Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Here is s simple marinade for tuna or any firm fish or even prawns, great for the bbq or grill. It’s healthy & the flavours are fresh & clean, serve it with a salad & do your insides some good. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Marinade
2 tablespoons chopped shallots (escahlots)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped chilli
2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

4 tuna escalopes, weighing about 150g each
1 tablespoon olive oil
mixed salad leaves, to serve

To make the marinade, place all ingr4edients in a large bowl & mix well. Add the tuna & rub in the marinade. Cover & chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the barbecue or grill. Add the olive oil to the bowl & toss to coat. Cook on a hot barbecue or flat grill until cooked through. Serve on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

Crispy Duck with Spiced Plum sauce

Duck is one of my favourite meats, some hate it, I can’t get enough of it & whenever it’s on a menu when I’m out I find it hard to go past & usually end up ordering it with no regrets. This recipe from Allan Campion & Michele Curtis ‘Food with Friends’ is a winner, the aroma of the spices while cooking is amazing & the plum sauce is really good with its combination of sweet & sour flavours. Quite easy to put together too though there are a few steps & pots to use!

Crispy Duck with Spiced Plum Sauce

Master Stock (below)
4 duck breast fillets
110g caster sugar
2 star anise
2-3 cinnamon sticks
4-6 plums, halves, stones discarded
80ml (1/3 cup) fish sauce
80-125ml (1/3-1/2 cup) lime or lemon juice
oil for cooking

Bring Master stock to the boil. Add duck, cover & cook for 10 minutes at a gentle simmer. Remove from heat & allow duck to cool in master stock. Once cool, remove duck from master stock & refrigerate.

Make sauce by putting 2 cups of the master stock in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, add sugar, stir to dissolve, then add star anise & cinnamon & cook for 10 minutes or so to infuse the flavours. Add plums and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove saucepan from the heat.

Preheat oven to 180c. heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, add a splash of oil & cook duck filets for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown. Place on a tray, cook in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Remove, cover & rest for 5 minutes.

Reheat plum sauce, adding fish sauce & lemon or lime juice to taste, so the sauce is tart, sweet & sour. Carve each duck fillet into 6-7 slices. Arrange duck pieces on a platter and pour hot sauce & plums over.

Serve with steamed rice & garlic Stir Fried Greens (below)

Master Stock

1.5 litres (6 cups) water
250ml (1 cup) soy sauce
125ml (1/2 cup) Chinese rice wine
3-4 slices fresh ginger
1 lemongrass stem, sliced
2-3 pieces tangerine peel, optional
2 star anise
75g (1/3 cu) caster sugar

Put all ingredients in a large saucepan & bring to the boil.

Garlic Stir fried Greens

2 bunches gai laan (or bok choy, wonga bok, etc)
oil for cooking
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons grated ginger, optional
125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

Wash greens well, discard big old leaves, thinly slice, chop up.

Heat a wok over high heat, add a splash of oil, the garlic & ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often, making sure the garlic doesn’t burn. Add gai laan, toss for 1-2 minutes, add stock & cover with a lid. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes, tossing occasionally to ensure greens cook evenly. Remove lid & season with soy sauce.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

The other day I had people in and out so I baked this pleasing cake from Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie. Whilst it turned out very nice in the end it wasn’t without some drama. Firstly I have an electric fan forced oven that usually cooks perfectly as per recipe instructions or if anything faster so I was surprised when after cooking for a bit over the recommended 50 minutes and a skewer coming out clean, I left it for 10 minutes then went to turn it out & it started dripping out!!! Maybe I should have left for 5 seconds as recommended, I thought he was just being fussy in the recipe. I was not happy so I quickly turned the oven back on & stuck it in for another 20 minutes or so by which time it was finally cooked. After all of that fussing it did break in half when turning out but I managed to patch it back together with the very yummy icing which tasted just like cheesecake & a not too sweet one at that. I also had heaps of icing left over & I iced the sides too.

Carrot Cake with Lime Mascarpone Icing

285g unsalted butter, softened
285g light brown soft sugar
5 large eggs, separated
zest and juice of 1 orange
170g self raising flour, sifted
1 slightly heaped teaspoon of baking powder
115g ground almonds
115g shelled walnuts, chopped, plus a handful for serving
1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
285g carrots, peeled & coarsely grated
sea salt

Icing
115g Mascarpone cheese
225g full fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
zest & juice of 2 limes

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and line a 22cm square or round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one by one, and add the orange zest & juice. Stir in the flour & baking powder & add the ground almonds, walnuts, spices & carrot & mix together well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then gently fold them in the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cake tin & cook for about 50 minutes until golden & risen. Check to see if cooked by poking in a cocktail stick, remove after 5 seconds & if it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If sticky it needs a bit longer so put back in the oven. Once cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn onto a wire rack to cool for at least an hour.

