BBQ Snapper with Basil, Lime and Chilli

Back to the old butcher today - and they had a couple of huge snapper fillets for sale! Bit of a treat, so we picked them up along with the rest of our purchases, and I marinaded them before popping them on the barbie. We also had Sophie's pots, and the still-cheap-and-awesome-corn-on-the-cob.

Ingredients:

• one lime
• half a chilli
• a small bunch of basil
• a spring onion
• two large snapper fillets
• olive oil

Using a sharp knife, peeler, or zester, remove the zest from the lime and finely chop, along with the chilli, basil and spring onion. Coat the fillets with the mixture and drizzle over a little olive oil, and squeeze over the juice from half of the lime. Leave for at least half an hour, up to three hours (chill if the room is warm). BBQ for 4-5 minutes per side, until seared golden, and cooked all the way through.

Courgette Lasagne

I know, I know. As soon as you read that title, you thought - 'Oh no, that sounds totally tasteless.' Well, fear not! I have actually found (and fixed) a good recipe, for this most classic of vegetarian staples, and it actually seems to work!  It's quite filling as-is, but you might find that with the low protein content, you're hungrier a bit sooner in the morning than you might be normally. I suspect that the calorie count on this is quite a bit lower than in the meat equivalent. At this time of year, when courgettes are stacked up high on the grocers' shelves, it's also quite stunningly cheap.

Ingredients:

• two large onions (white, red or both)
• a 340g tin of tomatoes
• a generous handful of fresh oregano, or 2 tsp dried
• 3-4 large courgettes (about 700g)
• half a head of garlic
• 9-10 dried lasagne sheets
• a small bunch of basil
• one 250g tub ricotta (or two if you like it more creamy - I do!)
• 50g cheddar

Finely chop and fry one of the onions for a couple of minutes, then add the herbs and tin of tomatoes; simmer for 20-30 minutes until reduced and thickened, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking. Meanwhile...

Heat oven to 200C. Put a pan of water on to boil, then cook the lasagne sheets for about 5 mins until softened, but not cooked through (or not, if you're using instant lasagne sheets).

Finely chop the other onion; grate the courgettes; finely slice or crush the garlic. In a large frying pan, fry the onion, then add the courgettes and garlic; fry until the courgettes have released their water and turned bright green. Turn off the heat, tear in the basil, and stir in all of the ricotta, then season to taste. You may well need to add quite a lot of salt or even stock powder at this point - get it right because it's no good if it's bland.

In a large baking dish, layer up the lasagne, starting with half the courgette mix, then pasta, then tomato sauce. Repeat, putting a fine layer of tomato sauce on the top, then scatter with the cheddar. Bake on the top shelf for 10-15 mins until the pasta is tender and the cheese is golden.

Roast Chicken Drumsticks with Oranges

This is one of those super-convenient meals that you can just throw together with very little effort. It's also finger-lickingly sticky and messy and wonderful! We served the drumsticks with mashed potato and a few leaves of lettuce, but they'd be great with fresh bread or rice as well. Wings would also work - take ten minutes off the cooking time.

Ingredients:

• 4 plump chicken legs
• 2 large oranges
• a head of garlic
• olive oil
• black pepper

Set the oven to 185 C. Arrange the chicken legs in a large roasting dish, so they have some space between them. Slice the oranges into medium-sized wedges and nestle around the chicken. Put the garlic somewhere in the middle of the tray. Drizzle with olive oil and grate over black pepper; roast for thirty minutes, then flip the drumsticks and roast for a further 10-15, until the juices run clear.

Serving advice: get a spare plate for the bits, and plenty of napkins! Eat the orange wedges and chicken wings with your fingers, and squeeze out the sweet roasted garlic with your teeth or between your fingers. YUM.

Beef Dolsot Bibimbap

Post-Zumba, so back to the traditional beef bibimbap :) Trying out a new butcher and I have to say, I'm not overwhelmingly impressed with the freshness of their meat so far. I think this weekend we'll go back to our old one, which is conveniently just down the road, but less conveniently, not open on Sunday.

Tofu Dolsot Bibimbap

Just love this meal. Tonight instead of the usual beef, we fried strips of tofu rubbed in Chinese five-spice until crispy, and served it with a more European melange of vegetables - celery, silverbeet and carrots. The usual kimchi and sweet chilli sauce also featured, of course! We improvised heat mats with some spare tiles from the garage, turned upside down...

BBQ Bean Burgers

Storecupboard... running down... must... use up... ingredients! Bean burgers fit the bill - and the wallet. Also good if you want to cook your whole meal on the barbie - I cut half-cm-thick rounds of sweet potato and drizzled them with olive oil, and popped them on with a couple of sweetcorn-on-the-cob.

Ingredients:

• a white onion
• a thick slice of bread
• 1 tin red kidney beans, well-drained
• two cloves of garlic
• half a chilli
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce or a dash of salt
• an egg

Finely chop and fry the onion for ten minutes, or until golden and well-cooked. Blitz the bread in a blender to make bread crumbs; shake in a bowl and put the largest ones back in the blender with the kidney beans. Blend again, then combine with the rest of the breadcrumbs. Crush in the garlic, finely chop the chilli, dash with  Worcestershire sauce and break in the egg. Add the cooled onions and combine together to make a thick paste. Divide in half, then in half again or by three, depending on how much mixture you have; form into burger-size patties with your hands. BBQ for 2-3 minutes per side.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

A great way to start the weekend, and use up a bit of spare sweet potato and egg whites at the same time :) Modified this recipe. Usual tall-pancake tips apply: don't overbeat the batter, don't swill around the pan like a crepe, do cook over a low heat so it rises and cooks through, and do serve as quick as you can so they're still hot and fluffy. We topped these with sliced plums and maple syrup, and I also had one with a spread of peanut butter - yum!

Ingredients:

• 1/3rd of a sweet potato (about 150g unpeeled)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• a sprinkling of ground nutmeg
• 2 egg whites, or one large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar

Peel and cut the sweet potato into chunks, then boil for 6-7 minutes, until tender. Drain and mash with the butter, then set aside to cool. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and nutmeg. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, then combine with sugar, salt, milk and mashed potato (in the mashing pan is fine). Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture, and stir gently to combine, stopping as soon as no further dry flour shows. Ladle a quarter of the batter at a time into a pancake pan over a moderate heat, flipping each pancake when the base is golden brown - about a minute or two. Put on a warm plate, sort out your toppings, and serve.