Salad Nicoise with Slow Roasted Vegetable Ravioli

This light dinner dish is a modern twist on the French classic!

Adapted from the Latina Deliciously Fresh Recipe Book, page 20

Serves 4

Ingredients

625g pack fresh slow roasted vegetable ravioli
4 eggs
375g green beans, blanched and halved diagonally
4 large vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
2 x 185g cans tuna in olive oil, drained, reserving 2 tablespoons of oil
¼-½ cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly torn
8 small anchovy fillets, torn lengthways
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Freshly cracked pepper, for serving

Method

1. Add ravioli to large saucepan of boiling water. Return to the boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, place eggs in a small saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 4 minutes. Cool in cold water, peel and cut into quarters.
3. Combine ravioli, beans, tomatoes, tuna, olives, parsley and anchovies in a large bowl.
4. Combine reserved oil from tuna and lemon juice in a screw top jar.
5. Add dressing to salad and gently combine. Serve topped with eggs and pepper.

Sweet Corn and Bean Enchiladas

Serves 4

Ingredients 

12 enchilada tortillas
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 red capsicum, diced
1 zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon paprika powder
1 large tomato, diced
310g can corn kernels, drained
400g can red kidney beans, rinsed, drained
200g jar taco sauce
¾ cup grated tasty cheese
Sour cream, to serve
Guacamole, to serve

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Wrap tortillas in foil. Warm in oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, capsicum and zucchini. Cook for 3 minutes. Add chilli powder and cook, stirring, for a further 2 minutes. 

Add tomato and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until soft. Add corn, beans and salt and pepper. Remove from heat and stir to combine. 

Grease a large baking dish. Place 1/4 cup filling on 1 warm tortilla (keep remainder wrapped in foil as you work). Roll up. Place, seam side down, in baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling. 

Spoon taco sauce over tortillas. 

Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve immediately with sour cream and guacamole.

My Family Feast Prize Pack

Look what arrived in the mail today? It's my Family Feast Prize Pack!

I vaguely remember entering this competition on the SBS website a few months ago and when I got the email in July saying that I was one of ten lucky winners in the competition, I was very happy. I had been looking forward to receiving this prize pack since my email notification and it's finally arrived! Yay!!!

There are 13 different cultures represented in this book, all family recipes from vastly different backgrounds, from Cuba to China, Afghanistan to Vietnam and Burma to Bali.

I'm very excited to have won this prize and I can't wait to get started on trying all these wonderful cuisines :)

Roasted Vegetable Ravioli with Bocconcini and Basil

This is a very simple and easy to put together mid week pasta meal

Adapted from the Latina Deliciously Fresh Recipe Book, page36

Ingredients

625g pack Latina® Fresh Slow Roasted Vegetable Ravioli
250g punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 tub bocconcini, torn
1 cup fresh basil leaves
2-3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Freshly cracked pepper, for serving

Method

1. Halve the tomatoes horizontally and place, skin-side down, on a baking tray. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of sugar and 1 tbsp olive oil over the top. Season with salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 30 minutes in a preheated oven (180C) or until softened and lightly charred.
2. Add ravioli to large saucepan of boiling salted water. Return to the boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and cool slightly.
3. Gently combine cooked pasta, tomatoes, bocconcini and basil in a large bowl.
4. Place pasta on a serving platter or serving plates, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with pepper.

Home-made Vanilla Ice Cream

Making home-made ice cream from scratch is so easy if you have the help of an ice-cream maker and this recipe is a good basic one that you can use to make vanilla ice cream as well as other flavours such as mint chip or cookies & cream.

As we are using pure, fresh ingredients for this recipe, just remember that your home-made ice cream will not have the same characteristics as commercially prepared ice cream since most store-bought versions use gums and presevatives to make them firmer. If you desire a firmer consistency, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and store in the freezer until desired consistency is reached, usually two or more hours.

You may substitute lower fat creams and milk (reduced fat or low fat) for heavy cream and whole milk for a low-fat version of this recipe but keep in mind that this may change the taste, consistency and texture of the ice cream since the higher the fat content, the richer and creamier the result.

Adapted from the recipe in Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yoghurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker Instruction & Recipe Booklet, page 4

Makes approx. 1.25L

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
¾ cup caster sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
2 tsps vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean, split lengthways, seeds scraped)

Method

1. In a medium bowl, use a whisk to combine the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla to taste.
3. Churn mixture in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions
4. Serve with toppings of choice

Variations:

Cookies & Cream Ice cream: Add 3/4 cup coarsely chopped cookies or your favourite candy (chocolate chip, Oreos etc) during the last 5 minutes of churning. 

Mint Chip Ice cream: Omit the vanilla and replace with 1 to 1½ teaspoons peppermint extract. Chop 120g bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate into tiny uneven pieces. Add the chopped chocolate during the last 5 minutes of churning.

Udon Noodle Soup with Crumbed Prawn Cutlets

Panko breadcrumbs make these prawns deliciously crunchy but if you don't have any just substitute with fresh breadcrumbs. Dried or long-life udon noodles are great to keep in the pantry, so you can turn out something as light and comforting as these soupy noodles on the spot.

Ingredients

20g instant dashi powder
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
6-8 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 30mins and then thinly sliced
250g dried or 400g long-life udon noodles
10 medium green prawns, shelled (tail left on)
1 egg
3 tbsp vegetable oil
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
2 spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths
200g silken tofu, cubed
1 bunch Chinese green leaf vegetables, trimmed (e.g. baby bok choy, baby choy sum, Chinese cabbage)

Serves 2-3


Method

1. For the broth, bring 800 millilitres of water to the boil, then add the dashi powder, mirin and soy sauce and simmer for two minutes. 
2. Add the mushrooms and simmer gently for five minutes. 
3. If using dried noodles, cook them in simmering water for 9 to 10 minutes until tender, then drain and rinse. If using longlife, cover with boiling water for 30 seconds, gently separate with chopsticks, then drain and rinse. 
4. Meanwhile, cut each prawn along the back and remove any intestinal tract. Open it out and run a rolling pin gently over it to flatten the meat and trim neatly. 
5. Beat the egg until light and frothy. Heat the oil in a small frying pan. Dip each prawn in the egg, then the crumbs, and fry the prawns for one to two minutes each side until crisp and golden. 
6. Add the noodles, spring onions, Chinese vegetables and tofu to the soup and heat through for two minutes. 
7. Using tongs, divide the noodles between warm, shallow pasta bowls. Ladle the soup on top, add the prawns and serve.