Risotto with Pork Sausage, Corn and Coriander

Risotto with Pork Sausage, Corn and Coriander











Apologies for the delay in posting this, the family hasn't been well and I've been on baby/wife caring duties rather than blog posting. This was fairly tasty and again I think it was down to correct seasoning. Didn't have any trouble getting anyone to eat it.



Ingredients

• Arborio rice
• Chicken stock (purchased)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Butter
  
• White wine
• Pork sausage
• Corn
• Coriander
• Salt
• Pepper
• Reduced balsamic vinegar

Time to prepare: 25 minutes
Number of serves: 4
Cost of ingredients: approx $20
Recipe inspiration: none

Takeway: Bayview Pizza and Pasta

Cappriciosa and Meat Lovers half and half, medium garlic pizza


Bayview Pizza and Pasta is at 2359 Pt Nepean Road in Rye, 03 5985 7800.

This is another pizza shop that you wouldn't consider for an instant eating in at, despite the tables and chairs set up for that reason. It has all the ambiance of a cell in the remand centre, with it's corrugated iron internal feature walls, funny yellow colour and 70db+ fans.

Good thing I had no intention of eating in. The pizza itself wasn't too bad, although the crust was a little doughy for my tastes, I'm a firm fan of crispy crusts. The cheese and ham used were of reasonable quality as the pizza wasn't very oily and I saw no evidence of the "draining" that Ocean's pizza did. The pizza had a reasonable amount of toppings and was all in all pretty good value for money. There are cheaper pizzas to be had, but you get what you pay for when you buy a 5.95 large special.


Time to prepare: 12 minutes
Cost of meal: $24
Number of serves: 4
Rating: 3/5

Lasagne with Spinach Salad and Poached Pear with Shiraz Sauce and Marscapone

Lasagne with Spinach Salad
Poached pear with Shiraz sauce and Marscapone


























I had the urge to make a lasagne today, it turned out pretty good. The three year declared, "The prosciutto (he pronounced it prosuita) makes it even yummier". So I must have done something right. The contrast of the luscious mince sauce and the salty, stringy texture of the prosciutto was great. The spinach salad with a standard lemon/olive oil dressing was tasty too, even if my wife insisted on using a prepared dressing instead. That aside, I'm firmly a convert to salting my salads now, it makes a noticable difference to the taste. I also made a desert for a change, and a very tasty one at that. Although the three year old, wouldn't have a bar of it.


Ingredients

Lasagna

• Mince Sauce
• Mozzarella
• Lasagna sheets
• Prosciutto

Mince Sauce

• Veal mince (supermarket, so I doubt it was veal)
• Pork mince
• Onions
• Garlic
• Tomatoes, tinned
• Tomato paste
• Carrot
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Lasagna sheets

• 'oo' strength flour
• Egg
  

Spinach Salad

• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Capsicum
• Lemon juice
• Olive oil
• Salt

Poached pears

• Beurre Bosc pears
• Shiraz
  
• Caster sugar
• Star Anise
• Shiraz sauce
• Marscapone

Shiraz sauce was just the poaching liquor reduced to syrup consistency.

Time to prepare: About 2 hours
Cost of ingredients: About $40
Number of serves: 8 (lasagna) 3 (pears)
Recipe inspiration: The lasagna needs no inspiration, the pears originally came from an issue of gourmet traveller.

Chorizo, Chicken and Cannelini Beans in Tomato Broth

Chorizo, Chicken and Cannelini Beans in Tomato Broth












This was a fantastic, tasty quick meal and for once in my life I almost got portion control right to boot (no huge ass plastic tub full of leftovers in the fridge; just a small one this time). I think some crusty bread would have finished this off nicely, but that would have broken the one starch rule.

Ingredients

• Chorizo
• Chicken tenderloins
• Cannelini beans
• Tomatoes, tinned
• White wine
• Salt
• Coriander
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $23
Number of serves: 2.5
Recipe inspiration: Nothing in particular, but it was all mine.

Takeaway: Rosebud Nando's

Mild Chicken Wrap


No photo as I'm a twit, I figured they would have something on their website, but it seems not. However, I'm sure you can all picture a soft orangish tortilla wrapped around mildly spicey chicken tenderloins with lettuce and tomato. They seem to have learned from Maccas' as they had very natty and effective packaging. The meal itself was very nice, tender juicy chicken slathered in a mild chili flavoured sauce. The lettuce was crisp and fresh and the tomato, whilst flavourless, was at least firm.


Ingredients:

• Tortilla (they told me it was corn, I'm not so sure)
• Chicken tenderloins
• Mild peri-peri sauce
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Mayonaise

Time to prepare: About 8 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $6.75
Number of serves: 1.2 (my three year old decided he needed some and I was still full)
Recipe inspiration: No idea, check out their website perhaps

Fajitas again

Fajitas

No need to say more really is there? This is what you get when the 3 year old is given free range to choose what he would like for dinner. To be fair he eats very well when he gets his way, in fact he ate more than his generously fleshed father.

Beef StirFry with Oyster Sauce, Veg and Noodles

Beef Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce, Veg and Noodles












I used to stirfry all the time, I stopped, dunno why. They are quicky tasty and cheap. Eaten with gusto by the wife, less so by the 3 year old and I was more than satisfied.

Ingredients:

• Beef fillet
• Noodles, hokkien
• Oyster sauce (bottled)
• Spring onions
• Snow peas
• Celery
• Baby corn
  
• Bean sprouts
• Coriander
• Salt
• Cashews

Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: approx $20
Number of serves: 5
Recipe inspiration: Particularly uninspired, but I guess the million and one serves of noodles I've consumed to date.