Mix all the icing ingredients together & spread generously over the top of the cake. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts & serve.

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

To go with some leftovers I cooked up some corn cobs with a really tasty butter that I found in Ben O’Donoghue & Curtis Stone’s Surfing the Menu. I halved the quantities for 2 & still have heaps of butter leftover which I think will go nicely with some baked spuds. It was delicious & went fantastically with the grilled corn cobs which were tender & juicy yet not overdone at all cooked in this manner.

Barbecued Sweet Corn with Lime, Chilli & Parmesan Butter

4 whole corn cobs, in their husks
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g Parmesan cheese, grated
finely grated zest of 2 large limes
1-2 birds eye chillies, seeded & finely chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 lime, quartered

Place the corn cobs on a preheated hot grill and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes, turning often. Peel off the husks when cool enough to handle.
While the corn is cooking, combine the butter, cheese, zest & chilli & beat until smooth. Season with salt & pepper. Smear each cob with the butter & serve with a wedge of lime

Chicken Tikka Masala

Another delicious curry, this one from Jamie Oliver’s Jamies Dinners. Great flavours, though surprisingly on the hot side for a Tikka Masala which is all ok by me but be warned if you are expecting the normal mildness of this dish.

Chicken Tikka Masala

6 cloves of garlic, peeled
7.5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
2-3 fresh red chillies, deseeded
olive oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
3 tablespoons garam masala
200g natural yoghurt
4 medium chicken breasts, skinned & cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon butter
2 medium onions, peeled & finely sliced
2 tablespoons tomato puree
a small handful of ground cashew nuts or almonds
sea salt
115ml double cream
a handful of fresh coriander
juice of 1-2 limes

Grate the garlic and ginger on the finest side of a cheese grater and put to one side in a bowl. Chop the chillies as finely as you can & mix them in with the ginger & garlic. Heat a good splash of oil in a pan & add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add them to the ginger & garlic mixture along with the paprika, cumin, ground coriander & 2 tablespoons of the garam masala. Put half of this mixture in a bowl, add the yoghurt & the chicken pieces to it, stir and leave to marinate for half an hour or so.

Melt the butter in the saucepan the mustard seeds were in & add the sliced onions & the remaining half of the spice mix. Cook gently for 15 minutes or so without browning too much. Add the tomato puree, the ground nuts, half a litre of water and ½ teaspoon of salt. Stir well and simmer gently for a few minutes. Let this sauce reduce until it thickens slightly and then place to one side.

Put the marinated chicken on a hot griddle pan or barbecue & sear until cooked through.

Warm the sauce and add the cream & the other tablespoon of garam masala. Taste & correct with seasoning if necessary. As soon as it boils, take off the heat & add the grilled chicken. Check the seasoning again & serve sprinkled with the chopped coriander & the lime juice & some steamed rice.

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

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

Last night for dinner we had one of my favourite Nigella Lawson dishes, Gingery Hot Duck Salad. The recipe comes from Nigella Bites & is under the chapter, temple food – what Nigella describes as ‘soothing, pure, would be restorative food I make for myself after one binge or late night too far. Temple as in ‘my body is a ‘’. Now obviously in my condition I haven’t been binge drinking though I did spend the day snacking on cheese, crackers, dips & bread & the like while watching the races so was definitely in need of something good & light.

I was a bit tired too after all that eating & race watching so Michael was kind enough to make this for me this time which also proves how easy peasy it is! Lovely flavours that work oh so well together & a lovely touch of chilli to add some spice aswell. You must try it

Gingery Hot Duck Salad

1 duck breast
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of half lime & juice of half orange
1 chilli, finely chopped
1cm ginger, grated
few drops of sesame oil
Baby spinach, mixed lettuce, etc to serve

Grill or fry the duck breast, fat side down, until cooked the way you like it.

Let it rest while you mix the fish sauce, lime & orange juice, chilli, ginger & sesame oil in a bowl. Pour any juices that the duck has made into a bowl, then carve the meat on the diagonal into thin slices. Toss the duck into the bowl & stir everything well. Serve on top of mixed leaves.

Coconut Bread

This morning for brekky carrying on with my sweet theme I made this recipe from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food. It is described as ‘never to be replaced’ on the menu at Bills. It is a Jamacican bread intended to be served with salt-fish relisg. Lime marmalade goes well too & it keeps well sliced in the freezer. Can be served toasted, buttered & dusted with icing sugar. Sounds very different & was incredibly easy to prepare. The end result was delicious, though to me it is more of a cake then a bread, much in the same way banana bread is really a cake. I had a piece nice & warm from the oven which was perfect & then tried one buttered & dusted with icing sugar, this was good too but to be honest I don’t think it needed the extra’s. I’m yet to try it toasted, sure will be great too.

Coconut Bread

2 eggs
300ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
150g shredded cocnut
75g unsalted butter, melted

To serve
Butter
Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar & cocnut and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix.

