Unless you really dig unexpectedly biting into a clove (I am still scarred from a tragic clove-in-baked-apple experience as a child), I strongly recommend removing them before serving. I recently came across a great shortcut for doing this – rather than throwing the whole spices straight into the dish, first put them in one of those ball tea strainers. You’ll still get all the rich, fragrant flavour but at the end you can just fish out the strainer rather than go scavenging for spices. Genius!

Serves 4

2 onions, chopped

50gm butter

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 cloves

6 black peppercorns

1 inch cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 (400gm) tin nice chopped tomatoes – the Woolworths Select brand is ace

5 cloves garlic, chopped

2 inches ginger, chopped

2 teaspoons salt

500gm lamb mince

1 cup frozen peas

Toast the cumin and coriander seeds together in a dry pan until fragrant and then grind them to a powder.

Melt the butter and oil together in a large pan and add the onion, cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns. Cook until the onion is seriously browned. This is the base of so many Indian dishes – you just can’t get away with anaemic onions!

Remove and throw out the cinnamon stick. Add 1 tablespoon of your lovely coriander-cumin mix, the garam masala, turmeric and salt and stir for half a minute.

Add the tomatoes, ginger and garlic. Cook over a medium-low heat for around 10 minutes.

Add the lamb and use a spatula to break it up into the tomato mixture. Once the mince is all broken up and combined, cover the pan and cook on a low simmer for 35 minutes. Then add the peas and cook until done. Check your seasoning and serve with bread and yoghurt.

And have I mentioned his food yet? Simple, good ingredients, recipes that are heavy on the fun and light on the fussing; perfect for a Friday night. This comes from one of his biggest selling books in Australia, Jamie’s Italy. It came together quickly and was so damn yummy! The chilli flakes are my addition and they were just perfect on yet another freezing Melbourne winter night! It’s a simple pasta that’s done in the time it takes to cook the pasta itself; a delicious basil almond pesto lightened with the addition of fresh cherry tomatoes.

Serves 2

200 gm dried spaghetti

salt & cracked black pepper

good pinch of chilli flakes

75 gm almonds

1 clove garlic

2 large handfuls of fresh basil, leaves picked (1 supermarket bunch)

75 gm freshly grated parmesan

good olive oil

1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Put the spaghetti on to cook in plenty of boiling salted water.

Meanwhile, warm the almonds in a dry frying pan and then whack them in a food processor. Process until they are finely chopped. Add the basil, garlic, parmesan, chilli flakes and a good glug of olive oil. Process again until the mixture comes together. Remove to a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste.

Squish the cherry tomatoes with your hands and add them and their juices to the rough pesto; taste again and adjust seasoning as necessary with some extra olive oil to loosen the mixture if needed.

Drain cooked pasta and return to saucepan; toss through the pesto tomato mixture and serve.

In honour of the trashily fabulous Eurovision I will be spending my weekend watching the multicoloured glory from Oslo and eating delicious European flavours. This pie tastes like baklava but with a fraction of the time and effort involved – perfect to whip up before abandoning yourself to key changes, wind machines, gratuitous saxophones and unnecessary violins. Recipe is originally from the Pillsbury website. Enjoy!

2 sheets of short crust pastry (home made or frozen)

2 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup butter, melted & cooled

3/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease a round pyrex pie tin and line with first sheet of pastry.

Mix the walnuts, sugars and cinnamon together.

Pour 1/4 cup melted butter over the pastry in the pie tin; spread walnut mixture over this and drizzle over another 1/4 cup butter. Top with the second sheet of pastry, cut large slits in the pastry and top with the remaining 1/4 cup of melted butter.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown. Meanwhile, cook honey and lemon over a medium heat in a small saucepan until it has a watery consistency.

Remove pie from oven. Carefully pour over the hot honey mixture, letting it seep into the slits. Cool before serving with ice cream or cream.

