Picnic in the park

I was meeting friends in Centennial Park today for a baby shower picnic, and was responsible for bringing dips. I wanted to bring one of my favourite dips, tzatziki. After researching different recipes, it seems the secret with this dip is to keep things simple. I was thinking of experimenting with the addition of spices, but the only things that seem to be added are a generous amount of salt and pepper, and either mint or dill. I went with adding both herbs, and some lemon zest and lemon infused olive oil for an extra citrus kick.

The raw garlic actually adds a bit of heat to the dip, so taste as you go when adding the garlic and pepper. Some recipes ask you to peel the cucumber and / or scoop out the seeds, I didn’t but instead allowed the yoghurt and grated cucumber to drain to remove some of the excess liquid. Suspend your strainer over a bowl to allow the liquid to drip through.

Serve this dip with your favourite crackers, or vegetable crudités (I used celery and carrot sticks) or as part of a Middle-Eastern inspired feast.

What I was cooking this time last year: Asian Marinated Salmon

Tzatziki Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 cup natural greek-style yoghurt
• 1 cucumber
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I used lemon infused)
• 1 garlic clove, finely crushed
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Grate the cucumber and add to a suspended strainer.
• Add the yoghurt to the grated cucumber in the strainer and set aside for the excess liquid to drip through.

• Set aside the draining yoghurt and grated cucumber for half-an-hour while you prepare your vegetable crudités.
• Discard the liquid and add the yoghurt and grated cucumber to the blow.
• Grate the lemon zest and finely mince the garlic and add to the bowl.
• Add the finely chopped mint, dill, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

• Mix with a spoon until everything is combined.
• Transfer your dip to a bowl and serve (or refrigerate until ready to serve). Enjoy.

What is your favourite dip? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Such a tart

Many varieties of tomatoes are available at the moment in abundance, so I’ve used them as the basis for my recipe this week. Flavours that match well with tomatoes include oregano and garlic, but you could of course experiment with whatever flavours inspire you. The tomatoes have been roasted before adding to the tart to intensify their flavours. I used roma or egg tomatoes, but feel free to use whatever looks good when you are shopping. This tart can be served hot from the oven, warm or cold.

I’m lazy with my pastry making these days, and don’t roll out my pastry. I prefer to push it into shape in the tin then let it rest in the freezer before baking. This gives it a rustic, un-uniform edge but I quite like that. You can of course rest the pastry, roll it out and fit to your tin if you prefer. How many tarts you get out of this recipe depends on how big your tart tin(s) are and how thick you want your pastry, or you could use a muffin or cupcake pan to create mini tarts. Any leftover uncooked pastry can be frozen for use at a later date.

Tomato Tart

Ingredients

For the pastry case

• 125g butter, softened
• 250g plain flour
• 1 x generous pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 50g parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
• 1 egg

For the tart filling

• 500g tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sumac
• 1 red onion
• 2 eggs
• 100mls cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
• Salt and pepper

Method

• Turn your oven on to 180°C to pre-heat.
• Chop the tomatoes into thick slices, for my roma tomatoes I chopped each into 3 long ways.
• Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion.
• Lay your tomato slices on a baking tray and sprinkle with the garlic, onion, cayenne pepper and sumac.
• Drizzle over the oil.
• Put your tray of tomatoes in the oven to roast for 40 minutes while you make your pastry.

• In a food processor mix the butter, flour, a pinch of salt, oregano leaves, parmesan and mustard until it resembles fine breadcrumbs [or you could do this by hand by rubbing small cubes of cold butter into the dry ingredients].

• Add the egg and combine until the mixture just comes together as soft dough. If the mixture is still a little dry after adding the egg, add a little cold water until the mixture just comes together into a ball.

• Tip the pastry into your tin and press into shape, and place in the freezer to rest and chill.

