We love camping as much as the next family but given our propensity to think through our stomachs, we tend to put as much thought and effort into planning our camp menu as we do into choosing a destination, and despite the restrictions of an esky and a single burner camp stove or fire, never skimp on flavour. But of all our camp cooking favourites, this easy campfire paella is number one on our kids’ culinary hit parade.

Dating back to mid-18th century Valencia, Paella was born to be cooked over fire. In fact, back in the day, the Valencians used wide, flat pans (paelleras) to cook their rice outside over wood fires, using whatever meats and vegetables were available. The most important ingredient is the rice, and while bomba is best, any short grain rice like Arborio, will do the trick as they absorb liquid easily.

While our Paella at home is cooked in a carbon steel pan that heats quickly and doesn’t retain too much heat, when we’re camping anything goes and we find our cast-iron pan works just fine.  The only thing to remember is whatever dish you use, you must not stir your paella as it cooks, as the socarrat, that deliciously crispy crust that forms on the bottom of your pan, is essential to a successful paella.

Though this time we whipped up our easy campfire paella up our camp stove, we think it cooks best over coal, just like in  the old days. Just remember to get your fire prepped about an hour before cooking so there are plenty of hot coals, not blazing flames, as they offer more constant temperatures. It’s also worth noting that while cooking over coals does take a little more time, the smoky result is worth every extra minute.

Easy Campfire Paella

October 11, 2020

by Aleney de Winter

Cuisine Spanish

Category European food Food

Persons

4

Ingredients

• 2 small chorizo sausages
• 2 chicken thigh fillets
• 12 green prawns
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 red capsicum
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• Big pinch of saffron
• 1 medium onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp chili flakes
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• ½ cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup chopped parsley
• 1 lemon, quartered

Instructions

1. Pour 1½ cups broth into a bowl with the saffron and set aside.
2. Peel and devein the prawns, slice chorizo and chop chicken into strips.
3. Place your cast iron skillet on the grill or over coals to preheat, then add a tbsp of olive oil.
4. Add diced onion, chilli flakes and salt, then sauté until the onion softens.
5. Add the rice and garlic to the pan and toast, stirring frequently for two-three minutes.
6. Add the wine and stir until absorbed (should take less than one minute).
7. Stir through paprika then add the chicken, cooking until seared.
8. Add cherry tomatoes and capsicum strips, then top with the broth and stir once to distribute evenly.
9. Let the rice cook undisturbed for five minutes, then add chorizo and continue cooking until the stock is almost completely absorbed.
10. Add the prawns and cook until opaque.
11. The paella is ready once the rice is tender, all of the liquid has been absorbed, and the rice can be heard crackling, an essential step to ensure your paella gets a toasted brown crust called socarrat which imparts a huge amount of flavour to the dish.
12. Remove from heat and sprinkle with parsley and lemon chunks to serve.

Tags

camp cooking,

Camping with kids

© 2021 copyright www.boyeatsworld.com.au

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A recent visit to Perth had me falling down a rabbit hole, knife and fork in hand, into the culinary wonderland that is Fremantle Markets.

Here, food vendor after food vendor beckoned, “Eat Me” with their pillowy bao buns, enchanted egg brioche, spell-binding pastries, fairytale fudge, sweetly magical honey cakes and more.

And yes, the resulting tea party no doubt contributed to me growing larger… at least it would have had it not been for the siren call of a jewel like red concoction from the stall of Roogenic. “Drink me,” it cries and in the spirit of the day I acquiesce.

A natural health food company specialising in teas made from Australian Native Plants, Roogenic’s Super Detox Tea has been designed to help bloating, support gut health, and the natural cleansing of the body. And it’s delicious.

Family owned Roogenic creates its products using native ingredients chosen for their incredible natural properties and based on traditional Aboriginal medicine – but backed up by scientific research.  All of the ingredients are either wild harvested or organically grown and are sourced from local farmers and Indigenous communities, providing an income stream as well as promoting traditional indigenous culture to a broader market.

The Super Detox Tea is just one of the many Roogenic temptations that follow me back home to Sydney, my bag overflowing with a Native Happiness blend, Native Relaxation to help me sleep and a Native Balance for Women featuring a unique blend of Australian bush plants & herbs designed to support women’s well-being.  And I’m happy to report that the Roogenic brand of alchemy works, because three weeks later, I’m less bloated, more balanced, and sleeping like a baby. 

As well as that Wonderland-ish tea, Roogenic’s magicians conjure up a variety of bush foods, native plant infused honey and an incredible olive oil, infused with with Lemon Myrtle & Pepperberry, and you better believe they conjured their way into my luggage too.

Inspired by the gorgeous products and recipes from Roogenics, we’ve taken popular Italian staple and family fave, Spaghetti Aglio e Olio – flavour packed as always with chilli and garlic -to decadent new levels with the addition of wads of sweet Aussie crab meat and a generous splash of Roogenic Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Lemon Myrtle & Pepperberry. The result is Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with crab and lemon myrtle, a quick and easy flavour packed feast that is fast becoming this family’s favourite new week night dinner treat. 

