Helen Walker
Chicken Caesar Salad Part 1:

Easy Caesar Salad Dressing : 1 egg 7 anchovy fillets, dash of white wine, salt n pepper to suit, spoon of crushed garlic in a blender then slowly add olive oil til you get a well blended consistency… If it thickens too much with the oil - then add a dash of wine to make it runny again. 

Crunchy Croutons : 

Slice a loaf of bread (white/ wholemeal/ seeded whatever) into cubes and place in one layer across a tray. 
Salt & pepper then flick (yes flick) crushed garlic over the cubed bread then pour about 2 tablespoons of oil over the bread. Use your hands and cover the cubed bread with the oil, garlic n s&p but try not to mush the bread up!! Place tray in a very hot oven for about 7 mins - keep an eye on it as the bread will burn quickly. If they browning on one side only, turn the bread so the other side browns off. Remove from oven when you are happy with the brown/crispness of the cubes and allow to cool before packaging & storing.


Z Bec Z Kavanagh
Home made garlic bread is a wonder :) I always make it on the fly though and never really follow a recipe. Just chuck some garlic, salt, pepper and herbs (used Italian herbs today) in butter. Seeing as I made it on a whim I only had normal bread but toasted both sides and was already yummy fresh bread, lathered with my butter on bother sides and topped with grated cheese and diced tomato. YUM. Thankfully I have left over butter mix

Z Bec Z Kavanagh
This one is actually one that Arlene Turnbull has given me :) Yummy!
If you are using onions finely chop one small onion and fry until clear. Add garlic, chilli, salt and pepper (exact amounts not provided - all to taste). Pour in 300 ml cream and cook until slightly thickened. Add 100g semi sundried tomatoes and olives. Heat. Stir thru one 500 gm pack of gnocchi.
I am making it right now for dinner tonight. I am not adding olives but am serving it with fetta cheese diced on top :D

The ingredients used in our marinade for pork. Don’t judge, it was actually the most amazing thing my sister and I have ever created! (Being My 2 sisters Danielle and Jessica, that is just copied pasted)

Katie Walters
Zucchini and Haloumi Frittas

1sml onion finely chopped
1 sml fennal bulb finely chopped
180g haloumi grated
3 lrg zucchinis
grated lemon rind (to your taste)
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
and 1/4cup milk

(and you can add bacon for extra flavor if you want)

then just cook them like you would frittas

Summer Shepherd
Sorry for the long post - but I recieved this email this morning from a dear friend in London who is a gourmet chef and who has been promising me for ages that she will craft recipies for 3 inexpensive and easy gourmet meals to make. So I thought I would share them with you guys too.

1) Is a dinner I made recently

Starter: I found this one at The Golden Galleon, a pub in the middle of nowhere between Seaford and Eastbourne. Since I was there three years ago, they changed the menu and the management, unfortunately. Still, I’ve been making this salad ever since.

The base is wild rocket. On top of that, you put roasted sweet potato pieces (I bake mine with salt, olive oil and a bit of Allspice for 25 minutes). With that goes a caramelised onion and pear sauce (simply fry onions, butter and sugar and add the pear, cook and add water to make it look saucy and then blend when ready) and roasted pine nuts. Add blue cheese crumbles too and crispy bacon. Drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top. YUMM!

Main: I made this one up, using things I found in my fridge.
For the marinated chicken breasts, I got the meat at the farmers’ market. For the marinade, I used apple cider vinegar, salad onions, one chilli, turmeric (helps to prevent cancer I recently read), lemon, pepper, salt, olive oil. I blended it all and then rubbed the chicken boobs in it and kept them in the fridge for 4 hours. Shove them in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius and keep there for 20 minutes.

With that, I made covolo nero, the black kale. Sounds awful, but it’s soooo good when shallow-steamed in water and apple cider vinegar.
Cook parsnips until very soft and make ‘snip mash, adding butter. Parsnip mash and kale are being served in all the Michelin star restaurants here at the moment…..and they pretend it’s something posh! Ha!

Dessert: Greek yoghurt, organic honey and marinated Greek walnuts. It’s a but tricky to get hold of them, but eating a whole walnut including the shell is worth it!

2)

Starter: My Italian ex’s mum and auntie taught me this one when I was in Italy.
It’s so simple! Take two St Jame’s shells (the scallop ones) and add a mix of bread crumbs, freshly-cut chilli, garlig, green onions and olive oil on top. Oven bake for 10 minutes max and you’ll have a starter to die for!

Main: This is one of my faves! I ate this when with my parents in France, travelling the Provence. We ate lunch in St Paul, a small artists’ village hanging on a cliff. We sat in a restaurant with an amazing view and amazing food -so good that I’ve been cooking this for more than 14 years (since I was 14 basically).