• After your tomatoes have been baking for 40 minutes, transfer them to a lower shelf in the oven and bake your pastry case until cooked and light brown. The time will vary depending on what sort of tart tin you are using, but as a guide allow approximately 20 minutes.
• Separate an egg, reserving the egg white and mix the egg yolk with a pastry brush. Brush egg yolk to glaze the inside of your pastry case, then cook for a further 10 minutes.
• Remove your tomatoes and pastry case from the oven.
• Scatter the oregano leaves over the base of the pastry case.
• Assemble your cooked tomatoes in the pastry case.
• Add another egg to your separated egg white, then add cream and salt and pepper. Mix to combine.

• Pour the egg mixture over the tomatoes in the pastry case.

• Return your tart to the oven and cook for 20 minutes or so or until the egg mixture is set (doesn’t wobble when you give the tart a shake).
• Your tart is ready to serve. Enjoy!

What is your favourite pastry tip? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Mushrooming

Mushrooms were proudly on display at my local farmers markets this weekend, so I used this as the basis for my recipe. Most mushroom soup recipes use cream, but this one relies on tangy citrus flavours to compliment the earthy mushrooms.

I used a mixture of button mushrooms and portobello. Sumac is a middle eastern spice with a tangy citrus flavour. If you don’t like things spicy, you could substitute the cayenne pepper with paprika. If you have some home-made or bought vegetable stock, feel free to use that instead of the stock powder and hot water. Strict vegetarians can of course skip the anchovy filets. Given that everything will be blended at the end, don’t worry too much about your chopping. The recipe below produces quite a big batch, enough for 6 portions, but it’s always handy to have leftovers for lunch or freezing for later.

What I was cooking this time last year: Passionfruit Pudding

Mushroom Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 large red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 anchovy filets
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 tablespoon sumac
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1kg button mushrooms
• 500g portobello mushrooms
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 2 tablespoons lemon thyme, plus extra for garnishing
• 2 x 400g tins of butter beans
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
• Water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Chop the onion and garlic.

• Heat the oil in a large pot, add the chopped onion and garlic and anchovy filets and fry over a medium heat while you chop the celery.
• Chop the celery and add to the pot.
• Add the sumac and cayenne pepper to the pot and stir to combine. You may need to turn the heat down slightly.
• Dust any dirt off the mushrooms.
• Chop the mushrooms and add them to the pot.
• Cook until the mushrooms wilt down, stirring occasionally.

• Add the butter beans, and fill up each empty can with water and add that to the pot too.
• Add the zest and juice of the lemon, stock powder, thyme and salt and pepper to taste.

• Cook the soup over medium heat for 15 minutes or so.
• Blend the soup until smooth.
• Your soup is ready to serve. Garnish with extra thyme if desired. Enjoy.

What is your favourite mushroom recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Roast risotto

This is not so much a baked risotto, but a risotto with roasted flavours. I wanted to experiment with some winter ingredients and used roast chestnuts and roast butternut squash.

Chestnuts are not that common in Australia, but are referred to in British and American literature – I thought I was missing out on something exciting. I’m still not sure what all the fuss is about, but they did add a nice texture contrast to the risotto. If you can’t get your hands on chestnuts, or don’t like them, you could use some toasted pine nuts instead. The first time I tried to roast chestnuts, I didn’t realise that there were some tricks to preparing them, and they consequently exploded and splattered all over the inside of my oven. For tips on how to successfully roast chestnuts, refer to this article over at the Healthy Chef blog.

If you have some home-made vegetable stock, feel free to use that instead of the stock powder and hot water. I used a little butter to finish the risotto, and skipped the cheese, but feel free to add some parmesan or other cheese as well as or instead of the butter.

What I was cooking this time last year: Date, Apricot and Walnut Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Roast Butternut Squash and Chestnut Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 small red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of arborio rice
• 250ml white wine
• 500g butternut squash
• 8 chestnuts
• 30 sage leaves
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder (I use vegeta brand)
• hot water from the kettle
• 20g butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Turn the oven on to 200°C.
• Peel the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Chop into small 1cm dice.

