Fast & Fresh Friday

It's Friday, it's been a long week and you want something quick, simple and delicious to serve for dinner, right? Well look no further than this packed with flavour dish of Peri-Peri prawns, served with a quick to put together Chimichurri sauce. I cooked mine on the BBQ - which I think gives the prawns that great, charred BBQ taste - but of course you can do this on a grill pan on the stove if you like. Have the BBQ/pan very hot - you want the prawns to cook fast so they are nice and caramelised on the outside, whilst still remaining succulent and sweet inside.

Only choose the freshest prawns - and avoid the imported ones that are flooding our seafood market. If they have travelled a long way to get to your plate, they are unlikely to be a high quality product. A good fishmonger should have all of  their seafood clearly labelled and be able to tell you where their seafood comes from - and if they don't, find another fishmonger!

If prawns aren't your thing, this dish would work beautifully with squid, or any firm fleshed fish too - even a combo would make a great seafood platter. The Chimichurri sauce can also be easily adapted to your taste - feel free to amp up the chilli component if you like it extra spicy, or adjust the vinegar/oil component to suit you. As with all cooking, the golden rule is to taste as you go, and tweak the flavours until you are satisfied with the result.

The basic Chimichurri sauce I have included here is a good one to have up your sleeve, as it works with pretty much any kind of meat or seafood you can think off - particularly the BBQ kind. For vegetarians, it is delicious on grilled eggplant, zucchini or pumpkin. It keeps in the fridge for a few weeks too, so make a big batch during BBQ season so you can have it on hand and ready to serve.

Peri-Peri Prawns

with Chimichurri

You will need:
For the prawns:  About 1kg fresh king prawns in the shell, 1 tablespoon fresh paprika, 1 teaspoon minced chilli (more if you like it spicy), 1 cloves minced or finely chopped garlic,1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons warm water.

For the  Chimichurri: 200ml olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 100ml white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon minced chilli (or more if you like it spicy), 1 cup flat leaf parsley, 1 teaspoon oregano, salt to season, a little warm water.

Method:
First, make the Chimichurri - put all of  the ingredients in a food processor and process for a few seconds until combined. It the mixture is not liquid enough, add a small amount of warm water. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Remove the shells from the prawns, leaving the tail and the head intact (I do this, as it adds to the flavour and also looks better for presentation - but  if you are really in a rush, just remove the whole shell & head) Remove the digestive tract by making a small incision by the head and using a skewer to pull it out. Set the prawns aside.

In a bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients for the prawns - paprika, chilli, garlic, salt, olive oil and warm water. mix together and then pour over the prawns. Gently combine the prawns with the marinade, mixing well. Cover and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least half an hour. (you can do this overnight if you prefer)

Cook the prawns on a hot BBQ or grill pan, taking care not to overcook them. Serve with the Chimichurri and crusty bread.

Serves 2-4 people

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Simple Summer Seafood

In Summer, I really lean towards dishes that are light, healthy and full of the gorgeous Summer produce - but also ones that don't keep you trapped in a hot kitchen too long. If a dish can be cooked outside on the BBQ, then all the better! Today's dish ticks all those boxes. I put this together after seeing some beautiful Blue Eye Cod at the fishmonger, and wanting to do something lighter and healthier than fried fish and chips.

Blue Eye Cod (also called Blue Eye Trevally) is one of my favorite fish to eat. The firm white flesh has a lovely mild flavour and a beautiful meaty texture that means it won't be likely to fall apart when you are cooking it. Although it can handle marinades and more robust sauces, I like to cook it very simply, so that the fish is not overwhelmed and you don't miss out on that delicious taste.

In today's dish, I teamed some simply cooked Blue Eye Cod with a selection of seasonal grilled vegetables and a light and fresh lemon and caper dressing. The result is a delicious, healthy and good looking dish that you could happily serve at a dinner party or as a delicious mid week dinner. Because it requires very little preparation, it is a perfect choice if you are in a hurry or want something to serve that won't keep you from your guests too long.

You could easily adapt this dish for vegans or vegetarians - leave out the fish, do extra veges (maybe some grilled tofu?) and serve with the lovely lemon and caper dressing. For those who don't like seafood, some free range chicken thighs, seasoned and grilled would work well too.

Grilled Blue Eye Cod

with grilled vegetables and lemon caper dressing

You will need:
1 or 2 pieces fish per person, olive oil for grilling, 2 medium zucchini, 1 medium eggplant, 1 bunch asparagus, about 300g peeled pumpkin, salt.

