Stonegrill- Penrith

Hubby's birthday was coming soon and I wanted to take him out to a nice restaurant for a birthday meal. I looked into a few restaurants but all were booked out for a Saturday night. After doing some more Google searches I stumbled across Stonegrill in Penrith which offers a rather unique interactive dining experience where diners meals are served cooking at the table on super-heated natural volcanic stones. A quick look at the menu and the beautiful photos of all the food and I was on the phone making a reservation.

Saturday night as we entered the restaurant, we were greeted with the aroma of barbecued meat cooking on a hot grill and a friendly and smiling waitstaff- (probably the owner of the restaurant). We were directed to our seats and after browsing at the menu, we decided to order the set menu as the choices looked good and a 3 course meal for $34 seemed like good value for money. Shortly after placing our orders, our entrees arrived! Great, cause I was starving!

Entree: Panko Prawns

For entree, I ordered the panko prawns which were absolutely fantastic. The prawns were crunchy and golden on the outside and cooked to perfection on the inside. The tartare sauce was nice and creamy with just the right notes of sourness from the gherkins and capers.

Entree: Salt and Pepper Squid

Hubby ordered the salt and pepper squid which tasted nice. It was lightly battered, crunchy on the outside and not overcooked on the inside, however, it tasted rather ordinary after having eaten the prawns.
Our drinks also did arrive after the entrees but the waitress was apologetic about it when she brought out the drinks to us.

 Main: Grass Fed Aged Prime Yearling Beef Rump Steak served with vegetables and mushroom sauce

For the mains, hubby and I both got the rump steak which was presented on a lightly salted hot volcanic stone plate. These special stones, are heated to 400°C and the meals are presented within a protective ceramic serving tray, sided by vegetables or salad and condiments. When your meal arrives, you simply turn over your fresh food selection, then cut it and side-lay two to three portions, allowing these to sear and cook to your liking. Your meal remains hot and enjoyable, allowing you to dine at leisure, with every bite as hot and delicious as the first. As the meat is completely trimmed of fats and no added oils are used, this method of cooking is also quite healthy.

Main: Grass Fed Aged Prime Yearling Beef Rump Steak with 3 extra prawns served with vegetables and pepper sauce

The beef steak was so tender, juicy and full of sweet meaty flavour. Hubby also ordered extra prawns with his main ($1 each per prawn). You can also ask for extra scallops ($2 per scallop) and extra sauce ($1 extra) too.

Dessert: Sticky Date Pudding

For dessert, I asked for the sticky date pudding which was not a selection choice on their set menu but the staff were willing to accommodate my request by asking me to pay for a small difference which I think was just $2. When the pudding came it was beautifully presented and tasted delicious! The pudding was soft, moist and full of date flavour. The sauce was rich and sweet without being on the heavy side. It was so good, even though I was really full after my main and entree, I just couldn't stop eating my dessert as each mouthful left me wanting more.

Hubby went for a lighter choice of dessert which was the apple slice- which resembles more of an apple crumble by the way. This dessert was also beautifully presented on a plate and tasted delicious. The apples were nicely stewed and matched beautifully with the crunchy, golden crumble and luscious custard. Very homestyle and comfy.

Dessert: Apple Slice with custard

In summary, hubby and I had a lovely night. We had great food, great service and the set menu was great value for money (more expensive if ordering a la carte). The meals were well time and spaced apart appropriately. Hubby and I both left the restaurant satisfied and feeling very full. The only downside I suppose to dining here would be that you leave the restaurant smelling like BBQ smoke but this is the same with all BBQ restaurants. At least this restaurant had good ventilation!

Mushroom Tacos

I'm trying to reduce my meat consumption by eating vegetarian once a week and getting on board with Meatless Monday. Benefits of going meatless once a week include reducing your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.

Initially, I thought it'd be hard to not have meat as part of a meal and feel satisfied/filled but surprisingly it hasn't been too difficult, even hubby doesn't mind the odd vegetarian meal!

