Author: Robert Beerworth

I love cooking, wine, travel, my three boys, and two girls, Avalon and my beautiful wife and best friend and cook, Nat...

Green salad with simple vinaigrette

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

This is a really simple yet really vibrant salad I whipped up today. It looks – and is – so healthy.

I served it with grilled, tandoori chicken and potatoes which I sliced thinly, salted and oiled and cooked until golden in the oven.

What a winner of a Saturday lunch!

Ingredients

1 butter lettuce, leaves torn
2 cucumbers, brunoise cut
6 spring onions, whites thinly sliced
1 avocado, brunoise cut
Small bunch of basil, thinly sliced
Bunch of asparagus, blanched, refreshed and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Vinaigrette

2 cloves garlic, mince
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp heaped wholegrain mustard
1 tsp heaped honey

Method

  1. Combine the salad ingredients.
  2. Whisk together the vinaigrette.
  3. Combine and serve.

 

Neil Perry’s barbequed butterflied lamb leg with cumin, lemongrass and ginger, Italian-style coleslaw and vine-ripened tomato salad

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

I pulled this recipe collection from The Good Weekend magazine in 2010 and only managed to get around to cooking it last night.

It is a real, Friday-night treat. Marinate the lamb during the day, pull it out of the fridge when you get home, get the grill clean and hot and whilst chargrilling the lamb, prepare the really simple and elegant salads.

With a glass of red, this is – and was – a great way to say hello to the weekend.

Ingredients

Lamb

1 lamb leg (about 2kg) butterflied
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 lemongrass stems, peeled and sliced into fine rounds
3cm piece fresh ginger, chopped
2 tsp roasted cumin seeds, half crushed to a powder, the rest whole
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
3 tbsp chopped mint
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
Freshly cracked pepper
Lemon wedges to serve

Coleslaw

1 baby cabbage or half Savoy cabbage, finely shredded
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Shaved parmesan

Tomato salad

4 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut into chunks
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Method

Lamb

  1. To make the marinade, put the garlic, lemongrass, ginger, cumin and salt in a motar and pound into a rough paste in the pestle. Add the herbs and pound for a further minute then stir in the olive oil and mix well. (You can also process in a food processor but don’t make too smooth a paste.) Spread the marinade evenly over the butterflied lamb and leave in the fridge for at least an hour to infuse, remember that the lamb need to be removed from the fridge an hour prior to cooking.
  2. Preheat the BBQ medium-high. Cook the lamb for about 6-8 minutes per side depending on your preference of rare to medium-rare. Remove and cover with foil. Rest for 10 minutes.
  3. Carve the lamb into 5mm slices and arrange on 4 plates, pouring over any of the resting juices onto the slices of lamb. Give a good grind of pepper, place a lemon wedge on each plate and serve immediately… with the…

Italian-style coleslaw

  1. Finely shred the cabbage.
  2. Put in a large bowl and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
  3. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar over, at a ratio of three parts oil to one part vinegar. Start to toss the cabbage ensuring that it doesn’t become wet and only moist.
  4. Toss through the shaved parmesan – the more the better people – and serve… with the…

Vine-ripened tomato salad

  1. Season the cut tomatoes with salt and pepper and drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and serve immediately… with…
  2. A bottle of red wine!

Beef carpaccio with mustard & parmesan sauce

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 8 as a shared starter

This dish is a real winner.

It’s stylish, it is easy to prepare and it looks the bomb. I served this up as part of a really elegant Easter feast: think porchetta, parmesan polenta, parsnip cream etc etc etc. I served this on thinly sliced and toasted baguette, though you could of course serve this as a more traditional carpaccio or in any number of combinations.

I promise you’ll love this and will be a hero for cooking it.

