Asian Ceviche

Serves 4

1 fillet salmon, cubed and skin removed.
1 fillet white snapper, cubed and skin removed
2 large tomatoes, cubed
1 Thai honey mango, cubed
1/2 a medium bulb red onion, finely chopped
1 small clove garlic, grated
6 stalks spring onions, sliced
1 handful coriander, chopped
2 red chili padi, very finely chopped with seeds
6-8 calamansi, juiced
sliced avocado to garnish (optional)
2 pinches salt
fresh ground black pepper
Optional: flour tortillas for the basket.

1. Mix ingredients (except fish skin) together and leave in fridge for 10 mins.

2. Optional: Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper on the skins on both sides and leave on the grill to let the fat drain about 10 -15 minutes snapper skin takes slightly longer.

3. Optional tortilla bowl: Preheat oven to 190 celsius. Invert your muffin tin and nestle one tortilla in between four cups. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove and cool. Spoon ceviche in the bowls and serve.

Australian Damper

Serves: 6-8

250 g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
25 g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
175 ml milk

1. Sift the flour at least 2 -3 times. Mix the flour with the salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with the tips of your fingers, until it resembles fine crumbs.

2. Optional stage: Add 100 g grated cheese to the mixture before adding the milk and sprinkle with a little extra cheese before baking. Also add 2 tablespoons of chives or parsley. You can experiment with any flavours e.g olives and sundried tomatoes, chilli and coriander etc. (The one in the picture is curry powder, cubed boiled potatoes and sliced red peppers)

3. Stir in the milk with a butter knife) to make a soft dough.

4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and shape into a soft, smooth ball. Try not to knead too much.

5. Set the ball of dough onto a tray or baking sheet and flatten gently to make a round about 17 cm across. Cut a deep cross in the dough and brush lightly with milk.

6. You can also roll it out to 1 inch or so thick and use a cookie cutter to cut out circles to form scones or biscuits. It will make 8 and a little extra bit for the dog!

7. Bake at 190°C for 30 minutes until golden.


* If  you want it to be sweet, add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the mixture with the milk. The milk can also be replaced with beer.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

Serves 4-6

1 large white onion, sliced thin
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
350 - 400g boneless pork butt or shoulder
¼ + ½ of the quarter cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
¾  teaspoons sugar
¼  teaspoons dijon mustard
2-3 crushed garlic cloves
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons soy + 4 tablespoons water

Extra
Sugar
Salt
Vinegar
Cayenne

1. Rinse pork roast under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Place onions in crock-pot. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, paprika, kosher salt and pepper; mix thoroughly. Rub mixture all over roast and place the roast on top of the onions.

3. In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, sugar, mustard, garlic salt and cayenne pepper; whisk to combine. Drizzle about 1/3 of vinegar mixture over roast and soy + water mix. Cover and refrigerate remaining vinegar mixture.

4. Cover crockpot; cook on low for 6-7 hours.

5. Remove meat and onions; drain. Chop or shred meat and onions and mix with extra sugar, salt, vinegar & cayenne.

6. Place the chopped meat back into the pot to keep warm and drizzle about the rest of reserved vinegar mixture over the meat.

7. Serve with coleslaw in a hamburger bun.

* This is adapted from My Baking Addiction. I wasn't over the moon about this recipe but it still tasted good. Will have to experiment more. 

Mini pork pies

Makes 6

Pork filling:
 350g pork shoulder (including fat), or combination of pork shoulder and fresh sausage meat to make 350g (you can use all sausage meat if you like)
 110g back bacon rashers, derinded

2 garlic cloves, crushed

 1 sprig fresh thyme with leaves removed
 salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper

Optional: 2-3 anchovy fillets, chopped, with 1/2-1 teaspoon of anchovy oil

Hot-water crust pastry:
 450g plain white flour, plus a little extra for dusting
 a pinch of salt
 50 ml milk
 50 ml water
 150g butter

Glaze:
 1 large egg yolk

Equipment:
1 jumbo 6-cup muffin tin

1. If using pork shoulder, coarsely chop in a food processor or hand chop with a knife into 1cm cubes or smaller but don't mince.

2. Combine all the other filling ingredients and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

3. Measure flour and salt for the crust into a mixing bowl.

4. Cut butter into cubes. Add milk and water into a saucepan, and add the butter. Place the pan over gentle heat. When butter has melted, turn up the heat to bring it up to a boil. As soon as it does, pour it over the flour and mix with a wooden spoon till it forms a dough.

5. Turn the dough out on a work surface to bring it altogether. Take 2/3 of the dough and divide it into 6 parts. Roll each part into 6 balls and place 1 in each of the muffin tin.

6. Press each ball onto the base and up the sides of the cup to the top. The pastry may tear but don't worry, just fix it by pressing some more pastry on the tear. This pastry is very easy to work with, so if there's a mistake, don't panic! Treat it like play dough.

7. Spoon equal amount of pork filling into each of the cups.

8. Sprinkle more flour on the surface and roll out the remaining pastry and cut out 6 rounds for the lids.

9. Paint each of the edges of the lids with beaten egg yolk, and over turn it onto the muffin cups. Use a fork and press to seal the egg-yolked edges onto the top of the pies.

10. You can use any left over pastry to make decorations. Glaze the tops using the rest of the egg and make a 1 centimetre steam hole in each pie.

11. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes on middle shelf. After 30 minutes, remove the baking sheet from oven.

12. Remove the pies from the muffin tin carefully using a knife and oven gloves, and place directly onto the hot baking sheet.

13. Place it back onto the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the pies are golden brown.

14. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve hot or leave in fridge for a cold lunch.

* This is adapted from Delia Smith's recipe. I've simplified it a little with the ingredients. Omitted the anchovy essence, allspice, sage and mace. I mostly have thyme in my kitchen so that's why I used it in this recipe. You can really use anything you like or have! In this recipe I have doubled the pastry measurements from Delia's original recipe as I didn't find there was enough.