Current Favourite Recipe Books

Donna Hay (Seasons), Kylie Kwong (My China), Rick Stein (Far Eastern Odyssey), Masterchef Australia (The Cookbook, Volume One), The Australian Women's Weekly (Eating Together, Bringing Families Back to the Table)


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Cooking Club 6th October 2011

We were greeted by an amazing Apple and Lemon Teacake when we arrived at our last cooking club. This was a delicious and very moist cake. The recipe can be found in the September issue of Masterchef magazine.
The remainder of our menu was from the latest Donna Hay magazine which had a selection of menus including the amazing Thai one we made today.
The first dish was a Coconut and Prawn Soup which was so easy to make and absolutely delicious. To make this soup you combine coconut milk, Thai red curry paste, fish sauce and grated fresh ginger. You then chop some green onions and share them into individual serving dishes with some oyster mushrooms and peeled green prawns (leave the tails intact). Pour over the coconut milk mixture and place the dishes in a steamer basket. Steam for 10-12 minutes or until the prawns are cooked through and serve with herbs and lemon wedges. The flavours were so simple and fresh and the oyster mushrooms had a wonderful texture. You could modify this recipe by adding different seafood, leaving the seafood out all together and possibly cooking in one batch rather than steaming individually. Yum!
The second dish was Lemongrass Fish Skewers with Chilli Dressing. The chilli dressing was made by boiling caster sugar, white vinegar, Kaffir lime leaves and sliced long red chillies until slightly thickened. To make the fish skewers you process firm white fish fillets, ginger, garlic, coriander roots, Kaffir lime leaves, sweet chilli sauce, fish sauce, egg white, salt and pepper in a food processor until smooth. You then shape the fish mixture around lemon grass stalks which have been halved lengthwise and cut into 12 lengths to make short lemongrass sticks. The fish skewers are first cooked in a frypan in vegetable oil and then placed in the oven to finish cooking through. These were also very tasty and had nice fresh flavours.

The third dish was Chilli Pork Parcels with Nam Jim. The Nam Jim, which is a traditional Thai dipping sauce, was made by combining coriander roots, long red chillies and sugar in a mortar and pestle until they formed a paste. You then added lime juice and fish sauce. To make the parcels you cooked pork mince in a frypan and then added garlic, ginger, Thai chilli jam (which can be found in the Asian section of the supermarket or at an Asian grocery store or apparently at www.donnahay.com), and some vermicelli noodles which have been soaked in water to soften. You then place some of  the mince mixture onto a rice paper round which has been softened in warm water and top with some Thai basil and coriander leaves. If you can't buy Thai basil just use regular basil instead. The recipe simply folded the rice paper round in half over the mince mixture making one large semi circle however we rolled ours into a spring roll which worked well and was easier to eat and serve as finger food. The rolls are browned in peanut oil in a frypan and then enjoyed with the  Nam Jim. Another tasty dish!
The fourth dish was a Duck Larb with Green Mango Salad. Larb is simply a minced meat salad. This recipe included some lotus root chips to serve wth the larb however we could not source any good lotus root so decided to crisp up some pieces of duck skin to sprinkle on top and add some crunch. Lotus root can be found at Asian grocery stores and some supermarkets and has a crunchy texture and sweet tangy flavour. When sliced it has a holey, flower like appearance. To make the chips the lotus root slices are simply fried in oil, drained and seasoned with salt and pepper. The duck mince is made by roughly chopping duck breast (skin removed) in a food processor. The duck is then cooked in peanut oil with some garlic and ginger. Once it is cooked you add oyster sauce and lime juice. The duck is served underneath a salad of coriander leaves, mint leaves, Thai basil leaves and a thinly sliced green mango, dressed with lime juice combined with caster sugar. Beautiful, fresh, healthy flavours, although the flavour of the duck was probably lost a little amongst all the other flavours.

