Ruby grapefruit and kaffir lime-ade
Enjoy this on its own or add a splash of soda water and for your next party, use it to top up a glass of champagne.
Makes 6 cups
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
• finely grated zest, 2 kaffir limes
• 4 cups freshly squeezed ruby grapefruit juice (approximately 6 large ruby grapefruit)
• extra, 1 ruby grapefruit, sliced for garnish
1. Combine the water, sugar, kaffir lime leaves and zest in a medium saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and transfer the syrup to a jug and allow to cool. Refrigerate until cold.
2. Combine the grapefruit juice and syrup in jug and chill until ready to serve.
3. Serve with extra slices of ruby grapefruit.
Linguine with prawns and lemon gremolata crumb
Being Australian, we love our seafood, but if you aren't so confident with cooking the delights of the sea, then have a crack at this easy pasta dish. It's a great way to introduce prawns (or shrimp) to your repertoire and makes a tasty mid week meal.
Serves 2
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 cup continental parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• ¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• sea salt flakes, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 250g linguini
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• extra, 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 500 g medium green prawns, peeled leaving tails on
1. Heat oil in a large frying pan and toast the panko crumbs over a medium heat until golden brown. When brown remove from the pan and place into a mixing bowl. Add the parsley, lemon rind, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and toss to combine, set aside.
2. Cook linguine in boiling water until al dente. When draining reserve a little (approximately ½ cup) of cooking liquid.
3. Heat extra oil in a large frying pan over a high heat and add the prawns and garlic and sauté until for 5 minutes until the prawns change colour and are cooked through.
4. Add the pasta to the prawns in the frying pan with a little splash of the pasta cooking liquid and toss to combine.
5. Arrange the pasta and prawns on a serving plate and sprinkle liberally with the gremolata crumb. Serve immediately.
Soft flour tortilla with bbq chipotle chicken and a lime and blackbean salsa
When the food dept and friends dine out, we like to order a mix of entrees, mains and desserts to share. It's so much fun to taste and talk about a wide selection from a menu, rather than one dish. So this recipe fits in well with our philosophy of sharing small plates of food. On the day we photographed "Zing", we sat at Sally's round table passing warm floury tortillas and small bowls of avocado, sour cream and salsa, rolling and eating these lovely tortillas. So grab some friends for lunch and share a bite and a laugh.
Serves 4 - 6
• 1 small red onion, peeled leaving the root end
attached and cut into quarters
• 2 cloves garlic, skin on
• 4 dried chipotle chillies
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 4 chicken breast fillets
• 2 large bunches rosemary
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 quantity Warm flour tortillas
• 1 quantity Lime and black bean salsa
• 1 large avocado, flesh scooped out
• sour cream, for serving
1. Heat a dry griddle plate or heavy based frying pan over a low heat, place on the onion, garlic cloves and chipotle chillies and roast until each is nicely charred.
2. Remove the skins from the garlic and combine with the onion, chilies, cumin seeds, salt and cider vinegar in a food processor, process until smooth. Store in a jar in the refrigerator, any remaining paste will keep for upto a month.
3. Slice chicken breasts fillets across the grain into 4-5 thick slices. Remove the leaves from the lower parts of the rosemary stalks and thread on the chicken. Combine 4 tablespoons of the chipotle paste with olive oil and rub onto the chicken skewers. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Barbecue the chicken over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or until cooked through.
5. Serve chicken on a platter with Warm flour tortillas, Lime and black bean salsa, avocado and sour cream.
Lime and black bean salsa
• 1 x 440g can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 limes, peeled and segmented, reserve the membranes
• ½ cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• ½ small red onion, finely diced
• 1 small clove garlic, crushed
• 1 jalapeno chilli seeded and finely diced
• ½ teaspoon flaked sea salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
1. Combine all of the ingredients, except for the lime membranes in a bowl, toss lightly. Squeeze the juice from the membranes over the salsa and use immediately.
food dept fact: Try adding some chargrilled corn to the salsa. Chargrill a peeled cob of corn until blackened, cut the corn from the cob and add to the salsa.
