Kluski Soup - A childhood favourite

When my mum came over this week she made some Kluski soup, this is a Polish recipe that my Grandma used to make for us all of the time, I love it & it’s really very simple so I really should make it myself sometime too, I sometimes forget about the simple things in life in my quest to try out so many new foods & recipes. Kluski are basically Polish dumplings that are added to chicken noodle soup. We cheat & use a packet mix, of course if you make home made chicken stock it is so much the nicer for it.

So thanks Mum & Happy Mothers Day for yesterday!

Kluski Soup

2 packets of Continental Chicken Noodle Soup (Not the low salt one)
2-3 large carrots
3-4 potatoes
2 eggs
Flour

Make the soup to packet instructions & add some chopped carrots. When the carrots start to soften add the peeled & chopped potatoes. As this is cooking, make your kluski, in a mug beat the 2 eggs lightly, add enough flour & stir until you have a thick dough, it needs to not be runny but still be able to be stirred. When the potatoes are nearly done, drop teaspoons of the dough into the soup & cook for a couple more minutes until the dumplings are just cooked through. Serve immediately.

Ricotta Dumplings with Orecchiette, peas & prosciutto

For dinner the other night, we had visitors all afternoon & the as soon as they were out the door & I was about to start dinner, Missy wanted a feed so Michael was stuck cooking dinner again. I was a bit worried as the recipe I had chosen to attempt was a bit more complicated than his usual efforts so I thought I could step in and take over as soon as Chloe was done but Michael was happy to keep going so I left him to it & got some other stuff done in my few moments of freedom. The recipe comes from a recent Delicious Magazine & was delicious, a really tasty yet simple combination, it was so yum that I hadn’t even intended on blogging it yet after a couple of mouthfuls I felt I couldn’t not post about it so I tried to rearrange the dish & snap some photos. Great dish though not sure if I will make it again as it seemed a bit fiddly, quite a few dishes & a hell of a mess (Michael hasn’t yet learned the art of cooking & keeping the kitchen relatively clean as he goes!), anyway I have kept the recipe so will wait & see.

Ricotta Dumplings with Orecchiette, peas & prosciutto

2 cups Orecchiette pasta
¼ cup (60ml) olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 cup freshly podded or frozen peas
½ onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup (60ml) dry white wine
4 thin slices prosciutto or ham, sliced
2 tablespoons mint leaves

Ricotta Dumplings
250g fresh ricotta
2 tablespoons grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
1 egg, plus 1 extra yolk
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Large pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

For the ricotta dumplings, briefly process all the ingredients in a food processor with salt & pepper until smooth. Chill until needed.

Cook pasta in a pan of salted water according to packet instructions, adding peas for the final 2 minutes of cooking time, then drain. Rinse briefly in cold water to cool slightly, then drain again. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil.

Heat remaining oil in large pan over medium-low heat. Add onion & cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Add the wine, prosciutto, peas & pasta & lightly toss for 1 minute or until pasta is heated through. Strew the contents of the pan with its juices in a single layer over a large serving platter.

Meanwhile bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Drop the ricotta batter by the teaspoon into the boiling water, cooking 6 at a time, and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain on paper towel while you cook remaining dumplings, then scatter over the pasta. Season well with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, scatter with mint & a little extra parmesan, then drizzle with extra oil & serve warm.

Gingerboy, Melbourne

Saturday night I finally made it to Gingerboy with my very nice $150.00 voucher kindly arranged by Ed at Tomato that I managed to win in this years Menu for hope. With less then 2 weeks until D Day this was probably my last opportunity for a nice meal out for quite some time. Firstly the décor is fantastic, black bamboo lines the walls & ceilings with little fairly lights scattered through them so its all very magical, dark polished tables & very different clear plastic chairs for those sitting opposite the ‘couch wall’. The background music was funky & not too loud to be a nuisance & the place was packed & had a great vibe about it.

With all that money to spend Michael & I decided that we better try a bit of everything. The menu is divided between snacks & street food, and main courses, all designed to share. From the snack section we had the Steamed half shell scallops with green chilli sambal, these were delicious & definitely my favourite starter, the sambal serving quite a kick yet the flavour was still subtle enough to go perfectly with the scallop. Next we had the Son in Law eggs with Chilli Jam & Asian herbs that I have heard so many good things about. They certainly looked impressive yet as I am not allowed runny egg yolk at the moment & had to have them more on the well done side I don’t think I quite got the right flavour hit this way, oh well next time I will try them properly. Next up was Pork nam prik ong with shredded lettuce and herbs, this was minced pork in a sauce which was a bit on the sweet side for me though still good. Salt & Pepper Chicken spare ribs with a green chilli & soy dipping sauce came next, really very good, the rib is such a tender & meaty part of the chicken that most people don’t know about, Michael was especially pleased with this dish as for him it was a fancy & of course much superior version of the dreaded KFC. Lastly was the Prawn dumplings with chilli sauce, sticky soy & lime, these were delicate little parcels full of goodness, another one of the favourites for us.

