San choy bau and a salted caramel dessert from Karen Martini’s cookbooks of vegetarian recipes & sweet treats

Celebrity chef Karen Martini is proving you don’t have to choose between savoury and sweet, releasing two brand new cookbooks at the same time, packed with bold flavours and crowd-pleasing recipes.

The former Better Homes & Gardens favourite joined Sunrise on Wednesday to showcase dishes from her latest releases, Cook Green and Cook Sweet, celebrating everything from vibrant vegetable-packed meals to indulgent desserts.

Martini cooked up a fresh vegetarian san choy bau filled with shiitake mushrooms, tofu and cashews from Cook Green, alongside salted macadamia nut caramels from Cook Sweet. Both books feature more than 80 recipes designed to inspire home cooks with approachable yet flavour-packed dishes.

San Choy Bau with shiitake, tofu & cashew

Serves: 6 as a starter

Ingredients

• 1 iceberg lettuce
• 80g raw cashew nuts
• 1 bunch of coriander leaves
• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil or peanut oil
• ½ red onion, finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 10cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
• ½tsp Chinese five-spice
• 10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 10 green beans, finely sliced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• 2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
• 250g firm tofu, cut into 1cm cubes
• 80g bean sprouts
• 1 large carrot, finely julienned
• ¼ wombok (Chinese cabbage), finely sliced
• 2 long red chillies, finely sliced
• hoisin sauce, to serve

Sauce

• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp brown rice vinegar
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• ½ tsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp ground white pepper

Method

1. Remove the core from the lettuce. Soak the lettuce in iced water for 20 minutes, then drain and ease the leaves away intact. Trim away any untidy edges, if you like, then drain again and stack on a plate.
2. Combine the cooking sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Heat a wok or large frying pan over a high heat, then add the cashews and toast until scorched, about three minutes. Tip out of the pan and set aside.
4. Thoroughly wash three of the coriander roots and chop. Pick the leaves from all the coriander stems, chop half and set aside.
5. Add half the oil to the wok, then the onion, garlic, ginger, coriander root and five-spice. Fry for one minute, then add the mushroom, beans, celery and remaining oil and stir-fry for two minutes.
6. Add the rice wine and tofu, and stir just long enough to heat through. Stir the cooking sauce through.
7. Add the cashews, bean sprouts, carrot, wombok, chilli and chopped coriander and toss through.
8. Drain off the excess liquid, then serve the mixture in a bowl, garnished with the coriander leaves, with the lettuce leaves stacked next to it and the hoisin sauce on the side.

Tip: You can swap the tofu for shredded roast duck or roasted or cooked chicken.

Salted Macadamia Nut Caramels

Makes: about 60

Ingredients

• 240g macadamias, toasted
• 100g flaked almonds, toasted
• 1 tbsp salt flakes, plus 3½ teaspoons for topping
• 150g unsalted butter
• 375ml pure cream (40-42 per cent fat)
• 240g caster sugar
• 150g honey
• 150g liquid glucose

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Toast the macadamias and almonds on separate baking trays for 10–15 minutes, until lightly toasted, checking from time to time. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper and sprinkle some of the extra topping salt over the base.
3. Add the nuts to a bowl.
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Add the cream, sugar, honey, glucose and one tablespoon of the salt, then stir until combined and starting to bubble. Increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil, without stirring. Cook until the mixture reaches 126C, which might take 20 minutes.
5. Once at temperature, immediately remove from the heat and pour in the nuts, then stir through.
6. Tip into the lined baking tin, then flatten out with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle with the remaining salt, then leave to set for two hours.
7. Once cooled, remove from the tin and cut into five 2cm pieces. The caramels will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.

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