Extra virgin olive oil

1/2 butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced into 2cm cubes

1 bulb fennel, outer leaves removed and chopped

1 head garlic, cloves separated and chopped into halves or thirds

2 tsp sugar

salt & cracked black pepper, to season

1 Italian pork sausage, skin removed and flesh crumbled

40 sage leaves

400gm egg fettucine or papadelle pasta, cooked al dente

Parmesan, grated

1. Pre heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. In an oven tray, toss together the pumpkin, fennel and garlic with the sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Add a good drizzle of olive oil and toss again. Roast for 30 minutes or until pumpkin is starting to caremelize and is lovely and brown outside.

2. Put pasta on to cook in a large pan of salted water.

3. Meanwhile, heat a generous couple of glugs of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the sausage mince; once this is starting to brown, add the sage leaves and turn the heat down to low. There should be enough oil in the pan for the leaves to fry and crisp up nicely. Once sage is crisp and sausage is browned, remove from the heat.

4. Drain pasta and return to pan over low heat. Tip the frying pan with the sausage and sage gently so that the oil pools down one end and can be spooned up and added to the pasta. Toss through. Add the roasted veggies and toss through with a handful of grated parmesan. Add salt & cracked pepper to taste.

5. Serve pasta and top with the pork and sage mixture and more parmesan, if desired.

Yes, ok, I’m fully aware that the dish photographed is actually Hokkein Si-Iew but I do normally make this recipe with the proper wide fresh flat rice noodles, I promise! As this will be on our soup kitchen menu next week I needed to test it with noodles that I can just chuck in the wok without any prior preparation besides a quick soak, and I must say that it tastes almost as good as with the proper noodles. I know this looks like a long list of ingredients but since the first 13 are just for the marinade and you make that the night before, you actually come home to a 5 minute dinner of deliciousness with the most sweetly delectable sauce. All hail the pad!

Marinade

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ginger, minced

1 spring onion, chopped

1 shallot, sliced

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 tablespoon shao xing rice wine

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 birds eye chilli, finely chopped

500gm rump steak, thinly sliced

500gm fresh flat rice noodles, prepared to package directions

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1-2 cups greens (broccoli, gai lan, bok choy, sliced snow peas – whatever!)

Mix the marinade ingredients together; add the sliced beef, mix well and marinade overnight.

Heat wok and add a little oil. Stir fry the marinated beef until it just begins to cook; as it’s so thinly sliced this should only take a little while.

Add noodles, greens and remaining sauces and sugar and stir fry until blended and heated through.

Serve with the usual Thai table condiments or just on its own.

I’ve been looking for ages for a recipe that truly replicates the delicious gai pad graprow dish common in Australian Thai restaurants and this is it. It’s from chef Chanrat Karantna and I could eat at least the two servings that it makes all on my own. ‘Nuff said.

Serves 2

3 tablespoons peanut oil

3 large cloves garlic

1 long red chilli, seeded if you want to be cautious about the heat

200gm chicken breast, sliced

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup Holy Basil leaves

rice or noodles, to serve

cashews or peanuts, to garnish

Mix together the sugar and sauces in a small bowl and set aside. Mince or finely chop the garlic and chilli together – use a mini food processeor if you have one or finish with a mortar and pestle.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat; add the garlic and chilli mix and stir fry for 15 seconds. Turn the heat up to high and add the chicken; stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the sauce mix and stir thoroughly; add the basil leaves and stir through again until they are just starting to wilt.

Serve on rice or noodles, garnished with nuts.

Serves 4 (generously!)

1 – 1 1/2 kg leg of lamb, boned & butterflied

For the marinade:

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme

1/2 tablespoon seeded mustard

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

5 garlic cloves, minced

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Trim any excess fat from the lamb; then add the meat to the marinade, massaging in well with your hands. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, turning a couple of times.

When you’re ready to cook your meat, take it out of the fridge to let it come to room temperature while you pre-heat your grill to high heat.

Grill the lamb on each side, turning once, for 15-18 minutes per side; baste it as you go with the remaining marinade.

