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Flavoured Salts

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What do you do when beautiful ruby red plump juicy truss tomatoes are in season and on sale? Inspired by both Chow.com’s bloody mary salt recipe and that tomatoes are in season, I decided to try making Bloody Mary Salt.

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This salt is great for finishing a steak, rimming the glass of your favourite cocktail, or on your eggs in the morning! Or a medley of other ideas that your hunger can come up with.

You’ll need:

For the dried tomatoes (the original recipe just calls for sun-dried tomatoes that are not packed in oil)
3 ripe truss tomatoes
Olive Oil
Sea Salt

Other ingredients:
Tobasco Sauce
Worchestershire Sauce
Sea Salt Flakes

First the tomatoes. Feel free to use bought dried tomatoes and skip this step – I just felt that it was such a waste of such marvelous produce!

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.

Slosh a few glugs of olive oil (don’t over do it, trust me) over tomato halves in a roasting tray.

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Liberally sprinkle sea salt over the tomatoes. Don’t worry about over-salting – this is the basis for a flavoured salt, so having the tomatoes on the salty side to start off with is not going to matter much.

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Roast the tomatoes till they are nice and juicy, with a slightly charred edge. Take the tomatoes out of the oven and leave to cool.

Now for the tricky part. If you have a dehydrator (like I do – it was a moment of weakness!), use it. Otherwise, set your fan forced oven on the lowest heat setting, and arrange the tomato halves on a cake rake that’s placed over a roasting tray. Leave the tomatoes till they are dried out – they should still be slightly pliable, but dry to the touch. If you used too much oil when roasting the tomatoes, then they’ll be slightly oily to the touch as well.

***If you’re using store bought dried tomatoes, start reading here***

With your fan-forced oven still on the lowest heat setting, drizzle some Tobasco sauce and Worchestershire sauce on the dried tomatoes. Leave in the oven to dry out completely. The original recipe called for the tomatoes to be first cut into strips, but I quite like the pooling of the sauce in some parts of the tomatoes, giving a stronger flavour.

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Either way, the tomatoes do have to end up in strips.

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Then place the tomato strips in a food processor or spice grinder with some sea salt – don’t plonk the whole packet in! – and start pulsing. The initial salt will help stop the tomato from sticking together. Then just add salt till you’re happy with it. I kinda wished that I’d added a little less salt so you get more of the tomato, but at the end of the day, it’s a finishing salt, so how wrong can you go? =)

Also, salt recipe not complicated enough for you? YOU WANT MORE???!!!!

*evil laugh*

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Excuse the bad picture.

Some time ago, I had this idea in my head that I wanted to make a clear bloody mary. I was experimenting with gazpacho recipes, and realised that fresh tomato juice is actually…clear.

So.

I pureed the extra truss tomatoes, a couple of sticks of celery, part of a clove of garlic, and strained the lot in a clean piece of muslin.

Then, just rim a shot glass with the bloody mary salt by going round the edge with a wedge of lemon, then dipping it in the salt.

Add a touch of vodka into the shotglass, and then top up with the tomato/vegetable juice.

Et voila!!!! A clear interpretation of a bloody mary. =)

I hope you’ve enjoyed my interpretation of this recipe, and if you’ve read this far, I thank you muchly!!

I’ll try to squeeze in another post before Christmas, but if I don’t, Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Leftover Pizza!

what i ate 2 Comments

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Not that the pizza was leftover…rather it was pizza made out of left overs.

One weekend I really felt like olives and roasted red peppers. I thought, “Hmm, why not make a sandwich with all those toppings? Ooh I could make them like little pizzas. But wouldn’t they be too small. I could make pizza dough and make real pizzas instead!”

So I made pizza dough. My train of thought always gets me in trouble.

It was quite a bit of effort, but on behalf of everyone who ate it – Sean and myself – it was really worth it effort. And there’s something about kneading dough that makes me happy.

