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.

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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.

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Asia Pacific Best Restaurant List

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!

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Paper Chef #18 Challenge

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.

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Anniversary

"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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Paper Chef #18 Ingredient Nomination

Paper Chef #18 kicks off on Friday 2nd June. Head across to Seriously Good to nominate an ingredient. For information on this fun cooking challenge which utilises 4 secret ingredients, check out "Paper Chef FAQ, details, past winners, newbies".

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Wattleseed Coffee Chiffon Cake

A beautifully moist chiffon cake with chocolate and hazelnut tasting wattleseed, coffee and a touch of Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur). Just the perfect birthday cake for the discerning diner who dislikes desserts.

120 g Top Flour (good quality high ratio cake flour)
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon wattleseed, finely ground
2 tablespoon hot fresh brewed coffee
1 tablespoon instant expresso coffee powder
80 g raw sugar
2.5 tablespoon walnut oil
1 tablespoon Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
4 large eggs (67g each), separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Sieve together the flour, baking powder and wattleseed.

Dissolve the sugar and coffee powder in the hot coffee. Add the walnut oil and Frangelico. Pour the cooled mixture into the egg yolks and whisk until light and increased in volume.

In a separate bowl, using a clean beater, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar for 10-15 minutes until stiff and glossy.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture, follow by half the whisked egg white. Pour the mixture into the remaining egg white and gently fold in with a metal spoon.

Bake the cake in an ungreased chiffon tube pan or 20 cm cake tin for 45 minutes at 160-170 degrees Celsius.

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Lemon Myrtle Poppyseed Sponge

A light moist fluffy sponge with a hint of lemon, recommended with lemon curd or orange marmalade. The sponge is made with egg whites and lecithin as egg yolk substitute.



Recipe for 15 cm cake tin or 4 small muffins:

60 g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground lemon myrtle
1 teaspoon poppyseed
40 g sugar
1 teaspoon lecithin granules
1 tablespoon walnut oil
2 tablespoon warm water
1 tablespoon liqueur (Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Frangelico)
2 egg whites, stiffly whisked


Sift together the flour, baking powder and lemon myrtle. Add the poppyseed.

Whisk together sugar, lecithin and liquids until well combined and the solids dissolve.

Lightly stir in the flour until just combined.

With a metal spoon, gently fold in the whisked egg white.

Pour into greased a cake tin and bake 170-180 degrees Celsius for 25-40 minutes.

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Birthday Celebrations

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Paper Chef #17 All in a Soup

Paper Chef, the internet cooking challenge invented by Owen of Tomatilla, resumes after 1 month break, with Kevin of Seriously Good acting as the host, and Anne (Anne's Food) co-judging.

On the first Friday of every month, everyone gets to star in his/her home kitchen stadium in front of a worldwide internet audience, using 4 secret ingredients instead of just one as in the TV Iron Chef show. To find out more, check out "Paper Chef FAQ, details, past winners, newbies".

The four secret ingredients for this month are chickpeas, lavender, miso, and something local. The ingredients seem like a great combination for fusion cooking, with everything already "local" in the garden, fridge or pantry. Homemade stock looks like the most versatile choice for the "local" ingredient. Several attempts to combine the ingredients resulted in:

Red lentil soup and toasted chickpea crepe, served with smoked salmon and lavender infused horseradish cream
.... a dish with a twist, a few turns and around in circles.



Contrary to the name of the dish, this is not an Indian dish. Instead, it is a dish which brings together Japanese and French flavours in an unconventional combination of contrasting creamy aniseed flavoured soup and crispy chickpea crepe with a subtle hint of miso.

The creamy texture of red lentil reduces the need for addition of cream, although a touch of butter pairs well with the aniseed flavour. The chickpea gives the crepe its crispy texture, while the red lentils tone down the chickpea taste. The strong aroma of red fermented beancurd disappeared on toasting, leaving just a subtle hint. The idea for plating up comes from Iron Chef Sakai's "Cod Challenge", where he used baked on spring roll wrappers to cover soup bowls.

Red Lentil Soup

1 onion*, sliced
2 tablespoon butter*
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 teaspoon fennel seed, crushed
1/2 teaspoon aniseed, crushed
4 aniseed myrtle leaves** (or substitute 1/2 teaspoon aniseed)
2-4 young lavender tips*
1/2 cup red lentil, finely milled
2 cup homemade chicken stock* (or fish stock)
2 cup boiling water*
4 tablespoon cream*, optional
Chickpea crepe (see below)
Smoked salmon*** (or try Haalo's Paper Chef #15 cured salmon)
Horseradish cream
Lavender*, for garnish

*local ingredients from within 180 km
**Australia
***Southern Ocean

Cook the onion in melted butter until softened and starting to brown. Add the celery seed, fennel seed and lavender. Saute for 1 minute. Add the aniseed myrtle leaves, pour in 1 cup of stock, and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the liquid. Adjust to 1 cup.

Mix the remaining stock with the milled red lentil. Pour in 2 cups of boiling water while stirring. Simmer the lentil mixture at low heat, while stirring, for 15 minutes until thickened. When cooked, the lentil changes to yellow-brown without the raw bean smell.

Pour the onion and herb flavoured stock into the lentil mixture. Simmer until combined. Remove from heat and add the cream. Adjust seasoning. Pour into serving bowls.

Drape chickpea crepes over the bowls. Place the bowls in a baking dish. Bake in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 10-15 minutes until the crepe becomes crisp and starts to brown. Alternatively, toast the crepe separately in a microwave. Remove from the oven and garnish with sprigs of lavender leaves.



To serve, place a piece of smoked salmon in a soup spoon. Top with a teaspoon of lavender infused horseradish cream made by adding (sparingly) finely chopped lavender at about 1/4 teaspoon lavender to 1/2 cup horseradish cream. The soup may be eaten hot or cold. Shown below are chips, croutons and wedges made by toasting the dough from a previous post on Homemade Red Lentil and Yellow Split Pea Noodles.



Chickpea Crepe

For each flavoured dough:
2 tablespoon chickpea flour (also known as gram, garbanzo, chana or besan)
2 tablespoon red lentil, finely milled
2 tablespoon tapioca starch
6-8 tablespoon water
olive or walnut oil for rolling

For red dough:
1 teaspoon ground red fermented rice ("ang kak", red yeast rice)
1 teaspoon red fermented beancurd sauce (or red miso)

For yellow dough:
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, milled
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

For green dough:
1 teaspoon chopped chives, parsley or herb of choice
1 teaspoon chopped spinach

To make the dough, in a glass container, mix the dry ingredients with water and stir to a smooth batter. Add flavouring. Cover and cook in a microwave on high for 1-2 minutes until the red lentil changes colour. Cool.

Dab with oil and then progressively roll the dough in a pasta maker until the finest thickness. Make an interesting pattern by rolling pinwheels, weaving or plaiting the doughs.





Cut the resulting crepes to size. Mould the crepes into desired shape if required. The crepes may be eaten as is or toasted. Leftover dough can be cooked and eaten like papadams.

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