Cover with foil and set aside to rest for 10 minutes in a warm oven before carving.

Delicious served with mashed sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and pea puree.

Serves 2

1 tab peanut oil

1 onion, halved and sliced

250gm butternut pumpkin, peeled and thinly sliced

300gm eye fillet steak, thinly sliced

2 tab soy sauce

4 tsp sugar

1 long red chilli, seeded and chopped

1/2 tab minced fresh ginger

1 tab fish sauce

1/2 tsp ground star anise

1/2 tsp five spice powder

1/2 tab oyster sauce

3 spring onions, green parts only, shredded

1/2 a small handful of basil leaves, roughly torn

1/2 a small handful of mint leaves, roughly torn

Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, chilli, ginger, fish sauce, spices and oyster sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat; add the onion and pumpkin slices. Stir fry for a minute or two, then lower the heat, cover with a lid and cook for around 5 minutes or until the pumpkin is just tender. Remove and keep warm in oven.

Add the sauce mix to the wok over low heat and stir for a minute; then crank up the heat to high, add the eye fillet slices and cook for a couple of minutes or until the pink is starting to vanish. When you see this happening, throw the veggies back in, give them a quick toss and then add your fresh mint, basil and spring onions. Serve immediately over rice or noodles

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + 1 tsp for oiling dough

1/2 cup water (+more as needed)

1 tsp lemon juice

Place all ingredients in a food processor; pulse until dough comes together. Add more water if needed. Once the dough has come together in a ball, process for 10 seconds. Remove from the processor, briefly knead and then oil the dough, wrap in cling wrap an set aside for 30 minutes while you prepare your fillings.

When you’re ready to cook your piadinas, divide the dough into four portions; roll into balls and then roll out to the size of your pan.

Preheat your pan over medium-high heat – you want the pan good and hot so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Lay your first rolled out piece of dough on the pan; cook for around 1 minute or until you see bubbles on the surface like this:

Flip over; the cooked side should have nicely browned bits on it like this:

Cook the second side for around 30 seconds. Remove and keep warm while you repeat this process with the remaining piadinas.

Fill the piadinas with your choice of ingredients and fold over; either eat immediately or put back in the pan to melt cheese.

My new measurement of a truly yummy recipe is one that is so good that I forget to take a photo of it until I’ve scoffed heaps of it and totally trashed the presentation! Dammit. You will just have to trust me that this is a delicious dish and also did look very nice initially with sesame seeds on top.  I’ve tried a few Japanese fried noodle recipes recently but this is the first one that has really hit the spot, that I would be happy to pay for. Yaki Soba is so quick and versatile as you can use any meat, veggies or noodles that you have on hand. The key to this noodle dish is the slurpable sauce, which I found on a BBC food site – you just put the sauce on to simmer while you chop the veggies and: ta da! Dinner!

Serves 2

50ml teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons soy bean paste

1/2 tablespoon grated ginger

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 small carrot, peeled and julienned

1 small handful of beansprouts

4 spring onions, green part only, chopped into 4cm lengths

125gm pork fillet, very thinly sliced

250gm fresh ramen noodles, boiled for 3 minutes and drained

sesame oil, for drizzling

sesame seeds, for garnish

Mix together the teriyaki sauce, soy bean paste and ginger in a small saucepan. Heat til just boiling and then lower heat; simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables, meat and noodles.

Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add the onion and stir fry til softened and starting to brown; add the carrots, bean sprouts and spring onions and stir fry for a minute or until spring onion is starting to wilt. Scrape the veggies off to one side in the wok so you can add the pork to the bottom of the wok; pile the veggies back on top of the pork and leave to sit for 30 seconds.

Start stir frying vigorously until pork is no longer showing pink; add the drained noodles and toss. Add the sauce mixture and toss until heated through. Remove from the heat, drizzle with sesame oil and toss again; sprinkle with sesame seeds to serve.