Serves: 2
Prep: 15 min
Cook: Optional (add grilled seafood, beef or chicken)

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of baby salad leaves
1 small Lebanese cucumber
½ red capsicum
1 mango (consider nectarines or oranges)
½ Spanish onion

Dressing:
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 small red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
2 limes juiced
2 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of soy sauce

1. Begin with mixing the dressing together to allow it time to mature. I like to begin with dissolving the sugar into the lime juice and adding the garlic. The longer the garlic is in the citrus the more will cook slightly in the acidity.
2. Add remaining ingredients and set to one side.
3. Wash and chop together the main ingredients in a separate bowl.
4. Dress just before serving.

Serves: A picnic
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 0 min

Ingredients:
2 handfuls of rocket
1 cup of macadamia nuts
1 loose handful of flat-leaf parsley
2 cloves of garlic
150g of pecorino (or Parmesan /Romano)
¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil

1. Roughly chop the rocket, parsley and garlic then grate the pecorino to make blitzing it easier.
2. Place all ingredients into a bowl and blitz.
3. Eat with crackers, as a condiment or stir into pasta and serve.

I took the aioli spread for this dish out of a book called Veganomicon. A book I’d brought for Ann’s birthday. I like the idea that an element of the picnic food I had prepared for her celebration would reference her gift. But I truly fell in love with this vegan aioli because it is versatility and because it is totally not substitutive. I know the name suggests so, but at the end of the day, it is all food and not boxed or labelled not “not” stuffs.

So, I’d already decided to make falafel with a pumpkin cameo. The aioli made sense as an afterthought. It worked superbly well to provide extra moisture, garlic and that tad a tad of tang.

Serves: A picnic
Prep: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Construction: 25 min

Falafel:
1 can of chickpeas
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of coriander
½ Spanish onion finely chopped
1 handful of parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Plain flour for dusting

1. Crush or blitz the chickpeas so they become like a thick paste
2. In a bowl, add remaining ingredients and combine well.
3. While you are heating a pan with some olive oil begin to form the balls by rolling and flattening in the palm of your hand. Coat in flour and place in the pan.
4. Fry for approximately 3 minutes on each side.
5. Remove and place on a plate to cool.

Vegan Aioli:
1 can of white beans
2 garlic cloves finely chopped (or more to taste)
½ lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place all ingredients in a in a bowl and blitz until smooth

Constructing the sandwich:
Mountain bread
Roast pumpkin
Baby Spinach

1. On a single piece of mountain bread construct the sandwich by spreading the soft roast pumpkin first. Then drissle a little of the aioli on top, lay down baby spinach and then three of the falafel balls as shown.
2. Roll each into a pocket with the ends tucked in so that when you cut them in half through the middle a nice base to each sandwich stops the guts falling out of it.

This dish was for Mikey’s new housie home making.

Serves: us
Prep: 15 min
Cook time: 0 min

Ingredients:
1 red char grilled capsicum **
1 can of chickpeas
½ lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
1 modest handful of coriander (fresh)
1 table spoon of tahina
1 lug of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste (paprika if you like)

1. Make your own char grilled capsicum or buy it. I constantly make my own, but must say it is my most hated cooking food/method. Hate it!
2. Take the capsicum and all other ingredients and blend – leave a few coriander leaves for decoration.
3. Serve with slithers of carrot, capsicum, green beans, cucumber, celery, bread or crisps.

I could rave about time saving at Christmas. I really learned that this Christmas, so much more relaxed and awesome. Frozen berries, yep, frozen… but if you stew them a bit well what is the point in buying four punnets for four times the price the day before in a rush?

Serves:4
Prep: 7 min
Cook time: 10 min

Berry Sauce Ingredients:
300g of frozen mixed berries
¼ cup of sugar
1/5 cup of water

Crepe Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cup milk

Filling:
½ cup of ricotta

Berry sauce
1. Light the stove and put the sugar and water into you saucepan and heat until dissolved. Then add the berries until they are defrosted. Take your time with this, on a low heat- and by doing so you will have plenty of the juices dissolving into the sugar water. Yum!

Crepes
1. Place a cup of flour in a bowl and create a well in the centre. Add the eggs, salt and milk to the well. Wisk until smooth and all lumps are gone.
2. In a pan, melt a small dob of butter. When dissolved, ladle one crape at a time into the pan. Turn when the base of the crape begins to brown and lifts off the pan. It won’t need as long on the other side. Continue until all of the crapes are made.

Assembly
1. Place one crape flat on a plate and line down the centre with ricotta. Fold over both sides and top with berries. Done. Munch.

These are the cocktails of left over party slops. My friend Mike (or @mjog as we sometimes like to call him) passed on his party slops to me when he decided to pack it all up and live loose… so I set about finding cocktail solutions to all the orange flavoured liquore I inherited. This send off treat is one of the loveliest summer cocktails I’ve had and one of the most fun nights.

Makes: About a liter (or 16ish drinks)
Prep: 5 min plus an hour chill

Ingredients:
3 cups of blood orange juice ( you can squeeze this fresh if you like, but it will take about 10 oranges)
1/3 cup of Grand Marnier (or Cointreau or Triple sec)
4 teaspoons of sugar (adjust to taste or choice of orange based liquore)
1 750ml bottle of Prosecco chilled

Prosecco is an Italian sparkeling white. It’s not like other sparkling whites (like brut) but more sweet and subtle – if you can, I think a cheap alternative would be the blonde lambrusco although this might also be hard to find. The point is find something light and a bit on the sweet side.

