Whenever I make my own pizzas, I have always used bought, pre-made pizza bases or used wholemeal pita breads.

But after I learned how to make a professional pizza, I’ve decided it was so easy to make my own bases, that I was converted.

This is a nice simple pizza dough recipe I found and modified.

Pizza Dough Recipe
Makes 2 medium pizzas

8g of yeast (or 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon of caster sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
2 cups of plain flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
180ml (or ¾ cups) of warm water

1. Mix the warm water, yeast, sugar and salt into a bowl. Stir well with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 5 minutes, preferably in a warm place.

2. Sift flour into the same bowl. Add oil and mix well with a spoon to form a dough. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 7 – 10 or so minutes.

3. Place the ball of dough into an oiled bowl (if you’re lazy like me, just oil the same bowl). Cover with plastic wrap again and cover again with a tea towel. Put the bowl in a warm place and leave for 30 minutes.

4. Uncover the bowl, the ball off dough should be doubled in size. Give the dough a punch, and knead on a lightly floured surface.

5. Halve the ball of dough, and roll out to make 2 pizza bases.

6. Spread tomato paste on the base, making sure you leave a 1.5cm clean edge.

7. Cook in a 200°C oven for 10 – 15 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

Right now, in Australia, fruit is so plentiful that it is really, really cheap – including mango!
This is one of my favourite meals to serve on a summer evening. Each member of our family receives their own bowl and we sit outside in the garden to eat. It’s bliss.

Moroccan Chicken
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
1kg skinless chicken thigh fillets

Throw the ingredients into a food processor (except chicken). Rub all over the chicken. Place in an airtight container and put in the fridge for 1 hour. Then grill the chicken until cooked. (Or fry on a grill pan.)

Mango Salsa (I made this one up!)
1/8 of small red onion, diced finely
1 mango, diced
handful of cherry tomatoes
handful of roasted cashew nuts, chopped
a sprinkle of chives, chopped
splash of balsamic vinegar

Mix all ingredients into a bowl and toss.

Serve it all with rice and greens.

Enjoy (outside or inside).

I have a very bad habit – I drink tea. And lots of it.

What makes this better (or worse), is that I have a group of friends who are also connoisseurs of tea. We’ll sit down in a leafy courtyard on a sunny afternoon, and like old ladies, brew shockingly-expensive, double-decaffeinated, superior organic herbal teas and sip them from pretentious, fine China, vintage floral tea cups.

We’ll talk about leaf blends, regions of China, the latest range of dried fruit mixes, subtle distinction between variations of the same tea… it’s all riveting stuff.

How much do I drink? If I’m at home all day, I’ll have black tea in the morning. Lemon grass and ginger tea in the mid morning. Followed by 2 cups of green tea in the afternoon. Then peppermint tea in the evening.

If I don’t get my herbal teas, I feel a bit unsettled. If I don’t get my caffeine hit twice a day from the black and green tea, I get a cracking headache that makes me want to cry and smash things up.

Well, these last few months, life has been very busy. I seem to always be ON THE GO. There’s always never enough time. I’m always rushing here and rushing there.

So yes, over the last few months, I have slowly developed a new bad habit.

I have been FORGETTING to have my cup of teas.

Which means I often – unintentionally – find myself to be VERY GRUMPY FOR SOME REASON.

How this happens is that basically, I make myself a cup of tea in the morning and then I forget drink it.

I’ll run past the still-full cup sitting on the kitchen counter, an hour later, as I head out the door and shout – CRAP I FORGOT TO HAVE MY TEA! Then I’ll grab the cup of tea and down it.

Yes that’s right, I have now developed the highly acquired taste for lukewarm tea.

It makes my husband wretch, but , it’s kinda growing on me. I like it now.

People drink iced tea right?

So I’m thinking, maybe I need to instill another new habit, based on this new bad habit.

I tried this for a few weeks – Whenever I need to rush out the door in 15 minutes, I will quickly make myself a 3/4 cup of hot tea (with milk) and then pour cold water straight into the cup to make it LUKEWARM.

It worked for a while. I really liked the idea of slamming down my drug hit for the day in 2 minutes flat. It gives me more time to do all the other stuff I need to do.

But the TEA CONNOISSEUR in me, lifted her nose up in sheer disgust and disappointment. I decided that it would not do. It was completely unacceptable and disgraceful.

My solution to this?

