Monthly Archives: March 2013

Donna’s Dessert 4

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The first place my mind goes to . . . the dessert!

In quiet moments alone in the car, under the shower or sipping on a coffee my thoughts drift to the possibilities, the seasonal availability of produce, the likes & dislikes of the intended recipients.

This is a creative & expressive process for me and I probably enjoy it more than the actual cooking. I just love anticipating how it will look & how it will taste!

Pears & pastry with ginger chocolate and honeycomb/passionfruit ice-cream or Donna’s Dessert 4

  1. Fresh pears, peeled cored & halved – gently poach in a sweet syrup & serve some of the syrup with the pear( For my syrup I used low GI sugar, spice mix from pastry twists-below, dash of red wine, splash of masala, juice of a lemon)

        2. Chopped glace ginger mixed with melted dark chocolate & set into small free forms

      3.  Sweet pastry twists – brush strips of puff pastry with a little butter, sprinkle with spice mix(cinnamon, ginger,cardamom, all-spice) & panella. place crushed pinenuts & pistachios on pastry &     then twist. Place on lined baking sheet and again brush with just a little butter & sprinkle with sugar & spice.

     4. Homemade ice-cream – vanilla, cream, yoghurt, fresh passionfruit & crushed chocolate honeycomb

or

Good quality commercial vanilla ice-cream

Assemble all 4 components on a large plate & encourage eaters to use pastry to mop up pear juices & melting ice-cream

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The birthday cake was made by the very lovely Alex, partner of my very talented musician/artist brother. It is a dark chocolate(she used a block of 70%cocoa lindt)and pumpkin cake.

Perfect with coffee and perfect for post party late night snacks for this happy but tired cook. I await the recipe & will include on my next post.

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Early Autumn, Prawns & Peaches

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I am still wading my way through the pile of Australian Delicious magazines

left by my lovely ex-next door neighbour,  after vacating their home of 25 years.

Except for my first cookbook read when I was about 8 years old that was highly instructive, I have mainly cooked by a combination of intuition and inspiration.

This has resulted in some mistakes, occasional disasters  but lots of happy times that I can never replicate!

I have really enjoyed immersing myself in the array of recipes & photographs, having so many magazines at my fingertips at once has fed inspiration to this cook’s soul!

Running on this inspiration I decided on this platter for dinner, making the most of what’s fresh and available now.

Early Autumn Dinner Platter                                                                                                        DSC_0296

  • 6 whole peaches
  • 1/2 kilo tiger prawns
  • tub fresh bocconcini
  • large handful of walnuts(roasted with honey & balsamic vinegar)
  • rocket lettuce & baby spinach leaves
  • Dressing – white balsamic vinegar, seeded mustard, apricot jam & lemon juice)

Peel, halve & de-stone peaches. Place on baking paper with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, walnuts & honey and bake in slow oven for 25 mins. Assemble all ingredients together on platter & pour over peach juices & dressing.

Panfried Swordfish

Cut swordfish into large chunks. Season with lemon juice, olive oil, rock salt, black pepper & lemongrass(optional). Pan fry or barbeque until cooked.

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