You don’t need to prepare this ahead of time, but it is really easy if you do the first step and the rest as you serve. Just make sure your ingredients are chilled and that you have plenty of ice.

1. In a pitcher add the Grand Marnier, sugar and blood orange juice and give a good stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Crack open the Prosecco and stir while adding to the pitcher, add ice and serve.

If your like me and want to love sake but find it a tad too full on, this cocktail is a great way of using a few drops of sake leftovers. Its also a light cocktail, not to heavy on the alcohol content and full of anti-oxidents so a really good one to incorporate into a cocktail party, because it is just too easy for these things to get out of control

Makes: 2 and a bit liters
Prep:5 min, cool for one hour

Ingredients:
1 liter of soda / mineral water
1 liter of pomegranate juice
8 shots of sake
2 green tea bags
1 lemon

1. Boil up the soda or mineral water and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes depending on the weather.
2. Throw green tea bags into the warm soda and make tea to your liking
3. Place in a pitcher and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes
4. Add the pomegranate juice and sake to the picture and refrigerate until ready
5. Serve with ice and wedges of lemon which you should instruct your guests to just add a little squeeze
6. Enjoy with sushi or not…

Because I’ve had this delightful salad a few times, I remember the core ingredients (tuna, potato, eggs, lettuce, beans, and olives) and I improvise with the rest. I never remember how to do a traditional dressing, so today I went part inpro and part reference. For the dressing I took it straight from Damien Pignolet’s book “French”.

Serves: 2
Prep: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:
6 cos lettuce leaves washed and cut into 2 inch wide pieces
6 baby potatoes pealed and halved
2 eggs boiled and cut into quarters
A handful of beans (I’ve used butter beans, but you can use green beans)
¼ capsicum thinly sliced lengthwise
12 kalamata olives
½ Spanish onion sliced thinly (rings halved)
6 semi sun dried tomato’s cut length wise into three
6 anchovy fillets cut in half

Dressing:
3 lugs of olive oil
1 lug of red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put two eggs on the boil – cook so they are firm, but still a dark yellow in the centre. Don’t overcook.
2. Meanwhile make your dressing so that the flavours can develop while you are cooking. Squash a garlic clove with the flat of your knife and use the inner flesh to rub the inside of a bowl and discard the debris. Add olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper – then whisk together. Taste. Ensure it has a sharp but not over powering vinegar flavour.
3. Once your eggs are out you can use the boiling water to get the potatos started.
4. Meanwhile, chop the other ingredients you need and begin to combine. Get the olives in, the anchovies, sundried tomatoes, cos lettuce, capsicum, and Spanish onion.
5. Get your tuna out and oil it, rub salt and pepper on it then leave for a few minutes until your ready.
6. Chop the ends off your green beans and when there is only a few minutes left to go for the potatoes throw them in a steamer and pop it on top of the potatoes.
7. Peal the egg and cut into quarters, set aside. You should place these on the plate at the end as they will break up if tossed into the salad.
8. In a really hot pan sear the tuna for about three minutes each side ensuring there is a crust on the outside, but that it remains quite rare inside but heated through. Take off the heat, then pull together the last few steps while allowing to rest.
9. Meanwhile, you should have taken the beans and the potatoes off the stove and given them a few minutes to cool (only slightly so that they are not steaming). Now is time to mix the potato and beans with your salad and the dressing.
10. Slice the tuna longwise.
11. Compile the final touches of the salad by placing the fresh salad ingredients onto a plate, lay the quartered egg pieces around the side and then layer the sliced tuna into the center.
12. Done. Eat.

I’m going for a sweet flavour by focusing on pumpkin and fresh peas. This one takes slightly longer because of the roast pumpkin, but that leaves you with plenty of time to prepare accompanying dishes.

Serves: 4 as a side
Prep: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min

Ingredients:
1 cup cous cous
Half a Japanese pumpkin
Half a cup of peas
¼ red capsicum diced
¼ yellow capsicum diced
1 shallot finely diced
1 small red chili, seeds removed and sliced
1 teaspoon of veggie stock
1 handful of lemon thyme
1 lug of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Start out by roasting the pumpkin, you want nice pieces, a little smaller than bite sized. You will need to cook this in a moderate oven for about half an hour or so, turning once or twice during this time.
2. Prepare the red and yellow capsicum, the chili and the shallot and place it in a medium to large bowl. Add the lemon thyme leaves, cous cous, veggie stock, salt and pepper.
3. When the pumpkin only has about 10 minutes to go get 1¼ cups of water on the boil. Add the peas and cook for three minutes, then toss over the cous cous salad mixture. Cover allowing to steam for five minutes until the cous cous is soft then fluff and combine with a fork.

No recipe title shows your not sure what you’ve done than naming it after an entire region of the world. Eh.

Serves: 4 as a side
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 0 min

Ingredients:
1 tin of lentils (organic ones are worth it)
¼ cup of kalamata olives with pips removed and halved
¼ red capsicum diced
¼ yellow capsicum diced
6 sundried tomatoes sliced
1 shallot finely diced
1 small red chili, seeds removed and sliced
Small handful of flat leaf parsley
½ lemon juiced
Lug of good quality extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to serve

1. Prep ingredients
2. Combine and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes so the flavours can combine