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This delicious pasta dish is simple to make and very moreish! Works well with tagliatelle if you don’t have any pappardelle. Serves 4.

crab-&-prawn-pappardelle

Ingredients

1 live mud crab (approx 1.4kg)
16 green king prawns, shelled & deveined
100ml olive oil
350-400g fresh pappardelle pasta
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 sml red chilli, finely sliced
50ml dry white wine
250g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch continental parsley
50g unsalted butter
1 lemon
Salt & pepper

METHOD

Put the mud crab in the freezer for approx 20mins while you bring a big pot of salted water to the boil. Take the mud crab straight from the freezer and put into the boiling water and cook for 10min per kg of crab. Drain water and allow the crab to cool before extracting all the crab meat. Set the crab meat aside.

Bring a pot of water to the boil.

In a large frypan over medium heat lightly fry the garlic and chilli in olive oil, being careful not to colour the garlic. Add the prawns and crab meat, turn the heat up to high and cook for 30 seconds.

Add a splash of dry white wine and flambé. Add the cherry tomatoes and a handful of roughly chopped parsley. Toss to combine.

Put the pasta in the pot and cook until al dente, drain & add to the frypan. Add the knob of butter, season well with salt & pepper and toss together to combine.

Serve with a small handful of chopped parsley and a wedge of lemon. Enjoy!

Note: If you are using dry pasta you will have to put it in the pot to cook before you start cooking the chilli and the garlic as it will take a lot longer to cook then the fresh pasta.

Delicious and wholesome and also reasonably healthy. These are the tastiest muffins ever! Recipe courtesy of my girlfriend. Makes 12.

muffin

Ingredients

2/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp bicarb of soda
pinch salt
2/3 tsp cinnamon
2 large ripe bananas
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans/walnuts)

 METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan-forced).

Beat butter, sugar, egg & vanilla essence in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Continue mixing and add mashed bananas followed by the flour, bicarb of soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir in nuts.

Put into a greased & floured muffin tray and cook for 14-15 minutes. Serve with a knob of butter & dusted with icing sugar. Mmmmmmm!

Delicious and simple! You can make this with fresh bread but the stale bread is really what makes the dish. Serves 4.

Tuscan-Bread-Salad

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt & pepper 

Salad
1 stale ciabatta loaf, roughly broken up by hand
6 large ripe roma tomatoes, quartered
1 lebanese cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
5-6 slices red onion, broken up
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
12 large basil leaves, roughly torn

 METHOD

Whisk the dressing in small bowl and set aside.

Put the bread in a large bowl with 2 cups water for 1min. Drain the water off and squeeze any excess water from the bread with your hands and drain that off also. Add in all the other ingredients except the basil, add the dressing and mix well. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

When ready to serve, stir in the basil. Enjoy!

I don’t often have burgers but when I do I’m not concerned about them being low-fat – I want them to be tasty – and these certainly are! Makes 2 good size burgers.

burger

BURGER PATTIES MIXTURE
250g beef mince 
1 egg
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped 
1 clove garlic, crushed 
1/4 sml white onion, finely diced 
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper 

BURGERS
2 hamburger buns
2 tablespoons hummus
2 rashers bacon
2 eggs
1 tomato
Lettuce leaves
Tomato sauce, to serve
Slices of cheddar cheese (optional)

 METHOD

For the patties, mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and form 2 large patties, set aside.

Cook the bacon in a pan until crispy, set aside. Cook the patties in the leftover bacon juices (3-4mins each side) and add the eggs to pan toward the end of the cooking process and cook to your liking.

Put 1 tablespoon hummus on the bottom of the hamburger bun, top with lettuce, tomato, the beef patty, bacon rasher, egg and tomato sauce. Serve with your favourite oven chips. Enjoy!

Optionally after you have turned the beef patties over once in the pan, top them with 3-4 slices of cheddar cheese and let that melt over the top of the patty before placing on the hamburger bun for that extra bit of taste!

This crepe recipe is very simple and consistently makes beautiful thin & tasty crepes. I used lemon & sugar to top them here but use whatever toppings take your fancy! Serves 4.

crepes

CREPE MIXTURE
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk 
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (30g) butter, melted

TOPPING
1/2 tablespoon caster sugar
Juice of 1/4 lemon

 METHOD
In a large bowl whisk together the flour and eggs. Continue whisking and add the milk and water, followed by the salt and butter until you have a smooth, lump-free consistency.

Pour about 1/4 cup of mixture over a greased frypan on medium-high heat and quickly rotate the frypan so the mixture thinly covers the whole surface. Turn over after 1-2mins and cook for 30secs on the other side before turning out onto a plate and repeating.

Sprinkle with sugar & lemon juice. Enjoy!

This dish is delicious but does take some prep time! Serves 2.

Prawn-Tagliatelle

INGREDIENTS

1 punnet grape tomatoes
2 gloves garlic, finely chopped
1 sml red chilli, roughly chopped (deseed if you don’t like it hot)
2 tbs olive oil
12 green king prawns, peeled & deveined

PASTA 
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp olive oil
100g plain flour

LEMON CHILLI BREADCRUMBS 
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup ciabatta, roughly chopped
rind of 1/2 lemon
1 sml red chilli, deseeded

METHOD

To make the pasta, mix ingredients together in a bowl and then turn out on to a floured surface, kneed and put through a pasta machine to desired thickness and cut in to 2cm wide strips (use a rolling pin if you don’t have a pasta machine).

To make the lemon chilli breadcrumbs heat the olive oil in a small pan, add ciabatta breadcrumbs and fry until golden, add in the lemon rind and chilli and cook for a further minute. Take out and blend lightly until the consistency of breadcrumbs and season well with salt and pepper.

