Seniors Food and Wine

Welcome to the About Seniors Seniors Food and Wine page.
Enjoy our recipes, updated weekly and don't forget to check out our Wine Search page! Our Main Meals page has the largest selection of food with categories such as Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Seafood, Meat-Free Food and Other meats.

If you are looking for something a bit Sweet, our Cakes and Desserts page features a Chocolate Pudding to die for! The Noodles and Pasta page has some great noodle dishes, and features a delicious Tuscan Potato Gnocchi. If your looking to host a party or just have a couple of friends around, our Party Foods page has a large variety of recipes ranging from Salt and Pepper Calamari to Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil.

---

Carol’s Chicken and Bacon Meatballs

Meatballs served with pasta are the ultimate comfort food.  Carol’s Chicken and Bacon Meatballs are a twist on the classic Italian dish.

Ingredients
Meatballs
1/2 kg chicken mince
1/4 kg diced bacon
2 minced garlic cloves
1 & 1/2 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh Parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Pasta and sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 x 800g can Italian diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/3 cup chopped fresh continental parsley
1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
400g dried penne pasta

Method
Combine chicken, bacon, garlic, parsley, Parmesan and roll into bite sized balls.
Roll balls in egg and breadcrumbs.
Gently fry in oil until golden brown and place to one side and keep warm

Cook pasta as per packet directions.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, uncovered, stirring often until it softens slightly. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until aromatic.
Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring often, for 6-7 minutes or until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly.
Stir in the parsley and sugar. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Combine the pasta, sauce and meatballs and serve immediately.

---

Ron’s Rice Pudding

Ingredients
1/2 cup jasmine rice
2 litres milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup cashew nuts
4 cardamom seeds
1 bay leaf
Desiccated coconut cut into small fine pieces
1 cherry – for garnishing

Method

Wash and soak rice for 30 mins.
Boil milk on a low flame and let it thicken for some time
When the milk is noticeably thick, add bay leaf
Drain the rice, and then add rice to milk when volume of milk reduces by almost half
Ensure to stir constantly so rice does not stick. When rice is half cooked, add all other ingredients. (Aside from sugar)
When rice is nearly cooked, add sugar and stir vigorously so sugar mixes well. Do not add sugar before this point as rice will not cook.
When rice is properly cooked and effervescing with milk, remove from flame, cool, garnish with cherries and serve.

---

Beef with Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients
300g rump steak
1 large leek, thinly sliced
1 green capsicum thinly slice
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon black bean sauce
3 tablespoon white wine
1 & 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method

Slice the steak thinly across the grain and place in a bowl to marinate with the cornflour.
Mix the oyster sauce with the black bean sauce and wine.
Heat the wok and add the oil. Stir-fry the leeks and capsicum. Remove to a plate. In the same wok, add the steak and stir-fry quickly for 2-3 minutes until cooked through, then add the sauce mixture. Return the leeks and capsicum to the wok and stir.
Serve on a bed of jasmine rice to soak up the sauce!

You can change the recipe to include carrots, mini sweet corn and snow peas if you desire!

---

Peter’s Simple Panzanella Salad

Using simple fresh ingredients, Peter’s Panzanella Salad is tasty, wholesome and quick, making it the perfect food on the go.

Ingredients
1/2 French stick, diced
75ml olive oil
1/2 tablespoon sea salt
2 vine-ripened tomatoes
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
50ml red wine vinegar
125ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of fresh basil
1/2 cup of fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 red and yellow capsicum, roasted, peeled and sliced
1/2 tablespoon capers
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Shaved parmesan cheese

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Toss the bread in the olive oil and sea salt and bake for about 15 minutes or until crispy on the outside but soft on the inside.
Remove the seeds from the tomatoes and coarsely chop. Place in a large salad bowl and add the garlic.
Place the bread in with the tomato and garlic, drizzle with the vinegar and oil, then toss well.
Add herbs, capsicums and capers, toss well and leave for 30 minutes to allow the bread to absorb the flavours. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with freshly shaved parmesan cheese.

---

Top Ten Recipes For Autumn

Download your FREE copy of the About Seniors Top Ten Recipes For Autumn now!

If you would like to save the file to your computer, simply use your right mouse button to click on the words “About Seniors Top Ten Recipes For Autumn”, and select Save Target As or Save Link As depending on your browser, and select where to save it to your computer!