I simply used this pizza dough recipe from Taste, and covered the pizza with tomato paste and with whatever leftovers I had in the fridge! I had:

  • Roasted red peppers – I bought red capsicum in bulk and chucked them all in a 200C fan-forced oven till they were all blackened. I then covered the tray with foil and let it cool. After it cooled, I just peeled off the skin and took out the stem with seeds. Then, I just put them into a sterilised jar and keep them in the fridge!
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Finely chopped garlic
  • Chopped Bacon
  • Haloumi
  • Misc Cheese – I had some tasty cheese, a little block of parmesan and a teeny tiny bit of mozerella left over.
  • Olives

The recipe for the pizza dough yielded two medium cookie trays worth of pizzas, which means as much experimenting as you want!!

Just remember to oil the bottom of the trays before you stretch the dough onto them.

Yum.

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Bacon Pancakes

Recipe 5 Comments

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After watching Man Vs Food – Season 3, Episode 2 where host Adam Richman goes to The Buff Restaurant in Boulder Colorado – I decided that bacon in pancakes was a really really good idea. There were a couple of things that I took away from the episode:

  • The bacon was first baked, not fried.
  • The pancakes were semi-cooked before pieces of bacon were pressed into them.
  • It was all then topped with a ‘basted egg’ which, from what I could gather, was a part poached, part steamed sunny side up egg. 

So I decided to do a little experiment. I laid some bacon out on a tray, and put them in the oven. While that was in there, I decided to fry some bacon.

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The fried bacon turned out curly, with more extreme caramelization.

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The baked bacon seemed more evenly browned, and turned out flat pieces that were more easily pressed into the pancakes, and prevented the batter overspill that happened with the curly bacon. It’s all personal preference, really.

The pancakes used in the show were, I think, buttermilk pancakes. I used my own recipe for pancakes, but feel free to use whichever one you want.

Breakfast Pancakes:

1 cup self raising flour (or one cup plain with a teaspoon of both baking powder and baking soda)
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk

Mix all the ingredients together, being careful not to overmix. Heat a pan to medium and lightly coat with oil. Ladle the mixture into the pan. When bubbles start appearing and the pancakes start setting, place cooked pieces of bacon onto the still-slightly-runny batter. Flip the pancakes.

Serve with maple syrup.

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The final part of this awesome breakfast dish is, of course, the basted eggs. For this, you need a frying pan, a lid, egg, water, and a little bit of oil.

Basted Eggs

Eggs
Water

Preheat a lightly oiled pan to medium heat. Use butter for an extra richness. Crack an egg (or two!) into the pan. As the whites start to set, add about a teaspoon of water, and cover with the lid. I used a glass lid, which allows me to monitor the eggs, but my stove’s medium heat has my eggs done in about 30 seconds. This does take a little bit of trial and error, but it does pay off in the end.

Don’t believe me?

Here’s the money shot.

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The most perfectly runny, silky eggs ever.

Well worth the effort. =)

The Wheels on the bus go round and round…

Recipe 8 Comments

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It’s that time of the year again. Sean’s birthday is coming up, and I usually start trying out possible cake ideas in the June/July region. This year’s idea was inspired by Sean’s obsession with the large, individually-packed Wagon Wheels that he gets from work.

The result? A Wagon Wheel cake!

Very much an assembly cake, the elements of this cake can be made the day before – in fact, I recommend it – and assembled on the day.

Wagon Wheel Cake

Butter cake:
250g softened butter
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1.5 cups sifted plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 160 (fan forced). Cream the butter and sugar till the sugar has dissolved, and add the eggs, one and a time, until all the eggs have been incorporated. Fold in the flour, baking soda and baking powder until all the flour has been mixed into the batter, but do not over mix. Split the mixture amongst two circular cake tins and bake till the tops are golden brown and springy to the touch (about 20-25 min). Leave to cool in tins.

