Tag Archives: Donna HayStephanie of Dispensing Happiness was winner of last month’s HHDD Challenge. Stephanie will be our hostess for this month’s challenge and she has picked Parmesan and Polenta Chicken. To read more about this dish and to get the recipe please visit Dispensing Happiness. To read the history about HHDD as well as a list of the rules for this challenge, please click here. The deadline for entry into this challenge is September 20th. Looking forward to seeing your dishes. Easiest spaghetti dish I have ever put together. Simply seasoned with onions, garlic, thyme and spinach, nothing to it really. Easy eating!
Okay, not sure if this is a “great” fall back on dish or a dud. I saw this whole “frozen” spinach write up in the latest Donna Hay magazine and thought to myself, “what a great thing to have on hand, frozen spinach”! I usually keep a bag of frozen sweet peas on hand for last minute risottos, stews or soups or the occasionally bump or bruise, but spinach, never. Donna has this great recipe, well it looks great, with pasta and frozen spinach. I did not have the other ingredients so I just threw together something with what we had. Now, it was edible, it was not terrible, it tasted good but definitely was not the best thing I have tossed together. Lenny had this odd look on his face, the entire time I was cooking, it basically read …. “I cannot believe we have “frozen” spinach in the house”! Okay, let’s say it was temporary insanity; but, I want you to be the judge of this dish! Recipe: Spaghetti with Spinach1 bag frozen spinach 1/2 yellow onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced handful fresh thyme 3 tablespoons olive oil drizzle of white wine 1/2 lb spaghetti, cooked according to instructions 4oz feta kosher salt, to taste fresh cracked black pepper, to taste Cook pasta according to instructions on package. While draining pasta, reserve about 1/8 – 1/4 cup of the cooking water. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in frying pan and saute onions until soft. Add a drizzle of white wine and the frozen spinach, cook until warmed through, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook for about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss with pasta and reserved cooking water just until moist not over saucy. Add Feta, stir. Serve. Eat. A cool and refreshing summer salad made with bean thread noodles, crisp green beans, mouth tingly mint and cilantro all dressed with a very flavorful dressing of lime and fish sauce. This salad is easy to make and you will have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.
  Priya picked summer salads for the HHDD #27 kickoff. I love summer salads and Donna Hay has an outstanding collection of them. In order to narrow the choice down Priya found a wonderful lime and noodle salad for HHDD # 27. After reading the recipe, I could not wait to try it as there were so many ingredients that I love in salads: mint, cilantro, chilies and nuts. Now this event and the fact it is all about salads excited me, but I was even more excited when Laudalino (aka .. Lenny) told me he wanted to make the salad! Laudalino is tossing around the idea of learning to cook. I have told him time and time again, that I thought Donna Hay recipes would be a great place to begin. He was eager, hungry and took this recipe by the horns and created a fantastic dinner for us. The salad has loads of texture, from silky bean thread noodles to spicy chilies. He did add a bit of red pepper to give it a little more color. The sweetness of the red pepper went very well with the crisp green beans and the cool cucumbers took the fire away from the spicy chilies. The salad came together with a sweet but tart dressing made of limes and fish sauce, in which he grated some lime zest as well as some fresh chili, this gave it a nice spicy bite. This salad is prefect for a hot summer evening as it is very light and refreshing. Lenny, thanks for making a fantastic dinner!!! Priya, thank you for being a great hostess for HHDD #27! Recipe: Lime and Mint Noodle Salad*adapted from Donna Hay 250g bean thread noodles Dressing ⅓ cup (80ml) lime juice Place noodles in a bowl, cover with boiling water and allow to stand for 5-6 minutes or until soft. Cook the beans in boiling water for 2 minutes or until bright green. Drain, cool under cold water and drain again. Combine with the noodles, cucumber, mint, coriander, peanuts and chili. To make the dressing, combine the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar and pour over the salad. Serve. Eat. “Donna Hay is one amazing Australian “home economist”. She started out scoring her first job in the Australian Womens Weeky test kitchen after completing a home economist course. Donna went on to become the food editor at Marie Claire magazine and this was where her fresh take on food styling and simple but stunning recipes really took off. Her styling and fuss free recipes so adored, it wasn’t long before she soon had her own magazine and had published several best selling cookbooks internationally. Some people have referred to her as Downunder’s answer to Martha Stewart, however, Donna doesn’t like to be thought of as a celebrity chef, but just one of the girls who always has time for food and fun in the kitchen.” written by Bron Marshall.