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with crab and lemon myrtle

July 25, 2019

by Aleney de Winter

Cuisine Italian

Category Australia Pacific food European food

Serving Size

bowl

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

10 minutes

Total Time

15 minutes

Ingredients

• 500g dried spaghetti
• 200 grams cooked blue swimmer crab meat
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 Tbs. Roogenic Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Lemon Myrtle & Pepperberry
• 8 large garlic cloves peeled and finely chopped
• 1 heaped tsp. crushed chilli flakes
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup shaved parmesan
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Instructions

1. Cook pasta in a saucepan of boiling salted water, following packet directions until just tender. Drain and set aside, reserving a cup of cooking liquid.
2. Heat extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in frypan, adding the garlic and chilli flakes and cook for two minutes or until fragrant
3. Add the reserved cooking liquid to the pan, season with salt and pepper and simmer for two minutes until liquid reduces by a third.
4. Add the drained pasta and toss.
5. Lower the heat and crab meat until just heated through.
6. Take off heat, add parsley and Parmesan and toss until combined.
7. Drizzle pasta with Roogenic Lemon Myrtle & Pepperberry Infused Olive Oil and and an extra sprinkle of parsley to serve.

Tags

Italian recipes,

Native Australian food

© 2021 copyright www.boyeatsworld.com.au

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Italy’s enchanting Ravenna is a treasure chest of art, history and culture and though it may not be as famous as Rome, Florence or Venice, it’s a little slice of heaven for art lovers, literature lovers and history nuts. And, as it turns out, gluttonous seafood loving pre-schoolers.

The extraordinary little city was once the capital of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire.

And to this day remains liberally littered with the remnants of its glory days and eight incredible UNESCO World Heritage listed monuments.

We visited a few years ago and happily strolled through its light flooded squares, spotting graceful domos and pretty palazzos.

We explored foreboding basilicas and baptisteries with interiors bedazzled in a riot of tiny sapphire blue, turquoise, green, red, white and gold tiles.

Mosaics so enchanting that Cole Porter was inspired to write Night and Day after seeing the starry mosaic sky of Galla Placidia.

Like Mr Porter, Raffles too was left dumb struck by the beauty of the sparkling mosaics. Though as a pre-schooler was more inclined to bust out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

But it was later on our exploration that my son was left even more stupefied at the sight of his melodramatic mother having conniptions as he prostrated himself at the small marble tomb of the divine poet, Dante Alighieri.

Indeed, he may actually have been so embarrassed that he thought he was actually on a journey to the nine circles of hell.

But given this was Raffles, even at the ripe old age of four, he was only interested in descending to the Third Circle of Hell, Gluttony, the place reserved for those who overindulge in food. And Ravenna, located on the sea, provides him with plenty of wonderful cuisine for him to get a foot in the door.

We chow down on local specialities including cappelletti (filled pasta) and piadina (flat bread) and a delectable seafood soup, but Raffles goes rogue with a plate of spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams), the shells of the baby clams dotting the pasta just like tiny mosaic tiles.

You see, while spaghetti alle vongole is very popular throughout Italy, and there is plenty of fresh seafood in in Ravenna, it is not really a traditionally local dish. But it is here in a pretty rustic courtyard near the Arian Baptistry – that Raffles got a taste for the classic dish. While the restaurant where we dined has faded in my memory, quite possibly due to the effects of the bottle of Sangiovese I guzzled, my seafood loving son often recalls his first, though not last, introduction to spaghetti alle vongole and has been begging for me to make it at home ever since.

So with the arrival of a brand new pasta maker for my beloved KitchenAid Mini just begging to spit out some fresh strands of pasta, and a kilo of fresh pippies from the local fish markets on hand, I could think of no better time to indulge his desires, though I’m adding a little salty, porky twist with a handful of flat pancetta.

In true Italian style, we made the pasta making a family affair. Sugarpuff was in charge of making the dough using the Mini’s bowl mixer, which we left to rest for half an hour.

Raffles then started rolling the ribbons of silky pasta dough.

Then ran them  carefully through the cutters.

The end result is silky smooth strands of spaghetti.

Which proved a perfect vehicle for the lightly liquid sauce of the vongole, a dish that is as pretty as any Ravennan mosaic… and left me with two children who claim they’ll never eat store bought pasta again.

RECIPE

Spaghetti Alle Vongole

Ingredients
Pasta:
4 large eggs
31/2 cups of sifted 00 flour
1 tbs water
1 tsp salt
Vongole:
1 kg pippies or clams, scrubbed clean
400grams of fresh made spaghetti
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves of chopped garlic
1-2 finely chopped Birdseye chillies
1 cup of dry white wine.
½ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
½ cup of diced flat pancetta.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
To make pasta break eggs in too a measuring cup to measure 7/8 cup (add a little water if necessary).
Add flour and salt in the mixer with flat beater attachment.
Slowly add eggs and mix for 30 seconds at low speed.
Replace attachment with dough hook and kneed for a further two minutes at low speed.
Leave to rest for 30 minutes.
Run dough in small pieces through the pasta roller until smooth and silky, then cut using your preferred attachment.
Put a pan of water on to boil with a good pinch of salt.
For the vongole place a large pan with a lid on a high heat with olive oil.
Add the pancetta to lightly brown then set aside.
Add garlic and chilli to oil.
Once the garlic starts to colour, quickly add in the pippies and wine. Give everything a good shake and cover with lid.
After two minutes, add fresh pasta to water (prepare pasta earlier if you are using dry pasta).
After another two minutes the clams should all be open.
Take the pan off the heat and remove unopened clams.
Add pancetta.
Drain your pasta and add to the clams with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Cook for a minute or two, flipping occasionally, to allow the juice from the clams to be absorbed by the pasta.
Add a splash of olive oil, parsley leaves, salt and cracked pepper and serve.

