Lamb Fillet

Serves 2

200g (one fillet) lamb fillet

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

1 small tub low fat yoghurt

1 x 400g can chick peas, drained

1/2 red onion, sliced finely

2 tomatoes (or 10-15 cherry tomatoes), chopped into cubes

1/2 large cucumber, chopped into cubes

1 lemon

1 clove garlic

handful fresh mint

Mix the coriander and cumin with half of the yoghurt and rub into the meat. Leave to marinate for 1 hour and go for a walk or a swim!

To make the salad combine the chick peas, onion, tomato and cucumber. It is good to chop all of these ingredients around the same size or a little larger than the chick peas (except the onion which should be sliced finely). Squeeze a lemon over the top of the salad and rip the mint up into it. Season and toss to combine.

Crush the garlic clove into the yoghurt, add a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of cumin for flavour.

Take the fillet and cook on a very hot grill pan (you can use the flat or the grill side, but the pan must be really hot. you don't want it to stew). Cook for around 3-4 minutes each side.

Take the meat off and let it rest for 5 minutes. Slice the meat and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and some salad. The meat should be tender and pink in the centre.

Grublover comment

This is such an easy, cheap, low-fat and delicious meal. Winner all round. Last night I got home, raced to the butcher and bought the lamb for just $12 and then whipped this up using things in the cupboard. It tasted delicious. Make sure you have a nice hot grill pan to cook it on, and the bbq would be even better.

mmmm bacon

Haslett’s Banana Bread

4 oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
8 oz SR flour
3 overripe bananas, mashed (the blacker, the better)
vanilla essence
3 eggs
approx 8 Tb milk
Optional: sultanas, apple, walnut, lemon

Cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs, banana, flour.

Add milk to right consistency - wet, but not runny.

Add goodies - sultanas, apple, walnut, squeeze lemon.

Bake 180 degrees for 40 minutes.

Lamont’s Wine Store Cottesloe

Monday to Saturday 11am to midnight and Sunday 11am till 10pm

12 Station Street, Cottesloe

Telephone 08 9385 0666

My love affair with Amano cooking school, run by the delightful Bev Sprague, was ended about six months ago when it was announced that Bev was shutting up shop, and Kate Lamont would be opening a new wine store, taking advantage of the small liquor licenses so furiously fought for in Perth.

The concept is really clever - you can use Lamont’s Cottesloe as a wine store -simply to pick up a bottle and enjoy at home - or as a bar to enjoy a quiet drink, or as a restaurant to sample some of the delights from their tapas menu.

Last night we visited to dine and had a great experience. The space itself is quite small, and you sit pretty close to your fellow diners, however they have done a great job with the fit out so the acoustics are really good and there is no issue with noise.

Mum started with a sherry, and the rest of us a bottle of Pinot Noir from Pemberton, the Picardy 2006. I really enjoyed the pinot. Uniquely, as it is a wine store you are not limited to the wine list, but can choose any wine in the store. My only criticism was that the waitress didn’t know much about the wines (and at this sort of place that should be the first thing they learn). One of the other waitresses also commented that she “does not eat that stuff” when I asked her about the tuna cerviche…

We noticed some crystals in the glass on pouring the pinot, and the owner sat with us and explained how the crystals are formed, and often if you shine a torch into a barrel it will be like a jewelled cave.

We ordered a variety of tapas:

french onion soup with gruyere toasts (8.50)
wagyu beef and mushroom pie (14.50)
fried marron, pepper and garlic dust (15.50)
tuna cerviche with creme fraiche (14.50)
confit duck salad, mandarin oil (11.50)
The food was fresh, simple and absolutely delicious. The open kitchen set up is great because it is really nice to watch the chef prepare the dishes (most of which are pre-cooked, and simply plated and dressed at the counter). Dad of course complained that they are charging main course prices for entree sized food but that is the nature of tapas.

Dessert was macaroons, pan forte and cappucinos.

A great experience. Well worth trying.

Easy peasy spaghetti wtih lemon, chilli, garlic and rocket

Serves 4

750g fresh spaghetti, linguini or fettucini
3-4 Tb olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 Tb baby capers
1.5 tsp dried chilli flakes or 3 fresh red chillies, seeded and sliced (alter to taste)
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
3 Tb lemon juice
3-4 cups roughly torn rocket leaves (or basil)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
cracked black pepper

Cook spaghetti in a saucepan of rapidly boiling water until it is al dente.
While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large pan over high heat. Add the garlic and capers and saute for 1 minute.
Add chillies, lemon rind and juice and cook for another minute.
Drain pasta and add it to the pan with rocket and parmesan. Toss to combine and serve with a generous sprinkling of black peppper and a glass of wine.