For the sauce: 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, Juice of 1 lemon, tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 2 teaspoons very finely minced or chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon honey, 1/2 tablespoon baby capers, salt and pepper, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Method:
First, make the sauce by whisking together all of the sauce ingredients well, until they emulsify and thicken slightly.

Slice the zucchini, pumpkin and eggplant into thin 1cm slices. Cut the woody ends off the asparagus. Check the fish for bones - if there are any, pin bone the pieces by using tweezers to carefully remove each one.

Heat a grill pan or BBQ until very hot and cook the vegetables until tender, brushing with a small amount of olive oil and seasoning with a little salt. Once all the veges are cooked, put them aside.

Brush the fish with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook the fish for 2-4 minutes each side, or until cooked (timing on this will depend on the thickness of your fish fillets)

Assemble the vegetables on your serving plate/plates. Add the fish to the top of the vegetables and drizzle with the caper dressing. Serve right away.

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Rockin' Ribs

A hot Sydney Saturday night, a new BBQ, a recent trip to the butcher and the inclination for something simple and tasty was the inspiration for today's recipe. It's been really hot this week, so the idea of not being stuck in the kitchen and doing some cooking outside was especially appealing. Yesterday we went out and bought a new BBQ. The process of finding one has taken a while, as we wanted something that would suit our needs but also not take up too much space. So many of them these days are bloody gigantic!! After much online research and household discussion we decided on the highly rated and very snazzy looking Ziegler and Brown Twin Grill. And yes, I had to choose the fire engine red model, couldn't help myself. Have to say we are really happy with it so far - I predict I'll be cooking with it all week as I experiment with different cooking modes and ingredients.

There was a selection of meat to choose from tonight, as this week we visited our meat supplier Grant at Feather and Bone - and had restocked the freezer in preparation for returning to work next week. Regular readers will have heard me talk about Feather and Bone before - a local company that supplies sustainably raised meat with guaranteed provenance. With a focus on supporting small producers, a commitment to the whole journey their food makes, from paddock to plate and their philosophy of sustainability, they are the pick of the crop as far I'm concerned if you choose to eat meat. I won't pretend that they are a cheap option - their meat is not produced on a large scale and you do pay a fair bit more for their products. We decided however, that we would rather pay more, get top quality food that has been ethically produced but have it less often in order to work it into our household budget.

If you live in Sydney and are interested in what Feather and Bone do, or you want to source their products, then the details for their website is at the bottom of this post. Oh, and by the way, this is not a paid endorsement - I'm just a regular customer who thinks highly of them and their excellent produce. To give you an idea of the sort of quality we are talking about, they supply meat to some of the best restaurants in the city - including Rockpool, Billy Kwong, Universal and Red Lantern among others.

So, what was for dinner tonight? Well, we had bought some gorgeous dry aged Gundooee beef ribs from the folks at Feather and Bone and thought that they would be perfect on the new BBQ. I made a delicious, smoky, sticky sauce - given a bit of a fresh kick with lime, chilli and a splash of tequila. I didn't bother putting the ribs on a plate - just served them on a huge chopping board in the middle of the table with BBQ'd corn on the cob, pickled red chillies and some extra lime. We ate the whole lot with our hands - messy, fun and delicious!

Tequila Lime Beef Ribs

served with BBQ corn and pickled chillies

A handy hint when cooking ribs (or anything else for that matter) where you are using a sauce that contains sugar - in this case, in the form of honey - is to pretty much cook the meat first, then glaze it. This will stop the sauce from burning quickly and your meat being undercooked in the middle. You want that lovely sticky sauce packed with flavour - but not cremated within an inch of it's life!

This simple recipe would work just as well with pork ribs or chicken wings, so crank up the barbie and give it a try. And remember, plates and cutlery are optional!

Tequila Lime Beef Ribs
You will need: 1kg Beef ribs, 1/2 cup BBQ Sauce, 1/4 cup Tequila, 4 minced or finely chopped garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon sweet paprika, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon salt, Juice of one fresh lime, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 2 teaspoons hot chilli sauce (or less, if you don't like spice)
3 tablespoons honey. Extra lime, pickled chillies to serve. Extra salt and pepper.

Method: If the ribs are particularly large, cut them into smaller pieces so they are easy to eat with your hands. To make the sauce, combine the BBQ sauce, garlic, lime, chilli sauce, both kinds of paprika, pepper, lime juice, Tequila and honey in a small bowl.

Heat the BBQ to a medium heat. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes until they start to brown. If your BBQ has a lid, keep the lid down for most of this time.

