Swordfish pie

Yum swordfish! I hadn’t had any for ages so when I went shopping and saw some I grabbed it. I wasn’t sure what I would cook with it but tonight I remembered the coriander pesto I had awaiting my ideas for it. Then it was a matter of seeing what I had in the way of vegetables and deciding whether to use phyllo or puff pastry. Then voilà! 

Ingredients

2 sheets puff pastry

140 gr swordfish fillet

Small carrot

1/2 red pepper

2 spring onions

2 heaped tsp coriander pesto

3 tsp crushed ginger root

Poppyseed

Mode

Preheat oven to 180c

If using frozen puff pastry remove sheets from freezer to thaw

Julienne the carrot

Clean and chop spring onions

Roughly cut the red pepper

Crush ginger

Place one sheet of pastry in base of baking dish

Place the swordfish fillet on pastry

Spread pesto over

Add spring onion and crushed ginger

Top with carrot pieces and red pepper

Place second sheet of pastry on top

Trim and seal pastry and decorate as desired

Sprinkle with poppyseed

Bake in oven at 180c for 45 minutes

Chicken & coriander pesto meatballs in tomato sauce

After a year when I seem to have been eating nothing but pies and other carbs, now I am trying to get over all that comfort food. When I was food shopping today, masked up at Piedimonte’s, minced chicken caught my eye. Mmm chicken meatballs. The other ingredients were what happened to catch my eye in the pantry and refrigerator when I was wondering what to cook this evening.

I used a ready made and purchased coriander pesto (yum) and a ready made tomato sauce (Five Brothers Tomato and basil sauce) but you could be more creative and make your own!

Ingredients

500 gr minced chicken

2tbs coriander pesto

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp minced ginger root

2 spring onions

Olive oil

500 gr ready made tomato sauce

Mode

Place minced chicken in mixing bowl

Crush garlic and add

Add ginger and coriander pesto

Chop spring onions and add

Stir until thoroughly mixed

Using a tablespoon  spoon form in into meatballs

Finalize shape with hand and place on plate

Meanwhile place the tomato sauce in a pan on heat 

Fill bottle with water, shake to clear jar

Add to pan and stir

Bring to boil and reduce to simmer

Heat olive oil in frying pan

Add meatballs in batches and cook to seal 

Add to tomato sauce as sealed

Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes

Eat alone if avoiding carbs or otherwise serve with rice, pasta or noodles. 

Enjoy!!

Tasmanian salmon with coriander pesto and lentils

After a 2020 Covid year of cooking pies and feeling rather plump, I felt January 2021 was the time to try cooking something with a little less in the way of carbs. This salmon dish is cooked in the oven under foil, regrettably without a whiff of puff pastry, but delicious for all that. Enjoy!

Ingredients 

200 gr Tasmanian salmon

400 gr canned lentils

2 spring onions

1/4 red capsicum

1 tbs coriander pesto

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp crushed ginger root

Mode

Preheat the oven to 180c

Chop spring onion and capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Open lentils and drain

Place as base in oven dish

Add salmon

Coat with coriander pesto

Top with spring onion, capsicum, garlic and ginger

Cover with foil

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Lockdown pie

Well, of course, you could actually plan to cook this pie or you could just scour your products and decide to experiment any time. But I have hardly been out of the house for weeks and today I wanted to cook a pie for dinner and wondered what to cook. So I had some fresh vegetables, some coriander pesto, puff pastry and lentils. This is the result.

Ingredients

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

1/2 red pepper

3-4 mushrooms

2 spring onions

2 tbs coriander pesto

400 gr can lentils

Poppy seed

Mode

Preheat oven to 180c

Remove pastry from freezer to thaw

Peel and chop spring onions

Chop red pepper

Slice mushrooms

Place one sheet of thawed pastry on base of baking dish

Add vegetables

Drain and rinse lentils and add

Add coriander pesto and stir to combine

Place second sheet of pastry and form pie 

Sprinkle with poppy seed

Bake in oven for 45 minutes.

Tasmanian salmon & coriander pesto pie

Another pie you might be saying? Well yes indeed and why not. Rain and hail and plummeting temperatures today invite ideas for pies. And more importantly I am in Melbourne where I have an oven. When I am travelling I rarely have access to one.

This pie is delicious: Tasmanian salmon with coriander pesto (bought but you could make your own) as well as red capsicum and spring onion encased in crisp puff pastry. It serves two people. 

Ingredients

1/2 red capsicum

1 spring onion

2 heaped dsp coriander pesto

220 gr skinless Tasmanian salmon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Chop spring onion and red capsicum

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add salmon

Cover top of salmon with pesto

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes