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)


Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Cauliflower Soup with Cacao Brown Butter & Baguettes

I have been trying to find a soup recipe that will work well in small coffee mugs to serve as a starter for an upcoming dinner party. If you have any recipes you think may work well please let me know!
I found ths recipe at http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/soup/cauliflower-soup-crouton-recipe.asp To make the cacao butter you heat butter with cacao nibs which are shelled, crushed, raw cacao beans. Cacao beans are the seeds used to make chocolate. In their raw state they are quite bitter but do have a hint of chocolate flavour.
The soup was made from minced shallots, cauliflower, white wine and chicken broth. After it has cooked, been pureed and strained you add some cream. It did froth well with the stick blender giving it a good "cappuccino" appearance but it had a very strong onion flavour and tasted more like an onion soup than a cauliflower soup. I may try it again with less shallots to see if that improves it. The soup is served topped with a drizzle of cacao butter and a paprika crouton. I didn't make the croutons as I was making some baguettes.
Rating 5 out of 10.
The baguette recipe was from the book,"French Women Don't Get Fat" and was very simple. Of course if you are going to make your own bread remember to allow plenty of time for the yeast to act. You really need to start a couple of hours before. The dough has to rise for an hour after kneading it and then again after forming it into the baguette shapes.
My oven didn't get quite hot enough but it didn't seem to matter and I was pretty pleased with the end result. There really is nothing quite like freshly baked bread! YUM!

Caesar Salad

This Donna Hay recipe from the Masterchef Magazine, Issue 4, gives a twist to the traditional Caesar Salad by "deconstructing" it. The bacon is mixed with maple syrup before being baked in the oven until crisp making it sweet, sticky and salty. Croutons are made by thinly slicing a baguette, brushing with olive oil and baking until crisp. The eggs are soft-boiled (mine were over cooked) and halved. The baby cos lettuce are halved and topped with a Caesar Dressing made from egg, anchovies, worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and vegetable oil. The final touch is some grated parmesan.
I found the bacon a bit hard to chew as it became quite sticky but I did like the maple syrup flavour.
Overall this was a nice light dish with an interesting mixture of textures and flavours.
Rating 7 out of 10.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Chargrilled Lamb Cutlets with Warm Potato Salad


You will have to excuse this photo however this was taken while we were camping on the weekend and the lighting was very poor so it was a bit hard to see what I was photographing! I found this recipe in the latest Woolworths Fresh magazine and decided it would be easy enough to make even while camping. To make the salad you boil baby potatoes then slice them and toss with chopped toasted hazelnuts (which I couldn't chop as I forgot my chopping board), frozen broad beans which have been defrosted and had their skins removed, watercress, olive oil, lemon juice, horseradish cream and salt and pepper. The lamb chops were simply cooked on the barbeque. Simple, fresh and easy. Who said you can't eat interesting food when you are camping!
Watercress has a peppery flavour, is meant to be extrememly good for you and is so easy to prepare. It is bought in bunches and you simply cut off the thick stalks and add the leaves and thinner stalks to salads or use in any number of recipes. Have a look at this web site for ideas http://www.watercress.com/recipes.aspx
Rating for this recipe 7 out of 10.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