I bought myself one of those re-usable, environmentally-friendly, takeaway cafe cups, with a lid. Brilliant!

I could now make a cup of tea in a takeaway cup.. and take it away with me!

But that didn’t work either. Even though it had one of those spill-covers, it would still swirl and splash in the car. I have had to mop up the car three times already. And off-milk does NOT smell nice.

SO NOW I’ve bought a flask. A bright purple beauty, with air tight silicone seals. It’s brilliant!

We’ll see how it goes!

(And shh, just don’t tell my tea drinking friends ok??)

Nigella Lawson, in case you don’t know, is a British Food Goddess.

Last week, I tried Nigella’s Banana Chocolate Muffin recipe. The muffins turned out to be lovely and moist, with a light texture, which was not too rich or overly sweet.

However, I found the banana flavour was pretty strong in this recipe, and it over-powered the chocolate. Maybe Australian bannanas are more flavour-some than British ones?

So I made it again and changed the recipe – less one banana and added chopped dark chocolate chips instead of the cocoa powder.

The result had the same delicious, light, moist texture, but more of a chocolatey taste with a hint of banana flavour.

Plus I used dark chocolate, so it had that deep, rich and slightly bitter taste to it. DIVINE!!!

Nigella Lawson’s Banana Chocolate Muffins (slightly modified by me!)

My changes are bolded!

2 very ripe or overripe bananas (not 3)
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
100g soft light brown sugar
225g plain flour
3 x 15ml tablespoons best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
60g of grated dark chocolate (in addition to the  cocoa powder)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 x 12-bun muffin tin

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a muffin tin with papers. Don’t worry about getting special papers: regular muffin cases will do the job.

2. Mash the bananas by hand or with an electric mixer. Still beating and mashing, add the oil followed by the eggs and sugar.

3. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, grated chocolate and bicarb together and add this mixture, beating gently, to the banana mixture, then spoon it into the prepared papers.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be dark, rounded and peeking proudly out of their cases. Allow to cool slightly in their tin before removing to a wire rack.

Serves: Makes 12

The un-Karen-Cheng-ified Original Banana Chocolate Muffin Recipe is HERE, along with a whole lot of  other excellent recipies.

I’ve got a couple of things I want to share with you.

Firstly…

I went to a very fun charity event on Wednesday night, called “Celebrate the Sun”. The whole event was put together by the local fashion industry, and was in support of “Beyond Blue”, which is about raising awareness of the symptoms and effects of depression.

I can honestly say that it has already worked, because this event has given me an excuse to make a deeply personal confession.

I have been facing the challenge of depression (mild, but long term) for about 5 years, ever since the birth of my second child.

And the two major problems I’ve had in dealing with feeling blue have been: recognising the symptoms, and then to even admit to myself that I feel that way.

I’m afraid to say that I’ve been guilty of denial, but I’m just about ready to talk about it now. Maybe. Soon. Maybe Later. But Definitely Eventually.

Celebrate the Sun was held at The Bird, one of Perth’s uber-cool inner city bars, on William Street, Northbridge. The main feature of the evening was an informal parade of designer guys and girls outfits, ranging from stand-out amazing, to cool sophistication.

The Bird is a small, cozy venue, and the parade was so relaxed that the models were cracking jokes with the audience. It was funny, warm, and intimate. You could see how feel-good it was, because the models were smiling. That’s right – this event had the power to make fashion models smile. If you weren’t there, you missed out.

However, all the outfits are now available for auction on Facebook, so do go on over and check out the high res pictures.  The deal is that you are not just bidding on a single garment – you get everything you see in the picture! (except the model and the shoes).

Some of these combinations are worth $500, some are from collections yet to be released, and all the bidding starts at ZERO. No reserve price!

100% of all proceeds go to BeyondBlue Research.

Thanks to Matt Jelonek photography for the images.

Secondly…

Another fashion industry created charity event is Lomovember, and I am going to the opening party on Friday night, the 19th November. Lomovember is an annual event, and each year runs an exhibition of lomo-photos (arty photos taken with a very simple type of film camera, which produces these really cool images).

Images by Rikki Burns and Hannah McGrath

All the funds raised go to support “Movember” – an international campaign to fund research for men’s health issues, particularly prostate health.

Now, I vaguely understand that a prostate is part of a man’s man-bits, but I have no idea what it actually does. I don’t actually WANT to know, but I’m sure it’s important enough for me to go to a party.

