Coleslaw with an asian twist

Coleslaw used to be one of my favourite salads. Childhood days in my Mum's late 1970s kitchen, when Margaret Fulton ruled (she still does occasionally), and when a "salad" was always lettuce, tomato and cucumber with french dressing. There were only two other variations - Potato salad (with bacon chips from a jar) and the aforementioned, sweet and dripping with store bought "coleslaw" dressing. My mum used to add nutmeg and somehow this translated it into a dessert rather than a vegetable. But one day, I tried the coleslaw from a take-out restaurant, and this soggy mess with raw onions and bland flavour destroyed it for me. I will never eat coleslaw again.

But, I will take some of the ingredients, and give it my own twist. I'll eat this kind, and so does everyone else - it's a party favourite. It even has a crunch honouring my mum's bacon chips on potato salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated carrot (or fine julienne is better if you can be bothered)
• 2 cups finely sliced red cabbage (also called purple cabbage or blue kraut)
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
• 3 tbsp white Japanese sweet sauce (*see note on sauces)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup aloo bhujia for topping **
  

Gluten Free, Dairy Free cupcakes – as easy as 1, 2, 3

It’s amazing where your best recipes come from. This was my son’s maths homework. His male, non-cooking teacher sent home a recipe that was to be used to practice multiplication. He sent home the ingredients for 6 cupcakes, and asked students to make him 12 or 18 at a time. With my kids being on a gluten free diet, I substituted the self raising flour mix by Doves Farm. I also substituted the caster sugar for some coconut sugar I had just picked up from the organic shop (less processed = better for the soul). The recipe was already dairy free.

It’s one of the only cake batters I’ve made that does not contain milk or at least a liquid substitute, and I was convinced it was going to be rock hard – not so. Eggs are mighty little ingredients. Recipe below makes 6 cupcakes – but can easily be multiplied, as my son can vouch for.

Sarah's Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding. It's one of those things I wish I could like, but I just loathe the delivery. Yucky sliced white bread soaked in sloppy juice. The concept is great - oodles of magenta sugary bombs wrapped in a secret parcel, but I just keep on coming back to the bread, which would probably taste much better with a slice of plastic cheese on it. The name "Summer Pudding" should conjure feelings of sweetness and light, and yet it's been hijacked by a lump of soggy purple bread. So - here's MY summer pudding. So much better.

Ingredients:

• stale cake - enough to cover the bottom of your bowl
• mixed berries - twice the volume of your cake - make sure at least 1/3 is tinned in juice.
• white chocolate (about 100 - 150g)
• whipping cream (same volume as cake)

Kiddies Corn Fritters

These have always a staple in our family. I think they started off as a breakfast item, but now they are one of the most frequently requested dinner veggies, and I always save some for the lunchbox the next day.

Considering we have switched to being gluten and dairy free, they've seen a little adjustment. I now use a gluten flour mix (Doves Farm self raising) and I replace cow's milk with camel milk (easy to buy here in Dubai, low in bad casein, and a creamier replica than soy or rice milk). The recipe tastes just as good either way.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 x 340g tin of sweet corn (12 Oz)
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• pinch salt
• pinch smoked paprika

Pomegranate and Quinoa salad

I've just discovered that you can cook quinoa in a rice cooker. This means no more sticky-together or crunchy bits, no more burned quinoa stuck to the bottom of the pan, and no more constant checking. Just plop in 2 cups of quinoa to 4 cups of water, turn it on and go away.

As a result, I'm finally cooking more quinoa.

Quinoa has a very woody flavour, and it needs something with it to temper the strength of this, particularly if you are trying to get kids to eat it. I've tried it warm and curried (here), which I thought was pretty good, but it got the definite thumbs down from the kids. This time, I served it cold, and to balance the raw and dusty flavour, added pomegranate seeds for sweetness and mint for freshness. And pine nuts, just because I like them.

Frittata v Spanish omelet

I've made breakfast on new years day for 40 party-sore camping revellers. It was my first ever 96-egg omelet. I made it in a iron pan twice the size of a baby bath dragged out of the garage and thrown over some hot coals left from the night before. It earned me a return invitation for the following year's party, and a reputation - the fact that I could prepare a yummy breakfast for so many people without warning, and with the mother of all hangovers made me a 'good cook'. They didn't know that it was because when I was 14, my mum showed me how to make a frittata, and she's a self-declared 'particularly average cook'.

It's the easiest thing in the world to make - just make a thick omelet with your leftovers and grill some cheese on top. I have one rule with my frittata - it has to contain potato. This is where the whole confusion of the name comes in. Many people call a frittata a spanish omelet and vice versa. Both are thick, and need to be cooked top and bottom unlike a regular omelet, but a Spanish omelet must contain potato, and in fact, often that's all it contains besides the egg and some spices. So, in fact, my 'frittata' is probably a Spanish omelet, especially when I throw chorizo in it. (what it definitely isn't is kookoo - a Persian herb omelet, which sounds amazing and deserves further investigation). But then again, who said a frittata couldn't contain potato...?

Ingredients:

Honey Bundt

My kids have colds again. 

My granny knew the cure for the common cold a long, long time ago. So did her granny, and her granny's granny. Honey, citrus, and love. Now we have scientific proof - honey not only soothes a sore throat, it also aids in controlling bacteria and supports the immune system. Citrus is full of vitamin C, another immune booster, antioxidants and folate. And love? Well, I don't need a lab report to tell me that it makes you feel better (but there is one anyway)

I'm a big fan of Manuka honey - I always have some in my cupboard. That, and some organic local honey, which I have been told is good for fighting inflammation from exposure to local pollens. I also used a mix of half ghee, half grapeseed oil to boost antioxidents and linoleic acid. As usual, I have made a gluten free and dairy free option, but this could easily be made with standard ingredients.

