Croatian Inspired Mackerel Angelhair

This recipe was inspired by my recent travels to Croatia down through the Dalmatian Adriatic coast, where seafood is the staple and everything is always always served with garlic and parsley in lovely lush crisp locally produced olive oil. This is a fresh summery pasta best served with a chilled rose' or sauv blanc while you lounge by the balcony watching the waves roll in.

You will need:
2 tins regular mackerel (300g each), well flaked
Angelhair pasta enough for two
2 - 3 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped into the finest extent you can get it
2 handfuls of flatleaved continental parsley, roughly chopped
3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt & cracked black pepper to taste

Method:

1) Marinate garlic in olive oil and salt & pepper for 20 - 30 minutes
2) Boil paste till al dente. Drain.
3) Mix with olive oil/garlic while still hot, toss well
4) Add flaked mackerel & parsley, toss well.
5) Serve hot or cold with extra pepper or olive oil to garnish.

A Quron is Born

You’ve heard of soy chicken, you’ve heard of konnyaku octopus, and now you’ve heard of QUORN!

Whether you’re a vegetarian because you can’t bare the thought of blood spraying out of the neck of the poor little wee lamb that was just bouncing across the paddock this morning, or because you can’t cope with the fact that one cow will produce environmental waste of 20 – 40 human beings per day, or because you need to cut down meat so that you don’t get heart disease of bowel cancer, or that you are just a die hard fan of Linda and Paul McCartney, you are still likely to be in the fake meat market because you are still psychologically driven to want to look at, smell, and taste the flesh of another dead animal. So in our strange world of the clashes of the determined will and uncontrollable lust, we are constantly looking for substitutes for a nice slab of meat. Or you’re just a meat eater and wants to know what all the fuss in about cos its just damn bloody fun isn’t it?

QUORN is a weird little product that is made out of mycoprotein made out of fungus (not mushroom but just a form of pure gunky greyish brown stuff that will grow anywhere wet and dark – yup). Once hugely suspected and mistrusted in the vego community across the world – largely due to rumours that it is a) genetically modified and b) the product uses battery hen eggs. Apparently since then QUORN has cleaned up its act and did some proper PR and marketing to defuse those concerns, and now it seems like every yuppy vego or vego-curious is experimenting with QUORN.

Here is one recipe from the divine Ms Curlz and one from myself.

QUORN LAB (Ms Curlz)

250g QUORN
150g Firm Tofo – cut in 1 x 4 cm cube strips. (pre-soaked in some soy sauce while the onion and garlic are cooking)
1 onion – diced
3 cloves garlic
500g baby spinach
1 vine cherry tomatoes (approx 16)
Soy sauce
Fish Sauce
Sesame Oil

1) Saute onions and garlic in shallow pan in sesame oil till clear and translucent.
2) Remove the onions and garlic from the pan and let them sweat in a bowl covered with gladwrap
3) add the tofu to the pan and fry till light brown
4) Remove the tofu from the pan and add QUORN, then adding a swill (prob between 1-2 tbsp) of both fish sauce and soy sauce and cook for a few minutes
5) Separately sear tomatoes on the vine in olive oil till skin is lightly broken
6) Toss into salad bowl with baby spinach and let the leaves wilt with existing heat of the mixtures.

MaQUORN ToFU (WaWa)

250g QUORN
150g Silken Tofo – chopped in large squares
2 cloves garlic diced
2 – 3 sprigs spring onions chopped
100g green beans chopped
2 – 3 Tbsp Garlic Chilli Paste (best from Lee Kum Kee)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 - 2 tsp pepper
2 – 3 Tbsp corn flour mixed well in 1 ½ cup cold water

1) Sauté garlic in oil in pan till lightly cooked. Add in beans, then QUORN, then soy, pepper and chilli paste. Mix and stir fry for 2 – 3 minutes till well mixed in.
2) Add in spring onions
3) Turn heat to low. Slowly add the corn flour water in gradually and well spread across the pan. This will start to goo slowly and make sure you stir well but slowly to encourage the gravy. Add more water or corn flour to get consistency you desire
4) Add in tofu at the end, careful not to break it up too much.
5) Serve on piping hot rice.

Turkish Apple Ice cream

I am still trying my hardest to understand Turkish ice cream. Its a lot thicker and stickier than the European version/ gelati, and also I suspect a different sugar is used to make them. Anyway its a funny odd thing and I must say the variety I bought just got a little bit too sickening. So I blended it up with some apples (the Turks are ofcourse famous for their apples/apple teas) and lemon juice, and surprisingly it gave it a great kick and its recommendable!!

You will need:
200g Turkish ice cream (plain or vanilla)
1 apple - cored but not skinned, chopped in pieces
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Blend all and serve with mint garnish

Traffic Light Hummus

This is the winning recipe to the best looking Hummus at the World's First Hummus Making Competition (18 May 2008, Hampstead, London), by Ms Wendy Curls and myself.

