Treehouse – Byron Bay

Another day, another Byron Bay gem.

This is the way we walked to the treehouse…

It’s actually quicker than walking through town a whole lot prettier.

The restaurant looks quite big but the actual inside isn’t huge they just have lots of beautiful outside space under the shade of parasols and trees.

The treehouse is famous for pizza, and even thought that’s what we went for and my Husband is obsessed we didn’t manage one. The breakfasts are also supposed to be great.

Like I have already mentioned we ate very well in Australia, so this we really wanted a light dinner. We ordered some dips to snack on, but the sourdough bread was so delicious we ended up eating quite a lot of it.

We also shared this amazing goats cheese salad with butternut squash and lots of pine nuts, very much like one I eat a lot at home. And then we were done!

But do go to Treehouse if you visit the Bay… and have a pizza for me. And definitely walk along the beach.

***Have just been informed that at the moment it is closed due to a fire, bad news! Hopefully by the time you visit they’ll be open again, I wish them luck***

Warm Prosciutto and Blue Cheese Salad and BBQ Ideas

I have been all about the recommendations lately, and not giving much out about what I have been cooking… mostly because I haven’t.

In between decorating, enjoying the little bursts of sunshine and generally being quite busy I haven’t been cooking properly lately. There have been lots of Waitrose/M&S trips to buy food I don’t have to do anything with.

I need this break I think. It hard to get anything done in an evening if you plan on cooking properly and I am a girl who likes her early nights.

But anyway this is a little something I made for my girlfriends a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to make again and make prettier and better so I could share it with you.

I have made it again, yesterday, after a few glasses of wine in the sunshine it’s the only thing I could think of, but it definitely wasn’t prettier so here you are. I am sharing with you anyway with a photograph from my phone. I hope that’s okay… it really is a good salad and another ‘boy-friendly’ salad, I had proof last night.

As this is a salad I am not giving you quantities you can make it for 1 or many, teeny or huge.

You need;
Rocket and spinach
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Red onions
Potatoes
Blue Cheese
Prosciutto

So first I caramelised the onions, do take your time with this do it slowly and take at least 30 minutes, you might want to do this first. About 15 minutes in a sprinkled sugar on them and then stirred that in. Fry on a low heat with a little oil and stir and watch.

At the same time I put all the tomatoes on a baking tray with some olive oil and seat salt and black pepper again on a low temperature and left them in there while I cooked everything else. I used the best cherry tomatoes I could get my hands on but you can use any kind you like.

This was also the first time this year I tasted Jersey Royals, damn they are lovely. ut again you could use any potato you want, I simply boiled them because of all the other tasty (naughty) ingredients in this dish but you could also fry them up with the prosciutto. That would be good…

So those are the bits you need to cook, fry your prosciutto last then you just need to chuck your salad into the bowl, add those hot bits then the crumbled blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola this time and have also tried it with a Stilton) and lastly the Prosciutto.

And yes I did serve it with a huge lump of garlic bread. What?

*Since it is BBQ weather (finally) in Bristol here are some more sunshine worthy recipes for you to try this weekend.

Salads;
Apple and hazelnut salad
Strawberry and halloumi salad
Blueberry and goats cheese salad
Sweet Potato, pomegranate and halloumi salad
Asparagus and mozzarella salad
The perfect Caesar salad
Grilled peach salad
Griddled potato salad

Dips;
Guacamole
Hummous
Salsa

Bread;
Soft white rolls

BBQ;
Beef burgers
Bean burgers
Red chilli fish patties
Lamb Kofta

Or use my Portugal post for inspiration, all we did was BBQ and eat the pool…

Eating in Portugal

or this for a simple quick supper that lets you stay outside for longer

Pan-fried salmon and avocado salsa

Phuket Cookery School – Spicy Seafood Salad

Our next dish was a classic spicy Thai salad with noodles and seafood – called Yam Woon Sen.

We also had another tutorial about presentation and learnt how to make a rose from a tomato.

Here is our teacher with her perfect rose.

My very small rose. (I kept messing up)

You need for 2 people;
1 tbsp pickled garlic syrup
3-5 bird’s eye chillies (depending on how hot you want it, I used 3 and had very tingly lips)
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar syrup
1 tsp coriander root, washed and finely chopped
2 tbsp dried shrimp
30g chinese celery, coarsely chopped
1 spring onion cut into 1 inch lengths
2 red shallots, (shallots or red onion will work) finely sliced
100g vermicelli noodles, soaked, drained and cut into shorter lengths
150g prawns, peels, deveined and blanched
50g minced chicken, blanched
60g squid, washed and blanched
5g pickled garlic, sliced

1. Put the noodles in boiling water and cook until soft, 1 minute will do it, drain and put into a bowl of cold water to prevent sticking.

2. Mix the prawns, chicken (or pork) and squid with coriander root, pickled garlic, syrup, chillies, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar in a mixing bowl and toss until well mixed.

3. Add dried shrimps, chinese celery, shallots and spring onion and combine.

Serve immediately.

Such a simple dish, and so tasty.

With a lovely view.

Grilled Peach Salad

This might be my most favourite fruit salad combo yet!

The peaches go all sticky and caramelised when you grill them, and are so amazing in this salad, I cannot wait to try more combinations though.

So you need;
Your favourite salad components, I made a fresh garden salad with some baby leaves, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes and to make a more substantial dinner I added some hot new potatoes.

1/3 – 1/2 block of halloumi per person
1/2 a peach per person, sliced thinly
olive oil
sea salt and black pepper

So all I did was make my little salad, added salt and pepper and a little oil, then my hot new potatoes, some griddled peaches and halloumi.

A hot tasty salad for a gloomy July day! This would also be great done from a BBQ, you could even smash up and fry the potatoes a little if steamed if a little too boring.

That’s it!

Summer Griddled Potato Salad

So the healthy quest continues, for dinner with the quesadillas I had lots of yummy new potatoes at home already to eat up and fancied a potato salad but without the mayo naughtiness.

So I griddled them instead, with the smallest amount of olive oil and added to a massive bowl of green.

You need (for 4)
new potatoes (use your judgement, I used about 450g) chopped into wedges/halves
1 bunch asparagus
big handful pea shoots
big handful rocket
big handful spinach
big handful watercress
mini plum tomatoes, chopped (i like to chop all my salad parts in tiny bites so I can have all on my fork at once)
sliced strawberries
chopped cucumber
sea salt and cracked black pepper
olive oil
balsamic glaze

1. boil the potatoes for 5 minutes, and then chuck onto a hot griddle pan with a little oil and lots of salt and pepper, cook for a further 10 minutes until cooked through and browned on skins

2. Mix the salad bits together and add your best olive oil, salt and pepper, and balsamic vinegar/sticky glaze

3. Steam the asparagus for 3-4 minutes and add to the salad along with the hot potatoes and serve immediately. 

I also put some (reduced fat) sour cream on the table to add if wanted.

Delicious!