Japan and Lands of the Far East

Noodle Cook took off the chef's hat for a couple of weeks of holidays, touring and cruising on board the luxurious "Sapphire Princess", from Japan, to Russia, then South Korea and finally, China.

Life on board the ship was boring with limited internet access since John (the villain in this blog) kept watch to make sure Noodle Cook didn't blow the pennies on non-essentials like emails. At US$0.35 per minute, shipboard internet came at a king's ransom.

What was there left to do? Eat all day long, thanks to 24-hour "Anytime" dining! The ship's kitchens catered for two and a half thousand passengers of many cultural backgrounds.

Here are some show pieces from the ship's main kitchen:

Fruit carving....



Butter sculpture....



Icing craft....



Look at the attention to details! The cubs even have eye lashes.

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Paper Chef #22 Jetset Dish

It's here again, Paper Chef in its 22nd edition! Owen at Tomatilla has named this challege the Slow Edition: "I have been so slow getting to things ... participants can take it slow". There is about a week until NEXT Monday noon (October 16th) to battle for the Paper Chef crown! The secret ingredients list:

1. Barberries
2. Pumpkin
3. Spinach
4. Slow



There is no time for slow cooking, or to dash down to the Middle Eastern store for dried barberries since Noodle Cook has a plane to catch. It's a matter of ransacking the fridge and pantry.

Mildly tart oriental wolfberries seem a suitable substitute for the barberries. There's no spinach in the fridge, so it makes sense to use the left over bok choy before it goes to waste. Balsamic Vinegar of Modena qualifies as the slow ingredient since traditionally, balsamic vinegar takes 12 years to mature.

Non-traditional balsamic vinegar is a blend of red wine vinegar and the "must" (see below) from a traditional balsamic vinegar. It may be aged but most times it is not. In the absence of a certification stamp, the Balsamic vinegar is most likely 95% red wine vinegar with a splash of traditional and some caramel coloring. Here's bit of background on Balsamic vinegar:

From Italian Food. Accessed 9/10/2006.

"Balsamic vinegar can only be produced in the regions of Modena and Reggio in Italy. The first historial reference to balsamic vinegar dates back to 1046, when a bottle of balsamic vinegar was reportedly given to Emperor Enrico III of Franconia as a gift. In the Middle Ages, it was used as a disinfectant. It also had a reputation as a miracle cure, good for everything from sore throats to labor pains. Balsamic vinegar is an aged reduction of white sweet grapes (Trebbiano for red and Spergola for white sauvignon) that are boiled to a syrup. The grapes are cooked very slowly in copper cauldrons over an open flame until the water content is reduced by over 50%. The resulting "must" is placed into wooden barrels and an older balsamic vinegar is added to assist in the acetification. Each year the vinegar is transferred to different wood barrels so that the vinegar can obtain some of the flavors of the different woods. The only approved woods are oak, cherry, chestnut, mulberry, acacia, juniper, and ash."

After last month's disastrous giblet effort, Noodle Cook attempts a much simply dish:



Charred vegetables with balsamic butter sauce, served with lemon myrtle couscous

500g pumpkin
olive oil
2 bok choy plants
1 large red capsicum
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar of Modena
1 cup couscous
1 cup water
1 lemon myrtle leaf (or substitute lemon zest)
2 tablespoon dried wolfberries, soaked
1 tablespoon quinoa, toasted (or pinenuts)

Par cook the pumpkin in the microwave for 5 minutes. Cool. Peel and remove seeds. Cut into cubes. Drizzle with olive oil and caramelize under a grill.

Char the capsicum under the grill. When cool, peel and slice into thin strips. Drizzle with olive oil. Caramelize in a heavy smoking pan.

Separate the bok choy into leaves. Sear in a very hot oiled pan.

To make the sauce, brown the butter. Remove from heat. Add the Balsamic vinegar. Toss the vegetables in the Balsamic butter.

Serve the charred vegetables over couscous cooked with the lemon myrtle leaf. Sprinkle over the wolfberries and toasted quinoa.



So, with a "burning" desire to succeed, Noodle Cook reaches the finishing line with a delicious dish, simple enough to cook in an open fire just like in the 18th century.

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Paper Chef #21 Results

Finally, the much awaited roundup, and the results! Amongst all the kitchen flames and drama, Judge Ilva suffered the sad loss of her dad.