Pour into greased and floured 21 x 10cm loaf tin & bake for 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes and remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered & dusted withicing sugar. Makes 8-10 thick slices.

Baked Chocolate tart

Today Rach was coming over for a bit of a catch up, she is a bit of a sucker for chocolate (just like me in my present state!) so I whipped up this tart of Jamie Oliver’s from ‘The Naked Chef. I had some left over pastry in the freezer from when I made the lemon lime tart so this cut down considerably on my prep time which was excellent, means I got to spend the whole morning in the garden! I’ve included the pastry recipe as per previous post. I served the tart with fresh strawberries & blueberries & let me say this, it was sensational, absolutely delicious. The fact that it was dark chocolate made it very intense without being too sweet, it tasted a little like a chocolate pudding but solid of course & of the sweetness of the berries was perfect along side. Also I have to say home made short crust pastry definitely kicks ass over the frozen kind. Make this tart & trust me you will not regret it.

Baked Chocolate Tart

1 x 25cm flan or tart shell, baked blind
140g butter, unsalted
150g good quality chocolate, (70% cocoa solids)
8 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
small pinch salt
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
3 medium heaped tablespoons sour cream or crème fraiche

Place the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and slat in a bowl over a pan of simmering water & allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed in. In a separate bowl beat the eggs & sugar together until light & well creamed, and then add the golden syrup & sour cream. Stir your choc mixture into this mixture, scraping all of the chocolate out with a spatula. Once you’ve mixed it well pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes at 150c. During cooking a beautiful crust will form.

Carefully remove the tart from the oven & allow to cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes, during which time the skin will crack & the filling will shrink slightly. Serve with fresh berries

Short Crust Sweet Pastry

To make 2 x 30cm/12 inch tart moulds
250g butter
200g icing sugar
a medium pinch of salt
500g flour
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold milk/water

You can make this by hand or in a food processor. Cream together the butter, sugar & salt & then rub or pulse in the flour & egg yolks. When the mix has come together, looking like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold water or milk. Pat & gently work together to form a ball of dough. Use minimum movement as the more you work it the more elastic it will get, causing the pastry to shrink & be chewy. Roll into a large, short & fat sausage shape, wrap in glad wrap & place in the fridge for at lest 1 hour.Carefully slice off thin slivers of pastry lengthways, around 5mm thick. Place the slivers in & around the bottom & sides of your tart mould, then push the pieces together & level out. Now it needs to rest again for at least 1 hour in the freezer this time.Bake the tart for about 15 minutes at 180c, completely cool & fill with any uncooked fillings.For baked fillings, bake blind first at 180c for only about 12 minutes. You can fill the shell with rice, baking beads, etc but if your pastry is straight out of the freezer you shouldn’t have problems with shrinkage, etc.

Cook Islands Trip

We have just returned from our week of Paradise in The Cook Islands, as you can see from the photo, it is gorgeous over there & the pic doesn’t even do the place justice. We even got to spend a day & night in Tahiti as on the way there some very strong winds – apparently 120kms/hour, prevented us from landing so we had to divert, thanks to Air New Zealand for providing all we needed it was actually really enjoyed rather than being the disaster it could have been. They put us up in The Intercontinental which was beautiful, we spent the day swimming in their gorgeous & mammoth pool, walking around & chilling out. As for the food, well I know resorts aren’t usually the best but I have to say the buffet lunch was pretty awful so the eating extravaganza I had planned was not off to a good start.

All in all our food experience did not end up being that great apart from a couple of good feeds, for the most part I thought it was pretty awful, so as you can imagine I was very disappointed. Most of the food is imported from New Zealand which brings the prices up for a start, they are more or loss on a par with Australian restaurant prices which I wouldn’t mind paying if the quality was the same. The fact that it wasn’t & there really weren’t any cheap & easy options available for dinner didn’t make me any happier paying these prices. Lunch was a bit better with more available & at more reasonable prices. We had a tropical breakfast included daily which was fine, not much can go wrong with cereal, fruit, toast & pastries after all! I hate to write about bad experiences but really wasn’t left with much option. So anyway that being said now I will tell you about the good bits.

When we finally made it The Cooks, our first port of call was the stunning Island of Aitutaki, the photo is actually One Foot Island which is one of the surrounding motu’s (Islands). We did an Island cruise taking in a few surrounding Islands & some snorkelling – fantastic, and we had a local lunch on Honeymoon Island put together by the cruise people. This was great as they laid out a platter of traditional fruits & vegetables including Sea Grapes, these were very weird looking, a small branch with lots of very small ‘green grapes’ attached, squeezed with lime juice very tasty & apparently very good for you too, paw-paw, guava, lady bird bananas (as you can imagine I made the most of readily available bananas & stuffed myself with them for the whole week), some baked tapioca pudding – yum, steamed tapioca, purple kumara, fresh coconut & some fresh tuna sandwiches. Most of it was delicious though I was a bit iffy on the kumara & steamed tapioca. It was all served in a tiny little open hut on woven plates lined with freshly picked leaves of some sort, really enjoyed this experience.

