Warm Mushroom, Cheese and Kale Loaf

Last month a good friend of mine gave me the winter issue of the Donna Hay magazine.

It has been fantastic, so many seasonal recipes that in true Donna style are fast, fresh and simple. Not to mention delicious.

Since we converted to being farmers market shoppers Kale has intrigued me.

I have cooked it a couple of times, and yes it was tasty, but it wasn't something I picked up every week it was in season.

But now that has changed, Kale is so diverse from soup, tart, baked, pasta, pesto.... 

and of course this recipe, in bread! Thank you Donna Hay.

After making your bread dough a tomato sauce base is prepared from garlic, tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, and herbs.

The mushrooms are browned and then the kale cooked until wilted.

Then on your rolled out dough, layer up the cheese, tomato sauce, kale and mushrooms.

Wrap it up, give them some snips with scissors and bake away.

Yes half way through I remembered to add some sesame seeds.

It was so yummy!

Oozy cheese, rich tomato, delicious kale and tasty mushrooms all wrapped up warm in bread.

Pumpkin Galette and Brussel Sprouts

This recipe for Pumpkin Galette is from Donna Hay's Fast Fresh Simple. The idea behind it being a tart for those who have trouble working with pastry hence she does a free form style galette. 

Its quite funny I chose to make it as I love working with pastry. On saying that I really loved the rustic style look of the tart and I could not say no to a filling of pumpkin, caramelised onion, blue cheese and sage.

I caramelised the onion with butter, brown sugar and balsamic. I roasted the pumpkin with a hint of cinnamon and allspice. I made the short crust pastry using wholemeal flour and rested it well before rolling out. Once it rolled out you add the onion followed by blobs of cheese then topped with pumpkin and sage. You tuck up the edges around the filling and bake.

The pastry was really good, it was even super crispy and flakey on the bottom. I loved the filling, you cannot go wrong with those flavour combinations.

I bought these organic brussel sprouts at the market on the weekend to give them another try.

 Like many of you have said, brussel sprouts were never enjoyed earlier in life but when you tried them again, and cooked them appropriately, you loved them. So I listened and I tried, and they were fantastic! I used this recipe from Cats Love Cooking and will be using it again. My daughter loved them too and ate her whole share (without us making her)! 

Spiced Watermelon Squid and Mint Salad with Baked Kale (and a baking disaster)

This is yet another recipe of Christine Manfield's, I told you I was keen to cook another! Actually I don't enjoy eating watermelon and so I did not expect to enjoy this. But it was delicious. The spice and the warmth of the watermelon against the tender squid was amazing.

The base of the dish is cumin, coriander, turmeric. garlic and chilli. The squid is then cooked in these followed briefly by the watermelon. A dressing of fish sauce, sugar syrup, lime juice and watermelon juice is added followed by tossing through some mint and shallots. So simple and yet a world of interesting flavour.

I have seen kale chips popping up here and there and decided to try it. The kale leaves were rubbed with oil and salt then baked for about 15 minutes until crispy. They were really tasty except I added a little too much salt and next time I will cut the stalks out as some of the stalks stayed chewy. Great idea, it is just so surprising how crispy crunchy it becomes.

And because dinner was a little light on I used this as an excuse to bake. I had seen this recipe for Lemon Yoghurt cake on Donna Hay's Fast Fresh Simple and thought it looked lovely (check it out so you know what my cake was meant to look like!). A simple recipe to prepare (my daughter did most of the adding and mixing) I then poured it into a well greased bundt tin. 

Note: This was the good side!

Very sadly once it was cooked the cake would not come out and eventually only half of it emerged ;(

I attempted to still add the sugar lemon mixture on top, which was a little futile. Fortunately it did taste delicious, the cake itself was so moist and soft.

Donna's Gourmet Beef Burger

No I couldn't get my mouth around that!

For dinner last night I cooked this recipe for beef burgers of Donna Hay's. 

The recipe is essentially for the patty which is then meant to be cooked with pancetta. I used free range bacon instead. 

I also had a go at making my own wholemeal multigrain bread rolls. Although I am not entirely happy with the results they were still good and I will be trying again. 

As you can see I also piled up my burger with rocket, tomato, cheese, caramalised onion and chilli jam. The meat patties were delicious and moist with a nice flavour. Who doesn't love a good burger!

