Ingredients 22 - Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a herbaceous perennial plant with thick crimson stalks and large green leaves. Despite their leaves being toxic, rhubarb stalks are edible and are popular for their tart crisp taste.

More commonly rhubarb is used in desserts; however this recipe proves that it can be equally as delicious when matched with pork.

Apologies in advance – not my best effort however have to slowly ease my way back into the kitchen post holidays!

Enjoy! (Thankyou friends also for all the upcoming suggestions!)

Roasted pork, rhubarb and goats cheese salad

3 pork steaks

3 clean white potatoes

4 tbsp olive oil

5 stalks rhubarb, approx 15cm length

½ cup water

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ tsp minced garlic

1 bag baby spinach

200g marinated goats feta

• Heat oven to 180°
• Slice the potatoes to form oval shaped chunks, approx. 1cm in thickness. Drizzle generously with olive oil, season and roast in oven for 30minutes or until golden brown.
• Trim the ends of the rhubarb stalks and then halve them lengthways. 
• Place sugar and water in a frypan. Bring to boil over medium heat.  Place the stalks in the liquid and continue to simmer for 20min or until liquid has reduced by half.
• Remove from the frypan, place the rhubarb on a baking tray and reserve the remaining juices.
• Heat the frypan again over medium-high heat and seal the pork steaks each side for approx. 3min until golden. Place on the baking tray with the rhubarb, and gently pour over the juices.
• Roast the pork and rhubarb in the oven for a further 15min, removing half way through to spoon juices over the ingredients.
• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and minced garlic in the fry pan.  Mix together the spinach leaves and potato over heat well, until the leaves are just wilted. Add half of the crumbed goats cheese and stir to combine.
• To arrange, place spinach and potato mixture on plate, top with a pork steak and place rhubarb stalks on top. Drizzle with remaining juices and top with crumbed feta.

My missing 3 ingredients!

Forgot to mention I was lost at sea for 3 weeks.

Keep this space posted! Many holiday-inspired dishes to embrace you all soon.

Ingredient 21 - Cumquats

Cumquats or ‘yellow orange’ in Cantonese, are small ovular shaped orange fruits with characteristics resembling a cross-match between an orange and olive. The fruit tree is native to south Asia and Asia-Pacific region.

The fruit can be eaten raw, with its outer edible rind sweet and inner flesh sour and tangy. However the fruit are most popular for their use in marmalades and jams. Another recently found benefit is that 100g of cumquat fruit only yields 71 calories, equating to at least 20 little fruit.

A roast for a lazy Sunday lunch. In memory of my old house. (Fran – I tried!)

Roasted chicken with cumquats and winter vegetables

4 thigh fillets

1 tsp minced garlic

4tbsp olive oil

½ tsp sweet paprika

2 medium onions

3 white potatoes

250g pumpkin

12 cumquats

1 orange

2 tbsp orange rind

1 ½ cup couscous

1 ½ cup hot water

½ cup almonds

2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

• Preheat oven to 180°.
• Heat garlic, sweet paprika and 2tbsp olive oil over large frypan over medium-high heat. Seal the chicken each side for 4min or until light golden in colour.
• Remove skins from onions and cut into quarters. Chop potatoes into quarters or sixths, and chop pumpkin into chunks similar in size. Basically you want large chunks of vegetables, approximately the same size.
• Place chicken fillets with thigh sides up in the dish and scatter around the vegetables. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
• Slice the cumquats into halves, remove the seeds, and mix amongst the vegetables.
• Juice the orange and pour the juice over the ingredients.
• Roast in the oven for 1hr in duration or until roasted, basting the dish in the juices every 20min.
• Chop almonds into halves and place in oven on baking tray for 4min or until hot. These cook very quickly so be careful not to burn!
• Mix the orange rind in with the water. Place couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour over the water rind mixture. Let it stand for 10min and then separate or ‘fluff’ the couscous with a fork.
• To serve mix the almonds, flat leaf parsley and couscous together before spreading out across a large serving plate. Spoon the roasted chicken and vegetables over the top and drizzle with juices from the pan.
• Serve with yoghurt and rocket. 

Ingredient 20 - Jalapeno Chillis

Jalapeno chillis are in fact a fruit, originating from the Capsicum annuum family in Mexico. They are shiny dark green, of about 4cm in length and range in flavour from medium to extremely hot.

Chillis can be purchased fresh, or sourced as the ‘pickled bottled version’ as used in this recipe. They are very popular in this preserved form as it retains their crunchy crisp texture.

Yum!

Roasted tomato, capsicum and jalapeno relish with lime chicken burritos

Relish makes 1 large bowl

Relish

2 red capsicums

½ cup jalapeno chillis (Ol El Paso bottle brand)

1 punnet grape tomatoes

1 red onion

3 tbsp olive oil

• Preheat fan forced grill. Slice the capsicums in half and remove the stem and seeds. Place on a baking tray and grill until the skin is charred and blistered.
• Place capsicums in a plastic bag, seal, and leave to cool for 15 minutes. The skins now should literally fall off as you peel them. Discard skins and slice capsicum into long skinny pieces.
• Preheat oven to 150°. Halve the grape tomatoes and place on baking tray. Drain and rinse the jalapeno chillis and add them to then tray. Sprinkle with 1tbsp olive oil and roast for 20min.
• Thinly slice the red onion. Heat 2tbsp olive oil in medium saucepan over low heat. Sweat the onions for 20min until pale and soft. Add the tomatoes, jalapeno chillis and capsicum and gently mush down the ingredients. Add 2 tbsp hot water and let ingredients simmer gently for 10min. The relish should have a lumpy consistency that isn’t too moist.
• Remove from heat and serve the relish either hot or cold with the burritos. 