For the Mosh Pit (ie. Big bowl of base before you mix in flabours) blend the following by hand or by blender:

• 2 cups boiled chickpeas (soaked overnight & boiled till tender with dash of salt)
• 1/4 cups olive oil
• 1/5 cups tahini (sesame paste)
  
• Juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• Salt & pepper to taste
  

For each of the following blends here are the extras you need:

Yellow Hummus (Original)

• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
• garnish with crushed walnuts
  

Green Hummus

• 6 - 8 chopped green olives
• 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• garnish with few more sprigs of coriander
  

Red Hummus

• 5 Roughly chopped sundried tomatoes (don't blend so that you can still taste the chunks)
  
• 2 -3 teaspoons (yes that's right) Hungarian paparika
• another 2 - 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• garnish with paparika
  

Serve in a trio and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil.

Blogger's Note: You may remember another winning recipe from my Melbourne Cup spread in 2006 that is done uniquely by replacing tahini with sour cream. On this occasion my sour cream was found to be un-kosher for a Jewish festival, and hence banned from the competition. But I would still highly encourage you to try that recipe should you be able to source some kosher sour cream, which I have been told is in fact very common.

Lastly but not leastly I would like to thank my partner in cooking crime, Ms Wendy Curls for her energy and enthusiasm and utterly fantastic cooperation in making our win possible.

Salmon Wrapped in Pancetta - by Wendy

Please welcome another seasoned veteran on the food scene, with our well loved salmon, my next guest writer, Ms Wendy Curls.

Salmon wrapped in Pancetta

The original recipe calls for a pea puree, however as I am not a huge fan of peas I have always left this part out. The picture did have a certain aesthetic charm: imagine dusky orange salmon, pink, crisp pancetta on a pile of fresh green goo!

You will need:

• salmon fillets (If you can, cut or have your fillets cut into the rectangular size fillet you see in the supermarket)
• pancetta or streaky bacon
• new potatoes (pesto as a garnish)
• green beansbroccoli

1. Take your salmon fillets and give them a wee rinse under the tap. Sometimes they will still have scales attached and of course you might have to remove the skin. Pat them dry with a paper towel and sear each side on a low heat in a pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. Remove them from the pan and wrap them in the pancetta (my technique was captured by FB here: [video])
2. Bake in the oven for around 10 - 12 mins until the pancetta is crispy (not burnt).
3. Cook your veges until al dente (or however you like them) and serve the potatoes with pesto!

Enjoy!Blogger's note: You will also notice that Wendy forgot to mention the lovely side garlics she served on the occasion which kept the house quite aromatic for the rest of the week.

Okinawawa - by Pierrot

I am getting the feeling that I am not getting much inspiration for food as of late, so I have decided to introduce (sparringly) a few good friends as guest writers to this kitchen blog to give it a bit of kick.

Please put your hands together and welcome the first guest writer to my recipe blog, the magnificent Pierrot (right).

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Okinawawa

We all know that the staple foods of Okinawa, and the reason the Okinawans have the highest life expectancy in the whole world, is down to a combination of the unassuming but antioxidant-rich kumera (sweet potato), and an elaborate menagerie of endangered seafood. But what most of the world is completely unaware of is that those plucky New Zealanders, being champions of taking their abject poverty with good-humoured creativity, have managed to add to the Japanese culinary tradition by creating the most hardcore vinegar known to humanity out of the ostensibly useless juices drawn from kegs of mature Umeboshi (see www.ceres.co.nz). The nature of this vinegar is such that it must be used cautiously and sparingly. However if you stick to these, not conservative but measured principles, then you can use it to enhance the flavour of basic ingredients which normally call for a more subtle approach.

The following dish, cobbled together by one of Wawa’s most distant fans, combines the two essentials of Okinawan cuisine, and the one essential of Wawa cuisine (ie inexplicably good luck), and is simple and accessible enough for anyone outside of Bangladesh to whip up on a week night.

Ingredients:

1 slab of salmon for each person, with the skin on

Enough kumera for the number of people you are having over for dinner

A corresponding amount of Dijonnaise (a mixture of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard)

¼ of a red capsicum, finely diced

½ a red chilli, minced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 handful of Italian parsley, finely chopped

1 sprig of rosemary

4 sage leaves, finely chopped

3 tbsp butter

juice of half a lime

1 tbsp of Umeboshi vinegar

rocket

olive oil

salt and pepper

Perform the three following operations so that they are completed at the same time.

Salmon: Warm a fan-forced, grill-equipped oven to 180°C. Rub salmon with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place skin-side up on a cake cooler or similar attractively-patterned metal platform. Place in oven and cook until the sides of the fish turn a light pink, cooked salmon colour. The objective is to cook the fish slowly and evenly all the way through. Once adequately cooked, turn the grill to high, so that the salmon skin crisps up and comes away from the flesh. Remove from the oven. Peel the skin off the salmon and discard.

Kumera: Chop kumera into golf ball-sized pieces, place in a saucepan and add water up to half the height of the kumera pieces. Sprinkle with salt. Cook over a medium flame until soft enough to mash. Mash kumera with remaining water, adding Dijonnaise, a decent amount of chopped parsley, and ground pepper to taste.