Donna's Thai Fish Cakes

This recipe for Thai fish cakes is another from Donna Hay's Fast, Fresh, Simple. I have never actually made fish cakes before so I thought this very simple recipe was a good place to start. The fish is processed with coriander, ginger, chilli jam and eggwhite before being shaped into patties. Unfortunately my fish cake had too much liquid, I think from my overly runny chilli jam, and so the consistency was not quite right. They did still hold together so I persisted. They are panfried in some oil. Donna used loads of oil but I just coated my non stick pan.

They were served with a little cucumber salad that also had some parsley and coriander leaves with a fish sauce, sugar and lime juice dressing. I made a simple fried rice (inspired by JasmyneTea - thanks) to accompany the dish and make it a meal.

My fish cakes had a delicious flavour but the texture was not quite right, kind of grainy. I assume this is because of the liquid in my mix. The cucumber salad was absolutely perfect, I really loved the freshness of the cucumber with the herbs and the gorgeously balanced dressing. The rice was great, a nice addition to the meal. I would make these again but will be sure to use a thick jam and maybe a different type of fish.

Donna's Standby Porcini Pasta

Last night I cooked this recipe for Porcini Pasta from Fast, Fresh, Simple - Donna Hay's new show. I had to search for dried porcini mushrooms so it wasn't really a standby dish for me, but maybe some of you have some dried porcini in your cupboards? It was a really quick dish though, well besides that I made my own fresh wholemeal wheat spaghetti ;) Although I did make this in the afternoon and let it sit on the bench with plenty of flour on tea towels for a couple of hours, it still cooked well and tasted fantastic.

The mushrooms are softened in boiling water while you cook the pasta. Some garlic and thyme are fried in some olive oil in then broken up bread added to get nice and golden. You roughly chop the very fragrant mushrooms and also add to the pan. I also chose to add some asparagus. The spaghetti once cooked is put in the pan with a little extra olive oil to mix through. Top with some grated parmesan and there you have a delicious dinner.

Donna's Cheat's Goat's Cheese Souffle with Roasted Beetroot Salad

I am loving the look of many of Donna Hay's recipes from her new show and couldn't resist cooking another. I have been wanting to try goats cheese souffle and I thought this was a good starting point :)

The base is goats cheese (i used Willowbrae from the markets), egg yolks, and cream beaten until light and fluffy. Bread crumbs are folded through followed by beaten egg whites. They are baked for about 25 mintues. I served them with a roasted beetroot salad as suggested by Donna.

I really enjoyed the souffle, so light and melt in your mouth. It went perfectly with the beetroot.

Donna Hay's Chicken Rice Noodle Salad with Coconut Milk Dressing

This recipe for Rice Noodle Salad is another from Fast Fresh Simple, Donna Hay's new show. It really was so simple to prepare for dinner. The rice noodles are tossed with coriander, basil, mint, spring onion, kaffir lime leaves, chicken and chilli (or in my case garnished with chilli so it wasn't too spicy for my daughter!). I also added some snow peas.
The dressing is made from coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice and sugar.
I really loved it, so light and fresh tasting, easy to prepare - what more could you want?

Donna Hay's Prawn Fried Rice

This recipe for fried rice is from Donna Hay's new show Fast, Fresh, Simple. Really you can hardly call it a fried rice as it is simply sauteed chilli, spring onion, ginger, prawns and cooked rice. The omelette is cooked with one egg in sesame oil so it is super thin and you can serve the rice in it. As suggested we made up some sauces to serve with it.

The most exciting part of this dish to me was the rice! I found this coral red jasmine (organic and fair trade) at the markets on the weekend and it was a amazing. The omelette idea is very clever and a nice touch. But if you don't have nice sauces to drizzle over this dish it would be very plain.

Donna Hay's Chicken with Haloumi and Honey

Donna Hay has a show called Fast, Fresh, Simple on at the moment and quite a few recipes have caught my eye. This one for chicken and haloumi really is quite simple but certainly doesn't lack in flavour.

The chicken breast is baked with haloumi, thyme, lemon zest and a drizzle of honey and olive oil. We served it as suggested with a fig and rocket salad.

It was really delicious, I would be happy to eat this again!