Recipe adapted from Recipes +, June 2008 edition, page 68

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cooking oil
400g button mushrooms, sliced
6 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red capsicum, diced
375g jar mild or medium heat chunky tomato salsa
300g can kidney beans, drained
⅓ cup chopped coriander
1 pkt taco seasoning
8 taco shells, warmed, to serve
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato, diced
⅓ cup sour cream
⅓ cup shredded tasty cheese
Guacamole, to serve

Method

1. Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over moderate heat. Cook and stir mushrooms for 3 minutes or until tender. Add onions, garlic and capsicum. Cook and stir for 4 minutes or until onions are soft. Reduce heat; stir in salsa and beans. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Stir in coriander.
2. To serve, fill taco shells with mushroom mixture. Garnish with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, cheese and guacamole.

Schnitzels with Mango Curry Sauce

A couple of months ago, my husband and I attended a marriage course- not because we thought that we had marriage problems but because we wanted to continue to invest in our marriage and learn how we could build up a strong, healthy and happy marriage. The marriage course provided my husband and I a great time to spend time with each other as well as  learn more about each other.

Over the course of several weeks, we were served a candlelit dinner with dessert at a romantic dinner for two followed with listening and watching to practical talks played on DVD and then some private time as a couple to discuss and work through a booklet.

It was really nice to go "on a date" with my hubby each week and be served some lovely food. A lot of the course participants really enjoyed the food and asked the hosts for the recipes, so at the end of the course, our hosts put together a recipe book of all the meals we ate for us and included some marriage tips inside! One of the recipes in the book is this schnitzel with mango curry sauce.


To find out more about the marriage course, click on the following website:
http://marriage.stjamescroydon.org.au/

There is no group work throughout the course and you didn't have to share anything about your relationship with anyone other than your partner.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts fillets or 500g pork leg steaks
⅓ cup plain flour
2 eggs
2 cups breadcrumbs
½ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped (optional)
¼ cup sage leaves, finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
olive oil, for frying
steamed vegetables, to serve 

Mango Curry Sauce

1 mango cheek
2 tablespoons whole egg mayonnaise
a tiny flick of curry paste

To make mango curry sauce:

Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If too thick, thin it out with a splash of chicken stock liquid.

Method

Preheat oven to 130°C. Place meat between 2 sheets plastic wrap. Pound with a meat mallet or rolling pin until 4mm thick.

Combine flour and salt and pepper on a large plate. Lightly whisk eggs in a shallow dish. Combine breadcrumbs, parsley and sage in a separate shallow dish.

Lightly coat meat in seasoned flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg then coat in breadcrumb mixture, pressing crumbs on with fingertips to secure. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a large frying pan. Pour oil into pan until 1cm deep. Heat over medium-high heat until hot. Cook schnitzels, in batches, for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until golden. Drain on paper towel. Place on a baking tray in oven to keep warm while cooking remaining schnitzels.

Serve schnitzels with mango curry sauce and steamed vegetables

Notes & Tips

Do not cover the schnitzels and don't pile them on top of each other when placing them in the oven

Adding chopped sage or parsley or Parmesan cheese to the schnitzels gives a different flavour

Passionfruit Panna Cotta

Ingredients

600ml thin cream
1½ cups milk
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
7 passionfruit
1 tablespoon gelatine
¼ cup (60ml) hot water
Passionfruit syrup (optional)

Method

1. Place cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan. Stir on low heat until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat and cook until just simmering. Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, remove pulp from 5-6 passionfruit and strain. Discard seeds. Stir passionfruit juice into cream mixture. Whisk together gelatine and hot water until dissolved. Add to cream and mix well. Set aside to cool slightly. Wet 10 x 1/2-cup moulds or glasses with a little water. Strain mixture into a jug and pour liquid into moulds. Cover with plastic wrap. Put in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight to set.
3. Remove panna cotta from refrigerator 10 minutes before serving. Dip moulds into warm water for 3-4 seconds and invert onto serving plates. Top each panna cotta with pulp from remaining passionfruit or use passionfruit syrup.

Notes & Tips

You can make the panna cotta up to 2 days ahead

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.