Wraps

2 large chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp minced garlic

small container natural yoghurt

burrito wraps

1 avocado

• Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips. Heat olive oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic, lime juice and sliced chicken breast. Fry until cooked.
• Half the avocado, remove skin and slice thinly.
• Create the Mexican feast by layering the warmed tortilla with spinach leaves, jalapeno relish, lime chicken pieces, sliced avocado and a dollop of yoghurt.

Ingredient 19 - Ginger biscuits

Dessert has never been my forte, so the following is definitely an edible recipe however may not be up to scratch of your previous cheesecakes!

The ginger biscuits give the base a nice flavour and complement the banana well.

These will soften quite quickly at room temperature, north Queensland ‘winter’ room temperature mind you, so eat almost immediately!

Banana and Ginger based cheesecakes

Makes 10 mini cheesecakes

12 ginger biscuits

50g butter

1 egg yolk

2 over-ripe bananas

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 2tbsp hot water

50g caster sugar

250g light cream cheese

1/3 cup light sour cream

• Preheat oven to 160. Grease muffin tray (recipe makes 10muffin sized cakes).
• In a blender crush the ginger biscuits, or alternatively seal the biscuits in a double layered plastic bag and repetitively crush against the bench.
• Melt 50g butter in microwave.  Stir the butter and egg yolk into the crushed biscuits until the mixture comes together nicely.
• Place a good spoonful of mixture into each of the bases and press down firmly. Cook the bases in oven for 8-10min, or until the butter is bubbly. These will cool firm so please do not overcook!
• Roughly chop the banana into a bowl. Heat the remaining butter and brown sugar gently over low heat in a saucepan. Add the banana and stir for 5-10min until banana is well coated in sugar and caramelized in colour.
• Remove the banana mixture from heat and let it cool completely.
• Place the sugar, cream cheese and sour cream in a large mixing bowl. Stir through the banana mixture and gelatin. Spoon into the muffin moulds, smooth the tops and place in refrigerator overnight to set.

Ingredient 18 - Fresh Lasagna Sheets

Lasagna sheets come in both fresh and dried forms. From my quality internet research it seems that there isn’t any outstanding differences between the two.

Fresh is favored for its convenience, with no cooking required prior to assembly of the lasagna dish. The sheets are also much easier to trim and fit the cooking dish. One criticism is that on occasion the sheets can become quite soggy; however this suits this dish perfectly as there isn’t a lot of fluid to soak up.

I actually will admit I have never cooked lasagna in fact. I will blame my mothers talent with vegetarian lasagna!

A perfect dinner for a female mid-week gossip session!

Lentil and Smashed Pumpkin Lasagna

1 tin brown lentils

1 brown onion

2 cans chopped tomatoes

1 cup vegetable stock

1 cinnamon stick

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp chilli flakes

½ tsp minced garlic

½ butternut pumpkin

2 tbsp olive oil

500g low fat ricotta cheese

150g feta

Small bunch basil

Fresh lasagna sheets

• Preheat oven to 160°.
• Finely dice the onion. Chop pumpkin into bite sized pieces.
• Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a deep fry pan over medium heat and gently sauté the onions until soft. Add the lentils and spices and sauté for further 5 minutes or until spices become fragrant. Add the tomatoes and stock and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30min or until most of liquid has absorbed. Remove the cinnamon stick and season well.
• Place pumpkin on a baking tray, pour over 1tbsp olive oil and roast in oven for 30minutes or until soft. Roughly mash the pumpkin with a fork on the tray so you get a mixture of mash and pieces.
• Mix the ricotta and 100g of feta together in a bowl.
• Grease lightly a rectangular lasagna dish with a little olive oil. Spoon half the lentil mixture over the base, dollop with ricotta mixture on top and top with a single lasagna sheet. Arrange the smashed pumpkin over next layer, sprinkle with half the basil, as well as more dollops of ricotta, and then top with another lasagna sheet. Finally spoon the remaining lentil mixture and dollops of ricotta on top, sprinkle with remaining crumbed feta and basil.
• Bake in oven for 30min or until lasagna sheets are tender and cooked.

Ingredient 17 - Watercress

Watercress is one of the oldest known leaf vegetables to the human diet.

They provide great nutritional benefit, rich in iron, calcium and folic acid. Watercress was also described in herbal history as being the spring-cleaning herb for purifying the blood and toning one’s body. This is due to the leaves stimulating effect on the digestive juices within the body, which is why there is caution out there to not over-consume!

A quick recipe for midweek dinner.

Smoked salmon, watercress and roasted almond pasta

Serves 4

180g smoked salmon

1 bag of watercress (120g)

1 red onion

2 limes

¼ cup slivered almonds

350g dried penne or rigatoni

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp minced garlic

• Bring a large saucepan of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta following packet directions, until al dente. Drain well.
• Remove watercress leaves from stalks and roughly chop. Finely slice the red onion into thin rings. Mix together the onion and watercress in a bowl with the juice of 2 limes.
• Heat a fry pan over medium-high heat. Dry roast the slivered almonds until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
• Roughly tear the smoked salmon into bite size pieces.
• Place the pasta, watercress mixture and salmon in a large serving bowl and combine well. Serve with additional lime wedges and pepper.