Crab Linguine with Pinot Gris & Macadamia and prune stuffed pork with Pinot Noir

Do you ever wish you knew what wine to match with a special meal you were cooking?

I do!

I was so pleased when I was offered wine (from Wine Selectors) that I could match with a specific recipe.

They currently have a Chef Series where every bottle is matched by a chef with a recipe you can cook up and impress your friends and family.

So I invited some friends over for feast.

We started with a molten brie topped with garlic and port plum jam

For entree I chose Ben O'Donoghue's Pinot Gris to match with Crab and Rocket Linguine.

A simple and easy recipe where you cook some garlic with basil stalks, add in your tomatoes (I roasted some) and then your crab meat. Wilt in some rocket (and I added some basil leaves).

Remove the stalks and stir in the pasta (I made some fresh spelt linguine), season and serve with a beautiful glass of Pinot Gris. 

It was a beautiful light dish with good flavour, the wine was thoroughly enjoyed along side.

For main I chose Ian Parmenter's Pinot Noir to match with Roast Pork with Prune and Macadamia Stuffing.

Again it is not a difficult recipe, the stuffing consists of bacon and onion (of which I firstly browned in a pan), fresh bread crumbs, macadamias, pitted prunes, fresh thyme, lemon rind, mixed spice, brandy, and egg.

Spread it onto your pork loin, roll up, tie and bake.

My crackling wasn't perfect so I cut off the top and watched it closely under the grill to get some serious crunchiness.

It was so delicious served with some baked pumpkin and parsnip, and sauteed broccoli.

And the Pinot Noir was sensational, an absolutely gorgeous wine that accompanied the food perfectly.

Overall it was a really enjoyable meal, delicious food, stunning wine, a warm lounge room and good friends.

I am very thankful to Wine Selectors for the gift of the wine. 

Salmon with Soba Noodles

This is an adaption of Anna Gare's Beef, Bean & Soba Noodles recipe.

I am in love with Anna's recipes, no kidding I've cooked half of her book! So when I saw Anna was hosting a Lifestyle Food Chefs Table I bought a ticket, so I could experience Anna cooking her own food :) 

Yes here I am, one of those obsessed fans. 

I told Anna I loved this dish and she said that it is also delicious with salmon. Who am I not to take such advice?!

Simply marinate the salmon briefly in a little of the dressing, made from ginger, garlic, soy sauce, peanut oil, rice vinegar, mirin and honey.

I substituted the beans with some beautiful asian greens.

This dish is so simple, while you cook your soba noodles, your salmon is pan fried for a few minutes each side.

The greens are cooked with the noodles.

Then serve with some spring onions and sesame seeds, and a generous amount of dressing.

It was delicious, healthy and simple cooking, thank you Anna!

The family loved it.

Bisque with Snapper, Prawn and Crab (an MKR recipe)

I must confess I am a cooking show junkie.

This recipe is one from MKR (or My Kitchen Rules). For those of you who don't know, it is a reality cooking show where couples compete against each other for a cash prize.

When one couple, Megan and Andy (aka seafood king), cooked this dish, originally Coral Trout with Prawn and Crab, they scored 57/60!

It looked heavenly and not that difficult, so of course I had to try it. 

We used Snapper as Coral Trout was not available. Neither fish is considered sustainable but actually Snapper is actually the worse of the two :(

My husband filleted his first fish.

The dish begins with a fish stock using the carcass, onion, celery, carrot, fennel, white wine and herbs.

The crab is boiled for a few minutes then all the meat reserved.

Meanwhile the base of the bisque is cooked, onion, garlic, carrot and fennel, followed by the prawn heads and shells.

The fish stock is strained into the prawn stock and cooked for almost 20 minutes before that is also strained.

You then reduce it some more and add cream, seasoning and butter to this amazing sauce.

Before serving I popped in the prawns that had been boiled briefly for a minute and the crab meat.

The fillets are cooked in the frypan, three minutes skin side down, then turn over for one, then rested while the dish assembled. 

I accompanied ours with beans, topped with the prawn and crab, surrounded by the incredible bisque. The fish is placed on topped and garnished with fennel fronds.

Seriously this dish was amazing. 

The entire family went crazy for it.

Simple Chorizo and Seafood Soup

Again I am sharing a recipe that I have cooked from a book I received for my birthday.

