FoodieChat

Ever since Boost came onto the scene, closely followed by Pulp and many others, Sydney became swept into healthy drink fever.  Smoothies are refreshing on a cool day, and also are a great meal replacement as they are so filling! But then I decided to delve into the nutritional information of these drinks after a tip off from a newspaper article and discovered these may contain as many calories as a high sugared soft drink!  And no wonder why.  They are made with fruit juice, fruit and frozen yoghurt or sorbet with no fresh milk in sight.  So that was the end of those drinks for me. Admittedly, some of these chains have introduced drinks with some milk component, but before that I already discovered my own trick of making a more nutritious and lower calorie version which is equally as delicious (and much cheaper!!). (more…)

This is a favourite dish of chinese and non-chinese alike. It’s so versatile. This recipe uses chicken mince, however you can substitute it with diced barbeque duck, pork mince, add in some prawns and omit the bamboo or water chestnuts. It’s great to cook for groups as you can make the filling ahead of time and prepare the lettuce - your food processor is your best friend. I made it as part of a 3 course meal for 90 people, as well as part of an 8 course chinese banquet for 8.

 Ingredients (serves 8 as an entree) (more…)

 Such an easy to make yet impressive looking entree!

Ingredients

• 2 - 3 field mushrooms per person
• Olive Oil
• Shaved parmesan
• Rocket
• Balsamic vinegar
• Butter

Method

1. Clean or peel mushrooms and place in a single layer on an oven tray.
2. Place half a teaspoon (or more if you can spare it!) of butter in the centre of each mushroom. I’ve seen Jamie Oliver use flavoured butter to do this - mixing herbs and chilli into it.
3. Bake in 200 degree oven for 20 mins or until the mushrooms soften and start releasing their juices
4. Meanwhile, wash the rocket leaves and toss with the parmesan. Then dress with the olive oil and balsamic. Toss.
5. Just before serving, stack the mushrooms on top of each other on a plate. Layer some rocket salad on top.
6. Drizzle extra balsamic around the plate if desired. Season with salt and pepper.