French Women Don't Get Fat

"French Women Don't Get Fat, The Secret of Eating For Pleasure", is the title of a book written by Mirelle Guiliano which I recently read as I was interested to know how French women can possibly eat a diet that uses a lot of eggs and dairy products and drink wine and champagne and remain so slender. I found the book interesting but really it just reinforced what we all know. Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day as often we mistake thirst for hunger, eat lots of fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, eat fish every week, eat meat 3 times a week and balance what you eat with the right amount of physical activity.
The book is well written and has some nice recipes in it and has reminded me to do those things I knew I should be doing!
Trying to eat a little more sensibly this week after having house guests all last week and a dinner party on Saturday night I have tried several of the recipes from this book. I made grilled lamb chops which were marinated with lots of fresh mint blended with olive oil and dijon mustard which were delicious. I served these with a cauliflower gratin where the cauliflower was cooked in milk and then grilled with a topping of some of the cooking milk mixed with an egg and grated cheese. Interestingly this book states that the French don't really eat eggs for breakfast or drink milk but get plenty of these through their cooking.
The other recipe I tried last night was chicken breasts (with skin and still on the bone) marinated in lemon juice, chopped garlic, olive oil and fresh rosemary. These were also grilled and were very tasty and moist.
Another trick this book suggests is to have a small serving of healthy soup before your main meal so you are not so hungry. Consequently I have a big saucepan of vegetable soup in my fridge this week!
I did also try the "Floating Island with a dose of Cocoa Powder", a dessert also know as "Snow eggs". Basically you beat egg whites with a little salt until stiff and cook spoonfuls of this mixture in a hot mixture of milk, vanilla and sugar. Once you have cooked the snow eggs you make the milk mixture into a custard by adding egg yolks. You serve the snow eggs floating in the custard sprinkled with cocoa. I found the snow eggs too "eggy" and think they would have been nicer with a little sugar beaten into them (not as good for you obviously!). The custard was nice.
To increase your fruit intake you can also make fruit based desserts such as rhubarb compote or grilled pineapple. Furthermore this book suggests two small servings of low fat greek style yoghurt per day. If you are looking for something to kick start you back into healthier eating I would recommend reading this book even if you just take a few healthy tips away from it. There is a second book which is just a recipe book called "The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook". You can see all available books at http://mireilleguiliano.com/section/primary/2 and find a lot of recipes at http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/recipes
Now I just need to balance my desire to cook interesting meals with keeping my diet balanced!! Not always so easy when you love cooking and eating new foods!

Prawn and Ginger Dumplings

I had some wonton wrappers left over from my dinner on Saturday night so decided to try another Donna Hay recipe from her Marie Claire, Flavours cookbook. These dumplings had a filling of green prawns, grated ginger, lemon juice and sesame oil. It said to chop the prawn meat finely so I decided to save time and give it all a whiz with my stick blender. The dumplings were meant to be cooked in fish stock ,which I couldn't buy at my local supermarket, so I just used vegetable stock instead. The dumplings were served with a dipping sauce of lemon juice, chilli sauce (I used sweet chilli as it was all I had) and sugar. The prawn filling was very moist even after being cooked and I really didn't enjoy these dumplings at all. I am not sure if they were like this because I processed the prawn meat instead of chopping it or if this is how they were meant to be. I wanted to like them because they sounded so nice, but I just didn't! I am glad I made the pork ones for my dinner party and not these!
Rating 4-5 out of 10.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Dinner with Friends

I had some friends to dinner on Saturday night and wanted to try some recipes I have never made before. I started with two canapes, Gorgonzola Quichettes with Red Onion and Thyme Confit and Mini-Poppodums with Creamy Chicken Tikka. I found both these recipes on a fabulous finger food blog site,"The Passionate Cook", it is well worth a look if you are after some different finger food ideas. These two recipes can be found at http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/2007/01/gorgonzola_quic.html and http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepassionatecook/2009/06/mini-poppodums.html