Disclosure: The Eats World received a KitchenAid Mini to trial but all opinions and recipes are our own.

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“Land Ahoy” shouts Raffles, between a volley of “Arrhhs’ and “Yo ho ho’s”. As you do when sailing in to Dubrovnik’s Old Town on a timber galleon. The tiny traveller is convinced it is a real life pirate ship and, in a strange twist, it would appear the skipper concurs – proffering my small swashbuckler a feathered pirate hat, vintage gun, fake parrot and the wheel, before promptly disappearing into the ether.

Our fellow passengers (all hundred or so of them) are blissfully unaware that they are now sailing under the captaincy of an armed and delusional pre-school pirate who can’t even see over the wheel.

Envying them their blissful ignorance, Mr Eats World and I quietly soil ourselves and wonder where the hell the erstwhile skipper has buggered off to. Edited highlights of my life start flashing before my eyes and I pray to any God who’ll listen that the absent mariner thought to set the boat on some kind of aquatic auto pilot before he vanished.

It is our first time in Croatia and though there’s so much we want to see and explore across this beautiful country, from Zagreb to Plitvice Lakes and everywhere in between, its looking increasingly likely we wont see any of it because we’re going to die at the hands of a pre-school pirate.  A good five minutes pass before the skipper nonchalantly returns to his post with a casual “bok” (hello). Deranged though he clearly is, we’re incredibly happy to see him and mightily relieved that somehow Raffles managed to avoid crashing into any of the sharp pointy bits of the rocky Dalmatian coastline.

Kapetan Crazy once again takes command of his ship and our pulses settle to a more steady pace… only to start racing again just minutes later as we reach the fortified medieval walls of the Old Town and sail into its movie-set harbour.

As testament to his devotion to his new found career, Raffles has stowed away behind a timber staircase, announcing that he’s “a real pirate now” and intends on staying with his ship forever. You reckon, sunshine?

Delighted by Dubrovnik

There’s so much to see and do in Dubrovnik with kids but we’re on limited time with just a few hours to explore its delights, as there’s a hulking cruise ship waiting to sail us to Ravenna in Italy. So we decide to keep it simple, focusing on the main street and filling our bellies.

Forcibly removing our kicking and screaming baby buccaneer from the galleon of his dreams, we enter Dubrovnik Old Town as nature intended… that is if nature intended that we should be wrestling a recalcitrant pre-schooler and his wriggling sibling. It’s early enough in the morning  that the city hasn’t been overtaken by the hordes of tourists that are sure to descend at any moment.

We step into The Stradun, Dubrovnik’s pedestrian main street that stretches almost 300 metres from gate to ancient gate, and are staggered by its fairy tail prettiness – only a few strolling locals, a busker and a family or two of pigeons dotting its gleaming expanse.

The limestone-paved street has been polished to a glassy sheen by years of use and is so shiny and smooth that we have to stop ourselves flinging of our shoes and sock-sliding past the spectacular Renaissance confection that is the Sponza Palace, the uniform rows of pretty green window shutters, fountains, statues, Baroque churches and bell towers all the way to a Franciscan Monastery and Pile Gate, the city’s main entrance, at the other end.

Off the main promenade we weave our way through a maze of narrow cobble-stone lane-ways that cut through the old town, the occasional scar of shrapnel damage the only reminder still visible from the conflicts of the early 90’s which saw the city under months of violent siege.

To market

We stumble upon Gundulićeva Poljana, a pretty baroque square overlooked by an enormous statue of a 17^th century poet of the same name, though better known as Ivan to his mates. It is market day and the square is a heaving mass of red and white umbrellas sheltering table after table of brightly coloured fresh fruit and vegetables, local cheese, olives, honey and spices.

A legion of local cats encircle the market waiting for the exact right moment to pounce on the gluttonous goodies. While the kitties seem more interested in procuring produce of the pesce variety we can’t resist the crimson temptation of a bucket of fat and fabulous raspberries.

Raffles and I feast on our luscious load as we wander around town, the juice staining Raffles chin as he greedily gobbles his share… and most of mine.

But the raspberries are just an appetizer and lunch is beckoning.

Delicious Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a city of seafood which suits us (and the local felines) just fine. Dining is heavily influenced by Italian cuisine, as evidenced by the proliferation of pasta, pizza and risotto crowding every menu. Tuna, shellfish, calamari, squid and octopus are staples and popular local dish crni rižot (cuttlefish risotto) is not only one of the more obvious nods that Dubrovnik makes to Venice but one of its tastiest.

The dish, dyed an inky black by breaking cuttlefish ink sacs onto the rice at the end of the cooking process, initially horrifies my wee pirate boy but any fear of its startling appearance is soon belted away by its flavour packed punch. Though I draw the line at his attempts to use a plastic cutlass as cutlery.

