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Judge Stephen of "What's for Dinner" has proclaimed this month's champion. Click here to find out!
Noodle Cook's favourite is Ilva's beautifully styled and photographed rice timbale with prawns in hot peach and cherry salsa. The timbale sounds like a good idea for leftovers from Paper Chef #20.
Paper Chef #20 springs up even before Noodle Cook has a chance to brag about the success (um, failure) of the already eaten Paper Chef #19. Owen of Tomatilla is back and hosting. Thanks to Kevin for Seriously Good for hosting the the last two challenges.
The four secret ingredients: peaches, cherries, a new discovered herb, and a fourth topical ingredient, "in honor of global warming and heatwaves worldwide: something hot - spicy hot".
At first the ingredients look unworkable in the middle of winter with no fresh peaches or cherries. But then something hot sounds perfect for winter. The challenge lies in creating a dish which goes down well in both the heat in the Northern hemisphere and the cold downunder, something to tempt the tastebuds of this month's judge, Stephen from "What's For Dinner?".
The ingredients selected for the challenge:
.....dried quandong, Australian native peach, a wonderful red fruit, with beautiful seeds often seen in beaded jewellery.
...black cherries in a fruit jam without cane sugar
... a newly discovered herb, so new that a name can not be found even after extensive search in "materia medica" by Terry of Graves Support. This leaf belongs to a trailing plant known for its usefulness as a medicinal herb in managing thyroid disease. It is definitely edible since it comes from the garden of a Budhist vegetarian. The leaf is eaten fresh or cooked as a vegetable, just like spinach.
... the hot spicy ingredient comes in the form of mountain pepper berries from the highlands of Australia. These amazing dark wrinkled seeds berries, which give off a purplish juice, enhance the tastes of poached fruit, very much like cloves and cinnamon, yet at the same time work like juniper berries. When used raw as a sprinkle, the berries impart a hot zingy sensation just like mustard. The zing dissipates on heating. The berries, for this challenge, go in a sauce with dried quandongs, baby figs and red oriental dates (jujubes).
... and the resulting dish, Moroccan Spiced Beef served with fruit sauce, salad greens and a side of polenta.
Moroccan Spiced Beef
500 g beef roast
1/2 - 1 teaspoon coarse rosemary salt
1 teaspoon peppercorn, coarsely milled
1-2 dried red chillies, coarsely milled (or 2 teaspoon harissa)
1 tablespoon fruit jam (with cherries)
Spice crust mixture (see below)
Bring the meat to room temperature. Rub in the rosemary salt, peppercorn and chillies. Let marinate for 30 minutes. Brush with fruit jam. Roll the beef in the spice crust mixture. The oil in the mixture helps distribute the heat during cooking and ensures a faster cooking time.
Preheat oven to 75 degrees Celsius. Cook for 2.5 hours for rare or longer to your liking. Turn off the oven and rest for 1/2 to 1 hour to set the juices. This low temperature cooking, a wonder for summer months, works for cheaper cuts as well as corned meats (low salt versions). For well done, sear the meat in the a hot pan or smoke in a covered wok for 10 minutes at 120-130 degrees Celsius.
Serve the beef in thin slices, warm or cold, with fruit sauce, salad greens and polenta slices. Left over beef converts easily into a thai style salad.
Spice Crust Mixture
2 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon carraway seeds
1 teaspoon red mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, coarsely milled
1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
Heat the oil until smoking. Toss in the spices and garlic. Saute until the mustard seeds start popping. Remove from heat. This spice mixture is great for dukkah, couscous and polenta. The fragrant oil makes a wonderful salad dressing.
Fruit Sauce
1 cup water
1 teaspoon dried whole mountain pepper berries (or juniper berries)
1/4 cup dried red oriental dates (jujube)
1/4 cup dried baby figs
1/2 teaspoon rosemary salt
1/4 cup dried quandong (Australian native peach)
4 lemon myrtle leaves (or "preserved" lemon)
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 tablespoons fruit jam (with cherries)
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
extra mountain pepper berries, milled (or ground black pepper)
Bring water to boil and gently poach the mountain pepper berries, dates, and figs with salt and rosemary. When the fruits plump up, add the quandong and lemon myrtle leaves. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the jam and slightly caramelize. Deglaze with the poaching liquid. Add the poached fruits and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Add the red wine vinegar. The sauce tastes better when left overnight for the flavours to develop. On serving, sprinkle with freshly milled mountain pepper berries for that special mustard-like zing.
Polenta
1 cup fine polenta
3 cups water
1 teaspoon rosemary salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
Mix together and microwave for 6-8 minutes until boiling. Stir. Cover. Reduce to 30% power and cook for 10-15 minutes. Cool.