The Gorgonzola Quichettes were quite strong as Gorgonzola is a blue cheese which can be an acquired taste. I would be interested in trying this recipe again with camembert cheese which may suit the tastes of more people. The chicken tikka was a very simple dish made by marinating chicken breast strips then grilling them and chopping finely before mixing with cream. The chicken tikka is served on mini-poppodums which you buy ready to eat, sprinkled with paprika and topped with a coriander leaf. They are served cold and were very tasty. Both these recipes were able to be mostly prepared in advance making them easy to assemble at the last minute.
For entree I made Pork Dumplings in a Lime-Leaf Broth which were very simple and seemed to be enjoyed by all. This was a Donna Hay recipe from her Marie Claire cookbook, Flavours. The dumpling filling was simply minced pork, hoisin sauce (a Chinese barbeque sauce) and coriander leaves. The great thing about these is that they could be made ahead of time and kept covered with a damp cloth in the fridge. Before serving you cook them in a broth of chicken stock, sliced ginger, lightly crushed kaffir lime leaves and soy sauce. They only take a few minutes to cook. You serve them with some of the broth and some finely shredded kaffir lime leaves. I would rate these an 8 out of 10.
For main course I continued with the Asian theme as I wanted to bake a whole Coral Trout I had in the freezer. I used a friend's recipe which stuffed the fish with a mixture of cooked wild and brown rice. Wild rice is actually not a rice at all but the grain from a type of aquatic grass which is native to North America. The fish is smeared with Thai red curry paste and coconut cream, sprinkled with shredded ginger and finely shredded kaffir lime leaves and then wrapped in a banana leaf lined with baking paper, if you have one, or otherwise alfoil lined with baking paper. The recipe said to cook for 40 minutes at 180 degrees but as my oven loses a lot of heat whenever you open it I had to increase the temperature and cook for double that time. To serve you sprinkle with sliced red chillies and coriander sprigs and top with a dressing of fresh lime slices, fish sauce, lime juice and sweet chilli sauce.
I also made a dish of Mussels with Basil and Lemon Grass from the Women's Weekly Thai cookbook. I have never really enjoyed mussels but have been converted! I bought "pot ready" mussels which did still need a bit of cleaning up and some beards (a little hairy piece that the mussel uses to attach itself to rocks and pylons) had not been removed but this didn't require too much work. The beard should be removed just before cooking. To make this dish you first fry some onions, garlic, chopped lemon grass and chilli. You then add white wine, lime juice and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Add the mussels and cook covered for 5 minutes or until the mussels have opened. If any mussels don't open they should be thrown away. Finally add some shredded Thai basil and coconut milk and heat through. Serve topped with sliced red chillies, green onions and Thai basil leaves. YUM! I think when I have had mussels before they were either the cold marinated type or served in a tomato based sauce and I really don't enjoy seafood and tomato but I found these delicious. Personally I would rate this dish a 9 out of 10 and the 6 of us ate the majority of 2 kgs of mussels so I think they were enjoyed by all.
I served the mussels and fish with some jasmine rice steamed with a couple of kaffir lime leaves and a simple green salad with a chilli jam dressing which one of my friends kindly made.
For dessert I decided to continue with the Asian theme, as I wanted something quite light, so decided to try a dish Marion made on Masterchef, Mango and Lychee Stack with Fish Sauce Syrup, Coconut Granita and Chilli Sugar. This is a terrible photo but the dish did actually look very pretty on the plate with lots of lovely colours and shapes. The star fruit, also known as Carambola, is a tropical fruit with a waxy skin, which you can eat and when you cut it into slices it forms a very pretty five pointed star shape. Coconut granita is just a frozen mixture of coconut milk and sugar which you break up with a fork regularly as it is freezing so it becomes an icy sorbet.
You can find this recipe at http://www.masterchef.com.au/mango-and-lychee-with-fish-sauce-syrup-coconut-granita-and-chilli-sugar.htm This was a very busy dish with a lot of flavours and textures. The mango and lychee stack worked really well with the coconut granita but I am not sure I really liked the fish sauce caramel and the chilli sugar was far too salty. I had a lot of trouble with the panko breadcrumb praline and in the end I think it was still overcooked but I am wondering if the "burnt caramel" flavour was what Marion was after. Panko breadcrumbs are simply Japanese breadcrumbs which are flaky and crispy, they are found in Asian supermarkets. If I made this dish again I would possibly just have the mangos, lychees, star fruit and coconut granita with a sprinkle of praline and skip the caramel, chilli sugar and mint leaves. It was however fun making all the components and a definite taste experience! "A party for the palate", as one guest put it!
To serve with coffee I made a very rich and very delicious Vanilla Truffle (also in Donna Hay's Marie Claire, Flavours cookbook). Melted white chocolate, butter, vanilla extract and seeds from a vanilla bean....extremely bad for you! You melt all the ingredients together, set in the fridge and then to serve you cut into small squares and dust two sides of the square with icing sugar. A nice treat to end a yummy meal.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Artichokes & Mediterranean Pizza

