sorrel & goats cheese egg bake

This recipe is basically a savoury custard flavoured with sorrel, an interesting leafy vegetable often found as a wild weed.

As a child my mother taught me to identify sorrel in the wild and I used to eat it when playing in fields or out on walks. I love the sour flavour.

These days, I suppose I’m more risk adverse and less likely to start chomping on random weeds in case I identified it incorrectly or someone has sprayed them with pesticides.

If you have sorrel growing as a weed in your garden, I encourage you not to kill it but to harvest it. It’s great in a salad, makes a wonderful soup (hot or chilled) and pairs perfectly with goats cheese in this wonderful breakfast dish.

Sorrel & Goats Cheese Egg Bake

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
8 eggs, beaten
500g sorrel, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, grated
Juice & zest of 1 lemon
125g sour cream
100g soft goats cheese, crumbed
⅓ cup parmesan
Salt and pepper, freshly milled to taste

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C. Grease 4 x 250ml (1 cup) ramekins.
2. Pick over sorrel and remove any tough stems from the larger leaves.
3. In a food processor, blend eggs, garlic, lemon juice and zest.
4. Add sour cream and blend again. Season to taste.
5. Add sorrel and pulse until it’s chopped through, but not completely pureed into oblivion.
6. Pour into grease ramekins, dot with crumbled goats cheese.
7. Sprinkle with parmesan.
8. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until completely set on top and risen. Eat hot.

This sorrel recipe is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging, this week hosted by Cinzia from Cindystar. I don’t participate in WHB all that often anymore, but every time I do it seems to be Cinzia’s turn to host!

salmon sashimi w chilli sesame oil

 
食べるラー油がけ サーモンの刺身

Recently we were visited by two wonderful friends from Tokyo, VB Samurai and Green Ninja.

VB Samurai terrorised pubs across Sydney in his quest for the [im]perfect beer, while Green Ninja is a known enemy of electricity, preferring to undertake her clandestine activities in darkness.

Yes kids, there's a story in there. A big one.

Anyway . . . we had an awesome time hanging out, catching up and sharing our favourite places around Sydney. We also visited the Sydney Fish Markets and hosted a BBQ at our house with a group of friends, gorging on oysters, sashimi and even kangaroo skewers.

I served my finger lime oysters, as well as three types of sashimi: Snapper Sashimi w Soy & White Truffle, Tuna Tartare w Green Chillies, Crispy Shallots & Guacamole and this lovely salmon sashimi drizzled in la yu, a chilli & sesame oil which VB Samurai and Green Ninja brought us from Japan.

It seems la yu became incredibly popular last year in Japan, and after tasting it I understand why.

Chips of crispy fried onion and garlic floating in rich sesame oil and a hint of chilli. What’s not to love?

It’s used on rice, udon, salad dressings, fish – you name it! I can imagine happy uni students hunkering down with a bowl of ramen tossed in la yu as a quick fix dinner.

So why not drizzle this awesome sauce over sashimi? White fish isn’t a good option, since the flesh is too mild in flavour, but the richness of salmon was a perfect match.

Salmon Sashimi with La Yu

Anna’s recipe inspired by VB Samurai and Green Ninja.

Ingredients:
450g sashimi grade salmon, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon good quality la yu

Method:

Assemble fools!