Sylvia’s Crayfish Prawn Sandwich with a Difference

Sylvia's Crayfish Prawn Sandwich
Festive food left-overs anyone? I have come to the rescue. This is not a recipe but an idea turned into a simply delicious mouth-watering mid-festive season meal, snack, appetiser, canapé, hors d'oeuvre or whatever because you are tired and can't be bothered to cook! Well, that's completely understandable after Christmas Day. Here is something that [...]

Sylvia’s Strawberries Balsamic Mascarpone Almonds

Sylvia's Strawberries Balsamic Mascarpone Almonds
Strawberries - their bouquet and flavour are just gorgeous! When I was Head Chef at Ruby’s Café in Adelaide we received regular deliveries of beautifully fresh ripe red strawberries and raspberries grown at Springton and Norton Summit in the Adelaide Hills. Simplicity is the key when preparing a dish of fresh berries and our desserts [...]

Sylvia’s Feather Light Scones

Sylvia's Feather Scones
I reminisce. It’s been a while since I baked a batch of scones. Previous to that, as a child, I used to bake them with my beloved grandmother. Our dear neighbour Kathleen baked the loveliest and lightest of scones, which she brought to us fresh from the oven kept warm wrapped in colourful cloth. We’d [...]

French Fig and Fromage Canapé

Sylvia's French Fig and Fromage Canape
Figs are fabulous. I just love them! So when they happen to come into my possession my culinary passion runs away with me. It is a pity I don't have room in the garden for a variety of these trees but I am grateful to our various farming friends who grace me with a basket [...]

Sylvia’s Butter Beans, Tomato, Basil and Seafood

Sylvia's Butter Beans Tomato Basil Fish S
Taking one simple recipe and adding another culinary dimension to it transforms it into a completely different dish. Here I have taken my Butter Beans with Basil and Tomato recipe, and as mentioned in the preamble of that post, added grilled or pan-fried seafood. In this case (above) Pink Ling coated in a parmesan and [...]

Sylvia’s Butter Beans with Tomato and Basil

Sylvia's Butter Beans with Tomato Basil
This is a simply delicious and deliciously simple seasonal dish. Prepare as part of a vegetarian meal with accompanying salad or as a side dish or sauce for grilled or pan-fried seafood, fish or chicken, as pictured below. (Click on the dish below to get to another recipe :) ). The flavourful Tigerella tomatoes I [...]

Sylvia’s Cherry Clafoutis

Sylvia's Cherry Clafoutis
Clafoutis (pron. Kla-fou-ti) is one of my favourite classic French desserts when cherries are ripe and ready for the picking. No cherries? No worries. Not only can you enjoy this simple sweet pleasure with cherries, I have baked Clafoutis using my honeyed method below in a variety of ways with blueberries, blackberries, diced apple, black [...]

Sylvia’s Pan-fried Hot Smoked Salmon

Pan fried Hot Smoked Salmon
This delicious dish was intuitively created early one evening in our cabin with water views whilst on a mini-break in Strahan a number of years ago. Travelling through Tasmania's south-west region we stopped along the way to purchase most of the fresh produce at road side stalls. The hot smoked salmon we bought that day. [...]

Zucchini Tips and Advice

Zucchini Young with Flowers
Zucchini Tips on growing, harvesting and storing We all tend to grow too many zucchini, or courgettes as they are known in Europe, and tomatoes for summer, don't we? Nevertheless, there will be someone in your circle of friends or neighbourhood who forgot to plant them and this is the inspiration to share. I grow [...]

Sylvia’s Zucchini & Basil Frittata

Sylvia's Zucchini Frittata
Zucchini heralds the coming of Summer with brilliant bright deep-yellow flowers a magnet for bees who just love spending time in the early morning gathering their pollen and nectar for the hive. I love watching them! :) But back to the kitchen! Here is my delicious Summer Zucchini and Basil Frittata in all its golden [...]