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Brigitte Hafner

Brigitte Hafner

Brigitte Hafner

Brigitte Hafner is a chef, restaurateur and recipe writer.

An elegant fruit salad.

Pineapple and lychees with palm sugar caramel

A delicious combination devised by chef Neil Perry more than a decade ago. For an elegant dinner party dessert, try adding a scoop of coconut ice-cream.

  • 1-2 hrs
  • Brigitte Hafner
Black sticky rice

Black sticky rice

Traditional Asian sweet.

  • 1-2 hrs
  • Brigitte Hafner
This cooling coconut chicken salad is all about the textures.

Coconut chicken salad

A lip-smacking contrast of soft and crunchy; slippery rice noodles with crisp cucumber, firm peanuts and chips of chilli.

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
Ricotta and silverbeet ravioli with butter and sage sauce.

Ricotta and silverbeet-filled ravioli with brown butter sauce

You can use spinach in this recipe, but silverbeet has a great flavour. As an alternative to brown butter sauce, try a tomato sauce. You will need to make a quantity of egg pasta before beginning (see method).

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
Bucatini with sardines and fennel.

Bucatini with sardines and fennel

In the style of Sicilian cooking - where the colourful Arabic influence shows - wild fennel would be used along with saffron, pine nuts and raisins.

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
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A simple, seasonal dessert.

Buttermilk panna cotta with honey and grape syrup

I like to make the panna cotta the night before I'm serving it, but it can be made in the morning and served in the evening.

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
Prawn and crab Tom Kha

Prawn and crab Tom Kha

This dish is all about the lively freshness of the ingredients - the lemongrass and lime leaves especially. Don't cook for too long, and serve at once. You can use anything you like here - mussels instead of crab, fish, chicken or just prawns.

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
Spicy pork and noodle stir-fry.

Spicy pork and noodle stir-fry

This hot and spicy Thai dish is great on a hot day with a crisp, cold beer. Bean thread vermicelli, sometimes known as cellophane noodles, are very fine strands made of mung bean starch. When cooked, these silvery threads acquire a wonderfully silky texture. Use a jar of tamarind pulp to make this dinner even quicker to prepare.

  • < 30 mins
  • Brigitte Hafner
Steak and mushroom pie.

Steak and mushroom pie

In the recipe for the beef and mushroom pie, I've opted for a shortcrust pastry. To solve the problem of the base going soggy, brush it first with egg white and refrigerate for 10 minutes before putting in the filling - it works a treat.

  • 2 hrs +
  • Brigitte Hafner
Hazelnut gateaux with chocolate ganache, whipped cream and strawberries.

Hazelnut gateau with strawberries and cream

This is my mother's recipe. It's surprisingly light.

  • 1-2 hrs
  • Brigitte Hafner

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/goodfood/by/brigitte-hafner-h29n0t