Secret Ingredient No. 6

Red rice goes under the microscope as Secret Ingredient No. 6. Pictured above is a long grain version with a red-brown bran. Red rice comes in short grain or long grain varieties under a few names and "brands" including: Bhutanese Red Rice (short grain), Himalayan Red Rice (long grain), Wehani (long grain red basmati), Russet and Camargue French Red Rice (short grain). For more pictures, check out the Cook's Thesaurus. Like brown rice, red rice tastes nutty with a chewy texture. The long grain varieties of red rice contain higher fibre, and hold an equal or lower glycaemic index (GI) than long grain white rice, making the former a healthier choice. Nutritionists suggest non-glutinous basmati the best choice. Most red rice varieties cook in the same time as white rice.

Red rice recipes, especially for the short grain Bhutanese variety, can be found at the World Pantry website. The beautiful red colour makes the rice a great addition to salads. For more recipes do a search with Google using the above red rice names.

To make rice porridge, allow 1 litre of water or stock for each 3/4 cup of rice. Bring to boil and simmer for 45-60 minutes to achieve the required consistency. A crockpot comes handy for overnight cooking of the next day's breakfast. For serving suggestion, try Noodle Cook's Oriental Breakfast.

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Tea and Coffee - Wattleseed Tofu Slice

Baked wattleseed tofu slice with a nut and biscuit crumb crust. An egg and dairy free, vegan slice which can be easily made without gluten. Sweetening comes from a mandarin and pear jam made with fruit juice and commercial pectin.

Nut Crust
1/2 cup nut butter, made milling roasted nuts to a paste
1 cup crushed soda crackers, water biscuits or dried bread crumbs
1 teaspoon macadamia oil, or flavouring of choice

Filling
1 cake tofu (250 g)
1 teaspoon tapioca starch
1 tablespoon fruit jam
1 teaspooon wattleseed
1/2 teaspoon cocoa

Combine crust ingredients and press into a baking paper-lined 15 cm tart dish. Process the filling ingredients in a blender until creamy. For an interesting texture, reserve some tofu, dice and add after the processing. Spread the filling over the crust. Bake at 150 degrees Celsius until the surface firms up and looks golden brown.



Serve the slices as petit fours with tea or coffee. For a drinks suggestion, try orange and wattleseed herbal infusion.

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Akudjura Tapenade

A vegan tapenade made with akudjura (Australian native bush tomato) and brined oriental black olives. Fermented black oriental olives and mustard vegetable add a twist to this tapenade. Great with the tofu and vegetable lavash stack, described in an earlier post, or with your favourite pasta dish. To make half a cup of tapenade, use the following:

Ingredients:
4 large brined oriental black olives, pitted and finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fermented black oriental olives and mustard vegetable in rapeseed oil
2 teaspoon akudjura (bush tomato), ground

Combine all ingredients. For a finer texture, mill the mixture, otherwise the mustard vegetables give an interesting texture. Allow 30 minutes for the akudjura to marinate. Store refrigerated in a clean jar until ready to use.



As described in Paper Chef #8 Challenge, the fermented black oriental olive and mustard vegetable preserve is very salty and pungent, with a fried fish-like aroma, kind of crossed with black beans and soy sauce. The aroma makes an excellent substitute for anchovies. Preserved black oriental olives, fermented or brined, are found in the condiment section of good oriental stores.

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Lunch Special - Vegan Tofu and Vegetable Lavash

Healthy tofu, tomato, spinach and tomato sauce layered on lavash flatbread. A modern oriental fusion equivalent of the Italian lasagna dish, designed for the vegan. It is possible to make the dish gluten-free with the use of a suitable flatbread. Serve cold or toasted, on its own, or with a side salad. Recommended with vegetarian tapenade , and a light dressing of trinity olive oil infusions.

