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A pictorial of the family Christmas 2005 feast featuring:
Prawns...
Chicken...
Ham and tuna terrine with potatoes...
Roast pork and crackling...
Roast turkey stuffed with apricot, cranberry and rice, and glazed with mango chutney...
Fresh garden salad...
Chicken broth braised vegetables...
Pasta bake...
Rice paper rolls...
... all served on casual plastic dining ware, with a fruit salad punch for drinks.
An amazing range of desserts designed and made by kids, including a beautiful blue jelly to go with an iced fruit salad, just perfect for an Australian Christmas ....
Chocolate coated cherries....
Fruit Kebabs....
Fruit Kebabs with chocolate dip...
Cathy Roadrunner crafted a platter of rice paper rolls in record time by soaking all the rice sheets at the same time...
Tiny Tom smartly perfected popcorn in the microwave counting to 3 pops per second....
Ninja Nath designed chocolate cherries, with maths and computer...
Princess presented the simple BLUE jelly, which gave everyone a chill down the spine throat....
Chubby Chup tossed the salad and made sure there was plenty to go round....
... so this was Christmas 2005 for the kids and the young at heart.
Entree
Prosciutto-wrapped rockmelon with oregano red wine vinaigrette
Mains
Kettle BBQ chicken seasoned with Italian herbs and olive, and stuffed with lemon, Jamie Oliver style
Served with roasted garlic, capsicum, potatoes and zucchini
Dessert
A spectacular composite of white truffleand macademia caramel ice-cream with sliced banana, goat cheese and hazelnut ice-cream with blue cheese shortbread, glaced wattleseed figs, and wattleseed biscotti.
After many hours of drooling over Chubby Hubby's Truffle Menu, Noodle Cook dreams no more and starts to scheme long and hard for a truffle dinner. John the "Secret Reviewer" simply adores cooking. With a jar of black truffle as a Christmas present and the loan of Stephanie Alexander's cookbook, Cooking and Travelling in Southwest France, Noodle's dream starts to come true ... at least after Christmas.
A Christmas wattleseed biscotti using a recipe adapted from Aaron Edmond's recipe found in the Spice Magazine. The beautiful texture comes from a mixture of cranberries, pinenuts and pepitas (pumpkin seeds). The biscotti tastes strongly of roasted hazelnuts with hints of chocolate from the wattleseeds. Strongly recommended as a Christmas Cake substitute with ice cream, such as Noodle Cook's caramel version with white truffle oil and macadamia.
The holidays are here....
kids everywhere
non stop entertainment
activities on the go
messy pantry
empty fridge
chaos
Band-aid and Detol on the ready
spilt drinks
presents, presents, presents
piano, flute, cello, violin
... music to the ears now they're here!
Congratulation to all Paper Chef winners, yes that's everybody! Since the last Pre-Christmas post left over a week ago, your gifts won't arrive in time before the new year for those outside of Australia. Due to the smaller than expected number of participants, everyone gets a spice sampler, with recipes, bundled with the Spice Magazine. Recipients outside of Australia also get a pack of "Australian Billy Tea" with gum leaves to enjoy while singing "Waltzing Maltida", and perhaps after eating Alanna's Swagman Stew.
Initially the sampler spice packs (from Barbushco) came flat packed to make use of letter air mail to reduce postage and for speedy deliver. The later spice samplers, packaged in cardboard, contain coarsely ground spices and some whole ones. Unless you have a specific request, these sampler packs will be randomly distributed.
Sampler from OzTukka:
Lemon myrtle (dried and ground)
Wattle seed(roasted and ground)
Mountain pepper leaf (dried and ground)
Mountain pepper berries (whole)
Bush tomatoes (whole)
Sampler from Barbushco:
Lemon Myrtle
Wattleseed
Aniseed Myrtle
Dorrigo Pepper
Rainforest Blend
Rainforest Blend is a blend of Lemon Myrtle, Cinnamon Myrtle with a dash of Chilli for Asian style stirfry and curries.
Happy holidays to everyone, and keep safe for the new year where we will battle again for the Paper Chef crown on 6th January 2006. Check for details at Tomatilla towards the end of the December.
After much deliberation over a missing email, the judges are back with the results! The virtual tasting was a lot of fun, but its time to get straight to business and hand the Paper Chef crown to the next worthy winner who will be next month's judge. There are also special awards to recognise the contributions of participants.