In a small saucepan heat the olive oil then add the garlic and chilli until the garlic is transparent. Add the grape tomatoes and cook lid on for 5-10mins on high until all the tomatoes have burst and you have a nice tomato sauce.

Put the fresh pasta in a pot of boiling water and cook until al dente. In the meantime mix the prawns with 1 tbs olive oil and season well in another bowl and cook in a fry pan for 3-4mins each side.

Drain the pasta and add to the tomato sauce then plate up with the pasta as the base, prawns on top and then garnish with the lemon chilli breadcrumbs and a wedge of lemon. Enjoy!

This dish is low in fat and delicious! You can also make them with prawns instead of chicken. Makes 15 rolls (serves 3).

rice-paper-rolls

INGREDIENTS

150g vermicelli noodles, soaked in boiling water and allowed to cool
1 chicken breast (300g) poached and shredded
1 large carrot, peeled & julienned
1 cup wombok (chinese cabbage) finely chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
12 snow peas, ends removed and finely chopped
1/2 cup snow-pea sprouts (cut the stalks off – just the leafy bits) roughly chopped
1/4 cup spring onion, finely chopped
Rice paper wrappers

WASABI MAYONNAISE
1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise
2 tbs wasabi
1 tbs warm water

 METHOD

Mix mayonnaise, wasabi and warm water in a small bowl until well combined, set aside.

Put all the other ingredients in a big bowl and add the wasabi mayo, mix thoroughly. Wrap in rice paper rolls and serve immediately. Enjoy!

This is a very easy dish to make requiring only two pots! You can add more seafood than that shown below (mussels, lobster etc…) but I really like the simplicity and flavour of the prawns, fish & calamari together. Serves 2.

spaghetti-marinara

INGREDIENTS

150g spaghetti (I like garofalo brand) 
2 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 sml white onion, finely diced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
1 1/2 tbs tomato paste
400g vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped 
200g ling fillets (or other white-flesh fish), roughly chopped
2 squid tubes, cleaned and cut into rings
8 green king prawns, peeled & deveined
2 tbs flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
lemon quarters, to serve

 METHOD

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add onion, garlic & chilli flakes and cook until onion is translucent (i.e. do not brown!). Add tomato paste and roughly chopped vine-ripened tomatoes and simmer 10mins, stirring occasionally (sauce will start to thicken). Add in half the ling fillets and cook for a further 10mins – the ling fillets will break down and become part of the sauce. Continue stirring occasionally. Season well.

Cook the pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

Add the rest of the ling fillets and the prawns & calamari and cook lid on for 3-4 mins. Take off the heat, toss the pasta in with the sauce along with 1tbs of flat-leaf parsley and coat well.

Serve immediately with a lemon wedge and the remainder of the flat-leaf parsley. Enjoy!

I had the best thai beef salad up at Siam Thai in Mooloolaba recently and managed to get a hold of the recipe – enjoy! Serves 2. You can substitute lime juice for the lemon juice, and palm sugar instead of the brown sugar for a more traditional flavour. Add or remove the sml chillies in the dressing to suit (1 is medium-hot).

thai-beef-salad

INGREDIENTS

300g rump steak
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup spring onions, roughly chopped
1/2 sml red onion, roughly chopped
1 lebanese cucumber, peeled & roughly chopped
2 long red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
1/4 red capsicum, deseeded and thinly sliced (optional)
1/4 green capsicum, deseeded and thinly sliced (optional)
1 iceberg or butter lettuce
250g jasmine rice
1 handful roasted, unsalted peanuts

DRESSING
2 coriander roots, trimmed, well rinsed and roughly chopped 
2 garlic cloves
1 sml red chilli 
3 teaspoons fish sauce
5 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons brown sugar

 METHOD

To make the dressing, pound the coriander roots, garlic and chilli to a fine paste in a mortar with a pestle. Add the fish sauce, lemon juice and brown sugar and stir to combine, set aside.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt & pepper in a plastic bag with the steak and shake to coat well, then sear on a BBQ and cook until medium rare (or to your liking), put on a plate and cover with foil to let it rest.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl, slice the steak in to long, thin strips, add the dressing and toss well. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves with (microwave) rice and top with crushed peanuts. Healthy & delicious!

Serves 4 and is delicious, healthy and moreish! Will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. This is a modified Neil Perry recipe. There are a lot of ingredients in this one and from start to finish for 1 person it will take about 1 1/2 hours to prepare.

ChickenHerbSalad 

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken breasts, poached, or 1 roast chicken, shredded
300g bean thread vermicelli (i use wai wai brand), soaked in boiling water, then drained
2 lebanese cucumbers, halved lengthways and thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 carrot, julienned
1/2 sml red onion, finely sliced
2 french shallots, thinly sliced and fried until golden
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 long red chillies, seeds removed and thinly sliced
1 large handful coriander leaves
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley
1 sml handful mint leaves
1 sml handful dill
80g unsalted roasted peanuts
sea salt

PALM SUGAR DRESSING
2 coriander roots, trimmed, well rinsed and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon sea salt
70g palm sugar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves

 METHOD

To make the dressing, pound the coriander roots, garlic and sea salt to a fine paste in a mortar with a pestle. Put the palm sugar in a small pan with a dash of water, and allow it to dissolve over very low heat. Continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar starts to turn a rich golden brown colour. Add the sherry vinegar to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes, then allow to cool. Add the red wine vinegar and palm sugar mixture to the coriander paste, then whisk in the oil. Add the chopped coriander leaves and season to taste.

Combine the shredded chicken, vermicelli and remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl. Dress with the palm sugar dressing and toss well. Enjoy!
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