---

Chicken and mushroom pie

Serves four

Ingredients
4 cooked chicken breast fillets, roughly chopped into chunks.
100g button mushrooms, halved
600 ml tin mushroom soup
50g chopped parsley
Freshly ground salt and black pepper
375 g ready-to-roll puff pastry
2 beaten eggs for glazing

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place the chicken, mushrooms in an ovenproof serving dish, and pour over mushroom soup.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Cover the chicken mixture with the pastry, trimming the edges and pinching the pastry onto the dish.
Brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes.

---

Salt and Pepper Prawns

Serves two

Ingredients
4 tablespoons corn flour
2 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
20 large raw prawns peeled and de-veined
Sunflower oil for deep-frying
1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced
lemon wedges, to serve

Method
Heat the oil in a wok to 190C
Combine the corn flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl, add prawns and toss until well coated.
Shake off the excess flour mixture.
Fry the prawns in batches, around two minutes per batch until just opaque. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Once the prawns are cooked, deep-fry the sliced chilli in the oil for 1-2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Place prawns in a serving dish, sprinkle with fried chilli and serve with lemon wedges.

---

Goat’s Cheese and Black Olive Pasta

Serves two

Ingredients
300g penne pasta
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
4 tinned anchovies, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
100 g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
150g goat’s cheese, roughly crumbled
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add pasta. Cook until al dente, around 10 minutes.
While pasta is cooking, mix together garlic, anchovies and two tablespoons of the olive oil into a paste.
Drain the pasta and put in a large bowl. Toss with the garlic paste, chopped olives and goat’s cheese.
Season with freshly ground pepper, drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with parsley.

---

Carol’s Baked Trout with Roasted Fennel

Combining three of the best super foods, fish, almonds and fennel, Carol’s Baked Trout recipe packs a healthy punch.

Ingredients
2 trout fillets
3 tablespoons flaked almonds
1 bulb of fennel
Olive oil
Lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 2000. Remove the top of the fennel bulb and put to one side.  Slice the bulb, place in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 20-30 minutes.
Place trout fillets on a baking parchment, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, sprinkle with almonds and top with the fronds from the fennel bulb.
Fold the parchment paper into a parcel, making sure the ends are sealed. Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until fish is cooked through.

Serve with low fat mushy peas

---

Anna’s Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes

Historically, Shrove Tuesday marks the beginning of the 40-day Lent fasting period, when the faithful were forbidden by the church to consume meat, butter, eggs or milk. However, if a family had a store of these foods they all would go bad by the time the fast ended on Easter Sunday. What to do?

Solution: use up the milk, butter and eggs no later than Shrove Tuesday. And so, with the addition of a little flour, the solution quickly presented itself in… pancakes.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1 & 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg, lightly whisked
1/3 cup milk
1 granny smith apple, peeled, grated
oil cooking spray

Method

Combine flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Add egg and milk. Whisk until smooth. Stir in apples.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over low heat. Spray with oil. Pour 1/4 cup of apple mixture into pan. Gently spread out with the back of a spoon to a 10cm round. Cook pancakes, in batches, for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface. Turn over. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until cooked through.

---

Oven-baked Risotto with Pumpkin & Sage

Ingredients
350g Arborio rice
1 litre chicken stock
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
1 leek (thinly sliced crossways)
50g unsalted butter
15 sage leaves (fresh)
150ml dry white wine
500g butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes
25g finely grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon finely shredded fresh sage
2 & ½ tablespoons olive soil
Salt and pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 200C.
In a large flameproof dish over medium heat, melt the butter until foaming. Add sage leaves to the butter and cook for a further two minutes (until sage leaves are crisp). Use a pair of tongs to transfer the sage leaves to a plate lined with paper towel and set aside.
Now add the garlic and leek to the pan with the butter and stir for 5 minutes (until leek is soft). Remove pan from heat and add the stock, rice and wine. Now cover with foil or a lid. Place the pan in the oven (middle shelf) stirring every 15 minutes (cook for 30 minutes or until rice is tender and liquids have been absorbed).
While this is cooking, place the pumpkin on a baking tray and season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the oil. Bake the pumpkin on the top shelf of the oven for around 30 minutes.
Remove pumpkin and risotto from oven and add the pumpkin, parmesan cheese and shredded sage to the risotto stirring until combined. Serve and top with the crisp sage leaves.

---

Top Ten Comfort Food recipes of 2008

It’s a fact of life that we need to eat to survive, so AboutSeniors have put together a handy guide to our top ten most popular recipes, as visited by you, our subscribers.

Click here to download the file.

If you would like to save the file to your computer, simply use your right mouse button to click on the words Click here, and select Save Target As, and select where to save it to your computer!