Once the ribs are pretty much cooked, start to baste them with the sauce and cook for about another 10 minutes. Turn them and continue to baste from time to time. When cooked, remove the ribs to a plate and cover with foil. let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with extra lime and pickled chillies. Serves 2-4 people.

Note: You could easily cook these in a conventional oven if you wish - I would do them for about 25-30 minutes on about 200C. 

For more info on Feather and Bone check out their website:  www.featherandbone.com.au

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A Summer BBQ. And what I'm planning......

Welcome to the very first Gourmet Goddess recipe of 2011. It was a rather steamy summer Saturday in Sydney yesterday, so I decided that a BBQ dinner was absolutely mandatory. I also wanted something quite light, as well as something a bit different. Summer says seafood for me , so I headed to the fishmonger to check out what looked good. I couldn't go past the baby calamari that he had on display, so that was the inspiration for today's dish. I love the versatility of calamari - and also the fact that it is very inexpensive at this time of the year - so it is good for your health,your tastebuds and your wallet! I decided to go with a slightly Italian vibe with this recipe, serving the calamari with a zingy Summer stuffing flavoured with garlic, lemon, parmesan, capers and plenty of fresh herbs from the garden - mint, basil and continental parsley.

If you are really squeamish about cleaning the calamari, then get the fishmonger to do it for you. But please, please don't be tempted to buy those big pre-cleaned (inevitably frozen) squid tubes from the supermarket. They taste like rubber and are truly awful. Wait until you can get your hand on the real McCoy - tentacles and all!

I served the calamari with a salad of baby spinach, spanish onion, black olives, cucumber and fennel, which I grilled first on the BBQ. I have never done fennel that way, but it was fantastic. Just cut the bulb into slices, brush them with some olive oil, season well and cook for a few minutes each side. Really delicious. For the salad dressing I just added a drizzle of good olive oil and a few drops of pomegranate balsamic.

This week I will be in preparation for a paid catering gig on Saturday - a private 6 course degustation dinner for a 70th birthday. I do the odd paid job from time to time - I really enjoy it and it keeps both my cooking and organisational skills well and truly honed.The menu has been locked in and I'm in the process of putting down my working plan. This is basically a timetable of when everything needs to be done -  from the cooking to the final serving and an inventory of what you will need to do it. When you are juggling multiple tasks, it is an absolute must to have a clear plan, or it can go pear shaped pretty quickly! Even a simple written list can mean the difference between getting all the food on the table at it's best and in the right order - or kitchen chaos.

I find it is always a challenge cooking in someone else's kitchen. Happily the dinner is being held just down the street from me, so quite a bit of the preparation can be done in my own kitchen. This makes things so much easier. I am really looking forward to creating this degustation menu. One of the items is a fruit tart that I haven't made since Paris, and I have been meaning to do it since May last year! A good chance to revisit what I learned at cooking school. I will of course be putting up photos and a full account of the dinner next weekend.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this lovely summery calamari dish from the Gourmet Goddess kitchen....

Char-grilled Baby Calamari

with lemon, caper and green herb stuffing

You will need:
For the calamari: 6-8 smallish/medium sized calamari, a splash of olive oil, toothpicks (for securing the ends of the calamari), lemon wedges to serve.
For the suffing: 4 cups fresh breadcrumbs, 1 large finely chopped onion, splash of olive oil, 3 cloves very finely chopped garlic, finely grated rind of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon baby capers, 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 1/2 tablespoon chopped basil leaves, 1/2 tablespoon chopped mint leaves, 1 tablespoon melted butter, 1 egg, salt and pepper(to taste).

Method:
Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and cook the onion and the garlic on a medium heat until it softens and starts to look transparent. Set aside.

Combine all of the remaining stuffing ingredients in a bowl. Add the onion and mix well. Your hands are best for this, to ensure that all of the ingredients are well combined. Season generously and set the stuffing aside.

Clean the calamari - you will need to remove the head, outer skin, "wings" and tentacles and ensure that the remaining calamari tubes are super clean and clear of any ink etc.

Cut off the tips if the calamari tubes (about 1/2 cm). This will prevent the calamari from swelling too much during cooking and popping open. It basically gives them an inbuilt air vent!

Using your fingers, stuff the calamari with the filling, pushing it right to the ends. Secure with a toothpick. Wipe the calamari with a damp paper towel to remove any stray stuffing from the outside.