In fact, as we await for Raffles ‘pirate ship’ to fetch us for the return voyage we agree we’ve all been pretty knocked out by the beautiful seaside town.

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As if the wrinkles and middle age spread weren’t giveaway enough, I’m about to really show my age! Though Raffles & Sugarpuff are convinced I grew up in the ice age riding woolly mammoths to school, I’m actually a product of the Age of Aquarius… which may explain my penchant for sipping on tree hugging bleeding heart hippy cool aid and weakness for popular 70’s desserts.

And though I was a little too young at the time to love the nightlife or to boogie, there were enough corduroy flares, terry-towelling frocks and lairy polyester prints in my childhood wardrobe to have outfitted a pre-school Studio 54. But I digress…

I’m actually reminiscing about the awesome kids’ shows of my 70’s childhood. Funny, clever, incredibly politically incorrect in hindsight, and clearly written by people on alarming quantities of LSD, they were awesome!

Some of my favourites were Scooby Doo – a show about a paranoid stoner and his dog, and the cartoon version of I Dream of Jeanie, about a bikini clad 2,000-year-old genie that lived in her surfer boyfriend’s bong. Then there was my first introduction to leopard print rock chick fabulousness via the awesomely skimpy outfits of Josie & The Pussycats, and the kung-fu crime-busting ridiculousness of a delusional dog in Hong Kong Phooey.

And of course the endless re-runs of The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show – a show about an inherently stupid moose and a flying squirrel. Wry, full of woeful puns and topical satire, the shows were smart and sassy and packed with quirky characters. There was the fabulously fiendish Boris and Natasha, melodramatic Mountie Dudley Do-Right and my favourite of them all, Mr Peabody, genius talking dog… and his pet boy, Sherman.

Renaissance dog Mr Peabody was an inspiration – business magnate, scientist, Nobel laureate, gourmand, two-time Olympic medallist and inventor of the Wayback machine – his journeys through history resonated with my five-year old self. Twisted and factually redundant though the tales were, I was so enthralled by the anthropomorphic dog and his whacked out adventures that I’ve been hooked on history every since.

When I heard that the Mr Peabody and Sherman Show was being re-booted 21^st century style on Netflix, I couldn’t wait to introduce it to the kids. And happily, they are as hooked as I was at their age. So much so that my little history buffs have decided to make their own Wayback Machine so our future travels can be back in time!

They’re starting with a visit to Belgium and the Battle of Waterloo! Which, thanks to Mr Peabody, they believe was caused by Napoleon being so distressed about not having a dessert named after him that he headed there in search of custard to make his namesake pastries.

I’ve enlightened them to the fact that there was more to the Battle of Waterloo than a hunt for a good crème pâtissière… but still figure it won’t hurt to whip up a Raspberry Napoleon or two for them to scoff in their Wayback Machine before they head off on more historically inaccurate but fabulous adventures.

Like Mr Peabody and his historical facts, I’ve taken a few liberties with the ingredients for my Raspberry Napoleon… but the end result proves as big a hit as the Mr Peabody & Sherman Show with my tiny time travellers.

Raspberry Napoleon

December 7, 2015

by Aleney de Winter

Category European food Party & Novelty food

Ingredients

• 2 sheets frozen ready-rolled butter puff pastry, thawed
• 2 tbs milk
• 2 tbs castor sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 500 ml milk
• 40 g cornflour
• 1 vanilla pod, split down the centre with seeds scraped out
• 250 ml thickened Cream
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• 2 punnets of raspberries
• 2 tablespoons raspberry jam

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper
3. Place the pastry on the lined tray.
4. Brush pastry with milk and sprinkle with castor sugar.
5. Bake for 5 minutes or until golden.
6. Turn the pastry and bake for a further five minutes until the pastry is crisp.
7. Set aside to cool.
8. Pour the milk into a pan, add the vanilla pod and its seeds and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat.
9. Whisk sugar, egg yolks and cornflour together in a large bowl.
10. Add a little of the hot milk to the egg mixture and continue to whisk.
11. Slowly whisk in the rest of the hot milk and return to the pan.
12. Cook over a low heat, whisking continuously, until thick.
13. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before placing in refrigerator.
14. Whisk cream until stiff peaks form and refrigerate.
15. Using a large serrated knife trim the cooled pastry into 6 x 12 cm rectangles.
16. Spread pastry slices with raspberry jam and raspberries then add a layer of the custard.
17. Add another pastry slice spread with raspberry Jam then add a layer of raspberries and cream.
18. Top with a pastry slice then sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

Tags

70's cartoons,

CArdbpard Wayback Machine,

custard,

Mr Peabody & Sherman,

Napoleon,

Netflix,

Raspberry Napoleon,

StreamTeam,

Wayback Machine

© 2021 copyright www.boyeatsworld.com.au

Disclosure:  As a member of the Netflix #StreamTeam we received a subscription to Netflix, and while I will be posting regular updates about the service, and what tasty treats we scoff while we’re watching it, all opinions expressed will be our own.  

The post Time travel, ‘toons, and a Raspberry Napoleon recipe appeared first on boyeatsworld.

The first and last time I ate a classic cheese fondue was in Europe. I was in my twenties, swanning around lovely Lake Lucerne with my now ex-husband. He annoyed me. I stabbed him with a fondue fork. The rest, as they say, is history.

