Bacon & Egg Pie

Fresh Eggs straight from the chooks has made this beautiful bacon and egg pie.  Such an easy recipe and took no time to make.  My Gran used to make an egg and bacon pie and we'd have it on a Sunday if we went for tea or even have it cold for lunch, conjures up really lovely memories for me.
How lucky I am to get eggs bought down from Fish Creek by Mum and Dad when they come to visit.  When I got this last lot (complete with dates penciled on them by Dad) I knew I wanted to make this pie of Annabel's.  It is the very first recipe she makes on her Free Range Cook DVD set!
I used chives and parsley as my herbs, Annabel suggests using any soft herb.  The potato is boiled and then roughly chopped.  I loved the big pieces of potato, but my family suggested maybe grating the potato next time (don't think I will - I like the rustic feel of the big chunks!)

The taste was beautiful!  I actually made it a couple of days ahead and it reheated really well.  I also had some left over for lunch the next day with some homemade tomato chutney (thanks Mum!) and a little salad of baby spinach and fresh tomato.  Really YUM! 


A great tip from Annabel - put an oven tray in the oven first, oven at 200 degrees heats the tray so that when you put the pie in, the base crisps up well as it sits on the hot tray.  Gotta love that!  Enjoy this one, Catherine

Chicken, Eggplant and Green Bean Korma

 The South East Asian curry base that I made for this curry was so easy and it produced this delicious chicken and veggie curry that we enjoyed as an entree to a family gathering recently.  The curry was so flavoursome without being too spicy.  You could use any vegetable you liked but the simplicity of eggplant, tomato and green beans was a perfect combination with the chicken.  Beautiful Thai flavours in the base including ginger, lime and coriander made it really tasty. Originally I thought I might use the other half of the curry base to make something different but I loved this dish so much that I think I'll just make this one again.  My kids aren't huge fans of curries but they all really enjoyed this as they tasted it straight from the pot!  Annabel says in the book not to be daunted by the list of ingredients in the base, as once you have got them all together the food processor does all the work!  Cooking the base for a short time then adding the chicken and veggies just couldn't be easier.  Give this one a go, you won't be disappointed! Catherine

South East Asian Curry Base

I was so looking forward to making this curry base and of course it didn't disappoint.  Really easy to throw loads of beautiful fresh ingredients into the food processor and end up with an amazing flavour to use in either a vegetable or meat based curry.  I made the Chicken, Eggplant and Green Bean Korma which I am blogging next.  I used half the base in the chicken dish and froze the other half.  Another winner Annabel!

Cous Cous with Roasted Vegetables

I think that salads like this one, in fact all the salads that Annabel has in her book are my favorite recipes.  Someone asked recently, "if you had to choose a last meal, what would it be?".  As a lover of food in general this was a tough question!  I have a sweet tooth, savory tooth and every other tooth in between!  But what I really love is a sensational salad.  One with lots of ingredients including fresh herbs, vegetables, nuts and a mouth-watering dressing.

This is an scrumptious salad.  The vegies are baked after being tossed in olive oil and mapyl syrup so are so sweet and sticky.  Cous cous is one of my favourite things and I love the fact it is so easy to make!  Once the vegetables are done, they're added to the cous cous with some beautiful fresh mint, lemon juice and chopped pistachios - dow devine and once again Annabel - how easy, love this one!  Catherine

Vanilla Plum Cake

I am so lucky that I get beautiful fresh ingredients given to me direct from the vegie patch or orchard at Fish Creek!  Mum and Dad's plum tree is absoultely choccers this year and I got a big bag full of beautiful blood plums last week.

I knew that I would stew some of them, I love stewed fruit with my cereal in the morning and the kids love them with ice-cream for dessert.  I went straight to Annabel's book to get a recipe to blog and found this Vanilla Plum Cake, very easy and very delicious!

The cake only needed the plums for the top so I guess I really only used about 10 plums and stewed the rest.  Annabel suggests you can use any fruit, apricots or peaches would be nice too.  The inclusion of the buttermilk makes the cake so moist and with the vanilla and the zest of a lemon - so yummy!
The cooked cake would also make a really nice dessert with a dollop of cream or scoop of vanilla ice-cream.  I cooked the cake in a large baking dish, cut half to eat now and froze the rest to use in lunchboxes ready for the first week back to school!

 

Roasted Beet & Rocket Salad

Think I may have found my favourite Annabel salad!  This was SO easy to make and really delicious.  No many ingredients but the combination of the caramelised beetroot, the creamy feta and crunchy almonds is awesome.

This is especially yummy as the beetroot is from Mum and Dad's veggie garden at Fish Creek!  The beetroot was slowly roasted after being mixed through with olive oil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar and salt & pepper.

 I used really lovely feta that I bought from a local deli that was marinated with some preserved lemon.  The feta was so smooth and creamy and with the hint if lemon, went so well with the lemon and olive oil that made up the dressing.  I took this salad to a Christmas BBQ and could have sat down and eaten the whole bowl on my own!  Will definitely make this one again!