Soft flour tortillas
If you are stuck for time, instead of making these tortilla, you could buy some good quality tortilla.
Makes approximately 16
• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 80g butter, roughly chopped
• 1 cup warm water
1. Sift the flour salt and baking powder in a large bowl.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Carefully add the warm water a little at a time until it forms a soft dough. It may not take all of the water.
3. Turn the dough into the bench and give a light knead. Break the dough into 50g balls and leave on a lightly floured bench. Cover with a tea towel and to stand for 15 minutes.
4. Heat a dry flat griddle plate or a heavy based frying pan over a medium heat. Take a ball of dough and flatten in your hands until approximately 10cm. Place into a tortilla press or roll out with a rolling pin to approximately 20cm.
5. Place onto the dry griddle plate and cook for approximately 30seconds or until small bubbles blister on the tortilla, turn it over and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from the griddle and keep warm wrapped in a clean dry teatowel.
food dept fact: Make the tortillas ahead of time, and reheat by wrapping them in foil and placing in a low oven or take the foil off and give them a quick burst in the microwave.
Lemon and thyme salt
Makes ½ cup
• ¼ cup sea salt flakes
• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
• finely grated zest, 2 lemons
1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Combine salt flakes, thyme and lemon together in a small bowl. Rub together lightly with your finger tips to combine.
2. Pour salt onto a lined baking tray. Turn off the oven and place the tray in the warm oven close the door and leave in the oven undisturbed for 4 hours or overnight.
3. Pour salt into a jar and store in a dark dry place. Use with 6 months for maximum flavor.
food dept fact: This is beautiful sprinkled over the skin of chicken before roasting of try it on barbecued fish.
• Short on time? We recently discovered the saltbox, they have a lovely lime fresco salt in their range. thesaltbox.com.au
Baked whole snapper with lemon, oregano, olives and a lemon beurre noisette
A whole fish can be quite intimidating to cook, the trick is to get your fishmonger to do the hard work of scaling and cleaning the fish. After that it is very easy to have your meal ready in 30 minutes
Serves 2
• 1 x 750g snapper, cleaned
• 1 large lemon, finely sliced
• ½ bunch oregano leaves
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• ½ cup kalamata olives
• olive oil, to drizzle
• 2 teaspoons Lemon thyme salt
• 50g butter
• juice ½ lemon
• 1 tablespoon salted capers, washed and drained
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Rinse the fish and dry with paper towel. Score the flesh of the fish in several places on each side and place in to an ovenproof frying pan or baking dish.
2. Fill the cavity and slits of the fish with the lemon slices, oregano and garlic slices. Scatter over the olives, drizzle with olive oil and season with Lemon thyme salt.
3. Bake for 20 minutes or until fish is opaque when the flesh is flaked with a fork. If it is not cooked return to the oven and continue for another 5-10 minutes.
4. During the last 5 minutes of the fish cooking place the butter in a shallow frying pan over a medium heat and cook until the milk solids on the base of the pan have turned a golden brown color and the butter is foamy and smells nutty like “hazelnuts”. Once it gets to this stage immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice and capers to prevent the butter form burning.
5. Pour the lemon beurre noisette over the fish and serve with a fresh leaf salad of a selection of steamed greens.
the food dept’s orange marmalade
If you love marmalade, as many people do, you will adore this recipe, it makes enough for you give to friends and some to keep for yourself.
Makes approximately 9 cups
1 kg oranges
1½ cups sugar to every one cup or pulp.
1. Cut the oranges in half from top to bottom, then thinly slice across the orange halves. Place into a large bowl and pour over just enough water to cover. Stand overnight.
2. Place into a large shallow pot. The pan being more shallow allows for the liquid to evaporate more quickly.
3. Cook over a medium heat until the rind is tender, this may take between 15 and 30 minutes. The thickness of the peel and the thickness of the slices will vary the cooking time.
