So this was Christmas 2006 ....

A hot day at the gang's get together
Lots of happy laughter
And fights over the best present ever
All over for yet another year
Perhaps the last trip for Santa and Rudolph down here

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

This is the biscotti which was planned for Paper Chef, however there wasn't enough time until the weekend after. The biscotti tastes wonderful with a fruity licorice aroma.

Spiced apple and cranberry biscotti with wattleseed latte
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup coarse raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon aniseed
1/2 teaspoon aniseed myrtle leaves, ground
1/2 teaspoon lemon myrtle leaves, ground
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon myrtle leaves, ground
1/2 teaspoon mountain pepperberry leaves, ground
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup hazelnut
1/4 cup pistachio
2 tablespoon flavoured pork fat (from Drunken Pickled Pork)
2 tablespoon walnut oil
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup sparkling apple juice
2 tablespoon vermouth (Frangelico or Pernod also suit)
About 2 tablespoon fine corn meal for dusting

Combine dry ingredients. Stir in the fat and oil.

Mix the egg, apple juice and vermouth. Add to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined to form a dough.

On a surface lightly dusted with fine corn meal, roll the dough with palms to make 2 logs about 20 cm long and 3 cm high.

Place on baking sheets and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes until golden brown. Cool.



Carefully cut into 0.5 cm slices. Place the cut slices on baking sheets. Dry in an oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, turning half way through.




To serve, make wattleseed latte following instructions from Paper Chef #9. If serving in a cup, omit the layering. Add a teaspoon of Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) to each cup. Top with a dollop of whipped cream. Arrange a biscotti on the teacup.

Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding

Lemon Myrtle scented rice puddings with cranberry wine sauce, glaced desert limes, and sparkling apple granita

Rice Pudding
1.5 cup milk or soy bean milk
2 lemon myrtle leaves
2 tablespoons ground almond
4 tablespoons ground rice
0.5 cup premium vanilla ice-cream (egg yolk and cream based) or silken tofu

Scald the milk with the lemon myrtle leaves. Cool to blood temperature. Remove the lemon myrtle leaves and save for garnish. Add the almond and rice. Bring gently to simmer. Cook for 2 minutes or until thickened. Pour into a blender with the ice-cream and blend till smooth. Pour into 4 serving glasses or bowls. Serve warm or chilled.

Cranberry Wine Sauce
2 lemon myrtle leaves
0.5 cup vermouth
2 tablespoon sparkling apple juice
4 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 tablespoon cranberry sauce

Bring vermouth and apple juice to boil with the lemon myrtle leaves. Add the cranberries and simmer for 5 minutes until the liquid becomes syrupy. Add the cranberry sauce. Remove from heat and let the flavours develop. Remove the lemon myrtle leaves from the sauce. Serve the leaves for garnish. Serve warm or chilled.

To assemble the dish, pour cranberry wine sauce over the pudding. Add 2 teaspoons of glaced Australian desert limes. Top with sparkling apple granita (from Drunken Pickled Pork). Garnish with lemon myrtle leaves or grissini bread stick. Serve immediately.



Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho

Pistachio and lime gazpacho with cranberry and apple foam
0.5 cup green onions
3 tablespoon walnut oil
2 tablespoons shelled pistachio
2 tablespoons ground almonds
3 slices crustless white bread soaked in 0.5 cup water
0.5 cup water
1 tablespoon glaced Australian desert limes
1 tablespoon vermouth
1 tablespoon sparkling apple juice
0.5 teaspoon salt, to taste
ground white pepper, to taste
2 teaspoon lemon juice, to taste
apple and cranberry foam (see below)
flowering onion for garnish

Sweat the green onions in 2 teaspoon of oil until softened. Soak the pistachio to remove the skins. Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Chill. To serve, spoon cranberry and apple foam over the gazpacho and garnish with flowering onion stalk.

Cranberry and apple foam
0.5 cup vermouth
4 tablespoon dried cranberries
2 tablespoon sparkling apple juice
pinch of salt
pinch of cinnamon
1.5 teaspoon gelatine

Poach the cranberry in vermouth. Add the gelatine. Remove from heat. Puree. Cool. Add sparkling apple juice. Keep in the fridge until ready to use. To make the foam, use either a soda maker or whisk with egg beaters until foaming.

Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli

Hangover pickled pork ravioli with apple and chives balsamic dressing

1 cup drunken pickled pork, diced
1 cup jellied cranberry stock (from Drunken Pickled Pork)
24 Gow Gee wrappers (from oriental stores)
2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
4 tablespoons sparkling apple juice
1 tablespoons walnut oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
flowering onion stalk for garnish
pork rind (from Drunken Pickled Pork)

Lay 12 gow gee wrappers on a flat surface. Place pork and jellied stock in the centre of each wrapper. Wet the edge of the each wrapper, cover with remaining wrappers and press to seal. Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the dressing, pulverize the chives, apple juice, walnut oil and balsamic vinegar in a blender. Chill.

