Recipes from a hungry cook

Marion, last season's MasterChef favourite, released her cookbook the other day, and at the Good Food Show in Sydney I had a chance to grab my copy of her book hot off the press and meet her to get it dedicated to me! Browsing through the pages I was delighted at the variety of recipes from Marion's kitchen. Her Thai background has influenced many of the recipes but there is also a whole lot that are inspired by other areas of her life: Darwin, South Australia, and her MasterChef experience. There are beautiful images and anecdotes Marion shares about villages in Thailand she's visited where her family lives, markets in Darwin and food memories which really bring the recipes to life!

Unfortunately, many of her more tasty looking recipes are not necessarily compatible with our current health kick, but I leafed through licking my lips at Deep Fried Pork Belly, Sticky Beef Ribs with Sweet Coriander Sauce, Confit Duck and Thai Fishcakes. Another day.....

Marion's Pad Siew (cooked by me!)

For a quick mid week option I chose one of the many healthier items from her menu, Pad Siew - a chicken and rice noodle dish with gai lan (Chinese brocolli). I also added a few bonus veggies from the fridge. The dish is served with a chilli infused vinegar drizzled on which gives it an acidic heat to balance out the slightly sweet flavour of kecap manis, an Indonesian dark soy.

It turned out to be delicious, crunchy, flavourful and very moreish - lucky I had made a whole wok full to heat up for lunches during the week too!