Heat your BBQ/Grill. Brush the calamari with a little olive oil and cook for about 5 minutes each side. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the calamari. If you happen to have a BBQ with a hood/lid, pop the lid on for the last few minutes of the cooking process.

Let the calamari rest for 5 minutes after cooking.
Slice and serve with salad, crusty bread and an extra squeeze of lemon.

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Char! Char! Char!

I love the flavour of BBQ or char grilled food. Something about that smoky flavour and caramelised character really adds another dimension of flavour and texture to the food. Today's recipe uses this technique, along with delicious fresh herbs and the lovely rich citrus kick of preserved lemons to make a very special roasted chicken. I cooked the chicken on the Weber - over the coals with the lid on - and I flattened the chicken, Portugese style to speed up  the cooking time and maximise the exposure of the meat to all those lovely coals. You can of course cook the chicken in the oven or on a standard hooded BBQ if you aren't able to do the coals thing. I teamed the chicken with a very simple char grilled vegetable salad and ate it with some lovely rustic sourdough bread.

If you haven't used preserved lemon before, I have included instructions for how to prepare it for cooking in the recipe below. You use only the rind - the rest of the preserved lemon will be very salty and inedible. You will find preserved lemon at middle eastern grocery stores and gourmet food shops. It is very easy to make your own preserved lemons, but they take about a month to be ready for use. Make them when lemons are in season and at their best. I just wash the lemons well and slice a deep cross into the top of them (they should open up like a flower but still be in one piece) Then I pack them into sterilised jars to which I add a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, a few cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Then I pack them in salt and top them up with lemon juice. They then go into a dark place for about a month. I turn the jars every few days to keep everything well mixed. The lemons should be completely covered, so you may need to add more lemon juice and salt as you go. Choose jars with airtight lids - you don't want the air getting in to your lemons and spoiling them.

All of the herbs that I used in my recipe were picked fresh right from our garden. I am getting so much pleasure from having some outside space and growing herbs and veges. I currently have 13 different herbs, along with baby Cos lettuce, Roma tomatoes, chillies, beetroot, capsicums and french radishes. I will add to this as time progresses. I am really new to the whole garden thing and it is pretty much trial and error - with advice from friends and some online info. I am blessed with a sunny yard so things seem to be growing very fast. I am looking forward to when the vegetable crops mature and I can take them straight from the garden to the table. We recently aquired a compost bin so we will be recycling our scraps too, to add to the already rich soil that we have. There are lots of worms in the ground and the plants look happy - so far, so good!

Hope that you enjoy this different take on the basic roast chicken....

Lemony Herbed Chicken with Char Grilled Vegetable Salad

You will need: 1 whole chicken
(for the chicken marinade) 4 cloves minced garlic, 1 teaspoon thyme (I used lemon thyme for an extra lemony kick), 1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon, 1 tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 1 teaspoon minced red chilli, 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons pureed preserved lemon*see note, salt and pepper.

(for the char grilled vegetable salad) 1 medium eggplant, 2 medium zucchini, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon chopped continental parsley, 2 medium tomatoes - diced with seeds removed, salt and pepper, extra olive oil.

Method:
(for the chicken) Combine all of the chicken marinade ingredients and set aside.

Wash the chicken with cold water and dry inside and out with paper towels. Lay the chicken on a chopping board breast down. Now, with a sharp knife cut down either side of the backbone. This will remove the backbone/tail in one piece - disguard this backbone. If there is any offal attached to the remaining chicken, trim it off.
Next, turn the chicken over so that it is breast up. With the palm of your hand, push down firmly to flatten the chicken out. Now that the backbone is removed, this will be quite simple to do. You now have one flat chicken!
 
Rub about 2/3 of the marinade mixture over the chicken, including under the skin as much as you can. This should be easy now that the backbone has been removed. Allow the chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
 
Cook the chicken on a BBQ with a hood, or a Weber (preferably over coals if you can, the flavour is even better this way) breast down to start with - for about 40 minutes. Turn frequently and baste with the remaining marinade. Allow the chicken to rest, covered in foil for 15 minutes before serving.
 
(for the salad) Slice the eggplant into pieces about 1cm thick. Cut the eggplant into long or diagonal slices (whatever is easy for you)
 
While the chicken is resting, splash some olive oil on the vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Cook on the BBQ a few minutes each side, until they are tender and you have nice grill marks on the vegetables.
 
Remove from the heat and just before serving, toss through the tomato, parsley, balsamic, olive oil and season generously. Serve with the chicken.