Ingredients

Beef fillet or whole rump
6-8 tsp Capers
60 ml – Olive oil
2 tbsp  lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, finely grated
Small bunch of chives, thinly sliced
Pinch salt and pepper

Thinly sliced toasts (if serving on toasts)
Small bunch of rocket leaves (if serving traditionally)

Method

  1. Wrap the fillet in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30-60 minutes. Remove the beef from the freezer and slice immediately as thinly as possible across the grain of the meat.
  2. Place the slices between sheets of cling film and use a rolling pin to carefully flatten evenly into wafer-thin slices. Cover and chill until required.
  3. If serving traditionally, arrange the beef slices on a plate/platter, slightly overlapping, then place rinsed rocket on top.
  4. If serving on toasts, roughly fold and create a shape of the sliced beef on each taost
  5. For the sauce: place the oil, lemon juice, mustard, parmesan and seasoning in a glass jar, screw lid on and shake until well mixed. Season and drizzle over the beef; place a few chives on top.

Tandoori Salmon with Fragrant Rice

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

If you’re ever short of time, money and find yourself surrounded by 6 hungry people, the fastest ‘gourmet dish’ you can prepare is a tandoori chicken, or lamb. Put yoghurt and tandoori paste into a plastic bag with the meat (chicken strips, lamb cutlets etc), shake it all around and then BBQ.

People will think you’re a genius.

This particular dish is great not only because it’s  just as simple, and not only because it is tandoori salmon but because of the rice. It is worth every effort.

Ingredients

1 tbsp tandoori paste
¾ c (210g) thick Greek-style yoghurt
4 x 175g skinless salmon fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Grated zest and juice of ½ lemon, plus wedges to serve
3 green cardamom pods, bruised
3 whole cloves, bruised
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1 ½ c (300g) Basmati rice

Method

  1. Combine the tandoori paste and ½ cup (140g) yoghurt in a bowl. Coat the salmon and set aside until ready to cook.
  2. Heat oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Add onion, garlic, zest and spices then stir for 3-5 minutes until softened. Add rice, stir once to coat in oil mixture the stir in 2 ¼ cups (560ml) water and a little salt. Bring to the boil, then cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 12 minutes until liquid absorbed.
  3. Remove from the heat and set aside, covered for 5 minutes until rice is tender. Stir in lemon juice and coriander.
  4. Meanwhile, pre-heat the grill to high. Place salmon on a foil-lined tray and cook under the grill for 6-8 minutes, turning once, until lightly charred and cooked through.
  5. Serve with rice, extra yoghurt and lemon.

Chicken Yakitori Skewers

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 2

This is a great dish with a really unique, Japanese-BBQ style of sauce.

Really easy to prepare served with rice.

Remember to soak the bamboo skewers in water for 15 minutes before threading the meat.

Ingredients

¼ cup sake
¼ cup Japanese soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin (rice wine)
2 tbsp caster sugar
6 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2cm pieces
Ground white pepper to taste
2 green onions (spring onion), trimmed, cut into 2cm pieces
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, halved
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 green onion, extra, thinly sliced diagonally

Method

  1. Combine the sake, soy sauce, mirin and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  2. Combine the chicken and half the sauce in a bowl. Season with ground white pepper. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  3. Thread chicken, green onion and mushrooms alternately onto the skewers. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the skewers to the pan and cook for 6 minutes or until cooked through.
  4. Transfer to a platter and spring with extra green onion. Serve immediately with the remaining sauce.

Skinny Chicken Laksa

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

I avoid Laksa at lunchtime. I avoid cooking it for dinner.

It tastes awesome, though it is notoriously fatty. I’m probably kidding myself given half the dinners I make, though Laksa has always been a red light for me.

This recipe by Jill Dupleix – which I have adjusted slightly – is, at least on face value, much healthier than the 400ml can of coconut cream variety I am used to, and tastes just awesome. The meat isn’t fried, the laksa paste isn’t fried off in oil.

(That means you can eat more I assume!)

