Tag: dinner

Vego Pasta with Broccolini & Goats Cheese

Pasta is one of those items you should always have in the pantry.  Instant pasta is so easy to cook and there are so many good quality “fresh” dried pastas in the market, you can really have a good choice between almost every type of pasta from your normal spaghetti right through to lasagne sheets.

There is another use for lasagne sheets other than in lasagne’s.  When I was a young apprentice, I remember how much it surprised me when I was shown another use for lasagne sheets.  The chef cooked a chef’s meal by simply heating a pan really hot, cooking lasagne sheets, ripping it into smaller strips and browning it in a pan until it’s slightly “crispy” then adding all the other ingredients through for flavour such as the shallots, garlic and chilli.  Simple dish, quick and using only the ingredients available in the kitchen.

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Vegetarian Green Curry

Photo by Jun Pang

Lets not forget about the vegos hey!!

it seems that there are more vegos out there in the world.  I don’t know why and hey, it’s not a bad way of eating, it’s just that the world doesn’t really accommodate for them as easily as we would expect.  I’m not a vego but I can sympathize for them though.  So many times I’ve been out at a restaurant and the choices for vegos are very limited.  I like to change that as much as I can in the restaurant, I mean why wouldn’t you do it, there’s so many fresh indgredients grown from the ground that it would be sacrilege not to use them.

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Tomato & Pork Neck Chop with Olives, Capsicum & Speck served with White Polenta

Photo by Jun Pang

Nothing fancy here but it’s open for fancy stuff.  Chuck some smoked paprika into the braise to add little more flavour or saute some chorizo sausage in before you add the liquids, it lifts the dish to another level.  The polenta can also be added to like a little truffle oil at the end or saute mixed mushrooms in butter and fold it through just before serving and finish it off with a poached egg – bloody beautiful!

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Roasted Lamb Loin with Peas and Mint

Photo by Jun Pang

So now that you know how to butcher and roll a lamb loin, you can now roast it and come up with a simple dish.

Lamb, peas and mint; is there any other match that is so made for each other?  Minted peas is one thing but when paired with lamb, it is a match made in heaven!

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Red Braise Beef

Just about every Asian country has a version of this dish.  Most use the same spices to flavour the braising liquid and the end result is subsequently similar in taste and appearance.

This is a Chinese version, using many and very different spices.  It is a very simple dish, simply place all ingredients in a pot and let it braise away for a period of time, perfect for those people who love on pot wonders.

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Corn Bread

I could eat corn bread all day.  Fresh baked straight from the oven with whipped butter, you could ask for nothing more.

This is easier than making bread.  No resting time, no proving time, simply make the batter, place into tins and bake.  The batter itself takes no longer than 5 minutes to put together, no skill required here, it’s like making pancake batter.

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Confit Duck with Roasted Root Veggies

Photo by Jun Pang

Confit meat has been the oldest way of preserving proteins for centuries.  Before refrigeration, people had to store meat some how.  Some salted their meats which draws out moisture inhibiting the growth of bacteria, there fore allowing it to be kept for longer periods of times.  Some smoked meats, cure meats often with sugar and salt mix.

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Chefs Dinner – Pigs Ears & Speck Pasta

Every now and again my chefs and I treat our selves with a meal before service. Usually it’s left over stuff that would normally hit the bins from specials that might not have performed too well or change of menu and we’re left with ingredients we can’t incorporate into the new menu.

This particular occasion, we had pigs ears.  I love pig ears, you can do so many things with them.  I like them really crispy on the outside and the cartelidge in the middle adds to that texture.  Crispy fried pig ears, tossed in salt served with a chili, soy and vinegar dipping sauce –  priceless!

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