Left over Veggie Tart

For an easy dinner last week, I made a filo pastry tart with lots of left over vegetables and feta.


Ingredients:


4-8 sheets filo pastry
Olive Oil
Broccoli, chopped
Feta
Cherry Tomatoes, halved
Pumpkin, cubed
Zucchini, cubed
lemon Juice
Haloumi, cubed
Rocket
Eggs, whisked


Method:


- Roast the pumpkin and zucchini with a dash of oil
- Line a baking tin or pie dish with filo, over lapping it and rubbing a bit of oil in between sheets
- Steam the broccoli for a couple of minutes
- Put the pumpkin, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and feta crumbled onto the pastry
- Pour over the eggs to cover vegetables
- Bake for about 30-40 mins or until eggs are all cooked
- whilst the tart is baking, fry off the haloumi and pour over a bit of the lemon juice
- When tart is cooked, put the haloumi and rocket on top
- serve with a nice fresh salad


Note: You can put pretty much whatever vegetables you want in this, caramelised onion would be nice, proscuitto, chorizo, carrot etc.

Chicken Roast... it's actually quite easy and did I mention delicious!

An easy chicken roast, on a cold day (even if it's the middle of spring!)


I rubbed the chicken with smoked salt (purchased at the Prarahn Market), pepper and finely chopped garlic. I placed a lemon- cut in half in the middle of the chicken which gently infused the chicken and baked it at 190 degrees for a little over an hour. Too easy.


Served on a bed of creamy mash and steamed broccolini.

Our First Dinner Party

Last Saturday, the 12th November Nat and I hosted our first proper dinner party. With my love for Tapas there was no doubt that that would be the theme of the evening. We planned a menu based around some of our favourite dishes, some of which were made into miniatures. We shopped for all the produce (bar the cream etc) at the Prahran Markets which are conveniently around the corner from us.


We began with marinading the fruit for the sangria, the desserts were setting in the fridge (which were made on Friday night) We then slowly cooked our way through the menu.

The Menu:
Main Course-
Salt and Pepper Squid with Lime Aioli
Fennel and Pork Meatballs in Napoli sauce with fresh Basil and Garlic Bread
Chorizo and Tzatziki on Crunchy Bread
Mini Basil Pesto Burgers with Relish, Cheese and Rocket
Tarts with Cherry Tomatoes, Caramelised Onion, Basil Pesto and Bocconcini
Chicken and Haloumi on toothpicks cooked in Honey and Thyme
Ham and Cheese Croquettes

Dessert:
Mini Tim Tam Cheese Cakes with Raspberries
*Nutties with Lemon Curd and Strawberry Coulis
Chocolate Mousse with Burnt Toffee with Orange Zest

It was tonnes of fun and will definitely be doing it again soon.

*Nutties are basically Anzac Biscuits, we put them into cupcake trays to mould them like cups.

The Wonders of Pastry

When you are tired and can't be botherd cooking anything fancy one thing I love are Pastry Pizza's. They are simple and you can have a lot of fun with the toppings.

































Ingredients:
Puff pastry (approx 1 sheet per person)
Egg
Goats Cheese or your favourite soft cheese
Roasted Pumpkin
Cherry Tomatoes
Caramelised Onion
Rocket to serve
Add any of you favourite toppings
Method:
Pre-cook the pastry slightly (place another tray on top to keep it flat or just flatten it out when you remove from the oven)
Then put the toppings on and then bake for approx 15-20 mins or until pastry is cooked
Serve with fresh rocket or anything else you fancy