Even though women’s health issues get a lot of attention in the media, and I tend to think of the men in my life as indestructible, it turns out that they are all soft and squishy inside, just like women. So, they need help too.

The whole event is organised by the team at Pigeonhole, a chain of indie fashion and homewares boutiques. Thank you!

The opening party is open to the public, with live music and the $5 entry fee goes to the cause. I’ll be there early, and if you see me, please do walk right up and say “Hi!”.

Launch Party
19 November 2010, 7pm
“The LoMovember Gallery”
104B Murray St
Perth

The exhibition runs at The LoMovember Gallery till the 21st November, from 11 – 5 each day.

I was invited to attend a marketing event for a new pizza franchise – called Crust – which has recently opened in the Subiaco district of my home town of Perth.

It was a chance to see the Head Chef of the franchise make pizza.

I often cook pizza at home, and I was quite keen to see how it is done professionally. But of course, I was also expecting to pig out on a lot of free gourmet pizza. I couldn’t lose.

So I rocked up, and was pretty impressed with the pizza bar. Brand new, excellent interior design, a giant kitchen behind glass. Maybe 50 different ingredients all waiting to be made into gourmet pizza while you wait. There was a crew of highly trained pizza technicians in identical uniforms, ready to leap into action, like a Formula One pit crew. All good!

I met the marketing person, Carrie, and then met the other guests.

Which is when I had the first of several shocks.

First, I discovered that I was in the company of several other bloggers – but I was the only one who was NOT a food blogger.

I mention this because, while I enjoy experimenting with recipes at home, my audience is my kids and my husband, who don’t have the most demanding of culinary needs. But food bloggers are critics with the passion of religious extremists. I love food, but for these guys, food is their WHOLE life.

I was waaaaay out of my depth in this company. The foodies were Conor, Lori, Carven and Devan.

Second shock of the evening – I was ridiculously over dressed for the occasion. When I was getting ready to go out, I must have sub-consciously thought I was going to a fashion event. So, instead of looking street-chic smart-casual, I looked like I had gotten lost on the way to a cocktail party in an expensive bar. Damn!

So there I was, in a pizza bar – a really new, shiny one, but a pizza bar nonetheless, with hungry food bloggers who were wearing jeans and sneakers, and I was in high heels and too much make-up. So I had even less credibility now. Great.

The bloggers sat down, and Peter the Head Chef explained to us all the cool things about the way “Crust” do pizza.

As he made the pizzas, including the dough, he explained how they have to put the toppings on in an exact certain way to stop the pizzas messing up the ovens, how the topping (if there are more than three) have to go on in a certain pattern to stop them mushing up, how the cheese has to be tactically deployed for structural stability, how they have gluten free pizzas, and how they have several pizzas so healthy that they have the National Heart Foundation “tick of approval”. They even have square pizzas, and deep dish pizzas. Very interesting!

And then my third shock of the evening came.

Peter divided the bloggers into teams of two, and each team was going to have to invent a pizza (including naming it) and then one of the team members would actually make the pizza – in the fully operating pizza bar! Right here. Right NOW!

Bah. I just wanted to EAT pizza. I cook at home everyday. I go out so I can get SOMEONE ELSE TO COOK FOR ME!

I was paired with Devan. There were 3 other bloggers in the room, all of whom were experts in food and cooking, and none of whom were wearing high heels. So poor guy, just his luck, he got me as his buddy.

We got to work, with 10 minutes to brainstorm our concept for a unique pizza.

We both love Thai food – and Devan is half Thai – so we decide to capture the essence of Thai culinary culture on a single pizza. But we wanted to put a creative spin on it, and instead of going with stereotypical Thai foods (like tom yum and pad thai), we went more for street Thai flavours. And so we called the pizza “The Streets of Bangkok”. I loved the name!

Behold the amazing creative chemistry between Devan and I. Poor guy!

So despite the awesome pizza name, it all went down hill after that.

Devan “suggested” that I be the chef. And I agreed.

But inside I was thinking OMG what have I got myself into! I am SO NOT dressed to make pizza! I can’t cook with a TIME LIMIT, in an industrial kitchen, in full view of the PUBLIC!! CRAP!

I put on a brave face and off we went, assembling our competing pizzas as best we could.

As we worked, I kept looking over at the other blogger’s pizzas, and they looked great.