Prawn and Mint Finger Rolls

My next few posts will all be recipes from Annabel's book that I made over the Christmas holidays.  As it is Summer and we go out a lot to friends and family, it's nice to take something to share, and people are now expecting an Annabel creation so I'm loving it!  

These delicious prawn and mint finger rolls were easy to make and went down a treat at my family pre-Christmas dinner.  Annabel's tip to use a damp t-towel was great as the rice paper was much more manageable and the rolls stays beautifully fresh.

The ingredients were all lovely, fresh and crisp.  Iceberg lettuce, carrot, mint leaves, coriander, vermicelli and prawn meat  made up the finger rolls - very simple.
The dipping sauce completed this quick starter which was a combination of sweet chilli sauce, lime juice and zest, fish sauce and the white of a spring onion.  So easy and so delicious!

Meeting Annabel - what an experience!

Like a giggly teenager, Annabel signed both my books!

What an amazing experience!  Fancy only 6 months after starting this blog I would get the chance of meeting the woman who wrote the book, and to think Julie never got a chance to meet Julia!
Rachael, Bron, Anita, Pauline, John and I ventured into Dymocks in the city for Annabel's Melbourne launch of "Free Range in the City", yet another magnificent cookbook full of beautiful recipes that are easy to follow and taste delicious.  We were so impressed with her beautiful down to earth manner, we felt so comfortable in her company and listening to her life story was incredible.  What an amazing journey she has had through her life from possum trapper to celebrity cook! 

Annabel seemed truly grateful for her life, she thanked us from the bottom of her heart for loving her recipes and for simply enjoying food.  I loved hearing Annabel say that food can be so much more than just what to eat to satisfy your hunger.  She told us the story of her daughter, calling Annabel while she was traveling with her book launch and letting her Mum know that a sad thing had happened back home in new Zealand.  A friend of her daughter's Dad had passed away and Annabel's daughter's first thought was to  make a lasagna to take around to the family.  That hit a real cord with me and all of those who were there that night at the book launch.  I think we all feel that food is a good way to show the people you love comfort and support as well as to share in times of celebration.  This was truly an amazing night and I can't thank Rach enough for getting it all organised for us to go, I feel so lucky to have met Annabel but even luckier that I got to share the experience with my besties!

I think the most incredible thing to come out of this experience was hearing about Annabel's connection with Julia Childs.  The movie "Julie and Julia" is what insiped this blog.  Annabel told us how she wrote to Julia Childs looking for some advice on what she should do with her life, having had a catering business and writing for a local food magazine Annabel was looking for someone to tell her what direction she should take on her food journey.  Julia wrote back to Annabel and told her to join the American Association of Cooking Schools.  Taking the advice on board Annabel sold up her catering business and moved to America where she met amazing people who really taught her to cook.  So after hearing this encounter with Julia Childs, we felt that we had come full circle - how amazing and how lucky we were to hear her tell her story in the flesh! 

So after hearing Annabel talk about her life and us sitting there mesmerised and in awe, we had the chance to sit with her, chat personally and get our books signed.  She was so lovely and was really interested in this blog.  She said she would have a look at it, which may have once scared me to death, but now, having met her and realising how down to earth she is, I would be nothing less than honored for her to read my blog! 

In my book Annabel wrote: " Catherine, This is the blog copy! Yay! Happy cooking and have fun in the kitchen.  Annabel Langbein"

In my new book she wrote: "Dear Catherine, so thrilled you are loving cooking - so lucky to have such a fabulous fan!  Keep up that blog!  I'm looking forward to reading it!  Annabel Langbein"

Rhubarb & Berry Crumbles

In the last school holidays my boys spent lots of time at Mum and dad's farm at Fish Creek (birthplace of the Blog!).  When it was time to go and collect them, I couldn't wait to see what mum had in the garden that I could cook an Annabel recipe with!  So with "The Free Range Cook" in hand I entered the veggie patch to find beautiful rhubarb ready to pick, cook and eat! 

The individual Rhubarb & Berry crumbles were easy to make and really delicious served with vanilla ice-cream.  I made the full recipe of crumble of which you'll only use half of when using it for the crumble.  Mum froze the rest to use at a later date.

I liked the idea of mixing the cornflour and sugar together to sprinkle over the fruit  before adding the crumble.  As is so often the case with Annabel's recipes, it's so simple!  No pre-cooked fruit, just in the ramekin, sprinkle with sugar & cornflour, top with crumble and in the oven!  Couldn't be easier and couldn't be a more perfect flavour!
Catherine

Corn & Avocado Salad

This Salad is simple and beautiful.  Corn would have to be my favourite vegetable, I love it in anything and the combination of the corn with avocado, and tomato is really good.  I boiled the corn the first time I made this and then barbecued it the second time.  It was equally as nice but the barbecued version gave the salad a lovely smokey flavour. 
I made the Basil Oil and have kept it in the fridge and used it on a number of different salads and it is delicious.  Very fresh and makes it feel like Summer is just around the corner! Catherine