Smooth

I bought this blender. It was on sale at Myer, I had a gift card and it has essentially the same specs as a Vitamix or Blendtec. It has a large jug standard and the smoothies I have made with it have an excellent consistency, it does 'choke' a bit when you're using larger chunks of frozen fruit like pineapple. When this happens you need to add more liquid and use the baton to push the fruit into the blades; there might be some other way around this - but I haven't worked it out yet.

I typically use one type of frozen fruit or ice in my smoothies and use the 'ice crush' or 'smoothie' pre-sets on the blender depending on ratio of frozen and unfrozen ingredients. All recipes make around 1 Litre.

A green one

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cups coconut water

50 g almonds

2 cups of spinach

1 1/2 cups pineapple

1 banana

Use frozen banana or pineapple, add extra water or coconut water to get the consistency you like.

An 'all year' fruit one

2 cups of pineapple

1 1/2 bananas

Juice of three oranges

Add 1 cup of ice if non of the fruit is frozen or 1/2 cup water if using some frozen fruit.

A summer fruit one

2 peaches

1 cup of blueberries

1 cups seedless green grapes

1 cup of ice

Cuban-style

Ropa vieja

Cheapo mojito

What do you do if you're throwing a Cuban BBQ and the price of limes is astronomical? Improvise!


Make a lime simple syrup with the zest from your limes; use 1 lime for each cup of sugar.


Mojitos
Makes 1 drink


Mint leaves
Lime wedges (1/6 of a lime each)
Raw sugar
White rum
Lime simple syrup
Ice
Soda water


Muddle 6 mint leaves and a lime wedge with a hint of raw sugar. Add two shots of rum and 1/2 shot (15 mL) of sugar syrup.


Grind a handful of ice and add to the minty rum mixture then top-up with soda. Stir before serving.

Baby turnips

Mid-October baby turnips start appearing at the market; which means that there are a few weeks for me to make on of my favourite curries.


Moghul Lamb with Turnips

Serves 4

Adapted from Food of India by Priya Wickramasinghe

2 brown onions

4 cloves of garlic

5 cm piece of ginger

2 green chillies

1/4 cup oil

2 cassia (Indian bay) leaves

1 kg boneless lamb shoulder or leg chopped into a 2.5 cm dice

Pinch asafoetida

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tbsp ground coriander

2 tbsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp thick plain yoghurt

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

450 g baby turnips, halved

Put the onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor and process in to a paste.

Heat the oil in a large shallow pan and add the onion mixture and the cassia leaves. Fry until golden then add the meat and stir until everything is thoroughly coated. Fry for a further 15 minutes until the oil begins to separate from the meat.

Add the spices and cook for 1-2 minutes, then add the tomato paste and yoghurt and fry for another minute. Add the salt and pepper then pour in  2 sups of water a little at a time stirring after each addition. When the sauce is thick cover with a lid and leave to simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the turnips and allow to simmer for a further 45 minutes or both the lamb and turnips are soft.

The Webber returns - Mexican BBQ

After a wet and almost barbecue-less summer in 2010-11, the gorgeous spring weather in Canberra inspired me to get the Webber out. Since the citrus season is in full swing, this Mexican recipe adaptation makes use of oranges and tamarind to produce a scrumptious caramelised roast pork.

I served this with a potato salad with blanched green beans, charred corn and capsicums, garlic, lemon juice and scallion oil.

Chicken with tamarind orange glaze

Adapted from Mexconnect

2kg chicken

Zest from two oranges

1/2 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed

Salt and pepper

For the glaze:

3 cups chicken stock

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons light vegetable oil

2 tablespoons tamarind paste

1 tablespoon orange zest

Zest 2 oranges and juice them, this should provide 1/2 a cup of juice. Butterfly the chicken and rub with zest, pour the orange juice over and leave to marinate for 2-3 hours.

Combine all glaze ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil then lower heat and cook until the glaze reduced to 3/4 cup and is quite sticky. This reduction takes a while, so get it started right after setting up the chicken marinade.

Grill he chicken in the Webber with all vents open; glaze the skin after 45 minutes.