The veal from Paper Chef #18 was accidentally overcooked to well done using the slow cook technique found in Chef Neil Perry's cookbook, "The Food I Love". The book indicates the technique is "foolproof". If Noodle Cook stayed awake, the veal would remain pink, very similar to the beef rib shown here.
To slow cook successfully:
Read more...
Owen has relaunched Paper Chef with haute and home categories. For information on this fun cooking challenge and ingredient nomination, head across to Tomatilla. The challenge starts on 4 August, the first Friday of the month.
Paper Chef #19: Corn, ground coriander, pinenuts and something that celebrates independence day in your nation.
Kevin at Seriously Good challenges contestants to "create a recipe that celebrates your nation's emancipation from its previous rulers or form of government or whatever other thing celebrated to honor nationhood."
Unlike some countries, Australia does not have an independence day, although the anniversary of the arrival of the first fleet on 26 January 1788 is used as the day to celebrate Australia as a nation. Some indigenous Australians regard the date as "Invasion Day" which marks "the decimation of their people, the confiscation of their lands and the destruction of their culture". See Wikipedia.
According to some, Australia became an independent and sovereign nation immediately following federation on 1 January 1901. To others, 3 March 1986, when Royal Assent was given to the Australia Acts represents the day of total independence. Still others see the progress to independence incomplete since the head of state remains the person who sits on the British throne. Hence the push in recent years for Australia to become a republic to sever its last remaining tie with the British monarchy.
What dish to celebrate an event which seems to be progressively evolving in Australia, and still to come for indigenous Australians?
... too late to blog as the colourful meatballs and noodles were already eaten ....
For this Paper Chef challenge Noodle Cook presents a dish which harmonises flavours of Australian bush spices, while at the same time symbolically representing reconciliation in art form.
Paper Chef #18: Veal scallopine, rocket, simple syrup and strawberry
While John's "winning" saltimbocca leaps from frypan to dinner table in 2 minutes (ok, 20 minutes for a tough cut), Noodle Cook's veal girello sits curing in the coldest part of the fridge for 72 hrs awaiting transformation into tender juicy melt in the mouth steaks. At 75 degrees Celsius, it takes a couple of hours (4-6 hours) to cook the girello to rare (60 degrees Celsius on the meat thermometer) before smoking to finish off. What happens when Noodle Cook falls asleep while the delicate cooking process takes place?
While Noodle Cook snoozes away, the girello cooks to well done some 11 hours later! The good thing about low temperature cooking is that there is no charred mess or spattering to clean up. Sadly, the veal did not take on the juicy gelatinous texture or the deep pink as intended.
The dish created for Paper Chef #18, which balances saltiness, sourness and sweetness with contrasting textures:
Salt cured veal, duck egg noodle (with rocket) and caramelised daikon slices, served with gingered berry sauce
Recipes follow. To serve, arrange thinly sliced veal over a bed of noodles. Place daikon slices to the side and serve the berry sauce in a side dish.
Salt Cured Veal
1-2 teaspoon salt (add equal amount of sugar as an alternative)
2-3 teaspoon Aussie Five Spice
500-600 g very fresh veal girello (whole)
Rub the salt and Aussie Five Spice into the veal. Marinate for 72 hours in the coldest part of the fridge without freezing. Bring to room temperature before baking at 75 degrees Celsius. Please note that this low temperature cooking must be performed using an oven thermometer to confirm that at all times the oven stays above 65 degrees Celsius for food safety.
At 4 hours, check for doneness using a clean meat thermometer: 60 degrees Celsius for rare, 71 for medium. When cooked to your liking, smoke the girello in a wok at 120 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. The girello is best eaten rare, a bit like raw Japanese tataki or carpaccio.
Aussie Five Spice
1 teaspoon peppercorn (or mountain pepper berry)
1 teaspoon mountain pepper leaf
1 teaspoon aniseed myrtle leaf
2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon aniseed
Mill all the herbs and spices. Store in a jar in the fridge until needed.
Duck Egg Noodles
1 salted duck egg, mashed
2 teaspoon roasted Japanese green tea, milled
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped rocket (or spinach)
Mix the ingredients and knead together until soft and pliable. Cut with a pasta maker.
Caramelised Turnip Slices
1 small turnip/daikon
2 tablespoon anise syrup
Thinly slice the turnip using a mandolin. Brush with anise syrup. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius until golden brown. Brush with extra syrup before serving. The slices did not crisp up as hoped. Perhaps apple works better. The slices pictured above result from low temperature (75 degrees Celsius) cooking took over 10 hours in a fan-forced oven.
Anise Syrup
1/2 water
1 cup raw sugar
8 aniseed myrtle leaves, milled
2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon aniseed, crushed
Dissolve sugar in the water and bring to boil. Add the herbs and remove from heat. Let stand for 15 minutes. Strain the syrup. This syrup may be used for drinks, ice-cream, merringues and glazes.