• Add the diced squash to a baking tray, drizzle over 1 tablespoon of oil and tuck in the two garlic cloves unpeeled.
• Put the squash into the oven to start roasting while you prepare the chestnuts.
• Cut an x into each chestnut top, place them in a baking tray and add to the oven.
• Cook the squash until it is tender, then remove from the oven.
• Cook the chestnuts until they split their shells and are cooked.
• Remove the cooked chestnuts from the oven and wrap them in a tea-towel until they are cool enough to handle.
• Shell the chestnuts.

• Finely chop the red onion.

• Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
• Fry the sage leaves until crisp, then remove from the oil with a slotted spoon. Set aside to use as a garnish at the end of cooking.

• Add the chopped onion to the sage infused oil, cook for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to soften.
• Squeeze the roast garlic cloves into the pan, the soft centers should end up in the pan and you can discard the skins.
• Add the chopped rosemary, vegetable stock powder and rice to the pan, and stir to combine.

• Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the white wine and stir. Keep cooking and stirring occasionally until most of the wine has evaporated.
• Add 1/2 a cup of hot water from the kettle at a time. Keep adding liquid, cooking and stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has evaporated and the rice is almost cooked. Taste to test the rice, it should be slightly too firm but almost ready.
• Add the roast squash and stir to combine. Cook for a couple of minutes more until the squash is heated through and the rice is cooked.

• Add the butter and chopped chestnuts and stir to combine.

• Add the salt and pepper to taste and stir to combine. Sprinkle with the fried sage leaves to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite winter ritual? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Savoury baking

Most muffin recipes are for sweet muffins, but you can of course make savoury muffins. I am going for a walk tomorrow to Barrenjoey Head and wanted to bake something to take to snack on. If you are a bit scared of baking, muffins are a great way to build your confidence. With muffins, the less mixing and work you do the better and it is simply a matter of measuring and mixing then baking.

Continuing with my Australian native spices experimentation, I used Ajydhyra or Bush Tomato in this recipe, which I tracked down at Herbie’s Spices. The akudjura gives the muffins a lovely roast tomato flavour. You can order Herbie’s Spices online, or they are stocked in many delis and gourmet food stores. I also used dried greek oregano, which is normally sold with the stems still intact – to separate the dried oregano leaves, you give the bunch a bit of a shake or a rub to separate the dried leaves.

What I was cooking this time last year: Watercress and Pomegranate Tabouli

Tomato and Cheese Muffins

* This recipe’s base ingredients were inspired by a Pear and Ginger Muffins recipe that appears in Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, Nigella Express. I have modified and adapted Nigella’s recipe to come up with the below reincarnation.

Ingredients:

Makes 12 muffins.

Dry Ingredients:

• 300g self-raising flour
• A generous pinch of salt
• 80g pine nuts
• 1/2 tablespoon ground akudjura or bush tomato
• 1/2 tablespoon dried greek oregano
• 200g feta cheese
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Wet Ingredients

• 125mls natural low-fat natural yoghurt
• 125mls vegetable oil [I used rice bran oil but any neutral tasting oil is fine]
• 2 large eggs

Other

• 1 small red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oil
• Cooking oil spray

Method:

• Peel, quarter and finely slice the onion.
• Crush the garlic cloves.

• Heat the teaspoon of oil in a small saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onions are soft and just starting to brown, stirring occasionally.
• Set the onions and garlic aside to cool.
• Heat oven to 200°C.
• Line a cupcake / muffin pan with muffin cases. Spray the cases lightly with cooking oil spray.
• Measure the flour, salt, akudjura, dried oregano, pine nuts and grated parmesan into a bowl.
• Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add to the bowl.

• Crumble the feta and add to the bowl.
• Add the cooled onion mixture to the bowl.
• Stir the ingredients in the bowl until everything is well combined and coated in flour.
• Measure the oil and yoghurt  into a jug.
• Add the eggs to the oil and yoghurt and stir to combine.

• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined – the less mixing you do the better.
• Add spoonfuls of the mixture to the muffin cases.

• Place muffins in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins spring back when touched in the middle.
• Remove muffins from the oven and either eat warm or when they have cooled. Enjoy.