The foodies seemed completely un-intimidated by the hovering presence of Head Chef Peter. But I just kept thinking that my shoes alone contravened a million health and safety rules, and I kept flicking my big hair around my head to try and keep it out of the pizza. I could have taken out someone’s eye with it. Head Chef Peter must have thought I was such a ditz.

Do these gloves go with my outfit?

I did my best, but “The Streets of Bangkok” looked more like “Little Lumps of Dog Poo in the Streets of Bangkok, with Vegetable Scraps Thrown on Top”.

Apparently I was being too stingy with the cheese.

Peter tried to help me with some advice, but I still wasn’t getting it right, so then he just sort of (politely) pushed me out of the way, and did it himself. I don’t blame him. I was not worthy of his kitchen.

Fortunately, the time came for the three pizza creations to go into the oven.

When they came out, this one was judged by the pizza bar staff to be the best.

A visual delight, with subtle hints of seafood, and named “Paella”. Just what you would expect food bloggers to come up with. To my great relief, nobody mentioned “The Streets of Bangkok” ever again, and Devan and I avoided eye contact for the rest of the evening. (Only kidding!)

With the winner chosen, we were finally treated to an orgy of pizzas made by the staff at Crust. And it was sooooooo goooooood! Happy Karen! (and I even had coffee with the food bloggers later, and they were all really nice people.)

I won’t need to eat again this month.

My review of the pizza? I liked it a lot. Good value for first rate gourmet pizza.

Crust is on 502 Hay Street in Subiaco, just down from the Regal theatre, towards the train station.

My dad is in the habit of shopping in fresh fruit and vegetable markets, and he loves bargains. When things are cheap, he buys LOTS, like boxes of the stuff – for everyone in his whole family.

I came home to find a huge box of strawberries on the doorstep. As I was washing them, I realised they had already passed their best moment, and that they had to be eaten TODAY!

And so it was Muffin-Making Time!

Strawberry and Lemon Muffins Recipe

2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup of castor sugar
2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind
1 1/2 cup of diced strawberries
60g melted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup of milk

Makes about 8-10 muffins.

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.
2. Mix in lemon rind, sugar then egg, butter and milk.
3. Then stir in berries.
4. Spoon mixture into greased muffin pans.
5. Bake in 180C oven for 25 minutes until golden.
6. Drizzle with lemon icing glaze on muffins while hot.

Lemon icing glaze
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
icing sugar

Notes: Perhaps I went overboard with the strawberries, and maybe just 1 cup was enough. But I love my muffins packed with fresh fruit!

A few months ago, I was very inspired by a friend of mine to try to be more “vegetarian”.

My reasons – for my long term health, for environmental sustainability, and hopefully to look and feel better (skin, body, and energy).

So twice a week I’ve been cooking vegetarian meals.

I made this curry in 20 minutes, using stuff I already had in the pantry and fridge. And omg it was so yummy, we practically licked our plates and pots clean.

Spinach and Chickpea Curry

Half an onion, chopped finely
2 tablespoons of oil
¼ cup of bottled curry paste
300mL of water
400g can of chickpeas, drained
1 cup of red lentils
400g can of whole tomatoes, juice drained1 big handful of fresh spinach chopped, or a 40g portion of (defrosted) chopped frozen spinach
basmati rice
natural yoghurt to garnish

1. Heat oil in a pan, on slow medium heat cook onions for 5-7 minutes, until very soft and golden.

2. While doing that, boil some water in another pot, and boil lentils for 10 minutes and drain.

3. Stir in curry paste ad cook for 3 minutes.

4. Add drained chickpeas, drained lentils, drained tomatoes and give it a good stir. I like to break up the whole tomatoes too. Add about 300mL of water. Turn up to medium-high heat. Cook for about 10 minutes.

5. Add chopped spinach. Stir for 1 minute.

6. Turn off heat, and serve hot with basmati rice, yoghurt and bright green vegetables.

Notes –

For the curry paste, I used Pataks , which you can buy at any supermarket.

I used tikka masala flavour this time, but you can use ANY BRAND and ANY TYPE of curry paste for this recipe. I like to use balti or rogan josh curry pastes too.

My 1 year old and I hung out in the garden.

Him, munching on his morning snack while kicking a ball.

Me, harvesting a bowl full of lettuce and skipping with glee.