Pasta, preferably fettuccine, boiled till al dente.
Take a bechamel base (milk, flour, salt, nutmeg) and add mint -you’ve got your mint sauce there. Then roast or fry salmon fillet.
Take the pasta, stir in the sauce and serve. The salmon goes on
top!

Dessert: I don’t really look at quantities when I cook and the same thing can be said for baking.
I know for dough, you need about 300g of flour….I use wheat-free one. Take 3 eggs (I think) and some cemerara sugar (unrefined sugar is sooooo much better than castor sugar!), half a piece of butter, some honey and grate the peel of an organic lemon. Add it all together in a bowl and get the dough blender out for the mixture will be beaten!
Slowly add very small apple pieces (sweet ones rather than the super-sour Bramley) to the mix.

Fill in round form and bake at 180 degrees for about 25- 10 minutes.
I made that one last weekend…..it didn’t last till the morning. Ermmm…

3)

Starter: Chop a few chicoree bulbs and oranges and make a salad. Add yoghurt -that’s it. Seriously simple, but very healthy. I like this one on its own for breakfast also.
Very light balance to the main course.

Main: Again, something I learnt in Italy. Lasagna from scratch. I won’t do the pasta bit with you, because that’s messy, so if you can, get dried lasagna pasta sheets.

The ragu sauce! Needs to be boiled for a whole day normally, but if you have a pressure cooker, it’ll take 20 minutes.
Fry lean minced beef with salt, garlic and onions till completely brown. Pour away any fat that swims around (that just makes the sauce taste lardy). Put the flame really low now and add small tomato chunks, bay leaves, pepper, paprika powder and if you want, tomato purée from the tube (I try to avoid it as it’s salty but it gives the sauce a nice red colour). At the end, add herbs, like basil, oregano and parsley. Boil till you thin it’s ready and then a little bit longer. [:)]

Bechamel: Simmer some milk, add flour gradually till the sauce thickens, using a whisk. Add salt and freshly-grated nutmeg. Make enough to be able to cover two layers of your lasagna.

Greens: Can be blended spinach -boil, salt and blend to cover one layer of the lasagna.

Take your lasagna dish and fill:
Bottom layer: Ragu, then pasta, then greens, then pasta, then bechamel, then pasta, then ragu, then pasta, then bechamel and then grated cheese -maybe mozarella or a cheddar/mozzarella mix.

Bake until the cheese is golden brown (about 30-35 minutes).
Serve and lick dish clean [:D]

Dessert: Crush meringue as if it insulted you. One piece is for one person. Then add very finely chopped strawberries and mint. Stir with spoon and serve immediately. Sooooo yummy!

Summer Shepherd
Sorry for the long post - but I recieved this email this morning from a dear friend in London who is a gourmet chef and who has been promising me for ages that she will craft recipies for 3 inexpensive and easy gourmet meals to make. So I thought I would share them with you guys too.

1) Is a dinner I made recently

Starter: I found this one at The Golden Galleon, a pub in the middle of nowhere between Seaford and Eastbourne. Since I was there three years ago, they changed the menu and the management, unfortunately. Still, I’ve been making this salad ever since.

The base is wild rocket. On top of that, you put roasted sweet potato pieces (I bake mine with salt, olive oil and a bit of Allspice for 25 minutes). With that goes a caramelised onion and pear sauce (simply fry onions, butter and sugar and add the pear, cook and add water to make it look saucy and then blend when ready) and roasted pine nuts. Add blue cheese crumbles too and crispy bacon. Drizzle balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top. YUMM!

Main: I made this one up, using things I found in my fridge.
For the marinated chicken breasts, I got the meat at the farmers’ market. For the marinade, I used apple cider vinegar, salad onions, one chilli, turmeric (helps to prevent cancer I recently read), lemon, pepper, salt, olive oil. I blended it all and then rubbed the chicken boobs in it and kept them in the fridge for 4 hours. Shove them in the oven at 170 degrees Celsius and keep there for 20 minutes.

With that, I made covolo nero, the black kale. Sounds awful, but it’s soooo good when shallow-steamed in water and apple cider vinegar.
Cook parsnips until very soft and make ‘snip mash, adding butter. Parsnip mash and kale are being served in all the Michelin star restaurants here at the moment…..and they pretend it’s something posh! Ha!

Dessert: Greek yoghurt, organic honey and marinated Greek walnuts. It’s a but tricky to get hold of them, but eating a whole walnut including the shell is worth it!

2)

Starter: My Italian ex’s mum and auntie taught me this one when I was in Italy.
It’s so simple! Take two St Jame’s shells (the scallop ones) and add a mix of bread crumbs, freshly-cut chilli, garlig, green onions and olive oil on top. Oven bake for 10 minutes max and you’ll have a starter to die for!

