Posts tagged Sides

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.

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?

Taste Sydney 2011

Review 7 Comments

Ah, I love food festivals. And Taste Sydney is an excellent example of that. Not only can you get a huge variety of people showcasing their food-wares, you can also get to sample food from all the top restaurants in the one spot!

After having so much fun last year, I absolutely had to go again this year.

But first, we all know that I love free food, and I certainly got a lot of that this weekend!

Free Food!

Johnny Walker had a tent that held tasting sessions (to full tents) every 20 minutes. I would love to tell you more, but I am, quite unfortunately, allergic to alcohol. But it did look interesting though!

One of the sponsors was Regal Salmon, and there were little cups of awesome given out at various points of the festival.

What else can I say? I love salmon, and when you put fresh, raw, salmon, and salmon roe together, I believe that nothing much can go wrong. Seriously yummy.

Tabasco had a booth again this year, and I had to go again. (I am an absolute Tabasco fiend – I carry a small bottle in my handbag always – you never know when you need that burst of flavour on something!) They had dips made with all the different flavours of Tabasco, and Sean and I had a lot of balancing piles of dips on itty bitty crackers.

The omnipresent Pukara estate (I see them at practically every food festival/fair that I go to) had flavoured oils, vinegars and mayos up for tasting.

Little bits of bread on the end of toothpicks were dipped into every flavour and savoured. Most of the flavours were good, but not particularly outstanding, but the blackcurrant vinegar was definitely a winner. I could definitely see ripe, red, succulent strawberries macerating in it. The caramelized balsamic added a syrupy coating to the little cubes of bread, and it’s something that I can eat all day. 

Speaking of little cubes of bread, there was a fantastic selection of yeasty goodness from The Grumpy Baker.

Soft, fluffy sourdough were amongst other offerings, and my absolute favourite was the roasted garlic and olive sourdough. Chunks of smoky roasted garlic and bits of salty olives were threaded through each chewy bite. An om nom nom moment.

Another thing that I love about Taste is the ability to mingle with the chefs!!

Chefs

The crew at Aperitif were a hoot and a half. Miguel Maestre was his charming self as always, and early on in the evening there was quite a bit of friendly banter between Miguel and Manu, who own Aperitif together.

But the thing that makes Taste stand out for me is definitely the Chefs Table. It’s one thing to ask a quick question as you see a chef walk past you, but chances are, they would be busy, and it wouldn’t be nice to disrupt them in the middle of work.

And that’s where the Chefs Table comes in. The chefs take some time out of their busy schedules, and about 20 people get to sit around the table with them and have a chat. You can ask them anything you want, anything, and the answers are fairly candid, but some of the sessions are filled with hilarity.

The very extremely expressive Matt Kemp, who spoke about his start in cooking, working in Balzac…all with wild gestures and a very quick wit.

And this year, the man whom I think is the sexiest chef EVER had been scheduled to speak. He talked about his son, Ready Steady Cook, Aperitif, the best places to eat in London…amongst a myriad of other things.

How sexy is that? And the best part of all is that he has such a wicked sense of humour – every sentence was followed by guffaws of laughter and giddy giggles.

I even managed to get a photo with him!

Other chefs who spoke included Alessandro Pavoni of Ormeggio at the spit and Alex Herbert of Bird Cow Fish.

They both shared insight into the culinary world, and they discussed their experiences in cooking. It was extremely enlightening to hear words of advice from the mouth of experienced chefs. It gave me some ideas and inspiration, which definitely helps with my obsession with food.

The Main Event

The Churros Con Chocolate from Aperitif were fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside, and it was all coated with silky smooth chocolate.

The Regal King Salmon carpaccio with orange segments, citrus and chardonnay vinegar dressing, shaved fennel, salmon roe, baby herbs and crispy salmon skin might have been a mouthful to order, but it was a delicious mouthful nonetheless. it was all wonderfully balanced – my only gripe about it was that I felt the salmon skin wasn’t quite as crispy as I had hoped it would be, but in the grand scheme of things it was good.

The Regal King Salmon curado with chilli and star anise tasted good, but personally I couldn’t really taste the chilli nor the star anise. All I could taste was the dill with the firm flesh of the salmon, which, I’m really not complaining about.