Noodle Cook's entry went into recovery mode when the intended South African satays turned rubbery and ended up recylced as a rather sweet curry. The chicken giblets were just too hard! In hindsight, it would be easier cooking chicken with a lemon egg sauce and serving with lemon myrtle couscous, and a salad of roasted capsicum dressed with black bean in oil.

Ingredient nominations for the coming competition on Friday, 6 September can be made clicking here.

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An Inspiration from Spice Magazine

The spring edition of Spice Magazine is out! That's the fourth edition, which makes Spice Magazine 1 year old. The very famous Anthony Georgeff, the Man That Cooks, stars as editor in a purple singlet. There are plenty of recipes and good reads with names and faces behind the produce and great food from Western Australia. There's a lovely article on Manna Wholefoods with a vegan recipe for date, fig and millet loaf. The recipe works well as muffins. The above Spice Magazine inspired muffin makes use of sorghum and red millet flour (also known as "ragi" or finger millet). The muffin tastes great with a sauce of Omega-rich flaxseed oil and anise flavoured syrup. Semidried fig slices add an interesting touch.

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Paper Chef #21 Out of Africa

Paper Chef #21: Egg, black fermented soy beans, giblets and something that reminds you of Africa

The first three ingredients immediately suggest a Chinese red-braised dish, but then what about Africa?? Elephants, lions, leopards and the like in conservation and game hunting movies such as "Out of Africa" and "Born Free" would be out of question ... That is, until Noodle Cook discovers South African Rooibos tea in a box pictured with the animals. Fancy finding a piece of Africa, where else other than the local Indonesian-run oriental store!

This challenge serves as an opportunity to tryout the tastes of Southern Africa, as influenced by the Cape Malays, the descendants of slaves originating from Indonesia, India and Madagascar, a legacy of Dutch trade shipping days. A typical dish consists of dried fruits, eastern spices, tomato and onion in rather sweet combination. Such a dish forms part of a multi-dish meal comprising curry sauce with rice, sambal, chutney and relishes.

With research out of the way, Noodle Cook heads behind the scene...

.... cooking in progress......... oops, the dinner went into recovery mode after the Rooibos tea failed to tenderise the giblet sosaties..... still cooking away .....

and finally, from out of Africa, Noodle Cook presents:
Rooibos infused giblets in tomato and fruit curry with glazed raisins, marbled quail eggs with apple-mustard gravy, fish and tomato with black beans, and curried banana salad. A multi-dish meal served with yellow rice.

Rooibos Concentrate
4 Rooibos teabags
1/2 cup water

Simmer the Rooibos teabags in the water for 20 minutes. Reduce to 1/4 cup. Use this concentrate for flavouring, tenderising and colouring (if red enough). The Rooibos tea failed to tenderise the giblets or the dried muscatel grapes. Both ingredients needed 2 hours of simmering.

Rooibos Infused Giblets Sosaties (South African Satays)
500 g chicken giblets
1 tablespoon anise syrup (or honey)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon Rooibos concentrate
Curried tomato and fruit sauce

Clean the giblets. Marinate with anise syrup, salt and Rooibos concentrate overnight. Drain. Brush with curried tomato and fruit sauce. Thread the meat on skewers and grill. Serve with remaining sauce.

Note: Grilling yielded an unsatifactory rubbery texture with an unusual crunchiness. It was decided to recycle the giblets in the tomato and fruit sauce as a curry.

Curried Tomato and Fruit Sauce
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoon mild Malay curry powder (fennel, cumin, cinnamon, cloves)
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
1 can (425 g) whole peeled tomatoes in tomato juice, mashed
3/4 cup (150 g) dried apricot, finely chopped
100 g dried raisins, optional
1 cup freshly brewed Rooibos tea
2 tablespoon apricot jam (omitted)
1 tablespoon sugar (omitted)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion and garlc in oil until light brown. Add the ginger and curry powder. Saute for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, capsicum, apricot and, if using, apricot jam. Cook to a thick pulp, adding more Rooibos tea as needed. Allow 2 hours. Add the raisins and cook for 5 minutes. Season and adjust sweetness to taste.

Note: Because of the sweetness of a South African style curry, it was decided to remove the sweetness by serving the raisin separately instead of cooking in the sauce. After the disaster with the sosaties, the curry works out really well. It tastes fantastic and can pass as authentic Cape Malay curry.



