BABA GANOUSH & APRICOT WANTONS

Ingredients
Whole eggplant
Fresh apricots
Wanton wrappers (potstickers)
Cumin
1 Lemon
1 egg
Thyme

So, this one obviously takes a little more work but it's a hit.

The two ears sitting on the fried, slice of eggplant are wantons filled with apricot puree and baba ganoush (egg plant puree). You can make this yourselves if you have a blender or a ba-mix or buy it from the shop as a pre-made dip.
To make your own baba ganoush, pre heat your oven to 200 C / 390 F. Chop up 3 eggplants for 20ish wantons. Peel and chop up garlic. Place the garlic and eggplant into the hot oven with some rosemary and olive oil. After 10 minutes take the tray out and mix everything around. Roast for another 10 minutes. How long to roast depends on your oven but you know when to stop when the eggplant starts to get a bit mushy and the garlic good brown (caramalised) colour. Now puree the eggplant and the garlic and add a little salt, say three pinches, taste to see if you want to add more Now add Cumin, say two pinches for 3 eggplants, have a taste and see if you want to add any more. I add a squeeze of lemon too! Bingo, Baba.

Now for the apricot puree. Find some nice ripe apricots but any fruit will do, peel them, remove the seeds and chop them up finely and sprinkle a little bit of thyme in with the mix, (fresh preferably but up to you). Easy

Now take the wanton wrappers and lay them out on slightly, flower dusted table. Crack and egg into a bowl and mix well with a fork, this is what will keep the wantons together.
take a teaspoon of baba and of apricot puree and place this in the centre of the wanton, don’t use too much…you may need to try a few different amounts depending on the size of your wantons. The wantons ideally should be shaped like a diamond on the bench so that you can fold two points together to make a triangle. Now take a little egg on your finger and follow the top, triangle rim of the wanton. Lift and fold the bottom half over the filling and press down, crimping using your fingernail to create little triangles. these are now ready to be cooked in hot oil. get vegetable oil nice and hot in a pan or deep fryer (but not boiling!!!!!) say 150 C and then fry the wantons off in the oil just until they have a nice gold colour. you can test the temp of the oil by throwing in a wanton wrapper piece to see if it frys. Once you have cooked off your wantons, you can put them in the oven on low heat while you prepare some plates to serve on.

In the photo above I served the wantons on an eggplant slice that had been roasted with a little olive oil and salt in the oven at 200C for 10 minutes. I then used a little of the baba for one of the wantons to stick onto the eggplant and a little of the apricot / thyme puree for the other. BUT you could just serve the wantons straight up with a little dollop of the baba and apricot on the plate so that people know what is in the wantons.

-James

Price ★★★★
Taste ★★★★.5
Ease ★★

MISO SOUP

Every one loves Miso but how do you make it? Easy, buy the miso paste and get with it.

Ingrediants
Miso paste from your local supermarket
Noodles of your choice
Baked Tofu
Seaweed strips (Nori; what you roll sushi rolls in) or fresh seaweed / kelp from a packet

Ok, might sound a bit crazy but you can supplement any of the above ingrediants with what ever you prefer, eg. tofu to chickem or prawns, seaweed to zuchini etc…
Fill and start heating a pot with as much water as you would like to have soup. Once it starts to get a bit of steam coming off, pour 300mls (a coke can) into another bowl. To this bowl add a large, desert spoon of Miso paste. Note don't boil miso paste, it splits and goes bitter, that's why you have poured a little of the water off into another bowl.
Be carefull to mix the misopaste well with the warm water using a fork, whisk or chopsticks.
Add your baked tofu and noodles to the pot that is now boiling and let the noodles cook as long as is suggested on the packet. Turn the heat off, add the seaweed and stir. Wait till the soup cools down a little and add the miso you mixed in the bowl. Now tate the soup, if you like add some soy or mirin or fish sauce and Voila you've got miso in under 10 minutes. Takashi N. Sandiego

-James

Taste ★★★★ 

Price ★★★★.5

Ease ★★★★

OMLETTE

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 garlic clove
finely chopped cilantro / coriander (handful)
Cucumber
tomato