Artichokes are something I am not very confident at cooking so when I saw them in the supermarket the other day I decided to give them a go. These artichokes are globe artichokes as opposed to Jerusalem artichokes which are a tuber and can be used in any way a potato can. Artichokes are a member of the thistle family.
To prepare the globe artichoke you need to either remove the stem at the base or peel it with a vegetable peeler and leave intact. Next you cut the top centimetre of the artichoke off and remove the outer layer or two of leaves. Trim the tips of the remaining leaves with a pair of scissors. Pry the artichoke open and remove the fuzzy centre with a spoon. My artichokes were quite young and difficult to open so I did this step after they were cooked as we ate them. Apparently this fuzzy centre is not pleasant to eat.
Dip the artichokes in lemon juice and then boil in salted water with or without added lemon juice. I decided to cook my artichokes in two ways so one I cooked whole for about 40 minutes and one I cut into quarters and cooked for 20 minutes. After removing the quarters from the water I tossed them in olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and grilled them until golden.
I made a simple mustard mayonnaise from mayonnaise and dijon mustard to serve the artichokes with.

To eat the artichokes you remove the leaves, dip them in the mayonnaise and pull them between your teeth to remove the flesh from their base. As you get further into the centre of the artichoke the leaves contain more flesh and when you reach the heart of the artichoke you realise the whole process has been worthwhile as it is delicious! They may seem unusual and a little scary but really you can't go wrong as anything that is too tough to eat you don't and anything that is tasty and edible you go for it!
Carrying on the Mediterranean theme I made a simple grilled eggplant and red onion pizza. Easy and yummy! Spread a pizza base with tomato pasta sauce and chopped garlic, top with char-grilled eggplant slices and red onion wedges, add sliced haloumi and fresh oregano leaves then cook in oven for about 15 minutes. Top with rocket leaves to serve. Enjoy.
I had some left over grilled vegetables so the next night I made a Mediterranean quiche/pie. I char-grilled some mushrooms and zucchini, added the left over vegetables, chopped garlic and halved cherry tomatoes to the pan and let it cook for 5 minutes. I then cooked a shortcrust pastry base (blind bake for first ten minutes), let it cool, sprinkled in some grated cheese, added the vegetables and poured over some beaten eggs and cream and cooked in the oven until it was firm. Served with salad this made a nice simple week night dinner.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fish Parcels

This recipe is from the cookbook Dinner with the Fishwife by Rachel McGlashan. This is a wonderful book for anyone who likes to cook seafood and is full of simple recipes. These parcels are simply made by placing a fillet of fish onto some baking paper and alfoil and topping with the sauce of your choice. The sauce I used was a Thai sauce of red chilli, garlic, lime zest, lime juice, coriander, fish sauce and coconut cream. You then fold the alfoil onto itself to seal the parcels and cook for 15 minutes in the oven. Cooking the fish in this way is incredibly easy and creates a wonderful sauce. I served mine with steamed vegetables and steamed jasmine rice.
Rating 7 out of 10.

Sahlab

Sahlab is a popular warm milk drink in Egypt and throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. It is traditionally thickened using the ground bulb of the orchid, Ochis Mascula and you can buy this powdered root in speciality Middle Eastern shops. I had this drink at a restaurant recently and was so fascinated by its taste and texture that I had to find a recipe so I could try it at home. The recipe I found substituted the Sahlab mix with cornflour. It can be found at http://www.touregypt.net/recipes/recipeweek01142002.htm Basically you boil milk and then add some cornflour dissolved in a little milk and stir until thick. You then add some rose water or orange-blossum water and sugar. Serve sprinkled with cinnamon and pistachio nuts. This drink smells amazing. I didn't quite get the texture as smooth and thick as it was when I had it at the restaurant but it was still a very warming drink. I was afraid I wouldn't like it as I am not a great milk fan and especially not a fan of boiled milk but the rosewater and cinnamon give it an amazing flavour. Try it!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Beef Wellington