That night was Sunday & not much is open on Sunday nights in Aitutaki so we opted for Te Vaka Bar & Grill, we caught a taxi there & the lovely driver gave us a piece of sponge cake for the ride that she had freshly baked that afternoon, it was delicious & moist & as you can probably tell the people here are very friendly, a very nice experience & cheap too! The restaurant was in a lovely open air building with the usual wicker furniture & Island feel, the food here was quite nice too, not fantastic but pretty good. Michael tried the Cook Islands speciality ‘Ika Mata’ which is fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice then tossed in coconut cream with onions, garlic, tomato & cucumber, he gave it the thumbs up, being pregnant I had to take his word for it as raw fish off the menu for me for now. I had Garlic chilli prawns, these were good too, with the marinade all making a lovely thick jammy sauce for the prawns. Michael then had some coconut topped Mahi Mahi (very nice fish if done the right way – we had a lot of it over the week) with calamari & I had an Island chicken curry, absolutely huge servings, don’t think I even ate half of mine. I then had some ice cream with freshly grated coconut & chocolate fudge sauce, their desserts were not overly creative! All in all it was a pleasant experience.

As you can probably tell by now they are very big on coconut on EVERYTHING in The Cook Islands, I was ok with it at first but by the end of the week hated it as most of the time thought it was way overdone & think it will be a while before I eat anything with coconut again which is a shame as I really like the stuff.

Anyway back on the mainland, Rarotonga a couple of places worth mentioning. FBI fish and chips , near the main bus stop in town. As we were getting off the bus we could smell it and you know what that smell does to you, we had no choice but to then find the place & order up. The fish was Parrott fish & the batter was light & crispy & all seemed to be cooked in nice fresh oil & at NZD11.50 for the 2 of us very good value for a change.

We went to Trader Jacks for dinner one night which is apparently the place to go, unfortunately I thought the food was crap here, our char grilled octopus was very tough & chewy & the coconut braised lentils it was served on well, yuk! For the mains Michael had some Wahoo fish, pan fried with garlic, lemon, fresh herbs & fries, this was nice & simple & really good, I ended up eating half of it as my Mai Mai wrapped in banana leaf & served on a bed of ginger, coriander, chilli & COCONUT cream was disgusting, I had one bite & didn’t go any further. So I was pretty hungry after this & ordered dessert, Chocolate & apricot cake with chocolate fudge & ice cream – bad mistake again, cake was dry & I don’t know what the fascination is with bloody vanilla ice cream & hot chocolate fudge on anything either! The place had a good feel & was fun but I would definitely order plain if going again, the bar pizzas looked & smelt terrific too – maybe that’s the way to go?

For our last night we went to Tamarind House, recommended as the best spot on the Island I had high hopes & it didn’t disappoint, the setting is a majestic restored colonial era building & the piano player perched in the corner all night also added to the ambience. Michael started with the seafood chowder, another Island specialty which he enjoyed & I chose the chicken & mushroom won tons which were delicious, I finally learnt not to order Cook Islands food which I have developed an intense dislike for! For mains I had some smoked salmon spaghetti & Michael some Island style swordfish, we both left very happy customers for once.

All in all it’s a gorgeous & relaxed place for a holiday, Aitutaki was the highlight & highly recommended but if you go don’t have too high expectations for the food, hope I am not being too critical here, who knows maybe its just my pregnant taste buds after all.

Weekend Herb Blogging - Lemongrass - Thai Pumpkin & Seafood Curry

For this weekends herb blogging hosted by Kalyn of Kayln's Kitchen I'm concentrating on lemongrass

Lately I have been taking a lot of inspiration from other blogs. I see a recipe & I just have to have it. So when recently I saw one of my favourite Nigella recipes made by 2 of my local bloggers I realised it had been way too long since I had this lovely curry. The first time I did this I made it as per the recipe, ever since I have omitted the prawns as I didn’t think they added that much & much preferred the taste of the salmon in this curry. So anyway thanks to The Next Nigella, Sarah and of course Nigella Lawsons’s Nigella Bites, where the recipe came from.

For today’s’ version I have used Lemongrass from my little herb shelf, it is the first time I have harvested any so got out the gloves & dug out 3 bulbs. The grass is quite sharp so you definitely need to wear protective gloves & glasses or goggles to avoid any nasty injuries, especially as you will be getting right down into it pushing & pulling to wrench the tough buggers loose. The smell as you’re freeing them is lovely & intense. Once loose, cut off the leaves, peel back the tough outer layers & cur off the roots. I have shown photos of the various stages so you can see what it looks like before it gets to the stage you see it in the shops as.