 One of my gorgeous friends gave me Marion Graspy's cook book the day before my birthday when she accompanied me to The Heart of Food Photography Course at Mumu Grill. And now she has started her own food blog Berry Butter where she shares some of her sweet treats. Please go and check it out. 

We had an excellent day at the course trying to figure out our cameras and being inspired to take attempt to take beautiful food photos.

Marion's style in this the book is so creative and interesting. I really love it.

Firstly she gets you to make your own prawn stock by peeling raw prawns and simmering the heads and shells in water for 15 minutes being sure to skim off the top. So simple yet the results were excellent (and that was still the case when we very stupidly strained some of the stock down the sink! and had to add more water and start again).

The recipe really is simple, start by cooking chorizo with onion, garlic and ground fennel. 

Stir in tomato paste allowing to cook for about a minute then let it all bubble up with some white wine. Add the prawn stock, tinned tomatoes and a little sugar. 

Let this simmer for about 20 minutes before adding a chopped up snapper fillet for about 2 minutes and finally squid rings and the prawns for another 3 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley and your done.

We were so impressed by the flavours of this dish. It was amazing for such little effort, I will definitely be picking this book up again very soon to cook another recipe.

Sri-Lankan Fish Curry

A few years ago we were fortunate enough to live in England for a few months. One long weekend we stayed in Cornwall. We hired bikes and road along the water to visit the little town of Padstow. 

It was a lovely sunny day (well most of it, it did rain a couple of times!), and I remember sitting by the water enjoying Cornish tea, which is scones with jam and Cornish clotted cream. I am reminded of this as we bought our Cornish tea from Rick Stein's little Deli in Padstow. 

This is the first of Rick Steins recipes that I have ever cooked, and I only happened to stumble upon it whilst looking for a fish curry recipe.

The onion is softened in oil with garlic, curry leaves and pandan leaves.

Then in goes the freshly ground spice mix (cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, cinnamon, cloves cardamon, pepper), some turmeric and chilli.

After a minute or so add the tomatoes, salt, tamarind and coconut milk allowing this to simmer away for about 15 minutes.

Finally add the salmon covering with the  curry sauce and cook for about 5 minutes. Cover the pan and allow this to sit for almost 30 minutes. I actually left it for 20 minutes and then turned the heat on for a couple of minutes before serving.

I also made some eggplant chutney using this recipe except I added a handful of sultanas with the eggplant and tomato. It was really delicious, made with a base of mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli and turmeric.

I really loved this dish, the salmon was so juicy and flavoursome. The curry sauce was gentle and the eggplant chutney sweetened the dish up, complimenting it perfectly. I will definitely have to cook some more of Rick Stein's recipes.

Seared Tuna and Avocado Salad

This is an Ina Garten (or 'In a Garden' as we like to call her ;) ) recipe for Grilled Tuna Rolls. I have actually tried it a couple of times, the first being way too salty and that was adding much less salt then the recipe suggests. So now I just season the tuna and add no extra salt to the dressing.

It is the easiest quick tasty dish to prepare and we just buy one piece of beautiful fresh tuna to sear (only cost $5 for about 200g I think).

I give the kiddies the 'well done' end!

The dressing is oil, lime zest, lime juice, wasabi powder and soy sauce. The recipe also says hot sauce but because of the kidlets I leave that out (the sacrifices we make......).

You then mix the dressing with avocado, red onion, scallion (or shallot/spring onion), toasted sesame seeds and the seared tuna. Serve on some toasted bread with rocket. Delicious!

The wasabi hit is not as big as I would like so I'm not sure if you need to dissolve the powder in water before adding to the dressing?

Snapper and Scallop Pie

Last night I made Not Quite Nigella's Scallop and Snapper Pie. I have been wanting to try a fish pie for a while as it is something I have never eaten before so when this amazing looking dish was posted by the lovely NQN I had to try it. 

It is so simple. Golden eschallots are cooked down before adding fish stock, reducing and then simmering with cream until thick and a lovely golden colour. This is then pureed to make a delicious sauce then stir in some diced golden eschallots that have been softened.

Then just add half the sauce top with the snapper skin side down, add the scallops and then the remaining sauce. Top with some broccoli and then cover with puff pastry and bake.

Well it was incredibly delicious. The fish was so moist and soft. The sauce was so flavoursome and complimented the fish perfectly. 

I really loved this meal and will definitely be cooking it again.