Traditionally Beef Wellington is a fillet steak coated in pate and duxelles (a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms, onions and herbs, sauteed in butter and reduced to a paste), wrapped in puff pastry and baked. This recipe is a little different as it does not use pate and includes a wrapping of prosciutto and crepes. The prosciutto helps the beef to hold its shape while cooking and the crepes stop the beef coming in contact with the pastry and making it soggy.
This recipe was in the Masterchef magazine, Issue 1 and can also be found at http://www.masterchef.com.au/beef-wellington.htm The magazine and website recipes do differ a little.
The first step is to make a crepe mixture. On the website it says to use 2 cups of plain flour, 2 eggs and 2 1/2 cups milk but the magazine only uses 1 cup plain flour, 2 eggs and 1 1/2 cups milk. You only need 4 good crepes and this mixture made 6 to allow for a couple of disasters. I would use the quantities in the magazine.
For the sauce you fry some beef bones (I could only buy ox tail and that seemed to work fine) and then cook them in the oven. The web site says 500g but the magazine says 1kg. Put the bones in a saucepan, drain some fat from fry pan and cook some eschalots, peppercorns, thyme sprigs, bay leaf and garlic. Add some port and red wine and reduce. Add this mixture to the saucepan and pour over some veal stock, boil until reduced to about 2 cups and strain. The website uses less stock (500ml as opposed to 1L) and adds some veal glaze (which is very expensive) which is really not necessary as the resulting jus was deliciously thick and rich as it was. Just before serving you reheat and stir through some butter to give it some shine and extra flavour. You could make the jus the day before and just add the  butter when you reheat it. The website uses 40g of butter but the 20g in the magazine was plenty.
To make the mushroom duxelles you soak some porcini mushrooms (the magazine uses 20g but the website uses 80g..these are very exensive and the 20g was enough) then process them until finely chopped with some swiss brown mushrooms, garlic and eschalots. Cook until reduced to a a thick paste then add in herbs. The website actually cooks the mushrooms, eschalots and garlic before processing!
Next you seal the beef, season and wrap firmly in gladwrap before placing in the fridge to cool (the website skips this step but it does help to give the beef a more even shape).
Lay the prosciutto slices (10 slices) onto some baking paper. The website uses 5 slices Iberico ham.
Spread the mushroom mixture over the top.
Place the beef in the middle and spread with dijon mustard.
Wrap prosciutto and mushroom duxelles around beef.
Lay the 4 crepes onto baking paper and cut out corners to form a cross shape....I trimmed to a rectangle and used my off cuts to make a cross which wasn't quite right (didn't read my recipe properly)!
Wrap the crepes around the beef covering the ends first. Wrap firmly in gladwrap and freeze for 10 minutes (I think you could freeeze for a little longer).
Roll careme puff pastry (this is an all butter hand made puff pastry which is found in delis...not cheap but fantastic to handle and great flavour and puff) onto floured baking paper, cut out corners to form a cross and wrap beef wellington. Cut out a 5cm disc from scraps with a 1cm hole in middle. Cut a 1 cm hole in the top of the pastry on wellington and place disc over it. This allows the steam to excape. Place on a baking paper lined roasting dish or oven tray. Brush with beaten egg yolks and salt and freeze 10 minutes. The website suggests you repeat this process twice.
Cook at 200 degrees C for 35 mins for med-rare or reduce heat to 150-160 degrees C and cook longer if desired. Interestingly the magazine said 25 mins for med-rare for a 800g piece beef and the website said 35 mins for 500g! After 60 mins mine was still pretty rare but my oven does lose a lot of heat when you open it. I would cook 800g for 1 hour 20 mins to get med-well (about 65 degrees C on a meat thermometer) but that is my personal preference!
Rest 15 mins, slice and serve with buttered beans, tarragon sprigs and the wonderful thick brown jus. Tarragon has an aniseed flavour which worked well with the beans. With all the layers this is quite a filling meal and you really don't need potatoes or anything else with it.
Next time I make this I will try to wrap each layer a little more firmly so it holds its shape better when cut. It was fiddly and time consuming but worth it!
Rating 8-9 out of 10.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Seafood Paella, Spiced Beetroot, Blue Cheese, Orange and Mint Salad & Churros with Chilli Chocolate Sauce