I also used some fresh lime leaves & coriander from the garden, I love being able to walk outside & pick fresh ingredients as I need them, if only I had room for a veggie garden too, oh well maybe one day. Anyway this recipe is really quick & easy & tasty so do try it out if you haven’t already.

Thai Yellow Pumpkin & Seafood Curry

400ml tin coconut milk
1-2 tablespoons yellow or red Thai curry paste
350ml fish stock
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm or caster sugar
3 lemongrass stalks, each cut into 3 & bruised with the flat of a knife
3 lime leaves, de stalked & cut into strips
½ teaspoon turmeric
1kg pumpkin, peeled & cut into bite sized chunks
1kg Salmon fillet, cut into large bite sized chunks
Pak choi or any other green vegetables of your choce
Juice of 1 lime
Coriander, to serve

Skim the cream off the top of the coconut milk & put it, over medium heat in a large saucepan with the curry paste. Let it sizzle & using a wooden spoon beat together until combined. Still beating gently, add the rest of the coconut milk, fish stock, fish sauce, sugar, lemongrass, lime leaves & turmeric. Bring to the boil & add the pumpkin. Cook a fast simmer for approx 15 minutes until the pumpkin is tender. If leaving at this stage to finish off later, leave the pumpkin with a tiny bite to it so it doesn’t overcook when reheating for the final stage.

To the simmering pan add the salmon & cook until cooked, about 3-4 minutes, also add the green veggies. Towards the end add the lime juice. When done sprinkle over coriander & serve with tice.

Lemon & Lime Cream Tart

For dessert on Saturday night I totally ignored my Curry theme & made a gorgeous lemon & lime tart, I thought the tanginess of this tart would be perfect after a night of curries. The recipe comes form Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef. To start with you make the pastry & there is enough for 2 which is handy as next time I need a quick dessert it’s just a matter of filling the case up! I also used the food processor option which makes it so easy. I love a lemon tart & this one is pretty good, very tangy & rich though so only the smallest piece is needed & berries of any type are great on the side.

Short Crust Sweet Pastry

To make 2 x 30cm/12 inch tart moulds
250g butter
200g icing sugar
a medium pinch of salt
500g flour
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold milk/water

You can make this by hand or in a food processor. Cream together the butter, sugar & salt & then rub or pulse in the flour & egg yolks. When the mix has come together, looking like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold water or milk. Pat & gently work together to form a ball of dough. Use minimum movement as the more you work it the more elastic it will get, causing the pastry to shrink & be chewy. Roll into a large, short & fat sausage shape, wrap in glad wrap & place in the fridge for at lest 1 hour.

Carefully slice off thin slivers of pastry lengthways, around 5mm thick. Place the slivers in & around the bottom & sides of your tart mould, then push the pieces together & level out. Now it needs to rest again for at least 1 hour in the freezer this time.

Bake the tart for about 15 minutes at 180c, completely cool & fill with any uncooked fillings.

For baked fillings, bake blind first at 180c for only about 12 minutes. You can fill the shell with rice, baking beads, etc but if your pastry is straight out of the freezer you shouldn’t have problems with shrinkage, etc.

Lemon & Lime Cream Tart

1 tart shell, baked blind (For his tart egg wash before blind baking!!!)
340g caster sugar
8 large eggs
350ml double cream
200ml lime juice
100ml lemon juice

Egg wash your tart shell, then blind bake. This will keep the pastry crisp for longer.

Whisk together the sugar & eggs. When mixed well, slowly stir in the cream, lemon & lime juices. Put the shell back in the oven & slowly pour in the filling (this will reduce spillage). Bake for around 40-45 minutes at 180c or until the filling is set but semi wobbly in the middle. After cooling for an hour the filling will have firmed up. Don’t cut any earlier or it will be gooey & ooze out. If preferred dust with icing sugar to serve. Serve with fresh berries.

Tags: lemon, lime, tart, recipe

Chiang Mai Noodles

Made up these Noodles for dinner which were delicious though I missed out on lots of ingredients & substituted some too, guess it would only be better with everything in it. Really quick & a great dish to knock up after work when you’re in a hurry. I used packet noodles, spring onions instead of shallots & added no fried red Asian shallot flakes, fried noodles or fresh red chilli at the end, was feeling very lazy! The recipe is from ‘Bowl Food’ one of those cute little books doing the rounds at the moment


Chiang Mai Noodles

250g fresh thin egg noodles
2 tbspns oil
6 red Asian shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 small fresh red chillies, seeded & finely chopped
2-3 tbspns red curry paste
375g chicken breast, cut into thin strips
2 tbspns fish sauce
1 tbspn grated palm sugar
3 cups (750ml) coconut milk
1 tbspn lime juice
1 cup (250ml) chicken stock
4 spring onions, sliced to garnish
1/3 cup (10g) fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
fried red Asian shallot flakes, to garnish
purchased fried noodles, to garnish
fresh red chilli, finely diced to garnish

Cook the noodles according to packet instructions, drain & set aside

Heat a large wok over high heat, add the oil, shallots, garlic & chilli & stir fry for 3 minutes. Stir in the curry paste & fry for 2 minutes. Add chicken & fry for 3 minutes or until changes colour.

