A lovely Easter holiday at Pearl Beach, one of our favourite Sydney getaways. Lazy beach days as summer turns to autumn here, walks, swims and a book fair to keep us all stocked up for reading. Blissful family time and healthy grazing and feasting as well.
Here are some photos of our some of our lunches so far. Promise to post recipes in weeks to come.
Changed up the traditional Smoked Salmon Crepes recipe creating a layered crepe cake for a celebratory brunch.
Layered with herbed creme fraiche with dill and capers, smoked salmon and caviar, the overall result was delicious and looks fabulous. You could add finely chopped red onion or replace caviar with salmon roe..lots of options to suit your taste.
I used my favourite crepe recipe Martha Stewart Crepes but made them a bit smaller so that the mixture made about 18-20 crepes to layer up into a high pile, leaving a few to drape over the top to complete the picture.
Easy and fun. plenty of options to make a sweet version for a dessert too!
First plane trip in more than 12 months today, travelling from Sydney to Melbourne. Masked up all the way but that was a minor inconvenience considering how lucky we are to be able to travel to (most places) within Australia (at the moment).
Got a warm welcome at the Como MGallery Hotel #comomgallery before heading down Chapel St until we spotted Abacus and headed in for lunch. Had read about the all day dining in #broadsheet and the food certainly rates a mention. Here’s a link to their lengthier review https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/south-yarra/cafes/abacus
The Ballarat breakfast featuring Toulouse sausage and pig cheeks from a special butcher in Ballarat was accompanied by a beautifully poached egg.
All day brunch, as well as a short but good main section featuring octopus, fish of the day and steak. Exactly the type of good cafe lunch we were seeking.
With cool vibes, lots of indoor greenery and large windows opening out onto the Chapel st sights and sounds(bit more subdued than normal but still buzzy) Abacus is a great stop during Prahan shopping or as a destination cafe!
This classic combination of ingredients is hard to go past as a delicious brunch, breakfast or entree.
Crepes
For the crepes I just halve the sugar and throw in some dill leaves into my favourite easy Martha Stewart crepe recipe….https://www.marthastewart.com/921813/how-make-crepes
Ingredients:
Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until frothy.
Heat small non-stick pan, dip kitchen paper in butter and lightly coat pan with butter.
Pour a small ladleful of crepe batter into pan and swirl to create a thin crepe. Wait until browned on one side and flip. Repeat until you finish batter. You will have about 12-14 crepes depending on the size of your pan.
Filling:
Mix creme fraiche with herbs, pinch of salt, a grind of black pepper.
Lay crepes on plate, line with smoked salmon, add a dollop of herbed creme fraiche,a few bits of cucumber, roll up and serve topped with a teaspoon or two of caviar, and additional cucumber on the side of you like.
Just made these as part of a #tapas lunch we enjoyed on the deck of our beach house at beautiful Hyam’s Beach on the South Coast of New Sput Wales, about 3 hours from Sydney.
Tapas lunch consisted of : charcuterie and cheese board including machengo cheese, jamon Iberico, san Danielle prosciutto, cornichons, salami, quince paste and a blue cheese; garlic prawns, Spanish tortilla, chorizo, sourdough bread, green salad and a fruit and chocolate platter to finish. And these very nice red roasted capsicum rolls filled with tuna.
Prep time: 10 minutes Cooking and cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
2. Place capsicum on foil lined baking tray.
3. Wrap peeled garlic cloves in foil and place on baking tray.
4. Grill capsicums for 20 minutes, turning over to blacken skin on all sides. Remove garlic from oven.
5. Put capsicums in oven for another 15-20 minutes until skin is blistered and black.
6. Meanwhile, smash garlic with salt and 1.5 teaspoons of capers and mix with yoghurt, olive oil and lemon juice.
7. Drain canned tuna, add yoghurt mixture and mix through tuna. Add chopped parsley, rest of whole capers. Grind black pepper to taste and mix again.
8. Remove capsicum from oven and place in plastic bag and tie off to allow steam to soften skins. Peel off skin carefully, cut in half and remove seeds, trying not to tear capsicum flesh.
9. Stuff with tuna mixture and roll capsicum into neat parcels cutting each half into two or leaving whole.
I’ve always been fascinated but the concept of beancurd skin …you have to get it in speciality Asian stores but worth finding. It is actually made by lifting the skin that forms on the top of warmed soybean milk! It can be bought dried flat, which is what you need for this recipe, or in bunches.
These rolls are lightly fried, then steamed with a delicious simple sauce. Healthy and tasty…worth the effort hunting down the bean curd skin!
The filling can include Asian mushrooms and dried shrimps, or finely chopped prawns. You can also use chicken mince instead of pork.
This recipe is excellent appetiser or side dish for dinner served with rice, steamed greens and chilli sauce. Great for leftovers and lunch.
Prep time: 40 minutes cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
Sauce:
Garnish: finely sliced spring onions and chopped coriander
Method
1. Mix all stuffing ingredients in a bowl, except oils and egg yolk
2. Fill a large, flat baking dish halfway with warm water, immerse one sheet of bean curd skin in water then lay flat on a clean work surface.
3. Cut beancurd skin into 15cm x 20 cm rectangles.
4. Place a scoop of filling just below top of a rectangle and fold over beancurd skin horizontally, then fold in sides and roll into a spring rolls like shape, sealing edges with egg yolk. Repeat until you have about 10 beancurd rolls.
5. Heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in non-stick pan and fry rolls over medium-high heat until golden brown, remove and place on paper towel to drain excess oil.
6. Cut beancurd rolls in half, place into a baking dish.
7. Put chicken stock, oyster, soy sauces, shaoxing wine, sugar, into a small pot and bring to a simmer. Mix cornflour with water and stir through sauce, then simmer until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat, add sesame oil and mix through.
8. Set up steamer, pour sauce over rolls and steam for 15-20 minutes until pork mixture is fully cooked.
9. Scatter over with finely sliced spring onions and coriander and serve.