Carefully cook the ravioli for 3-4 minutes in boiling water. Drain and place in serving dishes. Drizzle dressing over. Garnish with flowering onion stalk and strips of pork rind (from Drunken Pickled Pork). If all goes well, the ravioli yields a lovely sauce.



Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice

Cranberry Sorbet on Ice

Cranberry puree (from Drunken Pickled Pork)
0.5 cup sparkling apple juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sparkling apple granita (from Drunken Pickled Pork) or crushed ice for serving

Mix everything together except the crushed ice. Freeze in an ice cube tray. To make the sorbet, pulverize the frozen cubes in a blender. Return to the freezer until ready for serving. The sorbet can be moulded. To serve, arrange sorbet (scoops, quinelles or moulds) over the crushed ice.

Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork

Drunken pickled pork
750 g pickled pork
350 g pork rind
1 cup dried cranberries
4 cups vermouth
2 teaspoon whole mountain pepperberries
4 bay leaves
2 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon salt, optional
1 tablespoon sugar
1 onion, quartered

Soak the pickled pork in water for 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. Combine 3 of the 4 cups of vermouth and all the ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on high for 4 hours until the rind turns gelatinous.

Remove the pickled pork and put in an air tight container with the remaining cup of vermouth. Refrigerate for 2 days before use. Remove the pork from the vermouth marinade when serving.

Strain the cooking liquid. Discard the spent onion, bay leaves and star anise. Save the mountain pepperberries as garnishes if so wish. The rind may be cut into thin strips and eaten like cold jelly fish. The cranberries pulp goes into a sorbet for the next course.

Pour the strained cooking liquid into tall 3 glasses. Cool in the fridge overnight. Skim off the fat for future use in dishes asking for lard. Use the jellied stock as a jelly with the drunken pickled pork dish and in the following ravioli dish.

Sparkling apple granita
Put 2 cups of chilled sparkling apple juice in an ice-cream maker and churned according to manufacturer's instruction. The granita can be made 2-3 days in advance.

Salad
1 cup of jellied stock (from cooking the pickled pork)
4-8 baby cos leaves
2 tablespoon chilled poached dried cranberries
1 tablespoon salted nasturtium pods (homemade from wild plants)
1 tablespoon glaced Australian desert limes
mountain pepperberries for garnish (save from cooking the pork)

Melt 1 cup of the jellied stock in the microwave and pour into a shallow tray. Chill until ready for serving. Cut into cubes just before plating up. This jellied stock may be used warm and melted as a dressing.

To assemble the dish, line a stemmed glass with baby cos leaves. Put in some jelly, chilled poached cranberries, desert limes, mountain pepper berries and salted nasturtium pods. Add a few 0.5 cm slices of drunken pickled pork. Top with sparkling apple granita. Serve immediately.

Related articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat

PC Category Finalist: Haute

Paper Chef #23 is finally here! Owen at Tomatilla! has selected a celebration theme with some fantastic secret ingredients:
Ingredient 1: Vermouth
Ingredient 2: Cranberries
Ingredient 3: Sparkling drink (of any kind)
Ingredient 4: Something wild

Something wild? Bush foods, like desert limes, lemon myrtle and wattleseed fall into the wild category since they originally grew wild in the outback of Australia. Everything seems too easy, until Noodle Cook's creative mind went really wild. How about using cheap pickled pork to save some money for Christmas giving, such as for the Menu of Hope? Hang on, what is more frugal than pickled pork? Now this is getting really wild... it has to be pork rind!

During the recent trip to Shanghai, Noodle Cook failed to make it to the exclusive Whampoa Club to enjoy the "Modern Shanghai" gastronomic delights of Chef Jereme Leung as a result of crowd crush at the Jin Mao Tower. It was such a shame to travel all this way to the "Bund", only metres across the road... and to be dog sick. For this Paper Chef challenge, Noodle Cook experiments with ideas from Chef Jereme Leung, using pork rind for a good gelatine.

... after many thrills, spills and melt down behind the scene (when the air conditioner died), Noodle Cook presents .... the Cranberry Celebration Menu, a meal to beat the summer heat:

Drunken pickled pork with cranberry jelly and sparkling apple granita
This dish is modelled after Chef Jereme Leung's drunken chicken dish from Shanghai, where the chicken is simmered, and then marinated and chilled in rice wine before serving with rice wine granita. Click here for a version of Chef Jereme's drunken chicken. Go to recipe>>

Cranberry sorbet on ice
A palate cleanser derived from leftover cranberry pulp. Go to recipe>>

Pistachio and lime gazpacho with cranberry and apple foam
The perfect summer soup which uses stale white bread. The fruity foam adds a refreshing touch. Go to recipe>>

Hangover pickled pork ravioli with apple and chives balsamic dressing
Self-saucing ravioli made with jellied stock based on Shanghai's signature dish, "Xiao Long Bao", a dumpling with soup incorporated in minced meat filling. The ravioli makes use of leftovers the day after, hence the name. Go to recipe>>