Now the obligatory thank-you speech. Thanks goes to...
Finalists
Anne - Anne's Food - Stockholm, Sweden - Fried Rice with Turkey and Saffron
"A very clever use of leftover turkey combined with the given recipes, given a golden touch by the wonderful christmas-y saffron." As they say yesterday's rice is today's fried rice. Nothing says super saver than fried rice.
Culinary Bookworm - Weekly Dish - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - International Cocktail Party
Fantastic rice based dishes which suit low cost entertaining. The ingredients come from "cleaning up" the fridge which only require purchase of anchovies. "I created all of my dishes by relying on what I had in my fridge or pantry and the required ingredients; the only thing I had to purchase were the anchovies!"
MagicTofu - Slurp and Burp - Ottawa, Ontario - Fake Soft Boiled Egg
"70% recycled", including use of old risotto, spent frying oil, oil from an anchovy jar instead of anchovies, bulk purchased carrots which come in "10 pounds bag that I only paid 1$". A very hilarious creation which celebrates food.
Mrs D and Chopper - Belly Timber - Shaw Island, Washington - Siu Mai and Fried Shrimp with Rice
"if dim sum's not cheap, it's not doing its job and should be sacked immediately."
Stephen - What's for Dinner - Anchovy Sage Risotto and Carrot Cake Tower with Shiraz Jelly
"about $2.50 worth of wine, 2 carrots, 1 small onion, a cup of Arborio rice, some homemade meat broth, a grating of Parmeggiano Reggiano, some olive oil...I'm going to estimate the cost at about $1.00 to $1.50 (U.S.) per serving, depending on how thick you make the towers. That's cheap eats!"
Thomas Burbridge - Taste of the Heat - Texas - Curried Carrot and Rice Soup in Capsicum Bowl, Grilled Pork with herbed Anchovy Mayonnaise
No wastage with an edible bell pepper bowl!
Winner
MagicTofu - Slurp and Burp - Ottawa, Ontario - Fake Soft Boiled Egg
Runner Ups
Anne - Anne's Food - Stockholm, Sweden - Fried Rice with Turkey and Saffron
Culinary Bookworm - Weekly Dish - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - International Cocktail Party
Mrs D and Chopper - Belly Timber - Shaw Island, Washington - Siu Mai and Fried Shrimp with Rice
When the seemingly basic ingredients were announced for this month's Paper Chef #13 challenge, no one predicted the hilarious scenes that follow as participants searched high and low on the internet, dug digitally to the other side of the world using software, looked up atlases and electronic maps, and consulted travel journals. Was the sought ingredient scorpion from China, or was it penguin from the Crozet Islands? Everyone eventually found the ingredients in the pantry, fridge, liquor store or the gourmet shop. The other side of the world for most means China, Australia or some country other than their own. However, Lady X's other side of the world was a not a physical location, a challenge to find and a celebration when found: it was the time and life before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For Stephen, and duo Mrs D and Chopper Dave, celebration was finding the hard to get ingredients in their part of the world after much effort searching. While others celebrated with a party or Christmas theme, Culinary Bookworm went one step further and threw an "International Cocktail Party" with the works, out of economical rice-based dishes! At the other end of the scale, where meals are always festive, MagicTofu created the hilarious and innovative fake soft boiled egg out of "70%" recycled ingredients.
Paper Chef, the brain child of Owen Linderholm of Tomatilla, is loosely based on the ideas of the Iron Chef, and for most this first Friday of the month is a much anticipated challenge for creative cooking, a chance to try something different, to experience new tastes, and to discover new techniques. Everyone, from home cooks, professional chefs, dreamers to would be TV and movie actors, gets to star in their own kitchen stadium using 4 secret ingredients to cook and to write about the experience over the weekend. For Paper Chef #13, the ingredients came with a twist...Ingredient 1: Rice
Ingredient 2: Carrots
Ingredient 3: Anchovies
Ingredient 4: Something from the other side of the world that helps make this dish a celebration for you. Write about how you picked that and why in your write-up!
"This month we are celebrating a major holiday season and a special 'other side of the world' edition of Paper Chef being judged from Down Under, hence the fourth 'ingredient' listed above."
