Tarator with Radish & Tiger Prawns

This dish comes from the wonderful Gourmet Traveller, filled with fancy delights and delicacies. I rarely cook from the Gourmet Traveller because the writers have little eye for expense, and recipes often include rare and costly ingredients, or laborious times in the kitchen. This fresh and decidedly summery recipe, thankfully, is so easy to make you could have it ready to serve within 15 minutes, if the ingredients are chilled. Tarator is a cold soup of Middle Eastern origins. My family turns their nose up at the idea of cold soup, but i think this one won them over. I mean, it's almost tzatziki!

On a side note, i'm loving dill at the moment!

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Okay, so it's not really risotto weather! But when you've got a craving, you've got a craving. This recipe actually comes from Jamie Oliver and it is delicious. I love that the main part of the mushroom flavor is cooked separately from the risotto, so that each bite of the risotto is not the same monotonous strong mushroomy flavor. I was dubious about the 'dressing' of lemon on the mushrooms at first, but having savored this dish i can say it works magnificently. Definitely the most delicious risotto i have made to date.

Chicago Style Baby Back Ribs

Ribs, who doesn't love them! Covered in sweet, sticky rib sauce they're even better, but the stuff in the bottle doesn't suffice. Nor do the marinated ones from the butcher! You need that smokey, slightly nostril searing flavour that's finger licking good! To make good ribs, you have to put in the effort to make them right!

Traditionally, good Chicago style baby back ribs are smoked over a very low heat, like 100 degrees or lower. Most of us would have a hard to making sure our BBQ or webber stayed at the level. But fear not! There is another way....

Sticky BBQ Wings

This weekend a group of friends came over for a Bogan BBQ in the 'burbs. On the menu: baby back ribs, chicken wings and snags on the barbie of course! I've always had a soft spot (literally) for honey soy BBQ wings, sticky and blackened! These ones keep true to the basic flavours but add a little more depth with the addition of the scallions, ginger and sesame oil. And the chilli sauce gives them just a bit of kick! If it were just me eating them, i'd up the chilli sauce a bit more.

The cooking time might seem excessive but a person in the know (thanks mum!) let me in on a good secret: there's nothing worse than wings where the fat in the skin has not melted, so it's a bit rubbery. The long cooking time ensure that the fat melts through the meat, keeping it tender and crisping the skin! Good basting and turning will ensure the wings don't burn. 

Tsumiki Fusion Soba with Cha Siu Pork

A bit of background lifted from About.com: Tsukimi soba is hot buckwheat noodles with a raw egg topping. Tsukimi means moon viewing in Japanese. Since the egg resembles the full moon, these kinds of noodle dishes with egg toppings are called "tsukimi."

This dish, with it's sweety cha siu pork, bok choy and chicken broth base, it most definitely not your authentic Japanese noodle soup. But hey! This one is even better :)

Smokey Red Pepper & Chickpea Salad

Salad time! Another leftover ingredient-user from my cupboard, this one gobbled up my supply of chick peas and my frozen chorizo!! This is a very rich salad and easily served as a meal for my family. Alternatively it would make a delicious side in a spanish banquet.

Beef Stir Fry with Shiitake & Oyster Mushrooms

You often hear of this obscure term, the 'breath of the wok'. Many of us know what it refers to, that smokey, almost indefinable flavour imparted into food cooked well in a wok. I had thought that it necessitated good wok seasoning, and extremely strong wok burners like those in noodle shops. But i am happy to say that with this recipe, i succeeded in imparted the breath of the wok into a dish!

Simple oyster sauce is one of my favorite types of stir fry. The delicious mushrooms soak up the rich sauce and the slightly singed greens are still crisp and fresh, but not raw as is the mistake of some wok newbies. Here i am acting like an expert when this recipe was ripped from the Masterchef website!

Garlic Chilli Prawns on a Fennel & Orange Salad

Finally, the hot weather has come to Melbourne and it's the perfect season for prawns on the barbeque!The warmth and slight charred flavour of these prawns pairs well with the slightly aniseed freshness of the orange and fennel salad. It seems to have been a match made in heaven, orange and fennel, as when i was researching fennel salads the vast majority included a citrus fruit. And it does work well!

A note on fennel: i prefer raw fennel to be sliced incredibly finely, so you could use a peeler or a very good quality mandolin to get the best from your fennel. Bewarned though, it oxidizes quite quickly, so if you won't be serving the fennel very shortly after slicing it, dunk it into a bowl of water with a squeeze of lemon juice before setting it aside.