A Pretend Chef

I usually serve these dishes along with the Balinese Tamarind Chicken (see my post from November 7, 2009 - http://apretendchef.blogspot.com/2009/10/balinese-tamarind-chicken-ayam-panggang.html ) and always with some jasmine or basmati rice. You can prepare the shredded chicken and salad dishes in advance, earlier on the day (refrigerating the chicken dish up until a 1/2 hour before serving). The satay beef dish is a recipe I picked up from a local restaurant that use to be situated down a side street in Seminyak in the 90's before it became the bustling tourist precinct it is today. I was able to talk the restaurant's owner, Enda, into letting me into his kitchen for 1-on-1 classes over a few days. The shredded Chicken and vegetable salad are both traditional Balinese dishes that were taught to me at the Hotel Tugu along with the Tamarind Chicken dish. The amount of chilli used in each dish is up to your personal taste. The amounts noted in these recipes are mild to hot, b

In my last recipe post, Vegetable and Risoni Soup, I listed one of the ingredients as a bouquet garni of parsley and basil. What I didn't explain was how you actually make a bouquet garni. Very silly of me, and a point that was kindly brought to my attention by Kim in Paris who has a website; http://www.easy-french-food.com/ Kim provides an excellent overview about what is a bouquet garni and how to make one. http://www.easy-french-food.com/bouquet-garni.html Enjoy!

It's not winter yet, however I've just returned to a cold wet Sydney after a week on Koh Samui in Thailand and it feels like winter. So what's one of the best things to eat on an unusually cool and wet Summer's night that feels like winter? A hearty, chunky bowl of Italian inspired soup. The great thing about this style of soup is you don't need to be exact. You can add various vegetables you happen to have sitting around in the fridge. I serve this sprinkled with some freshly grated parmesan and sometimes some chilli. It's also nice with some squeezed lemon juice over the top. Ingredients 1 medium sized onion, roughly chopped 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 carrot, peeled and diced 1 stalk of celery, de-strung and diced 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 large red chilli, halved and de-seeded 1 fresh bay leaf 3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks (good waxy potatoes that won't disintegrate such as desiree are perfect) 1 cup of p

This is possibly my favourite pasta sauce and is dead simple to make. I got the idea of a roast tomato sauce from Stephanie Alexander's legendary cookbook, The Cook's Companion. You can leave out the sausage and use the base sauce with any number of meats, particularly seafood. Roasting the sauce gives a slightly sweet caramelised effect. Serves 4 Ingredients 500g freshly cooked pasta 2 large or 4 small cacciatore sausages (I prefer the hot variety) diced into small pieces 10 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped 1 medium spanish onion, roughly chopped 1 medium brown onion, roughly chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 60ml extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 fresh bay leaves 1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley pinch of salt & pepper to taste Freshly grated parmesan cheese to serve Method 1. Pre-heat fan forced oven to 180C 2. Place tomatoes, onion, garlic, bay leaves, and extra virgin olive oil in a large baking dish, mix very well by hand,

Both the lamb and haloumi recipes are from Pete Evans' cookbook, Grill http://www.peterevanschef.com.au . This is one of the best BBQ cookbooks I've come across and it includes a range of cocktail recipes that make this book a unique addition to the cookbook library. The cocktail is truly undervalued as a great partner to any Aussie barbie! The original Spiced Lamb recipe from the Grill cookbook has these as skewers, however I've made them as small skinless sausages in this instance. Either way works. I just avoided using skewers for this recipe so it's a little more 'child friendly'. My youngest daughter, Emma, in particular can get very animated at the dinner table and skewers mixed with wild flourishing hand movements don't mix. The original lamb recipe includes hot paprika which I've not included, again aiming to make the meal more child friendly. I've also slightly changed the haloumi/chorizo salad recipe, again to better suit the palate of the