Whisk eggs in a bowl with a fork until the yolk and whites are integrated. Add a splash of whatever flavour or flavour combinations you like, eg sweat chilli sauce, soy, A1, tapatio salsa hot sauce etc + a little pepper. Heat olive oil in a fry pan and add garlic. Fry the garlic till it becomes slightly translucent (sweats), then add the eggs. Don't stir the eggs just let them set till the edges become firm and you can run a spoon around the edges of the omelette that is forming in the pan. Now, throw in some chopped cucumber and tomato and the cilantro (or what ever combination of goodies you would like to see in the omelette, like tuna or ham etc). Once the omelette starts to become solid but still very much runny in the centre, lift up one side of the omelette with you largest spoon / fork and fold the top over to the other side as is shown in the picture above. Slide the omelette carefully out of the pan and onto a plate. I threw some sunflower seeds into this one too cause they needed eating.  Tuck in.

<!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–>FYI – Traditionally omlettes are served still runny in the centre so that they are not too dry. Up to you!

-James

Taste ★★★.5

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★ (though you might need some practise folding the omlette over!

BAKED EGGS & TOMATO

If you want easy and delicious eggs, this is your dish.

3 eggs
1 small can,peeled, whole tomatoes
1 garlic clove (optional)
Find a dish that you can bake in the oven. Preheat oven to 360 F / 180 C.
Peel garlic and with your hands rub it into the inside of the baking dish so that the garlic breaks up a bit,do this until there is a smear of garlic oil around the whole dish. You can either save the rest of the garlic for another dish or dispose. Crack eggs carefully so as not to break their yolks into dish. Open canned tomatoes and take out as much as you like and chop this into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the dish and put this in the oven and bak for 10 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking, i.e. soft, hard, runny

-James

Taste ★★★.5

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

RISOTTO WITH SAGE & BUTTERNUT

Arborio rice-1 handful per person
Butternut-1 fist worth of roughly cut squares
Garlic-3cloves finely chopped
Large handful of sage leaves
Your choice of mushrooms-1 handful
1.5 pounds or 500ml of canned chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 of a bottle of white wine (cheap one!
Parmesan cheese-small handful from a packet or fresh

Cut off a fist sized portion of butternut. remove the peel with a nice cutting down toward the chopping board. Turn butternut onto its side, cut into finger thick slices (these will be round). From each of these slices cut strips and from the strips small cubes of butternut. Roughly cut an onion into cubes the same size as the butternut.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan. rip sage leaves and drop into hot oil, fry till aromatic. Add butternut till it begins to soften then add onion, garlic and mushrooms chopped roughly and fry till it takes on a little brown colour (it begins to caramelise).

Add rice and stir till rice is hot to touch. Add stock until all the rice is covered then bring to a boil and turn heat down until it just bubbles softly. Stir every now and then. When half the stock has been taken up by the rice grains and wine. Once again wait for stock and wine to have been taken up till the rice is half exposed again and add the rest of the stock. Continue to stir and heat on a low heat so that the liquid just bubbles a little (simmers). Add parmesan cheese and stir.
IMPORTANT-the rice grains should be cooked but they should still be gooey because of a small amount of left over stock and wine and the cheese. If the rice is dry add some more stock. Season the dish to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

You could supplement the butternut with zucchini, gorgonzola cheese and walnuts, rocket and beetroot or anything you like.

-James

Taste ★★★★
Price ★★★ (if you include wine)
Ease ★★★

Freshy Fried Tofu

2 blocks of Tofu (the type that is stored in water)
Sesame oil (1tbsp) and sesame seeds (1 palmful)
Soy sauce (1tbsp)
Pepper and salt
Spring/Green onion-1 handful

This is very easy, tasty and economical Japanese dish. Fry sesame oil and seeds. Add tofu, and break down tofu to bite size. Add soy sauce and spring onion. Fry until spring onion softens and tofu gets a little colour. Taste if you want to add salt or more soy or sesame oil.
There are a number of different types of tofu. My advice is that soft tofu is better because it is easy to break up in the pan but you can enjoy firm tofu too. Have fun!!

