Salmon Fillets with Kipfler Potatoes. serves 4.
Gather:
Salmon fillets, one per person. 500g kipfler potatoes washed.
1 cup basil leaves 1 clove garlic 1 tbspn pine nuts toasted
1 tbspn shaved parmesan cheese ¼ cup olive oil. 1/2cup mayo
Bunch of cress or rocket or mixed herbs and spinach leaves.
Method:
Boil steam or microwave potatoes whole until firm but almost cooked. Leave to dryout. Halve lengthwise with skins left on.
Blend basil garlic nuts cheese and oil until chunky.
Coat the salmon with 2 tbspns of the pesto mixture. Cover and put in fridge. Combine remaining pesto mix and mayo in a small bowl press plastic over it. Cook Salmon and potatoes on hot greased BBQ uncovered, about 5 minutes max. Serve up on a big mash or a mound of aromatic rice. Fried rice anybody
Summer Salad of Squid, Avocado and Cress.
1 kg squid hoods.
Tspn ground cumin 2 tbspns freshly chopped dill 2 tbspns lemon juice 2 tbspns BBQ sauce.
¼ cup sweet chilli sauce ¼ cup peanut oil 1 finely grated lemon skin 2 cloves garlic crushed, 2 lebanese cucumbers sliced 1 medium avocado sliced thinly, Salad greens, lettuce or watercress or rocket etc. 1 tbspn water.

Cut the squid in half lengthwise and score the inside surface cut diagonally into small strips. Combine the spices herbs and juices with oil in a screw top bottle and mix.

Combine squid, lemon and garlic in bowl with half spice mix and refrigerate 30 minutes cover. Drain squid, discard marinade cook squid on heated oiled BBQ or in Wok and brown all over. Combine your greens, stir water into remaining spice mix and dress salad. Present squid rolls on salad with dressing over top.

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Cut tomatoes into about 6 pieces and scatter into a baking dish, along with garlic gloves, herbs, salt and pepper and sugar. Pour over olive oil, adding more if needed. Toss until tomatoes are covered with the olive oil and all ingredients are mixed through.
Bake at 180 for about an hour or until the sides of the baking dish are a lovely dark colour from the baked tomato pasta sauce.
Cook pasta according to directions on packet, drain - but save a bit of the water you have cooked the pasta in for the tomato sauce. This gives the sauce a lovely “glossy” look. Return drained pasta to the pot. Remove tomatoes from the oven and pour into saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed, adding the water from the pasta.
You will notice that the garlic cloves completely disappear into the sauce and the pasta is coated inside and out with the sauce.
Serve immediately into bowls sprinkled with parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of chopped basil.
Serves 4.

This recipe is a great base for many other options. You can add a can of tuna and some capers just as you are stirring the sauce through the pasta. Other options are olives, artichokes, marinated capsicums, roasted veges, chicken, prawns, fresh baby spinach, baby rocket, chorizo, pancetta or a good chunk of gorgonzola - all added at the last minute.
A great salad to serve with this is a simple baby rocket and sea salt flakes tossed with olive oil.
Hot crusty bread : ciabatta or a sourdough torn into chunks

Toss the leaves in the orange juice and divide onto four plates. Put 1/2 walnuts garlic salt zest and olive oil into blender and wiz to make a sauce. Core and peel the pears slice thinly and fan them over the green leaves top with goat cheese and gently pour the sauce over the lot. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts.

Pears. Pears have been grown in Australia since the first fleeters planted them along the riverbanks. They are an elegant taste accompaniment to most dishes and simple to prepare and have many ways to appear from baked in red wine to enhancing a savoury salad. Top names in pear stardom are the brown Beurre Bosc, the Packham and the Williams, the little red one is called a corella and Asia contributes the Nashi.

Pears are still wonderful right now so use them to the max. Pears go superbly with cooked hot bacon, any fresh farm cheeses or shaved hard Italian cheese on a bed of any fresh green leaves you like including baby spinach or mixed herbs with other green leaves. Try hot hazlenuts walnuts or pine nuts too in this salad, always roast them dry on a hot pan but watch them carefully before they burn, then toss them over the salad.

All you need to dress them up is a collection of good saucy bottles, preferably with Asian labels. Into small dishes to accompany your Chinese feast, switch different tastes such as a choice of sweet chilli sauce a soy or oyster sauce. Its really worth a visit to China Town at this time of the year.

