Donna Hays Pumpkin Blue Cheese Sage Gratin Food

STICKY ASIAN PORK NECK

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180degC (355F).
• Place the pork, ginger, garlic, chilli and star anise in a deep, heavy based pan with a lid.
• Place the sugar, Shaoxing, oyster sauce and five spice in a bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
• Pour over the pork and cover with a tight fitting lid.
• Cook for two hours, turning halfway through.
• Increase the heat to 200degC (390F) and cook for a further 30 minutes or until the pork is sticky and tender.

ASIAN BARBECUE SAUCE

Steps:

• Stir together all ingredients in a small bowl.
• Use on any meat or fowl to be roasted or grilled.
• Make Ahead Tip: Cover and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

ROASTED BUTTER BEANS WITH SAGE AND ALMONDS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Place beans, oil, almonds, sage, salt and pepper in a baking dish and toss to combine.
• Top with butter and roast for 15 minutes until the beans are tender and golden.
• Place roasted beans in a bowl and pour the butter mixture over to serve.

VELVET MARTINI

Steps:

• Add the vodka, chocolate and coffee liqueurs to a shaker with lots of ice. Shake until very chilled strain and serve.

EASY BAKED RISOTTO

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200°C.
• Heat fry pan over medium heat. Add small amount olive oil (enough to seal chicken breast and lightly cook veggies - not too much). You can add a small amount of butter to fry pan at this time but as you need to add it later, I prefer not to.
• Saute onions until translucent then add garlic. Add sliced chicken and brown lightly ( you can season the chicken here with whatever you would normally use to season - I actually use steak spice, which has a nice flavour). Then add your veggies (but no peas or English spinach at this stage). Remember you are not actually cooking the veggies at this point, you are just allowing them to soak up the flavour of the other ingredients.
• In a baking dish with lid (pre-greased), add 41/2 cups chicken stock, 11/2 cups arborio rice, and the content of your pan.
• Put it in the oven for 40 minutes and do something else for a while. Do not stir.
• After the 40 minutes are up, stir risotto and add parmesan cheese, butter (or olive oil - it still tastes just as nice), any peas or spinach, season & stir.
• Enjoy.
• This is also a really nice side dish if you omit the chicken, then you'll get 6-8 serves out of it.

CARAMELIZED ONION FRITTATA - WITH 3 MORE VARIATIONS

Steps:

• Place butter and oil in a 23 cm (9 inch) non stick frypan over low heat and cook until butter has melted; add onions to pan.
• Cook onions, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes or until onions are golden brown, soft and caramelized.
• Place eggs, cream and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine; pour egg mixture over onions in frypan and sprinkle with cheese and thyme and cook frittata for 5-6 minutes or until it is almost set.
• To finish cooking, place frittata under a preheated hot grill for 1 minute; cut into wedges and serve with hot buttered toast or with a spicy chutney.
• Pumpkin Frittata - Add 1/2 cup mashed pumpkin or sweet potato when whisking eggs.
• Blue Cheese and Potato Frittata - When onions have cooked in the pan, sprinkle 1 cup cooked cubed potato over them, pour in egg mixture and sprinkle blue cheese instead of cheddar over eggs.
• Antipasto Frittata - After adding eggs to the pan, top them with char grilled antipasto vegetables such as capsicum (red or green pepper), eggplant (aubergine) and zucchini (courgette), sprinkle frittata with cheddar and continue with steps three and four.

COCONUT CHOCOLATE TARTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350F (180C).
• Place the egg whites, sugar and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine them.
• With wetted hands or a spoon, press the coconut mixture into eight 3/4 cup (6 fl oz) capacity, deep muffin tins, covering the base and sides to make a shell.
• Place in a preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the shells are just beginning to turn a light golden colour.
• Cool the shells for 1 minute, then gently remove them from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
• Make the filling while the bases are cooking.
• Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and heat until almost boiling.
• Remove the cream from heat.
• Add the chopped chocolate and stir through until the chocolate has melted and the filling is smooth.
• Pour the chocolate filling into the coconut tart shells and place in the freezer for 10 minutes or until the chocolate filling is set.
• Serve with coffee or berries as a dessert.

VANILLA RICE PUDDING

Steps:

• Place milk, sugar, rind, vanilla bean and seeds (or extract) in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat.
• Add rice and stir occasionally.
• Cook for 30 minutes or until rice is tender.
• Add yolks one at a time, mixing well.
• Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
• Remove rind and vanilla bean.
• Spoon into bowls and top with rhubarb and cream.