Glazed Raisin Bunches
1 bunch (100 g) dried muscatel/raisins
2 Rooibos teabags
1-2 cup water
2 tablespoon apricot jam, strained

Divide the dried grapes into 4 smaller bunches of about 10-20 grapes each. Gently poach the grape bunches in the water with 2 Rooibos tea until well plumbed. Allow around 2 hours for poaching. Top up with more water as neccesary. Let the grapes cool in the poaching liquid. Remove the grapes. Scorch the jam in a heavy saucpan. Add the poaching liquid and reduce to a thickened consistency. Pour the glaze over the grapes.

Note: The time spent poaching the fruit was well worth the effort. The grape bunches gave the curry a fine dining touch. In hindsight, bicarbonate soda probably works better than the Rooibos tea.



Yellow Rice
1 cup rice
1.5 cup boiling water
1/2 raisin (omitted)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon sugar (omitted)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon myrtle (or 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon)
2 lemon myrtle leaves (or 1 teaspoon lemon zest)
2 teaspoon butter

Combine everything in a ceramic casserole. Cover and cook in a microwave at 30% power for 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Fluff up.

Fish and Tomato with Black Beans
1 can (160 g) fried dace (fish) with salted black beans
1 can (425 g) whole peeled tomatoes in tomato juice
1 onion, diced
1 garlic, chopped
1/4 cup coconut cream for serving

Drain the oil from the fish and separate out the black beans. Reserve the oil for other dishes (see later). Flake the fish. Saute the fish with onion and garlic until the onion turns translucent. Add the tomatoes. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. To serve, drizzle coconut cream over the tomatoes. Garnish with black beans.

Note: The canned fish replaces the dried salted cod used in the equivalent Tanzanian "dagaa" dish. This fish iss intended as a mild version of the very pungent "Bombay Duck", a dried salted fish from Indian which is often grilled or deep fried. The dish has an unusual taste, maybe because of the black beans, otherwise it tastes OK. Perhaps the onions need a bit more frying.



Curried Banana Salad
2 teaspoon oil (from fried dace with salted black beans)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon garam marsala (or Indian curry powder)
1/2 teaspoon chopped chilli
1/2 teaspoon salt, to taste
2 tablespoon yoghurt
2 bananas, sliced

Heat the oil. Add the turmeric, caraway seeds, garam marsala and chilli. Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Add the spice mixture to the yoghurt. Toss the banana slices in the yoghurt mixture.

Note: This dish is of Indian origin. The bananas are normally lightly cooked instead of raw.



Marbled Quail Eggs in Apple-Mustard Gravy
8 quail eggs
1 cup freshly brewed Rooibos tea
1 teaspoon oil (from fried dace with salted black beans)
1 garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, diced
1 green apple, finely diced
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 tablespoon dry yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Rooibos concentrate, omitted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup water
salt, to taste

Boil quail eggs for 5 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Crack the shell. Soak in Rooibos tea for 2 hours. Peel the eggs.

Heat the oil. Lightly saute the garlic and onion. Add the apple and cooked until softened. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes until the gravy thickens. Season to taste. Pour the gravy over the quail eggs.

Note: This is an Indonesian dish with Dutch influence. The original recipe requires deep frying of the quail eggs. The sauce doesn't taste good. Maybe it needs a bit of curry powder.



Serving Suggestion
To serve, arrange rice on a plate. Pile on the curry sauce. Arrange bunches of glazed grapes over the curry. Place the side dishes attractively around the rice.

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Spring 2006

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Paper Chef #21 Ingredient Nomination

It's here again! Paper Chef is now in its 21st edition, thanks to originator Owen of Tomatilla for keeping it going. For your chance to star in your own kitchen stadium just like a TV Iron Chef, head across to Tomatilla to nominate an ingredient for the upcoming challenge. You have the weekend starting Friday, the first of September to dream, cook and brag about your experience using four secret ingredients. For rules check out this link. This is a fun competition open to all. As last month's winner, Ilva, of Lucullian Delights, gets to judge.

... The challenge has started! Find the details at Tomatilla by clicking here >>

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Apple Camembert Tart

A delicious dessert of apple and camembert over custard, baked in a pre-cooked shortcrust shell. The filling for the tart comes from Paper Chef #16.

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Paper Chef #20 The winner is ...

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.

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Paper Chef #20 Down Goes the Temperature

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.

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