I made this cake entirely by hand, as it was the 31st March, and I did so in honour of Earth Hour. It was lovely and fluffy - there is no need to use electric beaters. The kids also helped me with this one - it's super easy. It's not a super-sweet cake, but trust me, if they help you make it, they won't even notice.

Almost healthy yeast-free apple doughnuts

I've fought making doughnuts. I'm not really sure why - probably it was the idea of deep-frying. Not the fat - I don't mind a bit of that. No - it was about the fuss, the mess, the chance of slopping oil all over my clothes, or worse, scalding my hands. Or my children's hands.

So I waited until everyone was preoccupied, and I crept out to the kitchen to conquer my fear while nobody was watching. I wanted to do it quickly, so I used self-raising flour instead of a yeast-based dough. I apologise for the complete lack of measurements*. This is a recipe that is best done by feel.

Ingredients

• apple - peeled and loosely diced
• milk (I used almond milk)
• softened butter (I used dairy-free ghee)
• egg
• self raising flour (I used gluten free)
• pinch salt
• oil for frying (I used grapeseed)
• sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Teriyaki Carrot Salad

This is a no-measure salad, but for the benefit of those who like a little guidance, I've put approximates in. It's oil free, gluten free, dairy free. It serves as a great base, and can be added to easily. It is now eaten at least one day per week in one form or another.

Ingredients

• 6 carrots, grated (I used 2 purple, 4 orange)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
• 1/4 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tsp grated garlic
• 1tbsp sesame seeds
• 1tsp teriyaki sauce
• 1/2 tsp mirin

Instructions:

1. toast sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat, flipping often so they don't burn.
2. Put all ingredients in a bowl and toss.

Date Cakes - healthier than ordinary cupcakes

You're going to see some changes in my recipes. I'm trying to cut sugar out of my youngest boy's diet. But for this sucrose monster, we'll start with baby steps. Considering he had absolutely no sugar all day, I think he did pretty well until he broke down at 4pm asking for cake. Don't let anyone tell you sugar is not a drug. Here's one for weaning him off. Technically it has no "sugar", but has natural sweetening from the dates, and just a smidgen of honey. As I said, baby steps - but it's still better than chocolate cupcakes...

Retro love - Prawn Cocktail

Some matches never get old. Tomatoes and basil, apples and cinnamon, fish and chips with lemon, red wine and cheese. Cold prawns with 1970s cocktail sauce. Mmmmm awesome.... Forthcoming - a particularly old-school, but not tired recipe. You might have a similar one in a frayed, 30 year old cookbook somewhere. Not new, old, done a thousand times and more. But here it is again.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Prawns - cleaned, cooked, peeled and cooled. (you can buy them this way)
• 1 avocado
• 1 baby cos lettuce
• 1 lemon

     for the sauce:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp mustard (I use Dijon)
• 1 tbsp vinegar (I use white wine)
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp cream, whisked to soft peaks
• dash tomato sauce
• dribble Worcestershire sauce
• Tabasco to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Lamingtons - the great Australian cheat

I've only been baking for a year or two. I used to think that making cakes is hard. I presume a conspiracy of the Australian CWA (Country Women's Association) and other organisations similar. They got into our heads that cakes had to be perfect, and perfect meant the way they had always been made. 

With the rise of modern baking however, we see things like whoopie pies. I'm sure it was initially an accident by someone like me. Tried to make biscuits, but mucked up the measures and they ended up too soft, and whoopie! You get something even better. I can feel the old dears turning in their graves every time someone tastes one and says - "Wow - this is SO much better than shortbread!"

Schnitzel

Before visiting Vienna (read my food path through old Vienna here) I had only had one great schnitzel in my life, and that was at the Tivoli Club, in Prahran, a German club with platter-sized schnitzel, cheap boutique beers and lederhosen to be enjoyed in the glow and tinkle of the inevitable poker machines that you always find in struggling Australian pubs and clubs. The schnitzel was to die for – it came about 15 different ways, in varieties of pork, turkey and veal, and with various flavours – Jäger, Zigeuner, Paprika, Käse, Rahm, or my favourite, Holstein – with fried egg, onions and capers. But to be honest, it’s really all about the schnitzel itself. It’s the kind of meat that every carnivore loves, including the super-fussy three-year-old kind of carnivore.

Ingredients:

• 500g lean meat, preferably pork or veal 
• 2 eggs 
• splash of water 
• ½ cup plain flour 
• salt and pepper 
• 1 ½ cups breadcrumbs 
• oil for pan-frying (canola best)

Apple Pastries

 There used to be a show on Australian TV called "Surprise Chef". This excitable chef would accost people in supermarkets, force the camera in their face, and then go home with them and put the camera through their pantry and fridge. His aim was to make a gourmet three-course meal for their family with only what he could find there.

Today, I found some gorgeous pink lady apples - the kind that look like they have come straight off a tree and into your basket, ripe, smelling like a glass of apple juice, un-waxed, oddly shaped and un-spectacularly coloured. I had to make an apple pie with no pie pan, and the laziest way possible (children wanted to eat them RIGHT NOW!!!). So I delved into my shelves, and found some condensed milk. "Hmmm...", I thought "Now that will be my challenge ingredient".

So here are the easiest apple pastries ever.