The battle for Paper Chef #13 came with lots of fun and laughter over whose dish or dishes rule supreme with claims real or exaggerated, and with many attempts to appeal to the Australian judging panel for bonus points. Now its time to announce the winners, but really there is no real need as everyone who takes on the challenge is already a winner for daring. Again, the human nature demands that winners get written for history to remember and for others to learn and to share.... So here goes the very unpopular task judges need to do, that is to name the winners, starting with these special awards:
Most Creative Use of Ingredient - Carrot
MagicTofu - Slurp and Burp - Ottawa, Ontario - Fake Soft Boiled Egg
These whimsical fake soft boil eggs encompass the technique used by top restaurants. Everyone has a soft spot for these innovative carrot "yolks".
Most Creative Use of Ingredient - Anchovies
Mrs D and Chopper - Belly Timber - Shaw Island, Washington - Siu Mai and Fried Shrimp with Rice
A spectacular garnish of anchovies leaping out of siu mai. A picture says a thousand words, so check out Mrs D's very excellent photography!
Most Creative Use of Ingredient - Rice
Culinary Bookworm - Weekly Dish - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - International Cocktail Party
How many ways are there to cook rice in a meal? Culinary Bookworm uses four as seen in this very impressive international cocktail party served on very "clean plates" comprising: Drunken Australian Rice Cakes with Carrot Coulis made with Australian Yellowtail Chardonnay, Cardamom-Spiced Basmati Rice Pudding with Anchovy Butter, Orange Coconut Sticky Rice Brulèe (sweetened with maple syrup), Wontons with Poblano-Mascarpone Filling. On offer for drinks "....a Cranberry Wine Punch that made the whole occasion seem more festive." As if that didn't take long to cook, look at the dining room: "As a matter of fact, in between cooking and photographing, we put on Christmas music and decorated the house. Now, the lights are strung, the tree is adorned, and we are all ready for the holidays. Or at least in the mood for some serious celebrating!" With party hats on we've been told!
Most Creative Use of Ingredient - From the Other Side
Stephen - What's for Dinner - Anchovy Sage Risotto and Carrot Cake Tower with Shiraz Jelly
Stephen's entry turns a quality Western Australian shiraz into a beautiful wine jelly. This entry also shows the best integration of ingredients for a single dish. "I was worried about the combination of the sugar in the jelly and the anchovies in the risotto, but unnecessarily so. It worked, especially with the chops. Think turkey, oyster stuffing, cranberry sauce. Nice counterpoint, no discord. I also worried that the flavor of the wine would be lost in the cooking and/or due to the addition of the sugar. Not a problem, however, it was a little bite of shimmering Shiraz!"
Best Interpretation of the Other Side of the World
Lady X - Experiment in Writing - Ontario - Crawfish Saffron Rice Stack, Macadamia Terrine, Lamington
For Lady X, the other side of the world not only means "down under" as in Australia, but also the better times before the challenges of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Lady X shares her fond memories of wine and food down under from her travel journals. Driven by the challenge of Paper Chef (and thanks to Owen Linderholm for inventing the event), she finds the "other side of the world" in good timing to create an excellent Australia menu featuring beer steamed crawfish, the local equivalent of Australian yabbies, macadamia and carrot terrine and lamington, with genuine maple syrup just for John! Lady X recommends "some cold beer & white wine" to wash down the meal for those of us in 45 degrees Celsius while experiencing a "nice balmy -10 degrees Celsius" in Canada! What a feat and a celebration it must be to conquer the world again...
Best Musical Accompaniment
Alanna - Veggie Venture - St Louis - Swagman Stew
Instead of Christmas carols to match the lovely red and green Christmas table setting, there is "Waltzing Matilda" to accompany Alanna's hearty red wine lamb stew with rice and Australian Shiraz!
Most Creative Use of Serving Ware
Thomas Burbridge - Taste of the Heat - Texas - Curried Carrot and Rice Soup in Capsicum Bowl, Grilled Pork with herbed Anchovy Mayonnaise
There is only one plate to wash in Thomas' feast on a plate: drinks (soup) in an edible bowl, which doubles up as the salad, all served on the same plate as the rest of the meal of US pork chops (from the other side of the world to the judges)!
Most Creative use of Colour
Anne - Anne's Food - Stockholm, Sweden - Fried Rice with Turkey and Saffron
A beautifully coloured saffron rice and turkey dish, with optional Canadian Maple Syrup or soy sauce. The rice, which is served on a pale blue plate, transforms leftover turkey and healthy bell peppers into a festive meal. The recommended drink is Julmust, a Swedish Christmas soda with ice.
