STIR FRIED SWEETCORN

This is one of my favourite dishes because it’s easy and delicious. I love the crunchy, sweet taste of the corn.

Ingredients:

3 corn on the cob

1 T chopped spring onions

11/2 T cooking oil (I use light olive oil)

½ t salt

Method:

Wash the corn.

Stand a corncob on end over a dish and with a sawing motion cut off the kernels.

Repeat with the other two cobs.

Heat the wok until hot, pour in the oil and salt. Then stir fry the corn kernels, tossing them with a spatula for about 7 minutes. The kernels should be sweet but still crispy when done. Add the chopped spring onions and serve.

If you want to add meat you can use a small portion of mince chicken marinated in sesame seed oil and a bit of soy sauce. First cook the corn as above. Pour out into a dish. Add more oil and stir fry the mince chicken. Lastly toss the corn back in and give it a few flips with the spatula. Then the dish is done.

These are so delicious. They are crispy around the edges and so light it’s hard to know when to stop eating them.

Best served with maple syrup.

Ingredients

I cup self-raising flour

I 1/2 cups milk

6 tablespoons melted butter

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon castor sugar

2 free range eggs

Method

Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add eggs. Beat well with a spatula then add the milk. When the batter is smooth add the melted butter and stir.

Heat a frying pan. Smear a light coating of butter onto the surface then spoon in pancake mix. I cook one largish pancake at a time because the mixture is quite runny. Cook until brown then flip.

Serve with pure maple syrup.

ENJOY!

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This dish is delicious served hot or cold.

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

Sauce:

1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon peeled ginger, minced
2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Wash eggplant and cut off stem.

Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and score the skin with ½ inch wide crosshatching.

Place the halves face down on a heatproof dish and steam over high heat for 30 to 40 minutes or until the eggplant has a slightly sunken look.

Drain the liquid then slide the eggplant halves onto a serving plate.

Make the sauce by heating a pan until hot, add the oil, scatter in the mince ginger and garlic, turn heat to medium and cook until aromatic.

Add the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar and turn off heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the sauce over the eggplant and serve.

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This roast chicken is so easy to prepare and is deliciously moist because it is roasted over a pan of water.

INGREDIENTS

1 free range chicken
dark soya sauce (Mushroom soy is best because it makes the chicken a beautiful golden brown)
2 cloves of garlic
2 slices fresh ginger
2 spring onions
salt

METHOD

Place the chicken breast side down on a rack in a baking tray
Rub salt inside and outside the chicken
Brush all over with the Mushroom soy
Smash the garlic to remove the skins then place them inside the chicken cavity along with the ginger and the spring onions that have been roughly chopped into three.

Pour water into the baking pan so that the chicken sits over it but does not touch it

Place in a preheated oven at 180 C for at least ½ hour on one side or until golden then turn over. Brush some more soya sauce over the skin and roast for another 1/2 hour or longer if necessary. Ovens vary so you may need longer cooking times. If the chicken is lovely and brown it will be perfect.

Use the juice left in the pan as gravy.

ENJOY!

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My mum’s 85th birthday tea party. If there was sound to this photo you would hear in the background the Collingwood Footy song which my family are all avid supporters of. This is because my grandfather worked at the Victoria market & everyone there barracked for the Magpies.

I was once asked to fill in for a ladies’ tennis competition because one of the team members was sick. After the match was over, the opposition who was the home team provided the lunch. While the main course was unmemorable, the cake was absolutely delicious. It was a chestnut cake, moist, nutty and cooked to perfection. I’m always on the lookout for good recipes so I complimented the lady who baked it and asked her if she wouldn’t mind sharing it with me.

‘No,’ she said, angrily, as if I had asked her to give me her right arm. ‘I learnt this recipe at a cooking class and the teacher does NOT want us to give it away.’

I was speechless. I might have understood if they had lost that day, but her team won, and won well.

My whole family are really great cooks in both Western and Chinese cooking and it would be unheard of not to share this pleasure with others.

So I am going to share my favourite recipes with you. They are all really quick and easy because I don’t have the patience to spend hours in the kitchen away from my writing.

And thank you to Simmone Howell for suggesting me start a recipe blog.

The name of this dessert says it all. It’s so easy, quick, and an all time fave of mine and my family’s going right back to when I was little.

Sorry, but I forgot to take the photo before everyone got stuck into it. This one serving was all that was left. You have to eat it right out of the oven.

INGREDIENTS

1 Tblespoon  butter

1 Cup  castor sugar

2 Tblespoons  Self Raising flour

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Cup milk

2 eggs (separate the yolks from the whites)

METHOD

First beat up the egg whites until stiff.

Cream the butter butter and sugar (I melt the butter in the microwave to save time), add flour, lemon juice, milk and egg yolks. Beat well.

Fold the egg whites into the batter and pour into a 12″ oven proof buttered glass pudding dish set in a pan of water.

Cook at 180 C for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

ENJOY!!

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