I fell in love with Donna Hay a few years ago after spying her book, Modern Classics. I love the simplicity of your recipes, so fresh and so simple. When I started blogging a couple years ago, I stumbled about a lovely site, Winos and Foodies , I was delighted to learn that Barbara had a Hay Hay its Donna Day (HHDD) food blogging event. I participated whenever I could. Life becomes busy and we reach obstacles that unfortunately prevent us from doing the things we enjoy at times and in 2008, Barbara passed this event over to the talented Bron. Now, I am pleased to say, this baton has been passed down to Chez Us. We hope and strive to do an outstanding job just as Barbara and Bron did, by keeping it “Special Made Simple”. Please read more about the previous event here. If this sounds like an event you would love to enter please become familiar with the following rules. Rules of Entry…
I will be adding a HHDD page to our site this week – which will have more details as well as logos, Twitter, etc… In the meantime, without further a-do I am pleased to announce the hostess of HHDD # 27, Priya of Akshayapaatram. Priya has chosen Salad as the theme. Donna has many fresh and inviting salads in all of her cookbooks, let your creativity take over! Please visit her to site to obtain any further details. As well remember to submit your entries to Priya, by the 15th of August at akshayapaatram@gmail.com with HHDD #27 in the subject line, in your email to her please include:
We cannot wait to see your entries and to keep HHDD going! An easy Lentil Salad seasoned with parsley, olives and goat cheese topped with pan fried Veal Shanks – a earthy and hearty dish.
 We are so beat from a busy day, that all I can say about this dish is that … I should have not made it with shanks. The recipe calls for cutlets and yes, you need to use cutlets or chops. The market was out of them so I went with shanks, wrong plan for a quick and easy meal. Otherwise, rest of the dish was perfect. We love lentils, they are right up there with chickpeas. This salad was very light, crisp and refreshing the perfect side for a pan fried “cutlet”. Recipe: Veal Shanks with Lentils *adapted from Donna Hay 1 cup green lentils, rinsed 2 veal cutlets/chops, trimmed olive oil, for brushing sea salt fresh cracked black pepper 1 cup flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped 1/2 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives 60g goat’s cheese, crumbled 1 tablespoon finely sliced preserved lemon rind, rinsed and flesh removed (I used Meyer Lemon Juice) 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 1 tablespoon olive oil sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper To make the preserved lemon dressing, place lemon, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl and stire to combine. Set aside. Place lentils in a medium saucepan, add enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook lentils for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain. Set aside. Brush veal with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and cook the veal for 3 -4 minutes each side or until cooked to your liking. Place the lentils, parsley, olives, goat’s cheese and dressing ina large bowl and toss to combine. Top the salad with the veal cutlets. Serve. Eat. A delightful dish of roasted Pork Tenderloin and fennel scented with Rosemary and served on a bed of baby Spinach. A wonderful Spring time dinner.