*To prepare the preserved lemon: With a teaspoon, gently scrape the flesh and the soft pith away from the rind - it will come away very easily. Disgard this. Rinse the remaining lemon rind with water to remove the salt that it has been preserved in. Chop the rind very small and then using the flat side of your knife, squash the rind until it is a smooth puree.
 

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A seafood BBQ

As the weather gets warmer and daylight savings is upon us (YAY!!) it is time to head outside, crank up the BBQ and enjoy some of the fantastic seafood that Australia has to offer. Scallops are in season right now and I couldn't resist picking up a dozen of the flat shelled beauties at the fishmonger on the weekend. They are a great price at the moment and as they are my favourite kind of seafood I will be indulging as often as I can. I also noticed that my fishmonger has started stocking the beautiful Crystal Bay prawns, and picked up a handful to have with the scallops.

I chose to cook the scallops simply on the shell, with a touch of well seasoned garlic butter on the top and a sprinkling of chives. I put them right on the BBQ and used a teaspoon to turn over the scallop flesh in the shell to ensure that they were cooked evenly. They only took a few minutes to cook through. So delicious.

With the prawns, I went for my own version of that Greek taverna favourite Saganaki Prawns. Instead of cooking the prawns in the red sauce, which is how they are usually done - I marinated them first, cooked them on the BBQ for a wonderful char grilled taste and added them to the dish at the last minute. I was really happy with the result - so tasty! We ate ours with warm flatbread to mop up the delicious sauce. I have included the recipe below.

I am in the process of planning the menu for a casual housewarming lunch that Andrew and I are having this Saturday. I am thinking something with a Mediteranean vibe - big robust flavours, spring lamb, vibrant colour and generous serving platters. I will post the results and the menu next week so you can see whta I did. In the meantime, you might want to give my Saganaki Prawns a go.

Grilled scallops with garlic butter and chives

Crystal Bay Saganaki Prawns

To make the Saganaki Prawns.....

You will need:

1 kg shelled raw prawns (I leave the tails on - extra flavour and nice presentation), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 3 cloves crushed garlic, 2 heaped teaspoons paprika, 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, 2 teaspoons minced chilli (more or less, depending on your taste), 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 2 cups of your favourite nepolitana sauce  (I put a generous amount of chilli in mine for extra punch, along with fresh oregano and thyme from my garden), 1 tablespoon pitted black olives (I cut mine in half), 1/2 cup crumbled fetta cheese.

To serve:

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme and 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

Method:

Combine the olive oil, garlic, thyme, paprika, chilli, salt and pepper. Marinate the prawns for about 15 minutes. You can also do this overnight if you like.

Heat your BBQ hotplate until it is smoking and cook the prawns, turning often. They will only take a couple of minutes to cook through. Be careful not to overcook the - you want them to be sweet and juicy.

Heat your nepolitana sauce, stir in the olives and pour into a serving dish. Gently fold in 3/4 of the fetta cheese. Add the BBQ prawns and combine them gently in the sauce. Top with the remaining fetta, thyme and parsley. Serve with crusty bread or warmed flat bread to soak up the tasty sauce. Serves 4.

For more info about delicious - and sustainable-  Crystal Bay prawns, check out their website: http://www.crystalbayprawns.com.au/

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GG's outdoor odyssey

Now that I have an outdoor space and a garden to enjoy, I have started thinking about outdoor cooking. Having access to both a standard BBQ and a Weber gives a lot of options and I plan on doing quite a bit of entertaining as the weather warms up, centered around BBQ and grill style food. There is nothing more delicious than a freshly BBQ'd sausage on a roll as far as I'm concerned, but I'm looking forward to experimenting with taking things a bit further and going beyond your basic chops and sausages.

I am a huge fan of seafood cooked over coals and I think my up and coming food experiments will centre around different seafood dishes (watch this space) but last night I thought I would start my outdoor cooking odyssey with American style pork ribs. The ribs go through two cooking processes - first poached in a liquid flavoured with herbs and spices and then cooked over coals and basted with a delicious sticky BBQ glaze.

The glaze is flavoured primarily with by smoky paprika, garlic, chilli, fresh thyme and maple syrup. It is absolutely delicious and enhances the flavour of the pork beautifully. The pork ribs are great served with corn on the cob and jacket potatoes with sour cream and chives. The recipe below serves 2-4 people depending on how much you want to indulge. If you don't have a BBQ, I have included an alternative cooking method below. The glaze would also work well on chicken wings or skewered prawns, if you aren't a pork fan or if you want a meal that is a bit lighter.