To make the dish as meal for one, allow the following ingredients:

Ingredients:
1 cake of firm tofu (250 g), sliced 0.5 cm thick
1/2 sheet of lavash flatbread, cut into four 10cm x 10cm squares.
2 tablespoon tomato paste or home cooked tomato sauce
1/2 cup cooked spinach puree or chopped, cooked seasonal vegetables of choice
1 tomato, sliced thinly

For serving suggestions:
trinity olive oil infusions, optional
vegetarian tapenade, optional
wasabi, optional
ground mountain pepper berry, optional



Assemble the stack in neat layers, alternating the ingredients. Season to taste. If required, heat in an oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes until toasted. Serve immediately with suggested accompaniments.

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Lunch Special - Vegan Potato and Carrot Timbale

An attractive potato and carrot timbale, served with seasonal vegetable, toasted tofu, and mushroom in mountain pepper berry sauce. A vegan meal on its own, or enjoy as an entree, or as a side dish, to a main course. The fruity and zingy mountain pepper berry sauce highlights the taste of the dish. The akudjura (bush tomato) in the tofu and carrot pastry adds an extra dimension to the taste. General instructions follow.

Mountain Pepper Berry Sauce:
Make a roux out of 1 tablespoon onion and garlic infused olive oil, 1 tablespoon plain flour, 1 tablespoon tapioca startch, and 2/3 cup water. Remove from the heat. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, 1.5 cups of sliced champignons and 2 teaspoons of ground mountain pepper berry.

Potato and Carrot Timbale:
To 150 g of pureed cooked carrot, add 1/4 salt, 1 tablespoon of trinity olive oil infusions, and 75 g toasted glutinous rice flour (obtained from oriental stores). Mix to a soft dough and rest 30 minutes to soften the rice flour. For each timbale, roll out 30 g of the carrot pastry between baking paper dusted with rice flour. Place 60 g ball of cooked mashed potato in the pastry and wrap up. Press into a well oiled mould such as an expresso cup. There is enough pastry for 6 timbales. No further cooking is needed as the rice flour is cooked, other than perhaps a quick warm up in a microwave.

Toasted Tofu:
Marinate slices of tofu in trinity olive oil infusions. Just before cooking, drain and coat with chickpea flour. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes until golden.

Assemble the dish as shown and garnish with fried onions and garlic left over from the olive oil infusions.

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Tuna Mousseline with Mushroom in Mountain Pepper Berry Sauce

The great tasting fruity and zingy mountain pepper berry features in this tuna mousseline as an experiment. Like wasabi and mustard, mountain pepper berry looses its zingy sensation when heated, although not its aroma or flavour.

In this experiment, mountain pepper berry was added to a cooling mushroom roux. The roux was chilled in the refrigerator prior to incorporation into ramekins of tuna mousseline. The mousseline was cooked at a low temperature of 150 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes in a water bath. Despite all the care, the zing dissipated during cooking. Perhaps a cold gelatine set version works better, or serve the dish with the mountain pepper berry sauce warm or at room temperature, on the side.

Regardless, the dish tastes great with the mountain pepper berry sauce strongly resembling fruit chutney without the sweetness or sourness. The quandong inspired coulis from Paper Chef #9 works well with the tuna and the mountain pepper berry sauce.

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Australian Cajun Spices

Bush foods experts herald the combination of wattleseed, mountain pepper berry and akudjura as Australia's answer to Cajun spices. To most people, Cajun spices refer to the blackening spice mixture use in grilled meats. Does the bush spice combination taste or work like Cajun spices? To find out, Noodle Cook goes behind the scene and tests the spices out on grilled chicken.

There is no rocket science to making up the Aussie Cajun spices: 1 teaspoon each of wattleseed, ground mountain pepper berry and ground akudjura. Add a few shakes of ground black pepper (or mountain pepper leaves), and pinches of herbs like oregano and thyme. Sprinkle the spice mix over skinless chicken drumsticks. Splash over some trinity olive oil infusions. Grill at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes.

Does the chicken taste like the normal Cajun grill? The blackening works, however the taste is quite different. With John the "secret reviewer", as the critic, giving the thumbs up, one can't go wrong with the taste! Although, Noodle cannot convince John to eat all the chicken because the inside is still raw....

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"An Electronic Restaurant" Starring ....