Dessert was a Mango Granita and Coconut Sorbet which perfectly finished our Thai banquet. The coconut sorbet was made by heating sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved and adding coconut cream and sweetened coconut flakes. The sorbet needs to set in a shallow metal tray in the freezer for 2-3 hours. The granita is made by processing mango in a food processor until smooth and adding to some sugar and water which has again been heated to dissolve the sugar. The granita needs to set in a shallow metal tray in the freezer for 3-4 hours. Before serving you use a fork to "rake" the top of the granita and then let it freeze for a further hour. To serve you place some of the mango granita in a glass bowl and top with the coconut sorbet. The combination is fantastic and this would be a wonderful, light summer dessert.
This entire menu was simple and delicious and if you like Thai food or are keen to try one of Donna Hay's other menus I would strongly suggest you go and buy her new magazine now!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Cooking Club 17th August 2011

 
To have with coffee I made White Chocolate and Raspberry Friands, http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/13545/raspberry+white+chocolate+friands   which were simple to make and delicious. I served them with a raspberry coulis made by boiling sugar, frozen raspberries and sugar, with a little lemon juice to taste, until syrupy. The mixture is then strained to get a nice smooth syrup.

All the dishes we made today were from Masterchef. For a starter we tried Oysters and Lemon, http://www.masterchef.com.au/oysters-and-lemon-and-truffle-marshmallow.htm. This starter is an interesting take on a "pasta" made from apple gel with a creamy seafood filling. We used crab meat instead of oysters as I am not overly keen on raw oysters. To make the apple gel you need a product called gellan which I purchased on the net from The Melbourne Food Ingredient Depot (www.mfcd.net/depot). If there is ever an ingredient you can't find try this company; they stock a lot of the ingredients used on Masterchef and even have a section just for Masterchef ingredients. Gellan is what I would describe as a very strong gelatine and it sets in seconds. The gel is made by boiling apple juice (use a nice clear one) and gellan. You then pour a 1mm layer into flat bottom trays. Once it sets you cut it into rounds.
For the filling you make a mayonnaise from egg yolk, caper water (just the water from a jar of capers), dijon mustard, pink sea salt and grape seed oil. The quantities in this recipe make a huge amount so make sure you cut it down. Unfortunately our mayonnaise separated and although we still used a bit for flavour we needed to add in a small amount of store bought mayonnaise to bind the filling. The filling is made by chopping carrot, celeriac and eschallots into 2mm cubes (a knife cut known as brunoise). The vegetables are then blanched in boiling wtaer for 10 seconds to soften them slightly and tone down the flavour of the onion. They are then refreshed in iced water to stop them over cooking. The vegetables are combined with chopped chervil, chives, parsley and capers, lemon juice, crab meat and mayonnaise. To serve you place a small amount of the filling on a gel circle and fold over to seal. We had a lot of trouble making them seal well and also found if the gel was too thick it tended to tear. The end result looked nice but was messy to eat and the flavour was not as good as we hoped. I had some of the left over filling in lettuce leaf cups for dinner and really enjoyed it so personally I wouldn't bother with the gel rounds. I also think if the mayonnaise had worked the flavour may have been better.
For main we made "Not Another Spring Chicken", http://www.masterchef.com.au/not-just-another-spring-chicken.htm This was a simple but delicious recipe that I would definitely make again. The recipe suggested using Marylands and breasts on the bone, with skin on, but we just used the breasts on the bone. To cook you pat the skin dry and sprinkle with salt, lemon zest and thyme. You then drizzle with olive oil and cook in the oven for about 45 minutes.The recipe ingredients say "the juice and zest of 1 lemon" but never tell you when to add the juice so we just left it out. The chicken had a fantastic flavour and would be nice served on its own with just vegetables.
To serve the salad you mix the chicken with some baby cos leaves which have been brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and cooked on a smoking hot griddle pan until charred. The lettuce didn't taste very nice on its own but worked well when combined with the other components of the dish. The chicken and lettuce are drizzled with the pan juices and then topped with a grape salad. To make the grape salad you combine sliced grapes, red onion, parsley leaves, chives and chopped roasted almonds with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, dijon mustard and salt.
