royal foodie joust
Tuna Carpaccio
27/03/2008 18:01 Filed in: Recipes
Fried eschallot encrusted tuna with limes and coconut..the Joust ingredients
It's that time of the month again. The Royal Foodie Joust is being held over at Jenn's. Well ok, it runs for the whole month but its time for me to enter my recipe for the competition. Val, who won last months competition chose seafood, lemons or limes and coconut. As per usual, I had a whole heap of things I wanted to make and "ummed and aahed" until I decided to try something a little different. I'm doing a tuna carpaccio. Carpaccio traditionally uses beef as the protein. It's finely sliced (shaved?) and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and parmesan. Recently I've seen tuna used in carpaccios but always done with Italian ingredients. By using the RFJ's ingredients I could play with the whole carpaccio concept by adding an Asian twist to it. The Asian ingredients lie somewhere between Thailand and Vietnam. I wanted to use sashimi but I wasn't game to get up at 5 am and brave the Sydney Seafood Markets!
Instead, I bought small fresh tuna steaks from my local Greek fishmonger, Nick (there's always called Nick!). Before i sliced them I rolled them in fried eschallots and this provided a nice crust for the tuna. I wanted to use toasted sesame seeds but I had run out! No problem. It's all about being creative and thats why I like the Royal Foodie Joust. I dressed the thinly sliced tuna in a coconut vinaigrette. I made the dressing using a splash of olive oil, a small knob of grated ginger, a finely diced chilli, a teaspoon of palm sugar, fish sauce , soy sauce, the juice of half a lime, a tablespoon of coconut cream and some of the coconut water from my freshly cracked coconut. Phew! It sounds very complex but really its very complementary to the tuna. Its fresh, tangy and the coconut cream adds a subtle richness. The final touch was to garnish each tuna slice with a fresh mint leave and some finely sliced chilli. Hope you enjoy and good luck to everyone!
San Choy Bau...Thai Style
22/02/2008 08:06 Filed in: Recipes
Thai inspired san choy bau
This is my entry for this months Royal Foodie Joust. Jenn holds this monthly competition where foodie bloggers join in a "cook-off" using three ingredients. The three ingredients are chosen by the previous winner. Heather who won last months joust, chose pork or barley (for our veggie friends), citrus and peppercorns. A great combination and one that had me thinking for a few weeks. So I decided to go "Thai" and make a Chinese favourite utilising Thai ingredients! How's that for cross cultural? By the way, if you want to participate and vote just go here. Join up and get cooking!
San choy bau is a classic Chinese dish that can be found on a lot of menus. Traditionally, its made with chicken or pork mince and uses water chestnuts in the recipe. The cooked meat mixture is then placed in iceberg lettuce cups and rolled up to be enjoyed. Its very flavourful and addictive! I decided to use this recipe by adding a few Thai ingredients to the mix. I have rambled on many times about my love of Thai food. I spend a lot of time in Bangkok and love all the flavours associated with Thai cooking. The food is spicy, sweet, sour and salty all at the same time. Your taste buds are in for an enjoyable time with Thai food. Go ahead and tantalise them!
Some of our ingredients for the paste
RECIPE FOR THAI INSPIRED SAN CHOY BAU
N.B Some of the ingredients can be substituted if you cant find them. You can use brown sugar instead of palm and grated lime zest in place of the kaffir lime leaves.
- 1/2 a bunch of coriander (cilantro) roots, cleaned and scrubbed
- 2 escallots finely chopped
- 2 whole chillies , ends removed
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsps of peppercorns, preferably white
- 1/3 of a cup of tamarind puree
- 2 tbsps of Thai fish sauce
- 3 kaffir lime leaves finely sliced
- 2tbps of grated palm sugar
- Iceberg lettuce
- peanut oil for frying
- 250g of pork mince (not too lean...we want a little flavour here!)
- 1/2 a cup of Thai Basil leaves
- Freshly squeezed limes
Place the above ingredients in a food processor till you achieve a lovely chunky, thick paste. Set it aside once done. Heat a wok up with some peanut oil and get it smokin! Place the paste into the wok and let it fry off. Then add the pork mince to the fried paste mixture and toss through ensuring the mixture is well combined and cooked through. Break up any lumps and continue to cook until there are no more pink bits visible. This should take no more than 10 mins. You need to work fast with a hot wok! Just before removing form the heat throw in your Thai Basil leaves and toss through. Remove from heat and leave it rest for a few moments.
The iceberg lettuce cups or "wrappers" can be prepared in advance. A good tip is to leave the lettuce soak in the kitchen sink filled with water. It becomes easier to remove the leaves without breaking them. Once you have the desired amount of leaves, snip the outer edges to make cute little cups. (all the "snipped" bits can be used for a salad later). Take the pork mixture and place it in the lettuce cups. Squeeze a little lime juice on top and garnish with sliced chillies and coriander leaves.
Enjoy the San Choy Bau
Moroccan Style Spiced Lamb with Lentils and Baba Ghanoush
29/01/2008 08:34 Filed in: Recipes
Prepping the lamb...and the finished dish.
This is my entry for the Royal Foodie Joust. Jenn, who hosts this monthly competition has given us "foodies" a chance to get creative with a monthly challenge. Last months winner who chose this months 3 ingredients, chose cinnamon, lentils and eggplant (aubergine). Great combination! So off to work I went creating a dish based on those ingredients. Here's my creation. Moroccan spiced lamb (using the cinnamon as part of the spice rub), a lentil and pancetta "pilaf" using the lentils of course and baba ghanoush using the eggplant. Here's a visual and written breakdown of this recipe.