Lemon Myrtle scented rice puddings with cranberry wine sauce, glaced desert limes, and sparkling apple granita
A smooth custard like dessert made with almond milk base and served with a beautiful fruity red sauce. Go to recipe>>

Spiced apple and cranberry biscotti with wattleseed latte
A coffee substitute with a mildly spiced dunking biscotti. Alas, there was no time left to complete this dish for Paper Chef #23. The idea was to use some of the flavoursome pork fat left over from the Drunken Pickled Pork. For now it's digitally borrowing from last year's Christmas biscotti! The biscotti was cooked the weekend after Paper Chef. Go to recipe>>

The Tasting
Other than the biscotti and latte, what did the dishes taste like? The "drunken" pickled pork, sorbet and the "hangover" ravioli tasted strongly Chinese, like plum sauce with five-spice, and not French. The apple-cranberry flavours combined well, although the cold dishes would not appeal to everyone. The gazpacho tasted wonderful on its own without the foam. The foam melted in the heat, ruining the presentation. The rice pudding worked really well as a hot or cold dessert. There was just a subtle hint of citrus. The texture was incredibly smooth.

Overall, the dishes went well despite the melt down. The preference is for sherry instead of vermouth even though the flavours turned out OK. Perhaps the jellied stock could be better utilized in an aspic jelly dish.

Note:
Every recipe in this challenge contains the required 4 ingredients: vermouth, dried cranberries and/or cranberry sauce, sparkling apple juice, and one or more "wild" ingredients from the list of pork rind, lemon myrtle, mountain pepperberries, desert limes, wattleseed, and salted garden grown nasturtium pods known also as "poor man's capers".

Related Articles:
Paper Chef #23 Celebration in the Heat
Paper Chef #23 Drunken Pickled Pork
Paper Chef #23 Cranberry Sorbet on Ice
Paper Chef #23 Pistachio and Lime Gazpacho
Paper Chef #23 Hangover Pickled Pork Ravioli
Paper Chef #23 Lemon Myrtle Scented Rice Pudding
Paper Chef #23 Spiced Apple and Cranberry Biscotti

Read more...

A Taste of the the Orient

Interesting as they may be, these ingredients make up the traditional Chinese medicine that Noodle Cook needs to take for the next 3 months. Preparation involves boiling the mixture in water into a black gooey mess, a two hour ritual performed to strict instructions. The medicine tastes horrible!

1 Dang Gui - Angelica sinesis
2 Huang Qin - Baikal Skullcap Root (Scutellaria baicalensis)
3 Bai Shao - white dahlia root or white peony
4 Huang Bai - also huang bo, amur cork-tree bark, phellodendron bark (Cortex Phellodendri)
5 Ju he/Gan Ju - Mandarin seeds (Citrus reticulata Blanco)
6 Dan Shen - Salvia root
7 Mu Li - oyster shell (also Duan Mu Li - Calcined oyster shell)
8 Huang Qi - Astragalus root (Radix astragali)
9 Shu di huang - prepared rehmannia/ Sheng di huang - raw rehmannia
10 Huang Lian - coptis rhizome (Coptis chinensis)
11 Li Zhi He - lychee seed (Semen Litchi Chinensis)



12 Xia Ku Cao - prunella vulgaris
13 Ye Ju Hua - chrysanthemum
14 Gan Cao - licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis)

Read more...

Spice Magazine is Hot!

The latest Spice Magazine is out! This is beautifully put together, especially the section on exquisite West Australian tableware, just perfect as Christmas gifts. There are lots of stories on seafood, Western Australian produce, famous chefs and recipes. In this edition, Vince Garreffa (everybody's fav personality butcher) puts together the ultimate Christmas turkey stuffed with 4 other birds. There's a chance to win a quintet turkey by writing to Spice Magazine about a tragic Christmas meal. Get your copy from local newsagents or contact Anthony (the famous "man that cooks") for your taste of Western Australia.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

Spring 2006

Read more...

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 >>

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

The Food I Love

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:

• Invest in an oven and a meat thermometer
• Season the meat
• Bring the meat to room temperature a few hours before cooking or overnight
• Preheat the oven to 75 degrees Celsius
• Cook to 53 degrees Celsius for rare beef. The beef will rise to 55 degrees Celsius while resting.
• Allow 3 hours (up to 4 hours) for 2-3 bone rib of beef (approx 800 g to feed 4)
  
• Sear the roast in a hot pan after cooking, and rest for 30 minutes at 60 degrees Celsius in the oven.

For veal, Chef Neil Perry recommends cooking to 60 degrees Celsius to be served "just below well done". Veal is less dense and therefore, takes less time to cook than beef.

The beef rib shown here took around 4.5 hours to reach medium-rare. The meat was rubbed with "Aussie Five Spices" just before cooking.

Read more...

Paper Chef #20 Ingredient Nomination

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.

Read more...

Paper Chef #19 Independence Dreaming

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.

Read more...

Paper Chef #18 Going Slowly

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.

Read more...

Paper Chef #18 Gotta be Saltimbocca!

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.

Read more...