To follow my salmon obsession, Balzac’s Seared Regal Salmon with a salad of pomogranate, mint and feta was light and refreshing, with the just amount of tang and sweetness. Very good for a hot and sticky day.

And how can I visit a food fair and not sample one of Manu’s creations. The Slow cooked shoulder of lamb, smoked potato puree and jus had the deep mature flavours that I absolutely love about lamb. Every bite just falls apart in your mouth, and the puree leaves a lingering sense of luxurious creaminess.

Dank Street Depot & Cotton Duck’s Stone fruit roasted with home cured pancetta, verjuice and chilli was glorious in all its succulent, salty, garlicky goodness. Every mouthful was an absolute joy, and Dank Street Depot never disappoints. I’m still dreaming about last year’s Watermelon Smoked Ribs.

Now if you’re in the market for a heart attack, then Balzac’s Saddle of suckling pig with baby garden peas is for you. According to Matthew Kemp, the suckling pig is smothered in duck fat, slow cooked in a vacuum pack, deep fried, then covered in a buttery sauce. Oh, and the peas apparently have bacon bits too. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then the road to coronary failure must be paved with mouthfuls of this delectable, melt-in-your-mouth dish. Definitely something I couldn’t get enough of.

On the lighter side of pork, Four in Hand’s offering of Confit of pork belly with Squid, Chorizo and Chickpea was a hearty dish indeed. It invoked memories of rich winter stews and the aroma of ripe, fresh tomatoes. Not quite as impressive for me as the saddle of suckling pork, but not bad at all!

And there were a couple of desserts that we absolutely had to try. 

The Ricotta Fritters with berries and honey were soft sweet balls of lovely. For some reason, they reminded me of very sophisticated jam doughnuts!

On a side note, Sean and I were just having a discussion about how many cultures seemed to have somehow have created a dish involving fried dough sometime through history. There are doughnuts, 油条 you tiao, roti prata, churros…Every culture seems to have come up with a dish that includes flour, moisture and hot oil.

But anyway, back to the food.

The final dish that we had for the day was Otto Ristorante’s Amadei milk chocolate mousse with salted caramel and fresh berries. The mouse was light and lovely, and an excellent foil to the rich, dense salted caramel that it hid within. This was a dessert to share for sure. It was one of those ones where we really felt like we wanted much more, but knew that we absolutely couldn’t have any more of the rich stuff.

As Sean and I waddled slowly out of Taste, patting our satisfied tummies, we made the decision that we absolutely have to go back next year. We had an absolute blast, and can’t wait for the next one!

And to leave you, I will end with this hilarious picture of the sexy Manu.

LOL.

I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly

Food For Thought

I got a lovely present in the mail the other day – Aeroplane Jelly sent me some goodies for Australia Day! Boxes of Lime and Lemon Jelly (Green and Gold) to help me unleash my psychedelic jelly fantasies. =)

And so, I present to you…

My Andy Warhol colours inspired sandcastle beach scene. I mixed Blueberry and Lime jelly for the “sea”, and layered Lime and Lemon jelly for my sandcastle, with a heap of buttered biscuit crumbs for the “sand”.

=)

Happy Australia Day!

She Don’t Use Jelly

Recipe 6 Comments

Well, actually I do! =) I am absolutely addicted to Jelly Slice, and this easy recipe is my new favourite thing to make. It’s a cheap option and always a great hit at a party!!

Jelly Slice Recipe:

85g Jelly Crystals
395g can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 tsp Gelatine
Juice of 1 lemon
50g butter
Biscuits (I used Milk Arrowroot)

Crush the biscuits for the biscuit base. How many biscuits you use  depends on how thick you’d like the base to be. I used about 7 biscuits for the tin that I used. Melt the butter, and mix that in with the crushed biscuits. It should look like wet sand.

Press the biscuit into the tin and place the tin into the fridge while you make the other layers.

Use about 1/4 cup of boiling water to dissolve the gelatine. Once that’s done, add the lemon juice and the condensed milk. Pour that onto the biscuit base and leave to set in the fridge.

Once the condensed milk layer is set, mix up the packet of jelly crystals with 1 cup of boiling water. Leave to cool to about room temperature, then carefully pour that into the tin and leave in the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

Cut up the slice and serve!! Absolutely great for a hot summer’s day. =) 

The gift of food!