While the company was dubious at best, the fondue was superb. So much so that I can’t explain why it’s taken me nearly two decades to go back for more of its molten magic.

After seeing people on TV wielding their stabby forks over the drippy dippy dish of melted cheese, my little lovers of all things served on a stick begged me to make some at home. When I acquiesced, so loud was the cheering that one of Raffles BFF’s, a charming cheese-addicted chappie, caught word of our cheesy goings and joined us, so our night of Swiss bliss took on a party vibe.

Fondue is a swiss staple so the cheeses most commonly used to make it are a mix of those like Emmental and Gruyère – though variations include Appenzeller and Comté. We planned on sticking only with the more readily available Gruyère, that is until our knowledgeable local cheese dude gifted us with a lovely little chunk of Beaufort to toss in for extra flavour. It must be said the man is a genius! He also recommended the addition of a touch of cornflour to stop the cheese and wine from separating.

Soon we were huddled around a fondue bowl dipping long-stemmed forks studded with sourdough chunks into a bowl filled with the stretchy delicious fondue – the boys tearing up the last bits of breads to scrape out the bottom of the pot.

Now while you may think of a classic cheese fondue as a circa 1970’s party pleaser, this easy cheesy fondue makes for a fun family dinner any night of the week. Just add some vegetable crudités for a little balance!

Classic Cheesy Fondue

October 13, 2015

by Aleney de Winter

Category European food Recipes

Notes

While you can make your fondue straight in the fondue pot, we first cooked ours over a higher heat in a saucepan on the stove top to be absolutely certain we'd burnt off the alcohol from the wine before serving it up to the kids.

Ingredients

• 400 g Gruyère cheese, grated
• 300 g Beaufort cheese, grated (can be substitute with Emmenthaler or similar)
• 20g cornflour
• 20 ml sweet sherry
• 1 thyme sprig
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed
• 400 ml white wine
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• Large loaf of Sourdough bread

Instructions

1. In a saucepan heat the sherry with a sprig of thyme and a garlic clove, then strain and cool liquid.
2. Combine cheeses with cornflour in a bowl.
3. In a saucepan heat the white wine on a medium heat to burn off alcohol.
4. Add lemon juice then lower heat.
5. Stir in the cheese, a handful at a time, and stir over medium low heat until the cheeses melt.
6. Add the cooled sherry and a touch of white pepper then stir until the contents of the saucepan are smooth and bubbling gently.
7. Rub the inside of fondue pot with a garlic clove then discard the garlic.
8. Transfer the contents of the saucepan to a fondue pot.
9. Serve immediately with bits of torn sourdough.

Tags

cheese.,

Cooking,

Eating with Kids,

Fondue,

Foodie Family,

kids in the kitchen,

Party Food,

Recipes,

Switzerland

© 2021 copyright www.boyeatsworld.com.au

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I’ve never been one to get excited by celebrities. I mean, they’re just people with strange jobs that put them in the public eye, right? In fact I’ve probably offended more than my fair share of stars with my ambivalence/lack of anything resembling a clue.

For example, many years ago when I was young, frivolous and not a little tipsy in a bar in Dublin, I called an internationally acclaimed older actor who offered to buy me a drink “a dirty old @%$#”. In my defense, I hadn’t realised that I was actually talking to one of my favourite actors at the time. Luckily, he quite charmingly admitted that I was right and he was indeed “a dirty old @%$#” and bought me a drink anyway. We became fast friends and he ended up spending the evening getting pissed, but not lucky, with me.

On another occasion I told one of my favourite rock stars to get over himself, when he kept trying to get special treatment at a company I worked for. Again, it was only as he drove off that it dawned on me who he was. Bugger.

And the time I kindly told a roadie that he wasn’t allowed into a VIP area, only to later discover that the “Roadie” was actually the guitarist of a world-famous rock band. Who I liked. My bad.

Oh, and then there was the time at a Sydney Opera House performance for kiddies that, elephantine with child, I had to chase my errant first-born across the toddler strewn carpet. Unfortunately I also nearly took the head off the offspring of an Oscar winning movie star with an ill-placed size 9. Whoops.

I guess I’m just not “in the zone” when it comes to celebrities. I don’t look for them and don’t notice them, or their spawn obviously, even when they’re right in front of me. And even when I do, I just don’t really care. They’re just people, after all. And often spectacularly uninteresting in “real life”.

But, when it comes to great chefs, I confess to getting a little weak at the knees. Add handsome, smart and kind to the equation and I’ve even been known to swoon… as I did recently when I met Ming Tsai, American restaurateur, television personality, and celebrity chef.

Ming not only runs award-winning restaurants, is the host and executive producer of Emmy nominated public television cooking show, Simply Ming, he has a degree in Mechanical engineering from Yale and works tirelessly for charity. He’s also charming, engaging, and witty. And he loves to make people happy with food. Did I mention the swooning bit?

While I won’t go into the details of the interview I did, you can read that here if you so desire, I will say that I got to try a little of his famous east meets west cuisine, in a spectacular dish that he pulled together in about six minutes using fresh seafood, fresh pasta and smoky charcuterie meats that he’d picked up that morning at gourmet Italian provedore, Salts Meats Cheese.