This really was a lovely dish and would be great for a simple lunch time party.
For dessert we made Goats Curd and Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Poached Cumquats, Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream and Mandarin Curd, http://www.masterchef.com.au/goats-curd-and-vanilla-bean-cheesecake-with-poached-cumquats--spiced-pumpkin-ice-cream-and-mandarin-curd.htm There was 9 different components to this dish so it did take a bit of work however most can be done in advance so it would be suitable for a dinner party.
The cheesecake was made by first making a sabayon which is a light frothy custard like Italian dessert. To make the sabayon you whisk egg yolks, Muscat (we used sweet sherry), vanilla bean seeds and sugar over a saucepan of simmering water. It is important that the sabayon does not get too hot or it will become grainy so remove from heat if you think it is getting too hot. Next you mix in cream cheese, goats curd and sour cream. These should be lightly beaten first to make them easier to mix in.The next step is to make a meringue from egg whites and sugar. You then dissolve gelatine sheets in warm lime juice and add this to the cheese mixture before folding in the meringue and putting in the fridge to set.
To poach the cumquats you leave them whole and cook them for 8-10 minutes in a mixture of maple syrup, vincotto, juniper berries, cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise and grated nutmeg. They should end up plump and juicy.
For the pumpkin ice cream you grate the pumpkin and cook in butter until soft. You then simmer milk and cream with cinnamon stick and grated nutmeg to infuse it with the spice flavours. Add a little of the spiced milk to the pumpkin and puree until smooth. Next you whisk sugar and egg yolks and add some of the spiced milk. This custard mixture is cooked until it thickly coats the back of a spoon. Once the custard is thick you whisk it over an ice bath to cool, combine it with the pumpkin puree and place in an ice cream machine to freeze. Once it is frozen place the ice cream in the freezer. Our custard was not as smooth as it could have been and consequently the ice cream was also not as smooth as it could have been.
The madarin curd was made from egg, egg yolks, castor sugar, mandarin rind, white balsalmic vinegar and butter and was absolutely delicious.
The shortbread crumble was a simple shortbread dough made from plain flour, butter, icing sugar and sea salt and it was sprinkled with pepitas (dried pumpkin seeds) before cooking. We should have cooked ours a bit longer than we did as the centre was still quite doughy and we could only use the edges to make our crumble. We used a small food processor to blend the crisp edges into crumbs.
The shattered filo was made by layering filo and melted butter and then cooking it between two oven trays until crisp and golden. The sheets were then broken into pieces to resemble autumn leaves.
The candied vanilla was made by slicing the vanilla bean (once seeds removed) very finely and cooking it in a mixture of sugar and water until soft. The vanilla was then removed and sprinkled with castor sugar and left to dry.
The fennel fronds were dipped in beaten egg white and dusted with castor sugar then left to dry.
To serve this dessert you place a couple of spoonfuls of the cheesecake on a plate and spread it or smash it slightly. The crumble is placed in piles near the cheescake to resemble the base. The ice cream is scooped in the middle and the mandarin curd piped in nice little piles (ours was a bit runny and didn't pipe very well).  The cumquats are sprinkled around the plate and drizzled with some of the poaching syrup. The filo, vanilla and fennel fronds are then used to decorate the dish.
This recipe did not use the dried pancetta that they used on the Masterchef show but we added it. We just cooked the pancetta in the oven until crisp.
This dish had very mixed reviews from the four of us. Some loved the goats curd cheesecake, some found the goats curd flavour too strong. Some loved the pancetta, some found it too salty. We all agreed that the cumquats were very sour and quite unpleasant to eat with the rind on. They added great colour to the plate but needed to be cooked differently to make them more palatable. The poaching syrup and mandarin curd were delicious and next time I would put more of these two things on the plate. Some loved the pumpkin ice cream and some were unsure. The filo added nice texture. The shortbread crumble was lovely. The fennel fronds did not dry out in the time we had and some pieces were a bit limp but they still looked pretty. The vanilla was nice. Overall I would say this dish was a success but depending on who you ask you may leave certain components off the plate.
Once again a fun day and nice to try new flavours and techniques.