Main: This is one of my faves! I ate this when with my parents in France, travelling the Provence. We ate lunch in St Paul, a small artists’ village hanging on a cliff. We sat in a restaurant with an amazing view and amazing food -so good that I’ve been cooking this for more than 14 years (since I was 14 basically).

Pasta, preferably fettuccine, boiled till al dente.
Take a bechamel base (milk, flour, salt, nutmeg) and add mint -you’ve got your mint sauce there. Then roast or fry salmon fillet.
Take the pasta, stir in the sauce and serve. The salmon goes on
top!

Dessert: I don’t really look at quantities when I cook and the same thing can be said for baking.
I know for dough, you need about 300g of flour….I use wheat-free one. Take 3 eggs (I think) and some cemerara sugar (unrefined sugar is sooooo much better than castor sugar!), half a piece of butter, some honey and grate the peel of an organic lemon. Add it all together in a bowl and get the dough blender out for the mixture will be beaten!
Slowly add very small apple pieces (sweet ones rather than the super-sour Bramley) to the mix.

Fill in round form and bake at 180 degrees for about 25- 10 minutes.
I made that one last weekend…..it didn’t last till the morning. Ermmm…

3)

Starter: Chop a few chicoree bulbs and oranges and make a salad. Add yoghurt -that’s it. Seriously simple, but very healthy. I like this one on its own for breakfast also.
Very light balance to the main course.

Main: Again, something I learnt in Italy. Lasagna from scratch. I won’t do the pasta bit with you, because that’s messy, so if you can, get dried lasagna pasta sheets.

The ragu sauce! Needs to be boiled for a whole day normally, but if you have a pressure cooker, it’ll take 20 minutes.
Fry lean minced beef with salt, garlic and onions till completely brown. Pour away any fat that swims around (that just makes the sauce taste lardy). Put the flame really low now and add small tomato chunks, bay leaves, pepper, paprika powder and if you want, tomato purée from the tube (I try to avoid it as it’s salty but it gives the sauce a nice red colour). At the end, add herbs, like basil, oregano and parsley. Boil till you thin it’s ready and then a little bit longer. [:)]

Bechamel: Simmer some milk, add flour gradually till the sauce thickens, using a whisk. Add salt and freshly-grated nutmeg. Make enough to be able to cover two layers of your lasagna.

Greens: Can be blended spinach -boil, salt and blend to cover one layer of the lasagna.

Take your lasagna dish and fill:
Bottom layer: Ragu, then pasta, then greens, then pasta, then bechamel, then pasta, then ragu, then pasta, then bechamel and then grated cheese -maybe mozarella or a cheddar/mozzarella mix.

Bake until the cheese is golden brown (about 30-35 minutes).
Serve and lick dish clean [:D]

Dessert: Crush meringue as if it insulted you. One piece is for one person. Then add very finely chopped strawberries and mint. Stir with spoon and serve immediately. Sooooo yummy!

Zenda Marsh
made some damper for dinner
3 cups of SR flour (I make this gluten free)
80g butter (I use dairy free)
pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons of oil from jar of sundried tomatoes
6 sundried tomatoes finely chopped 
1/2 cup sliced black olives
Fetta cheese to taste (I use goats milk)

I mix in a mixmaster using dough hooks till well mixed
place on floured board needed dough make into a round cut a knife across it to make 8 sections
bake in a preheated oven 180 degrees for about 20 minutes

Z Bec Z Kavanagh
Yummy little snack from the mind of a pregnant woman I used to work with once upon a time. 
Take corn crackers (the big circular ones sold near the rice crackers) and then smear avocado on top, proceed to top this with marinated tofu (there are a few delicious ones for this recipe in the supermarket), Greek feta, semi-dried tomatoes, taco seasoning and salt and pepper. It is a flavour sensation! Sooooo very yummy!

Sami Whittington
Low carb ideas. .? Please? My growing butt is begging you :P



    • Sharon Ross the zucchini slice I posted down a bit lower is low carb, filling and goes great with a salad for a healthy lunch.

    • Sami Whittington I just made mini quiches: 
      3 flavours! A breakfast one: bacon mushroom onion tomato and egg of course and cheddar cheese..
      A veggie one: pumpkin onion corn zucchini and cheddar cheese. 
      And an italian one: sundried tomato, onion, olive, basil fetta and parmesan cheese :) all flavored with salt and pepper and nutmeg :) pretty tasty and handy for my uni lunches

    • Zenda Marsh I do a yummy salad. Chopped cucumbers avocado mushrooms then add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries. simple and super yummy also add feta cheese for variety or a bit of kewpie mayo for extra yumminess.