 The next couple of weeks our posts are going to be short and sweet as we have so much going on at work – it is actually very insane! We do still have to eat and have some very tasty and easy meals planned. Our first one includes “the other white meat”, Pork. Even though we love pork tenderloin, we never seem to make it that often. We really should as it is the leanest and healthiest of the pork cuts. As well it has less fat than chicken and twice the amount of iron. Not only is it good for us but you can do so many different things with it, from roasting or grilling or even stir frying. Tonight I made an easy dish of roasted fennel and pork tenderloin which was tossed with spinach. It was very light and very flavorful. If you love pork and fennel, this is a fantastic combination. Recipe: Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Rosemary*Adapted from Donna Hay 1 fennel bulb, trimmed & roughly chopped 1 red onion, chopped 4 gloves garlic, minced 4 springs of rosemary 1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra, for brushing 1 lb pork tenderloin sea salt fresh cracked black pepper baby spinach leaves, to serve Preheat oven to 400 (200 c). Place fennel, onion, garlic, rosemary and oil in a baking dish, toss to coat. Cook for 15 minutes. Brush the pork with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a medium frying pan over high heat, add the pork and cook for 2 minutes each side or until browned. Place the pork in the baking dish on top of the fennel mixture and roast for a further 15 minutes or until the fennel is tender and the pork is cooked through. Slice pork and toss with the vegetables and baby spinach leaves to serve. Eat. Okay, hold on one minute, don’t skip this post because you see the “S” word. Trust me! Souffles are not hard to make. I love souffles. We have a tendency to only make sweet ones as I forget about the savory guys. This recipe I found in a past addition of the Donna Hay magazine is “simple made simple”.
 We wanted something different for dinner tonight as well whenever Laudalino is getting ready to leave for a trip (off to LAX for biz) I like to make something memorable! As well we wanted something meatless, light and filling. This recipe was just that. We had a lovely souffle on the table in less then 60 minutes. The base was a cheddar cheese filling with a parmesan cheese base crust. I served it with a very fresh baguette and a nice glass of french wine. A lovely dinner for two! Recipe: Cheese Souffle with Parmesan Crust*adapted from Donna Hay 25 grams finely grated parmesan cheese (I used a mixture of grated and shaved) 20 grams of butter, plus a little extra, softened 17 grams of AP flour 125 ml milk 2 eggs, separated 60 grams coarsely grated cheddar sea salt cracked black pepper Preheat oven to 400 F. Brush 2 (1 cup capacity) ramekins or oven proof bowls with melted butter and dust with the parmesan cheese. Place on a baking tray and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Slowly add the milk stirring continuously for 2 – 3 minutes or until thickened. Stir through cheddar, remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks and sea salt and pepper. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Gently fold through the cheese mixture. Fill the ramekins two-thirds full. Cook for 18 – 20 minutes or until puffed and golden. Serve immediately. How to add a twist to your traditional ground meat patty? By using ground turkey or chicken and adding a Thai spin to it with lemongrass, chilies, cilantro and mint and serving on a bed of noodles instead of the traditional bun.
 It was a long day, in fact it was a long week. We were beat tonight, so beat that we tossed around the idea of takeout, ie …pizza. All we knew on the way home from work was that we were hungry, really hungry and we needed some comfort food. For us comfort is not necessarily what one would consider comfort food, instead it is something GOOD and really bursting with flavor, preferably spicy. Tonight it had to be something quick and easy but, it had to be very flavorful. Where did I turn? Donna Hay! This recipe is Thai inspired and uses lemongrass, chillies, cilantro and mint as base for the seasonings. I did have to compromise as Bi-Rite did not have ground chicken (okay, now I am contemplating buying the meat grinder for the kitchen aid) and they said they could not grind it. So I used turkey which worked out perfectly. As well they did not have green beans so I used fresh snow peas. I also thought the rice noodles were a bit on the dry side so I tossed them with Sriracha Hot Chilli sauce and some of the hot water from cooking the noodles. This dish was exactly what we were wanting – easy, quick (under 30 minutes) and very flavorful; lemony turkey with a bit of a green spicy taste and very kick butt noodles! Next time I would like to try it with lamb and possibly a zest of lime. Recipe: Turkey Lemongrass Patties* adapted from Donna Hay Combine 1 lb ground turkey with chopped lemongrass, chopped green chilli, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Shape into patties and pan fry in a tablespoon of olive oil until cooked through. While cooking, prepare rice noodles according to package directions. While noodles are cooking I laid a strainer on top of the hot water and blanched snow peas. Drain and reserve about a 1/4 cup of water. Toss the noodles with 1 tablespoon of Sriracha Hot Chilli Sauce, some of the reserved water (add a tablespoon at a time), mint and cilantro leaves. Serve with a patty on top of the noodles and sprinkled with snow peas. |
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