Chai-Spiced Cheesecake with Rhubarb Compote {recipe}

Any excuse to make a dessert and I am there, beaters in hand, rearing to go. I struggle with the idea though of 'a signature dish'. I get bored making the same thing too often. One of the things that excites me about baking is the opportunity to play and come up with new ideas. I also like to use my dessertee (receiver of dessert) as inspiration. The dessertee in this case was a tea drinker, a chai-loving vegetarian who I happen to know loves cheesecake. Naturally, a chai-spice cheescake had to happen! But it needed to be gelatin-free and I prefer the texture of a no-bake cheesecake. I couldn't find a recipe I liked that met these criteria so I made this up using inspiration from Nigella's no-bake Nutella Cheesecake and Donna Hay's Chai-Spiced Cheesecake Tarts

Spinach and Cheese pastries {Recipe}

For Melbourne Cup day the staff from The Wine Shop With No Wine got together for a BBQ. In Australia when the invitation says 'please bring a plate' we translate that to mean please bring 2 or 3 plates or at least enough food for 4 people. When 10 people gather and each do that, yep, you've got the maths right- there will be enough food for at least 40. Not to be conquered, one does one's best to eat a bit of everything.

The next day my stomach muscles were hurting- my brain immediately jumped to “woohoo girl, you did some serious sit-ups yesterday” then I remembered I did none. My muscles were hurting from being stretched by a food baby (not to mention wine). Too much information?

Ricotta Gnocchi and Delatite Riesling

This is one of The Bookworm's favourite meals. The recipe is Donna Hay's from one of her very early magazines (I have forgotten which one but remember the recipe) and I am sure she has reimagined it since. It is super-easy to make and a  high(er) protein low(er) carb alternative to the stodgy potato type (which I also love).

You will need:
500g fresh ricotta
1/2 cup grated parmesan
2 eggs lightly beaten
Salt and Pepper
1 cup plain flour plus extra for dusting your board

Ugly Soup and fine wine

I love having people for dinner and usually like to spend the day in the kitchen cooking up something a bit different. Sometimes life has other plans.  On Sunday morning I rescued a young dog from running onto the road and spent the day looking for her family (I will write about this in detail another time). Which meant that I was racing home from the supermarket 20 minutes before my friends were due to arrive. The night called for soup. Ugly soup.

So it is actually a cauliflower and pistachio soup

What you need:
An onion (brown or red- I use whatever I have), chopped finely
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
A cauliflower, chopped up roughly
85g pistachios (a small bag from the supermarket)
A splash of olive oil
4 cups of vegetable stock (you may need a little more or a little less)

Vegan (raw) creamy zucchini 'pasta'

I don't like a food phase to go by without giving it a go and am quite interested in the raw vegan trend at the moment so here is my almost raw recipe (with raw options).

You will need:
1 cup of cashews, soaked in water for about 6-8 hours
1/2-1 cup of non-dairy milk of your choice (or if you aren't vegan then you can use regular milk)
1-2 garlic cloves
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
chopped herbs- I used thyme and parsley because that is what I had in the fridge
2-3 zucchinis depending on size and how much 'pasta' you want.

Serves 3 as a stand-alone dish

Caramelised fennel salad (and beef ragu lasagne)

It is too cold for cold salads at the moment so I am exploring the warm ones.

I found a recipe for a potato and beef ragu lasagne and wanted a salad that would go well with so I went searching for inspiration.

I love fennel so I got some but the tender little baby fennels weren't available so I bought a giant big one and decided to caramelise it a little to make it a bit more tender (and warm:) and went from there.