Stir in the fish sauce, palm sugar, coconut milk, lime juice & stock. Reduce the heat simmer over low heat for 5 minutes – do not boil.

To serve, divide the noddles among 4 deep bowls, spoon over the chicken mixture & add the garnishes.

Marinated Duck Breast with Moroccan couscous, braised leeks & paprika oil

On Thursday I headed out to the Vic Market at lunch time to gather the last of the ingredients I was missing for this dish, duck (key ingredient I couldn’t do without!) and Rice wine from the Asian supermarket across the road.

So at home after work I thought I was all prepared, opened up my cookbook ‘A Slice of Port Douglas' & read the first line of the recipe, ‘To prepare the duck, sprinkle salt onto the skin of the duck and refrigerate overnight, uncovered to draw out the moisture.’ Bugger, missed that line when I picked out the recipe, anyway really don’t like cooking on Fridays & wanted to get the dish done so thought I would skip part 1 as figured it wouldn’t make that much difference. Moved on to part 2, measured out my five spice, went to the cupboard for ginger & you guessed it NO BLOODY GINGER, checked the fridge & didn’t even have ginger in a jar. Contemplated going out to buy ginger, looked at clock, already after 7 & needed an hour of marinating, realised that unless I wanted to eat at midnight this dish was not to be done tonight, I was defeated! Sighed, salted the duck as per part 1 and scrounged up some steak & salad from the fridge for dinner instead.

Friday night now being all prepared after heading out at lunch time & buying my missing ginger I was ready to go & do it all according to the book. There were a few steps involved though none that had any degree of difficulty & the flavours were great. The couscous in particular I loved, the dates & sun dried tomatoes really stood out & gave it a unique flavour. Also the leeks were good though I didn’t really think they complimented the dish all that well, seemed like an odd side so would skip them if making again.

Marinated Duck Breast with Moroccan couscous, braised leeks & paprika oil – from Stephen ‘Fester’ Gates, Iron bar saloon restaurant/bar

4 duck breasts
½ cup sea salt

Marinade

1 tbspn chinese five spice
2 tbspns ginger, grated
2 tbspns garlic, finely chopped
1 ½ tspns rice wine
1 tbspn sugar
½ cup olive oil

Braised leeks

4 leeks, white part only, washed & sliced
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup white wine
2 tbspns lime juice
cracked black pepper

Couscous

1 ½ cups couscous
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbspn butter
2 bocconcini cheese, chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 large red chilli, seeded & finely chopped
½ dates, finely chopped
¼ semi-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
¼ roasted pecans, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Paprika Oil

2 tspns paprika
¼ cup olive oil

To prepare the duck, sprinkle salt onto the skin of the duck and refrigerate overnight, uncovered to draw out the moisture.

To make the marinade, place all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl & mix well. Remove the salt from the duck & add to the marinade, refrigerate for 1 hour. Place the duck on a greased tray & bake in a 160c oven for 20 minutes, increase to 180c & cook for a further 10 minutes until the skin is crispy.

To prepare the leeks, place all the ingredients in a baking dish & cook for approx 35 mins or until soft.

To make the couscous, place the couscous in a bowl, pour over the boiling stock, cover for 5 mins or until the liquid is absorbed. Mix with a fork to separate the granules, then add the rest of the ingredients & mix well to combine. Place the paprika & oil in bowl to combine.

To serve, place the duck on top of couscous with leeks on the side. Drizzle the oil around the plate.

Lime Marinated Fish & tomato rice Saturday 18th Feb 2006

Last night my lovely hubby graciously agreed to cook dinner for me as I had been like a mad woman all afternoon on the computer categorising this site by sweets, savoury & out & about & also by cookbook, I was still going at 6.00 & like a woman obessed refused to stop until the job was done. I had put off this mamoth task for so long that now that I had started knew I couldnt stop.

Luckily I had planned on throwing together some fish & rice using one of the simple Marie Claire recipes. When I met Michael his idea of cooking was taco's or chicken tonight, these were beatiful & romantic the first times he cooked them for me though now he has moved on as I slowly show him how to cook some simple yet delicous recipes from scratch! Amazing how most men like to say they cant cook yet its really only coz they have never tried. Michael manages to produce great results even though it still takes him a bit longer than you would expect & the kitchen is like a bomb has hit it when finished!

Lat nights effort from 'Zest' was really really yummy, the full savoury flavour of the tomato rice complimenting the lovely tanginess of the fish. Oh & by the way for the first time Michael didnt ask me what Kaffir lime leaves were & cut them straight of the tree!