Umeboshi sauce: Melt a small amount of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic, chilli and sage, and fry for 30 seconds. Reduce flame, add the rest of the butter and stir until melted. Add capsicum, rosemary, lime juice, and Umeboshi vinegar. Cook over low flame for at least 5 minutes.

Spread mashed kumera on a plate. Place salmon on top of mashed kumera, so that the underside (which hopefully has taken on the pattern from the cake cooler) is facing upwards. Pour the desired quantity of sauce over the salmon. Garnish with rocket, parsley and ground pepper.

Serve with miscellaneous greens, for example lettuce, broccoli, blanched Asian greens or finely sliced pears (rocket being the only essential), because they’re good for you too. But go easy on the dressing, or better yet go without.

Eat it.
Do the washing up.
Go to bed early.
Don’t believe everything you read.

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Legal Note: The blog owner is not directly responsible for the content or the consequences thereafter caused by the trying out of the recipes posted by guest writers.

Ban Sa (Vietnamese noodle salad)

This is simply a blind stab at replicating a meal I tried at the Vietnamese Restaurant near Old Street a couple of weeks ago. It worked and knocked the socks of my new landlady. Hope it works for you too!

Ingredients

Rice noodles (80g per person)
Fresh bean sprouts (3/4 cup per person)
Shredded assorted fresh veges eg. carrots, cabbage, red cabbage, red capsicums (small handful)
Spring onions - 1 sprig diced
Half of one red onion - thinly sliced
1 red chilli finely sliced
2 cloves garlice diced
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup fish sauce
Juice of one lime
Coriander - one bunch well sliced
Lean pork - sliced thinly (can be easily substituted by chicken, fish or firm tofu)
Dash of soy sauce
Cooking oil

Method

1. Marinate red onions, most of the crushed garlic, red chillis in lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar for at least 20 minutes. The salt in the fish sauce and the lime juice will take the sharp odur off the onions and garlic. Adjust amount of sauces and sugar to suit taste.
   
2. Pour boiling hot water onto uncooked rice sticks and cover for 5 minutes. Drain and rince with cold water immediately to prevent from further cooking. Drain well, roughly chop into smaller length with scissors and set aside.
   
3. Sear pork on high heat with oil, remainder of garlic and dash of soy sauce till cooked. Set aside.
4. Toss rest of the ingredients together and serve. Best accompanied by a crsip beer.
   

Pumpkin Tofu Curry

This is a fushion South East Asian-Indian dish that's perfectly vegan as it has plenty of vegetable proteins, and minimum allergy causing ingredients. Ensure you use canned/fresh coconut milk rather than block solids as it is too fatty for this combo.

You Will Need

300g sweet pumpkin - skin removed and diced into 2.5 by 2.5cm cubes
250g firm tofu - cut into 2.5 cm2 cubes
1 onion - half moon sliced
400mL can coconut milk
1 cup frozen beans
Assorted curry powder
brown sugar (if desired)
Softly cooked brown rice to serve
Corriander to garnish

Soy sauce to flavour
Fish sauce to flavour if catering for pesca-vegans

Method

1. Saute onions in oil on medium-high heat in a pot, add in a dash of salt and assorted curry powder, cook till onions turn just clear
   
2. Add pumpkin to the pan and turn heat slightly higher, cook for about 5 minutes, then add coconut milk and tofu. Cover and cook for further 8 - 10 minutes or till the pumpkins are just tendering. Taste the dish now and adjust flavouring to suit by adding more salt, curry powder or a dash of brown sugar
   
3. Add in frozen beans, cover for another 2 - 4 minutes till its all hot.
   
4. Serve on rice, garnish with corriander and sauce.
   

Spice it up with Lentil Soup

I thought spring in London would be just manageable -- nah uh. Its bitterly cold, grey and windy. The best sancturies for the weary hearted are the cosy narrow shopfronts of cafes so abundant on the streets. It warms you up instantly and recharges you to face the bleak air outside. If I had a cafe in London I would cook this:

You will need

Core ingredients
1 carrot (diced)
1 onion (diced)
2 sticks celery (diced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 Tsb salt
1 can tomatoes
1 cup red lentils
3 cups home made stock

Seasoning (pinch of each)
Chilli flakes (my favourite are these ones I got in Rome - see pic)
Curry powder (or any combo of tumeric, cumin, garam masala etc)
Paparika
Pepper
Coriander and/or italian parsley to garnish

1) Saute onions, celery & carrots in cooking oil on med/high heat in large soup pot, add salt & spices.

2) When just cooked, add lentils and coat well with oil. After 1 minute or so add canned tomatoes, crushing if they are not the chopped variety. Leave to simmer for another 3 or 4 minutes.
3) Add stock. Mix well, turn up heat and boil for 8 - 10 minutes. Turn heat to lowest and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, carefully stirring occasionally to avoid burning.
4) Garnish and serve with crusty toast, best ones are with cheese, melted or unmelted.