So inspired was I with his east west fusion of flavours that I immediately ran home and, sans recipe, tried to recreate something similar. While my finished dish lacked the polished perfection (and half the ingredients) of Ming’s, it was a huge hit with the fam bam and has since gone on high rotation at Casa Eats World.

THE RECIPE

Pancetta and Seafood pappardelle

Ingredients;
250g pappardelle
Sea salt
100g flat pancetta, cut into cubes
2 cm knob of ginger peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 cup of wine
250g pippi’s cleaned
12 green king prawns, unpeeled.
250g firm white fish (I used snapper fillets) cut into cubes
1 tsp chopped fresh mint
1 cup of fresh thai basil leaves
Chilli oil
Lemon zest

Method:
In a large pot of salted water, add pappardelle and cook to packet directions.
In a large frypan or wok, fry pancetta for one minute at medium heat.
Add garlic, ginger and pippis and stir.
Add wine and cover for two minutes.
Place prawns in with pippis and cook, covered, for a two minutes.
Add fish and cook, covered, for a further two minutes.
Drain pasta and add to seafood.
Remove from heat and add mint, thai basil and mix carefully.
Place in a large bowl with the liquid from the pan.
To serve, drizzle with chilli oil and the zest of one lemon.

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This post is brought to you by Oliving by Hans and Marmot Inc.

Raffles has a thing for Spanish food.  We think it comes in part from a deep and abiding love he has for his former pre-school teacher, a delightful Spanish Senorita, combined with an early epicurean jaunt to the glorious Spanish seaside town of San Sebastian, where we gorged ourselves on Pinxos and the best of Basque cuisine.

Admittedly Raffles’ food consumption at the time was indirect as he was only five-months and still noshing exclusively on his mama’s milk, flavoured though it was with a little chorizo which, incidentally, is still one of his favourite things.

As is any kind of deli meat really. So, when Oliving by Hans asked us if we’d like to sample their new range of healthier choice smallgoods, Raffles quickly volunteered his services.

Sadly, Raffles had to skip the launch as it was held at Sydney’s Shirt Bar which, as one might suspect from the name, is a bar. With some shirts. But, as I couldn’t score him fake ID in time… he had to stay at home sulking. Instead, my fellow bloggers and I watched superstar food vlogger (a video blogger to the uninitiated), Jason, from the Simple Cooking Channel slavishly prepare our dinner while we swanned about consuming fluoro cocktails and being fabulous. Until we were sent on our (quite) merry way with a goodie bag full of Oliving by Hans products.

You can check out Jason do his thing here…

Of course, we were also there to find out about the product. And it is good. A first in the Australian market for smallgoods, Oliving by Hans is inspired by the Mediterranean diet. A nutritional model based on the traditional dietary patterns of Southern Italy, Greece and Spain, it is characterised by high daily quantities of olive oil and associated with reduced incidences of heart disease and cancer.

While the products are made using the highest quality meats following traditional recipes and techniques,The Oliving by Hans range replaces some of the usual high-saturated animal fats with olive oil, resulting in a product that’s lower in fat and better for you – something that appeals greatly to this mum. But the only thing Raffles is concerned about is the taste…

Which I suggested may be better after he opens the plastic packaging, which is neither low fat, healthy or, I’m guessing, edible.

So over the following few days we worked our way steadily (and for steadily read: gutsed at speed) through samples of  kransky, chorizo, rindless pan-sized bacon, turkey breast, Hungarian salami, peperilli and even twiggy sticks, which are swiftly opened and devoured by my little carnivores.  It is alleged that they’re “really good” but given that I didn’t get any, I can neither confirm nor deny this rumour.

Raffles whips up a breakfast omelette with the Hungarian Salami, spinach and cheese which I do get to try. It is lovely. Especially the part about me not having to cook… or wash up, as he volunteers to do that too. Wads of the turkey breast goes to school on wraps with camembert, English spinach and rocket and the Pepperito, which has a great texture and is packed full of flavour, makes for a delectable Monday night pizza. So far, so tasty!

But it is the Oliving by Hans Chorizo that has really inflamed Raffles’ culinary curiosity so we’ve decided to go back to Spain for a little recipe inspiration and our take on Basque chicken with chorizo. And this time our little foodie is able to enjoy a taste of San Sebastian for himself… sans boob.

The chorizo stays beautifully moist during the braising and imparts a fantastic smokiness throughout the resulting dish which, like the entire Oliving by Hans range, is a big hit with everyone in our family.

But you don’t have to take our word for it because the lovely folk at Oliving by Hans have given us four $30 Coles vouchers to give away so you can try it for yourself.

For your chance to win one of four $30 Coles vouchers, just leave a comment below telling me what you would make using Oliving by Hans products.  Entries close 8.00pm October 30th, 2014. See below for Terms & Conditions.** COMPETITION NOW CLOSED** Winners are Lisa Jansen, Vasi Damianos, Nic Tesla and Agnes Nielsen.

The Oliving by Hans range is currently available in Coles and IGA and is set to be in Woolworths later this month.