Lime Marinated Fish

2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
2 limes, juiced
1 red chilli, seeded & finely chopped
1 tspn fish sauce
2 tblspn grated fresh ginger
60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
80g (1 bunch) coriander
4 x 150g blue eye cod fillets

Put the lime leaves, juice, chillis, fish sauce, ginger & oil in a bowl & stir to combine. Remove the stems & roots from the coriander & wash carefully. Finely chop & stir into the marinade. Add the fish & toss until well coated. Cover & leave in the fridge to marinate (prepare the rice while marinating).

Heat a frying pan over medium heat & add the fish. Sear on one side for 3 minutes before turning over & cooking for a further 3 minutes or until cooked through.

Tomato rice

1 tbspn sesame oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 ripe tomatos, diced
1 cup basmati rice

Put the sesame oil into a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic & cook until the onion is soft & transparent. Add the tomatoes, rice & 1/2 tspn sea salt & stir for a minute before adding 375ml (1 1/2 cups) of water. Raise the heat & bring to the boil. Cover with a lid & reduce the heat to low. Leave covered for 20 minutes & then remove form heat.

Serve teh fish on top of rice & garnish with fresh coriander

Cajun Daintree Barramundi with Kipfler Potato Salad, Jelly Coconut Sambal & Cumquat Sauce

Tonight I decided to whip up another creation from the ‘A Slice of Port Douglas’ cookbook. This recipe was not so much difficult as very fiddly, lots of pots & pans used, luckily I didn’t get stuck with the washing up too. The other thing was that I had trouble sourcing some of the ingredients & in fact didn’t end up finding jelly coconut, can you even get this in Victoria, would love to hear from anyone that knows where? The cumquats I could not buy anywhere either & have since come to the conclusion that they only grow in peoples back yards & are not for sale. Luckily the fruit & veg man at DJ’s who I was asking for these from had a tree at home & promised to pick some for me & bring them in. So I went back the next day & sure enough he had them there waiting for me after apparently picking them at 3 in the morning by the light of his mobile phone torch. It’s very refreshing to find someone so helpful & willing to go out of their way for no profit just to help a total stranger, very impressed. After all of that the end result was really good & especially the potato salad, the lime mayo was excellent & the first I have made from scratch. Was always under the impression that they were very time consuming yet this only took me a couple of minutes to whip up, another first for me & will be looking to make more now that I know they are so easy.

Cajun Daintree Barramundi with Kipfler Potato Salad, Jelly Coconut Sambal & Cumquat Sauce

4 x 180g barramundi
2 tbspns Cajun spice
1 bunch fresh asparagus

Potato Salad

4 garlic cloves
Olive oil & 2 egg yolks
1 tspn Dijon mustard
Juice of 2 limes & 2 kaffir lime leaves, julienned
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 cup grape seed oil
600g Kipfler potatoes
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
1 spanish onion, thinly sliced

Coconut Sambal

200g jelly coconut
1/3 cup coconut cream
1 tspn fish sauce
½ red capsicum & ½ spanish inion, very finely chopped
1/3 cup chopped coriander
1 tbspn sweet chilli sauce
1 tbspn sesame oil

Cumquat Sauce

1kg cumquat
½ cup orange juice
2 cardamon pods
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon quill
½ cup sugar
50g butter

To prepare the salad, place garlic on a baking tray & drizzle with olive oil & bake in a 180c oven for 10 minutes or until soft. Place garlic, egg yolks, mustard, lime juice, lime leaves, salt & pepper in a food processor & process for 10 seconds. With the motor still running, add the oil in a thin stream. When mixture starts to thicken you can add the oil faster. Continue to process until the mayo is thick & creamy. Place potatoes in a pot of salted boiling water & cook until tender. Refresh in cold water. Slice thickly & combine with mayo, capsicum & onion.

To make the sambal, combine all ingredients in a bowl & mix to combine.

To prepare the cumquat sauce, place all ingredients (minus butter) in a saucepan & bring to the boil. Reduce heat & simmer uncovered until liquid is reduced by half. Strain. Add butter just before serving.

Boil or steam asparagus for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Coat the barramundi with Cajun spice & cook in a heated frypan with olive oil, approx 2 minutes each side until cooked.

To serve, place potato salad on a plate with the asparagus then top with barramundi & sambal, Drizzle the sauce over the top.

Chilli Chicken with Cucumber – Jan 31st 2006

First of all I should say how happy I am that after 1 WHOLE WEEK I finally have my home internet connection up & running again – it was finally established that a new modem was required. So sorry for the bombardment of posts, they have been patiently waiting to be added in, hope you enjoy!

Tonight’s dinner was a quickie as we have netball on Tuesdays so a) cant afford to stuff our faces on a feast or would not be possible to move off the couch & play & b) no time to prepare such luscious dishes anyway. This one was from the Sep table magazine, nothing difficult, just a different mix of the usual ingredients. Have to say that again the end result was really quite nice, light, refreshing & should give us plenty of bounce on the court tonight for our 9.45pm VERY LATE game – Go Nances!