The theme of this months cooking club was Spanish as one of the girls had recently done a Spanish cooking class.
The Paella was a seafood and chorizo paella and we used fish, mussels and prawns. The fish we used was cod which unfortunately disintegrated during the cooking process so there were no chunks of fish but I guess it added a nice flavour to the whole dish! To make this paella you fry some chorizo until nice and golden. You then fry some onion and garlic. Next you add the rice and some saffron which has been infused in warm water for 20 minutes and stock (chicken or fish). Cook the rice for 10 minutes then add more stock, sliced roasted capsicum, diced roma tomatoes (skins removed), parsley, mint, peas and white wine if you wish (we forgot the wine as we had had a glass of champagne by then!) and the seafood (steam the mussels first). Serve with lemon wedges if desired. I generally don't like tomato based seafood dishes but I did enjoy this and didn't find it too fishy. I would make it again.
The salad was delicious, colourful and very refereshing with the orange segments. It seemed a strange thing to have with paella but worked well. You could serve it with any meat. To make it you cooked, peeled and chopped some fresh beetroot and tossed it with rocket, mint, orange segments and blue cheese (you could also use goat's cheese). The salad was dressed with red wine vinegar, diced garlic, olive oil, roasted cumin seeds, salt, white pepper and a little orange juice. YUM!
We enjoyed a glass of Sangria with our lunch which completed the Spanish feast well. A basic Sangria is made with red wine, brandy, oranges, lemons, sugar and soda water.
For dessert we made Churros which are basically a Spanish doughnut. To make the dough you heat milk, butter and sugar until boiling and then stir in flour and salt. The dough is cooked for 3-5 minutes whilst being constantly stirred. The dough is then placed in an electric mixer with a paddle along with some eggs and mixed until smooth. We used a bread maker for this step.
To cook the Churros you use a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe lengths of dough into hot oil (we used rice bran oil). It took a while to get the oil at the correct temperature and to work out the best technique of laying the dough into the oil but after a few failed attempts the final result was pretty good. The Churros are dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar and served with a chilli chocolate sauce made from cream, cinnamon, chilli powder, sherry, vanilla pod seeds, orange zest and dark chocolate. The sauce was very rich and had a very strong flavour. The chilli gave a definte after hit and I think would take some getting used to. You certainly didn't need a lot of the sauce and I couldn't quite decide if I liked it or not. The Churros were very more-ish and I know the kids would love them!
Overall a successful cooking club get together and a chance to make some dishes we may never have tried otherwise.

Beef Stroganoff with Parsley Fettucine

This recipe was in the Masterchef magazine, Issue 3 but can also be found at http://www.masterchef.com.au/beef-stroganoff-with-parsley-and-black-pepper-fettuccine.htm  The pasta was a typical egg pasta with the addition of chopped flat leaf parsley and black pepper (which I forgot to add!). Here is the pasta drying over the back of a chair as suggested!
The stroganoff was made using eye fillet and it would be hard to go back to using anything else as the meat was SO tender. The beef strips were coated in sweet paprika, flour and salt before being cooked in olive oil. The meat was then set aside while you fried some sliced swiss brown mushrooms, which I couldn't buy so I used portobello instead, and diced eschalots. Once the onioms were soft you added brandy, tomato paste, beef stock and worcestershire sauce.Finally you added creme fraiche which is a French version of sour cream. It gives a better result in this recipe as it does not split or curdle when boiled. It is thicker and less sour than sour cream but if you can't buy it just use sour cream. Finally the beef is returned to the pan and heated through. I found my stroganoff wasn't quite saucy enough so I added a little extra beef stock. This was a rich, creamy, full of flavour dish with a nice hint of spice from the paprika and worked well with the fresh pasta.
Rating 8 out of 10.

Smoked Salmon filled with Avocado Mousse

This recipe can be found at http://www.avocado.org.au/recipes/recipe_finder.aspx?recipeID=177&SearchString=smoked+salmon A lovely starter idea but would also be nice for a light lunch. The mousse is made by combining avocado, cream cheese, lemon juice, horseradish cream, dill, salt and pepper. To create the mould you line a coffee cup or ramekin with glad wrap. Lie the smoked salmon slices onto the wrap, fill with avocado mix and fold smoked salmon over the top to enclose. To serve you simply turn out onto a plate, drizzle with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil and toast some sliced sourdough. YUM!
Rating 8 out of 10.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Potato Topped Fish and Fennel Pie & Grilled Ricotta Pears

This pie recipe was in the July Masterchef magazine. It was meant to be a snapper pie but I used Wahoo as I had it in the freezer and it worked well. To make this pie you slow cook some fennel and leeks with butter and oil then add flour, white wine and milk. When the sauce is thick you add in dill, lemon zest, dijon mustard, flat leaf parsley and cream. Finally you add in the fish then put in a pie dish and top with thinly sliced potato. Brush with melted butter and cook in the oven before finishing off under the grill. This was a really delicious pie and the fennel gave it a nice flavour.
Rating 8 out of 10.
The pear recipe was also in the July Masterchef magazine. Basically you halved and removed the cores from the pears, sprinkled them with some brown sugar and Amaretto (an almond flavoured liqueur) and grilled them for one minute until caramelised. You then served them topped with ricotta and roasted pine nuts. The flavours were nice but I think this would have been much nicer if the pears had been cooked for longer and were warm and soft.
Rating 4-5 out of 10.