The Recipe

Basque Chicken with Oliving by Hans Chorizo

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 Hans Oliving chorizo, cut into thick slices
4 chicken marylands
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 small red onion thinly sliced
1 tspn smoked paprika
1 bay leaf
Two sprigs of thyme
½ cup white wine
½ cup pureed canned tomato
½ cup cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 red capsicum sliced in strips
1 can of cannellini beans, thoroughly rinsed and drained
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 cup chicken stock
10 Sage leaves
Crusty French bread, for serving

Method:

1. Pre heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
2. In a casserole dish, add 2 tbs olive oil and Oliving by Hans Chorizo and fry over a medium heat until lightly browned.
3. Remove with a slotted spoon, reserving oil, and set aside.
4. Season chicken marylands with a little sea salt and brown in the chorizo oil before setting aside.
5. Add onion, garlic, smoked paprika, bay leaf and thyme to oil and soften.
6. Add white wine and reduce by half.
7. Add chopped cherry tomatoes and tomato puree and simmer for about five minutes.
8. Place chicken and chorizo back in casserole with the capsicum, parsley and cannellini beans.
9. Add chicken stock and place in oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
10. Heat remaining oil and quickly fry sage leaves until crisp. Remove and set aside
11. Once cooked allow casserole to rest for fifteen minutes and serve topped with crispy sage leaves and crusty bread.

Giveaway Terms & Conditions: This competition is open to Australian residents only. Prize includes 4 x $30 Coles vouchers. Total Prize pool valued at AU$120. Prizes are not redeemable for cash and are non-transferable. Giveaway opens on Tuesday 14th October 2014 at 7am and closes on 30th October 2014 at 8pm, AEST. The winners will be announced on the blog and contacted by email on 1^st , please leave a valid email address. This is a game of skill, not chance. The four winners will be selected on the basis of creativity and originality. The judge’s decision will be final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Boy Eats World takes no responsibility for prizes lost in transit.

The post Basque Chicken with chorizo and a Coles voucher giveaway appeared first on boyeatsworld.

Raffles is still eating his breakfast and he’s already talking about dinner, something that will come as a surprise to no one. Apparently my wee walking stomach “needs” Spaghetti Marinara. At 7am? Sugarpuff too is in a fishy frame of mind on this Monday morning and is also putting in her order, only for fish, chips and pelicans… though I’m fairly certain she doesn’t want the pelican deep fried.

Sugarpuff gets exclusive use of her mama on a Monday and given that the sun is shining, the poisson passion is running high at Casa Eats World, and that I’ve got a Canon Powershot SX700 HS on loan that I’ve been wanting to road test, methinks a mother/daughter spree at the Sydney Fish Markets is in order.

Sugarpuff loves a market and anything battered – given her British paternal parentage we think her DNA may actually be deep fried – and The Sydney Fish Markets delivers on both counts. There are also pelicans to stalk, fishing nets and colourful fishing boats to explore and fisherman to pester. There’s even a “pirate”, or at the very least a very hairy fisherman who humours her with a few “arghs” and “yohohos”.

We also find piles of choc coated mango on a stick that are simply begging to be eaten before we do any serious shopping.

We peruse the aisles of fresh seafood, marvelling at the bright colours and weird and wonderful things on display, Sugarpuff directing me on what I’m allowed to photograph and what I’m not. Sorry prawns you’re out of favour today. The artificial light in the markets proves no problem for the camera, which incidentally is compact enough that I can pop it on my pocket between shots.

Sugarpuff chats up an oyster shucker, while I test the 30x zoom lens which can achieve a wide-angle focal length equivalent to a 25mm lens and a telephoto reach of 750mm. I order some prawns and crabs and she waxes philosophic with a tank full of lobsters while I stock up on fish for dinner. Shopping out  of the way, we grab a bag of fish and chips and head outside to enjoy the sun while we scoff our bounty of deep-fried goodies.

It is here that my baby girl learns an important life lesson.

Never turn your back on a chip.

And I learn that the Canon shoots fast when under seagull siege. I even manage to capture a close up of the pilfering sea pigeon who stole Sugarpuff’s chip, something that is sure to prove handy when we send the boys around later to sort him out.

We snap away on the wharf, my petite poseur hamming it up for the camera, the daylight photo and video quality also proving impressive for a compact digital.

We also discover that, unlike chips, ice-creams are seagull proof and she taunts her potato pilfering pals as she gobbles down a cone.

At home, Raffles is thrilled with our haul and elects to help in the kitchen while I prepare dinner. And by help I actually mean attack me with crab claws while I do all the work preparing that Spaghetti Marinara he needed so badly.

Again the Canon Powershot SX700 HS performs quite well under the hideous fluorescent light of our kitchen though I put it away before it gets attacked by one of Raffles attack claws.

Aide moi.

THE RECIPE

Spaghetti Marinara Recipe

Ingredients;

Spaghetti
Olive oil
1 small brown onion finely diced
3 garlic cloves finely diced
400 gm can of whole peeled tomatoes
100 ml water
200 ml white wine
1 tsp caster sugar
30 grams of butter
12 medium green prawns peeled
2 blue swimmer crabs, quartered
12 clams (vongole) cleaned
100 gm firm white fish (cut into large pieces)
100 gm salmon fillet (cut into large pieces)
100 gm squid cleaned and cut into strips
100 gm baby octopus cut in halves
Italian Parsley to serve

Method:

1. To make the tomato sauce, heat a tablespoon of oil at medium and add onion cooking until translucent.
2. Add garlic, tomato, sugar and half of the wine (reserving the other half) and bring to boil.
3. Add 100 ml water, the octopus and squid before reducing heat and simmering for 20 minutes.
4. In a pot cook the spaghetti until al dente and set aside.
5. In a separate pan heat the reserved wine and add the clams.
6. Cover and cook for three minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
7. Remove clams and discard any that haven’t opened.
8. Add the butter, fish and crab into the cooking liquid and cook for two minutes
9. Add seafood to the tomato sauce along with the prawns and cook for a further two minutes.
10. Toss with the spaghetti and parsley to serve.