4. Measure the cooked orange pulp and return to the pan with the sugar, stir over a low heat until all of the sugar has dissolved.
5. Bring to the boil over a high heat, reduce the heat and simmer until the marmalade jells when tested. This could take anywhere from 1 - 2 hours. To test the marmalade, place a saucer into the freezer. Place a teaspoon of the cooking marmalade onto the cold saucer and allow it to cool, the marmalade should “jell” on the plate and not run when the saucer is tipped up. Be careful to not overcook or this will produce a dark syrupy marmalade
6. Allow the marmalade to mostly cool in the pan and then pour into sterilized jars. If the marmalade is put into the jar hot the pieces of rind will rise to the top. Allow to cool completely and the cover the jars with the lids. Store in a cool dark place and then refrigerate once opened.
food dept fact: See our preserved lemon recipe on out slow post for “how to sterilize jars and bottles”.
Orange marmalade and cream cheese tart
The inspiration here came from the French dessert "pithivier". As everyone in the food dept seemed unable to remember or pronounce the word, "pithivier", we gave up and David created this gorgeous tart instead. The silky smooth cream cheese custard with a crisp base, is wonderfully decadent and probably won't last long!
Makes 1 x 23cm tart
• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 250g cream cheese
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150ml double cream
• Juice and grated rind of 2 oranges
• ½ cup the food dept’s orange marmalade
1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) To make the tart shell, place 2 squares of pastry together and roll out to 2mm (back to the thickness of 1 sheet of pastry).
2. Grease a 23cm loose bottomed tart pan and line with the pastry. Place into the refrigerator and rest for 2 hours. After the pastry has rested trim edges. Prick the base with a fork, this prevents the pastry from puffing up too much. Line with baking paper, fill with pie weights and bake for 25 minutes. Remove the pie weights and paper, and bake for a further 5–10 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven to 160°C (325°F).
3. For the filling, whisk the cream cheese with the sugar until soft, stir in the eggs, cream, juice and rind from the orange until you have a smooth mix.
4. Spread the base of the tart with ½ of the marmalade (3 tablespoons) then pour
in the orange filling. Bake for 40-45mins or until just set. Remove from the
oven and allow to cool.
5. For the glaze, heat up the remaining marmalade with 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Spoon over the top of the tart and serve.
Lemon, lime and orange delicious
We couldn't do a citrus story without a lemon delicious, so we have added a little twist by making it sharper with a hint lime and sweeter with some orange.
Serves 6
• 80g butter
• ½ cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs, separated
• juice and rind of 1 lemon
• rind only of 1 lime
• juice and rind of 1 orange
• ¼ cup self raising flour
• 1½ cups milk
• extra ½ cup cater sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease 6 x 1 cup oven proof ramekins.
2. Using and electric mixer cream the butter, sugar for 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time then mix through the zest. Mix through the flour, milk and juices.
3. Whisk the egg whites until soft peak then gradually add the extra caster sugar and beat until the sugar has dissolved. Gently fold half of the egg whites and sugar into the mixture, then gently fold through the remaining egg whites and sugar.
4. Pour into ramekins and them bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Serve immediately with double cream.
Campari and orange
These 2 refreshing drinks are traditionally served with orange slices but why not try some other citrus fruits, maybe make it a Campari and grapefruit juice or liven up a Aperol Spritz with lime!
• 1 part Campari
• 2 parts freshly squeezed orange juice
• ice cubes
• a slice of orange
1. Place the Campari in a tumbler, top with orange juice, ice cubes and a slice of orange.
Aperol spritz
• 3 parts Proseco
• 2 parts Aperol
• a splash of soda
• ice cubes
• a slice of orange
1. Place the Proseco and Aperol into a tumbler, top with a splash of soda, ice cubes and a slice of orange.
the food dept. would like to thank Campari Australia for generously supplying the alcohol for this shoot.
We would also like to thank our food assistant, Caroline Ryan for whipping up a storm in the kitchen.