Marshmallow filling:

3 tbsp powdered gelatin
1 cup sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 reliable thermometer

Add the gelatin to the bottom of your mixing bowl and let soak with 3 tbsp water. In a pot, add the sugar and 1 cup of water and bring to the boil. You want to bring this to the ‘soft-ball’ stage, which is about 118C/235F. Be careful, sugar syrups can get VERY HOT and you can injure yourself.

Once the sugar gets to the correct temperature, turn on your electric beaters on the gelatin and slowly, SLOWLY pour the sugar syrup onto the gelatin.

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The marshmallow mixture will start to froth, and it will begin to resemble a meringue. Add the vanilla. As the mixture cools, it will start to thicken, and the idea is to whip it till you get hard peaks.

Lightly oil and dust (with icing mixture – pure icing sugar isn’t dry enough, you do need some of the cornflour in icing mixture) the same cake tins that you baked your cake in.

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Add just enough marshmallow mixture to fill about half the tin. Leave to set for a couple of hours (depending on the humidity of where you’re at) or overnight.

You will almost certainly have more than enough mixture, and you can go ahead and experiment and add different flavours and colours to the remainder of the mixture and set it in different tins!

Jam:

You can use any good jam that you like, or you can make your own. For this project, I used some lovely Anathoth Jam.

Assembly:

First, grab a layer of cooled cake.

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Then, top with the set marshmallow and a generous dollop of jam.

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Then top with the second layer of cake.

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Ganache:
100g thickened cream
175g dark chocolate buttons

Bring the cream to a boil over medium heat. Take the cream off the heat, and pour in the chocolate buttons. Stir well.

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Keep stirring as the ganache cools. When it reaches spreadable consistency, cover the cake in ganache!

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And voila! A wagon wheel cake that is both yummy and appeals to large and small kids alike. I cut some ‘bite marks’ out of the cake with a spoon because otherwise it just looks like a chocolate cake. =)

Oh, and a note about working with chocolate.

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It gets absolutely everywhere. =)

From Spiders to Water Lilies

Recipe 2 Comments
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Ooh look what I got in the mail!! =)

I was very excited to get send a copy of From Spiders to Water Lilies, a collection of Cambodian recipes of food that’s featured in Romdeng, a restaurant that is a project of Friends International, and that is run by children who were picked up off the street.

First of all, let me say that I would have bought this beautifully printed book even if I wasn’t sent it because I believe in the cause. I believe that food is not just nourishment for the body, but also nourishment for the soul, and when children are placed in unfortunate circumstances, food can definitely be used as a tool to help them reach for whatever future they would like to reach for.

Secondly, I can’t believe just how yummy the food is!!!! I’ve never been to Cambodia, and I knew that because of the geographical proximity, there will be certain elements that are similar to many South East Asian food. But what I didn’t realise was that – even though in some recipes there are elements of sour, salty, sweet – the combination is just so new and absolutely delicious!

And so, I’m very happy to share with you…

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Spicy Mushroom Dip:
Recipe taken from From Spiders to Water Lilies: Creative Cambodian Cooking with Friends, Pg 28.

1 tsp Fish Sauce
2 tbsp Sunflower Oil
4 Garlic cloves, chopped
2 tbsp *Chilli Paste
80g Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
1.5 tsp Palm Sugar
1 tbsp **Tamarind Paste
3 tbsp stock
Salt to taste
Thai basil leaves, thinly slices, for garnish

Wash the mushrooms under cold water then soak for 20 min in hot water. Discard stems then finely chop the remainder. Heat oil and stir fry garlic till fragrant. Add chilli paste, fish sauce, palm sugar, mushrooms and tamarind paste. Fry for 5 min and season with salt. Place in a bowl, top with basil leaves and serve with vegetables and bread.

*There is a recipe for chilli paste in the book, but if you don’t have the time (or are afraid that your clothes and house is going to smell like chilli for a while) then I think that sambal (the fried kind, not the fresh kind) is a good and convenient substitute.