All the images in this post were taken on a Canon Powershot SX700 HS

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I received a Canon Powershot SX700 HS to test drive for a few weeks. I’m under no obligation to share but I think it’s a great camera for families looking for a little more than a simple snapshot experience from a compact zoom camera, so I wanted to tell y’all about it.

The post Sunshine, snapshots and a Spaghetti Marinara Recipe appeared first on boyeatsworld.

Before having any actual children Mr Eats World and I, staunch pacifists, made a vow that we would keep our offspring’s childhoods free of toy guns. But in all our idealistic fantasies of a violence free kiddy utopia we never anticipated that we might produce a child obsessed with Vikings, samurais and ninjas… and all their sharp and pointy accoutrements.  

So, though I can proudly say Raffles has never owned or played with (at least on my watch) a toy gun, he has managed to build an arsenal of swords and daggers roughly similar in size to the armory of a small country. And, though they’re all foam and plastic, I guess that’s what’s known as a parenting fail.

What is most ironic about Raffles penchant for weaponry of the cutting and stabbing variety is, that though he spends quite a lot of time in the kitchen, he’s never even been allowed to hold or use a kitchen knife. Something I told him he wasn’t going to be allowed to do until he turned six.

Needless to say when the folk at Barilla sent us some samples to try around the time of his sixth birthday, Raffles immediately put his hand up to take over the test kitchen. Not only did he want to make dinner for us, from scratch, WITH A KNIFE, but he wanted to come up with the recipe too. And, he declared, Sugarpuff would be waiting tables. Aide moi!

His father and I feared that blood would be shed at Casa Eats World but, nervously, gave him the go ahead and, under very strict supervision, allowed him to do his culinary thing.

He chose to make Barilla Tortellini, already a fave, and prepared a shopping list of ingredients for his “creation” which was to include fish, prawns, canned tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cream, parmesan, parsley, peas and broccoli –  a strange combination and not the first items to spring to my mind when dealing with tortellini but this wasn’t my gig and really, who was I to question his art?

We set up all the ingredients for Raffles and gave him a few tips on safely handling a knife which he tried his best to implement while I, terrified he would lose a finger, hovered nervously. Given this was his first time using a sharp knife I confess to having pre-chopped a little onion and garlic for his sauce before he started so it didn’t begin and end in tears. But it was Raffles who carefully sliced the cherry tomatoes and prawns in half and the fish into bite-sized chunks.

He roughly (very roughly) chopped parsley and broke of small sprigs of broccoli and carefully shaved some slices of parmigiano reggiano while Sugarpuff set the table… and ate most of the cheese.

Happily, with all the cutting out of the way, our dinner-to-be remained digit free.

At the stove he carefully added the pasta to boiling water, browned the fish and prawns and then removed them to one side. He sautéed the onion and garlic and added a half a cup of  crushed tomato and a pinch of sugar (a tip from mummy) then the broccoli, a half a cup of frozen peas and a wee splash of cream. This kid has been paying attention!

For safety sake I drained the pasta and popped it into his simmering pan of sauce but let him carefully stir it and the pre-cooked seafood through. A quick taste test and he decided to sprinkle in a few chilli flakes and a pinch of salt “to give it some bang” before he popped in the parsley and dinner was ready for his baby sister to carry to the table.

The result?  Delicious. And messy. Raffles even going as far as to modestly declare it the best meal ever cooked in the Eats World kitchen. In fact, he’s so proud of himself he’s already planning his next Barilla pasta meal only next time he’s going for the fusili and will do “something with sausages, mama”.

Which I guess means that I will be doing something with detergent and dishes… lots and lots of dishes.

THE RECIPE

Tortellini a la Raffles

Ingredients:

Barilla Tortellini

Olive Oil
12 green prawns, peeled and sliced in half
200 grams firm white fish fillet (we used monkfish) cut into bite-sized chunks.
1/2 brown onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1/2 can of crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup of broccoli flowers
1/2 cup of frozen peas
2 tbsp of pure cream
Pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Shaved Parmesan to serve

Method:

1. Add Barilla Tortellini to a pot of boiling water and cook for 11 minutes.
2. In a pan gently brown fish and prawns in a splash of olive oil and set aside.
3. In same pan add onion and garlic and cook until softened.
4. Add broccoli flowers, peas, tomato, cream and a pinch of sugar and simmer.
5. Add chilli and season to taste.
6. Drain cooked pasta and add to pan with cooked fish and prawns and gently stir until combined.
7. Turn off heat, add parsley and serve with shaved Parmesan if desired.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post and while BoyEatsWorld received pasta courtesy of Barilla all the other ingredients were purchased under instruction of Chef Raffles! 

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