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What's Your Passion     Fingerfood    Fundraising

A Note from the Chef:
I’m passionate about….. lemons
 

most versatile ingredient?

I was recently discussing food allergies with a customer whose husband cannot eat garlic. It raised a question within: How many food items do I use this ingredient in? Running through my take-home menu and excluding basic salads and dressings, I realized my heavy reliance on t he humble garlic.

My mind was now running with this theme… What would be my most versatile ingredient?

The first one to come to mind was the lemon. It can be used raw, juiced, grated, baked, boiled, fried and glace`d. From dressings and vinaigrettes  to hollandaises and emulsions; both rind and juice are ideal. From pastas and dips ( hummus, tapenade, pesto and baba-ganoush) to reductions (lemon syrup cake) and infusions (lemon olive oil).

The list goes on…

From cocktail to sorbet.

From entrée to dessert

From garnish to petite fours

It is also sensational for cleaning.

When food is made with passion, your creativity and taste is what counts. As a musician trains their ear to discriminate between sounds, tune up your taste buds and cook to taste.

Glenn Hair, Passion Catering, Shoalhaven

Home

Baba Ganoush recipe
(pronounced bubba-gan-oo-sh) 

This is one of my favourite dips. It is also great as a spread or just dollop on some lamb, chicken… or your partner.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant (look for shiny skin)

1 lemon (rind and juice)

1 to 2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoon (tblsp) Greek-style plain yogurt

3 tblsp tahini (health food section of the supermarket)

Salt & pepper (to taste)

You need to blacken or burn the skin on your eggplant. This adds to the smoky flavour of this dish. This can be done on the BBQ, in a griddle frypan or under the grill. You can also blacken the skin by baking the eggplant whole in a hot oven- pierce the skin first or it will explode.

Your eggplant can take a lot of heat. Once scorched all over and softened slightly, place it on a tray in a moderate oven (180 C) for a minimum of ½ hour- should be soft. Cool.

Cook the garlic while your oven is on- about 10-15 mins until soft. Let cool

I find that if you roast your garlic this way it is less likely to repeat on you and won’t linger on your breath… which is important if you expect any passion for your efforts.

Remove the skin of your eggplant over a bowl. Retain both the flesh and juice.

Place in a food processor* with your garlic, the grated rind of ½ a lemon, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tblsp. of both tahini and yogurt, salt and pepper. *(If you don’t have a food processor you will need to mash and mix ingredients well).

Now’s the time to adjust ingredients to taste. You can add up to 3 tblsp. of tahini & yogurt.

Enjoy refrigerated for 4-5 days.

Cheers, Glenn (Catering, Shoalhaven)

What's Your Passion?

A strong desire or affection for something; an intense, extreme or overpowering emotion of feeling; heat, excitement, fervour, effervescence, explosion….

What's your passion? Identify it.

For some, passion is lifelong; an intense love of something that has developed or you have grown up doing. For many passion has been stumbled upon; something that has given you a new dimension and meaning to life… something that makes you feel great because you love it.

What's your passion? Pursue it.

…because passion is life. What is life without it? Whether it be golf, painting, music, reading, politics, food. Whatever it is, if you are passionate, you are a person who is living life and following your dreams.

World Champion marathon swimmer, Shelley Taylor-Smith wrote, “When you feel in your innermost being that you will achieve what you set out to do, you open the way for miracles.”

How many of us have seen people with lesser ability achieve success and the admiration of others? What makes them different? Self-belief.

I recently attended a conference called “Live and Work with Passion”, at which some inspiring speakers motivated, energised and entertained 240 of us in the audience.

One of the speakers, Tracey Verdugo said, “The only thing that separates those of you who say you are creative and those of you who say you aren’t – is self-belief.

“The world is changing so fast that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” Harry Emerson Fosdick.

What's your passion? Achieve it.

Sometimes this requires us to step outside our comfort zone. To continually move forward we must continually step through our fears. Look upon this type of fear as a good thing. Without it there is no growth. So many people never step outside their comfort zone. You should feel elated and proud when you do.

Add some passion to your life!

Kim Hair, Passion Catering,  Shoalhaven

Location

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Passion Catering

1/218 Princes Hwy South Nowra