PORT AND GARLIC BEEF – Gluten Free

This is a recipe that a friend used when she was catering for her husband’s 40th birthday dinner a many years ago. She cooked two 1kg pieces of beef and multiplied the marinade and sauce ingredients to match. It could be prepared in advance and was delicious. At the time she wasn’t worried whether it was gluten free or not, but with us being more conscious of dietary issues these day, it would work really well for everyone now.

JAMBALAYA

I recently went to a paella cooking class at Pizzini Wines in the King Valley, so when I came across this Jambalaya recipe my first thought was how similar it was to paella. Apparently the main difference is in the spices. Paella uses saffron and Jambalaya, cayenne pepper. With the cost of saffron, making Jambalaya looks like a great idea.

MINTED LAMB IN RED WINE

This is a great lamb dish for a party as it uses 2 1.5kg boned legs of lamb and makes a fairly large casserole. Of course if you halve the recipe, it’s a fine for a family meal or a smaller number of guests. It recommends asking your butcher to bone out two legs of lamb for you to use, which is shows it’s age. Now it’s all done for you at the supermarket without you having to ask – much easier!!

PORK PARCELS WITH RICE BACON AND BEANS

With the cost of beef and lamb having risen so much in the last few years pork has appeared a lot more on the menu. This recipe is a great way to make it interesting. You need to buy thin pork steaks so you can fold the meat over the filling or a larger piece that you can cut a pocket into though. With a bigger piece you’d probably be best using string to keep it together.

LOIN OF LAMB WITH FETA AND SPINACH SEASONING

While this recipe is for 2 x 750g loins of boned lamb, I think it would work equally well with a piece of butterflied lamb, which is must more readily available. You could either cut a pocket in the lamb or just lay the seasoning on the top and roll it. Depending on the thickness of the lamb piece doing both might even work. Whichever way you do it the end result will taste great.

PEACH TOASTS

I wasn’t too excited when I found this recipe, I thought from the name that these were just going to be fruit toasties….then I realized that before you fried them in butter you soaked them in an egg/milk mixture and topped them off with cinnamon sugar and strawberries. That was when I realized that they were a whole lot more delicious than just an ordinary toasty.

NUTTY CHEESE AND RICE FRITTATA – Gluten Free

I like the idea of this rice frittata because it’s a one pan dish. It would be a really good weekend meal, especially if you’ve got a bit of leftover cooked rice in the fridge. If you don’t have any a packet of microwave rice would work just as well.