What is your favourite baking recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Celebrating the last of summer vegetables

With my New Year resolution to lead a wholesome life well and truly broken, I thought it was time I spent some time at the healthy end of the cooking spectrum. The warm weather is continuing to hang around in Sydney at the moment, and the last of the summer veggies are still plentiful and delicious.

If you are getting a bit sick of pasta, try risotto as an alternative. This is one of my favourite recipes, and can be easily adjusted to suit your tastes or what you have available in the cupboards and fridge. If you don’t like chilli, leave it out; if you’re coming down with a bug, pimp up the garlic; if you have some fresh tomatoes to use up, throw them in; if it is the middle of winter or you simply haven’t been shopping and tinned tomatoes or dried herbs are all you have access to, throw them in.

If capsicums are a good price at your green grocer, they are easy to roast; refer to one of my earlier posts for instructions on how to roast capsicums. If capsicums are out of season or too pricey, there are plenty of pre-prepared roast capsicums (sometimes labeled as roast peppers) you can buy from your deli counter or in a jar.

I prefer to use large mushrooms (called portobello mushrooms in the UK) rather than the small button mushrooms, as the large mushrooms have more flavour. If you want an extra rich risotto, you could add a little pesto or olive tapenade at the end of the cooking instead of, or as well as, the cheese.

I tend to eat this risotto with my favourite piece of cutlery, the  splayd. A splayd is part fork, part spoon.

Summer Vegetable Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 shallot or 1/2 an onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 small chillies
• 1/2 cup of arborio rice
• 250ml carton of V8 vegetable juice
• 1 large mushroom
• 1 zucchini
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 1 roast capsicum
• 2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
• hot water from the kettle
• 50g grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Finely chop the shallot.
• Finely chop or crush the garlic.
• Finely chop the chillies.
• Chop the mushroom into dice size pieces.
• Heat the pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil, the chopped shallot, garlic, chilli and rice.
• Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the rice is coated in oil and the onions are slightly softened.
• Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook until the mushrooms start to wilt.

• Add the vegetable juice to the fry pan and stir occasionally until the liquid is absorbed.
• Meanwhile, grate the zucchini, chop the roast capsicum, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and pick the oregano leaves from the stem.
• Add a little hot water at a time to the fry pan and stir until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is almost cooked. Taste to test the rice, it should be slightly too firm but almost ready.

• Add the zucchini, roast capsicum, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach and oregano to the fry pan, continue cooking until the vegetables wilt and the rice is cooked, then turn off the heat.
• Add the cheese and stir to combine.
• Add the salt and pepper to taste and stir to combine. Your risotto is ready to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite risotto recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Mediterranean inspiration

Classic mediterranean flavours include oregano, lemon, garlic and olive oil. I have combined all of these flavours in Mediterranean Inspired Baby Octopus.

Octopus has gained a reputation as being tough and chewy. Octopus is best cooked very slowly for a long time or very quickly over a high heat, anything else in-between will result in a tough and chewy dish. Octopus shrinks a lot once cooked, so bulk up your quantity of raw seafood to allow for the shrinkage factor. Most octopus purchased from a shop comes cleaned and ready to go, check with your fish monger if unsure. You could chop your baby octopus into pieces before adding to the marinade or leave them whole.

A trick I learnt about a while ago is to add some bicarb soda to the marinade to help tenderise the octopus. I have also heard of kiwi fruit or pawpaw being used to tenderise, but I haven’t experimented with these options so can’t provide insights on how well they work.

I recommend using normal olive oil in this dish, this type of oil is better for cooking with. Save your good quality extra virgin olive oil for dressings, drizzling or other uses not subjected to high temperatures.

You could cook these baby octopus on a barbecue, because it has been wet and miserable in Sydney, I have cooked mine in a very hot fry pan. Because of their unusual shape, you will need to turn them multiple times so they cook through. They could be served as part of a mezze platter or with a greek salad.