Recipe. Steamed crispy skin fish with ginger. Chinese style.

Buy platesized whole cleaned fish 300- 500g, scaled and gutted. Make sure they have bright eyes, firm flesh and are very fresh.
( Snapper bream whiting or baby salmon.)
One thumb sized piece of juicy fresh ginger, peeled and grated or chopped into matchsticks.
bunch of coriander or parsley chopped
5 tbspns peanut oil.
3 chopped spring onions.
1 tbspn caster sugar.
2 tbspns Chinese wine or sherry or apple juice.
1 tbspn sesame oil.
4 tbspns soy sauce.
A few cabbage or tough lettuce leaves for lining the steamer .basket. Shredded small chilli without seeds- optional
Method.
Wash and dry the fish and with a sharp knife slash the skin across a few times on both sides in the thickest parts of the fish.
Fill the bottom of the steamer or saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Line the basket with leaves and put the fish on top of them. Mix together the soy sesame oil rice wine and sugar then pour this over the fish.
Add the ginger and half the shallots and chilli.
Steam for 10 minutes with the lid on.
Give the fish a skewer test and then steam it for another five minutes if it needs that extra time to come away from the bone when pierced with the sharp knife.
To get a crispy skin effect: heat the oil to smoky, take fish out of steamer and pour the very hot oil over fish, add the oil to cooking juices. This produces exquisite smells hearty crackles and sizzles. Scatter fish with any leftover herbs and shallots and serve with favourite rice or salad..

Carving fish. Carve up your fish carefully by running a sharp thin bladed knife along backbone to lift flesh from head to tail with an egg lifter. Cut into 3 sections down to the bone then turn fish over and repeat. Pour hot sauces over the fish before eating it hot

Ingredients
225g soft brown sugar and 100g butter for base.
4 ripe pears peeled cored and quartered.
225g plain flour.
1 tspn bi carbonate of soda
pinch salt.pinch of ground cloves pinch of nutmeg
4 tspns cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground ginger
175g black treacle 250mls milk 225g melted butter 2 eggs beaten.

Method.
Preheat oven to 180c.
Find a 250cm oven proof dish.
To make the base mixture place the sugar and butter in a saucepan over a low heat and melt together then turn up the heat and get it to bubble.

Pour into the oven dish and arrange the pears in it round side down on the bottom of the dish.

Mix everything else together and pour over the pears and bake for one hour in the lower half of the oven.

Test with a skewer and if the pudding is cooked it will come out dry, if wet mixture clings to the skewer then cook it for another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and leave to cool before turning it out upside down onto a pretty plate, treacle is the magic ingredient here! Serve up with thick cream or best vanilla icecream.

Method:

Roast or par boil prepared veggies cut into bite size pieces until firm but cooked enough. When ready to serve the carved lamb, pile the vegetables on a plate and then add the lamb pieces and douse with a spray of vinegar then parmesan shavings and salt and pepper.

Lamb can be baked or cooked on a BBQ after a good oiling then dusting with a good pinch of sea salt and cracked pepper and overlying herbs.

Large onion rings can be sliced dipped in milk and the flour then fried or put them in a bowl of made up packet batter and deep fry until crisp according to packet instructions.

It can also become a great soup with a flash of white wine or chicken stock into the blending process. Both Gazpacho and Guacamole are delicious international classics, seasonally economical and universally enjoyed.

Both can be made up in the food processor or blender and left to sit covered in the fridge in a large jug or bowl until desired. The contents of Gazpacho can be tomatoes, olive oil, fresh garlic, cucumbers, black olives, soft avocados, green capsicums and/or red onions. It can be thickened by adding soft bread crumbs seasoned with aromatic fresh herbs. Try making a lovely entrée for this time of the year, best made up in the early morning before the heat becomes a turn off from most kitchens. Try it for a cold lunch a meal with breads an entrée or anywhere in between . So when shopping in markets or supermarkets or green grocers look for the best ripest vegetables in season right now because they are generously available peaking at their very ripest flavoursome best and cheapest plenty.

