Eggplant and goats cheese involtini

These delicious little parcels make a perfect canape, or they can be baked with a peperonata sauce for a hearty vegetarian main. The recipe has also been featured in Oxfam’s new cookbook Stop Hunger Start Cooking. If you make it, post a picture on Twitter, tag it with #stophungerstartcooking, and you could win some delicious Oxfam prizes! 🙂

Crispy smoked paprika chicken wingettes with aioli

This recipe is featured on Masterchef Food Hub

I asked for advice from many people and did a lot of internet research to find out how to make my chicken wings super crunchy. And let me tell you, there is a lot of information out there. Overall, it seems to boil down to three main aspects:

1. Removing moisture from the wings prior to cooking
2. Using some kind of baking powder in the dry rub
3. Roasting over a rack in a hot oven

So, here is my version of crispy wings, using these three key elements. I used 1.5kg wings per batch, with the tip removed and cut into two (as in my honey soy chicken wingettes).

Easy entertaining canapés: Deconstructed Peking duck ‘pancakes’ and baby pear and walnut salad bites

So last night was my hopemonth canapé party which raised over $800 for Hope Street – woo! I’ll be posting the cooked canapé recipes individually, but these cold canapés which I invented were so easy and really, really popular. Perfect for easy, no cook starters to serve before a barbecue or dinner party.

Hideaway, Dulwich Hill

I love a good, local, family-run restaurant, and Hideaway is a perfect example.

They call the cuisine ‘international tapas’, a variety of dishes offered in two sizes (tapas/main) and designed to share. It’s a great way to eat and suited our group of four beautifully: we simply ordered a tapas size of (almost) every dish! I always think tapas-style is a great idea for a simple/family-run restaurant, as dishes come out in any order and there’s no waiting for everyone else’s to arrive.

MoVida, Melbourne

MoVida was the only place in Melbourne which I actually booked for, for two reasons: the first being I knew it would be busy (especially being ranked number one in Melbourne on Urbanspoon), the second that I really really REALLY wanted to try it out – it was number one on my Melbourne wishlist. We made a booking for Friday lunch, all dinner spaces having been booked out weeks in advance.