#recipes

Couscous! Mediterranean Style

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Couscous, where have you been all my life?

I remember my sister making a Mediterranean couscous years ago (It was amazing!) And I’ve bought store couscous salad, which isn’t bad. But OMG, homemade is waaaay better!

It’s not only delicious and versatile, but, it’s so simple;

Cut up a whole lot of salad stuff and place in a bowl; I went for a Mediterranean style, but you can add anything – even veggies, like peas, corn, broccoli etc

In a bowl I added cherry tomatoes, chopped spinach, mushrooms, red capsicum, cucumber, mustard seeds, garlic and olives – with a good drizzle of a homemade vinaigrette.

You can also roast some sweet potato and carrot to add in when cooled – the ideas are endless!

For every 1 cup of couscous (uncooked), add 2/3 cup of boiled water – straight from the kettle. I did 2 cups and it’s made a salad big enough for sharing at a BBQ – if you want to share. I also sprinkled in a teaspoon of vegetable stock (1 cube)

As soon as the hot water hits the couscous, it starts to absorb, keep fluffing with a fork then once water is absorbed just cover the bowl and leave on the bench to cool.

Now you have a bowl of yummy salad and a bowl of cooled couscous – add it all together and it’s done.

We’ll be having our couscous with the scotch fillet steaks, now marinating in the fridge.

Cheers!

Western Australian Rock Lobster

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What does a writer do when not writing? Cook, of course!

Well, this is how I love to show my family I love them. And on a hot summer night, champagne cocktails are a great starter.

And in Western Australia, we have beautiful beaches, gorgeous weather and scrumptious produce.

I had a go at cooking up two Western Australian rock lobsters (AKA crayfish) and they were delicious.

Here’s some quick and easy steps, if you’d like to give it a go;

When you buy them, or are gifted them from someone who likes fishing, they’ll usually be already boiled and be a glorious orange colour.

First, once thawed, you’ll need to get yourself a large, sharp knife. Cut longways down the centre; make the first slice from the grove which looks like the head, toward the eyes. Then slice from the same same point directly down the tail.

See the long stringy thing on the tail? That’s the intestine, so you’ll need to gently pull that up and out – it should come away easy.

Then using a smaller, sharp knife, gently remove that brown/green gunk – you can rinse this part under some cold tap water, but try not to wet the meat too much or it takes a lot of the flavour!

To add over my Lobster, for a quick bake in the oven, I made up a spicy garlic butter. But you can do any creation.

I spooned some on each Lobster half and drizzled with olive oil – you can drizzle with melted butter – and a squeeze of lemon.

These beauties went into the oven for 10 minutes (make sure it’s pre-heated!) at 180 degrees.

To accompany our WA Rock Lobster, I whipped up a quick broccoli and spinach linguine – some green to go with that vibrant orange.

I was very happy with result!