Chilli Chicken with Cucumber

2 skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
2 red chillies, deseeded & finely chopped
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 spring onions, sliced diagonally
2 lebanese cucumbers, halved, seeds scooped out & cut in strips
¼ cup chopped coriander leaves
1 tablespoon lime juice
Cooked Hokkien noodles

Place chicken, chillies & oil in a bowl, mix & stand for 15 minutes. Place a wok on high heat & stir fry chicken in batches for 1-2 minutes each until browned & tender. Place in a bowl.

Reheat wok & stir fry spring onions for 1 minute. Return chicken to wok & toss until heated.

Remove from heat & add cucumbers, coriander, lime juice & noodles, toss to combine & serve.

Thats finally it for a couple of days!

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry – Sunday 28th Jan 06

Sunday night I cooked up a curry from Jamie Oliver’s original ‘The Naked Chef’ cookbook, the flavours were very fresh & it was very simple to make. I have cooked various curries from his different cookbooks & they are all fantastic so this is another winner to add to the collection. He suggested serving with his chunky coconut, tomato, cucumber & lime relish which I sort of did apart from the fact that I could not buy coconut anywhere yesterday so it was minus the coconut. I have since been told that coconuts are too old at the moment, will have to try & remember - no coconuts in January!!! Still it was nice to have something fresh to serve on the side. Sorry the photo once again doesnt do the curry justice, I find curries generally arent that photographic at any time (for me the amateur photographer anyway).

Fragrant Green Chicken Curry

4 skinless chicken breasts, each cut into 5 pieces
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1 handful chopped pistachio nuts

Green Curry Paste

6 spring onions, washed & trimmed
4-6 medium green chillies, deseeded & finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh root ginger, peeled & finely chopped
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, pounded or crushed
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt & pepper to taste
Handful of lime leaves, torn
2 lemon grass stalks, trimmed back & finely chopped
2 good handfuls fresh basil on the stalk
3 good handfuls fresh coriander on the stalk
3 tablespoons olive oil
zest & juice of 4 limes

Put all the curry paste ingredients in a food processor and whiz to a smooth green paste. Marinate the chicken in a little of the paste for 30 minutes, then add a little oil & chicken pieces to a hot pan. Fry for 4 minutes, thenad the remainder of the paste. Stir in the coconut milk, bring to the boil & simmer for 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked. Season to taste.

Sprinkle with the pistachios & some coriander leaves & serve with steamed rice

Fish & Salsa Monday 23rd Jan 2006

Well the holidays over & I'm back on my cleanse though I have relaxed the rules a bit & am not ever going to cook a dull recipe from that book again!

Tonight I cooked up some lovely blue eye on the grill which I season & brushed with olive oil first. And I served the fish with with mixed lettuce & a gorgeously fresh salsa of coriander, tomato, spring onion, a dried chilli that I managed to grow myself, some cucumber my mum grew for me, lime juice, olive il & seasoning.

it was very light & fresh with the chilli giving it a nice kick & the coriander lending an nice asian flavour to the whole dish.

Grilled Prawns Sunday 4th Dec 05

Last night I cooked up some prawns from my 'Slice of Port Douglas' Cookbook, it is full of yummy recipes form local restaurants, This one was quite easy to make & quite yummy though if I did it again I would probably only serve as an entree

Grilled Prawn Skewers with lemon myrtle and mango dressing and Jasmine Rice Pilaf - From Ilios bar & restaurant

16 leader prawns or large tiger prawns
4 leaves of fresh lemon myrtle of kafir lime leaves julienned
1 lemon, zested & juiced
1 tsp cracked black pepper
100mls vegetable oil

Dressing

4 mango cheeks, fresh or frozen (prefer just under ripe)
1 tbspn lemon myrtle oil
2 tbspns virgin olive oil
1 tbspn lemon juice (omit if mango not ripe)

Jasmine Rice Pilaf

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tbspn oil
1 cup jasmine rice
2 cups water of good quality fish stock
salt & pepper to taste

Peel prawns, leaving heads & tails intact then thread onto skewers (I cheated & used peeled prawns & didnt skewer). Combine lemon myrtle, lemon zest & juice, pepper & oil & pour over prawns. Refrigerate & marinate for at least 2 hours.

To make the dressing place all ingredients into food processor & pulse until mixture has a thick consistency

To make the pilaf, place onion, garlic & oil in a baking tray & cook over medium heat until onion soft. Add rice & continue to stir allowing the heat to evenly disperse. Add the water or stock then bring to the boil. Cover with foil & place in preheated oven at 200c for 20 minutes or until cooked. Remove foil & season with salt & pepper, running a fork through

Chargrill prawns on hot grill for approx 1 minute each side until cooked

Pretty easy stuff!