**I used a mixture of bottled Tamarind paste and lime juice.

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I found the recipe relatively easy to do. I made my own chilli paste, but ran into a few issues – I forgot to deseed the chillies, and for some reason, my chillies simply refused to rehydrate to the level that I needed. As a result, the dip didn’t seem as fiery red as was shown in the picture in the book, but it was still delish!

I toasted some multi-grain wholemeal bread and Sean practically scoffed the whole lot. And that is coming from a person who does not like mushrooms. At all. I very happily had it for lunch the next day, and the guys at the office seemed to like it too.

In all, I adore the book. I love that it’s for a good cause – the proceeds of the book goes back into Friends-International projects – and it is beautifully photographed and printed. The recipes are nicely broken down, and most of them are relatively quick. Yes, there are quite a few ingredients that are foreign or hard to find, but the book has a great section both in the front and the back of the book that tell you about substitutions that you can use.

Definitely a book that makes me want to go to Cambodia and try the food first hand.

Tammi of Insatiable Munchies was given this book by the lovely people at Beyond the Square Communication.

Comfort Eating 2

Recipe 5 Comments

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As some of you may know, I’ve been a little bit under the weather recently. And in those moments where I think the flu is going to get the better of me, I turn to some comfort eating!

For me, anyway, the best foods to have when I’m sick are semi-solids. I get the works in terms of the flu – burning lungs, solidly stuffed nose, pounding headaches – and eating (although always a priority) is not the most attractive thing.

So here is how I make my congee – a simple recipe that even the partner (who may not be the best in the kitchen!) can make.

Congee recipe

Cooking time: 30 min (roughly)
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Raw Rice (long or short grain is fine. If you have broken rice, it’s better!)
Water (1L minimum)
1 tsp Sesame seed oil (optional)

Warm the sesame seed oil in a saucepan over medium heat (make sure that it’s big enough to accommodate the porridge!) and add the rice in. Once it’s fragrant and the rice starts to fry a little, start adding about 2 cups of the water.

Once the water starts boiling, stir the rice occasionally. For the rice to get to rice porridge stage, it first has to go through cooked-rice stage.

Once the rice grains have puffed up, add more water and reduce the heat to low. Simmer and stir occasionally till the porridge has become the consistency of oats.

You can have it a little more watery or a little thicker if you’d like, and it’s easy to add water to thin it out or cook it a little longer to thicken it.

And as with any sort of plain porridge, condiments are usually in order!

The first jar that I reach for is usually Olive Vegetables (橄榄菜）.

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These salty black strands are a source of addiction for me. It has the common savoury taste of olives, and is quite oily. Use sparingly, as this is – as most rice porridge condiments are – incredibly salty. I would suggest, if you were going to get a bottle to try, trying a small amount on a teaspoon before you unload a whole lot into your bowl.

I also like Mushroom and Meat Sauce 香菇肉酱

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Thick pieces of fatty-ish pork and mushroom sit in a slightly gelatinous chilli sauce. More people who haven’t grown up with congee tend to take to this particular condiment more easily than the Olive Vegetables. It is still on the salty side, and you can warm it before eating, if you’d like.

The two that I’ve mentioned are of course not the only condiments out there for congee, but it’s definitely the two that I always have around in the house. Some others include Salted Duck Egg with its luminescent yolk, and Fish with Salted Black Beans. These condiments are served like the Korean Banchan – many small plates dotting the table – and the more variety the better!

I hope that this helps widen the types of comfort food you can have when you’re sick (or not! I’d have congee any day, but more so when I’m sick)- I know that this often provides me with warmth and something really easy to eat.

When the Moon hits your eye…

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That’s right, I made a Pizza Pie! Thoroughly inspired by Muppy’s Pizza Campofranco, I thought, “I’m not up for making pastry on a week night, but I LOVE the idea of the layered pizza!”

The answer? A Pizza Pie! It is easy, and takes barely any effort at all.