Most Creative use of Foreign Language
Rachael - Fresh Approach Cooking - Los Angeles - Carrot-Rice Canapes with Anchoïade
Rachael cleverly transforms a rice and carrot salad into an innovative French meal through the of French terms and ingredients like "canapes", "pistou" and "anchoïade".
and now to the Golden Spice Award Ceremony!
A Christmas pudding with a difference: A light fluffy combination of cranberries, granola, potato, daikon and rice flour. Lightly spiced with lemon myrtle and mountain pepperberries. Served with yoghurt and quandong sauce.
Owen Linderholm, the Paper Chef chairman has rounded up the 9 entries for Paper Chef #13.
Part One: Paper Chef#13: Carrot, Rice, Anchovy and Celebrating-The-Other-Side Edition
Part Two: Paper Chef #13: Carrot, Rice, Anchovy and Celebrating-The-Other-Side Edition Part Two
The judges are in conference, in three different states, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, with a time difference of 3 hours. Hypothetical conversations overheard at the Judges' camp...
Meanwhile on the side line...Monday 12th December, Tuesday 13th December, Wednesday 14th December, Thursday 15th December, ... I give up!
.... in the challengers' camp, things start to heat up with all participants self proclaiming the winners.
Note: South Park style cartoon characters created using "South Park Studio 2".
As part of the judging team for Paper Chef #13, Noodle Cook takes a holiday from Paper Chef challenges this month. However, the opportunity to exchange holiday celebration experiences proves too much, so here is a non-entry:
A savoury vegan daikon cake with the four secret ingredients of rice, carrot substituted by daikon, anchovies substituted by red fermented bean curd, and wolfberries from the other side of the world, China, as a reflection of Perth about the equator. A quandong (native peach) sauce goes with the dish.
The design of the dish takes into account the red and green colours of Christmas and the hot weather in Perth. The idea of a cake comes from the festive Eight Treasure Rice Cake from China which traditionally contains almonds, lotus seeds, dates and candied fruits. The dish works well cold as a picnic lunch, and leftovers can be panfried as for raddish cakes from dim sum restaurants. In this dish, broad beans, baby corn, akudjura (bush tomatoes) and mountain pepper berries act as a side salad instead of incorporation into the cake in case the fermented bean curd fails to impress the non-adventurous diner.
The red ingredients pictured below add a special touch to the dish. Clockwise from the front:
Join the fun celebrations with your Paper Chef entry...
A G'day to all participating home cooks, professional chefs, dreamers, and would be TV/movie stars from the Paper Chef #13 Australian judging panel headed by Noodle Cook, the newly hatted Paper Chef. Unknown to himself, John the "Secret Reviewer" makes it to the panel as the tie breaker. There's more about the fun below...Return to this page often to check announcements on judges, success criteria and categories for the upcoming Paper Chef which starts on December 2, 2005. For ingredients nominations, head over to Tomatilla, where Kaga Owen Linderholm, the creator of Paper Chef, maintains the current ingredients. The upcoming challenge carries a celebratory theme for the holidays and the beginning of the second year of Paper Chef. Paper Chef has started! Head over to Tomatilla for the secret ingredients!
Paper Chef categories...
Do you have the recipe for success to become the Paper Chef #13 champion? It's time to plan your action to conquer one of five categories:
Paper Chef Personality - creative, clever or witty writer
Paper Chef Super Saver - budget meals or crowd pleaser specialist
Paper Chef Prestige - food styling, presentation or plating up expert
Paper Chef Nutrition Genie - magician for getting fussy diners to eat vegies, less salt, less fat
Paper Chef Supreme - the champion for Paper Chef #13
To help the judges decide, nominate your category or categories by tagging "Finalist for Paper Chef [category name] together with a reason. Example "Finalist for Paper Chef Super Saver. This dish, which utilizes free ice, feeds the entire Australian population in the Antarctica for a mere $1.00 per head."
Paper Chef has started...
Head over to Tomatilla for the secret ingredients!
The Judging Panel
So what are the judges looking for?
