520/1038 - Country rabbit in a claypot

For the past four weeks or so, my youngest and I have been heading out in the wee hours of a Friday morning to the Queen Victoria market. It is such a lovely quiet time to shop and we very much enjoy the time we spend together browsing the aisles. The 5:30am wake up is certainly a shock to the system though and I do wonder how we will cope as the weather gets increasingly colder. 

Last week's market adventure brought us a lovely little rabbit which I turned into country rabbit in a claypot. The rabbit was quite small, some 500 grams, and so I made a soup for entrée to ensure our bellies would be full after what would otherwise have been quite a light meal. 

Gamey meat with bacon added in for extra flavour; this dish definitely has my vote x

Our little rabbit, fresh from the market 

519/1038 - Jamaican rice and 'peas' (and a halfway mark milestone!)

Well here we are at the halfway mark! I think it is worth stopping for a moment and celebrating the fact that this ridiculously fun hobby has reached its midpoint. As exciting as this is, it makes me just a little bit sad; in some ways I never want this crazy challenge to end. 

This dish was a part of our little dinner party on Saturday night and as we speak, the leftovers are being turned into a lovely rice, black-eyed pea and prawn soup. The only additional ingredients required were green beans, stock, prawns and a dash of soy sauce for added flavour.

We liked the original version and loved the upgrade. It's always fun to play around with a recipe and see what else it can do! 

So there it is folks; the top of the mountain. Look forward to keeping you all on board as we head down the other side x

518/1038 - Macadamia fish curry

Last night's dinner was a bit of a melting pot of cuisines which ended up working quite well together. This fish curry was teamed with Jamaican rice and black-eyed peas, buckwheat flatbreads and a North Indian dhal. Quirky, but effective. 

I used beautiful rockling for this recipe, which I purchased at the Queen Vic market this week. Given that it only takes a few minutes to cook, I left it until the very last minute to put together. Of course this meant that as I was in the throes of finalising multiple things simultaneously, I needed my lovely sous chef husband to search the fridge for the remaining ingredients; namely shrimp paste and chilli paste. 

He said he couldn't find them and quite frankly I didn't have time to question him! Instead I opted to grab my trusty jar of Thai red curry paste to flavour the curry instead. In my opinion, red curry paste is the bees knees and adds flavour to so many different dishes. I always, always keep a jar in my fridge! 

What's the best thing about hosting a dinner party? Well obviously it is the wonderful company and good feeling it generates...but after that it is the leftovers. 

Definitely the leftovers x