I’ve been crazy over pumpkin lately.  I can’t seem to get enough of it. I love it on pizza, made into soup and dips, and especially roasted and tossed in salad.

This is my favourite dressing for Roasted Pumpkin Salad -

Honey and Balsamic dressing
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Whisk until well combined, then drizzle on salad :)

Despite trying to come across all super healthy and all that, I confess that I have a weakness for weird Chinese food.

And last week, I decided that since it was my birthday, I was going to eat some of my favourite foods – chicken feet with chilli oil.

Yes! The feet of chicken! It’s delicious!

(I try not to think about it too much.)

I made Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Muffins for the kids on the weekend!

One of my favourite things in the world is CHEESE.

I could sit down with a platter of grapes, figs, nuts, crackers and A HUNDRED DIFFERENT VARIETY OF CHEESES FROM AROUND THE WORLD – and I would be in heaven.

My favourite of the lot is blue vein cheese. I can eat it by the truck load.

In fact, I will start eating blue cheese with crackers, then I’ll toss the crackers and eat the cheese on its own – so not to fill my stomach with crackers, but with CHEESE. What are the side effects of eating too much Penicillium culture? I know not. Nor do I care.

However, having said that, there is a part of my brain that I have to shut down.

Yes I know it looks absolutely disgusting.

Yes I know it is mould and is furry.

Yes I know it is the same stuff that grows on rotten lemons.

I’ve found it best to just not think about it for too long.

The other day I was in the garden, feeling a little generous. I decided to share my precious block of Bleu with my 7 year old son. I knew he wouldn’t like it if I told him what it was.

“What’s that speckled greenish thing?”

“Um it’s a kind of chopped up plant, with a kind of salty peppery flavour. It’s actually quite…

“Mum. It’s totally rotten. You shouldn’t be eating that. It’s all through the cheese! Are you crazy? You’re gonna die! Stop STOP NOOOOOO!”

He flung my plate of cheese onto the floor and it all landed with a KA-SPLAT in the dirt.

I was so mad at him.

But as I was picking up my sticky bits of cheese, my son leaned over and said apologetically, “I’m really sorry about that mum. I didn’t know that you were serious. But since you like eating rotten stuff, maybe it’ll taste even better mixed with the sand and ants?”

Last week, my husband and I checked out a rather posh restaurant in Perth, called 1907. We enjoyed an expensive meal, a glass of wine, a tranquil ambience, and a whole fine dining experience. It was classy, sophisticated, heaps of fun and just a great night out for the both of us.

But this week we decided on something a bit more – CHEAP AND CHEERFUL.

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Hoa. It has been a favourite eating place of mine for many years. Basically it’s loud and very, very busy.

The plates are plastic. The plants are plastic. The decor is atrocious. The wait staff are rude and hardly speak any English. The menus are dog-eared and covered in a sticky grease. In fact, everything feels like it is covered in a sticky grease.

However, the food is really good and it arrives fresh and piping hot in minutes.

There’s a lot to be said for excellent and unfussy dining. I’m no snob. I love it.

Viet Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant
349 William St
Northbridge 6003
P: 9328 2127

As my life gets busier and busier with my three children, I have accepted that I can’t do EVERYTHING. It’s a big step for me, but hey, it’s reality, and I have to stay SANE right?

I used to spend DAYS AND NIGHTS, making a birthday cake, agonising over design and details, baking immaculate treats and stressing over the presentation of the catering. The results were amazing, but OH the stress!

So a few weeks ago, we were having a family celebration, I decided to test out a friend’s new cupcake business based in Perth – Heaven in a Bite.

Yes, the website is a bit clunky, but dear god, her cupcakes are amazing.

She said she had spent months and months researching and perfecting her recipes. She came over with boxes full of cupcake samples (to the delight of my children and I) and talked about consistency, moisture and texture, and I was like – babe, it’s got chocolate nutella centres, that’s all I really care about.

She and her team specialise in daily cupcakes – for entertaining, parties, casual afternoon tea parties etc. They have an amazing range of flavours like latte, strawberry cheesecake, carrot orange, chocolate mint, choc hazelnut, jaffa, pina colada and red velvet cupcakes.

My favourites were latte, chocolate hazelnut and red velvet – they were to die for!

They also cater for special occasions, like birthdays and baby showers.

So if you’re in Perth, a busy mum like me, $3 per gourmet cupcake to share with friends, is an EXCEPTIONAL STEP TOWARDS SANITY!