Now my only complaint about this first part is that they all came out on top of each other & despite our waiters assurances that they were all quite small & would not be too much we were getting quite full at this stage & we still had a main to follow! Luckily they gave us a bit of a break before bringing out the Mussaman Duck leg curry with kipfler potatoes & shallots, we also had a serve of corn cakes which the waiter insisted on. Let me tell you this dish was fantastic & the corn cakes although sounding strange were great & you have to try some if you ever make it here.

And of course lastly we had to have some dessert, I did have high hopes for the sharing platter but of course there was no way this could even be considered so we shared the Steamed pandan dumplings with spiced pears & pure cream, loved these as well & they were the perfect end to a great meal.

All in all despite some mixed reviews of this place we had a great night, the staff were very friendly, attentive & helpful, food was very good, our glasses were always full & all in all service was very efficient, (even a bit too much to start with). Would be keen to go again & try out some more of the menu & some of the wicked sounding cocktails that sadly were off my list last night!

Gingerboy
27-29 Crossley Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: +613 9662 4200
Fax: +613 9662 4250
Email: eat@gingerboy.com.au
www.gingerboy.com.au

Shanghai Ling, East Brunswick - Another great local

I finally got around to trying out Shanghai Ling, one of my local restaurants that I’ve heard many good things about. The place is much like any local Chinese, nothing flash to look at, yet the menu is much more inspiring than just the usual lemon chicken & beef & black bean. They specialise in Shanghai & Si Chuan cuisine & it is recommended that you try the specials rather than sticking to the ordinary menu, do this & you will be highly rewarded.

To start with we had the fried pumpkin cakes, I cant remember what’s in these exactly, though sure as well as pumpkin they contained some sort of sticky rice, any way they sound strange yet absolutely yummy & moorish, we also had the freshly steamed Shanghai-style pork dumplings served with a soy dipping sauce, very fresh & delicate & as you can from the photos the serves were very generous especially considering the price (think about $4.00 & $7.00 respectively). Next we had some Red Hot Chilli Beef which wasn’t red hot at all so the name was a bit deceiving, though the taste was very fresh, the beef melted in your mouth which is a nice change to what I usually seem to get in these type of dishes, that is very chewy meat. Alongside this we had the sweet & sour barramundi fillets in a tomato & pine nut sauce, a huge serving & the fish & batter was nice & light & cooked to perfection, the sauce nice & tangy with out the sickly sweetness you would expect form a dish like this. Unfortunately this is all we could fit in tonight but cant wait to go back & try out some more of there specials. Oh and a tip for you, they do take away but the take away menu is printed with only the standard dishes so would suggest you really try eating in.

Shanghai Ling
180 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
Tel +613 9381 0644
Open Mon-Sat 6.00-10pm
Licensed and BYO (wine only)

Pork Dumplings in Chicken Broth Thursday 15th Dec 05

Well tonight I thought I would try something different & make some dumplings. I used a recipe from a table magazine that promised prep time to be only 20 minutes. This was my first attempt though I am sure that for those of you who have ever made wontons of any kind before you will know this is a lie. Also the recipe called for 30 square wonton wrappers, I only used about 2/3rds of the ingredients yet made about 45 wontons so some adjustments may be neccessary. As you can see from the picture I had to move from wonton wrappers to gyoza wrappers when I ran out! I also used noral mushies as couldnt get my hands on any shitake. Having said all that the recipe was very easy to follow even though time consuming & the end result was delicious. As I was only cooking for 2 I also froze the leftovers for another day or 2 (after steaming) which will be nice for a low fuss dinner some night.



Here is the recipe as it was printed to serve 6



Pork Dumplings in Chicken Broth

400g lean pork mince
2 green onions finely chopped
80g drained water chestnuts, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh giner, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, , crushed
3 tspn soy sauce
2 tspn sweet sherry
1 tspn sesame oil
30 squar wonton wrappers
1.25 ltr (5 cups) chicken stock
1/4 chinese cabbage (wong bok), finely shredded
100g shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

Place pork, onions, water chestnuts, ginger, garlic, soy, sherry & sesame oil in a bowl & mix together well

Line a tray with non stick baking paper. Spoon 1 tspn of mixture into the center of a wrapper, brush edges with water & bring edges together so corners meet, now pinch in the edges. Place on preapred tray until done with all the mixture. Cover with a damp tea towell & place in fridge until ready to use.

Place 1Ltr stock & 1 cup water in a large wok on high & bring to the boil. Line 2 bamboo steamers with non stick baking paper & arrange wontons in single layer. Stack baskets, cover with lid & place over stock in wok. Reduce heat to medium & steam for 5 minutes.

Carefully lift baskets out, add cabbage & mushrooms to stock, swap baskets so top is now on bottom, cover with lid & return to wok. Steam for 5-7 minutes or until wontons cooked.

Remove baskets, add remaining stock & 1 cup water to wok, bring to boil. Divide wontons between bowls & ladle over broth & vegetables

Yummy & will definietly be trying out some variations!