Mediterranean Inspired Baby Octopus

Ingredients:

• 1 kg baby octopus
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon rosemary
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 3 – 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 lemons
• 1 tablespoon bicarb soda

Method

• Finely chop the garlic, rosemary and oregano, pick the thyme leaves and add to a bowl.
• Zest the lemons, add zest to the bowl with herbs.
• Add the chilli, bicarb soda and olive oil to the bowl. Stir to combine.

• Wash the baby octopus and pat try with paper towel.
• Add the baby octopus to the bowl and stir to coat in the marinade.
• Cover the bowl of octopus and put in the fridge to marinade. Leave for an hour or more, preferably overnight.

• Heat the barbecue or fry pan to a high heat.
• Cook the octopus in a single layer, in batches if required. Turn once the octopus is opaque and getting a little charred or brown.

• Transfer to a serving plate, accompany with wedges of the zested lemon. Sprinkle with salt. Your baby octopus is ready to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite Asian inspired recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Sage and butter bean dip

Getting back to my new year resolution to focus on healthy eating (after last weeks’ cheesecake detour), I wanted to share with you a recipe for dip. This makes a refreshing change from hummus.

Sage is known for its’ antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and has quite a distinctive flavour. The taste of fresh sage and fried sage are different and I used both in this dip to add an extra depth of flavour. I currently have an abundance of sage thanks to two plants growing on my kitchen windowsill, but feel free to experiment with whatever herbs you have available.

Extra virgin olive oil does not withstand high temperatures well, but is delicious on salad or used in dips where it is not heated. Regular olive oil can be used for frying or cooking.

If you don’t have a food processor, you could make this dip by mashing the ingredients together with a fork, just make sure to finely chop the garlic.

Depending on how healthy you are trying to be, this dip is great served with corn chips, vegetable chips, vegetable crudités, or even pita or flat bread ‘chips’.

Pita chips: Take your favourite flat bread, it could be Lebanese bread, pita, or your favourite wrap. For a gluten-free option, use a gluten-free wrap or flat bread. Cut the bread into chip size triangles and spread on a baking tray. If you want to crank up the flavour of your flat bread chips, spray your cut bread with a little olive oil spray, sprinkle with salt  or feel free to experiment with other flavour combinations. Cook in a low 150°C oven until crisp and dry, tossing occasionally to prevent those chips on the outsides from burning and to let the chips crisp evenly. Cool completely and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Sage and butter bean dip

Ingredients

• 40 sage leaves, or to taste
• 1 small lemon, zested and juiced
• 400g tin of butter beans
• 50mls olive oil for frying
• 50mls extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small clove of garlic
• Salt, to taste

Method

• Heat the olive oil and fry 2 of the sage leaves until crisp.

• Remove from the oil and drain the fried sage leaves on paper towel.
• Drain the butter beans to remove the liquid and add to a food processor bowl.
• Add the fried sage leaves, the fresh sage leaves, lemon zest and juice, salt and garlic to the food processor bowl.
• Add the remaining sage infused olive oil you used to fry the sage leaves and the extra virgin olive oil to the food processor.

• Blitz the ingredients until you have a smooth dip.
• Transfer your dip to a bowl and serve with your favourite accompaniments. Enjoy.

What is your favourite dip? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Happy Australia Day

Australia Day is a national holiday celebrated in Australia on the 26th of January. It could also be referred to as Invasion Day by the indigenous Aboriginal community, as it marks the claiming of the country by Captain Cook and the British Empire. It is a day where we celebrate all things Australian (or things that we claim as Australian but actually originated in New Zealand like the Pavlova).

For my recipe this week I wanted to use a native Australian spice, and decided upon strawberry gum. According to its description, strawberry gum is a ground native Australian herb,  with a flavour profile of berries, passionfruit and sweet spices (and I can attest this is a fairly accurate description). You can order ground strawberry gum via Herbie’s Spices online, or it is stocked in many delis and gourmet food stores.