Recipe 5 Comments

My friend Mel once commented that I show people I love them by feeding them. And that’s absolutely true. I love giving food away, and I love putting in effort to tailor it to people’s individual tastes. =) So this year, I made sauces to give away at Christmas! First up, the easiest Raspberry Jam ever!

Raspberry Jam:

1.5 kg raspberries (fresh or frozen)
1.5 kg sugar
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Sterilize your jars how you wish. I wash them thoroughly in hot water, before placing them on a tray in a cold oven and setting the oven to 110C (without fan).

Soften the raspberries in a large pot over low heat, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, put four little saucers in the freezer. Once the berries get going, add the lemon juice.

Once the berries have softened to your liking, add the sugar. Now this is the important bit. Bring it up to the boil and cook the jam, stirring often. DO NOT WALK AWAY, IT WILL BURN. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. :S

Skim off any scum that comes up to the surface with a slotted spoon or a mesh skimmer.

The jam will start to thicken after about 15 – 20 min and this is the point that you start testing for ‘wrinkling’. Take the pot briefly off the heat and spoon a tablespoonful of jam onto a frozen saucer. Place it back in the freezer for 30 sec. Take it out and run your finger through it. If the surface of the jam wrinkles and you can draw a clear line through it, then your jam is done!!

Ladle very careful (it is VERY hot) into sterilized jars and seal. Leave to cool.

1.5 kg of berries yields slightly under 1kg of jam.

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Next, homemade Tomato Sauce!

Tomato Sauce

2.5 kg of ripe tomatoes (get the best that you can find)
2.5 cups cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp whole peppercorns
2 tbsp cloves
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp smokey paprika
3 cloves garlic
1 med onion, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
0.5 cup gin/vodka (optional)

Sterilize jars. (See Raspberry Jam recipe)

Roughly chop up the tomatoes and place in a large pot. Place the vinegar in and cook over low-med heat, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, place the cloves and the peppercorn in a piece of muslin and tie with string. Submerge this in the mixture in the pot.

After the tomatoes start to soften, put the rest of the ingredients in and bring to the boil. Then simmer and reduce the sauce slightly. When you are happy with the taste of the sauce, take the spice pouch out. Keep reducing the sauce till you get a thick-ish, lumpy mixture. Take the pot off the heat. Many recipes now tell you to strain out the sauce, but why would you waste all that goodness??? I use a stick blender and carefully blend all the ingredients into a smooth sauce.

Return to the heat bring back to the boil. Ladle into sterilized jars, seal and let cool overnight.

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And finally…

Barbecue Sauce

Tomato Sauce
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Brown Sugar
Soy Sauce
Chillies
Pepper
Rum (optional)

Sterilize jars. (See Raspberry Jam recipe)

Put all the ingredients into a pot (I used the remainder from my tomato sauce. The amount of each depends on your personal taste.) and reduce to desired consistency, stirring occasionally.

Ladle into sterilized jars, seal and let cool overnight.

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Et voila! Three bottles of love to give to your family and friends. And there are plenty of things to gift these with – cheese, barbecue spice mix, an apron…or turn up to a barbecue bearing these and I’m sure they’ll be a hit! Or make Jam Drops with the jam and gift those instead! So many ideas, and so much love. =)

Merry (belated) Christmas everyone, and a happy new year!

Get Egg-cited!

Recipe 4 Comments

Yeah so the title’s a bad pun – but you try punning “aubergine”! haha.

I love marinaded eggplant, but sheesh are they expensive! So I decided to make my own. I saw the instructions in a magazine somewhere, but I’m really doing this from memory, and you can add whatever spices you’d like too.

Marinaded Eggplant:

Ingredients
Eggplant
Red Wine Vinegar/ Apple cider vinegar
Salt
Olive Oil
Garlic
Whole Black Peppers
Dried Chilli Flakes

So, grab your eggplant and slice it. Half a centimetre is good, but if you like it chunky you can go a bit thicker.

I also sliced them horizontally instead of longways because I like smaller chunks to put on platters, and I find that it’s way easier to cut them before rather than after.

Then line a colander with paper towels, and then line that with eggplant. Sprinkle liberally with salt, then repeat with paper towels and eggplants.

Leave for 6hrs or overnight. Then make a one to one mixture of vinegar plus water, and gently poach the eggplant in batches.

