250g piece of tuna

1 tablespoonful gluten free soy sauce or tamari sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

freshly ground pepper

DRESSING

1 small avocado

60mls sour cream

juice of 1/4  lime

salt and pepper

Method

Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger in a shallow dish.

Place the tuna in the marinade and turn to cover the entire fillet.

Allow to marinade for 30 minutes and then turn and marinade again for 30 minutes.

While the tuna is marinading, process the avocado cream ingredients, check for seasoning and set aside.

Heat a frying pan over a very high heat.

Take the tuna out of the marinade and wipe with some kitchen paper to dry the entire fillet.

Pour the sesame seeds and pepper onto a plate, dip the tuna in the sesame mix until totally covered.

Lay the fillet in the very hot pan and sear to your liking, turn and repeat.

I allow the tuna to cool to room temperature before slicing and serving but you can serve it hot from the pan.

Salmon and Dill Quiche

This is a super creamy quiche that is lovely warm or cold with a salad.

Gluten free pastry is a pain to work with, you need to forget all that you have learnt handling regular pastry and just accept it for what it is, sticky and tricky so go for more of a rustic look rather than perfection!

I like to make this when I have some leftover poached salmon or alternatively, season  uncooked salmon and wrap in a foil parcel, bake at 200 degrees Centigrade for 15 mins, allow to cool in the parcel.

Serves 8.

Ingredients

Pastry

80g rice flour

80g buckwheat flour

80g polenta

30g ground almonds

Pinch of salt

160g butter, diced

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

Filling

5 eggs

220mls sour cream

220mls cream

350g cooked salmon

4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

salt and pepper

15g Parmesan, finely grated

Method

In a food processor, combine the flours, polenta, ground almonds and butter until they form breadcrumbs.

Whisk the egg and water together and with the motor running add them to the flours, process until the dough comes together.

Remove the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge for two hours.

Take a 23cm wide, 3cm deep quiche tin.

Break small pieces off the dough and gently squish them into the tin until you have covered the base and sides, rising 5mm higher than the edge height.

Pop the tin into the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade.

Remove the tin from the fridge, line with a piece of baking parchment and fill with baking beads or beans.

Place the tin on a baking sheet and bake blind for 15-20 mins.

Remove from the oven, still on the tray.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, add the sour cream and cream and whisk again.

Stir in the dill, salt and pepper.

Spread the salmon chunks over the base of the pastry case.

Pour the egg mix over the salmon and sprinkle the Parmesan over.

Bake in the oven for 25-30mins until the quiche is golden and the egg has only a slight wobble!

Allow to settle for 10mins before cutting.

Con Queso Beef Chilli

Oh dear, this is what happens when you fancy making some con queso dip and need to make some beef chilli for dinner!

The trick with this is having the oven low and slow so the cheese in the chilli doesn’t stick to the pan. Leftovers freeze well, in fact I always make double for the leftovers, just again, re heat very gently in the oven.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

50mls olive oil

1 onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

2 jalapeño chillies, deseeded and finely diced

1 tablespoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 chipotle chillies in adobe sauce

600g minced beef

400g tin chopped tomatoes

350mls sour cream

300g Cheddar cheese

125mls milk

420g tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Centigrade.

In and oven proof pan, with a lid, heat the oil over a medium heat.

Add the onion, garlic and jalapeño chilli, cook until the onion is soft.

Add the coriander, cumin, chipotle chilli with adobe sauce and beef, increase the heat to high and brown the beef.

Add the tomatoes, sour cream, cheese and milk, stir well and season.

Cover the pan with a piece of baking parchment and the lid, pop in the oven.

Cook for 3 hours, add the beans and cook for a further hour, covered.

Gorgeous Pink Beetroot Soup

I have mentioned before the need to get some more pink into my household of boys!

I use chicken stock for this recipe but a good vegetarian stock works really well too and if you don’t have sour cream a wee swirl of regular cream is perfect.

Serves 6.

Ingredients

50g butter or oil

1 large onion, diced

900g beetroot, peeled and diced

1 large potato, peeled and diced

2 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1.8l stock

sour cream and chives to serve

Method

In a large pan, melt the butter over a medium heat.

Add the onion, beetroot, potato and garlic, stir well and cook gently until the onion has softened.

Add the stock and bring up to a simmer.

Simmer gently  for 30mins.

Allow to cool slightly and then use a stick blender to process.

Once you are ready to serve, warm the soup again gently, spoon into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream and some snipped chives.