Leftover Pizza Pie
You’ll need:
Chorizo, sliced
Bacon, chopped (Or any other meat that you’d like to put into your pizza)
400g Tinned tomatoes
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 medium Onion, chopped
Mozerella cheese
Basil
Puff Pastry, Defrosted

First, sauté the garlic and onions in two tablespoons of olive oil till golden. Next, tip 400g tinned diced tomatoes into the pan and simmer on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till the tomatoes reduces to a thick sauce.

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While the tomato sauce is reducing, fry off your selection of meat.

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When all your ingredients are ready to go, lay down a sheet of puff pastry (I used frozen) onto the pie dish of your choice. Next, layer the tomato sauce, meat, basil and cheese.

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I used some pumpkin purée as well as I had some steamed pumpkin left over. The idea of this is to add whatever you feel like, because at the end of the day, it’s your pie! Cover with another layer of puff pastry and fold in the corners. Bake in a 180-200 C oven till golden brown.

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And there you have it! A quick, yummy weekday evening treat that took barely anytime to make at all. And the best part is that anything in your pantry goes! Which means that you don’t have to scrounge around for a particular ingredient, or make that mid week dash into the shops.

Enjoy!

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Spaghetti and Meatballs

Recipe

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I’ve been contributing to The Eclectic Chef lately, so apologies that I’m not posting as frequently as before!! I’ve got a new recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs – it’s super easy and tasty! =)

Find it here at The Eclectic Chef.

Feeling like a tart?

Recipe 2 Comments

I decided to have some people over the other day, and I’ll be honest – I was absolutely freaking out about what I’d serve. I knew that I only wanted finger food – it’s really hard to cater to everyone’s tastes – and I wanted variety. The answer, tarts! These mini tarts are so easy to make, and you can absolutely go nuts with the filling!

All you need for the tart shells are defrosted sheets of puff pastry (you can buy them from the supermarket) and a metal egg ring. The metal egg ring gives you the perfect size of pastry to make a shallow cup at the bottom of a muffin tin. I didn’t do any blind baking – the tarts were fine without it, IMO.

And now for the filling. I did three varieties, all in advance, but what you put in your tarts are limited only to your imagination!

Spinach and Ricotta
250g frozen spinach, defrosted
1 L full cream milk
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 clean square of muslin
Salt to taste
1 egg
Parmesan, grated (optional)

How to make ricotta:

This is so simple, I never buy ricotta anymore.

Heat the milk till small bubbles start to form.

Add the vinegar and give it one stir. ONE ONLY.

Let it rest for about 15 minutes, then use a slotted spoon to ladle the curd into a clean square of muslin, laid over a colander. Tie the corners around a wooden spoon and hang over a pot/bowl for about an hour.

Et voila! Ricotta. 1 litre of milk makes about 250g of ricotta.

For the rest of the filling:

Preheat your oven to 180C. 

Squeeze out all the excess water from the spinach. Mix the spinach, ricotta, stock powder, and egg together, and spoon into prepared, raw tart cases. Top, if you like, with grated parmesan, and bake for about 20 min or until golden brown.

Caramelised Onion

3 Medium Onions
2 tbsp brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic
1 medium red chilli
1/8 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
Splash of soy sauce
Splash of Mirin (optional)
Feta

Finely slice the onions, and finely dice the garlic and chilli.

Sauté the onions in the olive oil (over medium heat) with the garlic, chilli and salt until the onions turn translucent.

Add the sugar, vinegar and salt to the pan and cook till the mixture reduces.

Finally, deglaze the pan with the mirin, and leave to cool.

Fill each tart shell and crumble some feta on top. Bake till golden brown.

And finally…

Vegetable medley
Char-grilled Capsicums
Marinated eggplant
Semi Dried Tomatoes
Garlic, finely diced
Grated parmesan

Chop all the ingredients (use as much or as little as you like), and fill tart shells. Top with grated parmesan and bake till golden brown.

And that’s it! It’s so easy, and you can serve heaps of people without much worry!

How about you? What are your favourite party recipes?