So, here is last night's dinner - and my first attempt at cooking in the GGG (Gourmet Goddess garden) Hope you are inspired to give them a try.

 Twice Cooked Pork Ribs

With smoky chilli maple glaze

You will need: 1kg pork ribs

For the poaching liquid: 2 Bay leaves, 1 teaspoon whole white peppercorns, 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1 small peeled roughly chopped onion, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 cloves garlic, water.

For the glaze: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup BBQ sauce, 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon smoky paprika, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon dry chilli flakes, 2 teaspoons thyme leaves (I used fresh), a few dashes of Tabasco sauce (ok, I used a bit more than a few dashes because I like my chilli!), 2 tablespoons reserved liquid from the poaching process.

Method: First, place all of the ingredients for the poaching liquid in a large saucepan. Add the pork ribs and cover with water, Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the liquid (you will need this for the glaze).

Remove the pork ribs and allow them to drain and cool.

Combine all of the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Preheat your BBQ. Place the ribs on the rack/grill section of your BBQ (I used the Weber for this - cooking over coals really adds to the flavour) Cook the ribs for 5 minutes each side without applying any of the glaze.

Now baste the ribs with the glaze and cook for about another 15 minutes, turning and basting often. Watch that the ribs don't burn - move them to a slightly cooler spot on the BBQ if they seem to be darkening too quickly.

Let the ribs rest for 5 minutes before serving. Drizzle any remaining glaze over the ribs.

*Alternative cooking method: If you don't want to do the BBQ thing, the ribs will work well in the oven. After the initial poaching process, you can bake the ribs in a moderate to hot oven for 25 minutes, basting and turning regularly.

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Spring Zing

I was craving something fresh tasting and easy for dinner this week and nothing says fresh to me like lime. Limes are lovely at the moment and are so packed full of delicious flavour so I decided to put together a dish with the new season's limes as a centerpiece. My local Greek deli had some pretty gorgeous looking Haloumi cheese in stock on the day, so I thought I would include that too. I am a total salt junkie and I find the briny tang of Haloumi cheese delightful. If you are unfamiliar with Haloumi, it is a mild, salty cheese from Cyprus, traditionally made with a mixture of goat and cow's milk. (I have also seen Haloumi made with just cow's milk in Australia) It frequently contains a touch of mint which just adds to the great flavour. Because Haloumi has a high melting point, it is ideal for grilling or pan frying.

This dish is really fast to throw together and is ridiculously easy to make. The key to the dish though is to cook the skewers almost completely before basting it with the marinade. The maple syrup in the basting sauce will caramelise really quickly due to the sugar content in it, so if you baste too soon you are going to end up with horrible burnt skewers that will probably still be raw in the middle. Not good.

Feel free to play around with the marinade - you could add chilli or ginger, or even five spice or ground coriander for a more Asian vibe. My version below is a simple one because I was starving and didn't want to mess around too much! These would make a lovely finger food or just something tasty for the BBQ. Prawns or fish would also taste great. And if you are vegetarian, just omit the chicken and use chunks of Haloumi and zucchini instead. Delicious.

Chicken and Haloumi Skewers with caramelised lime

You will need (For 6 Skewers) 6 wooden skewers soaked in water for 30mins, 2 boneless chicken thighs cut into chunks, 1 piece haloumi cheese about 5x10cm long, 2 limes, 3 cloves garlic chopped finely, 1 tablespoon olive oil (plus 1 teaspoon extra), 1 tablespoon maple syrup, 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika, generous pinch cayenne pepper or chilli, generous pinch salt.

Method: Combine a third of the garlic with the teaspoon of olive oil and combine with the chopped chicken. Season well and allow to marinate for about 10mins.

Juice one of the limes and mix together with the remaining olive oil, maple syrup, paprika, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper. Whisk together well and set aside. This will be your basting sauce.

Slice the remaining lime into 6 wedges. Cut the Haloumi into cubes around the same size as the chicken. Gently thread the chicken and haloumi onto the skewers, alternating ingredients and ending with a wedge of lime.

Cook the skewers on a hot BBQ, grill or frypan until almost cooked through. Be careful when you turn them so that you do not break up the Haloumi. When the chicken is almost cooked through, baste the skewers with the lime and maple basting sauce, turning often. The maple will begin to caramelise and turn brown at this stage. Watch that the heat is not too over the top - the sugar in the maple syrup will burn easily so keep an eye on it.

Let the skewers rest for 5 minutes before serving. See, wasn't that easy??? Now sit and have yourself a nice gin and tonic. Just to use up any lime of course :)

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