Drain on more paper towels, then place in a single layer in a pan (or griddle if you have one – a griddle will give you the lovely chargrill marks) on high heat and grill till brown.

Meanwhile, crush some garlic. You want them just lightly crushed to leech the garlic flavour into the oil, but not into a paste.

Layer eggplant, garlic, whole black peppers, and some (very little!) rock salt in a sterilized*, heat proof container.

Jars and glassware works really well. Then just heat up some olive oil and pour over the eggplant! The hot oil will get the flavours in the jar to meld and be really yummy.

You can use all sorts of spices – cardamom, fennel and tumeric is next on my list to try.It is a bit finicky, and uses a lot of kitchenware, but I assure you that the result it worth it!

*To sterilize glassware, wash in warm soapy water, then place in a 100C oven till dry.

Lord of the Fries

Review 9 Comments

I went to Melbourne for a quick trip, and I just had to try Lord of the Fries! As you know, I kinda have an obsession with fries. You can choose different sauces for your fries, and that’s where the variety comes in. We had French Canadian (Cheese and gravy – pictured below), Indian (Indian spices (?) and mango chutney pictured above) and Mexican (Salsa and Sour Cream).

To be honest, as great as the fries sound, it wasn’t all that crash hot. The fries were wayyyy overcooked and stale, and the Indian sauce was uninspiring. The French Canadian was ok, but I’m pretty sure that it’s no where close to poutine and just tastes a lot like chips and gravy.

We requested the salsa to be served on the side, and they completely forgot the sour cream! We actually had another order with aoli sauce, but they completely forgot that too. It’s so disappointing, and it’s not like they were really quick about it. We could finish just about a whole soft-serve before the food even came out. The salsa was also very watery and doesn’t have the chunk that you’d associate with really good salsa.

It was a lot better when I went previously, but I think that it was because we went to the LOTF in the city. Just yeah.

Disappointing.

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Being Cheesy

Recipe 8 Comments

So, after raving about the cheese bread in my review of Braza, I was inspired to try making them!

I got the recipe from this page, and tweaked it just a little because I kinda ran out of flour halfway. *sheepish*

Brazillian Cheese Bread (from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup olive oil or butter
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk or soy milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups tapioca (arrowroot) flour (I mixed it in with some cornflour cause I ran out of tapioca flour)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 beaten eggs
 
Preheat your oven to 190C (375F)
 
Put all the wet ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Please use a saucepan that’s big enough to incorporate all the ingredients – it’s like making chioux pastry, you will add the other ingredients into this pan. 
Once it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat. Stir in the flour, garlic and salt till well combined. Rest for 15 minutes. 
After resting, stir in the eggs and cheese, until well combined. It’ll be a bit lumpy, and for me, it was just a bit thicker than a successful chioux batter.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased, lined baking try (it’s going to practically fry in its own oil) and chuck into the oven till golden brown. 
And voila!

It’s pretty close to what I had, except that mine was had slightly more texture to it – not enough liquid maybe? Sean says that he prefers the crispier outside though, so it all worked out! The inside was also lovely, squishy and chewy, so that’s perfect for me. It’s so moreish too!! Be careful when you make it – I would suggest a double batch cause you’ll just end up snacking on the first batch while waiting for the rest to come out of the oven!!

Great for parties for sure. :D:D

Clap Your Hands to the Beet

Recipe 5 Comments

 Roast beetroot is AWESOME! I didn’t quite know what to make of them at first, but I was introduced, and it was yummy. So. I saw a roasted beetroot salad recipe by Jamie Oliver – when he was in Stockholm – and I just had to try it. I made some very minor adjustments, but otherwise, it’s just full of yummy goodness.

Ingredients:
Fresh Beetroot
Dill
Chives
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar

Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast in a 180C oven for about 40 min to 1 hour. To me, the way to tell a beetroot’s cooked is pretty much the way you’d tell a potato’s cooked – you stick a fork in and if it gives, it’s cooked.

Dice the beetroot into bite-sized pieces. Season liberally with salt and pepper, then add a liberal splash of good quality olive oil and vinegar (once I didn’t have red wine vinegar and used brown – it was fine). Snip some dill and chives in, and mix.

Et voila! Awesome, simple beetroot salad that frankly, I eat as a main. And beetroot salad is apparently very VERY good for you. =) =)

All win in my book.