Deep Fried Eggplant & 3 Shot Chicken

This eggplant recipe was sent to me from Japan as part of an email recipe swap. It sounded easy and tasty so I decided to try it. If you want to give it a go you simply half some eggplants (the long thin ones, similar in size and shape to a zucchini). You can leave all the skin on or peel off a few strips with a vegetable peeler. You then make up a rissole mix as you normally would but make sure it is fairly moist. I used beef mince, egg and fresh breadcrumbs with a dash of soy sauce but you could also use chicken or any other mince. You sandwich the mince between the eggplant halves then crumb it with cornflour, beaten egg and fresh breadcrumbs. To make fresh breadcrumbs it is easiest to use frozen bread and process it in a food processor.


You then deep fry the eggplant sandwiches for about 7 minutes in vegetable oil and serve with soy sauce. I thought these were really nice and you could serve them as either an entree or main with rice and salad. The fresh breadcrumbs gave them a lovely crunchy outside.
Rating 8 out 10.
This recipe for 3 shot chicken came from the TV show, Poh's Kitchen and can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s2856349.htm
Basically you braise some dried shitake mushrooms (soak them in warm water for an hour first), carrot and garlic (which you need to poach first) and stir fry them with chicken, shaoxing wine, sweet bean paste and chicken stock. To poach the garlic you place the peeled cloves in  a saucepan with cold water, bring to the boil, strain and repeat this process a total of 3 times. The recipe then tells you to put the stir fry into a clay pot (which I happened to have but you don't need) and add 3 shots, one each of light soy sauce, beer and chilli oil.
I think my chilli oil must have been a very hot one because this dish was HOT! I should have added a little chilli oil at a time but just threw the whole shot in. It was a bit disappointing because I know the flavours would have been fantastic but the chilli made it too hot to be able to appreciate them. I will have to make it again with less chilli oil! I don't think I can even rate this dish because I couldn't really taste it. I did like the concept of adding the 3 shots at the table before serving.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Spicy Beef & Vegetable Stuffed Gothamba Rotis and Beetroot Curry


Both these recipes were from the Sri Lankan section of Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey book and I chose them because I still had quite a lot of Unroasted Sri Lankan Curry Powder left from recently making the Sri Lankan "Curried Eggs".
The Spicy Beef and Vegetable Stuffed Gothamba Rotis are what is known as street food and are eaten hot with sweet chilli sauce. To make the roti bread you simply make a dough from plain flour, warm water and a little ghee or vegetable oil. The dough needs to rest for half an hour before being divided into balls which are placed in a little oil (which makes them easier to shape) and then spread onto a dinner plate into a thin disc shape. You can just cook these discs in a little ghee to serve with curries.
To make the filling you fry onion, garlic, minced beef, crushed dried chillies, curry powder, cabbage, leek, carrots and peas. Once cooked you season with salt and pepper and mix in mashed potato. The mixture is placed on the roti bread and rolled into a rectangular block shape which is cooked in a non-stick pan until all sides are browned. Mine were a little overcooked but still very tasty with the nice crisp outside and very flavoursome filling.
Rating 8 out of 10.
The beetroot curry looked and tasted very unusual! To make it you cut fresh beetroot into batons. Next you fried some cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, crushed cinnamon stick and curry leaves then added onions, garlic and green chillies, Finally you added the curry powder, turmeric, chilli powder, beetroot, chopped tomatoes and salt. The curry was cooked until the beetroot was tender but still had a bit of crunch. The result was a mixture of a stir fry and curry. Before serving you add some lime juice. The curry was tasty and did grow on you but I wouldn't rush to make it again.
Rating 6 out of 10.