Pumpkin Soup 1.5kg butternut pumpkin Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 bulb garlic, cut in half horizontally Handful of thyme, oregano and rosemary sprigs 1½ tbsp olive oil 2 onion, peeled and chopped 1 leek chopped Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 30g grated parmesan cheese (or a small block of parmesan rind) Approximately 800ml hot ham stock, chicken stock or vegetable stock 100ml double light cream 20g butter Roasted baby beets for garnish 1. Preheat oven to 190C. First, cut the pumpkin in half horizontally and remove the seeds. Score the pumpkin flesh using a small sharp knife and season with salt and pepper. Rub the pumpkin flesh with the cut garlic halves, and then lay the rosemary, thyme and oregano sprigs and garlic pieces in the centre of each half. Drizzle both pumpkin halves with a little olive oil. 2. Put the pumpkin halves in large roasting trays and roast for 1-1½ hours, or until tender. The pumpkin is ready when you can effortlessly slip a knife into the thickest part of the flesh. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, remove the rosemary and garlic from the pumpkin and reserve the garlic. Scoop out the pumpkin flesh and set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and leek and stir frequently for 5-6 minutes until translucent but not browned. Scoop out 2-3 cloves of the reserved roasted garlic and add to the pan along with a touch of seasoning and pinch of grated nutmeg. Continue to sauté for a further 1-2 minutes. Add the pumpkin flesh to the pan along with the grated parmesan and stir together. 4. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Stir in the double cream and heat for a further minute. In several batches, ladle the soup into a blender and blend until smooth or use a stick blender. Add the butter and blitz again until you get a bright shiny orange smooth texture. Pour the soup into a clean pan to reheat. 5. For the garnish use roasted baby beets or pumpkin chips.
Queensland King Prawns and Mudcrab Paella with Heirloom Tomatoes Sofrito Cooking Time: 30 minutes Serves 4 1 tbsp olive oil 400g Calasparra rice 600g QLD king prawns 1 mangrove mud crab, cleaned, quartered 2L fish or chicken stock Salt and pepper 200g fresh or frozen peas 2 lemons, halved 2 limes, halved Chopped parsley, to garnish Sofrito 150ml olive oil 5 large ripe heirloom local tomatoes 4 cloves garlic, peeled 4 piquillo peppers ½ bunch thyme, leaves only ½ bunch parsley 1 bunch chives 1 tsp saffron threads 1 tsp sweet paprika 1 tsp spicy paprika 1 tsp smoked paprika 1. To make sofrito, place all ingredients in a food processor. Process until smooth. 2. Heat oil in a large paella pan. Add rice. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until it changes colour from white to transparent. 3. Stir in 12 large tablespoons of the sofrito. Cook for 3 minutes. Add seafood and stock. Season. Cook, over medium heat, without stirring, for about 20 minutes or until stock hasbeen absorbed and rice is almost tender. Reduce heat to low and cook for a further 3 minutes to form a nice crust on the bottom. Add peas and remove from heat. 4. Stand for 5 minutes. Squeeze over lemons and limes and season. Garnish with parsley. Serve paella warm, not steaming hot.
Churros con Chocolate Cooking Time: 30 minutes Serves 4-6 250mlmilk 1 tsp caster sugar 100g unsalted butter, chopped 2 vanilla beans, split, seeds scraped out 115g plain flour 3 egg yolks Vegetable oil Caster sugar, to dust Chocolate Sauce 250ml condensed milk 200g dark eating chocolate, chopped Splash milk Splash rum 1. To make chocolate sauce stir condensed milk in a small saucepan, over medium heat until hot. Add chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in milk and rum. Remove from heat. Cover to keep warm. 2. Bring milk, sugar, butter and vanilla beans and seeds to a boil in a medium saucepan. Discard vanilla beans. Remove from heat. 3. Sift in flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined and dough comes away from side of pan. Remove from heat. Stand, covered with plastic wrap, for 3 minutes. 4. Beat in egg yolks with wooden spoon, one at a time. As seen at the Good Food & Wine Show 2013 Page 4 of 9
5. Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a 2cm star nozzle. 6. Heat oil to 180C (when a cube of bread turns golden brown, oil is hot enough). Pipe 5cm lengths into oil, cutting off the dough with a sharp knife. 7. Deep fry churros until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper. 8. Dust with caster sugar. Serve with chocolate sauce. As seen at the Good Food & Wine Show 2013 Page 5 of 9
Garlic Mushroom Raviolo Serves 4 4 large iceberg lettuce leaves 200g quinoa 1 punnet mixed mushrooms 1 punnet button mushrooms 1L vegetable stock 1 cloves garlic, finely diced 4 largeoxheart tomato, finely diced ½ Spanish onion, finely diced 1 bunch chives, finely chopped 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped 10 green olives pitted, finely chopped Splash olive oil 6. Cook quinoa and vegetable stock in a medium pot on medium heat until quinoa is soft. Set aside. 7. In a large frying pan on high heat pan fry mushrooms, garlic, splash of olive oil and finish with half of the chives and parsley. Mix with quinoa. 8. Blanch lettuce leaves in boiling water for 2 seconds and cool down into iced water. Pat dry with paper towel. 9. To assemble raviolo, line a ladle with glad wrap with enough hanging over to wrap up lettuce leave. Add lettuce leaf to ladle on top of gladwrap, add mushroom and quinoa mix. Fold the lettuce leaf closed, followed by closing the glad wrap tightly. Remove from ladle. Steam for one minute with gladwrap. Remove gladwrap to serve.
10. To make tomato salsa, combine tomato, Spanish onion, olives, parsley and chives with a splash of olive oil. 11. To plate put tomato salsa on bottom of plate and set raviolo on top.
Bean Ragu with Zucchini Spaghetti 250g yellow beans, finely chopped 250g red beans, whole 250g green beans, finely chopped 250g soy beans, whole 3 large garlic cloves 2 bunches oregano, leaves picked 2 bunches sage 2 punnets mixed cherry tomatoes 250g crispy egg shallots 10 extra largezucchinis 2Lebanese eggplant 500ml vegetable stock 50g capers, finely chopped 1. In a large saucepan add cherry tomatoes and mixed beans with sage, oregano, garlic cloves. Sautee with olive oil until tomatoes start breaking down. Add vegetable stock and simmer for 30 minutes. 2. To make spaghetti, set the julienne blade on the mandolin and finely slice zucchini and eggplant. Pan-fry on high heat for 1 minute or until zucchini is soft. Splash spaghetti with a touch of olive oil. Add egg shallots and capers at the end. 3. Serve with a scoop of the ragu.
Cherry Ripe 1kg Sweet William dark chocolate 1 packet wild rice 1kg Cherries, pitted and halved 1 tablespoon Honey 2 Vanilla beans fresh 250gr Dry raspberries 250gr Dry strawberries 1kg Frozen mango cheeks 1 Passionfruit fresh 1 punch Fresh mint 1 punnets fresh raspberries 1 punnets fresh blueberries Wild Rice Popcorn 1. In a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of very hot olive oil, fry wild rice until it pops. 2. Strain onto paper towel. Set on a tray lined with baking paper. 3. In a mixing bowl over a ban-marie melt chocolate and pour onto popcorn creating a slab of chocolate. Put in fridge to set. 4. In a saucepan add cherries, honey, fresh vanilla beans scrapped and pods, add dry raspberries and strawberries Mango ice-cream: 1. In a large food processor, combine frozen mangoes and passionfruit until smooth, then set in freezer. 2. To assemble the plate, add one ladle of the cherry jam, a piece of chocolate and a scoop of mango ice-cream and garnish with fresh berries and mint.