I used store-bought Anzac biscuits for my cheesecake base. I will share a home-made recipe for Anzac biscuits in April closer to Anzac day. If you can’t track down Anzac biscuits, feel free to use any sweet store-bought biscuit you like. I used Green and Black’s white chocolate because it is organic, fair trade and has lovely flecks of real vanilla pod seeds through it.

Strawberry Gum, Passionfruit and White Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 300mls cream
• 250g cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons ground strawberry gum
• 200g white chocolate
• 250g Anzac biscuits
• 100g butter
• 6 passionfruit

Method

• Add the biscuits to your food processor and blitz into crumbs
• Add the butter and blitz again to combine, the mixture should look like wet sand
• Press the biscuit base into your tin

• Refrigerate until firm
• Add the cream to a saucepan and gently heat until steaming but not boiling
• Add the white chocolate and strawberry gum to the hot cream, the heat from the cream should be enough to melt the chocolate and infuse the strawberry gum (if the chocolate doesn’t melt, return to a very low heat and stir continuously until melted)

• Cool your white chocolate and cream mixture in the refrigerator until it firms and becomes a ganache
• Whip the ganache with beaters to make it light and fluffy
• Add the cream cheese and the fruit and pulp from 3 passionfruit to the ganache mixture

• Whip the cream cheese and passionfruit until incorporated into the ganache
• Spoon the cream cheese ganache mixture on top of your biscuit base and spread to create a smooth, even top
• Refrigerate until you are ready to serve
• Top with the pulp from your remaining 3 passionfruit, remove your cheesecake from its tin and it is ready to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite Australian inspired recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Thai rockmelon salad

My passion for cooking has been influenced by various sources. My mother is an amazing cook and taught me how to navigate my way around the kitchen from a young age. Mum is currently enjoying teaching my two-year-old niece how to cook biscuits so I am guessing I started helping in the kitchen at a similar age. Another early influence was my first weekend job as a kitchen hand working at a local guesthouse in the Blue Mountains called Pegum’s (no longer in operation). I very quickly branched out from stacking the dishwasher to helping with plating up the food and being in charge of the deep fryer. This recipe is trying to re-create a Thai rockmelon salad I remember from my Pegum’s days.

The shrimp paste in this recipe has been listed as optional, because it is one of those ingredients you need to be brave and get past the smell to use. You should be able to track shrimp paste down in the Asian section of your supermarket. Shrimp paste has an overpowering smell, and must be cooked before use; once it is roasted the flavour isn’t as strong. The SBS Food website suggests to wrap a small amount of shrimp paste in foil and put into a hot oven or hold over flame using tongs to cook. Then cool and crumble and it is ready to use.

Rockmelon is known as cantaloupe to Americans. Feel free to experiment using other melons or fruits. The dressing would be delicious on shredded green mango, this suggestion is inspired by a green mango salad I tried at a food court in Chang Mai during my first trip to Thailand. Green mangos can be tricky to find, but you could try an Asian supermarket.

Thai Rockmelon Salad

Ingredients:

• 100g roasted peanuts
• 1 bunch of coriander
• 4 spring onions
• 4 birds eye chillies (or to taste)
• 2 large or 3 small limes
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon roasted shrimp paste (optional – see notes above)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 rockmelon

Method

• Chop the rockmelon into quarters. Scoop out the seeds and peel off the skin. Chop into chunks.
• Zest and juice the limes. Add the juice and zest to a blender.
• Chop the ends and dark green parts off the spring onions.
• Wash the coriander thoroughly. Pick the leaves off the coriander and finely chop. Reserve two of the coriander roots for the sauce.
• Add the garlic, chilis, fish sauce, spring onions, roasted shrimp paste, two coriander roots and half the peanuts to the blender.

• Blend until everything is combined.
• Add the remaining peanuts and blend very briefly. You want to retain some peanut texture. You will end up with a thick paste.
• Scape the sauce out of the bender onto the chopped rockmelon. Stir to coat the rockmelon.

• Add the chopped coriander and stir to combine. You can either eat straight away or store for up to a day or two. Enjoy.

What is your favourite Thai inspired recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?