337/984 - Coconut tuile biscuits

These little pringle-like biscuits are actually quite a lot of fun to make. 

I added them to last week's dinner party dessert course, always looking for some kind of crunch or texture to put on the plate. Baked in the oven for only eight minutes, they are cooled slightly and then laid over a rolling pin so that they resemble a little old fashioned roof tile (tuile in French). 

The first batch I made were delicious and slightly chewy, but I preferred the second batch even more, which I suspect were a little closer to how they were supposed to turn out; crunchy and crispy and leaving guests with their hand in the tin seeking a second and third helping!

336/984 - Mushrooms en papillote

These lovely mushrooms were served as a part of last weekend's dinner party, at which I decided to serve a deconstructed burger for main and planned the plate with my favourite burger ingredients in mind. 

We have a bit of a dinner party routine in our house; first comes the menu planning, then I write out all of the ingredients I need and Trev heads out to the shop to pick them up. While he is out I begin to plan my cooking schedule for the day and start to tackle the basics (pastry, pasta dough, breads). We really do have this down to a fine art! At least I thought we did...

Unfortunately on this day as I wrote out my list of required ingredients, I got distracted halfway through the recipe as I pondered the perfect mix of mushrooms for the meal. Whilst off in a daydream, I somehow completely forgot to write out the ingredients from the second half of the list.

Later in the day as I began to prepare the mushrooms, I was amused to see cream and tarragon on the list of ingredients, knowing full well that I did not have either of these things in my house. Not particularly worried, I simply substituted the cream for Greek yoghurt and the parsley and tarragon for a mix of woolly thyme, oregano and garlic chives.

The mushrooms I used (and can highly recommend!) were oyster, enoki and button. I thought the enoki were particularly fabulous. I absolutely loved the mushrooms cooked this way and actually think the yoghurt tasted incredible. What a great little accident!

Served with potato cubes, kale chips,
baked egg with tomato and parmesan wafer
and home-made burger patty.

My little mushroom packages.

335/984 - Charcoal-grilled ginger prawns

Prawn lollipops for dinner? They were so sweet they might as well have been!

The marinade for this dish contained so many lovely things including kecap manis which was first introduced to me by my lovely friend Lani. The kids adore every dish that it contains because it is sweet, sweet, sweet! I replaced the peanut oil with coconut oil which of course was a wonderful substitute, but other than that stayed true to the recipe. 

Whenever I feel a marinade or sauce is particularly decadent, I tend to fill the rest of the plate with raw vegetables, which is exactly what we did on this night. We all agreed that the result was wonderful. 

That is the second chapter done and dusted! We are a bit sad to see the last of the prawn dishes and are hoping to see prawns pop up in another chapter soon. 

334/984 - Chilli and lime sauce

With the most beautiful barramundi to cook for dinner, I was looking for a way to prepare it that would be acceptable to the slightly fussy five year old who was joining us. 

We decided to wrap the fish in foil, with lemon juice and slices, and cook it in the chiminea. We served the fish, beautifully steamed and silky smooth, with rice and this beautiful chilli and lime sauce, which of course my fussy little guest could omit from her plate. There was no way we could have let her try this sauce anyway, with the added jalapeño giving it an amazing kick. 

One of the changes I made to this recipe was to add a whole peeled lime to the mix, rather than just the lime juice. I figured if I was to be blending everything together we might as well get the goodness of the entire fruit!

The only down side to this recipe was removing my contact lenses in the evening with hands that were apparently still covered in chilli juice. Yikes. 

333/984 - Polenta pancakes

What a lovely addition to our special breakfast plate!

The boys tried the wonderful combination of polenta pancake, bacon and maple syrup for the first time this morning and fell in love! I omitted the syrup from my breakfast but was blown away by how simple these pancakes are to make, and how tasty! 

Apart from whisking the egg whites in the KitchenAid (because why would I do it by hand if I don't need to?), this was a one bowl deal and took around 5 minutes to put together.  

I used coarse polenta and so being used to eating smooth pancakes, my favourite thing about these was the wonderful texture. I am thrilled that there were leftovers and look forward to snacking on these as the day goes on.