PREPARING THE LAMB
I used two organic racks of lamb that I purchased form my very knowledgeable butcher. I made a spice rub using about a teaspoon of each of the following. Ground cinnamon, ground fennel seeds, cumin, turmeric, ground ginger and ground coriander seeds. To this blend of dry spices I added a good splash of olive oil and the juice of half a lemon. I created a wonderful aromatic paste that I rubbed all over the lamb and let it marinate in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. Once the lamb had come back to room temperature I placed it in a hot oven for about 45 mins at 200 deg C. This ensured I got a lovely pink colour in the middle and the lamb wasn't overcooked or destroyed!
LENTIL AND PANCETTA PILAF
Lentils and pancetta...a great combination here!
I had originally intended to make a warm lentil salad as my base. But I slightly overcooked the lentils and it resembled more of a "pilaf". Oh well! the texture was slightly thicker than I had hoped for but it still tasted great. To make this I used 250 g of lentils. I picked all the slightly "scarred" ones out and I soaked them in some cold water. Once I had re rinsed them after their soaking I boiled them in a combination of one cup of water and one cup of chicken stock. I added a little salt and pepper to taste and one bay leaf. Once they had cooked (or slightly overcooked in my case!) I added some fried pancetta to them. I love pancetta. It's basically the Italian version of bacon but much better. It's a little saltier and spicier and it lends great character to a dish.
BABA GHANOUSH
Preparing the baba ghanoush
I've never made baba ghanoush before. I've never even made that similar Greek classic "melitzanosalata". The principles are similar but the ingredients vary slightly. Baba ghanoush is a dip which originates in the Middle East and it uses eggplant as its base ingredient. It's actually quite simple to make and it has a very addictive taste. I basically baked an eggplant in a very hot oven that I had pierced all over with a fork. This took about one hour. Once the eggplant had been removed and cooled down I peeled the dark skin off it and removed any seeds that were still visible inside the silky cooked flesh. I then placed the cooked eggplant flesh into a food processor and added two finely chopped garlic cloves, one and a half tablespoons of tahini (middle Eastern ground sesame paste), salt and pepper, the juice of half a lemon and whilst the motor was running, I added enough extra virgin olive oil to make a creamy concoction. (The amount of olive oil might vary slightly but just use enough to make it creamy).
The finished dish.
And finally I put all the cooked parts of the dish together. The lentil pilaf was used as the base. The lamb was placed on top of this and the baba ghanoush was scooped on top. A fantastic blend of flavours and combinations. Also a great challenge using those three specified ingredients of cinnamon, lentils and eggplant.
Chocolate Chilli Churros
27/11/2007 19:34 Filed in: Recipes
Spanish Churros with a chocolate and chilli dipping sauce
What a way to get back into the cooking game. A few months ago I joined the passionate foodie community over at The Leftover Queen. Jenn, who runs that site, holds a monthly competition where food bloggers compete to create a dish based on 3 ingredients. It's called the Royal Foodie Joust and its a great way to keep everyone's cooking imagination active. I had been a long time observer but this time decided to contribute. This month's challenge involved chocolate, chilli and some kind of grain i.e. rice oats etc. I thought long and hard about what I was going to contribute and my creative juices came up with that ol' Spanish fave, churros! Churros are basically a doughnut and traditionally they are served with a chocolate dipping sauce. Mine has the wicked addition of chilli in it and makes it all that little more sensual.
These can easily be served at the end of a meal or created for that special occasion. I think they're kind of sexy actually. Served warm and dipped in a good quality couverture chocolate, you can't fail. You may opt to roll them in cinnamon sugar and relive those child hood memories of yesteryear. I consulted my good friend the internet and found a number of recipes for churros. Mine is basically a hybrid version form all the recipes I discovered. It wasn't too difficult either. Have fun making these.
CHOCOLATE CHILLI CHURROS
For the churros:
1 cup of water
110 grams of butter
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup of plain flour
3 eggs
Oil for deep frying
For the chocolate chilli dipping sauce:
Half a block of good quality grade couverture chocolate (at least 70%)
half a teaspoon of smoked chipotle chilli powder
1. Heat the water, butter and salt and bring it to a rolling boil. Once it's all combined an boiling away add the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until you get a smooth dough formed. Now add your eggs one by one making sure to beat thoroughly after each addition. The dough should look glossy and everything should be well combined.
2. Make sure you have your oil heated in a pan or saucepan suitable for frying. We're looking to deep fry here. And make sure the temperature is at a medium heat. We want the churros to fry evenly and not too quickly.
3. Place the dough in a piping bag and use a wide star tip to pipe the churro dough into the hot oil. Be VERY CAREFUL and if you don't feel comfortable with just piping the dough into the oil, pipe them onto a tray and freeze them for about 20 mins. (Then slot them into the hot oil).
4. Drain on a late covered with absorbent paper. Allow them to cool slightly. Just!
5. Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Spoon in the chilli powder and combine well.
6. Serve the churros on a plate with the chocolate chilli dipping sauce on the side. Dip and enjoy!
N.B. The chilli you use is entirely up to you. Just don't over do it. We don't want to burn ourselves from the intense heat. Instead we're looking for a slight warm sensation that makes the person eating them say "wow...mmmm".