The entry that best articulate the theme and the 4 secret ingredients while demonstrating creativity. Borrowing from Timber Belly for last month's Paper Chef:
"We love dishes that are original, inventive, and make use of the chosen ingredients in unexpected ways. We love dishes that sound like we'd want to gobble them up in a heartbeat. We appreciate traditional dishes as well, but we love them even more when they come with a twist. Dishes can be extraordinarily complicated or beautifully simple, but it's the perceived flavour that will count the most. We hope to choose not just one winner, but runners up in additional categories." In short, knock our socks off convince all the judges to take off from the computer screen into your dining room by hopping, flying, swimming, surfing or whatever to join the festivities with you.
How to score "Bonus" points to get ahead of the other challengers....
The television Iron Chefs use many tactics to appeal to the judges, so too can you! As extra fun for everyone "Bonus" points go to...
Gifts up for grab...
Friendship Gifts
As a good will gesture from Australia, bush spice packs are up for grabs for the winners of the five categories or their runner ups if the participant is already in receipt of a gift. Plus the first 10 or so non-awarded participants (and hopefully everyone else) ends up with a spice pack each. The spice packs come in the following configurations:
1. Ground Australian bush spice sampler pack consisting of 10g each of Lemon Myrtle, Aniseed Myrtle, Wattleseed, Dorrigo Pepper and Rainforest Blend, including a small recipe book with about 20 recipes.
2. Wattleseed and quandong for use with recipes found in Perth's new Spice Magazine, together with the magazine itself. Recipes to try are Sandalwood Nut and Wattleseed Biscotti by sandalwood grower, Aaron Edmonds, and Wattleseed Creamed Meringue with Quandong Dessert Sauce by Chef Mark Olive (indigenous TV personality). For the biscotti, it is recommended that you use hazelnut as a substitute as sandalwood nuts are not currently available.
3. Ground Australian bush spices in 30-50 gram packs. Select one from Lemon Myrtle, Mountain Pepper Leaf, Cinnamon myrtle, or Aniseed myrtle. Some of these spices can be used in tea, soaps and candles. Lemon myrtle and aniseed myrtle work well in seafood and Asian dishes, while Mountain Pepper Leaf makes a great pepper substitute.
As there are only a limited number of gifts, it is important that:
- You send an email to Owen (owenl1998 at yahoo dot com) to indicate you can accept a gift, otherwise, the gift is re-allocated.
- Select the preferred gift, and we will try our best to accommodate.
- Get your entries in quickly as, other than category winners, gifts are offered on a first come basis
Of course the judges and host Owen get thank-you gifts as well! Don't forget you can also submit a hypothetical entry for a chance with the left over gifts.
Suppliers for the Gifts
Red Ochre Grill - a modern Australian restaurant in Cairns (Queensland) where you can experience a unique new cuisine utilizing Australia's indigenous foods
Tumbeela - grower and supplier of fine culinary bush herbs, fresh, frozen or dried, to top restaurants and gourmet cooks
Barbushco - grower and supplier of dried bush herbs, pasta, tea and other bush food products
Spice Magazine - the new magazine for the foodies of Western Australia
For online spice orders, visit the above suppliers, Bush Tucker Shop or Vic Cherikoff Online Store. For Perth shoppers, Action Supermarkets, The Grocer of Nedlands and the Re Store offer a range of bush spices.
Recipes for Bush Spices
Chef Benjamin Christie
Chef Vic Cherikoff
Note: South Park style cartoon characters created using "South Park Studio 2".
The ultimate magazine "Spice" for the foodies of Western Australia and beyond is finally here!
The first edition for summer 2005 showcases the best from local producers, writings from well known local food identities, and of course the very famous Anthony Georgeff (aka Spicey), Perth's most awarded food blogger of "Man that Cooks" fame, and now Jackson's super chef to be.
The magazine contains a range of recipes from famous chefs such as:
The launch party on 28 November 2005 was a definite indication of the excellent and drool-worthy content of the magazine. Just have a look at these:
Juicy gigantic prawns....
Fresh yabbies still kicking around...
Tender juicy lamb marinated in Australian Njoi olive oil....
Wood fired pizza....
... for a chance to own this great magazine, enter Paper Chef #13!
Spice Magazine
Shop 9, 330 South Terrace, South Fremantle WA 6162
Tel: +61 8 9433 1190
Fax: +61 8 9433 1693
Website: http://www.spicemagazine.com.au
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