Catherine's version of Polenta

This was really quick and easy to make and tasted really nice. I used chicken stock instead of water to cook the polenta which gave it extra flavour. I made the capsicum version and added mint, corriander and rocket. I'd probably use more corriander next time, but the mint gave it a nice flavour. My polenta wasn't very set (not sure whether it should have been) but it kept the texture nice and moist. Actually it set after it cooled a bit so it might be tidier to serve it sliced after 10 minutes or so of resting. The other option would be to put it in a larger dish - I used a 25cm one but it would spread thinner (and be less at risk of overflow) in a larger dish.

Harvest polenta bake with rocket, capsicums and feta

I've never had much luck with baked polenta but this one looks great in the picture and is from my favourite recipe book...

4 cups water
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 cup of quick-cooking polenta
140g rocket, spinach or silverbeet, finely chopped
2 tbsp pesto
1/4 cup chopped coriander or mint
150g feta crumbled
2 large capsicums, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic crushed

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Place water in a medium saucepan with zest, salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Add polenta in a low stream, stirring until fully absorbed. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in rocket or other chopped greens, pesto, coriander or mint and half the feta.

Grease a 25cm shallow banking dish with a little butter or oil and spoon polenta mixture into the dish. Heat oil and cook capsicums and garlic over a medium heat 2-3 minutes until softened. Spoon over polenta and top with remaining feta. Bake 20 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Variations:
- Corn, mint and feta polenta. Prepare polenta as above, stirring in 2 cups of corn kernels and 1/2 cup of chopped mint in place of the rocket, pesto and herbs.
- Mushroom and blue cheese polenta. Prepare polenta as above, using 500g cooked mushrooms and 150g crumbled blue cheese in place of rocket, pesto herbs and feta. Slice the 500g mushrooms and fry in butter with a little garlic until browned and no longer juicy. Stir into polenta with half the cheese and scatter the other half on top with some chopped walnuts.

Serves 4, from Annabel Langbein eat fresh

Anna's version of Dukkah Eggplant

I had some left over dukkah from Christmas (Sesame seeds, hazelnuts, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper) so I used that instead of the one that came with the recipe. As I cooked the eggplant I put it in the oven on a low temperature to keep warm and then dipped it in the dukkah at the end. This worked well as the pieces that had just come out of the frying pan didn't seem to hold the dukkah particularly well, but the other pieces did. I also used mostly vine ripened tomatoes and not Roma tomatoes, but I think that I liked the acidity of it, so would be unlikely to try it with all Roma tomatoes only. We had this as a warm dish for dinner and it was very enjoyable. I also took the leftovers to work the next day and had it cold which was also very nice.

Sarah's Version of Pasta and Stir Fry

I liked both of these dishes a lot.

I made the pasta dish last week when Anna was at my place.  It was very easy and really quite tasty.  The parsley cheese mix was really yummy on top and I think if you wanted to use the pasta sauce on it's own then you would need more acidity in the sauce.  

The lemony stir fry was quite different to most of the stir fry dishes I normally make.  I used a combo of broccoli, spinach and celery for the greens and added oyster mushrooms as we didn't have any baby corn, Matt had some steak and chinese sausages and noodles in his version.

Dukkah Eggplant With Roasted Tomato & Chickpea Salad

dukkah

1 Tbs coriander seeds
1 Tbs cumin seeds
2 Tbs Fennel seeds
4 Tbs sesame seeds
40 g Hazelnuts
40 g Macadamia Nuts
40 g Pine Nuts
sea salt

dukkah eggplant

2 medium eggplants (sliced in 1/2cm rounds)
2 tsp crushed garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
dukkah spice

roasted chickpea & tomato salad

8 Roma Tomatoes, cut into quarters
2 medium red onions, cut into 8ths
2 cloves Chopped garlic
2 desertspoons white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs olive oil
400 g chickpeas
1 cup freshly chopped coriander
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar

dressing

1/2 cup yoghurt
2 Tbs soft goats cheese
1 squeeze lemon juice

Dukkah

1 Roast all spices & sesame seeds separately in a heavy based pan.
2 Roast nuts all together on a tray in the oven.
3 Crush altogether in Mortar & pestle and add salt to taste

dukkah eggplant

1 Slice eggplants thin and brush lightly with garlic & oil.
2 Fry on hot pan or grill until brown & just cooked
3 Remove from pan and whilst still warm coat each side of eggplant with dukkah spice
4 Reheat in oven or on hot plate when ready to serve.

roasted chickpea & tomato salad

1 Cut tomatoes, onions & garlic and place on baking tray.
2 Sprinkle sugar, salt, balsamic & oil over and bake in slow 140 deg oven 1.5 hours.
3 Remove from oven and toss through fresh coriander & canned chickpeas.

dressing

1 Mix together all ingredients.

to serve

1 Cover base of platter or plate with spiced eggplant slices and top with warm salad & drizzle with dressing


Servings: 4
From The Best in Australia on Food TV

Anna's version on chinese inspired lemony veegetables

I enjoyed this, but it needed some chicken for my liking. I used Bok Choy, Broccili, Broccolini, and asparagus. It was easy to make, the only thing that took a while was the chopping of the lemongrass.

Anna's version of Roasted Tomato and Chilli Pasta

I really liked this. Had Sarah's version for dinner on Tuesday and cooked it tonight myself. I found some New Zealand low acid tomatoes (closest to Roma that I could get), I could only find green chilli's so used one of these. I also decided to try it with some meat, so cooked 4 small pork and fennel sausages and cooked them then chopped them into the pasta sauce when it was heating. Would probably just stick to the tomato version next time, while the sausages were OK they didn't really add much to it.