MasterChef Judge Monica Galetti Shares Favorite Off-Duty Recipes

Monica Galetti, a judge on MasterChef, has revealed a selection of her favorite home-cooked meals, offering readers a glimpse into her off-duty culinary preferences. The collection features a range of dishes, from quick weeknight dinners to more elaborate weekend meals, drawing inspiration from her travels and family.

One of Galetti's go-to quick dinners is Grilled Hoisin Sea Bass with Basmati and Crispy Chilli Oil. This recipe, which serves two, utilizes ingredients like basmati rice, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and spring onions. The accompanying crispy chilli oil is made with dried chillies, sugar, salt, sesame seeds, neutral oil, garlic, ginger, shallots, and sesame oil. The sea bass fillets are grilled for a short period until the skin is blistered and crisp, served over rice infused with the homemade chilli oil.

Another featured dish is Beef Short Rib with Tomato and Lemon Orzo, a recipe inspired by a trip to Crete. This hearty meal, serving four to six people, includes beef short ribs, olive oil, onion, garlic, tomato purée, chopped tomatoes, red cooking wine, beef stock, orzo pasta, lemon zest, green olives, and oregano. The short ribs are braised for an hour and a half before the orzo is added and cooked until tender.

Galetti also shares Emma's Egg Foo Yung, a Samoan-inspired dish. This recipe calls for eggs, sesame oil, vegetable oil, streaky bacon, onion, garlic, ginger, tiger prawns, and spring onions. The ingredients are stir-fried and then combined with beaten eggs, creating fluffy omelettes served with steamed rice.

For a taste of Samoa, Oven-Baked Kale and Coconut Palusami is presented. Traditionally made with taro leaves, this version uses cavolo nero, coconut milk, onion, garlic, mild curry powder, and smoked haddock. It is baked in the oven and served with toasted sourdough slices.

Dessert options include Mini Almond, Elderflower and Fig Financiers, inspired by Galetti's time at the two-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche. These small cakes are made with figs, muscovado sugar, elderflower cordial, chopped almonds, butter, egg whites, icing sugar, plain flour, and ground almonds. The recipe yields 16 financiers.

Galetti also includes Seared Rice Paper Parcels with Soy, Honey and Sesame Dipping Sauce, a dish influenced by travels in China and Korea. The parcels are filled with a mixture of ginger, carrot, oyster mushrooms, Chinese leaf cabbage, mouli, spring onions, and soy sauce, then seared until golden. The dipping sauce consists of soy sauce, garlic, red chilli, honey, coconut vinegar, and sesame oil.

Rounding out the collection is Tuala's Koko Samoa Rice Pudding, a dense chocolate rice pudding adapted from a traditional Samoan cocoa drink. It is made with koko Samoa or 100% cacao chocolate, pudding rice, milk, coconut milk, vanilla pod, and caster sugar.

The recipes are featured in Galetti's book, "Gathering," photographed by Yuki Sugiura, and published by Pavilion. The book was released on October 8th, priced at £26.