Tips & Recipes

Our Executive Chef Sahil Hussein and his team like to experiment with new recipes and menu ideas - enjoy these recipes at home and watch out for some handy tips! 

7 Key Summer Food Safety Tips

Summer is the time for BBQs, picnics, and alfresco dinning, but the warm weather also creates the perfect environment to support the growth of harmful food bugs.

#1. Wash your hands - Use the 20:20 rule for hand washing!! - Wash hands for 20 seconds and dry hands for 20 seconds

Hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent germs from spreading to your food.

Wash your hands after handling raw meat and poultry, using the restroom, changing nappies, touching pets or animals, handling rubbing and gardening.

#2. Be vigilant with leftovers

Perishable foods should never be left out at room temperature for over 2 hours. Toss any unrefrigerated food if it surpasses the time limit.

#3. Do not re-use marinades

Meats and poultry are often marinated for BBQ’s. Be sure to discard used marinade—this will prevent cross contamination.  

#4. Defrost meats properly

Leaving meat and poultry on the benchtop to defrost will only allow dangerous food bugs to grow.

Defrost meat lines 1-2 days in advance in the refrigerator.

#5. Wash produce thoroughly

Wash all fruit and veggies in cold water before consumption.

#6. Prevent Cross Contamination

Separate raw and cooked foods

Clean: Protect cooked and ready-to-eat food from getting contaminated by dirty hands, dirty kitchen surfaces, or raw foods, by keeping it in clean containers until needed.

Cook: ensure poultry is cooked to the correct degree. Use thermometer to check temperatures at the middle of the thickest part (should be 75°C or above).

Chill: Cover food and store in the fridge.

#7. Shopping with reusable bags and containers

Wash reusable bags often. Use a chilly bag or bin to transport chilled or frozen foods

To keep food fresher, try to do your food shop last, just before you go home.

Following these 7 food safety tips will ensure you, your loved ones and your food will be safe.

Roasted Butternut, Pumpkin and Coconut Soup

This is a vegan and gluten free soup, packed with flavour and is soul comforting yet very economical using the entire pumpkin.

Recipe can also be adapted to personal tastes.

Ingredients

Roasted butternut pumpkin and coconut soup

2 small butternut pumpkins

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 onion diced

2 x green chillies sliced

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

2 tablespoons garlic minced

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon fennel powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

2 x 400 ml cans coconut cream

1.5 litres Water

Salt & fresh ground pepper (to taste)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C

Wash and dry the pumpkins. Cut pumpkins in half and scoop out seeds. (reserved seeds for roasting) Cut the pumpkin into chunks and toss in olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Roast for about 45 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Set aside.

Roasting of the pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 160°C

While it's OK to leave some strings and pulp on your seeds clean off any major chunks.

Boil the seeds in salted water for ten minutes, drain and allow to dry single layer

Toss pumpkin seeds in a bowl with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 Tablespoon Tamari

Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on baking sheet.

Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crispy and coloured

Making of Soup

Heat canola oil in a large soup pot over medium high heat.

Add onion, cook for about 5 minutes, until they are soft and starting to turn translucent.

Add the ginger, garlic and chilli cook for about a minute.

Add the turmeric, coriander, fennel and cumin powders and stir cooking for another minute.

Add the coconut milk, water stirring to combine.

Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat to medium low.

Add the pumpkin, allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.

Using a stick blender, carefully blend soup until it is a smooth consistency.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To Serve with natural yoghurt, chopped fresh coriander and roasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

(makes 1 mini cheesecake using 4 Inch Springform Pan)

Ingredients:

6 x fresh passionfruit split, and pulp remove into a bowl.

Base:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar + (2 Tbsp for assembly)

1/4 cup cold diced butter + (2 Tbsp for assembly)

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp passion fruit pulp

1 lime zested

1 lemon zested

Place all the ingredients above into a food and blend until the ingredients loosely come together (like damp sand). Transfer to a lined baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180C or until golden brown. Once baked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Filling:

3 tbsp sour cream

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 whole egg

3-4 tbsp passion fruit pulp

1 tbsp corn flour

Begin making the cheesecake filling by adding sour cream, cream cheese, egg, sugar, cornstarch, and 3-4 tbsp passion fruit juice to a large mixing bowl. Give this a good mix until silky smooth and then set aside to form the cheesecake crust.

Add the crispy crumble to a food processor as well as 2 tbsp of cold diced butter and 2 tbsp of sugar. Pulse several times until the mixture is like a sandy clay.

Using a springform pan, or closest alternative, form the pie crust by packing the mixture in and around the edges of the pan using your fingers. Be sure to firmly pack in the crust to ensure it doesn’t crumble

*TIP: Add an egg yolk to the crumble if you need more moisture or flour to make it drier).

Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

When the crust is finished baking, remove it from the oven and let it cool down for 20-25 minutes. Slowly pour in the cheesecake mixture until it reaches the very top of the crust. Transfer to the top rack of the oven to bake at 150C for an additional 45 minutes. Add a baking pan of water to the lower rack of the oven to avoid burning the top of the cheesecake.

Once the cheesecake has finished baking, allow to cool at room temperature for at least 1 hour before transferring to the fridge to chill and set up.

With the cheesecake cooled, carefully remove it from the mold. You can use an offset spatula or butter knife to lift it from the pan if need be.