On my deathbed I’ll smash down pork crackling and proper Laksa, though until then…

Serves 4

150gm vermicelli noodles
2 c (500ml) chicken stock
2tbs laksa paste
2 chicken breasts cut into 3cm strips
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tsp caster sugar
250ml can reduced fat coconut milk (OK, original recipe was 100ml though can was 250ml)
200 gm green beans, trimmed and cut in half
1 cup bean sprouts (add as much as you want)
2 cup coriander sprigs (again, add as much as you want)
2 cup mint leaves (ditto)
Fried Asian shallots to serve (half handful per serve)

Method

  1. Soak the noodled in warm water for 10 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside.
  2. Heat the stock in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Once hot, whisk in the laksa paste.
  3. Add the chicken, tomato, sugar and ½ teaspoon of sea salt and simmer for 10 minutes until chicken cooked through.
  4. Add the coconut milk and beans and simmer for 5 minutes until beans cooked through.
  5. Divide the noodles among 4 bowls and soon over the chicken and the laksa broth.
  6. Top with bean sprouts and scatter with coriander, mint and dried Asian shallots.

 

Skinny Hummus

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a spread

When I first looked up a low(er) calorie hummus, I searched ‘skinny hummus’ and received only results from a company called Black Swan who has trademarked the term. No recipes.

So in calling this hummus skinny hummus, I may be infringing on their trademark. Though any publicity is good publicity for robbydogcooks.com, so I’ll run with the title until such time that they call me.

Anyway as far as hummuses go, this is a really neat recipe. I added a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil (instead of the water as per the recipe), though next time I’ll go with the water; the oil adds to it, though not as much as being able to smugly tell people it has no oil.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 x 400gm can chickpeas, rinsed, drained
¼ c fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 small garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sweet paprika (to garnish)

Method

  1. Add all the ingredients except the paprika to a food processor. Process until smooth in consistency.
  2. Transfer to a bowl, garnish with sweet paprika and enjoy!

Café Green Salad

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a really sweet little vinaigrette with the addition of the soy.

To the greens I added thinly sliced radishes and snippets of chives, though you could really do anything and it would be amazing.

Served with a steak w/ black olive butter, some sautéed mushrooms with garlic and a smashing mac and cheese. You can imagine the smiles and red wine cheers!

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
Small splash soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Salad greens

Method

  1. Whisk together the ingredients except the greens to make the vinaigrette. Taste for seasoning.
  2. Dress the greens with the vinaigrette.

Fattoush (Lebanese summer salad)

.Reading time 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a wonderful and healthy salad. And beautifully coloured too.

We had it as part of a Lebanese feast we cooked up, though served with some grilled meat and some pan fried potatoes and you would be the undisputed king or queen of the kitchen that day.

Keep your dice small and really make the salad special.

Ingredients

1 Lebanese round bread
2 Lebanese cucumbers, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
½ c radish, finely diced
½ red capsicum finely diced
½ green capsicum finely diced
4 spring onions, finely diced
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
½ c coriander, finely chopped (or use parsley)

Dressing

1 lemon, juiced
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180c and cook the Lebanese bread until crisp; around 10 minutes. (More traditional Fattoush recipes call for the Lebanese bread to be deep fried in vegetable oil and feel free!)
  2. Allow the bread to cool and then crumble using your hands.
  3. Combine the rest of the ingredients with the bread and the dressing.

Spicy Lebanese potatoes (batata harra)

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Get over it and eat more potatoes.

 Serves: 4 – 6

There is something great about having a repertoire of potato dishes. Because people inherently like people who cook good potatoes, especially when they can do more than mash and baked potatoes.

These potatoes are awesome and would go well with so many things; steak, chicken or maybe some marinated and grilled pork. We had them with some really great Middle Eastern Beef and Parsley kebabs.

We substituted sweet paprika for the cayenne so that the boys would eat them and they were still delicious. And the boys hoovered them up.

Ingredients

1kg white potatoes, cubed 2cm
2 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ c finely chopped coriander
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  2. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with the olive oil and the salt. Divide potatoes among 2 baking paper-lined oven trays and roast for 40 minutes or golden.
  3. Place a large frying pan over a medium heat; add the extra virgin olive oil, garlic and coriander and cook for 1 – 2 minutes until the garlic changes colour. Add the lemon juice and the hot potatoes to the pan and toss to coat. Season to taste and sprinkle with the cayenne pepper.