Grublovers comment
Danny and I make this all the time. Whenever we don’t know what to make and we don’t want to go shopping, this is the answer. You can tailor it to your ingredients on hand - substitute spinach for the rocket, add anchovies, capers, olives. You can also add some spicy sausage e.g. chorizo, if you feel like some meat. Use your imagination and come up with any fantastic dish. As long as you have that basic oil, chilli and garlic combination it will be a winner.
I like to use a full flavoured olive oil - like Jingili of Western Australia.

Graduation chocolate rasberry dessert cake

Serves 8-10

185g (6 oz) butter
185g (6 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups caster sugar
1 cup plain flour
2/3 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 cup rasberries

Place butter and chocolate in a saucepan over low heat and stir until melted, then cool slightly.
Place eggs, vanilla extract and sugar in a bowl and beat until mixture is light and thick. Fold through flours, almond meal, chocolate mixture and half the rasberries.
Pour mixture in a 20cm (8 inch) round cake tin lined with baking paper. Sprinkle over remaining rasberries.
Cook for 180 degrees (350 F) oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until top of cake is firm to touch. Cool cake before cutting, and serve with strong espresso, extra rasberries and thick cream.

Grublover comment
The rasberries give a delicious moistness and flavour to chocolate cakes. Divinely decadent. One of the girls made it on our graduation vacation and I had to have the recipe.

Cutting dried chillies

Dried chillies are often leathery and can be difficult to cut with a knife. A pair of scissors does the job with ease. To begin, snip off and discard the stem. Beginning at the stem end, cut chile lengthwise in half. Use your fingers to brush out seeds from inside chile halves. Cut seeded halves into thin stripes that can be toasted, stir-fried, or added to sauces and salsas.

In fact, I find my kitchen scissors really handy and use them to cut many things from herbs, to pizza. Try them out.

The Best Lemon Butter

4 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
100 grams butter or marg
juice of 3 lemons
rind of 2 lemons



Beat eggs with sugar and put in a saucepan with butter and lemon juice.

Stir over low heat until the mixture is the consistency of honey , add the lemon rind.

Store in jars in the fridge.

Grublover comment
I have always been a big big fan of lemon butter. It is similar to the tart curd you find in lemon meringue pie. It is a really great way to get rid of the 1000s of lemons popping up on trees all over perth. I love it spreaded thickly on a piece of toast. It is also delicious and very handy to spread on tarts, or as a filling for cakes, or serve with a meringue and some cream..Yum!

Birthday Salad

Handful of cos lettuce
Handful of roquette
One pear sliced
Crumbled/cubed blue cheese
Caramelised pecans (put a dessert spoon of sugar and a cup of pecans in a dry saucepan – when sugar starts to melt give the pecans a toss – leave for about a minute on the heat and then allow to cool)
Avocado
Your favourite version of a classic French dressing

Jill would add smoked chicken (shredded) if this was a meal rather than a side salad. Smoked chickens can be bought from any good supermarket. They are usually in an airtight packet and the meat can just be cut off the bone).

The salad is pretty versatile – you could add spinach or basil or cucumber as well if you like however I like to keep it looking very green (no carrot, tomatoes or red capsicum).

Grublover comment
Jessica made me this delicious salad for my birthday yesterday. The caramelised pecans are a winner - so sweet, going perfectly with the bite of the blue cheese. Yum!

How to make a French dressing…by Jess Anderson

wholegrain mustard (or Dijon)
sugar
garlic
balsamic vinegar (can be replaced by lemon juice, red wine vinegar or white wine vinegar)
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
finely chopped spring onions (optional)

Sometimes I add two types of vinegar or two types of mustard.

There are 2 main things to remember:

1. Always put the oil in last. The sugar needs to dissolve in the vinegar, and the garlic needs to loosen up a bit in the acid. Pour the oil in while whisking with a fork and this will make it more like a dressing/sauce (a bit like how you make mayonnaise).

2. Always taste it before you put it over the salad otherwise you could be kicking yourself.