Hot Chilli Crab

Ingredients

• 1 whole crab (large)
• Tomato paste
• 2 x Onions finely chopped
• I x clove garlic
• Fresh ginger
• 2 x hot chillis chopped (seeds left in)
• 1 x generous tablespoon of quality olive oil.

Preparation

• Clean and cook crab in boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Using meat cleaver divide crab into 4 sections. Break claws with mallet or nut cracker etc.
• (but leave claws attached to body!!)
• Heat one tablespoon of oil in deep saucepan (the one used to cook crab). Add chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chillis. Stir and heat until onion begins to brown. Add 1 cup of water and simmer.
• Place crab pieces in pot, add tomato paste. Cook for 3-4 minutes with lid on.
• Enjoy with a chilled white wine or a cool beer. Serves one. Simply add 1 extra crab etc for each person. As too for the other items… Adjust the chilli to suit personal taste. Chopped lemon grass can be added as well. Australian Blue swimmer or Mud crab is best.

La Corsair (Chilli Steak with Cashew Nuts)

Ingredients

• 16oz of Diced fillet Steak
• Tomato paste
• Basmati Rice
• 1 Green & 1 Red Pepper
• 1 Onion
• Small bag of Cashew nuts
• I x clove garlic
• Fresh ginger
• 2 x hot chillis chopped (seeds left in)
• 1 x generous tablespoon of quality olive oil

Preparation

• Total cooking time 25mins
• Diced 1 green & 1 red pepper
• Finely chop 1 Onion, Garlic, Hot Chillis
• Clean and cook rice in boiling water for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool
• Heat one tablespoon of oil in deep fryingpan Add chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chillies. Stir and heat until onion begins to brown.
• Cook steak, 1 green peppers, 1 red peppers in fryingpan until brown
• Add tomato paste and 1/4 of a cup of water mix all ingredients and simmer for a further 10mins
• Place rice on plate and a empty some of the chilli steak over the top.
• Garnish with cashew nuts
• Enjoy with a chilled white wine or a cool beer or juice with your meal

Marinated Salmon Steaks

Ingredients

• 6 Salmon steaks, 1-inch thick
• 1/2 cup Orange Juice
• 1/2 cup Soy Sauce
• 3 tbsp Parsley, minced
• 3 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 1 1/2 cup Garlic, crushed
• 3/4 tsp Basil, crushed

Preparation

• Thaw fish if frozen.
• Place fish in shallow baking dish.
• Combine orange juice, soy sauce, parsley, oil, garlic and basil.
• Pour over fish.
• Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, turning steaks occasionally.
• Drain, reserve marinade.
• Place fish in a well greased wire grill basket or cook directly on grill.
• Grill over medium coals about 8-minutes or untill fish is light brown.
• Baste with marinade, then turn and grill an additional 8-10-minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
• Reheat remaining marinade to boiling.
• Transfer fish to serving platter and drizzle with marinade

Honey Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonaise
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp cider vinegar
• 6 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp french mustard
• 2 tbsp soy sauce

Preparation

• In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together.

Granny's Pavlova (which Derv enjoys)

Ingredients

• 6 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of water
• I cup caster sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 pint whipping cream
• Raspberries and/or strawberries
• A glass or two of wine

Preparation

• Put some baking parchment on a baking tray (if you don't have any grease the tray with butter but parchment is much more convenient).
• Turn your oven to 150C.
• Add the egg whites, water and lemon juice to a big mixing bowl.
• Use a hand beater (though I've managed this with a whisk - very tiring) or a food processor and beat the mixture.
• After a few seconds it'll become frothy, and you can start pouring in the granulated sugar, in a trickle - too fast and it'll just sit at the bottom of the bowl. Keep beating and trickling in sugar and then add the caster sugar in the same way (the granulated builds the body of the pav, the caster builds the mousse).
• Once you've added all the sugar you should have a big shiny white mound of sticky goodness. Lift the beaters and if the mixture doesn't fall off it's ready other wise keep beating. If, after 10 mins of beating it's still runny, you either had yolk in your eggs or a dirty mixing bowl – either way you're best off chucking it all away and starting again (so far it's a pretty cheap pudding...) Essentially you want it to more or less hold onto the beaters/a fork, of course it will fall off - you want it to gloop rather than pour.
• Make a steep heap of pavlova mixture on the baking parchment. If it looks smooth run a fork over it to make ripples in the texture (these will become crunch later - so the more the merrier). Put the mixing bowl and beaters straight into water even if you don't plan on washing up straight away - it gets very sticky.
• Bung it in the oven at 150c for about 30 mins and then turn the temperature down to 75c for another 45 mins.
• Every oven varies but Pavlova is quite forgiving. You won't get perfect pav until you've cooked it 3 times in any given oven. Essentially cook it
• at 150ish until it's pretty crunchy on the outside but turn it down if it starts going golden. Pav should be fairly white. Once the outside shell is nice and crispy turn it down.
• Once it's done take it out and let it cool. It will fall a bit but you should still have a healthy 2-3 inches of white fluffiness in the middle.
• (If you're not using the oven any more turn it off and leave the pav in the oven to cool - it won't fall quite so much - but this isn't crucial. However a new twist is to make the pav just before going to bed, and leaving it in over night. You get a good level of fluffiness and a crisper shell.)
• Whip the cream (adding a dash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of caster sugar make a great difference here) until it has peaks but before it turns really stiff.
• Once the pav is cool (otherwise the cream will melt and go everywhere) turn it upside down onto the plate you intend to serve it on. This takes guts and preferably two people. It's best done quickly and the person holding the baking tray should try not to squash the pav in the process.
• Gently peel off the parchment (this is where a greased tray isn't as good) remembering to try some of the crunchy bit to make sure it isn't poisoned.
• Slather the cream over the top with a spatula.
• Arrange the raspberries / strawberries in a pattern appealing to you in the cream. I do concentric circles or raspberries with strawberries in the middle, a friend of mine likes a pile of sliced strawberries dusted with icing sugar.
• Keep in a cool place and serve to a delighted party. A pav will serve 6-8 people depending on how hungry they are.
• Keep any leftovers in the fridge and eat for breakfast - yum.