Berry Sauce
4 tablespoon berries in syrup (in place of out of season strawberries)
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon pickled ginger (the pink variety from Japanese section)
2 teaspoon lemon juice, to taste
Mix together and let stand for 15 minutes for the flavours to blend. Adjust to a sour-salt taste to your liking.
Taste Test
The flavours of aniseed in the veal, berries and daikon work well together. Although the noodles and veal could be a lot saltier. The roasted green tea adds little to the noodles. The daikon slices taste rather exquisite, almost like candy, which contrast really well with the sourness of the sauce. Overall the dish turns out really well despite the veal cooking to well done.
...and the winning dish is?
Fortunately, Noodle Cook's dishes always "look" better on the computer screen than John's! The official Paper Chef #18 winner can be found here.
Kevin of Seriously Good continues to host Paper Chef while founder, Owen of Tomatilla, takes a break. Last month's winner Haalo of Cook Everything Once judges this round.
The secret ingredients comprise veal scallopine, rocket, simple syrup and strawberry.
John, who stars as the villain in "An Electronic Restaurant", decides to take part after learning that veal makes up one of the secret ingredients. It doesn't take long for him to figure that the winner's gotta be saltimbocca! Here is John's first Paper Chef entry, a recreation of his favourite Italian meal.
Bash the veal steaks with a mallet. Brown both sides in olive oil without BURNING (a strong hint to Noodle Cook).
Add butter. Deglaze with half cup of dry white wine. Add sage. Top with proscuitto and mozerella. Braise for 20 minutes. Braise? It was Noodle Cook's fault for picking the veal steak next to the similar looking skirt steak.
Serve with buttered broiled parboiled potato, and a salad of radicchio, lettuce, dill, rocket, tomato, chilli and boccocini. Dress with lemon.
What about strawberry and syrup? Tomato is a red fruit just like strawberry, and hence the substitution. Sugar syrup? No chance of John touching the stuff: Canadians only use geniune maple syrup! The closest is the sauvignon blanc which the bottle shop recommends as the wine to match with veal. Unfortunately, the wine tastes overly sweet, like sugar syrup.
...and the obligatory taste test...
Noodle Cook gets to taste and criticise for a change. Definitely thumbs up to the beautiful flavours. Despite John's attempt to tenderise the steaks, the chewy texture remains.
Will Noodle Cook beat John in the home kitchen stadium? Perhaps. Noodle Cook's masterpiece still sits in the fridge, marinating away. Stay tuned for Part 2.
An initiative of Chubby Hubby where voters nominate their best and favourite local or regional restaurants in the Asia Pacific region. Pictures in this post are for illustration purposes.
The nominations:
Best 2 restaurants in home city/country: Perth
Star Anise
225 Onslow Road, Shenton Park, Western Australia. Tel: 9381 3069
Comment: East meets west food at its best, for example "pigeon breast with foie gras". Delicious licorice ice-cream signature you can make at home.
Jackson's
483 Beaufort Street, Highgate, Western Australia. Tel: (08) 9328 1177
Comment: If the best dim sum restaurant is the one with a big queue outside, then Jackson's must be it! There is at least two weeks wait to get in. Check out Anthony's dining experience at Spiceblog.
Favourite restaurant in home city/country: Perth
Taurus Hawkers
Shop 10/113 Collins Road, Willeton, Western Australa. Tel: 92591788
Comment: Cheap food at lightning speed. Malaysian/Singaporean, Indonesian and now the new Hong Kong style Taurus BBQ which also serves dumpling soup.
Ragged Robin
27 South Street, York, Western Australia, 6302. Tel: +61 8 9641 1266
Affordable modern European dining in a quaint historical building, formerly a convent school. Well worth the hour or so of driving out of Perth for that special dining experience.
Best 3 restaurants from outside own home city/country: Australia
Tetsuya's
529 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Tel: +61 2 9267 2900
Comment: Japanese/French influences. Outstanding ocean trout dishes, especially the confit.
Rockpool
107 George St, The Rocks NSW 2000. Tel: 612 9252 1888
Comment: Modern Australian food which you can eat on Qantas. Slow cooked beef rib signature. Check out "The Food I Love" by Chef Neil Perry.
Favourite 2 restaurants outside own home city/country: Worldwide
McDonald's and Starbucks Cafe: consistency of food with menus that you can read regardless of country you are in!
Head across to Seriously Good for the 4 secret ingredients picked by Host Kevin. Winner Haalo of Cook Everything Once judges this round. More information about Paper Chef, the competition invented by Owen of Tomatilla can be found here.
"An Electronic Restaurant" turns 1 year old, and what an amazing year it was serving virtual food to worldwide customers! Noodle Cook went from suburban obscurity to twice hatted Paper Chef (#12, #16) on the small screen computer monitor, with the aid of a camera lens. If only real food turns out as well as the virtual food ....
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