The judging panel reintroduced using "South Park"-style cartoon characters created with "South Park Studio Version 2". From left to right:

The junior judging team:
Ninja Nath
Cathy Roadrunner
Tiny Tom



... and
Princess
Chubby Chup



The senior Ladies judges:
Jetset Nan
Nutri Jan
Chairman
Super K



The senior Men judges:
Oz Grunt
Big Tom
Action Man



... the Hero and Villain:
A mini-series would not be one if there is no hero or villain! So here are Noodle Cook, the electronic masterchef hero, and home food critic John the "secret reviewer" as the villain:



John's "secret" visit, the first to this weblog, was recorded in the guestbook for all to see!

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Trinity Olive Oil Infusions

The success of confit salmon lies in a delicately herbed and spiced oil infusion which helps distribute the heat during cooking at low temperature around 100 deg Celsius or lower. Both Tetsuya and Chubby Hubby use grapeseed oil. Strong tasting olive oil also works well for gently heated infusions. To recreate the Creole "trinity" flavours and the the spectacular colours for the confit salmon dish for this electronic restaurant, try the following combinations with olive oil.

Herbs and spice suggestions:

Green Infusion:
1/2 teaspoon each of dried
basil
thyme
mint
parsley
oregano
celery seeds (or slivers of fresh celery)

Yellow Infusion:
1 teaspoon lemon zest, slivered
1 garlic clove, slivered
1 French shallot onion bulb, slivered

Orange or Red Infusion:
1 teaspoon ground akudjura (Australian bush tomato)
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon paprika

For each infusion, use 4 tablespoons of good quality olive. Place the herbs/spices in cold olive oil and slowly warm to just bubbling. Wait for the aroma and colour to develop. Remove from heat and cool. Let the infusions develop for 2 hours. For the salmon marinate and the leek linguine dressing, use the ratio of about 2 teaspoon of orange, 1 teaspoon of yellow and about 1/2 teaspoon of green. The idea is to create a bright orange infusion to match the salmon. Adjust the flavours to your personal taste. The garlic, lemon zest and onion make great garnishes, while the darkened spices give added taste to normal salad dressings. Drizzle excess infusions over plated salads for spectacular presentations.

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Nature Does Not Lie with Colours

It's Friday again and the restaurant closes! Oops not quite as Noodle Cook waited till Sunday this time, for another romantic dinner. The confit salmon cooked to perfection after an earlier run for the new Degustation Menu. Unlike Chubby Hubby, Noodle didn't have a makeshift studio to photograph the dinner! When Noodle's romantic dinner photographs went out of focus and got ruined by backlighting, it seemed like yet another dramatic end to a dinner cooked by Noodle.

According to "Does My Blog Look Good In This" (DMBLGIT #8), the food blogger photography competition: "Those that didn't do so well suffered from poor focus and poor lighting. So for the next round take a little time with the focusing (a tripod perhaps) and give some consideration to the light source and overall illumination...".

Well, good lighting and photographic opportunities are not always found together in real life. So, what does one do with a photograph considered "bad"? Expert photographer, Stephen of "What's for Dinner?" suggested to use the shake to the advantage what he did with his pizza and ice cream. While Stephen expertly achieved moods through clever lighting, Noodle's immediate approach was to cheat with Photoshop, and play with colours...

The reminder of the ambience for the dinner was a beautiful vase of daisies. The poor focus was disguised using a "wind" filter in Photoshop, which seemed very appropriate as the dinner went smoothly and quickly, a bit hazy, like in a "breeze". The poor lighting and colour were adjusted by referring to colours in nature. In design, the expression "Nature does not lie" is applied to harmonising colours by looking at examples in nature. In the absence of formal studies into colours, using nature is a great idea.

It was decided after studying a daisy from the garden that orange works well with the blues and purples as a complementary colour.



To show that the colour works, an orange cookie cutter, placed over the daisy, frames the daisy perfectly.



After adjusting the background to orange for the vase of flowers, the photograph really captured the mood for the dinner. Also, the confit salmon looked wonderful after digital removal of backlighting and brightening of the foreground with deeper, richer colours and a matching orange.



The pictures for this post work well even though they were out of focus or have bad lighting, proving the point that poor focus and poor lighting aren't the end of everything!

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