I’ve been told that I don’t have very “typical eating hours”.

I’m not sure what the TYPICAL HOURS are – perhaps something that fits in with the 9 to 5 working hours?

Anyway, pictured above is my after-lunch snack: Spinach, feta, tomatoes, sprouts and wholegrain mustard dressing.

My Eating Hours:

I have breakfast at 6am.

I have morning tea at 9am.

I have lunch at 11am.

I have an after-lunch snack at 1pm.

I eat dinner at 5pm.

I have another snack at 9pm.

I made chocolate waffles (with choc chips!) for my family last weekend.

When the last set of waffles were made, I threw them onto the table, and my children descended upon them like hungry sharks.

I retired to my favourite window with a cup of tea and had the most lovely 6 minutes of morning bliss.

To make chocolate waffles, I just added 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to my Basic Waffle Recipe.

Ok here’s something I don’t tell many people.

I am an utter salad lover.

Like, really. I’m a total salad nut.

I have a secret love affair with spinach and avocado.

Add some tomatoes, a handful of seeds, a squeeze of lemon juice, pepper, and I’m in heaven.

People look at me eating salad and sneer “eat some real food”… but I don’t care.

Nothing gets me more excited than… sprouts.

With feta. And sundried tomatoes, chorizo, snow peas, bocconcini, mango, red onions, coriander and parmesan. Not all at once, but you get my drift.

Many months ago, I went to a café and I ate a pear, walnut and maple muffin – which turned out to be the most amazing muffin I had ever tasted. It was so good that I felt, in that moment, that if I died right then, my life would still have been complete.

So of course, I went home and googled for a similar muffin recipe.

I managed to find and test 2 recipes – but they just weren’t great. I have since tried 4 more times, changing the recipes slightly, in order to perfect the PERFECT Pear, Walnut and Maple Muffin.

The different thing about this recipe below is, it uses maple syrup instead of sugar. I did try different variations, half maple, half brown sugar. I even tried with an extra egg, less flour, less milk, more butter.

I think I’ve got it right! Hope you enjoy it!

Pear, Walnut and Maple Muffins

1 ½ cups self raising flour

½ teaspoon of baking power

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

60g butter, melted

½ cup of pure maple syrup

1 egg, beaten

½ cup milk

2 small pears, cored and diced

½ cup walnuts, chopped

Method

1. Line a muffin pan with 10 paper cases.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Add maple syrup, butter, egg and milk, and stir until just combined.

3. Mix pear and walnuts into the mixture.

4. Spoon into prepared pans and bake in a moderate oven 180C for 25 minutes or until cooked when tested.

(Pure maple syrup is a bit expensive, but it really does taste amazing!)

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that mixes meats, fish, beans, rice and all sorts of other things. But best of all, it all cooks in ONE PAN.

It’s also a lot like risotto, but you just don’t have to stir it as much – so it’s really easy. It is one of my favourite dishes to make, and my family love it!

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into thick strips (I used salmon instead)
1 onion, chopped
1 1/3 cups of short grain rice (uncooked)
3 tomatoes, chopped
pinch of saffron
400g can of chickpeas
150g green beans
1 red capsicum, sliced
750ml chicken stock
500g of prawns, peeled
2 tablespoons of parsley
1 lemon wedges (very important!)
Optional – 8 mussels, 1 calamari, cut into rings.

1. Heat oil in a large, deep fry pan, add chicken or salmon. Cook until just browned, remove and drain

2. Add onion to the pan and cook until soft and golden. Add rice, tomatoes, saffron. Stir for 1 minute on a medium heat.

3. If using chicken, put it into the pan. Stir in chickpeas, green beans, capsicum and stock. Cook for 15 minutes uncovered. Don’t stir!

4. Stir in salmon, prawns, and other seafood. Leave it to cook uncovered for 10 minutes, or until the rice and seafood is cooked. I like to leave it for a bit longer to get the base crisp and caramelised. Don’t stir!

5. Serve up, Sprinkle with parsley, squeeze lemon on top.

Note: One time, I ran out of saffron, and I used ½ teaspoon of turmeric instead. Then I thought, what the heck, and also added ½ teaspoon of cumin, and a pinch of cinnamon and paprika. Not very authentic, but damn it tasted good.

(This recipe is based on a recipe published by the Heart Foundation Australia)