-Kensuke

Taste ★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Italian Strawberry Soda

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of sparkling mineral water 18 FL OZ.
• 1 bottle of strawberry syrup
• 5-6 ice cubes uncrushed

Add 1-2 oz. of strawberry syrup (Torani Strawberry Syrup) to a glass of sparkling mineral water. Crush ice cubes. Add crushed ice and serve.

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Penne Carbornarra

serves 4
Ingredients
· One bag of Penne
· 8 strips of bacon
. Mushrooms of your choice
· 2 egg yolks · Heavy Whipping Cream (Half Pint)
· Parmesan Cheese.
· Parsley (Handful)

Bring a pot of water to a boil. When it boils, add a teaspoon of olive oil and a dash of salt.
Throw in the penne. Make sure to stir once in a while to prevent the pasta from sticking. Bring a pan to highest heat setting, throw on the strips of bacon. The number you can throw on depends on the size of your pan. I do four at once. No oil is needed! Make sure to flip all of these once. I usually give them 3 minutes on each side. As the bacon is cooking, take the two eggs. Crack them in the middle. Make sure the two halves are intact. Now move the yoke and white from shell to shell making sure to transfer the yoke. This will separate the white from the yoke and eventually leaving the yoke in one of the shells. Throw the eggs in a bowl, whisk them, and leave them there. The bacon is ready when it becomes brittle and crispy. Take them out of the pan and let them rest on the plate. In my experience, my pasta is ready when I have my bacon ready. Do consider that I do two rounds of bacon. But the directions will usually say the amount of time needed. Now take the bacon and use your hands and just crush them to pieces about the size of your nails on your index finger. It really doesn’t matter, whatever you prefer. Drain the pasta. Fire up the pan to high again making sure it’s clean from the oil left from the bacon. Put in the musrooms and fry in fresh olive oil till they start to get a little colour then add the bacon and fry till it is hot again. Pour in all of the heavy whipping cream and stir till it boils. The heavy whipping cream is ready when it forms a foamy texture. I usually just wait 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and wait for it to cool. When it cools pour in the egg yolks. It’s very important to wait for the heavy whipping cream to cool because otherwise the egg yolks will cook! It’s cool when you can comfortably stick your finger in. Throw in the pasta and parsley and mix them together, add a palm full of parmesan. Serve and dine!

-Harry

Taste: ★★★★★

Ease: ★★★★

Cost: ★★★★

ROASTED MUSHROOM WITH BASIL AND GARLIC

Ingredients

Fresh mushrooms we used portabello
Olive oil
Basil-1 hand full
Garlic-4 cloves cut into cubes
This is just a kick butt dish that will knock anyone to the ground

Pre heat oven to 400F / 200C. Wipe any dirt from the muhrooms with a paper towl. Chop them into quatersif you want. Put them into a an ovenproof dish. Add chopped garlic evenly over mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. 1 pinch pf per large mushroom should be adequate. Pour olive oil over mushrooms so they have a light, oil cover. Put into hot oven for five minutes, remove stir the garlic and then oil around the mushrooms (baste) and put back into oven for another 10 minutes but now turn the heat down to 300F. After 10minutes remove the dish, rip the basil roughly in half with your hands and stir into mushrooms. Let this sit for 3minutes then serve, this will allow the aroma compounds of the basil to be released Now you've got yourself one mean dish or side dish. JDE

-James

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

KRISPY COFFEE BALLS

• 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1 (10 ounce) package mini marshmallows
• 2 to 3 tablespoons instant coffee
• 6 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal

In a large pot, melt the butter over a very low heat. Stir in the marshmallows, getting them all coated with the butter. Slowly melt the marshmallow while stirring frequently. When the marshmallows are melted and smooth, remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the instant coffee and mix until it is dissolved into the melted marshmallows. Gently fold in the cereal. When it is completely coated, grab a chunk of the mixture and start forming a ball, using your hands. Allow to completely cool and serve. A great treat to have while trying to pull those all-nighters!

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★