Gazpacho.
3 boiled eggs chopped. Four slices of any kind of soft bread, corn bread or sour dough is fine. If you love yoghurt add some at the end then scatter the above as garnish over your soup.
500gms ripe tomatoes. 1 big cucumber 2 cloves chopped garlic bunch of spring onions or 2 red onions 1 green capsicum 3 tbspns good olive oil 1 tbspn good vinegar sea salt black pepper and dash of cayenne pepper to taste. ½ cup of any fresh herbs, take your pick from chopped fresh basil mint parsley coriander or thyme sage or chives.

In the food processor make the bread crumbs and remove.
Chop the garlic in the processor then add the tomatoes and puree them. Now add the chopped cucumbers onions seeded olives green capsicum olive oil vinegar and herbs and blend well enough but not to a mulch . Put into the fridge to chill. Just before serving add the crumbs and chopped boiled eggs on the surface of each serving or place in a small bowl so people can help themselves as a garnish. You can hand this out in coffee mugs glasses or deep pasta bowls and if it gets too thick just add iced water or some ice blocks

Ingredients.
4 large fresh eggs break into a bowl and beat them with a fork.
3 large brown onions peeled and roughly sliced.
500g sweet potato or pumpkin. Peeled and chopped
100g fetta cheese crumbled
1 large sheet of frozen puff pastry thawed to soft for pie topping .
Tablespoon of olive oil and herbs to decorate- parsley or rosemary thyme or sage.
Sesame seeds for topping the pastry.

Method.
Preheat oven to 180-200C.
Heat oil in frying pan and cook onions for about 15 minutes until gold and smelling good. Add garlic if you like it
Cook sweet pot or pumpkin boil steam or microwave.
Combine the vegetables fetta and eggs add chopped herbs and fill up pie dish.
Place puff pastry sheet over top of pie dish and allow a bit to hang over. Paint it with a little milk or egg yolk and shake the sesame seeds over sheet then bake for 45 minutes.

Method.
Beat eggs and soft butter together then add a pinch of salt the milk and baking powder, mixing them well together. Now shake in the flour folding it into ingredients and stir the ricotta cheese into it.  Let it sit for one hour.  Heat the frying pan non stick if possible, spray or grease with a touch of oil or butter and when hot enough add 1/2 cup or 2 tablespoons of batter to pan. Cook until you can see bubbles forming up to the surface. Turn over carefully and cook other side until it looks set. 

Remove and keep warm on a tea towel or paper ready to serve.  

Warm the walnuts in a frying pan until you can smell them roasting but do not burn!  Toss over cooked pancakes add the cream etc and serve. (Cream, ice cream or yoghurt are all good. Serve separately if you are dieting.) 

Lambshanks. Serves 6.
Hints for casseroles. You can use barley or tapioca as a thickener, any vegetable soup concentrates as a flavour additive, your favourite fresh or dried herbs.
Keep packets and tined stores ready in the pantry to deal with casserole attacks.
You can use the leftovers of today’s recipe as a soup or sauce during the next few days after removing the meatbones and pushing it through a sieve.
A good rich sauce will freeze well and can then reappear to become the base of your next exciting casserole in the kitchen. Extra vegetables can be cooked in the pot with the shanks for the last hour. Big hunks of pumpkin and potatoes can be cooked separately in the oven and fresh greens in the steamer if you prefer. An interesting addition to any casserole is pipped green olives, try them for a clean green taste sensation.

Ingredients.
6 lambshanks
A 400g can of tomatoes
A glass of red wine.
3 tbspns olive oil.
300 mls of water stock or soup.
Seasonings of sea salt, cracked black pepper and a big handful of fresh herbs for aroma.
A dinner bowl full of mixed prepared seasonal vegetables such as carrotts parsnips turnips leeks celery onions garlic cloves.

Method.
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan and brown and soften the shanks then add vegetables, remove them and add the wine. Place the vegetables in the bottom of an ovenproof casserole pot, add seasonings and a cup of barley if using it, then the shanks and any remaining liquids and scrapings from pot.. Pour liquids over the shanks then tomatoes add herbs place a heavy lid or foil over the casserole and leave to cook low in the oven on low- medium heat for at least 2 hours at 180c. You can turn down the oven and reheat on high a few hours later or serve the entire contents just as they are immediately over a large hot mound of mash, creamy polenta or rice. If you really want to refine this good country meal for guests who do not understand the pleasantries of peasant fare, then remove the shanks, carve off the meat, ditch the bones and put the vegetables and liquids through a sieve and serve as a pouring sauce.